Author: Mulitple
Rated: G/PG
Pam Jernigan
This is really not my fault. I mean, I wrote it, but it all came about from a very silly conversation on IRC with LabRat, Wendy, and Shayne (and he claims he was led astray but us wicked older women). So don’t take this seriously. And if slash themes offend you, consider yourself warned … if you go ahead and read anyway, don’t come complaining afterwards.
Heartbreak Hotel
(a slashy Tank Ending to All Shook Up)
by Pam Jernigan <jernigan@bellsouth.net>
“So you see,” Lex said, gesturing off-handedly around the underground bunker, including the furnished apartment, a perfect replica of the original. “We have everything we need to survive the end of the world.” He paused, then made his offer, as delicately as he could. “But three years is a long time to be without … companionship.”
Lex’s guest stared at him in shock, trying to work out what had just been offered. Lex waited, aware of a faint stirring of anxiety, cursing the effect of the pheromones even as he was unable to resist the attraction. All the years of being careful, of maintaining steely control … of indulging his sexuality as he wished, but never opening his heart … all of it, shot to hell by one spritz by Miranda. That bitch. At least he’d been able to have his revenge — prisons were no barriers to his influence. And neither were normal locks, as evidenced by the way he’d been able to furnish this duplicate apartment for the inadvertent object of his affection…
“You’re awfully quiet,” Lex prodded, keeping his tone light.
Clark smiled wryly. “Well, it’s not exactly what I’d expected.” In fact, Clark hadn’t really known what to expect … with his memory gone, he was unsure of what relationship he’d previously had with this man, although some deep instinct suggested that it had been an important one. “I, uh, didn’t know you were, um… I mean…”
Lex smiled, self-deprecatingly. “You didn’t suspect I was bisexual? How could you? I’ve kept it a very close secret; it’s not the sort of thing society matrons approve of, yet.” He’d had high hopes of the subliminal advertising campaign, but it was a moot point now. “My social position was very important to me. With this asteroid approaching, however … it doesn’t seem quite as important to keep secret.”
Clark nodded. The earth’s imminent destruction did have a way of making one reevaluate one’s priorities. And this unexpected chance at survival was dangerously seductive. But he hadn’t thought he was gay — true, Cat Grant’s advances had left him cold, but he’d reacted to Lois Lane just like a moth to a bug-zapper, with much the same result. He looked at Lex, puzzlement showing in his eyes. “I don’t mean to sound ungrateful, it’s just this amnesia … but why are you asking me? I mean, if I didn’t know you were, well, attracted, we can’t have been flirting, and at this point, I don’t even *know* what I am…”
Lex tilted his head, consideringly. “No, not flirting, as such. I have been attracted to you for some time, however. You have wit, and determination … and Superman clearly sees something in you.”
Clark goggled at the images that conjured up, unable quite to believe the implications. “You mean, Superman…?”
Lex shrugged. “It’s all speculation. He’s exchanged public kisses with Lois Lane, but that could be the merest cover-up.” He watched Clark closely. “Speaking of Lois, I could invite her, too, if you think she’d be interested.”
Clark smiled helplessly. “How would I know? I barely even know my own name.”
“Exactly.” Lex moved forward slightly, sensing a weakness. “Don’t assume that staying with me would be distasteful to you. You would have all the home comforts, stimulating conversation, a world to rebuild … and you would be alive. I assure you, it’s better than the alternative. I would not rush things, Clark,” he lied, planning a calculated seduction that would have this farm boy’s head spinning. “If you found that the life was unsuitable … well, we’ll have given it, as they say, the old college try.”
Of course, once Lex was in complete control over the underground Ark and everyone in it, Clark, along with the others, would find it difficult, not to mention quite dangerous, to resist any of Lex’s whims. However, he had no intention of tipping his hand prematurely. Seduction was still the appropriate weapon. Accordingly, he stepped closer still to Clark, and put his hand on the reporter’s waist.
Clark startled, a bit, but didn’t pull away … and Lex detected a glimpse of curiosity gleaming from behind his glasses. Unhurriedly, Lex leaned in for a kiss, his hand slipping further around the other man’s waist.
Clark accepted the kiss passively, wondering in spite of himself how it would make him feel. It was strange, at first — he had the feeling that he was used to bending down a bit further. But a flicker of warmth traveled through him, as he allowed the kiss to progress. It felt … strange, but not unpleasant.
Eventually, Lex pulled back, breathing a trifle faster than normal. “Was that so bad?” he asked, smugly.
Clark smiled crookedly. “As a matter of fact … no. It was … kinda interesting.”
“Excellent. You’ll be staying then?”
Clark paused, considering his options. He could leave, go back to a woman who fascinated him but who didn’t return his interest … and die in another twelve hours. Or, he could stay … Maybe he could talk Lex into opening the shelter to a few more people. It might be his best chance to do the most good … and the idea of rebuilding society in a few years was intriguing — literally the story of the century. To be the man on the scene, recording it for future generations…. Really, it was no choice at all.
“Yes, Lex. I’ll stay.”
The End (of the world)
(Sadly, the asteroid proceeded to wipe out most of the life on Earth. Lex survived in his bunker, along with his underground settlement. However, a few days later, Lex suffered a tragic and messy accident, involving a virgin Clark who, unaware of his superpowers, forgot to moderate his reactions.)
by ShayneT
“Lois blinked. “The way you just touched me…”
“Close your eyes, Lois.”
The fact that Clark was Superman didn’t make any difference in the short run. His parents had to be saved, and this was the only way.
His breath was painful on her flesh, but she grew numb quickly, and the world faded away.
She was awakened by a sensation of burning.
She could hear Clark’s voice. “It’s not working! I have to freeze her again!”
She felt his kiss on her forehead, and then she knew no more.
Gradually, she regained consciousness. She could sense Clark somehow, but it was as though a wall of glass separated them. He flickered, as though he was a badly animated piece of stop motion animation.
In her mind’s eye, Lois could see him growing older, crow’s feet taking their place around his eyes, gray filling his temples.
Eventually, he disappeared, and for a long time Lois could feel nothing.
Finally she could feel pain yet again. She gaped and opened her eyes. She tried to speak.
An imperious looking young man stared at her for a moment. “How old were you, miss? How old were you when you died?”
She gasped, then said, “Twenty nine.”
He relaxed. “You need to get up now. We have need of the chamber you were found in.”
She looked around and realized that she was in some sort of lab. She was lying in something that looked like Lex’s coffin.
“How long has it been?”
“You’ve been here for six hundred years.”
Lois slumped. Clark was dead. In fact, everyone she knew was dead.
The man noticed her distress, and said, “You’ll feel better after you’ve had a good meal. Get dressed in that room, and I’ll take you to the cafeteria.”
Lois dressed in a daze, and barely noticed her surroundings as she walked through halls filled with young people.
Finally her reporter’s instinct kicked in. “Where are all the older people? Have you conquered aging?”
He smiled. “Everything in its time. Now, would you like the red, or the green?”
She looked at him uncomprehendingly. He nodded. “I’ll pick for you this time. The green it is.”
Lois stared down at her bowl. What looked like oatmeal sat in a lump. She tasted it. It had a strong pork flavor; it could have used a little salt, but…
She saw a young man who reminded her vaguely of a young Charlton Heston stumble into the room.
“Stop eating everyone!” The man was agitated; his face was red and strained. “Soyulent Green is people I tell you! Soyulent Green is People!”
Lois looked down at her bowl, then shrugged. Nothing mattered now that Clark was gone. Who cared?
The End
Big Girls Don’t Fly
What do you mean, ‘We’re out of gas?’
by Elisabeth
Episode adaptation of Big Girls Don’t Fly.
As if in slow motion, Superman turned to memorize the faces of those he loved and respected. He took it all in one last time. And then he was gone.
In that moment, pandemonium erupted in the newsroom. Photographers dashed toward the darkroom. Journalists made a beeline for their desks. Even the ladies in the secretarial pool hustled in the anticipation of spirited conversation.
