Author: Mulitple
Rated: G/PG
by Tank Wilson <TankW1@aol.com>
A Future Restored is at http://www.lcfanfic.com/stories/2000/futurers.txt
~~~~~~~~~~~
This Tank Ending to A Future Restored confused some people since it actually
came after the real finish of the story, and it did play into some people’s
hopes for our Lois. But, nope, this is a true Tank Ending, which means that
it never happened nor will it, (most likely).
~~~~~~~~~~
– Alternate Dimension, several years later: –
Lord Nor was disturbed by the unannounced intrusion by his aide de camp. He had been so enjoying reviewing the latest videos shot of the torture of captured resistance members. It was very irritating that the people of this squalid little planet still dared oppose his benevolent take over of their world. Actually, if Nor would allow himself to see the truth, he would have realized that his efforts were doomed. Nothing brings a people together like absolute tyranny.
“My Lord Nor, forgive the intrusion, but I bear dire tidings.”
“Oh, good grief, Grif, what could be so ominous as to force you to interrupt my morning entertainments?”
“My Lord, the resistance is at the outskirts of the city. They will soon be here in force.” The aide, Grif, was hoping from one foot to another in his agitation.
“Oh, do stand still. You look like you need to relieve yourself.” Nor stood up and stood face to face with his aide. “Now what’s all this nonsense about the resistance? No one is supposed to know we are here.” Nor began to pace.
Once the war had begun to go badly for the New Kryptonians, Nor and his closest followers had begun to build themselves secret bunkers. Supposedly they would be places where the elite of the New Kryptonian cadre could hide, and plan their counter strikes. Of the original 147 people that Nor had under his command, four had defected to the humans, and over a hundred had succumbed to the insidious synthetic kryptonite weapons that the resistance had devised.
“We are perfectly safe here,” Nor proclaimed. “Even if they find the location of the bunker, by the time they are able to force their way in, we will be long gone.” Nor made a dismissive gesture with his hand. “No, I won’t be bothered with this now. Send out a small party of men to lure them away.”
The aide seemed really nervous and frightened. “But my Lord, they have a new weapon.” This got Nor’s attention. “They aren’t entering the city, they are flooding the area with some sort of green gas! Our outer sentries dropped as if they had been affected by kryptonite.”
“Wonderful,” Nor said with heavy sarcasm. “Now the wretched cretins have found a way to manufacture a Kryptonite gas.” Nor strode over to a desk in the corner of the room. He pulled a strange key like object from the drawer. “Well, Grif, as these mud bound humans are wont to say, I think it’s time we got out of Dodge.”
He walked briskly toward the back door as his aide followed.
“But my Lord, what about the prisoner?”
Lord Nor frowned at his aide. “What about her?” He turned and passed on through the door, and out of the bunker, his aide, Grif scurrying along behind.
*******************
It was dark in her cell. The woman guessed she was in some underground room, for there were no windows, nor was there any indication of any daylight filtering in from beyond her door. All she had was the bare-bulbed electric light that shone through the bars in the door from the ceiling fixture in the hallway outside. She had heard some commotion coming from the other room and wondered what it was.
Lois Lane had been a captive of the vile Lord Nor for a number of years now. After one of his flunkies had discovered that the injuries she had suffered at the hands of one of the New Kryptonian thugs hadn’t been fatal.
The head trauma that she had suffered had been significant and she probably would have died had it not been for the advanced medical science possessed by the Kryptonians. She had been pretty out of it for the first year or so, but after that had made a remarkable recovery. She assumed that Nor was keeping her alive just on the off chance that Clark would break his word and come back to try and end their evil reign once and for all.
Lois found that painfully ironic. Nor may have saved her to use against Clark if he ever came back, but Lois knew that Clark was a man of his word. He wasn’t coming back.
It wasn’t easy but Lois had managed, by keeping her ears open at all times, to piece together what had happened. She had wept when she found out that the Superman of this world had been killed, and that Perry White had been executed by Nor. Somehow she had found herself comforted by the fact that the Lois Lane of this world had been allowed to leave with Clark in his exile. Nor had thought that ironically humorous. Lois knew that Clark thought she was dead, so she hoped that the other Lois would remember her promise to her and try to be a friend to Clark.
“Hello, is anyone out there?”
The commotion in the other room had stopped. The silence worried Lois. She wondered what it meant. She knew that Nor had constructed some secret bunker-like hide outs, and she suspected that she was being held in one such bunker at present. In the time that she had been here there had always been someone around. The fact that she could detect no sounds beyond her own breathing caused a chill to creep up her spine. Where had everyone gone?
“Hello? Can anyone hear me? Hello!”
There was no answer.
– The End –
by Tank Wilson <TankW1@aol.com>
A Tank Ending to A Future Revised
A Future Revised is at http://www.lcfanfic.com/stories/2000/futurere.txt
~~~~~~~~~
This Tank Ending was written just after the finish of A Future Revised, which left altLois and Clark contemplating a divorce. I’ve also left in the original incorrect spelling of despised.
This one is for Pam.
~~~~~~~~~
Lucy Lane sat back in the leather chair and looked around her. It was her first day as Mayor of Metropolis, and she wasn’t sure she was up for the challenge. So much had changed. It was a darker, more lawless Metropolis ever since Superman left. She sighed as her thoughts drifted back to that fateful turning point in so many lives.
It had been a little over ten years since the divorce. It was the biggest break up since Chuck and Di, as far as the media was concerned. The fact that neither Lois nor Clark were talking just fed the frenzy, and the rumor mill worked overtime to fill in the speculative gaps.
Of course, Lucy knew the truth. That the divorce itself was a sham. The Lois that divorced Clark wasn’t even his wife. It was some other dimensional doppleganger who had come here to take her place. Her own sister, and beloved wife of Clark Kent, had died in the other dimension. A situation that Clark was never able to get over.
Lucy remembered when Clark came home to break the ‘big news’. He had taken some time off, and had gone home to Smallville to think things over. A few weeks later he’d come back and made the announcement to the world that he was leaving. He’d said that he’d been in contact with the New Kryptonians and they needed his help again. Lucy knew that wasn’t true. He’d been in contact with them again, but it was his idea. He asked them to come and get him. So they did, and the world has been without its superhero ever since.
As for Lois, Lucy had found she liked the woman from the alternate dimension and would have liked to have been her friend, but such was not to be.
At first, Lois had tried to dive back into the life of the Daily Planet’s top reporter. She managed to bring in a few front page headlines, but the working conditions became intolerable. Everyone blamed her for the break up. No one could see Clark, since it had been obvious from the start he worshipped the ground Lois walked on, ever considering such actions. Therefore, it had to be Lois’ fault. Speculation ran high, and most innuendo included Superman, and so Lois was blamed for his leaving also. Lucy shook her head as she acknowledged the sort of left handed truth to that.
Finally Lois couldn’t deal with it any longer. She quit the Planet and went to work for the Star. She, in the beginning, began to bring some respectability to that paper with her hard hitting, real journalism. But once a rag, always a rag, so Lois was worn down and eventually began to do things ‘the Star way’.
Lucy thought a lot of Lois’ decline was due to the fact that the public still held her with such scorn. Rather than fight the image any longer, Lois embraced it and took the path of least resistance. Even if the public hated her, they still wanted to read her words, so Lois prospered at the Star. She became lazy and rich.
About two years ago, Lois decided she’d had enough of the working the street end of the newspaper business, and decided she was going to start her own paper. She hooked up with Noel Goode, the younger brother of Randy Goode, and together they revived the long dead Dirt Digger tabloid. The last Lucy had heard, Lois was worth about 75 million.
Lucy sighed again. Things certainly had changed, but now she was mayor and it was time to see what she could do to stem the downward slide of her home town.
Her musings were suddenly interrupted by a gentle, hesitant knock on the door.
“Come in,” she said.
A reluctant head poked itself around the edge of the half opened door. “Ah, honey, I was just getting ready to head home. Do you want me to stop at the market for anything on my way?”
Lucy gave her husband a sad smile. “No, that’s okay, Ralph, I’ll see you when I get home.” Ralph nodded and disappeared behind the closing door.
Lucy stared at the closed door for a few moments, then dropped her head into her hands.
fin (ta ta)
by Meredith Knight
All Stirred Up
Conclusion (follows Chapter 5 of All Stirred Up)
Lois stood trembling outside Clark’s apartment, wondering whether she should confront Superman with her newfound knowledge. As she hesitated, wrestling with the decision, the door suddenly opened. Clark stood there, blinking at her through his glasses. His hair was tousled, and his shirt was buttoned awry.
“Clark!” Lois exclaimed. “I didn’t think you’d be back from the hospital yet. I guess you got your priorities straight after all, huh?”
Clark fell back as she advanced through the door. “I… my friend was discharged from the hospital. He’s a lot better.” He shut the door behind her, and went down the steps towards the kitchen. “Would you like a drink?”
“Coffee, please,” said Lois. Her eyes were sweeping the apartment. “Where’s Superman? And how is he?”
“I’m here, Lois.” Superman walked through from the bedroom, to join Clark in the kitchen. He also looked somewhat rumpled, and seemed a little embarrassed. Lois noticed that he didn’t quite meet her eyes. “Clark and I had, uh, a talk, and he filled me in on some things, and, well, I’ve got my memory back.”
“That’s good,” said Lois tautly. “What about your powers?”
“All back to normal,” said Superman. He took a mug which Clark had just filled with water, and gazed into it briefly. The water simmered and steamed as he handed it back for Clark to add the coffee.
Lois heaved an enormous sigh of relief. “I’m so glad to hear it,” she said. “Did you know…”
“About the Nightfall Asteroid?” said Clark, handing her her mug. “Yes, we saw the news flash. Superman thinks he’ll be able to deal with the last piece of it without any trouble. He’ll go later tonight.” He handed another mug to Superman, who smiled at him and then motioned to Clark’s shirt. Clark looked down, blushed, and quickly buttoned it correctly.
Lois looked at the two men consideringly over the rim of her mug. This was the first time she could remember actually seeing them together. As she had thought, Superman was a little taller, but they were both very well-built. Of course, there were obvious differences between them – Superman was very dark, while Clark had blue eyes and Martha’s strawberry-blonde hair. Lois frowned as she experienced a sudden fleeting sense of incongruity – hadn’t Clark had dark hair once? She dismissed the strange flight of fancy.
What she couldn’t dismiss was the intense desire to know whether her deductions this afternoon had been accurate. From the way the two men were behaving, it seemed very likely, but she didn’t know how to go about finding out. And it didn’t seem as though she was very welcome just at the moment.
“Well, if everything’s back to normal, I guess you don’t need me any more,” she said brightly. “I’ll just finish my coffee and go, shall I?”
Superman walked over and put a hand on her shoulder, turning her towards the living area. “Lois, why don’t you come and sit down?” he suggested. “You’ve been a very good friend to me over the last day, and I think I owe you some explanations.”
Lois allowed herself to be seated on the couch, with Superman next to her. Clark sat in the armchair, behind Superman. Superman hesitated, clearly at a loss as to how to start.
“Why don’t you tell me your name?” asked Lois.
“My Kryptonian name is Kal-El,” Superman replied. “I was sent to Earth as a baby, and a human couple found me and brought me up. On Earth, I’m known as Jerome…” He met Lois’s eyes with trepidation. “Jerome Kent.”
Lois nodded, without surprise. “Clark’s brother?”
“Yes,” Superman confirmed.
Behind him, Clark looked shamefaced. “I’m sorry, Lois,” he said. “I couldn’t tell you at first… and, well…”
“I think I can appreciate why you kept it quiet,” Lois interrupted. Her gaze returned to Superman… Jerome. “But you’re more than just brothers, aren’t you?”
His eyes held hers. “Yes, Lois, we are.” She nodded, not trusting her voice. Her heart was breaking, but she hoped she could keep a brave face until she could get away from here and howl out her agony.
He was still speaking: “But, Lois, there’s more to it than that. I want – Clark and I want you to understand.” He took her hand. “You’re very special to us, Lois – to both of us. We’d like to know if there’s any way the three of us could be together.”
Lois could hardly believe her ears. Could he really be asking what she thought he was… ? She glanced at Clark, who was nodding at her and smiling encouragingly.
“Such arrangements are not uncommon on Krypton,” Superman added. “We’d be very happy if you’d consider it, Lois.”
Her heart was singing joyously. They really did mean it! She finally found her voice. “I just have one question -” The two men looked at her enquiringly. “Do you think… would you mind if I were to… if I cut my hair short?”
They smiled. Jerome lifted a hand and ran his fingers under her hair, brushing it back from her neck. “I think that’s a wonderful idea,” he said in a deep voice, and dropped his head to brush a kiss over her shoulder. Lois closed her eyes and felt Clark come over to sit on the other side of her, wrapping his arm around her waist and kissing her lovingly.
*****
Meanwhile, at EPRAD, Professor Daitch was staring through the eyepiece of a telescope, a puzzled expression creeping over his face. “That can’t be right,” he mused to himself.
He turned to his assistant. “Francois, the position of the asteroid remnant doesn’t match your predicted figures. Can I see your calculations?”
“Certainement, sir,” the young man replied in a pronounced French accent. He hurried to his desk and found the correct file. The two men pored over the calculations for a few moments.
“There’s the problem,” Daitch said, pointing a bony finger. “That conversion from miles per hour is wrong.”
“Miles per hour?” Francois echoed. “I thought it was metres per hour!”
The two men stared at each other, comprehension giving way to twin expressions of blank terror.
Sadly, it was too late to run.
*****
The last piece of the Nightfall Asteroid fell majestically through the atmosphere. The surface was molten, incandescent with the heat of its passage, and the turbulence it created around it was awesome in its power and fury. Jonathan and Martha’s plane, circling in a holding pattern above Metropolis Airport, was tossed aside like a child’s toy; the passengers barely had time to scream in terror before it hit the ground and exploded.
The very centre of the meteorite smashed into Clark’s apartment building. Two of the intertwined bodies in number 344 were pulverised instantly; the third, although indestructible, was driven deep into the earth by the force of the impact. Mercifully, Superman’s memory was once again erased by the collision, and as he wandered the corridors of Lex’s bunker over the next few days, he had no inkling of the terrible loss he had sustained. Locked away from the life-giving rays of Earth’s yellow sun, his powers waned and died without his ever recalling that he had them; his own death followed shortly thereafter.
*****
Lex himself happened to be hunting in the Everglades when the asteroid hit Metropolis. His reprieve was short-lived, however: he was bitten by an alligator the next day, and both parties died an agonising death from the bite. But Nigel had invited Jimmy along for the trip, and the two of them lived happily ever after.
THE END.
by Tank Wilson (TankW1@aol.com)
(these are all alternatives, which fit at particular points in the original story).
Dark Revelation may be found at http://www.lcfanfic.com/stories2/darkrev.txt
Dark Revelation part 10
Lois came out of Star Labs and was surprized to see the sky filled with ICBM’s. She saw the flash and that was the end of Metropolis.
the end.
Dark Revelation part 11
Lois suddenly noticed a noise over head and looked up to see a small squadron a planes. They appeared to drop a strange yellowish gas out the back of the planes.
Lois began to choke a gasp for breath. Oh no, she thought, poisonous nerve gas! Within minutes all of Metropolis lay quiet as a grave.
Dark Revelation the finale
(ending #1)
Twenty years had gone by without any change in Superman’s condition. Lois finally gave up her vigil and became a missionary in Borneo.
(ending #2)
Superman’s passing left Lois so distraught that she gave up her life in Metropolis and became a missionary in Borneo
By Shayne T
(The story to which this TE refers may be found in the Author section of this site)
Given the current popularity of Tank endings, I thought everyone might enjoy hearing my top ten Tank Endings.
1. Clark dies, Dan kills Lois, then reports back to the real head of Bureau 39… Jimmy Olsen
2. “Dear Lois, I’m having a lovely time in Quazistan. I’ve met this amazing young woman named Fatima…”
3. Lois discovers that she really does prefer Rocky Road.
4. Lois is stopped by customs in Turkey for illegally bringing a case of chocolate into the country. The strip search is unpleasant.
5. Lois discovers that, like everywhere else, neither Turkey nor Quazistan accepts American Express.
6. Lois gets a chance to dance the dance of the seven veils…and Clark is nowhere to be found…
7. Dear Lois. I’m having a lovely time in Quazistan. I’ve met this nice boy named Fadi…
8. Lois proves that she really would walk a mile for a camel…then finds out it’s just a cigarette…
9. Lois causes an international incident when she slugs General Alsadin in front of the LNN news crew. Once again, America goes to war.
10.Lois goes without coffee for a week. Quazistan surrenders.
by Hazel <ihazel@yahoo.com>
[story not yet complete]
“It’s time, Lara.”
“I know, Jor,” Lara said distractedly, “but if I’m going to be immortalized, I just have to brush my hair one last time for the holo. If you’ll just give me a –”
But it was too late. The ground groaned beneath their feet, one last geological protest, before the entire planet exploded. Little Kal-El, still waiting for his spaceship to be launched, was wiped out with the rest of the people of Krypton. Several people were maimed, and many lost various limbs, but since they were all dead anyway, it didn’t really matter.
