From: "L-Soft list server at Indiana University (1.8d)" To: "ARTF@MemoryAlpha.nil" File: "LOISCLA-GENERAL-L LOG9710C" ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 14 Oct 1997 22:02:25 -0700 Reply-To: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" Sender: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" From: Leanne Shawler Subject: Re: Rejected posting to LOISCLA-GENERAL-L@LISTSERV.INDIANA.EDU Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Well, I have to say to find this message in my mailbox was a right royal pain in the butt!!! Sheesh! Anyway, if you didn't get episode 2 for whatever reason, email me and I'll forward them individually. I'm not going up against the listserv for a *third* time. It can go jump! Leanne >Return-Path: <> >Date: Tue, 14 Oct 1997 20:48:51 -0500 >From: "L-Soft list server at Indiana University (1.8c)" > >Subject: Rejected posting to LOISCLA-GENERAL-L@LISTSERV.INDIANA.EDU >To: Leanne Shawler > >Your message is being returned to you unprocessed because it appears to have >already been distributed to the LOISCLA-GENERAL-L list. That is, a message with >identical text (but possibly with different mail headers) has been posted to >the list recently, either by you or by someone else. If you have a good reason >to resend this message to the list (for instance because you have been notified >of a hardware failure with loss of data), please alter the text of the message >in some way and resend it to the list. Note that altering the "Subject:" line >or adding blank lines at the top or bottom of the message is not sufficient; >you should instead add a sentence or two at the top explaining why you are >resending the message, so that the other subscribers understand why they are >getting two copies of the same message. > >------------------------ Rejected message (382 lines) ------------------------- >Received: from zNET.com (207.167.64.5) by listserv.indiana.edu (LSMTP for Windows NT v1.1a) with SMTP id <0.90A0B130@listserv.indiana.edu>; Tue, 14 Oct 1997 20:48:46 -0500 >Received: from dan-s-computer (sdts10-21.znet.com [207.167.66.21]) > by zNET.com (8.8.7/8.8.7/jjb-sd) with SMTP id SAA24487 > for ; Tue, 14 Oct 1997 18:48:34 -0700 (PDT) >Message-Id: <1.5.4.32.19971015015032.0067e6e0@znet.com> >X-Sender: volterra@znet.com >X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Light Version 1.5.4 (32) >Mime-Version: 1.0 >Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" >Date: Tue, 14 Oct 1997 18:50:32 -0700 >To: LOISCLA-GENERAL-L@LISTSERV.INDIANA.EDU >From: Leanne Shawler >Subject: Season 5 (part 2 of 5) > > >**** ACT TWO: COMMERCIAL BREAK > Leanne Shawler volterra@sd.znet.com http://www.znet.com/~volterra/leanne.html ************************************************************** Lois & Clark: Season 5 http://www.fortunecity.com/tattooine/mothership/60/season5.htm text only version at: http://www.fortunecity.com/tattooine/mothership/60/s5text.htm ************************************************************** Midnight Dreaming: The Original Anthony Warlow Home Page http://www.zweb.com/volterra/anthony.html ************************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 14 Oct 1997 22:04:38 -0700 Reply-To: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" Sender: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" From: Leanne Shawler Subject: S5: FTASB promo draft Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" The following is the promo for episode 4 ... by the by -- Genine and someone else said they couldn't get part two of episode 3 -- could you guys email me again please? Leanne > >Season 5: Ep 4 Promo > >NARRATOR: Next week on Lois & Clark, Season 5: > >***** > >Superman and Lois stare at each other through the open window. Lois's >short crop is gone; instead, she has long hair held in a clip at the nape of >her neck. > >Superman: "Lois?" > >***** > >Superman zooms through the darkness of space, towing a huge space module. >Behind him, the module explodes soundlessly, and the shock wave of the blast >smashes into him, sending him tumbling through space. > >Superman: > >***** > >Clark and Lois are kissing passionately, and he unfastens the top buttons on >her blouse, but Lois pulls back. > >Clark: "Lois?" > >Lois: "I--uh-- Can we walk?" > >***** > >Cat Grant, wearing a skin-tight mini-dress, sashays past Clark and blows him >a kiss. > >Cat: "Hi, Clark." > >***** > >Dr. Klein: "These incidents are probably the result of a tear in the >space-time continuum." > >Lois: "Which means?" > >Dr. Klein: "Which means that the historical cross-overs will get worse >until the orderly flow of time collapses." > >***** > >Lois: "It's just . . . too soon, Clark. I can't . . . I just need a little >time. . . ." > >***** > >Lois gasps while Clark eases Dr. Klein's eyes closed. > >Lois: "Oh, God, Clark. He's--" > >Clark: "--dead." > >***** > >NARRATOR: See Lois & Clark, Season 5, Sunday evenings on a monitor near you. > > Leanne Shawler volterra@sd.znet.com http://www.znet.com/~volterra/leanne.html ************************************************************** Lois & Clark: Season 5 http://www.fortunecity.com/tattooine/mothership/60/season5.htm text only version at: http://www.fortunecity.com/tattooine/mothership/60/s5text.htm ************************************************************** Midnight Dreaming: The Original Anthony Warlow Home Page http://www.zweb.com/volterra/anthony.html ************************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 15 Oct 1997 05:28:21 -0600 Reply-To: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" Sender: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" From: Debby Stark Subject: Re: Katina's Question Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" At 07:13 AM 10/15/97 -0800, Katina Reyes wrote: >Well, I have a question of my own but it's kinda stupid. >I was wondering if anybody where they film Lois and Clark. There is a word missing above: could it be "knows" as in "if anybody knows where they film..."