After everyone else had returned to their normal activities, Lois stood riveted in place. Martha and Jonathan clutched her hands in support.
“It’s over,” she gasped. “Everything’s over.” And the panic set in as she cried out, “I shouldn’t have let him go!”
“Lois.” Even steadfast Jonathan’s voice was thick with emotion as he reassured her. “Dearest Lois, a love that risks nothing is worth nothing.”
~*~
From behind the glass in his office, Perry watched quietly. He knew Lois would be upset. He wasn’t supposed to know that it was Clark who hid inside Superman’s cape, but a man didn’t get to be in his position without the ability to root out the truth. The editor felt for Clark’s loss.
But of course, Clark Kent’s loss was Perry White’s gain. It would be Perry who would be there to help Lois pick up the pieces. He would comfort her and encourage her, offering a shoulder for her to cry on and a hug to keep her going for one more day. And someday she would come to see him as more that an editor and more than a friend. Lois Lane would welcome him as a lover.
Alice had put up with his wandering eye for years. But in all her wisdom, she knew she could never compete with Lois’ vivacity and fire. And so she had thrown in the towel, leaving Perry free to love again.
~*~
On the other side of the glass, the object of his desire still stood enrapt, unable to tear her gaze away from the place where Superman had flown only moments before. Unable to leave that part of her heart, *her life,* behind. Her eyes studied the skies, hoping for one last glimpse of him.
And in a subtle nuance beneath the clouds, she saw the miniscule gleam of the cloaked ship as it left the atmosphere with headings adjusted for New Krypton. Her heart gasped. Tears flooded her eyes, but they still didn’t lower. Her hope still wasn’t spent.
And then she saw the glimmer return. Her love was coming home. The glimmer swelled into a glare, growing steadily closer. The glare continued to build as it neared, soon blossoming into a flame clearly visible to the naked eye.
It seemed to be heading directly to the Daily Planet building. Lois scrambled to the plate glass to welcome her fiancé home.
And then it was upon her. The elegant shuttlecraft suddenly betraying the grace of its design, it hurtled through the window leaving a wall of devastation in its wake. Flames licked at the newsroom as the shuttle continued to crash through floor after floor.
Soon the icon of Metropolis, the Daily Planet globe, was all that remained of the world-renowned newspaper. There were no survivors.
And as the ash settled, a single figure turned and vanished into the city. Folding her script into her handbag, she sneered, “They shouldn’t have messed with Mary Sue.”
– The End –
************
Whoops!
by Mr. D8A
Episode adaptation of Big Girls Don’t Fly and What do you mean, ‘we’re out of gas?’
As if in slow motion, Superman turned to memorize the faces of those he loved and respected. He took it all in one last time. And then he was gone.
On the other side of the glass, the object of his desire still stood enrapt, unable to tear her gaze away from the place where Superman had flown only moments before. Unable to leave that part of her heart, *her life,* behind. Lois’ eyes studied the skies, hoping for one last glimpse of him.
~*~
In the ship, far above, Clark, watched with telescopic x-ray vision. His heart wrenched with each sob she uttered. Zara and Ching, lost in the preparation of the ship, didn’t realize what Clark was doing until it was too late. They had already engaged the hyperdrive.
They hadn’t thought to tell him the ship’s sensitivity to x-ray radiation. So, while Clark was watching Lois, a few critical systems were minor damaged, the hyperdrive being one of them.
When the hyperdrive kicked in, it formed the jump point in back of the ship instead of in front of the ship. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem, if they were in deep space. But they weren’t in deep space. They were parked in geo-synchronous above the Daily Planet. And this wasn’t any ordinary jump point.
The other critical systems that were damaged were the power regulators. All the ship’s energies were poured into forming this jump point. This made for a massive one, with New Troy as its focal point.
Clark barely noticed the power failure as he watched in horror as a two mile deep and hundred mile wide section of the Eastern seaboard disappeared into hyperspace, taking the entire state of New Troy, most of Manhattan Island and a healthy swipe of New Jersey.
~*~
Lois, Martha and Jonathan, and the rest were taken by surprise as the city dropped into the endless wasteland of hyperspace. Mercifully, they didn’t live long, but the last thing they heard was the sound of rushing water.
The jump point only lasted for about thirty seconds, but it was long enough to ensure that the six hundred plus cubic miles of land and water had moved beyond the sphere of Earth’s influence, leaving a huge hole. The Atlantic Ocean obediently took up the slack and caused everything in the surrounding area to be sucked into what would later be called the New Troy Trench. Ocean currents were affected up and down the entire Atlantic Ocean. The Gulf Stream was diverted long enough to cause havoc in the European weather system for weeks to follow. Coastlines across the globe dropped several inches. The East Coast was hit with the biggest tidal wave ever recorded. Land and cities were swamped for tens of miles inland from Washington D.C. to New York City. Millions were killed.
~*~
Clark, Ching and Zara, were dead even before they hit the ground. They died from exposure from the leftover Kryptonite from Ching’s force field. (When the power failed the force field holding the Kryptonite failed).
Several years later, after Nor had conquered New Krypton, he led an invasion of Earth that proved quite successful. Decades later, the humans, with the help of some fifth column Kryptonians, overthrew Nor and his men, and everyone lived happily ever after.
Until the Nightfall Asteroid came back and wiped out every living thing on the planet.
– The End.-
by Marnie Rowe
Lois had run off again. Clark could not get over how easily the woman put herself into trouble. He had been gone for just a few moments and she was off and dashing into trouble again. He saw the Speedy Ambulance sign and began to come down for a landing in front of the bus stop where he saw that there were an assortment of people who he could ask if they had seen Lois.
He cleared his throat and tried to project nothing more than the normal amount of concern and urgency than Superman usually showed.
“Have any of you seen a petite dark haired woman or a boy or a mideastern gentleman around here?”
A little old lady standing slightly apart from the rest answered his query in a wobbly but strong voice. “Why, yes, Superman, they got on a bus over there.” She was pointing to a bus stop across the street from where they were standing. Her hand trembled a bit he noticed.
He said ‘Thank you’ and turned to take off again but then caught a whiff of that smell that he had at (woman’s name here that I can not remember for the world) house from that little bit of glue. He turned around slowly and aimed a burst of heat vision at the old woman’s face, melting it off and the mercenary Anonymous was revealed.
Anonymous smiled evilly and said, “Why, Superman, so nice to finally greet you. And to say goodbye…” With that ominous pronouncement in that chilling little piping voice he pulled out a gun and fired a Kryptonite bullet into Clark’s chest before Clark had felt the searing pain of the meteorite nearby.
Clark’s last thought before everything went black was that the gun must have been coated in lead.
Lois stood waiting for her love to save her, slowly suffocating to death with her fellow inmates. Finally even her stubborn will to live succumbed to the suffocation that the gas produced. And on the other side of the world people sitting in a sidewalk cafe making small talk heard the whistling as the nuke sped its death towards them. They fell silent and froze with their fear.
The End
by JoMarch <jomarch11@yahoo.com>
“That’s not how I work,” Clark said, and started to walk out of the water. Unfortunately, no one had told him never to turn his back on an enemy.
Trask pulled out a weapon. Lois, who had just arrived along with several emergency vehicles, screamed in terror: “CLARK!”
Rachel Harris took aim and shot. The bullet screeched through the air and, with unerring accuracy, found its way to the heart. Clark’s heart.
Turning as white as death, Rachel raised her gun with unsteady hands to her temple. Before anyone could react, she shot herself.
This second shock pulled Lois out of her stupor. She turned to Trask, her face distorted with fury and misery.
“YOU!” Heedless of the weapon in his hand, the smug, scornful look on his face only served to infuriate Lois further. She plunged into the water.
“Lois! No!” Jimmy’s voice was drowned as two shots rang out simultaneously. Trask’s body fell into the pond even as deputy Hank lowered his gun. But it was too late. Lois was lying face down in the shallow water, lifeless.