Years passed. On Earth, Lois Lane defied her father’s wishes and embraced a career in reporting. Driven by her determination to prove to everyone that a woman could be just as good a reporter as a man, she devoted her entire life to her new job, eschewing all social contacts in order to arrange meetings with her seedy sources. Her mother and sister often scolded her that she would never have a real life if she ignored all outside interests, but Lois insisted that her Kerths gave her enough warm and fuzzy feelings to get by.
Then Lois met a musician named Tank Wilson. The two of them felt an instant attraction and were soon enjoying a steady relationship. Unfortunately, Lois soon discovered that Tank had a secret identity — Darth Tank. Their relationship was strained as Lois accused Tank of keeping secrets from her and failing to trust her. The two of them had barely settled their differences when Lois found out Tank’s *real* secret: he actually liked wrestling. She walked out the following morning.
Lois, convinced that there wasn’t a single decent man on the entire planet, once more threw herself into her work. She was on the verge of a major scoop when she was trapped in a hangar at EPRAD by a crooked scientist and killed in a fiery explosion. Tank mourned for Lois, but since he, along with the rest of the people of Earth, died soon after when the Nightfall asteroid struck the planet, it didn’t matter very much.
Two years later, as the dust clouds slowly settled over the lifeless surface, a small spaceship arrived. Two humanoids stepped onto the surface of the scarred planet and surveyed it with disgust.
“Lord Kal-El is supposed to be here?”
Zara shrugged her shoulders. “These are the coordinates that Jor-El sent to New Krypton. If Kal-El did come here, he must have died.”
Ching snorted with exasperation. “Well, that’s just great. What a total waste of time!”
In a fit of pique over the wasted journey, Ching callously killed Lex Luthor and Nigel, who had emerged from their underground hideaway to see who had landed on the planet. Feeling much better, Ching escorted Zara back into the spaceship to return with her to New Krypton.
Zara and Ching spent most of the trip avoiding each other’s company. Now that Zara no longer had the excuse that she was “married” to Kal, it had become all too clear that she didn’t really care very much for Ching in the first place.
They arrived back at New Krypton and were shocked to see that the planet was no longer there. Nor must have started the war in their absence and blown up the planet!
Even as they looked at each other is dismay, wondering what to do next, one of the technicians said, “Whoops.”
The ship blew up before they could ask him what was wrong.
– The End –
Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Hurt
By Tank Wilson <TankW1@aol.com>
The full story may be found under ‘Wendy Richards’ in the author section of this site.
~~~~~~~~~~~
There have been a few collaborations between myself and Wendy Richards, such that we have gone to numbering them. While I was trying to figure out what to actually do for my part of the fourth one (It was my turn to finish the tale), I wrote this little Tank Ending to buy myself some extra time, so to speak. So this is a tank ending for: W&T Challenge 4 – Don’t tell Mom the Babysitter’s Hurt.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Lois, hearing Jimmy’s exclamation, swiveled her head in his direction. The site that confronted her caused her heart to skip a beat. Jimmy lay on the floor, in obvious pain, with an ever widening pool of blood spreading out and staining the carpet around his thigh. It was clear that Jimmy had been dragging himself along toward the phone.
Next to Jimmy, Lois’ precious daughter lay crying, and through her tears Lois could hear Jo’s moaning. “Mommy, it hurts, it hurts,” was all the terrified little girl could say.
Lois was frantic. “Jimmy!” was all she could think to scream.
With great effort, Jimmy raised his head. “Lois, I’m sorry. They took Jon, there’s kryptonite… they knew, they knew!” His head fell back to the floor.
Lois rushed to Jimmy’s side. “Who knew what? Who took Jon!” It was no use. Jimmy had slipped into unconsciousness.
More moaning captured Lois’ attention. It was Clark. He was slumped on the floor by the front door. Lois quickly rushed over to him; all the while her eyes frantically swept the room for the kryptonite that her family was so obviously suffering from. She couldn’t find it.
“Clark, Clark!” she screamed. “Where is the kryptonite? I don’t see it!”
She had to lean down close to his mouth to hear what he was saying.
“Clark, say it again, I couldn’t hear you. Please, darling, say it again.”
“I’m laying on it.”
His voice was barely a whisper. Lois rocked back on her heels as she saw Clark, with a supreme effort, try to roll over, but he couldn’t. Having expended what little strength he had on the effort, he fell back and slipped into unconsciousness himself.
Lois tried desperately to roll Clark over, but he was just too heavy. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she strained against the dead weight that was her dear husband. She gathered up everything she had for one last shove and was rewarded with some movement.
Clark had rolled over onto his side. It was just enough for Lois to see that evil, telltale, green glow leaking out from the side of her partner. She quickly reached under him, and with some effort managed to pull the fist-sized crystal of death clear.
Unfortunately the laws of Newtonian Physics came to play and the effort of jerking it out caused Lois to lose her balance and fall backwards. The back of her head struck hard on the nearby coffee table. Lois’ mind, realizing the extreme gravity of the situation, fought hard to stay awake, but it was a losing battle. Within seconds, Lois Lane lost consciousness, and lay in a heap on the floor like a puppet whose strings had been cut.
Within a few more minutes, all moaning and crying had ceased. The brownstone on Hyperion Avenue became very quiet and very still, deathly still.
****************
Lois didn’t know how long she had been unconscious, but by the low-level sunlight peeking in their east-facing windows, she knew it was the next morning. Ignoring what surely was a concussion, she dragged herself over toward Clark.
Her worst fears were realized as she could detect no signs of life coming from the most amazing man in all the world. Biting her lip as tears flowed over her cheeks like a waterfall, she turned her attention toward her precious daughter, and Jimmy.
Heart breaking, her probes confirmed what her mind had already guessed. Both were dead. Her little girl had succumbed to the kryptonite as had her father, and Jimmy had quietly bled to death on her living room floor.
Lois dragged herself over to the couch and flopped down into it. She ran her hands through her hair in a gesture that was so reminiscent of Clark. Damn, she thought, it had really turned out to be one crappy day.
– The End –
Earl and Juliana and Lois and Clark
by Saskia
The original story, by Anna Belcher, can be found here: http://www.lcfanfic.com/stories/2003/earlandj.txt
——-
Before Clark knew it, Earl was shoving him in the cab and talking to the driver. Clark was too busy trying to figure out how to get away from Earl and get to the mall faster than a speeding bullet to notice that Earl was spending an inordinate amount of time talking to the cabbie. Lois was in danger and he desperately wanted to reach her, but he couldn’t just leave now or Earl would become suspicious. Of course, a good excuse would help, but as always, he came up blank. Where was Lois when he needed her? The irony in that wasn’t lost on Clark.
Clark was aching to rush out of the cab, spin into his suit, and fly to the rescue.
Time was running out.
Clark seriously considered sharing his secret with Earl. Friends didn’t have secrets from each other and he figured it couldn’t do much harm.
On the other hand, the decision wasn’t his alone. His parents always told him to be careful; you’d never know what other people wanted from Superman. His father’s words echoed in his head: “They’ll dissect you like a frog.” That was a very valid point. After all, Earl worked as a scientist at Gendell Technologies. And they had only known each other for a very short time, and Clark wasn’t sure about the question of trust yet. Earl knew Gendell personally. What if he told the man? And it was also possible that Earl was involved in the situation too.
He hadn’t considered that option yet. Earl could be in on this. It was very well possible. Why else would all of this trouble have started, right at the moment they had met? Okay, so it could be a coincidence. Earl really seemed nice. And he was just as worried about his wife as Clark was about Lois. And it had started after Juliana met Gendell. Which meant that Juliana was in danger. Surely she would be considered safe as Earl’s wife. So that ruled out Earl.
Back to the real problem now. He still hadn’t figured out how to leave without making Earl suspicious of his alter ego. He already heard Lois telling him all the reasons why his friend should not know. He’d made it so clear to Lois why it was dangerous when other people knew his secret. It could only put them in the line of fire. Lois was a good example of that. And Earl was facing problems even before he knew. No, best thing would be to get out with an excuse and spin into his suit in a nearby alley.
Think, Clark, think. What would Earl believe? Cheese of the Month Club? Used too often. Return a book or DVD? He didn’t even had one with him. Go to the dry cleaner? Too minor for this problem. Meet source? New story broke, this was more important. Forgot something from the play field? He could pick it up later.
How did Lois do that? Her reasoning always seemed so good, and she came up with ideas quickly. There was no other way left now for Clark to wait until they left.
Wait? Why were they still waiting? Surely his musings hadn’t taken only two seconds! Just as Clark looked up, Earl got in the cab. In the front seat!
“Hold on, Clark. I’m driving. I don’t trust the cabby enough to get us there fast and safe,” Earl told him before starting the engine.
* * * * *
“You talk way too much for your own good, Ms. Lane,” Denzler said to Lois while he opened the door for her. “Step out of the car and walk to the trunk. Don’t try anything foolish, I won’t hesitate to shoot you.”
Lois did what he said. It was really hard to walk while your feet were duct-taped. Her hands were taped as well, so she couldn’t use them for support. Unfortunately, that also meant she couldn’t use her Tae Kwan Do moves. Calling for Superman was also out of the question, breathing took enough trouble with the duct tape covering her mouth. So she hopped to the trunk with the gun in her back.
“Open it.” Denzler shouted at her. “And then get in.”
Cautiously, she opened the trunk. So she had to go into a trunk *again*, no big deal. After about the umpteenth time, she was used to it by now. This one looked big enough, she would fit in there and still have some moving space left.
Slowly, she climbed in. It caused her several bruises and a headache. Why did that always happen to her? Clark never had that trouble. It just wasn’t fair. Like she was the one to deal with the nasty situation too. It even really was his story! She finally managed to be completely inside the trunk and the lid closed again.
She could hear more movement outside. What was Denzler doing? Shouting at Juliana, it appeared. Lois couldn’t hear what it was about, but it could never be any good.
Suddenly the lid opened again and Juliana climbed into the trunk as well. So much for the freedom to move around a bit. The trunk was barely big enough to hold the two of them. Soon they would run out of air if the lid closed again. If only she could call for Superman, then all would be fine in a minute.
“We’re gonna take a ride and then I’ll see what I’m gonna do with you. Just prepare for your deaths, I’ll see to that,” Denzler explained the two ladies before he closed the lid. Now was a good time to start panicking, Lois thought. Maybe if she could get Juliana to work with her and they could talk. She’d seen the traces of fresh tears on the other woman’s cheeks.
Lois turned her face to where she supposed Juliana should be. There was no way of telling for sure, it was too dark in the trunk. And more movement only hurt more.
Suddenly the car started to move and Lois fell into Juliana, before rolling back to the other side. She hit her head pretty hard, but the only sound she made was a muffled “mwwwww.”
Just as soon as the car had started moving, it stopped too. Were they in front of a traffic light? No, then the engine wouldn’t stop too. What was going on?
* * * * *
“What do you mean, Earl? Faster? Cabbies are pretty fast. The only person I know that’s faster in this city is Superman,” Clark explained his doubts to Earl.
“Yeah, whatever. Look, we’re on our way, can we worry about Juliana and Lois now? I’d hate to see anything happen to them.”
“All right,” Clark reluctantly agreed. “So tell me what you know.”
Earl quickly told Clark everything he knew. From Gendell’s wish to come back into the world, Lois’s interview that should help with that, to the meetings and Eric’s strange behavior.
“So I think what’s happening is that Eric wants Gendell’s power and money. He’s murdering everyone who met Gendell so far. That’s why he wants to kill Juliana now. And Lois is in danger because she is with Juliana and also because of the interview. And I don’t know what Eric will do; he’s capable of everything. He seems like a complete lunatic to me, I don’t know what Gendell ever saw in him.”
Clark had listened to the story. They had crossed half the city now and were almost at the mall. But there was one thing that had him worried. “If he’s killing everyone who met Gendell, then you’re in danger too, Earl.”
“You could think that, but I don’t have anything to worry about.”
Clark couldn’t believe what he heard. Was Earl really that stupid? He glanced to the man sitting next to him and was surprised to see the expression on the man’s face. It almost looked like… no, it couldn’t be. Earl couldn’t really be ‘evil’ and have something to do with this? Then why would he have such a huge grin and a twinkle of delight in his eyes? “Earl, what’s going on?” Clark asked his supposed friend. “There’s something you’re not telling me.”
“Gee, I wonder what that could be, Superman!” The sarcasm dripped from his voice.
The words hit Clark like thunder; surely Earl didn’t know his secret. He stared at the man, not knowing what to say.
“Oh come on, it’s so obvious. And I can’t believe you haven’t figured out what’s going on yet.” And with that said, he opened a box next to him.
Suddenly Clark felt a terrible pain washing through his entire body. Kryptonite. So Earl was in on the plan and he and Lois were obviously in danger. He had to get out of the car, but the green rock had already drowned out most of his powers. Jumping out of the driving car suddenly didn’t seem like a good option anymore. In the back of his mind he could hear Earl talking, so he forced himself to listen to the creep. He might hear something useful.
“… Eric and I have big plans for this world. We’ll use the network of Gendell and get all the power in the world we want. There was just one problem and that’s you. But I found out things about you, so the problem is taken care of. We’ll need to dispose of your wife as well, but Eric will see to that. Look, he’s waiting for us in that car already.”
Clark followed Earl’s finger and saw a large parked car. He couldn’t just let them win. A thought suddenly popped into his head and he took a good look at the car. No, the women were nowhere in sight, his plan might just work. Fighting off the headache, he closed his eyes for a moment and sat up straight. With one movement, he reached for the wheel and gave it a huge swing.
The sudden movement surprised Earl and the cab headed straight for the Lincoln. Earl tried to regain control over the car while hitting the brakes hard. But it was no use, the cab hit the other car with a great deal of speed and they slammed right into the trunk.
Eric had seen the car swaying and had run away from the scene, unsure of what was going on but still looking for a cover. When he saw where the Lincoln was hit, he could only cheer. That should have killed both women! There was just no way they could have survived the impact of the cab.
The situation seemed safe enough again, and Eric walked back to see who had survived and what had happened. Just as he came close again, Earl got out of the cab.
“Big entrance, huh?” Eric greeted Earl.
“Unfortunately, yes. I’ve got Superman in the cab, nearly unconscious. The impact hurt him tremendously in his vulnerable state. But he was strong enough to surprise me before that by pulling on the wheel and making the car uncontrollable. One shot should be enough to finish him off.”
“No big deal, I’ll see to that in a minute. There’s something else I need to find out first.”
“And what is that?” Earl wondered.
“I’m just curious about the conditions of Lois and Juliana,” Eric explained.
“Ah, right. Where are they?”
“They were in the trunk of the car. I don’t think they survived your newest way of parking a car.”
The men walked to the back of the car and looked at the mess. The steel was completely wrangled, and it looked like they wouldn’t be able to open the lid. Eric tried first, but with all his strength and will power he couldn’t get the lid to move, not even the slightest bit. The result was the same for Eric. Even together the situation seemed hopeless.
“Let’s try the back seats. If we can get them out we can see what’s inside of the trunk.” Eric just had one of his good ideas. He glanced quickly in the cab. Superman still lay there, unconscious.
The seats were easily removed and both men stared into the trunk. In the dark they spotted two bodies and a lot of blood, but it was hard to tell if they were still alive. Eric started pulling on the first body, and suddenly, Lois rolled into sight.
She looked horrible. The top of the lid had really made the trunk a lot smaller and pushed the woman to death. And Lois was definitely not breathing anymore.
The same was to be said of Juliana. Eric looked at Earl and was surprised to see how cool he looked.
“Okay, they’re both dead, let’s get out of here,” Eric said.
“The car can’t be traced back to us, can it?” Eric asked while he got out of the car.
“No, I took care of that.”
“Good. And don’t forget to shoot Superman.”
Eric walked back to the cab, grabbed his gun and aimed for Superman’s chest. The bulled penetrated the skin, and blood became visible. He waited for a few seconds and then checked the pulse. No more pulse, and no more breathing. They had succeeded.
A look of joy crossed his face. “Taken care of, let’s go now,” he shouted at Earl.
The two men turned their backs to the scene and walked away. They remained silent for quite some time.
Earl was the first to brake the silence. “Good thing no one saw us.”
“Yeah,” Eric replied, “I used a quiet street. No shopping people in their right minds come in that street.”
The silence continued again. Eric opened his mouth again. There was just something he needed to know.
“Are you okay? I mean, you just saw your wife, dead. Surely you must be emotional now.”
“I’m okay. There was no connection between us, we didn’t love each other. The marriage was just a convenience to show an image to the world. No one suspected what I was doing now.” Earl tried to explain how his life used to be. “Besides, this is for the better. Now I can commit to the person I do love.”
“Anyone I know?” Eric asked.
“Yeah, I think you know that human being.”
“And who might that be?”
Earl hesitated for a moment before replying. “It’s you,” he whispered. He firmly kept his eyes on the ground.
Those weren’t the words Eric had expected. He never saw Earl as a gay type. Not that he complained, he had been in love with him for a very long time now. This suited him very well. He put a hand on Earl’s arm and forced him to a halt.
“I don’t know if you’ve ever noticed, but I love you too,” Eric admitted.
All Earl could do was stare at the man standing in front of him. “You… what?”
