Previously on Clarkus Maximus:
The first was a petite, green-eyed, strawberry blonde girl, no more than in her mid-twenties. She wore a knee-length brown skirt and a short green top that nearly resembled a sports bra. Her entire midriff was exposed. She carried a staff in her hand - a thick, sturdy piece of wood with a band of deer fur towards the top. It looked better suited for fighting with than as a walking stick.
The other was a tall, raven haired beauty with piercing blue eyes. Clark guessed that she was older than the blonde, but still in her late twenties. She was dressed in leather that was so dark it was hard to tell if it was black or darkest brown. Aside from the leather...dress...Clark supposed he could call it, she wore knee high boots, gauntlets, matching arm bands, and a heavy breastplate. A sword in its scabbard rested across her back - Clark could see the hilt of the sword sticking up above her right shoulder. An odd, Frisbee-sized metal ring hung from her hip. Even at a distance, Clark got the impression that the object was very, very sharp.
The black haired woman was leading a roan mare. The horse walked placidly along, a couple of saddle bags hanging to either side.
As the women caught sight of Lois and Clark, they immediately grabbed for their weapons. Clark was astonished at how fast the taller woman unsheathed her sword.
"Whoa, wait a second," Clark said, putting his hands out before him, palms out in a gesture of peace. "We're not armed."
The tall woman appraised them silently. Apparently satisfied at what she saw, she put the sword back in its scabbard.
"You're not from around here," she said as she looked over their strange clothing.
"No, we're not," Clark agreed. "We're just...lost. Very, very lost"
"Where are you trying to go?" the strawberry blonde asked. "You're two days north of Calydon and a week from Parnassus."
"Oh God, Clark, we really are in Greece, aren't we?" Lois asked, a sudden sinking feeling engulfing her.
*********************
The two women before them exchanged a look. Clark ignored them for the moment.
"Yeah, I think we are."
The petite woman took a few steps toward them. "If you don't mind my asking, where did you think you were?"
Clark shrugged, looking for the right words. "It's a long story," he admitted. "But we were...abducted...by an old enemy of ours and dropped off some miles down the road." He jerked with his thumb to indicate the direction they had come from.
"Well, maybe we can help," the woman said. "My name is Gabrielle." She pointed to the woman in leather. "This is Xena."
Clark smiled. "Nice to meet you both. I'm Clark and this is my wife, Lois."
The four shook hands, though Xena and Gabrielle did it oddly, grasping Lois and Clark around their lower forearms, just above their wrists. Clark gestured to their small campfire.
"You're welcome to share," he said.
"Thanks," Gabrielle said brightly. She took the saddle bags from the horse and laid them close to the fire. "Xena, why don't you go find us some dinner and I'll brush down Argo." She took the reins from her friend's hand as she spoke.
"All right," Xena agreed.
She rummaged in one of the bags and pulled out some supplies. In minutes, she had set up some lines in the stream and was beginning to catch fish. Clark offered to help. He loved fishing, and besides, two people doing it were better than one. He stood a little downstream from Xena.
"Clark," Lois said, coming to his side. "What are you doing?"
"Catching us some dinner," he replied.
"No, that's not what I mean. Shouldn't we be finding a way back home?"
Clark sighed. "I've been thinking about it all day. We'd need another time machine to get back."
"You've built one before," she prompted. "When we had to get to Smallville the first time we ran into Tempus."
"Yes," Clark agreed. "But I don't remember how I did it. I know H.G. Wells left me plans for that, but I can't remember anything about them. That whole trip is still a little fuzzy in my mind. I mean, we were never supposed to remember it in the first place." He hesitated a moment. "There's something else," he admitted.
"I'm not going to like this," she said, noting the tone of his voice.
Clark sighed. "While we were on the road...I ran through every one of my powers. They are all gone. I'd hoped that maybe only one or two of them had gone...offline. But they are completely gone. Look." He bent and pointed to a thin line of dried blood on his left leg. "I scraped my leg on a branch when we were coming through the trees earlier."
Lois turned green as the realization set in. Clark pulled a fish to shore on the makeshift fishing pole.
"When we you going to tell me?" she hissed under her breath.
"Tonight. I just didn't want to upset you further," he said, flushing a little. "Big mistake, I know."
"Excuse me," Gabrielle cut in before Lois could utter a retort. "Did you say time travel? And powers? Are you...some sort of...god?"
"God? Me? Uh, no," Clark stammered, taken aback by the question.
He hadn't realized that the woman was behind them until she had spoken. He glanced over at Xena. She too, was looking at them with new interest.
Gabrielle frowned. "Demi-god? Titan? No wait, the titans are giants." Her frown deepened each time Clark shook his head.
"It's hard to explain," Clark said.
Xena gave him a hard look. "Try us," she challenged him.
"In my own time...I have these...abilities. But not here, it seems."
"But if you aren't a god, then what are you?" Gabrielle asked, confusion on her face.
Clark gave Lois a brief glance. An unspoken message passed between the two of them.
"I'm definitely not a god," he confirmed. "I just...wasn't born on this planet. Because of that, I have, well, powers, for lack of a better word. And the stuff you heard about time travel...we're from the future." He eyed them for a reaction and saw only confusion. "The man that we said abducted us...he took us from our time to here. And, I think, across dimensions. Come over to the fire, I'll try to show you what I mean."
Clark picked up the fish he had caught and followed Xena back to the fire. Gabrielle set to work gutting them and skewering them to cook over the fire. Clark sat on the ground, thinking of how to explain. At length, he took up a stick and drew two parallel lines in the dirt. On the top line, he marked an X on the far right end. On the bottom line, he marked an X on the left.