Suddenly, a woman’s terrified screams drew their attention to the shed. A small spark, unnoticed at first, had slowly eaten its way through the hay, and now, with the help of the gasoline, had turned into a raging inferno. Helpless, the people outside watched as the fire consumed the shed – the screams of the three people trapped inside shattering the quietude of the countryside.
Within seconds, it was over. White faced and wide eyed, the people left standing could only turn their eyes from the charred spot where the shed had once stood to the sickly red tint of the pond, and the three bodies lying in it. It was over…
THE END
by Artemis (jumpstick@earthlink.net)
“Prepare to be stunned….” Clone Lois said as she smoothed her hair for the last time and walked into the bedroom where Clark was waiting with the champagne already poured.
Clark watched Lois with eyes full of love and caring and intense desire as she walked to their bed. Their bed! Finally. He pulled down the comforter to welcome her as she approached, then took her hand and lovingly said, “Hello, Mrs. Kent.” Taking her hand, he guided her to sit on the bed and reached up to kiss her tenderly. “We have waited so long for this moment and gone through so much. But none of that matters now,” he said softly, lovingly. His hand had moved from her cheek to her neck to the shoulder strap of the negligee. He began to move it down her arm.
“Lois! You feel so cold,” he said. *Almost reptilian,* he thought in the very back of his mind. He gestured to her to hold still as he said, “Here, let me warm you up.”
Clone Lois looked at him, not really understanding the gesture. What did he mean, warm her up? Wouldn’t that be moving in to hug her rather than moving away from her? The she noticed his eyes were starting to glow red. How could his eyes glow red? Lex hadn’t briefed her on that possibility in all her nine days of existence. Suddenly she felt hot, really hot. It felt wrong! Her muscles were all turning to jelly – literally. “No!” she cried. And then she could no longer hear, feel, or think.
Clark stared in stunned silence at the pile of green goo on his bed. The pile that once had been Lois! No, not Lois. He had warmed Lois up many times with his heat vision and she had never turned into a puddle of slime. Thinking back to the incidents with the President and the head of the Secret Service detail, he said to himself in disgust, “A clone!”
– The End –
I Announce You…
By Shidrati Ali kestrel@pacific.net.sg
The taxi skidded to a stop in front of the church. “That’ll be twenty-eight fifty, Miss,” the driver drawled; his Texan accent clearly had not been diluted in spite of the years he spent in Metropolis.
“Here,” his passenger said, shoving some notes into his hands in a hurry. “Keep the change.”
She stepped out of the cab and hurried into the church, muttering under her breath, “Please, don’t let me be too late. Please.”
The cab driver shook his head, he’d seen a lot of strange things in the years he’d driven a cab, but the lady was definitely in a category of her own. She had sprung into his cab when he was turning the corner of Mayors and Tagget and instantly demanded that he make a U-turn. She then proceeded to direct him to the church. She looked disheveled and her clothes had seen better days. Her face was streaked with tears and blood, and she seemed rather frantic. All the time he drove her, she kept muttering, “This can’t be happening! This can’t!”
*********
Inside the church, the tune for the wedding march was playing and the beautiful bride looked radiant as she glided up the aisle. The groom couldn’t take his eyes off her. His chest was filled with love for this woman who had gone through thick and thin with him. And here they were finally, after so many false starts and obstacles in their path, about to be married.
Too caught up in the magic of the moment, no one saw the disheveled figure slip into the church. Clinging to the shadows, she made her way to the front, directly opposite the groom. She was glad that she was able to make it in time after the difficulty she had escaping from her jailer. This wedding was not going to occur if she had her way. It ought to be her beside the groom. If she hadn’t been captured, the bride wouldn’t even be here. How could they not know that the one marching up the aisle was not the real her. She couldn’t believe her beloved didn’t know the difference between the usurper and her.
Unaware of the presence of the strange woman, the bride walked bravely onwards. She was very nervous. She couldn’t believe her good fortune. To be married to such a hunk…er, handsome man. And he seemed to adore her; right then, he was looking at her as if she was everything to him. That almost brought tears to her eyes; no one, absolutely no one, had ever thought that she was everything to them. “Don’t let him get away, sweetheart,” her mother had said while they were in the bridal chamber.
In the front pews, the parents of the bride and groom were so happy. This had been the moment they’d been waiting for since almost forever, it seemed . The mothers had tears in their eyes as they watched the march. “Isn’t she lovely?” the groom’s mother whispered to her husband.
“You are right,” he replied.
Soon, the bride reached the altar. Her ecstatic groom reached for her hand and the wedding ceremony began. The woman in the shadows clutched her purse and opened it. She reached inside for the gun she had wrestled away from her kidnappers. She was not about to let the imposter take her place beside the man she loved.
As soon as the words “forever hold your peace” were uttered, a shot rang out. Everyone watched, horrified at the crumbling form of the bride. The hysterical laughter from the shadows did not help either as the pool of blood grew around the bride. The groom was frozen in shock as he stared at the shadows. The shooter stepped out into the light.
A gasp emitted from the bride’s mother. “Lois?”
At that everyone turned. “Yes! Yes! I’ve got you, now,” the woman called Lois exclaimed, doing a little dance of joy.
Clark snapped out of his trance and bent over to the dying woman. “She needs help! Someone!” he pleaded, still confused as to what was going on.
“No, Clark,” his dying bride told him, “It’s too late. I want you to know these have been the best few days of my life, my short life.” She passed away in his arms.
Inspector Henderson stepped up to arrest Lois. He looked at the dead woman and back to the woman holding the gun. Which one was the real Lois? He was confused, but a crime had been committed and he had to carry out his duty. “Whoever you are, let go of the gun and surrender yourself.”
“Henderson, it’s me. Lois. Don’t you know me?” she replied, her hysteria still evident. “Why do you want to arrest me? She’s the imposter! She’s been working with Lex Luthor to kidnap me and take over my life! She’s the criminal!” By that time, she was shouting.
Clark looked at the woman who had killed his beloved. “I don’t know which of you are real, but I know Lois would never take a life like you did. Never.” He shuddered and turned his face away from the woman who looked so much like Lois. He couldn’t bear to look at that face, knowing that his beloved Lois had died before they were even married.
Lois dropped her gun and rushed to Clark. Henderson and Perry managed to catch her before she could reach him. “Don’t turn away from me, Clark!” she wailed, struggling in their arms, “I’ve gone through so much trying to escape Lex and get back to you! Please, she’s not the real Lois. Please, I love you! I need you.”
She collapsed as Clark ignored her and scooped up his dead bride in his arms and started walking out of the church. The wedding guests silently gave way to him, as they were still reeling from the drama that had unfolded before their eyes.
In the months to come, Clark buried his Lois, resigned from the Daily Planet, and was never seen again. Superman issued a statement to the effect that he was returning to New Krypton. As for the woman who claimed to be Lois, she was still in the state mental institution, undergoing psychiatric evaluation.
by HatMan
Lois stood with Clark on the balcony of her apartment. They were enjoying the cool evening breeze and chatting amicably.
“When I was a kid,” Lois was saying, “Lucy and I used to play this game. We’d ask each other, what would you rather do, fly or be invisible?”
“And you chose?”
“Mmm, invisible. I wished I could walk through all those closed doors. I guess I still do.”
<Closed doors- sounds like Lois. Guess that’s what makes her such a good investigative reporter…. I hope she doesn’t try poking through any of MY closed doors…> Aloud, he said, “and what do you think you’d find there behind all those closed doors?”
“Mmm, I don’t know. Something different, wonderful. Something I don’t have, can’t have.” <Like Superman… but then, why would Superman need closed doors? Besides which, if I were next to Superman, would I really want to be invisible?> “So, what about you?”
“What?”
“Invisible or fly?”
<There’s an easy one… If only you knew, Lois…> “Fly.”
“Really?” <He would rather fly? Where’s his curiosity? No… it’s not that. He’s too honest and straightforward to want to be invisible. Instead, he’d rather just fly…. Wow. What an amazing find! An honest man who’d rather be able to fly around than sneak around…>
“Yeah.” <Why does that seem so surprising to her?>
“You know, I never thought I would say this, Clark, but you and I have something in common.”
