If you like Tank Endings, read until “The End (Tank version)”. If you don’t like Tank Endings, read the whole post. If you have no preference, read the whole post and then decide
Part 13 and the rest of the story coming out soon
***
Lois was speechless. Two Owens? Why should it be like this?
She turned to Clark, knowing he had heard the whole conversation. She wore a so – what – are – we – going – to – do – now face, but he just gave her a shrug as an answer.
“Wait a minute, Dr. Klein,” she said. She covered the receiver with the palm of her hand. “Now what?” she whispered to Clark, frustrated.
“I don’t know!” he replied.
“You said that Welson called Owen! Didn’t you hear whether it was a masculine or a feminine voice speaking?”
“No!”
She moaned. “Rachel talked about a man, didn’t she?”
“Yes, but if the woman is a scientist too, it may be her!”
She moaned again, louder, and put the receiver back in her ear. “I’d like to know about both of them, Dr. Klein,” she said, giving Clark an angry look.
“Well,” Dr. Klein began. “Charles Owen had been working for S.T.A.R. labs since he graduated from college. About thirteen years ago he became the director, and he was until he retired, three months ago.”
“What does he do now?” Lois asked.
“Oh, nothing… He lives in a large apartment with his wife.”
“Children?”
“Two, a daughter and a son… They have their own families now.”
“Ehm… What did he do as a scientist, and as the S.T.A.R. labs director? Anything important?”
“He had worked in several projects as a scientists, and organized others as a director. Many of them were successful.”
“OK…” Lois wanted to ask about his involvement in the “Treasure”, but he decided not to risk it. “And what about Catherine Owen?”
“She’s his younger sister. She runs the pharmaceutical company “Happy Life”.”
“Does she have anything to do with the S.T.A.R. labs?”
“No, not at all…”
“Alright. Thank you, Dr. Klein.”
“You’re welcome,” he said. “Goodnight.”
“Goodnight.”
She hung up the phone.
“OK, let’s go now,” she said to Clark.
“What?” he protested. “Lois, I thought we agreed to stay home until tomorrow!”
“Clark, we have to finish with this story as soon as possible!” she exclaimed. “Tomorrow it may be too late! We have to go back to Rachel and discuss with her. Apparently, Charles Owen is the one behind it. But if Rachel knows something about Catherine Owen too? We shouldn’t exclude her, just because Dr. Klein doesn’t know anything about her!”
“Lois, please…” he pleaded.
“No, Clark.” She said determinedly. “Oh, come on!” she exclaimed, when she saw he wasn’t intending to leave the comfy couch. “Do I have to pull you?”
No answer.
“Look, I’m going upstairs to bring Sharlynn. Get up before I am down, I warn you!” she said, kind of teasingly, but mostly hurryingly and nervously.
As she was walking up the stairway, Clark stretched and lazily got on his feet. In less than one minute Lois was down, holding the baby. “Take her,” she told him and put her in his arms. She then took her coat and her car keys, opened the door and walked out.
Clark followed her, sighing.
***
A few minutes later they arrived at 35, Hillstone street. They got out of the car and walked in the building and down the stairs to the familiar basement, where was Rachel’s lab.
Clark knocked the lab’s door.
“Who is it?” a voice asked from behind it.
“It’s us, the Kents.”
“OK, wait a second.”
They heard the door being unlocked and saw it opening. Then, they stepped inside the room, calmly.
Two rushing hands took Sharlynn from Clark’s arms, and then a scream: “Now!!”
Lois, astonished, looked around her: Sharlynn was now threatening her with a gun, Jane was holding baby Sharlynn in her arms and Rachel was holding an empty bottle.
She looked beside her, and gasped. Clark was so shocked that he couldn’t talk, nor even scream. His jaw had dropped opened and he was questioningly staring at Rachel, who had just showered him in a glowing green liquid. His clothes had melted and his skin was filling with horrible, awful wounds, which were burning it and causing it to vanish.
As the liquid was getting in the insides of Clark’s body, it was burning it away: his flesh, his bones, his muscles, everything.
“Aaah!” Lois cried.
“Kryptonite acid,” Sharlynn said in an evil grin, raising her eyebrow, still threatening Lois with the gun.
Lois turned again to Clark. He was still melting, and several moments later he was completely gone.
Only a small amount of ashes on the floor indicated that he had once been there.
Lois, breathing intensely, not quite believing in her own eyes, turned back to Sharlynn. “Why did you do this?” she asked, frightened.
“He knew too much,” Sharlynn sardonically said. “We didn’t know when he was going to betray us, so we shut his mouth as early as possible.”
Lois couldn’t understand anything. “But, then… why didn’t you do that earlier?”
“My sisters wouldn’t agree,” she ironically said. “But now,” her tone became cruel again, “now that they learned he was Superman, they didn’t object anymore.”
“He was…?” Lois tried to cover him.
“Oh, come on, Lois!” Sharlynn shouted. “We’re not playing silly games here. He almost said he was Superman last time you were here. We could certainly deal with two normal people knowing our secret, but with Superman? No, Lois. We had to get rid of him.”
“Sharlynn, we were just trying to help you…”
“Oh, give me a break!” she shot back. “We are criminals! Rachel has faked her death, stolen Kryptonite and has been doing illegal experiments down here! Jane left her husband and left her kids in an orphanage without their father’s approval and I sneaked in S.T.A.R. labs to steal the copies of every physical examination Superman had ever done! Even if our cause is good, who would ever believe we’re innocent?”
“It was not big deal,” Lois sadly said. “We’d find a way to help you get out of this mess…”
“No, you wouldn’t,” Sharlynn dryly cut her. “You shouldn’t have searched for Rachel in the first place. You had to confide in my letter, for crying out loud, and not go searching! Now you’re going to learn what happens to the ones who think that minding their own business is not enough.”
“Sharlynn, wait…”
“Goodbye, Lois.”
Sharlynn pulled the trigger, and the bullet got directly in Lois’s heart, causing it to stop immediately. Lois fell down, beside Clark’s ashes, wearing the same frightened look she had one second before Sharlynn shot her.
***
The End (Tank version)
***
And, in case you’d like this ending a little unTanked:
***
Lois opened her eyes and looked around, puzzled. This didn’t look like heaven, or even like hell.
No. This was her home. She was positive.
She blinked, and looked around once again. She was sitting on the floor, and her back was terribly aching… because she had been leaning on the coffee table.
Before her eyes, an exhausted Clark was taking a nap on the couch.
She yawned. Oh, now she remembered. She had been rubbing Clark’s hair, to help him relax and sleep… and she fell asleep too.
A cry from upstairs brought her completely back to reality. <Let’s see what Sharlynn wants,> she thought.
She got up on her feet, stretched and lazily began to walk towards the stairway.
***
If you prefer the idea of the Tank Ending being just a nightmare, add it between
She handed the baby to Clark and they all got in the car.
and
Back home, about two hours later, Clark was sleeping on the couch, while the TV was playing a reportage about life in African jungles.
(quotes taken from Part 12).