Eric couldn’t bring himself to repeat his words. Actions would show better how he really felt. So he brought his mouth close to Earl’s. When their lips finally touched he felt a sparkle go through his body. Apparently, Earl felt it too, he was kissing him back. Earl even took the initiative to deepen the kiss.
After a few moments the men parted, breathing heavily.
“Wow!” was all Earl managed to say.
“That was incredible,” Eric said with a dreamy look in his eyes.
They stood there for a while, simply staring at each other, enjoying the moment. Both hoped they hadn’t dreamt what had just happened.
Eric was the first to regain control again. “We’re really unstoppable now. After we get rid of Gendell, we’re gonna take over the world. I feel fantastic!”
“Let’s go make my day better than. I’ve got the hang of killing now.”
Without Lois, Juliana and Clark to stop them, the world soon was in the hands of Eric and Earl. They were far worse than Lex Luthor had ever been, and every single living creature on earth feared them.
The End
(Complete story available in the Author section on this site)
by Wendy Richards <wendy@kingsmeadowcr.freeserve.co.uk>
***********
“Keep that up and it’ll all be over,” he warned her, ripping her pantyhose in the same moment.
In the same moment, she grabbed hold of his shoulders and pulling him towards her. Clark found himself sprawled on top of her. He groaned, but she stifled the sound with her lips, thrusting her tongue inside his mouth again.
He was lost. Barely aware of what he was doing, he shifted so that he was lying between her thighs, andHe He
suddenly he was home.
Minutes later, he exploded into oblivion, the sound of Lois’s cries echoing in his head.
***********
Her cries echoed over and over again in his head hours later, as he hurtled through the Earth’s atmosphere and towards Nightfall. Making love again with Lois had been so unexpected, and so blissful.
He hadn’t wanted to leave her at all, but as the cold fingers of dawn had crept their way through the large picture window of his bedroom, the weight of his promise to the world had forced him from the warm bed and Lois’s arms. She’d shifted and murmured a little as he’d left her, but hadn’t woken. And although his entire being had ached to rejoin her, his conscience had forced him out of the apartment.
And now, Superman was on his way to save the world.
The asteroid was looming large and ugly in front of him; in another couple of minutes he would be there. He had his plan all worked out: one fast strike, approaching it at something close to the speed of sound, and it should shatter into pieces. Most would form trajectories well away from the Earth, and those which did continue along the present trajectory could be dealt with, either by himself or by the military with some cleverly-positioned missiles as they came closer to the Earth.
No problem. He paused, drew in a long breath, and launched himself forward at hypersonic speed.
***********
Grey light was turning to gold as Lois opened her eyes, blinking blearily as she tried to work out where she was. Not in her own bedroom, she realised immediately.
No. In a bedroom the inside of which she had never expected to see again in her life.
Clark Kent’s bedroom.
She’d gone to bed with Clark again.
No. She stretched, feeling like purring as the memory of their frantic lovemaking session came back to her. That had been followed by a long, lazy and deliciously passionate hour of loving, at the end of which she’d simply curled up in the curve of Clark’s arm and gone to sleep.
Clark…
Speaking of which, where was he?
He definitely wasn’t in bed with her, although there was a Clark-sized indentation beside her. Perhaps he was in the shower, she thought, or maybe in the kitchen getting breakfast before he left-
Left?
Oh, god, he was going to stop the asteroid this morning!
She sat up in bed instantaneously. Could he have gone already?
But he wouldn’t go without saying goodbye, surely?
She leaned down to the floor and grabbed the first decent-sized item of clothing which came to hand; Clark’s shirt. Pulling it on, she hurried from the bed and began to search the apartment. The bathroom was empty. So too was the kitchen, and there was no sign of any activity, such as breakfast preparation.
In under a minute, she had established that Clark was nowhere in the apartment.
So, unless he’d gone out to get breakfast, he’d left to deal with the asteroid.
And if he’d just gone out for breakfast, she told herself, wouldn’t he have picked up his clothes? Clark was a very tidy person, that much she knew. But if he was on his way to outer space, he would probably have just gone.
He’d left, without saying goodbye.
And what if he never came back?
It was highly possible. He’d admitted as much himself.
And then she’d be alone again, and it would be far worse than before, because now she knew she’d found that one special love which only came once in a lifetime. She loved Clark, and he loved her. And if she lost him… life wouldn’t be worth living.
But if he fails, the planet would be destroyed anyway, the sober voice of reason inside her reminded her. So you won’t actually have to live without him – at least, not for very long.
Not necessarily, she realised quickly. Clark had talked about a nuclear option if Superman couldn’t destroy the asteroid. So it was perfectly possible that the planet could survive, even if it was at the cost of some nuclear fallout.
And she *would* have to live the rest of her life without Clark.
***********
He was getting closer to the asteroid now. He could see its formation, the crevices and protuberances which formed the surface. Seventeen miles wide, the scientists had said, and it looked every inch of it. He turned his head, looking from one end to the other; it was huge. If that landed on Metropolis, if it was just laid down gently, he thought idly as he continued hurtling towards the asteroid, it would cover an area extending from the Daily Planet to the interstate north of the city. And it would demolish everything which lay in its path.
But, of course, it wouldn’t be laid down gently. It would strike the Earth with a phenomenal force. The irresistible force meeting the (almost) immovable object; and all life on Earth would be destroyed as a result.
Which was why he had to do this.
**********
Since Clark had clearly gone, Lois decided that there was no purpose to be served by staying around his apartment. She dressed hurriedly, then drove to her place, where she showered and dressed, ready for work. The TV news told her what she’d already worked out: Superman was on his way to stop the asteroid.
EPRAD had, it seemed, given him a tiny camera so that they could track his movements and film what he was doing. So far, all the camera was showing was deep space, but the fact that Superman was travelling very swiftly and directly for the asteroid looked positive, Lois thought.
Maybe he might make it, after all.
Time to get to the Planet, she told herself. After all, there was a huge story out there, and she needed to be reporting on it. And she had to cover for Clark. After all, some partner she’d be if she couldn’t come up with a reason to explain his absence, when he was actually away saving the world!
*********
Clark was getting closer now. In a couple of minutes, his task would be complete and he could fly back to Earth, make his report to EPRAD, and go home to Lois. Although, he supposed, she probably wasn’t at his apartment by now – she’d have woken up and probably gone to work.
He wondered if she’d be angry that he’d left without saying goodbye. It had occurred to him to wake her up, but he really hadn’t wanted a prolonged and probably distressing farewell. After all, he was going to do this, no problem, and he’d be back home within the hour.
It was better this way. He’d decided that he would prefer to face her wrath when she caught up with him later, than tear himself away from her tears.
He drew another breath from his oxygen tank, almost reflexively since he didn’t actually need the oxygen. Then he focused all his attention on the task ahead of him.
But suddenly his vision began to blur. What he’d been able to see with perfect clarity mere seconds before was now a mass of grey, swirling matter. There was no definition to the enormous, all-encompassing mass in front of him.
And he wasn’t flying any more, he realised with a shock. He was floating, being carried along by his own momentum, but no longer propelling himself under his own steam.
And he felt *cold*. Very cold indeed.
It was freezing cold in space, his subconscious told him. Well, well below freezing.
His entire body felt as if it had been left in a deep-freeze for several hours. He could no longer feel his extremities; and a swift glance down at his arms showed him that his fingers were shrivelled and white, and… He gasped in silent horror as one hand just fell off and drifted away.
So cold…
Can’t breathe…
*No powers*!
That was it, he thought dreamily as he floated away, unable to feel his body any more, all pain gone. He’d lost his powers somehow. Perhaps they’d been depleted by the night of lovemaking; perhaps he really wasn’t capable of flying out into space.
Whichever, it didn’t really matter any mo…
*********
In the Planet newsroom, Lois was standing staring at the TV screens, along with the rest of the newsroom staff. A bare minute earlier, the LNN announcer had begun to gabble semi-coherently about there seeming to be a problem, that EPRAD might have lost communication with Superman.
A cold, solid lump began to form in Lois’s chest.
She’d been right all along. This was a suicide mission. Clark wasn’t coming back.
Why had he agreed to go? Why had she *let* him go?
That darned, blasted, *hellish* sense of responsibility he had!
He’d told her, last night, that he couldn’t stand by and see people suffer if there was something he could do to help. And so he’d gone to help. And the stupid, foolish, noble *idiot* had only gone and got himself killed, and by the look of things before he’d even got to the asteroid.
Clark wasn’t coming back.
The newscaster was clearly listening to something coming in on her earpiece; after a moment, she faced the camera again and announced the latest update.
“EPRAD is saying that contact with Superman has been lost, and that it looks as if the Man of Steel may have been unable to fulfil his mission. It now seems very likely that Superman is dead. Yes, I repeat, Superman is dead. His bold mission to save the planet has failed, and he has given his life in the attempt.”
Shocked gasps echoed around the newsroom, and Lois sank into her chair, clutching her hands to her mouth, the tears flowing unchecked.
The newscaster continued, saying something about nuclear missiles being primed and targeted, but all Lois could hear were three words, rewinding over and over in her head.
<Superman is dead… Superman is dead… Superman is dead… Superman is dead…>
“Oh, Clark!” she exclaimed softly, as she sobbed quietly at her desk.
A hand on her shoulder made her jump. Perry was standing beside her. “You okay, honey? Now, I know Superman was pretty special to you, and you’ve probably got more right than most people to get upset, but this is a huge story. Are you up to writing it? Because I could give it to Clark, if you want to go home…?”
<Oh, Clark…!>
She choked back the tears and turned to look at Perry. “No, you can’t give it to Clark; he’s… he’s busy with something else this morning. I’ll write it.” Taking a deep breath, she added, “Is someone handling the nuclear option?”
“Yeah, Eduardo’s on that. And I’ve sent Jimmy and Alison over to EPRAD to cover things there. When Clark gets back, we could really do with some vox pop reactions. After all, we’re not just dealing with the death of Superman, we’re looking at possible Apocalypse here!”
Yes, they were, unless the nuclear option worked. But somehow Lois couldn’t dredge up the enthusiasm to care.
A little later, as she worked on the story of Superman’s tragic death, her phone rang. Absently, she picked up the receiver and tucked it under her chin.
“Lois Lane; how can I help you?”
“Lois! Ever the professional, carrying on working when the entire fabric of civilisation is collapsing around us!”
“Lex. What can I do for you?” she replied tonelessly, really not wanting to have anything to do with the man who’d wanted Superman’s disgrace and banishment from Metropolis.
“No, quite the opposite, Lois; it’s a question of what I can do for you. Are you perhaps free to meet me this afternoon at my office?”
“Look, Lex, I’m very busy, as you might imagine. Can’t you tell me what this is about now?” Her attention dragged away from the story she’d been hating writing in any case, she glared at the telephone, a poor substitute for the man on the other end of the line.
“I’m sure that the tragic and unfortunate death of Superman is making considerable demands on your time, my dear,” Lex drawled smoothly. “And I am aware that he was a friend of yours. Such a shame. But,” he added quickly, “you must be aware that, unless our military personnel can make the nuclear option work – and if it was that simple, why didn’t they try it the first time? – all human life on Earth is in great danger.”
“Of course I know that,” Lois answered, bored with the conversation already and letting it show.
“In which case, my dear Lois, I merely thought that you might be interested in a proposition I would like to put to you. One which might actually save your life, as well as providing the two of us with… companionship.” Lex’s voice grew silkier with every word, and Lois found herself recoiling in disgust. She wanted to find something to hold the phone with, for fear of contamination.
It was perfectly clear what Lex was suggesting. Somehow, he had found a way in which he could ensure his own survival – and that certainly didn’t surprise her, given his wealth and ingenuity. He was offering her the chance of survival too, but only if she became his…
His what? His lover? No; Lex Luthor only loved himself. His mistress? Well, probably, but Lois thought that the more appropriate term was ‘concubine’. Sex slave.
Well, she had no intention of being anyone’s slave. Nor was she willing to trade her body for her life; even if she could bear the thought of going on living now that Clark was dead, she couldn’t ever imagine having sex with anyone else ever again.
Not after Clark. Not after the way he’d made love to her so beautifully, so lovingly and so perfectly.
Not after the way he’d *loved* her, as nobody had ever loved Lois Lane before. And nobody would ever again.
Clark was dead.
Remembering that Luthor was still on the line and waiting for an answer, Lois reluctantly dragged herself back to the conversation. “Frankly, Lex, nothing you could offer me would interest me in the slightest. Though your sordid little suggestion is just about what I might have expected from someone as corrupt and devious as you are. The only thing I’m looking forward to, if we somehow do manage to escape the asteroid, is finally uncovering the truth about you and exposing you to the world for what you really are. Goodbye, Lex.” And with that, she slammed the phone down.
*********
“I’m looking for Lois Lane.” The husky voice attracted Lois’s attention, and her head swung around sharply. It couldn’t be! Not here, not now…
But she found herself staring at precisely the person she’d least expected to see in the Daily Planet newsroom.
“Hello, Linda,” Lois said tersely. “Is there some way I can help you?”
Linda King strode quickly over to Lois’s desk, her expression agitated. “Lois, I need your help. I have to find Clark! Nobody seems to know where he is, and they tell me he hasn’t been seen all morning. I’ve been to his apartment and he’s not there either – ”
Lois interrupted her visitor’s frantic explanation. “Clark isn’t here, Linda,” she said, trying to keep her voice even. “But I’m his partner, so maybe I can help you instead?”
Linda began to turn away. “It’s personal, Lois. And you’re the last person I’d expect to understand.”
“Oh, really?” Lois challenged her. “With our history, Linda, I think I’m probably the one person who does.”
Linda stilled, and turned back.
Lois continued, “You’re in love with Clark, aren’t you? It’s hardly surprising. He’s that kind of guy. I fell in love with him too. Only this time I’m the one who got him. Not you.”
“Yeah, I knew you were the reason he came back to the Planet.” Linda looked totally despondent.
“We can’t talk about this here,” Lois said quickly, and led her former friend, now rival, into the conference room. Once there, she faced Linda, meeting the other woman’s gaze as honestly as she could.
“Look, Clark told me that he liked you and respected you a lot as a partner. But that’s all it was. He said you could have been a friend, but he knew you wanted more, and he… wasn’t interested. I’m sorry if that hurts, but it’s best to face these things.”
<Just like I have to face that Clark is dead…>
“Yeah, I know he wasn’t interested,” Linda snapped. “Lois, wake up! There’s an asteroid out there which is going to blow this planet to Kingdom come in the next forty-eight hours! I don’t know what else you think is important beside that. I just wanted to see Clark, to apologise for being a bitch in his last week at the Star, and say goodbye.”
That made sense, Lois recognised. And, if Clark had been around, she’d have helped Linda get in touch with him. But that just wasn’t to be…
“Linda, if I could help you, I would. But I don’t know where Clark is either,” she began. It was true, after all; he was somewhere up in space, but she had no idea where, or what had become of him.
“Typical man!” Linda exclaimed. “They’re never around when you want them, are they?” She paced a little, then turned to face Lois again. “Unlike women. You know, I don’t know why women bother with men. They never understand us. They’re never there when we need them. They don’t know how to really *listen* – they think conversation means telling us all about their latest computer game or teaching us about football scores. Doing things together means going to the ball-game – and try to take one of them shopping! They moan the whole time, just like a little kid. They don’t know how to keep a place tidy, and they think if they invite a girl over for dinner, takeout’s just fine. And half the time they wear socks to bed!”
Lois pulled a face in sympathy. Okay, Clark hadn’t been like that – well, he did like football, she knew, and she didn’t know whether he’d be any good on a shopping trip, but she’d known plenty of men who were *exactly* like the ones Linda described. “Yeah, I know. Who do you call when you really need someone to talk to? When you need to go shopping to find the perfect outfit? When you want to have a proper, interesting conversation? Your girlfriends.”
“Yeah. Women don’t let each other down – well, except for when men get in the way,” Linda amended with a guilty grimace. “Lois, I am so sorry about Paul. You know, he turned out to be a real creep – and I lost my best friend over him! He wasn’t worth it, not for one second.”
“They rarely are,” Lois muttered. With one big exception, of course: Clark.
But, on the other hand, what *had* Clark done, as far as she was concerned? He’d only run off and done his Big Macho Man thing, despite all her pleas and entreaties. Anyone with an ounce of intelligence and common sense – well, any *woman*, that meant, would have seen that it was a crazy thing to do, and that it just wasn’t going to work. And yet he hadn’t listened to her; he’d just gone and played the Big Super-hero, off to save the world from disaster…
… and just got himself killed instead.
Just one more man who couldn’t be bothered to stick around.
“You know what?” she said belligerently to Linda. “You’re dead right. Men are a complete waste of space. I don’t know why I ever bothered with them.”
Linda met her gaze, a warm light in her old friend’s blue eyes. She advanced on Lois, smiling invitingly. “Yeah, and I’ve read that women make better lovers anyway.”
“That figures,” Lois replied with a grin. “Men have no patience. If they can’t find it within five seconds, it doesn’t exist.”
“You know, maybe…” Linda purred invitingly.
“Yeah…” Lois agreed, moving forward until she and Linda were embracing. “Why not give it a shot? It’s not as if this is going to be a long-term thing anyway,” she murmured to herself, glancing out of the window as if the rapidly-advancing asteroid was likely to become visible at any moment.
**********
The two women kissed… and the earth moved.
