Superman Movieverse Forum

Title: Family Reunion
Author: Mr. Beeto
Rating: PG-13
Beta: htbthomas and Shado Librarian
Summary: AU Twist on Donner/Singer Movieverse: Tie the three films together into a cohesive whole, and provide a more credible and interesting reason for Superman to have returned to Krypton.

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Author’s Notes:
Thanks again to the beta team of htbthomas and Shado Librarian, a.k.a. dandello.

Chapter 36 – Calm Before the Storm

Thursday, October 5, 2006 12:30PM EDT
Lois usually found flights with Superman to be incredibly exhilarating and cathartic experiences, with an almost surreal calm surrounding them as they hovered over the world.  However, their current flight south from the Fortress was an exception, due to a last minute change in plans that had Jason flying with Kara.  Lois reluctantly agreed to the request, unable to resist three hopeful sets of puppy-dog eyes.

Clark had promised to closely monitor the children, but Lois was still nervous watching them fly beside them, twenty feet to her left.  The children were flying side by side, with their inner arms wrapped tightly around each other and the outer arms extended, making it hard to tell who was doing the flying and who was the passenger.  Both of them had wide smiles radiating their joy as they flew, and Lois couldn’t help but return the smile.

“Okay, let’s bank about three degrees to the right,” Clark gently instructed the children.  Kara obliged, with Jason exaggerating his arm movements to the right as he pretended to be the one flying.  However, Kara quickly pointed out his error, instructing him in the proper motions for a three degree right bank.

Lois felt Superman tighten his grip, and she looked over at him to find him with a mischievous smirk on his face and gesturing for silence with a finger over his lips.  He motioned towards the children with his head, and moved directly behind them as he rolled over into an inverted position.  He then quietly inched forward underneath them, reached up and tickled them – first Jason, then Kara.  The kids immediately started giggling and pulled their legs up before Kara banked off to the right and out of range of their father’s tickles.

“Clark, don’t do that while they’re flying!” Lois complained anxiously.  “You’re going to make her drop him.”

“They’re okay, Lois,” Superman assured her cheerfully.  “It’s all done under strict adult supervision.”

“Clark,” Lois warned.

“All right, no more in-flight tickling,” Superman promised.  He rolled back over and called out to the children, “Come on, kids.  Back into formation.”

Kara and Jason banked back over and pulled up alongside the adults, maintaining a constant distance of about twenty feet between them.  Kara looked over at her dad and asked hopefully, “Um, Dad?  Can we do corkscrews?”

“Oh, I’m sorry, Honey, but that would hurt Lois and Jason.  They can’t take the forces like we can,” Superman informed her patiently.  “We’ll have to save that for another day, okay?”

“Corkscrews?” Lois asked.

“Aerial acrobatics, of a sort,” Superman informed her.  “It started out as an exercise to help her control her flight and turned into a game.  We fly circles around each other, closer and closer and faster and faster and then try to come to a sudden stop.  We’ve got similar games to help her learn control over her other abilities.”

“What kind of games?”

“We play Pressure, and Hot ‘n Cold, and Speed-Eggs…” Kara began.

“Excuse me, ‘Speed-Eggs’?” Lois repeated.

“Oh, you got to move all the eggs from one crate to the other as fast as you can without breaking any of them,” Kara explained.

“She’s getting pretty good at it,” Superman added.

“At packing eggs?”

“The eggs are fragile and she has to handle them gently to avoid breaking them,” Superman pointed out.  “The faster you go the harder that is to do, and if she can handle the eggs, she’ll be able to handle people.”

  “I guess I never really thought about the challenge of controlling all that power,” Lois admitted.  “You make it look so effortless.”

“It took awhile to get to that point,” Superman informed her.  He then turned to Kara and said authoritatively, “Honey, move in a little bit closer now.  In a couple minutes, I want you to transfer Jason back to me, and then stay really close as we fly into Metropolis, just like we talked about.  Okay?”

“Okay.”

A few minutes later, Superman flew Lois and Jason across Metropolis with Kara flying a foot above him.  Superman disappeared down the ramp from the roof of the Meadowland Mall parking garage and pulled himself upright, with Kara immediately pressing against his back as he slowed to a stop.  Finally, he released his burden, and disappeared in a blur.