? >Specifically the scenes outside the Daily Planet. And where >do they shoot the brownstone scenes inside and outside. Just >curious cause. The scenes inside were shot inside a sound stage (a very large, air conditioned building where there are sets and props and all kinds of things to shoot TV shows). Many fans were able to visit this indoor set on tours of the Warner Brothers studio. The outside scenes were indeed shot outdoors and they had a special street set up with the Daily Planet and the globe. Since the show stopped production, all of these things have been dismantled to make way for other projects :( >And I just wanted to add that I think Teri and Dean make a perfect >couple. To bad Teri is already married and Dean's about to get married. >Their on screen chemistry is incredible and so real. What do you guys >think? I think their chemistry is one of the things that helps people continue to write fanfic based on the show :) >Katina Reyes Debby :) Debby@swcp.com in Albuquerque Over her block, having written some... 30 pages in the last 4 days :) (2 of those days work days :p ) ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 15 Oct 1997 08:47:19 -0400 Reply-To: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" Sender: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" From: Michelle James Subject: Re: No Subject I visited it two summers ago. They do it in Los Angeles on a Warner Bros. lot. It's not always used for Lois and Clark, though. The day I was there, they were filiming a special in front of the Metropolis Movie theater, which had been turned into a normal movie theater. I think it was with Kirsten Dunst. They give tours there hourly, I think it is. It's a lot of fun. If you ever get the chance, check it out! :) ~Chelle ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 15 Oct 1997 08:47:44 -0400 Reply-To: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" Sender: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" From: Michelle James Subject: Ooops... Oops. Didn't realize someone had already answered the question! Sorry! :) ~Chelle ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 15 Oct 1997 19:16:41 -0400 Reply-To: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" Sender: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" From: The Zoomway Subject: Lois and Clark locations >>>Well, I have a question of my own but it's kinda stupid. I was wondering if anybody where they film Lois and Clark. Specifically the scenes outside the Daily Planet. And where do they shoot the brownstone scenes inside and outside. Just curious cause<<<< Mostly at Warner Bros. studio, though the cabin scenes from Just Say Noah had to be shot up the road at Universal Studios because WB didn't have that particular type of exterior campground set design. Lois and Clark's trip to Spencer's island in Ordinary People was really the L.A. Arboretum. EPRAD's observatory in All Shook Up was really the Griffith Park observatory. Most isolated and mountainous road scenes and countryside scenes were filmed at Griffith Park, just a few miles from WB. The fantasy Lady Loisette and Sir Charles scenes from Soul Mates were filmed at the Walt Disney Ranch. Lois and Clark's first real date (we'll see that tonight) at the restaurant was really filmed at Warner Bros commisary decorated rather fancy. They have also filmed at the Burbank airport for Vat Man, Contact and Never on Sunday. A local Burbank high school was used for its baseball diamond in We Have a Lot to Talk About, as was WB's parking lot used for CostMart's parking lot. Being a fantasy, Lois and Clark filmed on nearly every street and set that WB has to offer including the western ones (Tempus Fugitive, Soul Mates, Vat Man) Zoomway@aol.com (and yes, Dean and Teri make a hot...er nice couple ;) ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 17 Oct 1997 19:52:53 -0600 Reply-To: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" Sender: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" From: Debby Stark Subject: Fanfic opportunity... Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" I picked this up on the usenet recently - Debby, Debby@swcp.com *** >From moozine@geocities.com Mon, 6 Oct 1997 04:08:55 LOCAL From: moozine@geocities.com (Moozine) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.tv Subject: Request for Submissions Date: Mon, 6 Oct 1997 04:08:55 LOCAL The editors of "Moo," a quarterly journal about and for fan fiction, seek submissions for the first issue. Each issue will feature a theme relating to fan fiction, and include representative samples from that theme. In addition, it will include regular columns dealing with mechanics of writing fiction in general and fan fiction in particular, as well as reviews of conventions, books, and archives, links to resources for the fan fiction reader and writer, and in-depth examinations of individual characters from comedy, drama, science fiction, fantasy, and other television and film genres. Future issues will address the place of canon in fan fiction, parody, and fiction outside the science fiction and fantasy fandoms. The theme for the first issue is "Women in Fan Fiction." Strong female characters are becoming more prevalent in television and movies; how do they translate into fan fiction? Do fan writers turn to female characters in fiction because the shows relegate those players to the sidelines, or because the characters are well-crafted and engaging? Does fiction that deals with women conform to a certain type, or does it run the gamut from action, to comedy, to drama, and beyond? What roles do female characters play in fiction, versus their onscreen personas? We are accepting proposals for reflective essays and original pieces of fiction dealing with these and other topics releated to women in fan fiction, or for submissions to the regular columns in the January issue of "Moo." The deadline for submission of finished pieces is November 28. Proposals should be submitted by November 15. For more information or to submit a proposal, write to moozine@geocities.com. Please visit us at our pasture: http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Cafe/3063/ --The Editors of "Moo" ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 18 Oct 1997 15:45:33 -0600 Reply-To: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" Sender: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" From: Debby Stark Subject: Brief review... S5: Episode 2 "Time after Time" Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" I've been incredibly busy and haven't been able to watch... or rather, construct my mental tape for this episode :) Likes: The complexity. One might think this is only possible in prose, but considering there was so much dialog with not much description, that would leave room for the set designers to dress the sets appropriately. Besides, it was a people story. The entire plot. Very nice. Again, the complexity was great--it sort of reminded me of the twists and turns in "Tempus, Anyone?" The writers took the readers/audience seriously--thank you! All the characters were well handled and I only lost track once or twice, briefly... and then as that was about to happen the writing rescued me :) I got the feeling all the writers and editors were saying: "Readers may get lost here--*I'm* getting lost here, lets make it more clear..." i.e., IMO, this was the opposite of what the show's paid writers did. Lots of nice future threads started. I'm anxious to read what happens! Dislikes: None. Well, one: I found the terms "Papaw" and "Mamaw" to be consistently grating. Maybe it was the "w" in them. My internal dialog coach kept wanting to grab the speaker and force them to pronounce it "papa" and "mama" :) I was ambivalent about... The women seemed to cry a lot (well, enough that I noticed it) and the men were "gruff" a few times... but that's okay because it was more than made up for by Lois recalling she knew some martial (as well as marital...) arts :) Also, I didn't get the feeling that they were in the future other than by the date. Voice mail? Lead-lined