“What’s that?” <Never thought she’d say it, huh? Nice going, Clark. Start falling in love with a woman who’s surprised to find something in common with you…. Hey, at least I’ve proven her wrong. I wonder what she means, though… She said she’d prefer to be invisible…>
“Superman. You wanna fly like him, and I wanna fly with him.”
<Superman. It’s always Superman. I’ll never get close to Lois as Clark, because she’s been blinded by Superman. If only she knew. If only…. Well, why not?> “Well, in that case, Lois, let’s go.”
“Go? Go where, Clark? What are you talking about?”
“Come on. I’ll show you.” Standing up, Clark grabbed Lois, and pulled her towards the edge of the balcony.
“Clark! What are you doing? Are you nuts?”
“Trust me, Lois.”
<Trust him? I barely know him, and he’s trying to throw me off the balcony. Why should I trust him?> “Let go of me, Clark!”
“Please, Lois, I just want to show you…” They were at the edge of the balcony, now. Lois, sure that Clark had gone crazy (or maybe had always been…) began struggling against his grip. Clark, not wanting to give the wrong impression, reluctantly loosened his hold on her. Unfortunately, Lois had chosen just that moment to try to jerk herself free. Suddenly finding herself pulling against nothing, Lois fell backwards… and off the balcony. Clark, stood there in shock. It took him precious seconds to pull himself out of it, and by then it was too late. What was left of Lois lay messily in the street below. Horrified, Clark flew off, not caring who saw him.
The next day, the papers started printing reports of a lovers’ spat between Lois and Superman, which had ended with the famed reporter’s death. The public quickly turned against the new hero. Superman, however, neither heard nor cared. He had flown off to live out the rest of his extremely long and miserable existence in solitude, never to be heard from again (except, perhaps, from a few confused penguins…).
THE END
By JoMarch
“You make a lovely widow, Lois.” Tempus’ demonic laughter filled the room, even after he had left it.
Lois watched in horror as Andrus, the peace-keeper from the future, from Utopia, disappeared right before her eyes.
“No,” she whispered, as her heart broke. “Clark!”
Clark, unable to hear her, was trapped in a place beyond time – a place where every single concept he was familiar with didn’t exist. Soon, with alarming rapidity, his surroundings began to shrink. He was affected in strange ways – first, his memory began to go. Desperately he hung on to thoughts of Lois, but it was a useless struggle. Within minutes, or years (for he was in a place in which time as we know it did not exist), words such as ‘Earth’ and ‘parents’, ‘home’ and ‘mom and dad’ no longer held any meaning for him. And as the last memory of Lois flickered out, so did the last of his hope. He was doomed.
As soon as the surface of whatever it was that was surrounding him came in contact with Clark’s body, he screamed in pain. Pain such as no human – or Kryptonian – had ever faced since the beginning of time. As his body was shattered and dispersed throughout infinity, all consciousness left Clark – save one. The consciousness of pain. Unbearable, excruciating, eternal pain.
Lois, wildly desperate and engulfed in grief, tried everything in her power to stop Tempus and get Clark back. Single-handedly, and working against a powerful president possessed of technology centuries ahead of anything in this world and time, she was bound to fail. Raving as she was of time-travel, escaped psychopaths, Utopia, and Superman (‘who or what was that, anyway?’ wondered the brain-washed millions), it wasn’t at all hard to condemn her to an asylum. The emotionally overwhelmed Lois couldn’t take the added pressure of dealing with lunatics (Metropolis’ nut-cases – famous stuff). She went mad. In moments of clarity, she wept inconsolably for her beloved husband and cursed her sanity. In time, she went blind. There was nothing to indicate that she would be saved, that she wouldn’t grow old in this living hell. She was doomed.
H.G. Wells, in one of his regular visits to the wonderful future founded by Superman and his descendants – also known as Utopia – found himself in a truly terrible dystopia. He’d hardly had time to mutter, “Oh, dear!” before he was seized by a group of rough men. It was almost ridiculous, seeing all those bulky men ganging up on one tiny man. Wells decided it was now time to make his exit. Before he could even move, he heard a voice that he had never thought to hear again. Chills running up and down his spine, Wells looked up.
“Why Herb, how nice of you to drop by.” The sentence was punctuated by a trademark laugh.
“Tempus! But how?’ The old man’s eyes widened until they rivaled his glasses in size.
“Tsk, tsk, Herb. You of all people should know that a time traveler never dies, if he doesn’t want to.” Tempus’ evil face became even more evil, if that were possible.
“Welcome to my world, Herb. I’ve been expecting you.” His tone boded no good, and Wells knew. He was doomed.
Throughout the generations, a woman, always the same, yet different, stumbled through several lifetimes, always dying without ever finding her true love. The soul of Lois Lane never met its other half – a soul that was caught in a place beyond time, but not beyond pain. Two halves of one soul that were severed for all time never again met, and never fell in love – a love that was once a legend. A love that was forever… doomed.
– The End –
by ShayneT
Lois woke in Clark’s arms. Somehow the bugs and the heat and the snakes didn’t seem as important as they had the night before. She and Clark had discovered each other, and the earth had moved for them both.
Languidly, she opened her eyes. There was a sense of satisfaction to being able to lie out in the open, with a breeze caressing her bare skin. She had never been comfortable enough with her body to try it before, but it was really quite liberating.
She and Clark had no secrets from one another. In their hearts at least, they were already married, and the moment Clark woke, she would let him know that she would be happy to make it official.
A shadow passed over her eyelids. Lois opened her eyes a bit, then almost shrieked.
A naked, semi-bearded man was standing not ten feet away from them. Worse, he wasn’t even looking at her, he was staring at Clark.
“Clark!” Lois hissed.
He woke with a start.
They gaped up at the naked man for a moment, then realized to their horror that there was a camera crew behind him.
Clark grabbed the blanket and covered them both.
“What’s going on?”
“I’m Rich. We’re filming a game show called Survivor. We didn’t hear a boat come in; what are you two doing here?”
With a growing sense of horror, Lois saw the T-shirts the camera crew was wearing.
Survivor – A Spencer Spencer production.
She’d be a laughingstock.
Well, hopefully, no one would watch the show anyway. Who ever heard of having a game show on a deserted island?
The End
So That’s How it Happened
by Elisabeth
The thick musk of Miranda’s potion hung heavily in the air as Ralph unbuttoned yet another button on his shirt. He fluffed all three hairs on his chest to their fullest volume and strutted toward the woman of his desire.
Leaning provocatively over her shoulder, he offered himself to her. “Edit your copy?” he asked.
She leaned back against him, nestling her ear against his arm. “Of course, Ralph. You’re always so…” Lois licked her lips, “thorough.”
Their eyes were lost in each other’s souls, their hearts thumping wildly. Ralph leaned so close he could almost taste her mouthwash.
He reached in his pocket to find the warm treasure he’d been saving for her. Eagerly tearing open the plastic, he offered, “Twizzler?” Her lips parted to receive the proffered gift; his lips wrapped themselves around the other end, until finally, at long last, they found themselves enraptured in a kiss.
But a firm hand on his arm held him back, jerking him away from her. “I believe the lady’s with me.”
It took a moment for Lois’ eyes to focus through the hormonal haze which surged through her veins. “Jimmy?”
“Lois,” he soberly told her. “You need to decide. Him or me? Who’s your pal?”
Tears filled her eyes as she tried to size up the men. She couldn’t imagine losing Jimmy with all his youthful vigor or Ralph’s reliable persistence. “I just can’t decide,” she gasped.
“Then, there’s only one way to end this,” Jimmy proposed, raising himself up to his full five-foot-four-inch height. “A duel.”
“To the death,” Ralph agreed.
They stood back to back in the pit of the newsroom. Slowly, they paced off. One. Two. Three. Four steps. Then Jimmy swung into action, whirling his pocketknife in Ralph’s face. But it was too late. Ralph had already hurled his Bic into the assistant’s chest, proving once and for all that the pen is mightier than the sword.
Horrified, Clark leapt from his desk. “I’ll go for help,” he promised.
