Superman Movieverse Forum

I'm trying for a weekly Friday update.

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The earthquakes were getting worse and the ‘authorities’ weren’t saying if they knew the cause. Lois suspected they did and didn’t want to cause a panic – not that the survivors of Armageddon had any energy left to panic with. Everyone Lois knew was hunkering down with their families. The city had tried to keep the schools open in the weeks after the disaster, but had finally closed them due to lack of attendance. They’d be closed now in any case for the holidays – Christmas was just a two days away.

Jason and the other Daily Planet children stayed close to their parents in the newsroom and it was the same all over. People weren’t letting their loved ones out of their sights.

Lois glanced over at her former fiancé, Richard White. He still qualified as a loved one, even if he wasn’t the one. Poor Richard. He’d been surprised then resigned, when he realized the boy he’d been raising as his own belonged to another man – one who could bend steel in his bare hands.

Jason had been the one who saved Richard’s life when their car was trapped under a collapsed bridge during the first earthquake. Frail, asthmatic Jason pulled the door off the car, threw it aside and pulled his daddy to safety.

Richard would walk with a cane for the rest of his life, but he was alive, thanks to Jason.

Lois watched and smiled as Richard and Jason shared a joke. Richard was a good man and despite everything, he was still Jason’s daddy.

She sighed and turned back to the story she was working on. The police were still looking for the man who murdered the manager and robbed the East Side distribution center. One would have hoped that violent crime would go down considering everything. No such luck. Last week a woman had been killed for her shoes.

A cup of coffee was set on her desk and she looked up to see Mike from the coffee shop standing there. “Short non-fat mocha, decaf, no foam, no sugar, no whipped,” he said with a smile.

“You never cease to amaze me,” Lois said gratefully. “Where are you even finding coffee beans, much less chocolate?”

“I have my ways,” Mike said “Anything for my favorite seeker of truth.”

She smiled and sipped her coffee. Mike knew exactly how she liked it.

It was strange but a cup of Mike’s coffee had actually saved her life back in Metropolis, before the world ended. The day of the test launch of the space shuttle Explorer from its 777 launch vehicle. It was supposed to be a puff piece and she hadn’t wanted to go but Perry had insisted. Then the bottom broke out of her coffee cup, spilling scalding liquid into her lap. She didn’t make the launch. Everyone who did died that day when a weird power flux sent the Explorer and its launch vehicle careening out of control into the upper atmosphere. Both vehicles broke apart on the way back to Earth.

The newsroom phone rang and Lois heard Jimmy pick it up. In the past weeks Jimmy had bloomed into the reporter Perry had always suspected he could be.

“Denver police say they’ve arrested Lex Luthor,” Jimmy announced, hanging up the phone. “For suspicion of murdering the manager of that distribution center three days ago.”

“They’re sure it’s Luthor?” Lois demanded. Other men had been picked up over the past months and been identified as the mad man, at least temporarily. A few had even claimed to have been Luthor, apparently anxious for any notoriety they could get. She didn’t want to get her hopes up.

Jimmy nodded. “He was positively identified biometrically and by one of his former partners in crime, one Katherine Kowalski. And get this, he’s demanding access to the university labs. He now claims he was trying to stop Kryptonian technology was being subverted by aliens and now threatens to destroy the planet.”

“And he’s the only one who can fix it?” Lois asked. She couldn’t keep the sarcasm out of her voice.

Jimmy shrugged. “So he says. According to my source, he’s also saying the aliens are here claiming to be angels.”

“He’s trying for an insanity defense?” Richard asked.

“That doesn’t sound like Luthor,” Lois told him. “He’s too full of himself to try for an insanity plea.”

“So, what’s his game?” Richard asked.

Lois chuckled. “If you can’t dazzle ‘em with brilliance…”

“Baffle ‘em with BS,” Richard completed for her.

“Exactly.”