jacket? (I missed the original reason for that, other than its convenience for holding the kryptonite; I may have read too fast). Photography (as we know it now?). A woman getting run over in traffic? So little crime that the world is a kinder, gentler place? I can accept the "so little crime" thing, though it was explained near the end. It's the best excuse any Clark has had to be caught by surprise by a villain :) ...but this lack of a future "feeling" is something that would be taken care of by the set designer within the limits of her budget :) So, I give this "episode" a 9.8 out of 10 (hmm... no naked Clarks...) ;) and hope it will be optioned for the movies :D Debby Debby@swcp.com ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 18 Oct 1997 18:35:55 -0400 Reply-To: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" Sender: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" From: Peace Everett Subject: Re: Brief review... S5: Episode 2 "Time after Time" In a message dated 97-10-18 17:46:03 EDT, debby@SWCP.COM writes: > So, I give this "episode" a 9.8 out of 10 (hmm... no naked Clarks...) ;) > and hope it will be optioned for the movies :D Peace will now be absolutely useless for the rest of the season -- busy basking in the glow of such heady praise. Hmm.... naked Clarks... do I hear a call for an nfic version? Thanks, Debby, you made my week!!! ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 18 Oct 1997 18:48:29 -0400 Reply-To: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" Sender: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" From: Annette Ciotola Subject: Re: Brief review... S5: Episode 2 "Time after Time" In a message dated 97-10-18 18:36:22 EDT, you write: << Hmm.... naked Clarks... do I hear a call for an nfic version? >> Peace You certainly have my vote Anne :-) AMCiotola on the IRC ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 18 Oct 1997 22:08:25 -0400 Reply-To: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" Sender: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" From: The Zoomway Subject: Re: Brief review... S5: Episode 2 "Time after Time" In a message dated 97-10-18 17:46:03 EDT, debby@SWCP.COM writes: << Well, one: I found the terms "Papaw" and "Mamaw" to be consistently grating. Maybe it was the "w" in them. My internal dialog coach kept wanting to grab the speaker and force them to pronounce it "papa" and "mama" :) >> This is funny, because in my part of Texas, and I'm guessing because it overlaps Cajun country, it's not uncommon at all for granchildren to call their grandparents "mamaw" and "papaw" sort of French really, but with a drawl added to it. Usually sounding like 'mam..aw' and 'pap..aw' I think people automatically assume something hillbilly about the "paw" pronunciation, but it isn't really. I think it comes down to the inflection. In the south Detroit will often be pronounced DEE-troit as opposed to Deh-TROIT. I won't go into phrases like "Reckon as how?" or "Fixin to" Zoomway@aol.com (wow, haven't heard mamaw and papaw in a long time ;) ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 19 Oct 1997 02:01:00 -0400 Reply-To: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" Sender: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" From: Peace Everett Subject: Re: Brief review... S5: Episode 2 "Time after Time" In a message dated 97-10-18 22:08:48 EDT, Zoomway spake thusly: > This is funny, because in my part of Texas, and I'm guessing because it > overlaps Cajun country, it's not uncommon at all for granchildren to call > their grandparents "mamaw" and "papaw" sort of French really, but with a > drawl added to it. Usually sounding like 'mam..aw' and 'pap..aw' Thank you, Zoomie!! Yes, I named Mamaw and Papaw Kent after my own grandparents, who were from Arkansas - we called them Mamaw & Papaw my whole life. I guess I hadn't realized how regional that is - it probably wasn't appropriate for a couple who lived in Metropolis, one of whom was raised in Kansas. Oh, well, the details'll getcha every time! Peace ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 19 Oct 1997 15:01:38 -0700 Reply-To: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" Sender: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" From: Leanne Shawler Subject: S5: Episode 4 (part 1 of 7) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" LOIS & CLARK: The New Adventures of Superman Season 5, Episode #4 "FASTER THAN A SPEEDING BULLET" by Sheila Harper (sharper@cncc.cc.co.us) [feedback appreciated] *denotes emphasis* TEASE By seven in the evening, the news room at the Daily Planet was usually quiet, winding down for the night, but tonight music poured from a boombox, pale blue and yellow balloons floated from railings around the room, and dozens of voices competed in simultaneous conversations. A banner above the elevators proclaimed, "Congratulations, Jessie and Tom!" and one corner of the room had nearly disappeared under a hail of giftwrap and baby gifts. Lois Lane, nodding and smiling as Margie from advertising told some story about her children's antics, discreetly scanned the room to see if her husband and partner, Clark Kent, had finally arrived. Surely he wasn't--Ah . . . Her smile brightened. Lois waited until Margie finished her story, then excused herself and started across the large room toward Clark's desk. In their corner of the news room, the lighting was a little dimmer, the noise of the party a little muted, and Clark Kent, the other half of the Planet's top reporting team, was tickling the smiling infant who lay in the cradle of his crossed legs. "Hi, honey," he said softly, without turning his head. Lois slipped her arms around his shoulders and kissed the side of his neck above his collar. "Good guess." Clark tilted his head to give her a sidelong look. "No guess." "Don't tell me--you heard and smelled me coming." He grinned his agreement. "And every nerve ending in my body went on alert." "On alert, huh?" Her hand slid down his chest, following the delicious curve of his pectoral muscles, diving inexorably for his lap. "Every nerve ending?" "Be good," he growled, capturing her inquisitive hand and holding it over his heart. "We're in public." She caught his earlobe between her lips and slowly released it. "I'm trying, but . . . you've been at that peace summit for a week, and I've been so lonely." He closed his eyes briefly and took a deep breath, shifting uncomfortably in his chair. "God, Lois." He let go of her hand to grasp the back of her head while he kissed her. As she relaxed into his embrace, their kiss deepened until they forgot the Planet, the party, the baby in Clark's lap. Eyes wandering, the infant chewed on his small fist. But after several minutes without being bounced or tickled, without smiling dark eyes to look at, he screwed up his mouth and whimpered in soft protest. Clark pulled back, his breathing uneven. "The baby . . . I forgot . . ." He released Lois reluctantly and turned to look at the infant on his lap, jiggling his leg under the baby's