“Son, sit back down and call 9-1-1,” Perry ordered. Reluctantly, Clark obeyed.
As he returned the phone to its cradle, Lois began to sob from her watch at Jimmy’s side, “It’s too late. He’s dead. Oh, Jim! He’s dead.”
Ralph rushed to her, to offer his arms as solace.
Just then, the doors of the copy room burst open and Cat scrambled through, buttoning her blouse as she ran, “I think he’s having a heart attack!”
Soon five people crammed into the tiny alcove.
“Don’t worry. I’ll save him,” Ralph reassured the crowd.
“You know C.P.R.?”
“No, I know a better way to restart his heart. I saw this on Emergency fifteen years ago, and I’ve been waiting all this time for the opportunity to try it.” He cut the cord off the photocopier with Jimmy’s knife as he spoke; then, plugged it into the outlet. “A little defibrillation should return normal cardio activity,” he explained. “CLEAR!” he shouted as he lunged the live wire against the man’s chest. Lois’ eyes gaped as the two men convulsed and glowed. Then, thankfully, the circuit breaker cut power.
Perry began feeling for a pulse with little hope.
“I’ll go for help,” Clark cried, jerking at his tie as he ran. But the E.M.T.s were already making their way into the newsroom. “This way,” he directed, yanking their equipment over Jimmy’s cold body.
“We need some light in here,” the E.M.T. called out. Clark headed back to the circuit breaker, happy he could finally assist. “What happened here?” the E.M.T. inquired.
Lois began to fill him in on the afternoon’s events, pulling the wire against her breast as she explained, “…and then Ralph yelled, ‘Clear!’ and placed the cord like so.”
Clark found the appropriate circuit and reset it.
“Lois,” Perry gasped, reaching for the plug to pull his surrogate daughter to safety. But the electricity grabbed him, too, shaking him like a rag doll.
And that was how Cat Grant became editor of The Daily Planet and the popular gossip column, Kent’s Korner, got its start.
– The End –
by MissyG
Lois stood in the doorway shyly modeling her wedding night ensemble. The time had finally come, she was going start her new life as the wife of Clark Kent; she had married her best friend and partner, who also moonlighted as Superman.
Clark spun out of his Superman suit into his casual clothes and grinned broadly at his new wife.
“Didn’t spill a drop,” he said as he walked slowly toward his bride. He gazed lovingly at her dressed in the black silky teddy he had bought her a couple of weeks ago. The air was crackling with anticipation they had never known before – if you didn’t count earlier that day right before H.G. Wells showed up.
Wells had arrived unexpectedly and told them that Lois was going to die of a mysterious illness if they consummated their marriage. The only way that they could hope for any normal marriage would be to go back in time to reverse any curses that had been placed on their souls in the past. Either that, or abstinence, and *that* was totally out of the question.
But that fiasco was successfully behind them now and their whole life together was ahead of them. Clark tossed the intruding thoughts out of his head as he concentrated on the lovely vision in front of him. The moment he’d been dreaming about for years was finally going to happen; he was going to make love with Lois Lane, the only woman he had ever, or could ever love.
“I don’t want anything to cloud this moment,” she said taking the glasses of champagne from his hands and placing them carefully on the shelf. She turned to face him as she leaned backwards onto the bed, all the while helping him to remove his unbuttoned black shirt.
“Hmmm…” she murmured at the sight of his well defined chest hovering ever closer as he moved over her on the bed.
“This is the moment we are destined for,” he said huskily as he let his body weight settle down deliciously on top of her.
“That’s what makes it so special.” She was fully reclined on the bed as his mouth descended down on hers for a series of kisses full of promise and desire. He pulled away from her face and smiled lovingly down on her as her hand stroked his face tenderly.
“I love you, Clark Kent,” she said, the love she felt for this most wonderful man almost threatened to overwhelm her.
“I love *you*, Lois Lane,” he said, full of feeling, as his arms wrapped around her, pulling her closer as he began to kiss her more deeply and thoroughly.
The couple was lost in their passion and love for one another as they slowly began to float upwards towards the ceiling.
*And* towards the ceiling fan that was spinning ever so slowly above them. Clark had just installed it above his bed a week ago, mainly for Lois. His apartment could be stuffy at times; although he didn’t feel the heat of the summer, he wanted Lois to remain relatively comfortable in the night when he was not able to cool her down with his superbreath.
He knew there was a possibility that he could float right up to it at some point during the night, but he thought it would just be an annoying little detail that would wake him up briefly. He could then float back down and sleep on the bed again. Until they got their own place, his old apartment would have to do and he did his best to accommodate his new bride.
As the couple began in earnest the start of their marriage, they were not aware of two eyes that watched them from the window. An evil smile spread across the onlooker’s face as the couple rose higher and higher toward the fan. He patted the small remote control device in his hand and waited patiently. Soon, very soon.
Clark suddenly broke off his kisses and moaned in pain. As on cue, the blades of the fan spun faster and faster in a terrifying blur of speed. Lois screamed in fright as she watched her beloved husband cry out in pain as the radio-controlled Kryptonite laced fanblades began to glow ominously. With all of the strength that he had left, he threw Lois back down to land on the bed.
An anti-gravity device tuned into Clark’s dense molecular structure would not let him fall back down. Lois cried out in anguish as she watched the blades whirl him around, striking him again and again, slicing his smooth muscles to pieces. As the life force drained out of the Superhero, it released the anti-gravity device holding him to the fan and he was flung across the room against the shelf, where only a few minutes ago, Lois had placed their champagne glasses. And she hadn’t wanted anything to cloud this moment, she thought in agony.
Tempus let out a vicious laugh. He had waited for many years in an Utopian Prison plotting the ultimate revenge on his arch enemy. Now Utopia would be destroyed and he could have Lois Lane all to himself *and* he would be king.
He crawled through the window and walked triumphantly over to the sobbing widow.
“My dear, I believe we have a wedding to finish.” He grabbed her around the waist and flung her over his shoulder. A sobbing Lois Lane resisted weakly, pounding Tempus half heartedly on the back. It didn’t matter what her future was anymore, Clark was dead and she wanted to be also.
She felt a sharp prick in her backside as Tempus injected her with an unknown substance.
“What?” she moaned, hoping it was something that would allow her to join her husband in death.
Tempus was thoroughly enjoying himself now as he exclaimed, “Ah! The plan is finished. You, Lois Lane will live forever with me in the future, as my wife. The substance I injected you with is a drug that will not allow you to die for a thousand years. Your soulmate, Clark will wander through several lifetimes searching for his other half, never to find you, because you will be with me, having my babies. Don’t despair, my dear; we can name one Clark.”
He pressed a button on the remote control and a time window appeared glowing in front of them.
“Say goodbye to your sweetheart,” he hissed.
Lois looking despairingly at one last glance of her almost lover and sobbed. The image of Clark laying all bloodied and mangled would stay with her forever. It appeared that his sweet face escaped most of the wrath of the kryptonite fanblades; he appeared as though he was sleeping. One of the champagne glasses, which had not spilled a drop, had landed next to his hand and held a sharp contrast against the blood shattered frame of their wedding certificate lying close by.
Tempus stepped through the time window and laughed. “Good-bye Superman. I’ll take *very* good care of your wife.” He paused. “Oh, excuse me; I mean *my* wife.”
Just before he closed the time window, he hit another button. The Daily Planet blew up in a spectacular nuclear explosion that leveled Metropolis and half the eastern United States. Kansas suffered devastating loss of crops for many years to come. The Kents died of cancer one year later and never knew what happened to their son or his new wife.
Utopia was not gone completely, it remained forever a painful memory in Lois Lane’s heart as she stumbled through the rest of her long, long life.
The End
by Cindy Leuch
Clark frantically dug through the rubble of the collapsed mine, hoping to find any survivors before it was too late. As he dug, he hit upon a metal object. Confused, he slowed his progress and tried to figure out what it was, but before he got a real good look at it, a blinding white light engulfed him. Clark was aware of a searing hot pain and an incredible amount of pressure before the world went dark around him.