Not because of inflamed passions, but because some junior at the Pentagon had managed to get the programming of one of the nuclear missiles wrong. Within seconds of being launched, it had done a one hundred and eighty-degree turn and headed straight back from whence it had come, give or take a few thousand miles. And so it landed right in the heart of Metropolis. The entire city was reduced to rubble in a matter of seconds.
Lex Luthor, who had been inspecting his underground hideaway at the time, was spared the sudden and painless death those who were in the immediate target range suffered. However, his curiosity piqued by the noise and shaking, he ventured above ground once things had quietened, and he was quickly burned to a crisp by radioactive flames. His last words are believed to have been, “I knew I should have funded that madman Klein’s research into the cause of Superman’s invulnerability!”
The asteroid, meanwhile, continued on its inexorable path towards the Earth, unfazed by the pathetic wounds inflicted upon it by the couple of nuclear missiles which did manage to hit their targets. It was quite simply bigger than them. When it crashed into the Earth the following day, it did met its match, but unfortunately many millions of people were killed before Nightfall finally gave up its quest for superiority.
And meanwhile… somewhere out in space, a bloated, limbless and lifeless figure in blue and red drifted aimlessly by, in happy ignorance of the demise of his one-time adopted planet.
– The End –
***********
By: Laura Davies <brightfeather1.geo@yahoo.com>
Rated:
Disclaimer: These characters do not belong to me… I’m just playing with them for a while.
Author’s Note: This little piece of evilness goes right after Clark’s departure for New Krypton in the continuity of the story… It’s a Tank Ending which means that it’s a fake ending written as a joke. <g> All feedback welcomed.
****
Upon their arrival to the ship, Ching showed Kal-El to his quarters and handed him a set of practice clothes. “Milord,” he began, “I’m sorry. I never wanted to do this to you and your family.” he concluded quietly.
Clark looked at Ching measuringly, somehow, he knew that not only was Ching telling the truth, but that he could be trusted. “I know,” he said quietly, “But what I don’t know is *why*. Why are you on my family’s side? Zara certainly isn’t.”
Ching grimaced. If he told Kal-El the truth, it would be perilously close to opening old wounds better left undisturbed. Lying, however, was unthinkable. Kal-El was his lord, and he owed him the absolute truth. “I was married for a brief time years ago,” he began. “Her name was Hesa… We’d grown up together; she was my childhood sweetheart, and we married rather young. I joined the military to provide for the two of us… We hadn’t been married for very long when she discovered that she was pregnant and they sent me off to be stationed at Seraulk. We had planned for her to join me in a few months…but she died.” Ching looked at Clark with sadness in his eyes. “If I had been there… she wouldn’t have gotten into the accident; she wouldn’t have even been there.”
Clark reached out to clasp the other man’s arm in sympathy, but Ching shrugged it off. “It was a long time ago… and that’s not the only reason,” he said quietly. “Anyway, before we leave the solar system, there are a few things you need to learn…”
****
Lois woke and stretched slowly. The last few weeks of managing on her own had been exhausting and she was happy that they were finally over. Soon, she would be reunited with her beloved. She rolled over on her pillow to find a halo of shorn, dark hair around her. Lois smiled as she felt the tiny fluttering inside her abdomen that signified her baby kicking; she knew exactly what the shorn hair around her head meant. “Shh, sweetheart, Daddy’s here. He has returned to us at last!” She rubbed her stomach and climbed out of bed. She had always known that he couldn’t stay away from them for long. She hurried out into the hallway and waddled downstairs, happy that he had come for her.
A familiar figure stood in the living room. He smiled broadly as he saw her, his brown eyes twinkling, and ran a hand through his dark, crisp curls. Lois stopped and stared at him for a moment, confused. He looked exactly like Jimmy had nine years ago, before the horrible accident that had necessitated extensive plastic surgery and hair transplants. “Jimmy” reached to his neck and began to pull carefully. Within minutes, the latex mask and wig were dangling limply from his hand. Lois smiled broadly, ran across the room, threw herself into his arms, and kissed him passionately.
“Lois, my darling,” he said after returning her kiss with interest. “and how,” he kissed her again, “is our,” he captured her lips with his, kissing her soundly, “baby this morning?” He brought his hand down to her distended abdomen, caressing it gently.
“Lex, sweetheart, *our* baby is fine, and *our* children are sleeping upstairs.” Lois pulled his head down to hers again and kissed him passionately, opening her mouth under his and allowing him to explore every crevice of her mouth as he had so many times before. Her marriage to Clark had been a farce from the beginning… “It’s been so hard to carry on this farce of a marriage while he was here! Thank God and the Greyhound, he’s gone!”
Lex brought up his hand to caress her, happy that she could finally be his in name as well as in reality. He captured her lips once more, tangling his tongue with hers. “Lois, my sweetest, let me get our little ones and then we shall board my private jet for Switzerland!” Lex caressed her gravid belly and leaned in to steal another kiss. His tongue requested access to the warm, moist cavern that was her mouth and he was overjoyed that his silent request had been granted once more. All three of the children that Clark Kent had thought his were not. He and Lois had been secretly seeing each other since his ‘death’ underground seven years before. Soon, since Clark ‘Superman’ Kent was gone, they would be far away, starting their new life together.
Lex released her gently and bounded upstairs. A few short minutes later, he returned, holding a child in each arm. They left the house, got into Lex’s limo, and soon arrived at the airport. The foursome boarded Lex’s private jet and spent the next few months until the baby’s birth in Switzerland. They named the baby boy ‘Alexander’ after his father and were soon traveling the world, visiting all of the famous locations that Lois loved so much. They cleared Lex’s name and the world lauded him for taking such good care of the children of the man who had slandered him so disgracefully. Lex married Lois and adopted the children formally some time later after his scientists created a ‘body’ for Clark Kent, which they had planted in Hobbs Bay for the police to find. In the eyes of the world, Clark Kent had fabricated evidence against Lex and abandoned his family.
A few months after the adoption had been finalized, they were flying over Africa when the plane developed engine trouble and crashed into a mountain. All of the occupants perished in a ball of flame.
****
Clark, Zara, and Ching landed the ship, Greyhound, in a Kansas barnyard and walked up to the door of the farmhouse. “Mom, Dad, Lois?” Clark called, hoping to raise someone. They had flown by the brownstone, it had obviously been empty for quite some time… His parents’ house was the next logical place to check.
“CLARK!” Martha yelled as she ran out of the house and threw herself into her beloved son’s arms. She enfolded him in a huge bearhug and held him tightly.
“Mom, where are Lois and the kids?” he asked worriedly. Lois’s presence would do much to alleviate the guilt he felt for enjoying Zara’s company. Over the past few months, she had rapidly become something of a best friend to him…
“Clark, honey, you mean you didn’t know?” Martha asked, a shocked look passing over her face. “Lois went with Lex a few weeks after you left. They were traveling the world with the children when the plane crashed. All of them were killed instantly.”
Grief shadowed Clark’s face as he tore away from his mother. “Then there’s nothing here for me now.” His face brightened as he looked at Zara and smiled at her through his tears. “Zara?” he questioned, “Does New Krypton still need me?”
“Yes, my husband.” Zara said hiding a smile of triumph. She tugged his head down to hers and began to kiss him passionately.
Clark felt himself begin to respond to the kiss, he thrust his tongue into the recesses of Zara’s mouth. She wasn’t Lois, but Lois had betrayed him and Zara was beautiful in her own right. He could allow himself to love her without the guilt attached to what would have been cheating on his now late wife.
Zara broke the kiss and smiled at her love. “Come, Kal-El. We must return to our people and raise many little Els as heirs to your throne.” Kal and Zara walked toward the ship, completely ignoring Ching. He was after all, merely a bodyguard.
Zara tugged him aboard the ship and toward her quarters. Their marriage should have been consummated long before; he had been holding out on her. Now that the earth woman was out of their path, nothing stood between her and her long desired prize. She kissed him passionately, his mouth opening under hers, before collapsing upon the bed, pulling him with her. Finally, she had everything she wanted, except for Kal-El’s children… and that was a project they would embark upon tonight.
Shock passed over Martha’s face before resignation settled in… if her boy would be happier on another planet with his own kind than on Earth, so be it. A single tear rolled down her face as she turned back toward the house. Dave Irig and his wife had passed away the week before leaving a baby girl that no one knew what to do with. While she and Jonathan were getting older, maybe Cindy Irig would be their second chance… She was, after all, fully human.
Ching glared at their retreating forms mutinously. It simply wasn’t fair that his Lord got the woman that he loved. After all, he had helped Kal-El to learn the customs of their people. He had been sure that Kal-El would never abandon Earth. Suddenly, he smiled. After all, he had not been ordered to follow them… and this world needed a Superman. Ching launched himself into the air and flew to Metropolis. It took only a few moments to take Kal-El’s old superman costumes and put one on.
The world had a new hero.
He explained himself away as one of Superman’s cousins, saying that since the original Superman could not return, he would take his place. It wasn’t long before he, too, seemingly captured the affections of a Lane woman. She helped him create an identity for himself. He was Bob Thomas (Bob, alias George). He had never been happier than on the day he walked into the emergency room and caught sight of Dr. Lucy Lane. It had been love at first sight for both of them and they were married a few months later.
Jimmy death-willed himself from the grief of Lucy’s change of heart. He had loved her… but how could he compete with Superman?
Ching and Lucy had a long, happy life together and their children eventually founded Utopia.
Kal-El and Zara ruled long and well over their people, raising a dozen children who eventually helped to administer to the needs of New Krypton.
And they all lived happily ever after (except for Lex, Lois, Kiley, Joseph, Jimmy, and Alexander, who were dead.)
The End.
Forever and All Eternity II: Kismet TE
By: Laura Davies <brightfeather1.geo@yahoo.com>
In the vastness of space, a chunk of irradiated kryptonite made it’s way towards it’s final destination. For thirty-six years, it had drifted, tumbling and turning, towards the planet now known at New Krypton. It had passed close to not only yellow stars, but stars of every other color and size. Travel to this planet had been aided by the large rock becoming trapped in the warp-fields of many intergalactic vessels.
The kryptonite hurtled towards New Krypton. As the leading edge of it hit the atmosphere, it started a chemical chain reaction that made it disintegrate, turning it into a large cloud of kryptonite gas the enveloped the entire planet. There were no survivors.
Meanwhile back on Earth, a man known simply as Tempus slipped from his prison and traveled back through time. Superman was now, well, history, but Lois Lane and two of their children had survived. He chuckled evilly as he programmed a bomb and planted it in the Kent’s little-used second barn. Two hours later, Sam and Ellen Lane arrived at the Kent farm to find a mile-deep hole where prosperous farmland had previously sat.
The End. </me laughs evilly>
by Ann McBride
(The story to which this Tank Ending refers may be found under the author’s name at the Lois and Clark Fanfiction Archive, http://www.lcfanfic.com).
*******************
The ride to the hospital was interminable. Although the paramedics had estimated that it would take ten minutes to get from Clark’s apartment to the ER, they hadn’t counted on the transmission going out of the ambulance two blocks from Clinton Street. It took almost thirty minutes for another ambulance to arrive. Lois chewed her lip so hard, trying to keep from cursing, that she drew blood. Clark, for his part, sunk deeper and deeper into unconsciousness. His restless thrashing changed to a stillness which terrified his partner. The paramedics, in communication with the emergency room doctors, continued their efforts to treat Superman with a saline drip and oxygen.
When the ambulance finally screeched to a halt outside the doors of Metropolis General, Lois leaped from the passenger seat. A team of medical personnel met the paramedics and took over from there. Lois was directed to the admitting area, where she was subjected to the annoyance of filling out form after form with all the same answer: Not Available. She didn’t want to be making bureaucrats happy. She wanted to be with Superman.
Finally, she was allowed to go back to the cubicle where he lay. She gasped when she saw him. There were tubes and wires all over his body. Superman looked so pale and helpless that she was more worried than ever.
A concerned-looking physician came over to her and asked her, “Do you have any idea what caused this reaction in Superman?”
“Yes, he swallowed a substance called Kryptonite.”
“What is it?”
“It looks like a green, glowing rock. And whenever he’s around it, he has terrible pain and nausea. He thinks it could kill him, if he didn’t get away from it.”
The doctor looked at Superman’s chart. “Hmm,” he said. “Ms. Lane, I hate to say this.”
Lois looked at him with fear in her eyes. “What, doctor?”
“I have absolutely no idea how to get the Kryptonite out of his system.” He paused. “I’m very sorry.”
“You’re sorry? What’s that supposed to mean?” she shrieked.
“Ms. Lane, the substance is killing him, and there is no way to get it out of his body.”
Lois cried out, “No!”
The doctor shook his head sadly. “I’m afraid so, Ms. Lane. Superman is going to die. If he’d only gotten here twenty minutes sooner, we could have saved him. We’ll try to keep him comfortable, but the end should come within the next twenty-four hours, if not sooner.”
Stunned, Lois demanded that another doctor see Superman. Unfortunately the prognosis was the same. Not one of the attending physicians at Metropolis General Hospital could come up with a course of treatment for the Man of Steel.
The ER staff allowed Lois to stay with Superman in the cubicle as he lay dying. She continued to speak to him on the off chance that her words could somehow penetrate the fog of unconsciousness which covered him. “I love you. I’m so sorry that I was ever unkind to you. If you’d just get well, I’d never do anything you didn’t want me to do ever again.” Tears flowed freely down her cheeks, unheeded by the distraught young woman.
Superman lay on the bed, as immobile as a stone. His coma continued to deepen. When the television set showed an advertisement for Top Copy, with Diana Stride boasting of her story, “The Secret Life of Superman,” Lois was too upset to care. Clutching Superman’s unresponsive hand in hers, she continued to weep.
Several hours into her vigil, the news department broke into the soap opera that was being shown to announce the crash of a plane flying from Wichita to Metropolis. All passengers and crew had been killed. While the authorities were witholding the names of the victims, Lois knew without a doubt that it was the Kents’ flight. Clark and his parents, it seemed, would soon be reunited. Knowing that she had to be strong, Lois swallowed hard, and began to plan the funerals in her mind.
********************
Superman didn’t last the night. Shortly before one a.m., he breathed his last. It was over. Lois laid her head on his pillow and sobbed, heartbroken. The medical staff had to physically remove her from the room so that the funeral director could do his job.
Alone at last in her apartment, Lois realized that there was no way she could explain Clark’s disappearance without telling the world that he had also been Superman. She also came to grips with the concept that she had no reason to live.
********************
Three days later, after a State funeral for the fallen Superhero, the lone figure of a woman was seen to climb over the railing of Metropolis Bridge. ………….. It took police divers two days to find the bloated body of what had been
half of the greatest reporting team the Daily Planet had ever known.
“I’m in the Nude for Love — The Tank Beginning”
December 2000
By SuperMom
(The story to which this refers, ‘I’m In The Nude For Love’, may be found in the Author section of this site, in the nfic area)
Well gosh darn, I just couldn’t let this go by. :evil
*******
“You want Lois and me to go WHERE?” Clark Kent asked his editor-in-chief incredulously.
“I want you and Lois to check out this place called Natural Bliss Recreation Resort,” Perry replied.
“I heard what you said, Perry, but Natural Bliss is a…uh, well…you know….” Clark stammered and fidgeted in the chair in front of Perry’s desk.
“Natural Bliss is a nudist resort,” Perry stated matter-of-factly. “But I got information from a source calling himself “Stalker” that it’s being used as a front for providing sexual favors to politicians in return for favorable votes on bills ranging from weapons contracts to healthcare.”
“But, Perry….” The opening of Perry’s office door interrupted Clark.
“Chief,” said Jimmy Olsen. “Here’s that information you asked for.” He slid a large manila folder across the desk to Perry.
“Thanks, Jimmy. And please close the door behind you.”
Taking the hint that his presence was not welcome, a curious, but obedient Jimmy Olsen left the editor’s office.
Perry opened the envelope that Jimmy had brought and browsed through the papers inside it. Then, putting all of it into Clark’s hands, he said, “You and Lois will probably want to go through all of this before you leave. It’s some background information on the resort and its operators, some information for first-timers, the rules, etiquette, stuff like that.”
“Leave? For Natural Bliss? Perry, do you have any idea how Lois will react to this?”
“Of course I do, son. Why do you think I want YOU to tell her?” Perry explained, laughing a little as he did so. “Judas Priest, Kent! This has to be investigated with finesse, and who better to do that than two Kerth Award winning journalists? And if my instincts are correct, you two might just add a Pulitzer to your resume.”
Clark hoped that he looked appropriately shocked at their new assignment, but inwardly he was chomping at the bit to get out of Perry’s office, fly home, and tell Lois the good news. Was this mere coincidence or a joyous twist of fate that only two nights ago he and Lois had shared with each other a deep, dark fantasy to visit a nudist resort?
“But, Perry…” Clark tried one more time to seem appalled at their assignment. The determined look on Perry’s face let him know that his ruse was working.
“Surely you went skinny-dipping when you were a kid, Clark?” Perry asked. “You DID grow up on a farm, didn’t you?”
“Yeah, I did. And I went skinny-dipping. But most times I was by myself. And the few times someone else was there, it was one of the boys from the neighboring farm,” Clark explained. “But THIS would be in front of strangers.”