head. "Hey, sorry about that, Tanner." Lois straightened up, smoothing a hand over her hair and trying to shift gears as easily as Clark had. She walked around the chair to watch him with the baby. "You're so good with kids." He raised his hot, dark gaze to hers, and she realized she was wrong about his shaking off their embrace easily. He cleared his throat and looked down at the baby who clutched his large finger. "You did a great job with CJ," he said, looking back up at her. Her wistful expression made him ache for her. "What is it, honey?" Lois shook her head, still gazing at the baby. "I was thinking about CJ. It's strange, but . . . even with the problems with Tempus and the kryptonite . . . and that woman from Social Services . . ." She smiled when he rolled his eyes at the mention of Nancy LeClaire, who had asked Superman for a date. " . . . and all the other troubles from having CJ with us," she continued, her gaze dropping to the baby on his lap, "I wouldn't have missed it." Lois looked at Clark again. "I mean, at least we know we can have babies together . . . if we can figure out how." She smiled at the joy that blazed to life in his dark eyes; then her mouth twisted ruefully. "But the crazy thing is . . . I kinda miss him." Clark saw the sheen of tears in her eyes, and he gathered Tanner in the crook of one strong arm and stood up. "Here, sit down a minute." "No, Clark, I don't-- Really--" she protested, but she was already sitting down and reaching for the baby. Tanner frowned up at this new face, then unexpectedly smiled, and his arms waved in the air. Lois touched his fist with her finger, and he grabbed it, his smile widening toothlessly. Helpless to resist, she smiled back. "You're a sweetie, Tanner," she told him, "but our baby will be . . . super." She looked up to see Clark watching her, his expression tender--and sorrowful. "What?" she asked. He shook his head as if he couldn't find the words, then bent down and gently kissed her. *************** Glittering in the uninterrupted sunlight of space like a great beaded necklace, space station Prometheus spun gently, creating a semblance of gravity for its occupants. Within its fragile skin, in one of the modules set aside for hazardous research, a thin man in his 20s sat in front of a computer terminal, reading lines of incomprehensible computer code. His companion, a decade older, forehead extending to the top of his head, sweated nervously. "Are you done yet?" The younger man turned in his chair. "No--and I'm not going to *get* done if you don't stop interrupting me." He corrected a line of code and resumed his reading. "Once you start it, Haskins won't be able to break in and stop it, right?" The nervous man raked his hands through the hair on the sides of his head. "Once I start it, *I* won't be able to stop it," the young programmer said. "Look, Cliff, if you're chickening out--" "I'm not. It's just . . . they'll try to stop us when the power buildup shows on their monitors, so we'll only get this one chance, Dylan." "Until it works. Then they'll have to let us go ahead." Dylan grinned wolfishly. "I can't wait to cram that 'too dangerous' down Haskins's throat." END TEASER ************************* ACT 1 Lois locked the door behind them as she and Clark entered their townhouse. While she hung up her coat and headed for the kitchen, he sat down on the couch. "You were right," she called as she dug in the refrigerator. "Jessie seemed to like the little suit and the overalls." "Mmm-hmmm," Clark murmured affirmatively. "But it looks to me like it'll be a while before Tanner can wear either of them." This time, Clark's response was a husbandly, I'm-not-really- listening, "Hmmm." She brought a cluster of grapes into the living room and popped one in Clark's mouth, then sat down next to him and ate another. "Okay, Clark. Give." "What?" "You've been sad and quiet ever since you handed me Jessie's baby." He studied his hands. "It's nothing." Lois put the grapes on the coffee table then cupped her hands around his face. "Clark, don't shut me out." "Sorry." He turned his head to kiss the palm of one hand. "When you were holding Tanner, I was . . . imagining you holding *our* baby." She frowned, searching his dark eyes intently. "And that makes you unhappy?" He shook his head, and her hands dropped away to clasp his. "No, it isn't that, honey, it's--" Clark stopped and took a deep breath. "Do you remember when we were first talking about whether we could have kids, and I joked about having super-babies? I was wondering . . . what would happen if our baby . . . you know . . . took after me." "Super," she whispered, repeating her earlier description. He nodded. "Yeah. I mean--Mom said I was pretty normal until after I went to school, so it's not like we'd have to deal with floating babies, but still. . . ." His statement caught Lois by surprise. She hadn't told him that part of her old nightmare, but somehow he had guessed that she worried about it. It was such a silly fear--and she *knew* differently. Clark had told her he'd only been flying since high school, but maybe she'd just needed to hear the actual words: no floating babies. She breathed out a soft laugh. "That's a relief. I'd been imagining hysterical calls from daycare providers." Clark didn't seem to hear her lighter tone because he answered her seriously. "I don't think we could risk using daycare. Things are bound to happen--sooner or later--and we could never explain super-speed or--or floating. Not after that tabloid story about your "affair" with Superman." On the other hand, Lois thought, maybe babies weren't the only problem. Dimly, she remembered that *other* Clark telling her about his parents' dying when he was ten: 'Even then, I was pretty fast.' Her lingering smile vanished. "You're right. Since our descendants were--will be--susceptible to Kryptonite, our baby probably *won't* be normal--Earth normal--and that's something we'll have to deal with." "Maybe . . ." Clark hesitated, considering. "What?" "Maybe we can do without daycare--if we telecommute and write from home." "Hmmm." It wasn't something she'd thought about before; getting dressed and going to work was just part of having a job. But they were writers, and stories seldom came looking for them at the Planet. What difference did it make where they kept their keyboards and phones? "Go to story meetings in my bathrobe? Where do I sign up?" That made him smile, and Lois brushed a kiss across his lips. Then she settled against him, her hand buried under his suit coat, and his arm tightened around her shoulders. "But, Clark, there'll be times when we *have* to use some kind of child care. We'll still be chasing down leads and meeting with sources." He took a deep breath and shook his head. "We're partners. We could take turns." "That means taking turns watching the baby, too, partner." Lois wasn't sure he understood the ramifications of doing without child care. "You couldn't zoom off to answer calls for help if it was your turn." "I know," Clark answered softly. He was silent for