When Clark came to, he was momentarily confused – what exactly was he doing in this dark place, buried by the rubble of what obviously was once a mine shaft. The last thing he could remember was digging through rock. What had happened, exactly? He flexed parts of his body, trying to determine if he had been injured or not. Upon inspection, he found that nothing ached, he just felt incredibly tired. So it probably wasn’t kryptonite, he thought, though he still couldn’t figured out what happened to him.
Deciding that it would be best to return to Lois and try and brainstorm together what happened, Clark quickly freed himself from the rubble and shot out into the Metropolis sky. A quick glance at the sun showed that it was getting late – he must’ve been out for longer than he had thought. Lois would probably be at her apartment, he figured, and changed his route accordingly.
As he floated down toward Lois’s window, he could see her inside, collapsed onto her couch and crying into one of the throw pillows. His heart ached to see in her in such pain – she must’ve been worried about his safety. Clark threw open the window and suddenly her head popped up, her tear streaked face changing from an expression of utter despair to one of euphoria.
“Clark! I was so worried!” she said as she quickly got off the sofa and ran over to him, throwing her arms around his neck.
“Oh, Lois. I’m sorry if I caused you any pain,” Clark said as he buried his nose in her hair.
Suddenly Lois began to shudder violently. She turned her head and threw up onto her living room floor before passing out in his arms.
“Lois?” Clark said with alarm. He tuned his superhearing into her and listened as her vital signs dropped. He had to get her to a doctor! Without a second thought he took off toward Dr. Klein’s office. If anyone would know what Clark could’ve possibly done to get that response from Lois, it would be Dr. Klein.
Clark landed in the office and deposited Lois on the counter, much to the surprise of the doctor, who was peering through a microscope on the other side of the room. “Superman? What brings you here?” Dr. Klein asked as he turned around. It only took a second for him to register the terrified look on the hero’s face and match it to the limp body of Lois Lane lying oh his counter.
“Oh my God!” Dr Klein said and approached the two. He took a few steps before beginning to feel a little bit queasy himself. He grabbed onto the counter for support, but darkness quickly claimed him, too, and he collapsed in a heap on the ground.
Clark looked around frantically, agonized about how his presence had affected them. He almost cried out, but stopped himself as he heard a slight clicking noise in the background. Curious, he searched for the source, and found a Geiger counter sitting near the microscope where Dr. Klein had been working. As he grew closer, the clicking noise increased until it turned into a steady, annoying stream as he stood over it. The readings it was giving off were off the charts! He was radioactive!
Suddenly Clark remembered exactly what had happened to him in that mine shaft – it was a nuclear explosion. He had unwittingly just irradiated his fiancee and doctor, he concluded. At that moment, he would’ve given anything to have been able to reverse time and keep himself away from them. The only thing he could do now was to keep this from happening to anyone else.
Clark picked up the phone and called an ambulance for Lois and Dr. Klein, then he took off, never to return to Metropolis again.
Lois died that night of radiation sickness. Dr. Klein eventually recovered from his, but he died a few years later of a rare form of bone cancer, one that doctors attributed to the radiation he was exposed to by Superman.
The man of steel lived out the remainder of his life in a secluded spot in the Antarctic, where he knew he would never come in contact with another living soul.
The End
All for the Want of a Good Horse
by Elisabeth
Clark glanced at his hands in disbelief. There was nothing there.
‘So this is what it feels like,’ he thought as a shaky euphoria surged through his body. ‘A time paradox. To simply cease to be in the past and drift away in the present.’
He shook his head, trying to force some blood through his waning veins. He had to do something. He had to try.
Summoning up as much of his physical being as he still had left, he blew with a super breath at the kryptonite rocks surrounding the baby he’d once been. They shivered in the wind, but held fast.
Lois felt an odd feeling pass over her body. For an instant, her legs had felt cold. Ice cold. But now, they felt numb. She swung a leg toward Tempus’ gun in an effort to knock it from his grasp and heard, rather than felt, as the bones within her leg shattered under the impact. The gun skittered from his fingers, landing heavily on the knee which supported her.
The baby cried its final cry as Lois’ frozen form crumpled to the ground. But something had changed within her. What it was, she couldn’t say, but in that instant the joie de vivre melted away like cold fog under the warmth of sunlight. She no longer remembered what it was she was fighting for.
Tempus’ contemptuous laughter rang out, an evil victor’s laugh, but he no longer remembered the punch line. And so he left that place.
Then the warmth returned to Lois’ legs and the pain came. It throbbed angrily, taking her breath away with every move.
She fought to crawl to safety, to seek out help and first aid. But Shuster’s field lay fallow that year, and traffic was nonexistent in the country. And so her body simply wasted away for lack of water.
~*~ Years Later
Clinton grew bored with the negotiation. It was taking too long and he was hungry. And when his blood sugar fell, he always got cranky.
Perhaps an anecdote would lighten the mood at the international economic summit. “You know what really annoys me about China?” the president chuckled to himself as his companion stiffened angrily. “Last Christmas when I plugged my Christmas tree in, not a single light lit up. And I thought to myself, ‘They’ve got to get a better work force in the slave labor camps.'”
“Yeah,” Gore agreed. “And last week when I finished my take-out, the fortune said, ‘A good horse is like a member of the family.’ That is *not* a fortune. Besides, you can’t talk about Tipper like that.”
The Americans laughed together as the room emptied.
“You have insulted my people. You have insulted my horse. THIS MEANS WAR!
~*~ Two Years Later
Tipper whinnied as she watched the fallout settle in front of the only camera which still functioned in the radioactive wasteland far above her. She sobbed as she poured the tall glass of cognac in honor of the devastation which had once been her homeland.
She had seen Al fall as they scurried into the shelter. She knew there was no way he could have survived on the wrong side of the blast doors.
She raised her glass in a bittersweet salute to his memory, hoping to find a moment of utopia in the alcoholic stupor that awaited her.
– The End –
By Hatman
“Uh, Lois, I want to ask you something…” Clark was walking through the Daily Planet newsroom, talking with Lois. He’d been thinking about this since, well, since he’d met her (or possibly before…). Now, after nearly a year and a half, he had finally worked up the nerve to ask … just about, anyway….
“Ooh. I’m not going to like it, am I?”
Clark, already nervous, became worried. “What makes you say that?”
“You’ve got that tone in your voice. You know, when people are uncomfortable, like when they wanna borrow your car, or money, your clothes?”
<Oh. Is that all. Whew. Maybe if I lighten the mood…> “Uh, okay, you got me, I wanna borrow your clothes.”
“I bet you’d look real cute in black chiffon.” <Oh, right. He’s just trying to soften me up.>
<This is going wrong. Gotta get back to the topic at hand…> “What I wanna say is I…”
<Here it comes…> “I know what you want, Clark.”
<Huh? Am I being that obvious?> “You do?”
“I know you a lot better than you think. How much do you need?”
<Apparently not.> “What? No, I don’t want money, Lois.”
“Clark, you don’t have to be embarrassed. That’s what friends are for. Just tell me how much.”
<Oh, heck.> Clark stopped walking, to make asking easier. Lois, not quite noticing, walked on past him. “Lois, I want you to go out with me.”
That stopped Lois in her tracks. “What?” She turned around, and started walking back towards Clark. <I can’t believe it! Clark is… asking me out! Wow! Going out with Clark…> “You’re asking me out?”
<Uh-oh. She looks incredulous. This is not good.> “Yeah, you know, like on a date.”
“A date? You mean like a real date? Where I take out my good perfume, the one that I got after I saw “Love Affair,” the good one, not the remake, and I put a dab behind my knee, I don’t even know why?”
<Uh, right.> “Yeah, I guess that’s what I’m saying….”
“Well, that’s… Well, I… I don’t know what to say…” Lois, confused, turned away.
<Definitely not a good sign…> Clark took a breath, about to say something like “say ‘yes'” when suddenly, everything exploded. The ceiling collapsed. The support beams gave way. Everyone in the entire building (other than Clark, of course) was crushed. Stunned, Clark dug his way out of the rubble. His suit had been torn off, leaving him wearing his Superman outfit. He looked around, trying to figure out what had happened.