“Clark?”  Lois called out, turning her head to the left and right looking for him.

“Over here,” he answered from halfway down the row of parked cars.

Lois looked over towards the sounds of his voice and found him dressed in his business suit, standing behind a silver Chrysler Town & Country minivan.

“You rented a minivan?” Lois asked incredulously.

“Well, once we decided to let Kara go with Jason today, it seemed like an obvious choice,” Clark replied cheerfully.   “Come on, kids, climb in.”

As the kids climbed into the minivan, Clark handed the keys over to Lois.  “I’ll be around.  If something serious happens that looks like it’ll keep Superman busy, I’ll text you, and Plan B…”

“Plan B is to park the car at the Planet, and take the portal back from there,” Lois finished.  “Clark, relax.  We’ll be okay.”

Clark nodded, and turned his attention back to the kids.  “I’ll see you kids in a little while.  Be good, and listen to Lois.”  He gave them each a quick hug, and then quickly jogged over to the stairwell door, before disappearing through it and returning to the sky.



Richard returned to the bullpen after a quick lunch at the first floor snack shop and stopped abruptly in the aisle after spotting the mug shot of Lex Luthor displayed on the overhead televisions as GNN reported the news of the felon’s misfortunes that morning.  Richard was so absorbed by the report that he hadn’t noticed Perry walk up to him until the older man spoke.  “Our coverage is much better,” Perry commented proudly.

Richard turned to him and replied anxiously, “It sounds like the shit just hit the fan.”

“That it did,” Perry commented and he gestured to Richard to follow him as he walked back to his office.  Once Richard claimed a seat in one of Perry’s guest chairs, the older man added somberly.  “Lois and Kent will be going on an out of town assignment for a couple weeks.  I haven’t decided on the assignment yet, but I’m seriously considering sending them to Saint Thomas to investigate that vacation scam.  At least that way I can still get some work out of them while they’re sequestered.”

“You’re sending them alone to Saint Thomas?” Richard questioned incredulously.

Perry sighed, and said, “If you’re that bent out of shape over it, you can go with them, but it’s on your dime and you’ll be burning vacation time.  There’s simply no business justification for sending you there at the paper’s expense, too.”

“Fine, I’ll pay for it,” Richard consented irritably.  “When do we leave?”

“After the Pulitzer ceremony tomorrow night,” Perry informed him.  “Everybody stays out of sight until the ceremony, we’ll all sneak in and out through a back entrance, and then put the three of you on the plane.”

“Uncle Perry, it’d be nuts to even think about going to the Pulitzers right now,” Richard protested.  “It’d be the perfect opportunity for Luthor to strike back at us.”

“They’re beefing up security at Ford Hall, and the police will be there in force,” Perry assured him.  “In fact, it’s going to be a pain in the ass for anyone else to get through the security perimeter with the ID checks.”

“You can’t be serious,” Richard said dramatically.  “After what Luthor tried Tuesday night, you still expect us to go?  Uncle Perry, we can’t.  Especially not Lois.”

Perry harrumphed and gave Richard a skeptical look.  “Richard, ignoring for the moment all the free publicity the Planet will get from her Pulitzer, do you honestly believe for even a second that Lois would consider sacrificing her glory after finally winning for the first time?”

Richard’s shoulders sagged in resignation and he sadly replied, “No, especially not if I’m the one asking.”

“Well, I won’t be asking, either,” Perry declared.  “I can make my recommendations, but at the end of the day, it’ll be her decision whether to attend or not.”
 
Both men were quiet for a moment, when Richard seemed about to speak and then thought better of it, snapping his mouth shut.  He was silent for another moment, and then sighed heavily.  Finally, he sadly said, “I can’t believe I’m about to suggest this… but maybe… maybe Clark could talk Lois into skipping the ceremony.  He seems to be the only one she listens to these days…”

Perry offered him a small smile and said, “He always did have a knack for that, though I suspect that even he might have trouble making headway when it comes to the Pulitzers.  Feel free to talk to him about it if you want to, though.   And Richard?”

“Yes.”

“It looks you may finally have your head out of the sand.  Try to keep it that way this time.”