a long moment, then continued, "Superman will do what he can. . . . And that'll have to be enough." "But will it be?" "What d'you mean?" "If we're both at home, and you hear a call for help, you'll go. You'll have to . . . because neither of us could let people die just because helping them's inconvenient." "And . . . ?" "And that means I'm going to end up doing most of the child care--and I won't even be able to yell at you about it because you'll always have a great excuse for flying off and leaving me with the baby." "Lois--" She pressed her fingers to his mouth to stop him. "Clark, I'm afraid I'll end up resenting you being Superman. Or, if you really do cut back, you'll start resenting the baby--or me, for working." To his credit, Clark didn't voice the immediate protest she saw in his expression. "What else can we do?" he finally asked. Raising a super-baby in the city was more than two working professionals could do alone. "Give our family--and friends--a chance to help." "Let them in on Superman's secret? No." Lois wasn't accustomed to hearing that tone of voice from him. "No?" she repeated in disbelief. He scrambled to explain, to soften what had been an unmistakable order. "Knowing about me is too dangerous. Think of what happened to our parents after we told Sam. Someone found out he knew, and it nearly got them killed. I won't do that to our friends just because things get a little rough at home. We'll manage somehow." Without intending to, she had touched a nerve. He had loved her passionately, and it had still taken him two years to decide that he could risk her knowing his secret. "Clark, I didn't mean that we should run out and tell them. I just meant that if there was a slip-up, it'd be better if it happened in front of people who care about us instead of a babysitter or something." He shook his head. "The more people who know, the easier it is for my secret to get out." For a moment, she saw the raw fear in his eyes. "Honey, I couldn't live with myself if anything happened to our kids because I'd been careless." He didn't get it, and arguing would just make him more stubborn. All she could do was plant the seed and let him work through another pig-headed idea on his own. "Oh, Clark . . ." she sighed. Her lack of argument seemed to reassure him, and she felt him relax against her--the way he usually did after sharing one of his concerns with her. He bent down to kiss her, his mouth lingering on hers, then trailing down her throat. "Weren't you saying something about missing me?" This conversation certainly hadn't made him forget her greeting at the baby shower. She traced a finger down the front of his shirt. "No, I was showing you." Her smile sultry, she tilted her head back and locked her arms around his neck. He grinned. "I always liked 'show-and-tell.'" He cupped the back of her head and sought her soft lips in a soul-shaking kiss. *************** In the hazardous research lab on the Prometheus, Dylan keyed in the debugging sequence to check for any typing errors in the program. "Okay . . . it's clean, so we're ready to go." Cliff smoothed his hair back again and wiped his forehead with the back of his hand. He was not a decision-maker; he didn't want the responsibility if anything went wrong. "Shall we--?" Dylan scowled at his partner's attempt to pass all responsibility for the project to him. "Cold feet, Cliff? Don't feel like going down in history as one of the men who made cold fusion practical? Or don't you like the thought of the money from the patents any more?" Cliff glared at the young programmer. "I've never been in this for the money." "Oh, I forgot. You're bringing cheap, unlimited power to the downtrodden masses despite the blindness of your superiors. Yeah, right. You may not care about the recognition or money, but I do." Anger broke past the fear that paralyzed Cliff. "Just do it." "Okey-dokey," Dylan said and entered a quick sequence. Through the window, they saw lights come on in the neighboring room. Figures began scrolling up the monitor, and the sound of building power hummed through the small room. *************** Halfway around the space station, in the Prometheus control room, red and green lights blinked lazily on several banks of consoles while numbers and other readouts flashed on monitors scattered around the room. The board operator, his ankles crossed, feet propped on the edge of the control board, thumbed through a hot rod magazine, periodically glancing over the colored display around him. On the console behind him, buried among other colored indicators, one light switched from green to amber and the numerical readout on one of the monitors began climbing. The readout caught his attention, and he tilted back to look at the light and frowned when he saw its color. Dropping his feet to the floor, he sat up and threw a couple of switches and adjusted several dials, but the readout continued to climb, and the light changed from amber to red. He keyed an intercom switch and said, "Rick, you wanna get in here, please? Someone's put T3 on line, and I can't shut her down." Rick Haskins, who had spent 20 years in the Marines before coming to Prometheus, strode into the control room and leaned across the board operator's shoulder to look at the readouts. "Who's using HR Lab 4? I don't remember seeing an authorization request." The operator shrugged, and Haskins keyed the intercom into the lab. "This is Prometheus control room. Who's using HR Lab 4?" In the hazardous research lab, Dylan and Cliff listened to Haskins's voice and exchanged smug grins. "HR Lab 4, this is Prometheus control room. Respond, please." *************** Continued in Pt. 2/7 Leanne Shawler volterra@sd.znet.com http://www.znet.com/~volterra/leanne.html ************************************************************** Lois & Clark: Season 5 http://www.fortunecity.com/tattooine/mothership/60/season5.htm text only version at: http://www.fortunecity.com/tattooine/mothership/60/s5text.htm ************************************************************** Midnight Dreaming: The Original Anthony Warlow Home Page http://www.zweb.com/volterra/anthony.html ************************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 19 Oct 1997 15:02:29 -0700 Reply-To: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" Sender: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" From: Leanne Shawler Subject: S5: Episode 4 (part 2 of 7) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Continued from Act 1 (Pt. 1/7): Since their earlier conversation, the living room had acquired a pronounced lived-in appearance. Clark's suit coat hung drunkenly over the back of the couch, anchored by one sleeve, while his tie had fallen to the floor and been kicked under the coffee table. Lois's jacket lay in a wad in the corner of the couch, and her shoes had found resting places by the fish tank and against the kitchen door. The couple on the couch was too lost in each other to notice the disorder, their mouths clasping and unclasping moistly, their sighs and soft moans