“Hi, Clark! Aren’t these things wonderful? I took you completely unawares, and managed to kill off all your friends, including Lois, in one shot! Bye-bye Utopia! I don’t know what I was thinking using a plain old gun that first time…”
“Who are you? What’s this about Utopia?”
“Oh, right. You haven’t met me yet. That would have been in another month or so…. Much easier to catch you off-guard this way, don’t you think?”
“Uhm….” Clark just stood there, confused. This man had come out of nowhere and destroyed his life. Lois was dead, and there was nothing he could do!
Well, there was one thing… He flew right at Tempus, vengeance the only thing on his mind.
“Uh-uh, hero. This time, I came prepared….” Tempus pulled out a chunk of Kryptonite. Clark fell, gasping in pain. Tempus watched the hero die, laughing with glee. It had been so easy! He looked over at the wonderful machine that had allowed him to accomplish his dream. To think, all this time, the only thing he’d needed to destroy Utopia was right here in the 20th century. Just one single tank!
– The End –
Don’t Shoot the Messenger
by Paul-Gabriel Wiener <pgw@mit.edu>
Rated G
Submitted October 2002
Clark flew towards the messenger with desperate speed. Something was wrong, and he had to find out what it was. He rushed inside, ignoring the sounds of the shocked crowd below. Stepping into the shuttle’s interior, he soon found himself staring at… Lois?
“Clark?!” she exclaimed, shocked and confused. “What are you doing here? How did you get here? And why are you dressed in that ridiculous get-up?”
Oh no. She’d recognized him. His wild dreams of playing the anonymous hero, finally able to use his powers in the open, had been dashed at his feet. “Better explain yourself quickly, Kent…” he thought to himself. “Well, I, uhm… that is….” Clark stammered, confused and off-balance, frantically trying to come up with a reasonable explanation.
Suddenly, there was a blinding flash and a resounding “BOOM!” The bomb, forgotten in the confusion, had gone off. The messenger exploded, and Clark fell, in a burning heap, to the pavement. He got up, physically unharmed, dusted himself off, and surveyed the wreckage strewn about the landing platform. There certainly didn’t seem to be very much of it.
“Look on the bright side,” he told himself. “At least now, you don’t have to worry about explaining yourself to Lois….”
by Hazel
Clark set down his suitcase and surveyed the bustling street. This was it: Metropolis. The Daily Planet. He just *knew* everything was going to work out right this time.
At that moment, he noticed a city bus careening down the street, the driver frantically blowing the horn. The light had just turned red and several pedestrians were beginning to cross the street. The brakes must have given out on the bus; all those people would be killed!
Without stopping to think, Clark darted into the path of the runaway vehicle, his palm out to stop the bus in its tracks. Unfortunately, a stray meteorite that had been orbiting the planet for nearly three decades chose that moment to plummet to earth. The kryptonite landed right at Clark’s feet, and he collapsed just as the bus thundered over him.
By the time the police arrived on the scene, the unguarded suitcase with all of Clark’s ID was snatched by a boy named Jack. The young man with the glasses and the unruly forelock, never identified, was buried in an unmarked grave in the city cemetery.
Lois Lane wrote a scathing report on safety in the Metropolis streets; unfortunately, she died when the Messenger blew up before the Metropolis Transit Authority could sue her socks off.
The End
++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Pilot, by HatMan (Paul)
Clark stepped off the bus, taking in the sights and sounds of his new home, Metropolis. Something in him said, “I’ve finally gotten it right. This is where I belong.” Something else in him sincerely hoped the first something was right.
Suddenly, he noticed a bus speeding down the road, driver frantically blowing the horn. It seemed to be completely out of control, and it was heading straight for a group of pedestrians! Trying to look casual, he stepped forward, putting out his hand to stop the bus.
Unfortunately, Clark had failed to notice just how fast the bus was going, not to mention how big it was. The bus hit him dead-on… and wrapped its fender around him. Metal and glass shrapnel flew out, killing some of the pedestrians and seriously injuring the rest. The driver was crushed. The passengers flew out of their seats, only to be met by the backs of the seats in front of them. The plastic fragmented, pieces imbedding themselves in the hapless passengers, but the metal frames held…. It was a bloody mess.
Clark, dazed by it all, stood there, trapped by what remained of the front of the bus. Suddenly, he heard the sound of metal groaning. The bus began to collapse, and then… the gas tank blew. When the rescue workers came by soon after they were shocked to discover that Clark, the only survivor, was unharmed. His clothes were a mess, and he was covered in blood, but closer examination showed that none of that blood was his. They were even more shocked when a still-dazed Clark managed to extricate himself from the wreckage by bending the metal back out.
One police officer, shocked at the damage, went up to Clark and began to berate him. “Listen, I don’t know who you are, or how you did that, BUT NEVER, EVER, DO ANYTHING LIKE THAT AGAIN!!”
Clark blinked, then looked around at the damage. He was horrified. “Yes, officer,” he replied blankly.
An outraged EMT stalked up to the policeman. “Can’t you see this man is in shock? Now is NOT the time to be accusing him. We need to treat him. Then, we need to find out how the heck he survived that crash. That will take some testing….”
The End
+++++++++++++++
The Pilot, by Helga
Clark Kent exited the subway clutching his briefcase. It contained his resume and a collection of his articles. He hoped to use it to convince an editor of one of the major Metropolis newspapers to employ him. He had been preparing for this day for several years, travelling the world broadening his horizons beyond his Kansas homeland, opening his eyes to the big wide world.
Despite spending time in numerous cities in countless countries, the urban atmosphere was always a shock to his rural upbringing. He hated the impersonality of his surroundings, everyone was in a hurry to get on with their lives and they had little concern for anyone else’s. The acrid, diesel filled air irritated his nostrils, trained on the fresh air of the countryside. The noise was harsh and encompassing, traffic, sirens, and shouting, not the calm sounds he had grown up with. Yet he had realised long ago that unless he wanted to end up a hack on some small town paper, he would have to give up the countryside that he loved and learn to live in the city. Over time, and through experience, he had come to admire the urban life, the convenience of so many services in one place, the variety of people, and the social life.
As he wandered down the street, taking in the sights smells and sounds of Metropolis, His reverie was broken by the squeal of brakes and screaming. A bus was careening out of control, hurtling towards a busy junction. Impulsively, without any concern for his own safety, he leapt out into the road in front of the bus. Placing his hand out to stop the vehicle, he had a moment to reflect on his actions. What could he, a mere man, do to stop the bus? His last thoughts, as the bus crashed into his body, were chastising himself for thinking that he was Superman.
The bus had gained such speed, that its impact with Clark did little to slow it momentum, and the bus squashed several pedestrians before coming to a halt in the wall of a local grocery store.
They scraped what was left of Clark off the tarmac and sent him back to Kansas with very little ceremony. An article, tucked in on page 29 of the Daily Planet the following day, read “Have-a-go-Hero Had a Go”, Metropolis’ only lasting memorial to a promising life cut short.
In a completely unrelated incident, the aspiring young reporter Lois Lane perished when the rocket exploded.
– The End –
by ShayneT
Diana Stride carefully reapplied her lipstick. Kryptonite really wasn’t her color, but it had its uses. Superman had just left, and with the paste working its way through his bloodstream, he didn’t have much time left. She’d get her story, and she’d be able to report success to the head of Intergang as well.
She heard a squeal of tires from down below. Considering that she was on the penthouse floor of a skyscraper, it must have been some accident. She leaned over the edge a little to take a look. Far below, she could see a diminutive figure that could be none other than Lois Lane exiting a cab accident and striding rapidly towards the door to Diana’s building.
A stray gust of wind caught her, and Diana toppled over the side of the building. She tried to scream; Superman couldn’t have gone far. The lipstick she had forgotten jammed her windpipe, and all that came out was a croak.
As she neared the concrete, she could see Lois Lane below her, beginning to look up.