After escorting Lois and the kids to the Meadowland Mall, Superman settled into a wide patrol pattern ten thousand feet above them while he closely monitored their short drive to the doctor’s office.  The trip was uneventful, as expected.  Even if Luthor had been tracking him, he wouldn’t have had time to get anyone to the mall in time to intercept Lois and the kids.  They’d be fine as long as they stuck to the plan.

Once Lois signed in at the doctor’s office, Superman diverted his attention to Planet Plaza, and he again scanned the crowd, looking for anyone suspicious, or who displayed an unusual interest in the Daily Planet building.  He identified a half dozen young men armed with concealed pistols.  After taking a moment to assess the treat, he swooped down over the plaza, quickly disarming the potential bandits and turning them over to the beat cops in the area.

After confirming that the perimeter around the Planet was secure, Superman allowed himself to relax and he indulged in a peek into the Planet bullpen.  Jimmy was reviewing his pictures from the D.A. press conference that morning; Gil and Ralph were debating whether the new female GNN news anchor’s ‘credentials’ were real or silicon; and Perry and Richard were discussing the Pulitzers.  That’s tomorrow? Superman wondered.  I forgot all about that.  I think Lois forgot, too…  Richard’s right, it’s not a good idea for her to go, but how do I suggest that to her after the way I complained about her editorial?

His contemplation was rudely interrupted by a thunderous explosion to the southeast, and he focused his senses to the source of the blast.  To his horror, he found an exploded tanker trailer in the Roosevelt Tunnel that connected New Troy Island to Bakerline.  The truck driver was killed instantly, as were some of those in adjacent vehicles, and the explosion had effectively blocked off the tunnel, with the fire threatening the surviving motorists.  Superman immediately formulated a rescue plan for the event and dropped from his patrol altitude and sped into the Roosevelt Tunnel.



Lois sat in the guest chair in the examination room with Kara on her lap as the hygienist prepped Jason for Doctor Gallagher and did the initial check on him.  Kara found the process fascinating and asked a continuous stream of questions about it, which the hygienist patiently answered.  Finally, the initial check was completed and Doctor Gallagher entered the room, wearing scrubs and with a surgical mask pulled down and bunched up under his chin.  “Hello, Miss Lane,” he said politely.  “Looks like we have an extra guest today.”

“Oh, this is Jason’s sister, Kara,” Lois replied casually.  “Her school was canceled today, and she wanted to come along.”

“I see,” Doctor Gallagher replied cheerfully.  “Well, it’s very nice to meet you, Kara.”

“Pleased to meet you,” Kara said shyly.

He then turned his attention to Jason, who was looked at him anxiously from the reclined examination chair.  “And how have you been Jason?  I guess we had a little problem with your tongue a few weeks ago?”

“It’s all better now,” Jason said nervously.

“The flare-up calmed down pretty quickly after you started him on that prescription,” Lois explained.

“The Pediapred?” Doctor Gallagher asked.

“Yeah, that was it.”

Doctor Gallagher pulled fresh latex gloves out of a box on the counter and put them on.  He then pulled his surgical mask over his nose, and slid his stool over next to the examination chair.  “Okay, let’s have a look…  Open wide for me, please, Jason.”

While Doctor Gallagher was inspecting Jason’s mouth, Lois heard the chirp from her cell phone, indicating an incoming text message.  She discretely pulled her phone from her purse and looked at the display, which revealed an incoming message from Clark.  Her eyes shot wide when she read the surprising message from him:  “Explosion in Roosevelt Tunnel.  Superman on the scene.  Could take awhile.”

Holy shit, Lois thought.  Was that an accident or some kind of terrorist attack?  She mentally rolled through a list of likely suspects if the explosion had been intentional, and the contacts she’d need to corner to confirm it.  However, her story preplanning was interrupted by the doctor’s voice as he spoke to Jason, and Lois tried valiantly to shift her attention to her son’s examination.

  “Stick out your tongue for me, please,” Doctor Gallagher gently instructed his patient.  Jason complied, and the doctor grabbed the little boy’s tongue with a gauze square as he examined it.  Finally, he muttered, “This is odd…”

“Is something wrong?” Lois asked anxiously, and she quickly closed her phone and dropped it back in her purse.