filling the room as they inched further down on the sofa. Clark's shirt was unbuttoned and hung loose from his pants; Lois's sleeveless top was unzipped halfway down the back; and their hands eagerly sought the smoothness of exposed skin. As his hand slid under the edge of her top, Lois lifted her head from a deep kiss and breathlessly said, "You know what I love about being married? We aren't interrupted all the time." Clark couldn't resist the urge to tease her, and he stiffened and raised his head in his "I hear a cry for help" pose. "I had to mention it," Lois groaned. "What do you hear?" He grinned and leaned forward, catching her earlobe in his mouth and sucking it gently. "Your breath catches when I do that." He nuzzled his way down the side of her neck. "And that. And your heart's doing one-thirty." His hand slid up her thigh till his fingertips were under the edge of her mini-skirt, and he smiled against her neck. "One-forty." Lois pressed her hand to the center of his bare chest, her fingers curving over his strong pectoral muscle. "So's yours." Clark slid one arm under her legs and the other behind her back as he stood up. "So, where are we going?" Lois asked saucily, looping her arms around his neck. "To find some room to work." He started toward the stairs. "I like to work at the kitchen table," she said conversationally, and he stopped in surprise. "I can really spread out there." Halfway through that piece of silliness, Clark started grinning. "We'll try that later," he said and silenced her by kissing her as he continued toward their bedroom. *************** In HR Lab 4, on Prometheus, the hum of building power had increased to a roar. Dylan, frowning, arms folded across his chest, studied the numbers scrolling up the monitor. He leaned down and tapped in a command on the keyboard, but nothing happened. The roar of power continued, the numbers continued to scroll up the monitor, and the lights visible through the window between the rooms stayed red. He flung himself into the chair in front of the keyboard and typed in a series of commands, looking up every few seconds to see the result. Cliff raked one hand through his hair. "What is it? What's happening?" "Shut up!" Dylan snapped. He tried command after command, his fingers flying over the keys. His fist suddenly smashed down on the keyboard, startling Cliff. "Oh god, oh god!" "What *is* it?" Cliff demanded. "The program's caught in a feedback loop, and now T3's running wild. It's pulling power from all the solar arrays." Aghast, Cliff stared at Dylan, running calculations through his mind and coming to the same inescapable conclusion. "We've got to get out of here!" he cried and ran for the door. Dylan snagged his coat sleeve. "Where are you going to run? When T3 blows, the whole station'll go up with it." Cliff slid down the wall, crumpling onto the floor, his back pressed to the locked door. The hellish pulsing of red warning lights reflected on his face like flickering flames. Dimly, over the roar of building power, he could hear fists thudding against the door. "Dear God, there's over 300 people living here." *************** "Okay," the security guard outside HR Lab 4 said into his shoulder mike, "I've got a Dr. Cliff Benton and a Dylan Tierney in custody. They came shooting out of the lab a minute ago." Dylan jerked away and tried to grab the mike, but the second security guard caught him by the arms and yanked him back. "Haskins!" the programmer yelled. "It's Tierney. T3's in a feedback loop! We can't stop it!" In the control room, Rick Haskins and the board operator listened to Dylan's frantic voice. "Do you hear me? It's going to blow!" The board operator hit a series of buttons and checked one of his monitors. He nodded. Tight-lipped, Haskins keyed the general intercom for module G. "This is Haskins. We are evacuating module G to run a test of the environmental seals. Evacuate module G immediately. Code 5. Testing will begin in 15 minutes." Haskins' voice echoed through the labs and hallways of module G. "Repeat. This is a Code 5 evacuation of Module G. Evacuate module G immediately to begin a test of environmental seals. Testing will begin in 14 minutes and 45 seconds." *************** Lying next to his wife on their comfortable double bed, Clark watched his fingers drift across the smooth curve of her cheek and down the length of her throat. "You are so beautiful," he murmured. "My memory never matches up to reality." He bent down to touch his mouth to hers in a butterfly-light kiss. Lois reached for him, wanting to deepen the kiss, but he resisted, brushing his parted lips, as light as a breath, across her cheeks and eyelids and temples. The airy touch sensitized her skin, and she shivered as he continued down the side of her face and neck. "Clark, please," she whispered, digging her nails into his strong, bare shoulders. He lifted his head and smiled into her beautiful eyes. "Ticklish? Or impatient?" She clasped the sides of his face. "You're not the only one who lost your patience when we got married." She raised her head to press her lips against his, sucking his lower lip into her mouth and exploring the smooth inner edge with her tongue. When she pulled away, Clark murmured in protest, and his head followed hers back down until his mouth captured hers. *************** "Rick, it's no good," the board operator said, an edge of hysteria sharpening his voice. "Even knowing what Tierney did, I can't stop it." "Can you limit it to module G?" Haskins asked. His subordinate shook his head, swallowing again and again. "When T3 blows, Prometheus is going up with her." Haskins stared at the board operator blankly, as if he hadn't heard--or understood. Then he reached across the board and opened the phone link with EPRAD. "Ground control, this is Prometheus. . . ." He put his hand over the mike and said, "Up that evacuation order to code 1. I want everyone out of G so we can close the airlocks and undock the module." "That isn't gonna do any good." "Shut up and do it," Haskins answered fiercely. "I have an idea." *************** In module G, people poured out of labs and offices, running, trying to keep ahead of the airlocks that slammed shut behind them. The evacuation was made hideous by the whooping of an emergency siren and strobing red lights. An older man fell, and a young man and woman each grabbed an arm and helped him through the airlock before it closed. *************** In the control room, Haskins asked, "How long?" The board operator, his panic under control for the moment, looked at his monitors. "About twenty-five minutes." "This has got to work," Haskins muttered. "Just cross your fingers and pray he listens to TV." *************** Lois lay on top of Clark, her face pressed against the curve between his shoulder and neck. She traced the hard swell of one of his pecs, smiling to herself as she recalled their recent lovemaking. His lips brushed the top of her head while one hand trailed down the gentle curve of her back and settled at her waist. She lifted her head and looked into