As she spoke the office door opened and a tall man in jeans, a corduroy jacket, and a flannel shirt walked in. Lois paid him little attention. People were always coming and going.

Then Jimmy gasped. “Mister Kent?”

Lois’s head came up and she actually looked at the man in the doorway – tall, well built, with dark hair and blue eyes hidden behind large horn rim glasses.

“Clark?”

He nodded.

“Jimmy,” Lois yelled. “Let Martha know Clark’s here.”

Jimmy gave her a blank look, then realization seemed to hit. “Man, are we glad to see you,” he told Clark as he disappeared through the door.

Clark watched Jimmy leave then turned back to Lois. “You know my mom?”



It had taken another full day for Clark to feel fully recovered from his ordeal. Rachel’s visit had left his unsettled – there were so many questions he had wanted to ask and hadn’t dared. He found his mom’s old emergency radio. Luckily it still worked. He tuned the radio until he found a station: KDPL. The Daily Planet, out of Denver. Clark didn’t recognize the name of the newsreader but one of the stories was by Lois Lane. Another listed Jimmy Olsen as a writer. Perry White was named as the Managing Editor.

At least they were alive. He wasn't sure what he would have done had he discovered Lois and all his friends from before were dead.

Lois’s story was on the earthquakes that had been hitting the city. Denver wasn’t known for its earthquakes, but apparently it had been hit with tremblers several days in a row. The latest one he had felt at the farm. Kansas was not well known for earthquakes either. It had prompted him to dig down and remove the sensor cluster from the starship.

Under cover of darkness, he used the array to do a more thorough survey of the planet, avoiding the kryptonite laced continent as best as he could. The readings on the new continent were alarming. It was rooted into the ocean bottom and appeared to be actually forcing its way through the planet’s crust. He wished he could use the sensors and computers in his arctic fortress, but a quick check had shown that it too was underwater. It was also little more than debris – the crystal towers were in pieces on what remained of the glacier it had been ‘grown’ on.

Kal-El wasn't a scientist by nature, although he was descended of a long line of Kryptonian scientists. But physics and chemistry had always bored him in school, even though he got good grades. But as he went over the sensor readings he wished he had paid better attention in class.

Then Jor-El’s lessons kicked in and the readings started to make sense. He wished they didn’t.

It was snowing again when Clark headed to Denver to find his mother and the survivors at the Daily Planet. He still hadn’t bothered to put on the blue and red. That uniform represented hope and this was now a world where there was no hope that he could see. He wasn’t going to don the Suit and give the few survivors false hope. He was Superman, not God. The dark bodysuit was more appropriate given everything.

‘Miracles don’t come easy, even in a world with Superman living in it. And for one without…’ Rachel had said.

‘It would take a true miracle to save the world this time,’ he thought as he sped west. ‘Why did I leave? I might have been able to do something if I had simply been here.’

And then there was the matter of Superman’s return. Considering how he had abandoned his adoptive world, would he even be welcome? Based on Lois’s editorial, he doubted it.

Soon Denver was in sight. He had visited it more than once, but it hadn’t looked anything like this – the city’s population had multiplied due to the disaster and there was a more than passing resemblance to a third world refugee camp. There were tent cities in the major parks.

He paused above the city, staying hidden in the clouds as he extended his hearing to find Martha Kent among the millions below. Finally he found her in a small apartment that obviously housed several people, including a young child. She was asleep and beside her in the bed was a man about her age.

Mom is with a man? Who?

He looked more closely and finally recognized the sleeping man – Ben Hubbard. ‘Ben Hubbard and I are heading to Denver to be with his family,’ her note had read. The apartment obviously belonged to one of Ben’s children. Equally obviously while Clark was gone on his futile mission, his mom had finally moved on, putting aside the memory of his father, dead and in the ground for the last twenty years. Had it really been that long?

He decided not to wake them. As much as he wanted to see his mom, as much as he wanted to talk to her, to let her know what he had found, it was a reunion better left to when she was alone.