“Oh, he’s fine,” the doctor replied pleasantly.  “There’s no sign of the lesions he had a few weeks ago.”  He continued to examine Jason’s mouth and added, “In fact, I’d be hard pressed to find any evidence at all of the O.L.P.”

“That’s a good thing, right?” Lois asked.

“Of course, but it’s highly unusual,” Doctor Gallagher said.  He released Jason’s tongue, and turned to Lois as he explained, “Oral lichen planus is a chronic condition, and I haven’t seen anything in the literature that would explain the sudden disappearance of all traces of the disease.”

Jor-El said he fixed Jason’s ‘ailments’ Monday night, Lois thought.  Was it just the allergies, or did he cure the O.L.P., too?

“Have there been any changes in his medications recently?”

“His allergy treatment was scaled back,” Lois answered nervously.

“Scaled back?”

“We saw a specialist who thought he’d been misdiagnosed,” Lois explained.  “He discontinued the theophylline, but Jason’s still carrying an albuterol inhaler, just in case.”

“That wouldn’t explain the spontaneous recovery.  Perhaps the O.L.P was misdiagnosed, too,” Doctor Gallagher commented.  “Well, whatever the case, it looks like it’s cleared up, so I’m going to take him off the vanceril.”

“So, it’s really gone?  No more O.L.P.?  He’s cured?” Lois asked hopefully.

“I’d be hesitant to use the word ‘cured’ when he’s been asymptomatic for no more than a couple weeks,” Doctor Gallagher stated pleasantly.  He scooted his stool over to the counter, opened Jason’s chart and began writing in it as he added, “Everything looks good, but I’d still like to see him again in six months and see how he’s doing.  And that should do it for us today.”



Lois had her phone to her ear before they even made it out of the office, trying to track down someone who knew something about the explosion.  She’d already made half a dozen calls by the time they reached the car, with her contacts either not answering or claiming ignorance.  She unlocked the doors to let the kids in, and finally called Jimmy Olsen as she climbed into the driver’s seat.

“Miss Lane?” Jimmy answered politely.

“Jimmy, I got a tip about an explosion in the Roosevelt Tunnel,” Lois said seriously.  “Have they heard anything around the bullpen on that?”

“There was something about it on GNN,” Jimmy informed her.  “Nobody knows what happened, but it sounds like Superman’s on top of it.  Gil and I are heading there now, so we should know more soon.”

“Perry put Gil on it?” Lois asked incredulously.

“Yeah,” Jimmy replied apologetically. After a beat, he added, “Do you want us to call you once we find something out?”

Lois hesitated for a moment, and then caught the sight of the curious faces looking back at her from the rear view mirror.  She sighed in resignation and said, “Thanks, Jimmy, but as much as I hate to say it, I’m going to have to sit this one out.  I’ve got Jason and Kara with me this afternoon.  I’ll talk to you later.”

“Okay, then… Bye.”

Lois looked over her shoulder at the children and said, “Well, it looks like it’s going to be Plan B.  We’ll go back home through the Planet portal.”

“What about the explosion in the tunnels?” Kara asked worriedly.

“That was a different tunnel,” Lois explained.  “The Kryptonian tunnels connected to the portal are fine.”

“Oh.  Okay,” Kara replied happily.

Lois was about to pull out of the parking lot when her cell phone rang.  She quickly checked the display and answered it, “Harold?”

“I have some good news for you, Lois,” Harold Vanderworth informed her.  “We’ve arranged to inspect the house today at two o’clock.  As I recall, you and Clark both wanted a close look at that crystal mass that the police found.  Well, here’s your chance.”

“You said two o’clock?” Lois asked anxiously, suddenly regretting her decision to change into jeans after lunch.  She looked at her watch, and quickly worked out the math.  Twenty-five to, she thought.  It’d take twenty minutes to get back to the Planet from here on a good day, and another fifteen to get to the Vanderworth estate… but that explosion in the Roosevelt Tunnel will probably have traffic backed up, which could easily double that…

“Yes, two o’clock,” Harold confirmed.  “Is that a problem?”