his loving brown eyes, her own gaze distant and dreamy. "Oh, Clark, that was . . . incredible." A tender smile pulled at the corners of his mouth, and he cupped his free hand over her cheek. "It keeps getting better." She smiled and turned her head to kiss the palm of his hand. "I know. I missed you this last week." "I hated being away from you, but security for the peace summit kept me busy, and you'd've been way too distracting." Her hand slid upward from his waist, past the hard six-pack stomach, over the solid curve of a pectoral muscle, across the taut nipple, onto a shoulder strong enough to lift part of a space station into orbit. "I'm glad I can still distract you, even after a year of marriage." Clark shivered and closed his eyes briefly, then opened them to meet her hot, dark gaze. "Are you kidding? Didn't I make that clear enough?" "I'm a little slow tonight," she began, tracing the outline of his beautiful mouth and smiling again when he kissed her finger. "Maybe you should show me again. . . ." Lois pulled his head to hers and kissed him. Clark deepened the kiss hungrily, his mouth slanting across hers, his tongue slipping between her parted lips. She welcomed his loving invasion and slid her tongue over his--when she suddenly felt his body stiffen. He lifted his head, that all-too-familiar expression on his face, and she resisted the urge to pull him back down and kiss him until he forgot everything but her. "Is this for real?" she asked, hoping he was just teasing her again. "A TV report next door." He frowned. "An emergency of some kind. They're asking for Superman. Lois--" She released him, and he left their bed in a blur as she reached for her robe. Belting the robe around her as she went, she followed him into the living room. He had changed into the Suit and was standing in front of the TV, watching a news bulletin, his jaw hard and determined. "--ten minutes left, and still no word from Superman. Back to you, Carmen." The anchor on LNN faced the camera, her expression appropriately somber. "Thank you, Mike, for that report from EPRAD. If you've just joined us, we have a report of a runaway reactor on the Space Station Prometheus that is expected to go critical and explode in another ten minutes. The blast could destroy the space station, killing the 317 colonists on board. Authorities at EPRAD are trying to contact Superman--" Lois clutched his arm. "Oh, God, Clark--Mrs. Platt and Amy are up there." "I know." He took a deep breath and kissed her, cupping her face with his hand. "I have to go." She covered his hand with hers and turned to kiss his palm. "Be careful. I need you to come back." "I will," he promised, and opening the window, rocketed into the night sky. Behind him, Lois stared up at the star-strewn sky, trying not to think of how dangerous a space rescue was, even for Clark. She rubbed her right hand over her wedding band nervously. He would be okay, she told herself. He would rescue the colonists somehow and return safely. He had to. *************** After a flight to Prometheus that pushed the limits of his speed, he was met and swiftly escorted to the control room. There, Clark faced a grateful Rick Haskins who didn't waste any time in thanks. "We've undocked module G--the module containing the runaway reactor--" "And you want me to tow it away from the space station," Clark finished. "Yes," Haskins replied, relieved by the super hero's quick understanding. "We can't shut it down, but you might be able to get it out of range before it blows up." Clark didn't hesitate. "Show me where module G is, so I can get started. We're almost out of time." *************** At orbital height, space was cold and silent, the dancing molecules of atmosphere too widely spread for even Clark to breathe, and he took a deep breath before he left the security of the station--and held it. Outside Prometheus, he spared a moment to study the undocked module. Module G was just like the module he had lifted into orbit, so he knew he could move it, and towing it by one of its launch legs would probably be the fastest way to get it clear of the area. Clark quickly found a hand-hold and began pulling. Nothing happened, and he threw all his strength and will into overcoming the inertia of the huge module. If he didn't get it clear of Prometheus before it exploded . . . He felt it shudder, and he dug deep for power he didn't think he had. His heart pounded; his muscles bulged with his effort; air that he couldn't spare hissed between his clenched teeth. Please . . . please, he prayed as precious seconds ticked off the clock in his head. The shuddering grew-- --and all at once the module lurched after him. Once it was moving, it took much less effort to keep it going, and Clark put his energy into building up as much speed as possible. The space station seemed to fall away from him as he tore through the eternal night with the module in tow. *************** Inside the control room, the board operator monitored Superman's distance from the space station. He glanced at the screen counting down to the explosion. "Well?" Haskins asked. He leaned over his subordinate's shoulder. A muscle jumped in the operator's jaw, and he shrugged. "It'll be close." *************** Hurtling through the trackless dark, Clark strained for still more speed, but he was out of time. Behind him, the body of the module exploded soundlessly in a bloom of red and yellow flame. He felt the quaking through the metal skin of the launch leg and threw a glance over his shoulder to see the conflagration racing toward him. The shock wave of the blast smashed into him as he flung himself away from the module. he cried. Tumbling like a rag doll in an avalanche, he streaked through space at a terrifying speed, enveloped in a peculiar red-to-blue aurora. Battered, aching, helpless to slow himself, trying to stave off the suffocating death that waited beyond his graying consciousness, Clark reached for Lois, clinging to the thought of her as the stars cartwheeled around him. Somewhere, sometime later, the shock wave released him from its grip. Blackness, speckled with stars. A cold, hair-prickling shudder ran down his back as he felt the first pressure in his chest that reminded him he couldn't hold his breath indefinitely. He spun to face the way he had come and saw the hard glare of the sun, the disk only a little smaller than it appeared from earth. Muscles that had tensed with fear relaxed, and he scanned space for the blue marble of a planet he called home. Nothing. God, he must be on the night side. No blue beacon to guide him home. Using his enhanced vision, he tried again . . . and again . . . and found a hair-thin crescent of light almost beneath him. He rocketed toward it, toward earth . . . and safety . . . and Lois. *************** Clark hovered unsteadily outside the window of their townhouse. His head hurt and his vision still tried to red-out at the edges after his desperate flight back to the atmosphere, and he wanted more than anything to sink into Lois's arms and let her surround