Perry watched as Clark slumped further into the chair, thinking that he looked as forlorn as a calf in a hailstorm. Seeing Clark’s obvious discomfort, and hearing the anguish in his voice, Perry was suddenly torn between his desire to get the scoop on what could be a Pulitzer-caliber story, and his sympathies for the young man turning various shades of red before his eyes.
Perry walked over to Clark and laid a fatherly hand on his shoulder. “Look, Clark, why don’t you go home and talk about this with Lois. I’m not going to order you to go, okay? But promise me you’ll talk to Lois. And let me know tomorrow what she says. Fair enough?”
Sighing deeply, Clark answered, “Fair enough. But I don’t think she will like hearing about this on her day off.” Rising from the chair, the packet of papers clutched in his hand, he marched toward the office door.
************
Clark spun into the suit as quickly as he could after leaving the Daily Planet building and flew straight home. He arrived at 348 Hyperion Avenue, landed quietly on the terrace, and spun out of the suit. He tuned in his super hearing to Lois’s heartbeat and located her in their bedroom upstairs. Floating several inches off the ground, Clark moved from the terrace, through the downstairs rooms, and up the stairway. He stopped just shy of the doorway and watched Lois as she folded a load of laundry on the bed, humming softly as she completed the mundane task.
Lois heard Clark clear his throat and looked up, wondering just how long he had been standing there watching her. She felt her heart skip a beat and then start to race as she took in the sight of his beautifully sculpted body — his [b]naked[/b] body.
“Mmmmmm, I’ve missed you,” she purred. “Welcome home, sweetheart.”
“I missed you too, honey. Have a good day?”
“Enthralling,” Lois replied sarcastically. “First, there was my little tete-a-tete with the breakfast dishes. And then I had an absolutely mind-boggling encounter with some mold in our bathtub. But the high point of my day was that pile of laundry you caught me folding.”
“Think again, love,” he told her as he waved the envelope from Perry in front of her. “I just got our next assignment from Perry and you’ll never guess what it is.”
“Should I take your current state of undress as a hint?” she inquired.
Laughing heartily, Clark moved to Lois and pulled her into an embrace. Nuzzling her neck, he planted a trail of kisses to her ear and then whispered, “Our fantasy is coming true, baby. Pack your sunscreen and towel. We’re going to Natural Bliss!”
by Pam Jernigan.
(In Any Universe may be found under the author’s name on this site, the Lois and Clark Fanfiction Archive, or at http://www.geocities.com/~chiefpam/pj_fic.html).
Lana stormed out of the Daily Planet building, furious at Clark’s bid for independence. Back at LNN, she began making calls, until she reached someone who could help her.
Lois spent the next week making an outfit for Clark, sticking her fingers with pins and needles so many times that she decided it was a good thing that the cape was red, to soak up all the blood, so Clark wouldn’t see it and feel guilty. Finally, she finished it, and Superman made his first appearance.
Two days later, Clark was working in the newsroom when he heard an explosion. Lois insisted on going along with him to see what it was, and when they arrived at the bomb site north of town (curiously enough, a warehouse on Shipton Street), they found a man standing at parade rest.
“Superman!” he said, “or should I call you Clark Kent? *This* should stop your alien invasion!” He threw something at Clark, who caught it out of instinct. It was another bomb, which exploded on impact, knocking both Lois and Clark backwards into the deep pit from the previous bomb blast. Lois was maimed and fell into a coma, but Clark was killed, because Bureau 39 had found some Kryptonite.
Trask peered down into the pit. “That oughtta do it!” And then he went home to his new girlfriend, the understudy to the weather girl on LNN.
The End <eg>
By Raconteur
(Lifeflight is an ongoing story which is being posted in instalments in the Fanfic folder of Zoomway’s Message Boards, http://www.zoomway.com/boards. Part 1 of the completed story will shortly be uploaded to the Lois and Clark Fanfiction Archive).
Lifeflight – Tank Style
Clark left his parents’ farmhouse for his apartment. Upon landing, he noticed a huge crowd of people that had gathered around his apartment. Apparently a nosy neighbor with a telescope had spotted him and called in the Anti Alien Network. A hundred angry picketers stormed him. He escaped, barely, his clothing torn, his glasses broken and his hair a mess. LNN caught the whole thing on tape and thousands of angry denizens called in demanding the exile of the strange visitor. Clark was forced out of Metropolis and set out for the South Pole where he would lead out a lonely existence,
serving as doctor to the population of King Penguins.
Within a few days his apartment was rented out by a middle aged musician-cum-orthopedic surgeon name Dr. Tank. Dr. Tank won over the affections of a certain
Dr. Lane who was devastated by the exposure of her new colleague as the crazy crackpot who flew around in an all black get up. Together they blew up the Genzyme
building. A certain nasty billionaire was killed in the explosion. Several of his cronies were seriously maimed.
The stupendous pair put those lousy TV ER doctors to shame. Fighting crime and performing emergency tracheotomies and appendectomies with pocket knives.
Thus began the Adventures of Lois and Tank: Superdocs!
The End
*************
Tank Ending, Take Two
Lifeflight Gets Shot Down – THE TANK ENDING
Clark flew away from Lois’s house angry and upset. Realizing that there was little he could do to rectify the situation, he flew to the Metropolis Trade Center where he sat on a ledge high up on the building, staring down at the city below. He wrapped his cape around himself and stared vacantly at the bright lights of the city as the snow fell around him.
“Target Acquired” a seductive female voice announced. The tracer locked on to the figure perched high above the city. “This is my lucky day,” Trask announced as
he looked through the night vision scope. He had grown bored waiting for that buffoon Luthor to stop clowning around and had simply stolen the delivery system from Lex Labs. He had mounted the system on a small SAM and his finger hovered over the trigger. He squeezed the trigger. The loud whiz of the rocket split his ears
and momentarily deafened him. He couldn’t hear his own maniacal laughing as the weapon barreled through the cold night’s sky toward its target, leaving a trail of
smoke in its wake.
Clark’s ears pricked up as he spotted a projectile hurtling toward him. He zipped from his perch to meet it half way, intending on destroying the missile. He grabbed hold of it, only to falter. The missile exploded in his hands and a burst of green smoke
followed. He began to cough uncontrollably, but that was the least of his worries. He forgot the burning pain in his lungs and the searing fire that consumed his eyes and his flesh and focused only on his rapid descent. He was losing altitude quickly and there was nothing he could do to stop it. He was suddenly overcome with vertigo and could no longer even tell up from down. Dizzy and in blinding pain, he passed out,
his last thoughts a prayer that no hapless victim would be crushed by his corpse hurtling toward the ground.
********
Jimmy Olsen hopped into his car and turned the engine, only it didn’t turn. ‘Stupid car,’ he thought to himself as he tried to turn the key in the ignition a second time. The car sputtered and belched but refused to start. Of all the nights to get stranded out in
front of the Metropolis Trade Center. He had a hot date with the new girl in Research and he was going to be late if he didn’t get out of here soon.
The car was soon to be the least of Jimmy’s problems. A large blue falling object obscured Jimmy’s vision as it came crashing down on his windshield, crushing the
car and trapping Jimmy inside.
It was hours before the paramedics were able to get Jimmy out. By that time, his crushed arm and leg were beyond hope and it was clear that they had to be
amputated. Oh well, though he was maimed, Jimmy was still in better shape than the poor Spandex clad hero that had fallen from the sky that night.
Weeks passed and the city mourned the death of Superman. A bitter and vindictive Lois Lane, with the help of a dashing rogue federal agent named (no, not SCARDINO!!) Tank, found the guilty parties and personally set to blowing up the offices and homes of one Lex Luthor and one Col. Jason Trask. Trask was
severely maimed in the bombing. Luthor survived the blast, only to die from a really, really, really painful and nasty infection in one of the third degree burns he had suffered.
Lois was devastated by Clark’s death. Unable to mourn him properly because Clark was supposedly out returning a video, and NOT dead, she went into a bout of depression. Her only lifelines were the sarcastic humor and musical talents of the dashing federal agent, Tank. Months passed and Lois soon fell for Tank and they lived happily ever after, having pinned the bombings on Clark’s weasely coworkers, Geoff, Steve, and Andy.
The End.
By LabRat
A Tank Ending to Are You Lonesome Tonight, which may be found on the author’s pages on this site.
—————–
It was dark when he awakened.
For a time, he had no sense of self, no awareness of the world around him. Like floating in a void, cold and damp.
And dark.
The dark seemed everywhere.
Gradually, he became aware of touch and sound.
A high, wailing sound, like the spirits of the damned crying out for deliverance.
He opened his eyes.
Still the dark. And the howl of the wind blowing across the shattered world.
Panicked, he sat up quickly and scrambled to his feet. He looked wildly around him, spinning in a small circle and then, as memory returned in a shattering blast, he howled his grief into the night.
His world was gone.
Everything was gone.
He had no idea where he was. The once familiar landscape was a desert, littered with the jumble of debris. Everything that could have given him a marker, grounded him, restored his bearings, had been swept away by the thundering colossus that had hit the planet.
How far had he been tossed by the aftermath of Nightfall’s impact? How far had he been taken from his loved ones? His city?
There was no way to tell. No way to know.
He was lost.
There was nothing. Nothing left.
No one left.
His folks. Perry. Jimmy. His friends at the Planet.
Lois….
All gone.
Head bowed, he sank to his knees, raising a cloud of black, cloying dust around him as he wept.
********
He searched for days. Stalking the charred landscape with hollow eyes and grief stretched tight on his face.
Surely there must be some who survived, besides him? Surely humanity couldn’t have been so completely destroyed? There must be something left. Someone.
But he found nothing.
Nothing living, anyway.
He wept continuously. He felt as though half of his soul had been torn from him.
And, at the last, when he could bear his loss and grief no longer, he flung himself up into the dark heart of space above him, his cry of despair echoing before the airless void took him and – at last, at last – the grief and pain that tore at his soul finally stopped.
Mercifully, it stopped.
*********
[b]Eight months later:[/b]
Sprawled in the leather armchair, cup of coffee in his hand, Luthor watched the end of the world again.
This time, he had chosen a flamboyant piece of music to accompany the images. He conducted the clashing cymbals and thundering drums with an aimless hand as he watched the tape on the monitor reach its conclusion. A few of the cameras had failed to withstand the impact, but enough had survived to provide him with a very pleasing front row view of the annihilation.
Music ended and the final image froze on the screen – reaching their individual climaxes in perfect harmony.
Lex sighed and pulled the headphones from his ears. He tossed them to the console before him and drained the last dregs of coffee before placing the fine bone china cup fastidiously beside them.
Stimulated, as always, by the sights and sounds of powerful destruction, he glanced towards the rumpled bed on the other side of the large, luxurious room. He frowned. Where had that little slut gone now? She was never around when he wanted her. His cold eyes flickered. When he found her, he’d teach her again about how grateful she should be to him for saving her from Nightfall. She was sadly lacking and he was growing bored with her lack of proper respect. He should have left her in the typing pool where he found her.
“Ah, Lois…” he said regretfully, glancing at the small picture atop the nightstand. What a pity she had turned him down. He wondered, fleetingly, if she’d had time to regret it, before the asteroid had smashed the life from her.
He certainly hoped so.
Over his second, habitual cup of fine ground Nicaraguan coffee, he planned out his day.
Today, he had decided, they would go topside for the first time. It would be a risk, of course. Dangerous. But they wouldn’t venture far from the bunker and, suited up in their bio-hazard suits, each of which contained its own oxygen tank, they would be safe from anything lingering in the air. He’d take a dozen, heavily armed men with him, naturally. The reports from the environmental study team had been promising. He was looking forward to seeing what was out there.
Excited by the prospect of this adventure, he entered the bathroom and took a leisurely shower, before dressing in casual, warm clothing.
As he perfected his grooming regimen in the mirror, his glance happened to catch the clock on the wall behind him. He frowned. Almost noon?
Why hadn’t Nigel arrived yet to attend to his needs for the day? Or Jamieson, with his daily report on operations?
Briskly, he walked over to the intercom unit and thumbed the button.
“Nigel?”
Silence responded.
Irritated now, he switched channels. “Jamieson? Jamieson!”
Static.
Grumbling, he unlocked the hermetically sealed door and stepped outside.
The long, gleaming corridor was empty under the stark eyes of the strong, overhead lamps. But that wasn’t unusual. His private quarters were out of bounds to anyone other than a handful of guards and personnel. Lex had chosen his companions to make sure his life was as comfortable as possible down here in the bunker. That didn’t mean he welcomed their company. He had no need to have his peace marred by the bustling undercurrent of humanity that worked tirelessly to ensure his needs were met. Like the cogs of any well-oiled machine he expected them to be invisible to the eye.
He moved down the corridor to the elevator and muttered again when several taps of the call button produced no response. What was going on here? If there was a problem, why had no one informed him?
He jogged down three flights of stairs. Pushing through the door to the basement floor, he stalked down the corridor and barged into the control room.
“Pendleton, why didn’t you tell me there was a problem with – ?”
His angry voice subsided. The control room was empty. Consoles and machines blinked and whirred in an otherwise eerie blanket of silence. Lex felt a shiver roll through him, before he suppressed it impatiently. Lex Luthor did not become spooked by an empty room.
He searched the room with cold eyes, but there were no clues as to why the small group of half a dozen men who should be constantly monitoring and manning those machines weren’t at their posts. Or where they had gone.
Flummoxed, he retraced his steps.
Halfway along the corridor, he became aware that he was breathing more heavily than he should do. And, now that he noticed it…what was that…odor in the air?
He paused. His heart quickened a notch or two.
The air. The air was turning bad.
Panic was not a word in Luthor’s lexicon.
So it was not panic that made him begin to jog and then run back towards the stairs. It was simply…controlled haste.
Something was very wrong here.
He met no one on the way to the upper level. The sterile corridors began to merge and blend into each other as he ran through them, searching in rooms and calling out for an answer.
Up ahead of him he caught a flash of red. His steps slowed as he neared the bodies of three or four men, huddled together in what looked to have been a last, violent struggle.
Lex scowled. He kicked at the ribs of one of them, noting the torn flesh surrounding the gunshot wound in the man’s chest. Then he backed up again. Unconsciously, his lip curled in a primal snarl. He had no idea what was going on here, but he knew what he was going to do about it.
He was getting out of here.
Grabbing the machine-gun pistol lying on the floor next to one of the contorted bodies, he trotted back along the corridor, heading for the main exit to the complex.
Getting into the environmental suit without help was difficult, but he managed it. Checking over the oxygen supply, he shuffled in an ungainly walk to the heavy door. He hoisted his pistol, then laid it down beside him as he tapped the control panel that would unlock it.
Nothing happened.
Fighting down a flicker of unease that uncoiled like a cobra in the pit of his belly, he tried the combination again. And again. He forced himself to do it more slowly the fourth time, concentrating on each button to ensure he wasn’t mis-dialing. He felt a tendril of sweat course down his spine.
The locks remained stubbornly sealed.
Abandoning the useless panel, he put his weight behind an attempt to push the manual locking device. His grunts of exertion echoed behind the visor of his suit, but his efforts were in vain. Still, he refused to surrender to the knowledge that the door was inextricably sealed. His pulling at the locking wheel became pounding, his desperate tugs became battering and still the wheel didn’t move.
He had slumped against the door, pausing for breath in the oxygen rich air being pumped into his mask, when he felt the touch against his ankle.
He screamed, twisting around and jerking back, almost falling in his haste to escape. His eyes, goggle-wide with fright, stared at the twisted figure crawling on the floor.
Jamieson.
The man’s face was bloated and blackened with bruises, he’d been beaten badly and now the depleted air was taking its toll. He raised tortured eyes that barely saw any more to the man watching him in horror.
“All…all…”
Luthor grimaced at the thick burbling sound of the man’s voice. Blood bubbled at Jamieson’s lips, flecking his chin as he coughed weakly.
Steadying himself, Lex crouched distastefully beside the dying man, being careful not to come close enough for him to reach out and touch him again. He tried to decipher the mumble of words.
“All what?” he said impatiently, surprising himself with the metallic growl that the mask made of his vocal chords.
“A…all…blocked. No…no way out…All of them…blocked.”
Luthor felt a new chill grip his spine. There were half a dozen exits scattered around the base. Was it possible they were all…?
“Nonsense.” He jerked to his feet, suddenly suffused with rage. He barely restrained the urge to kick the man to a bloody pulp for scaring him. “Nonsense,” he said again, but even to his own ears his voice wavered, uncertain.
“Monitors…” Jamieson said and then whatever he had been about to add was lost in the rattle that emerged from his throat. He subsided with a broken sigh, his eyes glazing over before his head hit the tiled floor.
Monitors. Luthor’s eyes flickered to the bank of screens on the wall beside the door. Shuddering, he stepped over the dead man, giving him one, final glance of distaste before he forgot him.
He switched the monitors on one by one. They flickered. Two stayed dead. The remaining four showed him precisely the same image. Darkness. He frowned, squinting. The cameras mounted on the outside of each exit were fitted with infra-red. He should still be able to see…
A low moan dribbled from his lips as he realized what he was looking at.
The bunker had been hit by a chunk of melted debris.
It was buried.
He was buried.
Buried alive.