It served her right. Diana’s last thought as she struck Lois was that at least she had taken Lois with her.
A double funeral was held three days later. Perry had gone by Clark’s place to tell him the news, and had found Superman lying dead on the floor.
The Kents died in a car accident in Metropolis, as they desperately tried to reach their son.
Clark Kent disappeared. There were occasionally sightings of him in places like Tahiti, Rio, and New Jersey, but all were thought to be hoaxes. His body was never found, but Internet junkies claim that he is still out there…
The End
By JoMarch
– Disconnected –
“Are you ready?”
“I’m Superman.”
“Good answer!”
Superman and Jimmy put on their visors, and were soon lost in the virtual reality created by Jaxon. It was a battle they could very easily lose.
It was a battle they could *not* afford to lose, Superman thought, dazed. So *this* was what it felt like to be flung against a wall.
Jimmy was not doing much better. Jaxon/Clark had metamorphosed into that horrible block of muscle, X, and, having hoisted Jimmy into the air, was proceeding to fling him into a chair across the room.
Suddenly, everything seemed to stop. The whole world began to shift and flicker, and then, as if he were watching a tape in fast forward, Superman saw distorted images of his companions and surroundings move at incredible speeds. He realized that he, too, was moving.
He was moving and he was absolutely unable to control it! Panic set in.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Perry White stepped into the conference room and stared. Wires and various mysterious objects were lying about, and Superman and Jimmy were *hooked* to a computer??
Modern contraptions. Who could understand them?
Cautiously, Perry stepped forward and laid a hand on Jimmy’s shoulder.
“Jimmy?”
The young man seemed oblivious to his editor’s presence. Perry shook him a little, and called his name in a louder voice. For all the response he got, Perry could have been talking to a zombie.
Perry walked around and reached Superman’s side. Leaning closer, he stared, fascinated, at his own reflection in the dark visor.
The computer beeped.
Startled, Perry leapt back, and removed his hand from where it had accidentally pressed into the keyboard. He guiltily read the message on the screen.
‘Your connection has been terminated. Would you like to reconnect?’
Nose scrunched up, Perry stretched his arm as far as possible, as if afraid the keys would bite him. He jammed one finger into the ‘Enter’ key, and pulled it back quickly.
The computer made the appropriate sounds indicating that it was reconnecting, and Perry sighed in relief. He hadn’t realized how tense he’d become until his stiff shoulders sagged and his fist unclenched itself. Maybe it was time to go back to his office.
The computer beeped again.
Very reluctantly, Perry turned his gaze back to the screen.
‘Error: Unable to connect. Please check your password, and then try again.’
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
“Clark? What happened?”
“We’re stuck! That’s what happened! We’re stuck!!!” Clark looked around, taking in his surroundings, and Lois did the same.
She was sitting at a table in front of a café, and just across the street, she could see Clark standing at an outdoor cappuccino bar, looking extremely frustrated. The vendor was refilling one of the machines, facing away from them, and standing beside Clark was a tall blonde woman in a red dress, sipping from a drink and eyeing Clark flirtatiously. ‘Hey, isn’t that the same woman we saw earlier?’ she thought.
Feeling irritated, Lois started to get up. Computer program or not, that was her fiancée! She realized with a shock – she could hardly move! She was…
“Stuck,” she said resignedly. Looking up, she continued, “Stuck forever in ‘Gabby’s Deli’.” Oh well. At least her feet were propped up on another chair – if nothing else, she could try and make herself comfortable.
“Lois? Lois, are you all right?”
“What on earth…?” Lois heard Clark’s concerned voice, but Clark was standing right over there, and he hadn’t said a word!
Craning her neck in the opposite direction, to where it seemed like the voice had come from, she could just make out Superman’s head sticking out of a poster on the wall. His head looked normal enough; the rest of him was a brightly colored cartoon, and his head looked ridiculously out-of-proportion with the small body. The poster read, ‘Soopy Tunes.”
“Superman?” Even to herself, Lois sounded very confused. ‘Well, I have every right to be confused!’ she thought, viciously.
“How’d you get in?” Clark demanded.
“What?” Lois’s gaze swung back to Clark, only to find him staring hard at Superman.
“How did *you* get in!” Clark was sounding awfully like a spoiled child. In fact, he was sounding a lot like…
“Jaxon!”
He ignored her. Superman said, “Through a computer in the Daily Planet conference room.”
“What?!” he sputtered. “The Daily Planet conference room?” The blonde standing next to Clark/Jaxon shifted a little, then said in an affected voice, “Hi, pretty boy.”
Barely affording her a glance, Jaxon/Clark spat out “Shut up!” before continuing, “Don’t you have any idea of security at all?? This is all your fault! They could never break into my computer! You did something wrong!! Now, we’re stuck!”
The blonde shifted in the exact same way, and, looking at Jaxon/Clark, said in the exact same voice, “Hi, pretty boy.”
“Shut up!” Lois thought Jaxon/Clark’s head would blow off. His face turned very red.
“Maybe it can be fixed,” Superman interjected mildly.
“Fixed! Fixed!! I designed this program,” a note of satisfaction entered his voice, but it was quickly replaced by desperate anger. “It’ll take weeks – months – for anyone to get into the system.”
“What about Jimmy? He got into it fast enough,” Superman helpfully pointed out.
“*Where* is Jimmy?” Lois asked.
“He was just lucky. It was a fluke! And with the system stuck, *no one* can get in! Even if they do, they can’t touch my program. If they even get close, the whole thing will crash! I designed it that way!”
With the exact same move and the exact same voice, the blonde opened her mouth. “Hi, pretty boy.”
Jaxon/Clark looked like he would very much like to jump up and down in anger. As it was, he could only give little crazy hops that lifted him about an inch over the ground. “Shut up, shut up, *shut up*!!”
“You designed it to *crash*?” Lois said incredulously, just as Jimmy started to speak.
“Um, Lois?” Jimmy’s tentative voice came from near by. “Do you mind moving …? It’s uncomfortable enough being a chair without having your shoes shoved in my face.”
Lois shifted. “Is this better?”
“Ow! No! Move!”
“OK. Sorry.”
“How’d you get to be a chair?” Superman asked curiously.
“I think that when I hit the chair the – ”
“What does it matter?” screamed Jaxon/Clark. “I tell you – ”
“Hi, pretty boy.”
Three bored voiced said simultaneously, “Shaddaap.” Jaxon/Clark was too choked up to say anything.
After a moment, during which Lois thought Jaxon/Clark’s eyes were going to pop out of his head as he glared at the oblivious woman in red, Superman said, “Oh, well. I guess we better hope they *don’t* fix anything.” With that, his head retreated into the wall, and, with a swirl of color, became part of the brightly colored cartoon poster.
Lois sighed and leaned back in her chair.
“Hey! That hurts!”
“Sorry.”
“Pretty boy.”
“Shut up!”
– The End –
by ShayneT
“Wouldn’t it be ironic to have the bomb go off right under Superman’s nose?”
“Mr. Church isn’t interested in irony. All he wants is results. There are too many things that could go wrong with Superman in the room. I’ll take care of it; don’t worry.”
“Can I trust you to at least put some pressure on the jury? Superman may be the strongest man in the world, but even he can’t fight the American judicial system.”
“It’s already done. Once Superman loses this case, he’ll spend so much time and money in court that he’ll have to sell his cape.”
“Isn’t it just grand though?”
The two men left, secure in the knowledge that Intergang would triumph once again. They were correct.
Superman lost the case, being ordered to pay $1.2 million to Calvin, the musician who was now a media darling.
Lois and Dan discovered just how explosive a couple they could be when they went to dinner at Vespucchi’s.
When people across Metropolis began to complain of injuries from Superman’s rescues, he left the country.
He moved to Micronesia, where there were few laws and even less enforcement.
Clark Kent became a renowned expatriate author, though his attempts to drink his troubles away always seemed to fail.
Intergang continued to grow, unhindered by the American Legal system. They say Justice is blind, these days. They never mention that it is deaf and dumb as well.
The End