"This top line is my world," he explained. "This is the flow of time from the beginning of the world forward. The X is the year that Lois and I live in. The bottom line is your world. Both exist separately but together. And the X is how far in the past we are. Tempus took us across the two worlds and into the past." He connected the Xs with a diagonal line. "We need to figure out how to get back to this top X."
Something about time travel tickled in the back of Gabrielle's brain, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. Like wisps of smoke, the thoughts keep vanishing each time she tried to grasp them. She said nothing. Sometimes, things had a way of coming back to her if she didn't think too hard about them.
"I think I get it," she said instead. "Xena, we've got to help them."
Xena nodded. "We'll do what we can," she promised.
"Thank you," Clark said gratefully. He gave Lois' hand a reassuring squeeze.
"So...gods?" Lois asked. She laughed a little.
Xena looked at her oddly. "I wouldn't laugh too hard if I were you. Too many of the gods take offense over things like that."
"But they don't exist," Lois said, shrugging her shoulders.
"Yes, they do," Xena said, and Lois sobered as she saw the seriousness on her face. "I've fought more than one of them. Most of them are petty and cruel."
"You're kidding!" Lois said. "You've actually met a god before?"
She was half fascinated, half skeptical. She'd always had an interest in myths when she was younger, but once she had become a reporter, her interest in fantasy had waned and been replaced with a desire for hard facts.
Xena gave Lois an amused smiled. "More than one actually. Hades has called on my help before. And I've crossed blades with Ares numerous times. He was my mentor a long time ago."
"Hey! Maybe Ares can help us!" Gabrielle said. "He still owes you for helping him get his godhood back several months ago."
"No, Gabrielle. I don't think he'd help us. We're already even on that one. I helped him send Sisyphus back to Hades and he finally switched Callisto and I back into our rightful bodies. Besides, tampering with time and space isn't his area."
"Maybe Hercules could ask Zeus to help us then?"
Xena thought. "That's not a bad idea. But I haven't heard anything in a while of where Hercules is now. Last I heard, he and Iolaus were in Corinth, but that was over a month ago."
Clark was listening with rapt attention. He had always been a fan of world mythologies, and had many books on the subject from the days he'd spent traveling the world between college and landing his dream job in Metropolis. Ancient Greek and Egyptian myths had always been his favorites. He smiled as he recognized the names. Ares, the god of war. Sisyphus, who was doomed to push a boulder uphill for eternity. Hades, the god of the dead and also the name of the Underworld itself. Zeus, the king of the Olympian gods. Hercules, Zeus' half mortal son and the strongest man alive.
Well, strongest man alive in this universe anyway, he thought to himself wryly.
"You mean, Hercules is real?" he couldn't help but to ask. "He's only a myth in the time that we come from."
"Oh, he's real all right," Xena said with a nod. "He saved me from a very dark path once. He made me see that being an evil warlord wasn't all it was cracked up to be, and that fighting for the greater good is."
"Gods! Can you believe that, Clark?" Lois asked incredulously.
Clark chuckled. "Why not? I mean, look at us. We're living proof that the improbable is possible. You're married to a space alien, remember?" He winked at her.
Lois laughed a little. "I guess that's true."
"Plus, look at all of the other things that we've faced. Clones, amnesia, fifth dimensional imps, time travelers, resurrected villains, cyborgs, invisible men..." He ticked off each example on his fingers and let his voice trail off. "Ancient Greek gods wouldn't surprise me in the least."
Lois laughed lightly, tension draining from her. "I guess you're right. Our life is pretty strange. Gods...sure, why not?"
Gabrielle checked on the roasting fish and then portioned out the food. Lois and Clark ate hungrily, their only meal having been a couple of egg salad sandwiches in the early afternoon, a couple of hours before they'd left for their jog in the park. Clark noticed that Lois even went back for seconds. As they ate, they swapped stories. Gabrielle was a bard and delighted in telling tales of the adventures she and Xena had been on together.
Lois and Clark told some of their own stories to the two women. It helped to pass the time, and Xena and Gabrielle seemed as curious about their world as Lois and Clark were of the one that they were now in. Idly, Clark wondered how much they could safely say about his alter-ego. But really, who would they tell? Still, he tailored the stories to protect his other identity as much as he could.
All around them, the night grew deeper. Fireflies lazily flew in the gathered darkness under the trees. Lois and Clark began to relax around their newfound friends. No more was said about getting them back to their own time. It was a huge dilemma, and not one that could be solved easily. Eventually, they each lay down for the night to sleep. Xena and Gabrielle offered them a spare set of skins to lay out on the ground beneath them. Lois fell asleep quicker than she had thought possible, secure in Clark's reassuring arms.
~~~~~ Superman/Xena ~~~~~
A flash of light caught the eye of the ragtag group of men that were huddled around their campfire. A yearling buck was roasting over the fire on a spit. One burly man turned the spit slowly, but stopped and looked up when the light flashed. As the light receded, the figure of a man stepped forward. The group of rough looking warriors jumped to their feet, brandishing their weapons.
"Hello there," the man spoke. "Put your weapons down. I'm not here to fight you."
One of the men rushed forward, sword drawn. There was a flash of light and sound like a crack of thunder. The man stumbled forward, clutching his chest. He sank to his knees and was dead before he hit the ground. His blood soaked into the dirt. The horses neighed and stamped in fright, the whites of their eyes showing.
Tempus held the gun before him. "Anyone else?" he asked.
The group of men stepped back a few paces in fear.
"Good," Tempus said, holstering the weapon once more. "Now then, I know who and what you are. I want you to do something for me."
"Are...are you a god?" the leader of the ruffians asked.
Tempus smiled widely. "Why yes. Yes I am."
He laughed as he set his plan into motion and instructed the leader on what he wanted him to do.
To Be Continued....