“No…”
He wasn’t even aware that he was gibbering the denial, over and over as he frantically switched between monitors, hoping for a different view.
“No…”
He raised a fist and smashed it against the screens.
“No…”
He turned and began another, futile assault on the locked door. A door that would never open, buried as it was beneath debris.
“No…”
“No…”
His breath rose on a howl as he scrabbled uselessly at the metal and pounded on its surface.
“Nooooooooooo!!!!!!!!”
He thumped.
He hammered.
He screamed.
He cursed.
And, at last, his breath grew harsh in his throat and his words became a babble of terror and his voice the low, indeterminate growling of a trapped animal, as his fingers shredded themselves against the impervious plate of steel.
*********
Up on the surface, a small, shivering form approached the heavy metal door. The dog was more skin and bone than living animal, cadaverous as a living skeleton. It dropped to its haunches, staring sunken eyed and listless at the strange mound of debris, pricking nervous ears at the faint sounds of hammering coming from within.
Meat?
It craved meat.
It sniffed the air, half-heartedly. But there was no food smell coming from behind the metal plate.
It listened.
It waited.
After a time, it got bored. It scratched in an apathetic manner at one ragged, sore-covered ear before staggering painfully to its feet. It wandered over to the source of the sound and, cocking one leg, directed a thin, yellow stream of urine at the metal, before giving the resulting puddle a desultory sniff.
Then it trotted off into the ashes of the world, its nose twitching at the stench that permeated the soot-covered darkness.
Kaethel
Kaethel@wanadoo.fr
(The story to which this Tank Ending refers may be found on the Author section of this site).
[Don’t ask me where this came from! <g> All I can remember is Wendy asking me on irc if I would do a Tank Ending for NWH, and the brainstorming session that followed, with Shayne, LabRat and Wendy. So I’ll let them take all the blame for this <vbeg>. Big thanks go to Wendy and LabRat for beta-reading, and to Missy for test-reading and encouraging me to post. 🙂 ]
Having Lois lie atop him was a heady experience, her warm hands roaming the broad expanse of his chest and shoulders, her sizzling lips grazing his skin, and the shivers taking hold of him preventing him from doing anything but gasp her name in a new wave of intense ecstasy. Deep within him, he knew that what he was about to do – what he was doing – was very wrong, that he had no right to even think about making love with Lois when she was married to Lex Luthor, that it was even forbidden to him as a fantasy, but he couldn’t bring himself to stop her. To stop *them*. Now that he’d experienced the feel of her kisses and the heat of her amorous attentions on him, there was no way he could restrain his hurtling desire for her.
He envied Lois’s apparent control over her emotions. She was silent, incredibly silent. Moving over him like a shadow, making his heart beat faster and faster as her hips started to move in tantalizing circles against his, encouraging him, making him ache for more.
But silent.
As he was about to beg her for mercy, she stilled the movements of her body on his and pulled away, as if struck by a sudden thought that couldn’t wait to be considered. His moan of protest stayed stuck in his throat as he noticed the way her gaze seemed unfocused, staring at the wall behind him. He remained motionless beneath her, his breathing coming in ragged gasps, unable to move, trapped as he was in the tangle of their entwined limbs.
Time stood still for a few seconds before she lowered her head to him, her gaze locking with his, her eyes piercing through the depths of his soul, her lips a bare inch away from his.
“What would you do for me, Clark?”
The question, whispered as hoarsely as intensely, took him by surprise, and it took a moment to register in the fog of his brain. “Everything, Lois,” he finally murmured in reply. “Everything.” It was more than true. He was ready to forget about his own ethics for the sake of their love, ready to have her as a complete part of his life if she wanted him.
Lois’s face lit with a broad smile, and she lowered her lips to his for a gentle kiss. As it deepened and she felt her lover’s control slowly slip away from his grasp, she blindly reached for her purse that had fallen, unnoticed, to the carpeted floor. After some frantic searching while she continued her trail of kisses on Clark’s chest, she let out a sigh of relief against his skin as her fingers came in contact with the small object she’d been looking for.
“Everything?” she asked, almost incredulously, and somewhat unsure as she pulled away again.
Hearing the insecurity in her voice, Clark lifted his hand to her face in a loving caress. “Everything,” he confirmed fiercely.
Lois pulled the lead-lined box from her purse, undoing the lock with a skilful snap of her fingers. “Even die?” she asked innocently as a green glow suffused the darkened apartment.
Clark gasped as he doubled over in pain, and his body, suddenly burning with fever, undulated beneath her in uncontrolled spasms. Lois held the chunk of kryptonite over him, out of his reach, watching with increasing pleasure the grimacing shadows on his torn expression. Pearls of sweat appeared on his forehead, and he moaned, a sound deep from the back of his throat, so different from the sighs of pleasure he’d let her hear earlier.
“You like that, baby?” Lois enquired almost sensuously, murmuring the words close to his ear, purposefully ignoring his vain struggle as she mocked the earlier passion between them.
She sat up again, tightening the noose of her legs around him, and she saw the unhidden question in his glazing eyes.
“Thought you could lead me on for so long, Superman?”
The surprise on his face was quickly replaced by an expression of complete shock, and fear. It was incredible to have this being of strength and power reduced to a shivering form of pain and panic under her spell. At her mercy.
“Lois…” he gasped, finally finding his voice.
She observed him from beneath her lashes, smiling sweetly at him. “Yes, honey?”
“Lois…” he breathed out again, laboriously. “W-why?”
Her eyebrows shot up. “Why? You’re asking me *why*? I’m disappointed in you, Superman, I thought you’d ask *how*, somehow. How could a big strong reporter man, what’s more, a *super-powered* one, work beside me every day for a whole year, consider me as his best friend, and not realise who I truly was? Talk about love making people blind!” she exclaimed, oblivious to the pain passing across Clark’s face. “Your time is over, Superman. You’ve had your chance, and you missed it.”
“Ch-ch-ance?”
“The chance to leave us alone. Why do you think I let you leave Metropolis unnoticed when I could have found you with a snap of my fingers? You know I have a *very* powerful husband, don’t you? Or is that something you forgot, too? I knew all along who you really were. And I admit it was pretty useful having you around at first, but you understand I can’t possibly let you compromise my beloved husband’s projects all the time, don’t you? All good things must come to an end. And the end, for you, has come.”
She stared down at him, the dizzying glow of the kryptonite reflecting in her eyes and giving them a mysterious light. Through the unbearable pain that shook through his body, Clark was vaguely aware that she was still talking, but he couldn’t make out her words any more. The buzzing sound in his ears was blocking his thoughts, and he fought to keep his eyes open, knowing that the darkness inexorably pulling at him wouldn’t let him go back to the thin line on which his life was hanging if he gave in to its soothing relief. He was hanging onto the life-line of Lois’s gaze, desperately looking for the sparkle that had been shining there before the woman in his arms had transformed into this cold being of unrestrained cruelty, her eyes gleaming with what looked to him like a dawning and sick fascination for his suffering.
“Why, Superman, didn’t your mommy tell you it was dangerous to trust strangers? Didn’t your daddy tell you how rapacious we women can be?”
Her words, suddenly reaching through the haze of his mind, exploded in his head, triggering the memory of his father’s often repeated recommendation. But Lois hadn’t been any stranger to him. He trusted her. He loved her. How could she…?
She laughed above him, a crystal sound evoking pure joy, her head falling back as she lifted the kryptonite to her face and touched it to her lips, her giggles subsiding very suddenly. Clark observed her apprehensively as she levelled herself with her free hand, pushing it against his sore chest, making his breathing even more difficult, his lungs throbbing with soreness each time he tried to inhale. Then she lowered herself back against him, the hair framing her face and eclipsing the rest of the room, blocking his vision. She brushed her lips on his, the motion reminiscent of her earlier seduction, but this time sending a stab of unbearable pain through his entire body. He screamed in agony, feeling his blood turn to ice and his limbs become cumbersome. His gaze clouded over, and a stinging sensation coursed through him…
… until he could feel no more.
********************
Lois straightened her suit jacket, checking around herself to make sure everything was set. Picking up the forgotten chunk of kryptonite on the side of the bed, she retrieved a handkerchief in her purse and wiped from the green rock any fingerprints she could have left on it. She deposited it on the nightstand, almost reverently, before she took a few steps backwards to observe the tableau in front of her.
Funny how peaceful he looked, now. His face and chest were still slick from his fight against the pain, but his now relaxed expression could almost make her believe he was asleep. His eyes were closed, but from his slightly open mouth came no more sighs.
The door of the apartment burst open, making Lois swivel around to face the intruder. She breathed in relief as she recognised the newcomer.
“Darling!” she squealed in delight, running to his welcoming embrace and planting a hard kiss on his thin lips.
He smiled against her mouth, pressing her slender body against his, wishing there was time to explore this new sensation more thoroughly. There would be time, now, he reasoned. For both of them. Nothing would ever get in their way again. Together, they were stronger than when they were fighting their enemies alone, each on their side. And now that the enemies in question had been disposed of, what else could hold them back from living an adventurous and exciting life?
Lois released him and waved a hand towards the bed, where the lifeless body of what was once a famous superhero was resting.
The man slowly advanced towards Superman, reaching a tentative hand to his chest. “It’s cold,” he remarked matter-of-factly.
“It’s dead,” Lois supplied helpfully for him. “It wasn’t so cold, earlier,” she added with a dreamy sigh.
The man chuckled. “You couldn’t make me jealous with this heap of muscles, sweet. Even if you tried.”
Lois giggled lightly. “Did you take care of everything back in Metropolis?”
“Of course. Did you ever doubt my abilities? It was so easy to make our fencing practice a little more… violent than it usually is.”
“He always liked fencing,” Lois said absently.
“He did. And it was his defeat. Every morning, during practice, he thought he could beat just about anyone. But I’ve always been the best at this game.”
“Hmmm, you were always the best in everything. And now that LexCorp is completely under our control, nothing can stop us any more.”
“Ready to be a spy, Ms Lane?”
“I sure am! Been waiting for this moment all my life.”
The man laughed. “To think I was sure you were one of those scatterbrained women turned into some joke of a reporter. Will you even forgive me for my mistake, dear?”
“Of course, honey. At least, it means my cover worked perfectly.”
“True. Not many people can fool Superman *and* Lex Luthor for so long, and get away with it.”
She giggled, patting his bearded jaw, and tugged him towards the door. “Come on, James Bond, let’s go spy.”
But the man raised a fake warning finger. “Remember, darling. The name is St John. Nigel St John.”
– The End –
Helene 🙂 (now frantically looking for a hiding place <g>)
(Complete story available in the Author section on this site)
by Wendy Richards <wendy@kingsmeadowcr.freeserve.co.uk>
“Sarah.” His voice was husky, and her throat felt dry. She turned uncertain eyes to meet his gaze.
“Sarah – I want to kiss you,” he said, his husky voice sending shivers down her spine. She started to tremble, and she couldn’t have said whether it was from apprehension or desire.
Blinking in an attempt to clear her head, she reminded herself of all the reasons why a relationship with anyone was a bad idea. Jon was a nice guy, she had no doubt about that now. But allowing him to get closer to her was crazy. It would end in disaster, and she would lose his friendship as well. Once he found out what sort of person she was… he would no longer want her.
She backed away, shrinking into her armchair in an attempt to place more distance between them. “Jon… no, I don’t want….”
“You don’t?” he challenged softly. “I could’ve sworn, earlier, when we were dancing….” His dark gaze seemed to taunt her, silently calling her a liar.
“That… that was… different…” she whispered. “It… we were pretending…”
“Pretending what?” he threw back at her. “Sarah, I wasn’t pretending. Everything we did tonight, everything I said to you – it was all real. It *is* real.”
“No – no, it can’t be,” she protested weakly. It couldn’t. She wanted to keep her dreams, her illusions about this man and what they could have together, rather than take a chance and see her dreams shatter.
“Sarah.” His voice had dropped a tone until it again held that husky resonance. “You know it as well as I do – you could feel it too. There’s something between us, and I want to find out what it is. I think you do too.”
She shook her head, desperately trying to quell the longing which was rising within her; the desire to feel Jon’s lips on hers just once, to have his hands slide over her shoulders, her back, her hips, to pull her close to him so that she could feel that strong, lean masculine body against hers… just once….
He was still watching her, not moving, not making any effort to persuade her further beyond the power of that seductive voice and that compelling dark gaze. “Sarah, talk to me.” Alarmed, her head shot up and her gaze met his; again, his eyes seemed to bore into hers with that strange intensity which suggested that he could almost read her mind. He waited, and as she watched him, unable to tear her gaze away, the breath caught in her throat. Then he spoke again, his voice very gentle. “Sarah, please. I need you to tell me.”
With a tiny gasp, she flung herself out of the chair and made a dash for her bedroom, wanting to escape his questioning. If he found out the truth, he would surely despise her, some part of her brain insisted. But before she had taken two steps he was in front of her, his hands gripping her upper arms, not painfully, but with enough force to stop her pulling away. She began to panic, struggling against his grip, her feet lashing out at his ankles. But still he didn’t release her, even though she had to be hurting him.
She flinched, almost expecting to be struck at any moment, but then she became conscious of an insistent voice repeating her name over and over, a voice which wasn’t threatening, wasn’t trying to intimidate, but instead was soothing, its owner seeming to promise a safe haven, if only she would let herself accept it. She hesitated, raising her gaze to look at her captor.
“Sarah, trust me,” he told her firmly, his concerned eyes staring down at her. “Just don’t run from me, please.”
Something in his expression made sense to her, and she stilled. She *could* trust this gentle, strong man, she knew that beyond doubt. Standing limply in his grasp, she nodded her head. “Okay.”
He released her, taking a step backwards so that she was free to move if she wanted to; instead, she remained still, watching to see what his next move would be. His stance completely unthreatening, he spoke softly. “Sarah, I meant what I said. I find you very attractive and I want to kiss you. But I won’t even try as long as you’re afraid of me.”
She closed her eyes briefly: put like that, she was being a complete coward, and her innate honesty made her admit that she’d been behaving like a coward almost from the moment she’d met this man. She’d been keeping him at a distance when every part of her had been telling her the whole time that *this* man was special, that she wanted him, needed him… lo –
No – not that. But maybe… maybe she could at least let him get a little closer to her. After all, she would only be in the US for a further three or four months: what would be the harm in a fling which would end once her time at MetU ended? No strings, no commitment, no sex, just a bit of light fun?
Deliberately pushing any residual doubts and fears to the back of her mind, she smiled lightly at Jon, hoping that her change of attitude was convincing. “I’m just being silly – of course I’m not afraid of you.” She stepped forward and reached up to place a hand on his shoulder. “You’re a very attractive man, Jon Kent,” she murmured, her lips parting as she gazed up at him, the invitation clear.
A startled expression flitted across his face before he dipped his head to take her up on her invitation; cool lips brushed against her mouth and lingered briefly before withdrawing. Despite the brevity, the almost platonic nature of the caress, Sarah felt as if she’d been burned: a spark of electricity shot through her. Her eyes widened and she stared up at Jon in shock.
But he was watching her thoughtfully. “Don’t lie to me, Sarah. What’s going on here?”
She shook her head vigorously. “Jon, I don’t want to talk about the past. It’s not important. It doesn’t matter to us… come and sit down….” She caught at his arm, trying to propel him back to the chairs. “Kiss me again.”
But he refused to move. “Sarah, I think if I kissed you the way I want to you’d run away from me again. I remember how you reacted that night I saw you home… that day in your office. You had to steel yourself to kiss me just now, and I don’t want a woman who has to swallow down revulsion before she can be with me.” His voice was almost forbidding, his dark eyes no longer regarding her with desire.
“Jon… I *do* find you attractive,” she protested. “I’m not repelled by you.”
“Yeah, whenever you can let yourself forget whatever it is that’s bothering you,” he threw back at her, the gentle undertone in his voice softening the impact of the words. “Look, I don’t want to force you, but on the other hand I think you *need* to talk about this. You’re a beautiful, vibrant, vivacious woman – or at least, you are whenever you can push this stuff out of your mind. Which isn’t near often enough, if you ask me.”
Flinching, she threw back at him, “If you don’t like the way I am, you can walk out that door right now and don’t come back!”
“No, I can’t,” he told her, his voice husky again, sending tremors through her. “Because you mean too much to me for me to walk away. I care about you, and I want to help you as well as being… whatever you let me be to you.”
Jon’s words shook Sarah more than she could have imagined. As she stared at him, her grey eyes wide, a couple of tears began to trickle down her cheeks. She brushed them away; she hated to show her emotions now. Jon reached out with one hand and gently smoothed her tears away.
“I think it’s about time you talked about this, isn’t it?” he asked softly. “Come on – come and sit down.”
He led her back across to the armchair he had been occupying earlier, sitting down and tugging her to sit on his lap. She sat stiffly for a few moments, feeling awkward in that position and yet somehow reluctant to move, to put distance between them.
“Sarah?” he prompted.
She sighed again, hugely tempted to tell this gentle man everything, to share the burden she’d been carrying around with her for most of her life. But there were still reasons to resist… how would he react? Would he hate her? Would he see her as a deceiver and a cheat, and not want anything more to do with her?
But then she turned her head and her gaze met his; one look at the expression in his brown eyes, the affection and encouragement she saw there, and she knew that she had found someone who would understand and not judge. This time her long, drawn-out sigh was an acknowledgement that he was right.