“Well, Clark’s tied up covering that Roosevelt Tunnel mess, and I have my kids with me this afternoon,” Lois explained.  “We’re just now leaving the doctor’s office.”

“Oh, how old are they?” Harold asked eagerly.

“Five and seven.”

“They’re a lot of fun at that age,” Harold declared.  “You’re welcome to bring them with you, if you like.  We’ll keep them safe.”

“All right, if you’re sure it’s not a problem,” Lois replied pleasantly.  “We’ll see you there at two.”

“See you then,” Harold said cheerfully. “ Goodbye, Lois.”

“Bye.”

Lois ended the call and scrolled through her contact list, momentary stopping over Richard’s name.  No, she decided, he’ll have a meltdown over me going there.  She instead scrolled up to Perry’s number and as she began typing in the text message, she heard Kara’s worried voice behind her.  “Dad said we were supposed to go right back to Grandma’s after the doctor,” she reminded her.

“We’ll be there soon, sweetheart.  This shouldn’t take long,” Lois assured her.  She sent the text message, threw her phone back in her purse and finally pulled out onto eastbound Jefferson, heading towards the Vanderworth estate and calling to mind the shortcuts she’d need to use to take them around the traffic logjams that had certainly developed.



Thursday, October 5, 2006 1:45PM EDT
Lois made amazingly good time around the expected traffic problems, arriving at the Vanderworth estate barely ten minutes after leaving the doctor’s office.  As she pulled through the front gate, she immediately noticed the helicopter parked on the dock.  I guess Harold beat us here, she thought.  I wonder where he is.  She brought the car to a stop in front of the mansion, looked over at the helicopter and then back at the house.  There was nobody in sight.  “Kara, do you see anybody here?” she asked calmly.

“There are a couple people in the house, and someone else coming around the side,” Kara replied simply.

They must have started the inspection early, Lois thought.  She climbed out of the driver’s seat, and opened the sliding side door to help the kids out.  However, as she leaned in the door, she suddenly felt the muzzle of a gun against her temple.

“Not a word,” a strange male voice ordered.  “Now stand back.  Same goes for you two.  Out of the car, and keep quiet or your mom gets a bullet in the brain.  Now move.”

Lois obeyed, and the children followed suit, quickly grabbing onto Lois in their fear as they exited the vehicle.  Lois opened her mouth to speak, and the man repeated, “I said, not a word!”

They’d been standing there for a couple minutes when Lois heard another voice say, “Aw, shit.”  Lois shifted her eyes in the direction of the voice, and recognized Grant Hunter from the mug shot that the Planet had run.  “The boss isn’t going to like this.”

Luthor’s flunkies are here? Lois wondered.  What are they up to?

“It’s an easy problem to solve,” the first voice declared.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!” A third voice interjected.  “You remember the boss’ conniption fit the last time you ‘improvised’… and he’s been in an especially bad mood today.”

Lois looked towards the new voice, and saw a dark-skinned man whom she also recognized from recent Planet stories.  Stanford Harris, Lois thought.  Which would make bozo number three either Reilly Dixon or Brutus Martin.  This is not good.

“So what do we do with them?” Grant asked.

“Take them back to the boss.  Let him decide what to do,” Stanford suggested.

“We’ll still need to get rid of the car,” the first man pointed out.

“We’ll hide it in the garage,” Stanford declared.  “There’ll be nothing in sight to spoil the surprise.”

Spoil the surprise? Lois wondered.  What have they done?

“All right, everyone over to the helicopter, and keep your mouths shut,” the first man ordered.  He ushered them over to the helicopter and into the back seat.  Lois pulled the two children close to her and whispered almost inaudibly, “We’re going to be okay.  We just need to figure out how to let your dad know where we are.”

When their captor climbed in the helicopter and sat beside them, Lois was finally able to see him clearly enough to identify him as Brutus Martin.  Lois quickly grew uncomfortable with the lecherous look he was giving her, and she shifted her gaze to the window beyond him, where she saw the minivan in the garage, with the door closing behind it as Grant and Stanford ran over to the helicopter.  As they lifted off and headed out to sea a moment later, Lois squeezed the children a little bit tighter and thought, Please find us soon, Clark.

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