He turned his attention to the other heartbeat he’d had memorized long before he left: Lois.

She was in an office building not far from the Central Business District. Many of the windows were boarded up. Many of the windows all over the city were boarded over. Denver was in even worse shape than he’d thought at first glance. Freeway bridges and overpasses were damaged. Some had collapsed while others were blocked off. What street traffic there was seemed to official, police, fire, ambulances, delivery vehicles with state and city markings.

Clark came to earth in an alley behind the building Lois was in. A small sign indicated it was the home of the Daily Planet, a subsidiary of Wayne Entertainment.

Bruce Wayne bought the Daily Planet? Just one more unexpected change.

He spun out of the dark bodysuit into his jeans, flannel shirt and corduroy jacket. He placed his glasses on his nose and headed upstairs to the Daily Planet newsroom.

The room was far smaller than the newsroom had been in Metropolis, but there were also fewer people. He checked the room before opening the door. Jimmy was on the phone with someone. Lois was at a desk working on a computer. At another desk was a man Clark didn’t recognize. The desk plate said his name was Richard White. ‘White? As in Perry’s nephew?’ Clark wondered. About half the other desks were occupied. Clark recognized several people he had known before – Polly, Gil, Noel, Jack and Steve. The others were strangers. Perry’s name was on one of the office doors, but Perry wasn't in his office.

In one of the corners of the room a play space had been set up and several children were playing there. The people closest to the play area seemed to be keeping an eye on the children.

Jimmy hung up the phone and turned to Lois and White.

“He’s trying for an insanity defense?” White asked Jimmy

“That doesn’t sound like Luthor,” Lois stated.

Luthor?

“He’s too full of himself to try for an insanity plea,” Lois added.

“So, what’s his game?” White asked.

“If you can’t dazzle ‘em with brilliance…”

“Baffle ‘em with BS,” White completed the aphorism.

“Exactly.”

Clark swung the door open and stood in the opening, looking around the room. He took a deep breath, taking in the scents of the room – the slight ozone from the computers and printers, musty reference books, floor wax, perfume, and sweat. It smelled like a newsroom.  It smelled like home.

Then Jimmy looked up. “Mister Kent?”

Lois’s head came up and her eyes widened. “Clark?”

He nodded.

“Jimmy, let Martha know Clark’s here,” Lois ordered.

Jimmy just gave her a momentary blank look then he clapped the tall man on the shoulder. “Man, are we glad to see you,” he told Clark as he disappeared through the door.

Clark stepped closer to Lois’s desk. “You know my mom?”

“Yes.” Lois smiled and grabbed his arm. “Look everybody, Clark finally made it back!”

The people he knew from before hurried over to join Lois, clapping him on the back and shoulders, shaking his hand, welcoming him back. The effusiveness of their greetings was a little overwhelming. He had always been the ignorable one, the invisible man everyone dismissed. It was odd and a little scary to be the center of attention when he wasn't wearing the Suit.

After a few minutes Lois shushed the others away. “We need to talk,” she said quietly. She led the way to Perry’s office, beckoning White to join them. The other man limped into the office and closed the door behind them.

“Clark Kent, meet Richard White. He’s Perry’s assistant,” Lois announced. “I probably should add more, like he’s a pilot and likes horror movies, but that’s not exactly relevant. Richard, meet Clark, my partner a long time ago before Superman disappeared and the world came to an end.”

White held out his hand to be shaken and Clark obliged. White seemed like a nice guy.

“You said you know my mom,” Clark reminded Lois.

Lois crossed her arms in front of her, regarding him evenly. “Yeah, I know your Mom. She and her boyfriend live with me and my son.”

“Your son?” Clark stammered. Lois had a child? He started to feel faint – too many shocks too close together.

“Yeah, guess what? Lois Lane is a mommy,” she snapped at him. “And guess who his father is?”