She nodded. “Okay. But… I’m not sure where to start.”
His large hand closed around her smaller one, his touch comforting; his other arm drew her back against his shoulder. “Why don’t you tell me the whole story? We have all the time you need.”
“Everything?”
“Everything.”
She took a shuddering sigh, both scared at the prospect of actually talking to someone about what had happened to her but also desperately needing to unburden herself of the fears and memories she had been carrying around inside her for so long. Jon’s expression, sympathetic but oddly detached in the circumstances, given that he’d told her he found her attractive, persuaded her that he meant it.
“Okay,” she sighed at last. “It’s a long story, though,” she felt obliged to warn him.
“I have time,” he reminded her. “I can stay all night if you need me.”
<Oh, God… how can I tell him this?> She closed her eyes briefly. She had to tell him – apart from anything else, since she’d been so foolish as to allow this to happen, he’d work it out for himself sooner or later. But she couldn’t lie to him any longer; she cared about him far too much for that. He was special… she *loved* him.
“Jon… you’re right,” she began. “There is something I’ve been hiding, and I couldn’t tell you before because I thought… well, if you knew you wouldn’t be interested in being with me any more.” She swallowed, and stole a quick glance at his face; he was watching her, his expression sympathetic and deeply concerned. “I… the longer it went on too, the harder it was to tell you. I thought you’d hate me for deceiving you.”
He stroked her hair. “Just tell me, sweetheart. Whatever it is, it can’t be that bad.”
“No?” she threw back at him. “Jon… I was almost surprised you didn’t guess tonight. This dress… well, you’ve seen the way I dress normally, all those huge, sloppy sweaters and long skirts.” She slid off his lap and went to stand several feet away from him.
“Jon… the reason I’ve been keeping my distance regardless of my feelings for you is because I’m not who you think I am. I’m not *what* you think I am.” She broke off, shuddering suddenly, then continued. “Jon… I’m… I’m really a man. I’m waiting to be referred for the operation, but for now I have to live like a woman for at least a year. I’m on prescribed hormones, all of that stuff… but physically I’m still a man.”
His face was pale with shock as she forced herself to stare at him, to take in his reaction. She wasn’t surprised: the guy must have had one heck of a kick in the teeth, discovering that the woman he was attracted to, wanted to take to bed, was really a man. Now that it was out in the open, she knew she wouldn’t blame him if he decided never to see her again.
“A… man?” He stammered out the words, dragging himself to his feet to walk towards her.
“Yeah. My… my name’s really Sam, but I chose Sarah….”
“And… you… you’re going to be a woman?”
“Maybe.” For the first time, Sam forced himself to face reality. He’d lived as Sarah for the past four months, but for a lot of that time he’d been asking himself whether that was really what he wanted. Did he really believe himself to be a woman in a man’s body? For the first time, he understood why doctors insisted that sufferers of gender dysphasia should spend time living as a member of their chosen gender before submitting themselves to the final operation.
He saw Jon rake his hands roughly through his hair, and Sam grimaced. “Look, this was a bad idea… I should go.”
“No!” Jon’s voice was emphatic, and stopped Sam in his tracks. “Please don’t. We need to talk about this….”
“What’s there to talk about?” Sam threw back at him, his tone bitter. “We’ve said all there is to say – I’m a man, not a woman, and now I’m finally admitting to myself that I might not be transsexual after all. And even if I was, you still wouldn’t want someone who’s not a proper woman!”
A curious smile crept across Jon’s features. “Oh, wouldn’t I?” Awkwardly, Jon stuffed his hands in his pockets. “Actually, Sam, I’ve got a confession to make too. Until I… met you, I was sure, absolutely convinced, that I was gay.”
“What?” Sam could only stare at him in disbelief.
“Yeah. You’re the first woman I’ve ever been attracted to, and you had me in one heck of a state of confusion.”
“Tell me about it!” Sam rejoined, his voice cracking. “That’s the weird thing for me too. I was never attracted to women, just guys, and when I met you I thought that had to be a sign that I was right to go for this operation.”
“But…” Jon took a step forward, bringing him closer to Sam. “You don’t have to have the surgery if you’ve decided it’s not right for you, and we can still be together whether you do or not.”
“We can?”
“Sure!” Jon insisted. “But… not here. We’re going to have to move.”
“Why?” Sam enquired, finally daring to allow himself to hope that he could still have Jon. “You think your folks won’t approve?”
Jon smiled ruefully. “Nope, the FoLCs won’t approve. Y’see, this is a PG site, and slash isn’t allowed here. So I’m going to have to fly us off out of here and go in search of a slash website. We’ll be welcome there, and even better, we’re unlikely to have many readers.”
“But… how will we get there?” Sam asked, hopeful but puzzled.
Jon suddenly spun in front of him. “There’s something else I forgot to tell you….”
<~~~~~ The End ~~~~>
Threads of Confusion
By Tara Smith (StarKitty)
(The full story to which this TE refers may be found under the author’s name at www.lcfanfic.com)
Voyager
“Clark! Clark, please wake up!” Lois wailed.
Tom Paris touched her hand to get her attention. “I’m the medical assistant on Voyager. Let me see if I can help him.”
She nodded and stood, taking a step back as Paris examined the body of her husband. After a few minutes, he looked up at her and shook his head. “I’m sorry, Ms. Lane, he’s dead. There’s nothing I can do for him.”
“No!” she wailed.
“What’s this? What’s this? One of my prisoners is dead?” Their guard stepped up to the forcefield that penned them in. “Oh, goodie! This means we can dissect him now!”
Lois gasped in horror as the alien spoke into his com unit. After a few minutes, several more guards came into the room. They conferred with the first guard, then came over to the cell.
“Step back!” One commanded them.
Seven of Nine, Neelix and Tom Paris backed away from the forcefield in silence as the guards deactivated the field and came into the cell. As one of them bent to lift the body, Lois threw herself at him, but was shoved roughly back. Paris caught her and held her as the guards removed the body from the cell, then reactivated the forcefield.
Lois slumped in Tom’s hold as Clark’s body was carried out of their sight. Tom lowered her to a sitting position on the hard metal floor as she sobbed. He exchanged helpless looks with the other Voyager crewmembers.
There was a sudden flash of light as someone appeared in the cell with them.
“Lois Lois Lois! Whatever are you crying for?”
Lois looked up at the sound of the voice and smiled joyfully. “Tank! I knew you wouldn’t leave me here!”
She jumped to her feet, all signs of her previous grief all but gone, and threw herself at the newcomer. He caught her and they kissed passionately. “Of course I came for you, darling! Didn’t I tell you I’d always be there when you needed me?”
“Who are you?” Tom asked the man.
“I’m a Q of the Q continuum. You can call me Tank,” the man said after he and Lois broke off another passionate kiss. He looked around the cell dispassionately.
“You know, this isn’t exactly the kind of place Lois should be hanging out in.” He snapped his fingers and the cell was replaced by the bridge of Voyager. All five people from the cell plus a very surprised Doctor were there, standing in various sections of the bridge.
Captain Janeway stood when she saw them. The Q, Tank, waved her back to her seat. “Don’t worry, Captain. Lois and I are just passing through. Your crewmembers can explain everything to you. Oh, and your airponics bay is full now. You can leave the system at any time. I’d send you home, but the continuum has decreed that if I interfere in a story line even one more time, I’ll be made mortal, and I don’t think I can deal with that.”
“Let’s get out of here, Tank!” Lois demanded.
“Of course, my darling! How does Paradise sound?”
“Oh, goody!” Lois planted a passionate kiss on Tank’s lips. Tank scooped Lois up in his arms and snapped his fingers again. A rip appeared in the air before them. Beyond it, they could see a hilly landscape covered in greenery. Tank started to walk through it, then snapped his fingers. “Oh, yeah, I almost forgot.”
He turned toward the viewscreen that showed the planet they had just been on a few minutes before and snapped his fingers. Abruptly the planet exploded, sending debris in every direction. Ignoring the now destroyed planet, he turned and walked through the rip in the air, which sealed behind the two.
Metropolis
Maggie stood at the top of the Luther Towers. She stared down at the ground far below.
She had nothing left to live for. Lois and Clark had died in an explosion and Jimmy had vanished. There was really only one thing left that she could do. She jumped.
She crashed into the ground and lay there, bleeding through the rents in her flesh caused by the impact and the broken bones. She pushed herself up in time to see the sixteen-wheeler bearing down on her. The steamroller behind it finished off what the sixteen-wheeler had left behind. The stampede of mammoth’s that followed the steamroller covered all evidence that anything living had once been there.
Stunned passerby’s stared in shock for a few minutes as the mammoth’s vanished into the distance.
“Wow! I didn’t know mammoth’s existed any more!” one commented. A murmur of agreement rose across the street. Someone else added, “Much less in the numbers needed to make a stampede.”
An all too familiar whistling sound sounded. As one, the people looked up just in time to see a missile headed for the dirty spot where Maggie had landed. The bright flash of the explosion could be seen from space and obliterated Metropolis.
The End
—————
Threads of Confusion
Tank Ending #2
by Tara Smith
” . . . do my best, Martha.” Maggie glanced up as she heard the sound of a helicopter over the storm. “I’ve got to go. The chopper’s here with the bomb. Okay. Thanks.”
She closed the phone and went over to Dr. Klein. “Thanks, Dr. Klein. Here’s your phone back.” “You’re welcome, Sara.” He accepted the item, a worried look on his face. “The helicopter is here.”
“I know, I heard it,” she said. She smiled wanly, then, impulsively, threw her arms around him in a tight hug. “Don’t worry, Dr. Klein. I’ll be careful.”
He returned the hug gingerly. He, more than anyone else, Maggie knew, knew the risk she was taking. She, too, could be stranded on an alien world with no way to return. “We’d better get you into that insulation suit. Have you as protected as possible from the disruptive influence of the rift.”
“Right.” Maggie followed him back to the van where he’d had a tech put the insulation suit. He helped her put it on. As she finished putting on the last of the suit, the munitions officer along with the officer in charge came up to them with what looked like an ordinary metal suitcase. She knew, of course, that it was actually a tactical nuclear warhead despite its innocuous appearance. She glanced at Klein. “It’s time.”
“Good luck, Sara,” Klein said.
She flashed him a smile and accepted the suitcase. She glanced one last time at Jimmy, who was standing nearby watching her, and turned toward the rift, which was obviously larger than it had been just half an hour ago. She turned her head towards the officer. “You’d better get your men out of here, sir. We don’t know if this is going to affect the surrounding area or not.”
The man nodded and started shouting orders at the last of the remaining military personnel.
“You, too, Dr. Klein,” she ordered him.
He nodded. Most of the STAR Labs personnel had left right after they sent for the bomb Maggie was now carrying. There were a few media vans left but, as she watched, they were ordered to leave the area by military personnel. “I’ll make sure Jimmy comes with me, too.”
“Good.” She waited for a few minutes for everyone to at least start moving out, then turned back to the rift.
The thing pulsed an ominous shade of red as she approached it. She reached the edge of the crater far too quickly and paused, looking up at the thing. Then she ran forward and jumped, clutching the case to her as she entered the rift.
**** **** ****
Clark dodged a phaser blast. The alien fighters were out in force. Clark didn’t know how many there were, but they seemed to be congregating around his position for some reason. Maybe they just couldn’t believe that an alien was flying around in space without a space suit or any kind of propulsion unit. He didn’t mind the curiosity, he just wished they’d stop taking potshots at him while he was carrying the anti-matter bomb.
Lois, he knew, was undoubtedly in sickbay by now. They had planned on monitoring him via a com link they had equipped him with–that way, once he entered the atmosphere, he could communicate any problems to them. He hoped he wouldn’t have to use it.
He dodged another phaser beam, then a fighter. He got a glimpse of a lizard-like creature with its crest raised to its fullest extent as he did so. Then he reached the atmosphere. Atmospheric fighters were waiting. Evidently they’d been monitoring the battle in space and were waiting for any shuttles that might try to make it to the planet’s surface. Great, he thought. More phaser blasts to dodge.
Well, there was one way he could avoid that. He dove straight down. He was faster than they were and much more maneuverable. It only took him seconds to get out of their range–temporarily, of course. Whatever else these aliens were, they were incredibly tenacious.
“Voyager to Kent.”
He pulled the now unnecessary oxygen mask off and tapped the com. “Kent. Go ahead.”
“Is everything all right? We lost sight of you in the firefight,” Janeway said, sounding concerned.
“I’m fine. The bomb made it through intact, too,” he confirmed. “I’m coming up on the rift now.”
“Good luck, Mr. Kent.”
“Thanks, Captain.”
“Voyager out.”
Two phaser blasts cracked past him, just barely missing him. He rose up above the craft, then sent a beam of heat vision at the spots Lt. Torres had told him were vulnerable in craft like these. It worked, and the two vessels went spiraling down towards the ground below trailing smoke.
“Two down, eight to go,” Clark muttered. He didn’t really have time for this, though. Fortunately, he had almost reached the cloudy area that covered the subspace tear. He put on a burst of speed, then came to a soft landing under the overcast area. The fighter craft that were following him veered off and began circling the area.
The rift was at ground level. It was glowing bright yellow and was very obvious. It was larger than he’d expected it to be–close to four feet in height.
Lightning was flashing continuously and bright enough to light the area as bright as the area outside the clouds. From the state of the ground, it had obviously struck the ground numerous times. Clark just hoped it didn’t hit the anti-matter bomb while he was setting it up.
He placed the bomb on the ground at the precise spot Lt. Torres had instructed him to and checked the thing over as best he could. Everything seemed all right.
He tapped his communicator. “Kent to Voyager. I’m all ready.”
“This is Janeway. Good luck, Mr. Kent. Ms. Lane is about to be sent through.” Clark could barely hear her through the static.
“Thank you, Captain, for all of your help.”
“It was our pleasure.”
“Good bye, Captain. I hope you find a way to get home, too. Kent out.” He tapped the communicator and jumped into the rift.
**** ****
“Well, Ms. Lane, it’s been a pleasure,” the Doctor said.
Lois stepped onto the transporter pad and smiled nervously at him. “Thank you, Doctor. Good luck to you and your crew in getting home. I know how important that is.”
“Thank you, Ms. Lane. Bon voyage.” He turned to the transporter tech and nodded at him. “Energize.”
The man activated the transport sequence. Lois began to fade out. Abruptly, something on the console beeped. “Sir, the transporter beam is losing cohesion. The turbulence from the subspace rift is affecting it!”
“Bring her back! Right away!” The Doctor ran around to the console. “Boost the annular confinement beam.”
The man complied and a moment later, the form of Lois Lane re-appeared on the pad. She looked around the room. “What happened?”
Abruptly, the ship was slammed with a massive shock wave that sent all of them tumbling to the floor. The Doctor pulled himself to his feet and tapped his comm badge. “The Doctor to the bridge. What was that?”
“That was the anti-matter explosion, Doctor,” Chakotay’s voice responded. There was a pause, then they heard him gasp in surprise. “Doctor, medical emergency on the bridge!”
“I’m on my way!” He ran out the door.
****
Two hours later, they were finally out of the alien system. The explosion had damaged the warp engines, forcing them to rely on impulse engines until B’Elanna Torres managed to repair the damage. Despite the force of the explosion, there was only one casualty–Captain Janeway.
Scans of the subspace tear showed that what they had expected to happen, had not. Instead, the rift had amplified the explosion of the anti-matter and destroyed the planets on both sides of the rift. There was no sign of Superman anywhere. Even Superman couldn’t survive that kind of explosion.
With Janeway dead, Chakotay took command. He had them set course for the nearest habitable system, where they would settle and colonize and live out the rest of their lives. Lois, bereft and newly widowed, fell madly in love with Captain Chakotay. They were married just two weeks after they landed on their new home planet.
The End.
Ok, not really. This was my Tank ending. I thought I’d leave the mammoths out of it this time. It would’ve been hard to fit them in on Voyager, anyway. Does this work for you, Tank?
(please don’t lynch me? please?)
By Tank Wilson <TankW1@aol.com>
~~~~~~~~~~
This ending can be used to finish any L&C fic set in season four or later. The Ultimate Tank Ending (D&D, death and destruction) by the ultimate Tank
~~~~~~~~~~
The stars shone with a hard brightness as the small ship dropped out of the maelstom that is hyperspace into the star-studded infinite that was real time space. One particular star took up nearly a third of the view screen due to its brightness and close proximity.
The lone figure in the cockpit of the ship took some readings to verify where he was. Yes, he had found his desired destination. No one from home knew that he was here, they would frown on what he planned to do.
The star was a mid-sized yellow, class G. It had a planetary system, some of the planets quite spectacular in size and beauty, but it was the blue planet he was interested in. The third planet out from a sun commonly called Sol. The figure grimaced as he located the third planet in his viewer. The vile backwater called earth by its inhabitants.
The teeming billions of sentients on the planet were of no concern to this fellow. His focus was on one individual only, and the fact that this individual, this ‘Superman’ would never know who it was that defeated him didn’t matter. All that mattered was the satisfaction he would receive from his act.
Confident that all was in readiness, the figure unbuckled his safety harness and tended to an unusual looking device mounted in the center of his ship. Held in a sort of stasis in a magnetic bubble was something that defied description. One couldn’t really see it because there was nothing solid to focus the eyes on. In a sense it really wasn’t there.
Scientists had long theorized about the existence of anti-matter, but until now, no one had ever been able to discover a way to harness it. The figure smiled as he made a last check on the delivery system. Satisfied with his examination, the man sat himself back down in his command chair and began to line up his target.
The blazing orb of the sun filled his viewscreen now. He checked one last reading, then pressed a special button that had been added to his console. The tiny craft shuddered as the magnetic bubble with it’s exotic contents was launched toward the heart of the unsuspecting star.The man knew he couldn’t stick around to see the results of his handy work but he smiled nevertheless. There was no stopping it now.
“You are avenged, Uncle Nor.”
The New Kryptonian set his coordinates and engaged his warp drive. A second later his craft winked out of existence in real space time. The tiny bundle penetrated deep within the star before the mighty gravitational forces ripped the protective bubble apart. Suddenly it was like the mighty star had eaten something that didn’t agree with it. Forces were unleashed that the star couldn’t contain.
In layman’s terms it’s called a super nova. The force of the cosmic explosion quickly expanded until, one by one it enveloped and obliterated the unfortunate planets in the former star’s system. Nothing was spared. Within minutes it was over and beings on distant worlds who happen to look in the right direction while gazing at the night time sky would remark and wonder at the sudden bright flare-up of a small and insignificant star in the corner of their galaxy. And after having been briefly entertained by the event they would return to their mundane existence.
The End
by Pam Jernigan
(Tryst may be found under the author’s name on this site, the Lois and Clark Fanfiction Archive, or at http://www.geocities.com/~chiefpam/pj_fic.html).
Clark flew towards Africa, and began a frantic search of the jungle for Lois. Unfortunately, he hadn’t studied his Atlas properly to find out where Qtun was, and was searching the wrong side of the continent. Meanwhile, Lois (in a mission in a coma) was slowly and quietly dying, all alone.
Back in Metropolis, Carpenter was released on a technicality. Going back to business with a vengeance, he soon was able to buy (and destroy) the Daily Planet, putting all the employees out on the street.
Clark finally had to give up flying around, and touched down in a quiet area. Unfortunately for him, he landed on unstable ground, which collapsed underneath and around him, trapping him in a deep pit. Deprived of sunlight, he eventually died.
Once he was dead, his ghost found Lois’s, and they — existed — happily ever after. The End 🙂
by Tank Wilson <TankW1@aol.com>
Video Ex may be found at http://www.lcfanfic.com/stories/2000/videoex.txt
~~~~~~~~~
For those of you who never read Video Ex, this Tank Ending takes off right after Lois (who has been injected with liquid kryptonite) is tied securely to a severely weakened Superman and rolled down a huge pile of scree and rock rubble to the bottom of an abandoned rock quarry.
~~~~~~~~~
Jimmy Olsen came to a screeching halt in a cloud of dust and gravel near the timber scaffold that he recognized from the tape. Lois was nowhere to be seen, nor for that matter were Superman, or Clark. He threw himself out of his car and began to run toward the little buildings nearby.
A quick check on those yielded no one either. Jimmy wasn’t sure if he should be disappointed, or glad because he didn’t find any bodies. He finally found himself near the rim of the quarry’s pit. He was impressed with the size of the hole. Noticing some signs of a scuffle near his feet drew his attention to it and thus to the edge and beyond. Jimmy stared down into the bottom of the pit and noticed a splash of blue laying at the base of the large pile of scree that sloped away to the bottom of the pit. An examination of the rocky rubble showed the passage of something having recently disturbed it. Jimmy focused all his attention on the colorful lump hundreds of feet
away. Suddenly the realization hit him. That had to be Superman down there, but the shape was somehow wrong. Wait, no, it couldn’t be, but it only made sense. Lois must be beside him down there, perhaps Superman grabbed her to shield her as she fell? Jimmy had no clue as to what had happened; he only knew that he had to do something.
He raced back to his car and threw open the trunk. He had no idea what he was looking for but he had to find a way to get down there to help them, for they obviously were in no condition to help themselves.
Before Jimmy could decide on anything his ruminations were interrupted by an ominous rumble. It grew louder as suddenly Jimmy was thrown off his feet. Earthquake! was the thought that flashed through his fearful consciousness.
As he lay bouncing on the ground trying to roll away from his car toward flat open ground, he could see the scaffold fall into the pit as the sides of the quarry began to break off and slide into the pit like a glacier in a hot stream. The noise was deafening.
The shaking and the accompanying thunderous roar lasted about two minutes until it finally stopped. Jimmy slowly got to his feet. Not bothering to brush himself off he approached the new rim of the quarry. What he saw made his heart sink. The quarry pit was now about one third filled in with broken rock and other rubble. There was no longer any sign of any Superman or Lois. If it was indeed them he’d seen down below, they were now hopelessly buried beneath thousands of tons of rock.
Jimmy shook his head slowly as he headed for his car. “Darn,” he said to no one in particular. “Lois still owed me twenty bucks!” He sadly got into his car and drove off.
The End?
Earl and Juliana and Lois and Clark : The Tank Ending
by Saskia
The original story, by Anna Belcher, can be found here: http://www.lcfanfic.com/stories/2003/earlandj.txt
——-
Before Clark knew it, Earl was shoving him in the cab and talking to the driver. Clark was too busy trying to figure out how to get away from Earl and get to the mall faster than a speeding bullet to notice that Earl was spending an inordinate amount of time talking to the cabbie. Lois was in danger and he desperately wanted to reach her, but he couldn’t just leave now or Earl would become suspicious. Of course, a good excuse would help, but as always, he came up blank. Where was Lois when he needed her? The irony in that wasn’t lost on Clark.
Clark was aching to rush out of the cab, spin into his suit, and fly to the rescue.
Time was running out.
Clark seriously considered sharing his secret with Earl. Friends didn’t have secrets from each other and he figured it couldn’t do much harm.
On the other hand, the decision wasn’t his alone. His parents always told him to be careful; you’d never know what other people wanted from Superman. His father’s words echoed in his head: “They’ll dissect you like a frog.” That was a very valid point. After all, Earl worked as a scientist at Gendell Technologies. And they had only known each other for a very short time, and Clark wasn’t sure about the question of trust yet. Earl knew Gendell personally. What if he told the man? And it was also possible that Earl was involved in the situation too.
He hadn’t considered that option yet. Earl could be in on this. It was very well possible. Why else would all of this trouble have started, right at the moment they had met? Okay, so it could be a coincidence. Earl really seemed nice. And he was just as worried about his wife as Clark was about Lois. And it had started after Juliana met Gendell. Which meant that Juliana was in danger. Surely she would be considered safe as Earl’s wife. So that ruled out Earl.
Back to the real problem now. He still hadn’t figured out how to leave without making Earl suspicious of his alter ego. He already heard Lois telling him all the reasons why his friend should not know. He’d made it so clear to Lois why it was dangerous when other people knew his secret. It could only put them in the line of fire. Lois was a good example of that. And Earl was facing problems even before he knew. No, best thing would be to get out with an excuse and spin into his suit in a nearby alley.
Think, Clark, think. What would Earl believe? Cheese of the Month Club? Used too often. Return a book or DVD? He didn’t even had one with him. Go to the dry cleaner? Too minor for this problem. Meet source? New story broke, this was more important. Forgot something from the play field? He could pick it up later.
How did Lois do that? Her reasoning always seemed so good, and she came up with ideas quickly. There was no other way left now for Clark to wait until they left.
Wait? Why were they still waiting? Surely his musings hadn’t taken only two seconds! Just as Clark looked up, Earl got in the cab. In the front seat!
“Hold on, Clark. I’m driving. I don’t trust the cabby enough to get us there fast and safe,” Earl told him before starting the engine.
* * * * *
“You talk way too much for your own good, Ms. Lane,” Denzler said to Lois while he opened the door for her. “Step out of the car and walk to the trunk. Don’t try anything foolish, I won’t hesitate to shoot you.”
Lois did what he said. It was really hard to walk while your feet were duct-taped. Her hands were taped as well, so she couldn’t use them for support. Unfortunately, that also meant she couldn’t use her Tae Kwan Do moves. Calling for Superman was also out of the question, breathing took enough trouble with the duct tape covering her mouth. So she hopped to the trunk with the gun in her back.
“Open it.” Denzler shouted at her. “And then get in.”
Cautiously, she opened the trunk. So she had to go into a trunk *again*, no big deal. After about the umpteenth time, she was used to it by now. This one looked big enough, she would fit in there and still have some moving space left.
Slowly, she climbed in. It caused her several bruises and a headache. Why did that always happen to her? Clark never had that trouble. It just wasn’t fair. Like she was the one to deal with the nasty situation too. It even really was his story! She finally managed to be completely inside the trunk and the lid closed again.
She could hear more movement outside. What was Denzler doing? Shouting at Juliana, it appeared. Lois couldn’t hear what it was about, but it could never be any good.
Suddenly the lid opened again and Juliana climbed into the trunk as well. So much for the freedom to move around a bit. The trunk was barely big enough to hold the two of them. Soon they would run out of air if the lid closed again. If only she could call for Superman, then all would be fine in a minute.
“We’re gonna take a ride and then I’ll see what I’m gonna do with you. Just prepare for your deaths, I’ll see to that,” Denzler explained the two ladies before he closed the lid. Now was a good time to start panicking, Lois thought. Maybe if she could get Juliana to work with her and they could talk. She’d seen the traces of fresh tears on the other woman’s cheeks.
Lois turned her face to where she supposed Juliana should be. There was no way of telling for sure, it was too dark in the trunk. And more movement only hurt more.
Suddenly the car started to move and Lois fell into Juliana, before rolling back to the other side. She hit her head pretty hard, but the only sound she made was a muffled “mwwwww.”
Just as soon as the car had started moving, it stopped too. Were they in front of a traffic light? No, then the engine wouldn’t stop too. What was going on?
* * * * *
“What do you mean, Earl? Faster? Cabbies are pretty fast. The only person I know that’s faster in this city is Superman,” Clark explained his doubts to Earl.
“Yeah, whatever. Look, we’re on our way, can we worry about Juliana and Lois now? I’d hate to see anything happen to them.”
“All right,” Clark reluctantly agreed. “So tell me what you know.”
Earl quickly told Clark everything he knew. From Gendell’s wish to come back into the world, Lois’s interview that should help with that, to the meetings and Eric’s strange behavior.
“So I think what’s happening is that Eric wants Gendell’s power and money. He’s murdering everyone who met Gendell so far. That’s why he wants to kill Juliana now. And Lois is in danger because she is with Juliana and also because of the interview. And I don’t know what Eric will do; he’s capable of everything. He seems like a complete lunatic to me, I don’t know what Gendell ever saw in him.”
Clark had listened to the story. They had crossed half the city now and were almost at the mall. But there was one thing that had him worried. “If he’s killing everyone who met Gendell, then you’re in danger too, Earl.”
“You could think that, but I don’t have anything to worry about.”
Clark couldn’t believe what he heard. Was Earl really that stupid? He glanced to the man sitting next to him and was surprised to see the expression on the man’s face. It almost looked like… no, it couldn’t be. Earl couldn’t really be ‘evil’ and have something to do with this? Then why would he have such a huge grin and a twinkle of delight in his eyes? “Earl, what’s going on?” Clark asked his supposed friend. “There’s something you’re not telling me.”
“Gee, I wonder what that could be, Superman!” The sarcasm dripped from his voice.
The words hit Clark like thunder; surely Earl didn’t know his secret. He stared at the man, not knowing what to say.
“Oh come on, it’s so obvious. And I can’t believe you haven’t figured out what’s going on yet.” And with that said, he opened a box next to him.
Suddenly Clark felt a terrible pain washing through his entire body. Kryptonite. So Earl was in on the plan and he and Lois were obviously in danger. He had to get out of the car, but the green rock had already drowned out most of his powers. Jumping out of the driving car suddenly didn’t seem like a good option anymore. In the back of his mind he could hear Earl talking, so he forced himself to listen to the creep. He might hear something useful.
“… Eric and I have big plans for this world. We’ll use the network of Gendell and get all the power in the world we want. There was just one problem and that’s you. But I found out things about you, so the problem is taken care of. We’ll need to dispose of your wife as well, but Eric will see to that. Look, he’s waiting for us in that car already.”
Clark followed Earl’s finger and saw a large parked car. He couldn’t just let them win. A thought suddenly popped into his head and he took a good look at the car. No, the women were nowhere in sight, his plan might just work. Fighting off the headache, he closed his eyes for a moment and sat up straight. With one movement, he reached for the wheel and gave it a huge swing.
The sudden movement surprised Earl and the cab headed straight for the Lincoln. Earl tried to regain control over the car while hitting the brakes hard. But it was no use, the cab hit the other car with a great deal of speed and they slammed right into the trunk.
Eric had seen the car swaying and had run away from the scene, unsure of what was going on but still looking for a cover. When he saw where the Lincoln was hit, he could only cheer. That should have killed both women! There was just no way they could have survived the impact of the cab.
The situation seemed safe enough again, and Eric walked back to see who had survived and what had happened. Just as he came close again, Earl got out of the cab.
“Big entrance, huh?” Eric greeted Earl.
“Unfortunately, yes. I’ve got Superman in the cab, nearly unconscious. The impact hurt him tremendously in his vulnerable state. But he was strong enough to surprise me before that by pulling on the wheel and making the car uncontrollable. One shot should be enough to finish him off.”
“No big deal, I’ll see to that in a minute. There’s something else I need to find out first.”
“And what is that?” Earl wondered.
“I’m just curious about the conditions of Lois and Juliana,” Eric explained.
“Ah, right. Where are they?”
“They were in the trunk of the car. I don’t think they survived your newest way of parking a car.”
The men walked to the back of the car and looked at the mess. The steel was completely wrangled, and it looked like they wouldn’t be able to open the lid. Eric tried first, but with all his strength and will power he couldn’t get the lid to move, not even the slightest bit. The result was the same for Eric. Even together the situation seemed hopeless.
“Let’s try the back seats. If we can get them out we can see what’s inside of the trunk.” Eric just had one of his good ideas. He glanced quickly in the cab. Superman still lay there, unconscious.
The seats were easily removed and both men stared into the trunk. In the dark they spotted two bodies and a lot of blood, but it was hard to tell if they were still alive. Eric started pulling on the first body, and suddenly, Lois rolled into sight.
She looked horrible. The top of the lid had really made the trunk a lot smaller and pushed the woman to death. And Lois was definitely not breathing anymore.
The same was to be said of Juliana. Eric looked at Earl and was surprised to see how cool he looked.
“Okay, they’re both dead, let’s get out of here,” Eric said.
“The car can’t be traced back to us, can it?” Eric asked while he got out of the car.
“No, I took care of that.”
“Good. And don’t forget to shoot Superman.”
Eric walked back to the cab, grabbed his gun and aimed for Superman’s chest. The bulled penetrated the skin, and blood became visible. He waited for a few seconds and then checked the pulse. No more pulse, and no more breathing. They had succeeded.
A look of joy crossed his face. “Taken care of, let’s go now,” he shouted at Earl.
The two men turned their backs to the scene and walked away. They remained silent for quite some time.
Earl was the first to brake the silence. “Good thing no one saw us.”
“Yeah,” Eric replied, “I used a quiet street. No shopping people in their right minds come in that street.”
The silence continued again. Eric opened his mouth again. There was just something he needed to know.
“Are you okay? I mean, you just saw your wife, dead. Surely you must be emotional now.”
“I’m okay. There was no connection between us, we didn’t love each other. The marriage was just a convenience to show an image to the world. No one suspected what I was doing now.” Earl tried to explain how his life used to be. “Besides, this is for the better. Now I can commit to the person I do love.”
“Anyone I know?” Eric asked.
“Yeah, I think you know that human being.”
“And who might that be?”
Earl hesitated for a moment before replying. “It’s you,” he whispered. He firmly kept his eyes on the ground.
Those weren’t the words Eric had expected. He never saw Earl as a gay type. Not that he complained, he had been in love with him for a very long time now. This suited him very well. He put a hand on Earl’s arm and forced him to a halt.
“I don’t know if you’ve ever noticed, but I love you too,” Eric admitted.
All Earl could do was stare at the man standing in front of him. “You… what?”
Eric couldn’t bring himself to repeat his words. Actions would show better how he really felt. So he brought his mouth close to Earl’s. When their lips finally touched he felt a sparkle go through his body. Apparently, Earl felt it too, he was kissing him back. Earl even took the initiative to deepen the kiss.
After a few moments the men parted, breathing heavily.
“Wow!” was all Earl managed to say.
“That was incredible,” Eric said with a dreamy look in his eyes.
They stood there for a while, simply staring at each other, enjoying the moment. Both hoped they hadn’t dreamt what had just happened.
Eric was the first to regain control again. “We’re really unstoppable now. After we get rid of Gendell, we’re gonna take over the world. I feel fantastic!”
“Let’s go make my day better than. I’ve got the hang of killing now.”
Without Lois, Juliana and Clark to stop them, the world soon was in the hands of Eric and Earl. They were far worse than Lex Luthor had ever been, and every single living creature on earth feared them.
The End