Clark just shook his head.

Lois sighed and the anger seemed to drain from her. “I don’t know why I should be mad at you for that. You had no way of knowing that Jor-El was wrong about our biological compatibility. Hell, I didn’t figure it out until you’d been gone for more than a month.”

Jor-El? She remembered Jor-El?

“Jor-El? “ Clark stammered. This time is wasn't an affectation.

She ran a hand through her hair. “We thought you were dead,” Lois said. “By your mom’s calculations, you were overdue. Then Luthor announced he’d murdered you. That he’d sent you off on a wild goose chase to your death.”

“I don’t understand. Luthor told everyone he killed me?” What she was saying didn’t make any sense… unless…

“Lois, who did Luthor say he killed?” Clark asked.

She didn’t seem to hear him as she started pacing the floor. “When Luthor made his announcement and started making his threats, your mom called me,” she said. “I didn’t know who it was at first, but she said that Superman had left Earth to find Krypton. I didn’t believe her and then we were in the middle of evacuating. When your mom finally caught up with me, she took one look at Jason and…”

“Jason?”

“My son,” Lois explained. “Our son. Yours and mine. Clark, we know you’re Jason’s father. And we know you’re Superman.”

Clark’s mind went blank. “You think I’m Superman?”

White chuckled. “I didn’t believe it either. But he looks too much like your pictures at that age not to be your kid, and then it became pretty obvious who you really were when he tore the door off the car. He saved my life.”

“How…” Clark was feeling faint again. He sat down hard in one of the chairs opposite the desk.

“How did we make a kid together? That should be self-explanatory,” Lois stated.

“How many people know I’m your son’s father?” Clark asked.

White answered. “Oh, everybody working for the Planet here, or who’s met Grandma Kent.”

Clark’s shoulders slumped. “And how many know about my other job?”

“That’s not something we’ve told people about, especially with Luthor on the loose,” Lois said. “I’d rather he didn’t know about Jason. But now that you’re back, you can answer some questions, like how the hell did he get hold of Kryptonian technology and what are you planning on doing about it?”

Clark sat back, looking up at her. Those were questions he’d been asking himself and he still didn’t have any satisfactory answers.

“I don’t know,” he said finally. “When I left, I set the security systems at my ‘fortress’ to maximum. It should have required having a Kryptonian bio-signature to get past the defenses. Obviously Luthor figured out a way around that but I have no idea how. And I can’t plug the AI into the fortress for an analysis because there is no fortress anymore. It’s in scattered pieces under five hundred feet of water. And as for the other part… Luthor initiated what looks like a poorly conformed terra-forming program. Only the program was never meant to be used on a planet like Earth and he added contaminants that caused the program to glitch up. He overrode the safety protocols and turned it into a very slow doomsday weapon. I don’t know how to stop it and there’s no way to reverse the damage it’s already done.”

“You said it was a doomsday device,” White noted.

“It was never meant to be one,” Clark said. “But Luthor made it into one. The island has imbedded itself in the mantle and is ripping it apart. It’s also converting magma into its mass and leaving voids. When the voids collapse, and they will, sea water will hit the magma and explode.”

“And when that happens?” Lois asked.

“The planet may survive it, but nothing on it will.”

“And when do you think it will happen?” White asked. “When does the world really end?”

“Forty-eight hours, maybe less,” Clark told them.

“Reports are that Luthor wants access to the university labs so he can find a solution,” White said. “He claims he can fix it. Do you think he can?”

Clark shook his head. “Luthor always was a blowhard. You can’t rewrite the laws of physics and chemistry just because they’re inconvenient.”

“This from a man who violates the laws of physics on a regular basis?” Lois asked.

Clark managed a chuckle. “I don’t violate the laws of physics. I just use ones that Earth scientists haven’t figured out yet. But even I can’t solve this problem. It’s too late.”

“So Planet Earth dies on Christmas?”

All Clark could do was nod.