him with the comfort of her love. He reached out and pushed against the window, but it didn't give way under his touch. He frowned. Closing the window after he left was one thing, but locking it? He tapped lightly on the glass, his eyelids drooping while he waited for her to answer. When he heard the window open, he opened his eyes-- --and his mouth fell open. Lois's short crop was gone; instead, long hair was held in a clip at the nape of her neck. She stared at him in stunned disbelief. "Lois?" She started crying, her breath catching a little as tears spilled down her cheeks. "God, Clark, I was so afraid you were dead." Her crying hurt him worse than the nuclear blast or the oxygen deprivation had. Silently damning the newscasters for scaring her with premature reports of his death, he stepped into their living room and took her in his arms to comfort her. "Lois, honey--" At the endearment, she began to cry harder. Clark frowned in bewilderment but continued, "--it's okay. The explosion knocked me halfway to the Moon, but it didn't do more than give me a headache." He didn't figure this was a good time to mention that he had nearly died from lack of oxygen before he reached Earth. "I came right back." That brought her head up, and Lois searched his concerned brown eyes. Her tears stopped, and she wiped her cheeks with her hands. Backing out of his arms, she shook her head and studied his face as if hhe'd suddenly sprouted horns. "But, you didn't, Clark. You didn't come right back." She looked hurt and accusing--and puzzled. "You've been gone for three years." END ACT 1; CONTINUED IN ACT 2 (Pt. 3/7) ************************* Leanne Shawler volterra@sd.znet.com http://www.znet.com/~volterra/leanne.html ************************************************************** Lois & Clark: Season 5 http://www.fortunecity.com/tattooine/mothership/60/season5.htm text only version at: http://www.fortunecity.com/tattooine/mothership/60/s5text.htm ************************************************************** Midnight Dreaming: The Original Anthony Warlow Home Page http://www.zweb.com/volterra/anthony.html ************************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 19 Oct 1997 15:03:15 -0700 Reply-To: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" Sender: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" From: Leanne Shawler Subject: S5: Episode 4 (part 3 of 7) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Continued from Pt. 2/7: ACT 2 In the living room, Lois took the clip out of her hair and shook her dark mane loose around her shoulders. Clark came downstairs, a black T-shirt outlining his strong shoulders and pecs, and worn jeans fitting the muscular columns of his legs. "You kept all my things," he said. "Uh-huh," she replied absently. She lifted her gaze to his face--and saw the exhaustion, the grayish tinge under his skin. "Clark, what happened?" she asked, placing a hand on his chest. He hesitated. "I . . . ran out of air before I made it back. I came to in a crater in Antarctica." She drew a shuddering breath. "Oh, God, that's what--When you didn't come back after the explosion, the newscasters dragged out that footage from when you went to stop the Nightfall asteroid. They kept playing the bit about you needing the oxygen tank, and they must've reminded us a hundred times that you couldn't survive without air." Her voice was high and strained. "The--the memorial service was two weeks later. I covered it for the Planet." Her voice broke, and she turned away, her shoulders shaking. Clark's hands closed gently over her shoulders. "Lois . . . I'm sorry--so sorry you had to go through that." She laughed softly through her tears. "Why are *you* apologizing? You nearly died . . ." Her voice broke on the word, and she turned and buried herself in his arms, muffling her sobs against his broad chest. "I was so scared for you. And so lonely." He stroked her dark hair, his cheek resting against the silky strands as his other hand held her close. "I was scared, too," he admitted. "I was afraid of dying out there and not seeing you again." Lois slid her arms around his waist, giving comfort as well as taking it. She rubbed her wet eyes against his shirt and lifted her head, smiling valiantly. "I don't think I'd've made it without your parents. They were--" He stiffened. "My parents? Oh, God, they think I'm dead, too." He glanced over at their phone. "I need to call them." She grabbed his arm when he moved. "No, Clark, wait. You need to meet someone first." "Lois--" he began impatiently. "Please, Clark," she said, "this is important." Looking into her beautiful, pleading eyes, he acknowledged to himself that he was never going to be able to deny her anything, and once again, he set aside his own concerns to meet her need. "Okay." Clark followed Lois upstairs to their spare room and waited in the doorway while she flipped on the light. He caught his breath. The room had changed beyond all recognition: painted Supermen soared on the walls; a pile of yellow blocks and a blue plastic dump truck lay on the floor by the closet door; and red pipe-frame bunk beds filled one wall. A dark-haired little boy--about two, Clark estimated--slept on the bottom bunk. Lois went over to the bed and gently touched the child's 0cheek. He opened drowsy brown eyes and looked up and smiled, rubbing his eyes and holding his arms up to her. "C'mon, sweetie," she murmured, picking him up and carrying him on the side of her hip with practiced ease. Clark went still, studying the dark-haired, brown-eyed toddler in Lois's arms. "Lois?" His voice cracked. The little boy's eyes kept drifting shut, and his thumb was firmly buried in his mouth. Lois stroked the child's silky hair and smiled as he leaned his head against her shoulder. She took a deep breath. "Clark, I don't know how you're going to take this or what to say--because it's so big. Maybe that's how you felt about telling me that you were Superman, because that was big, too, but it was mostly just your secret. But this isn't, so I can't let it go on like you did, because you have to know--" "--Sweetheart," he interrupted. He'd have laughed if he weren't so close to tears. Some things never changed. "Just tell me." She bit her lip, reining in her runaway emotions. "Clark, this is our son. Clark Jerome Kent, Jr." An expectant little smile crept across her face as she added, "CJ, for short." CJ. She had named their baby for him and for the young descendent they had cared for. Tears stung his eyes. "Our son . . . Oh god, Lois." He drew both of them into his arms, pressing his face against the side of hers. *************** Martha was crying, leaning against Jonathan's shoulder, her hand covering her mouth as she held the cordless phone to her ear. Jonathan had the other phone, and he was murmuring, "My boy, my boy." Clark sat alone in the living room and swallowed, still shaky from the discovery that he was a father. "This is so hard, Mom. I just saw you last weekend, and now I find out you thought I was dead for three years." Jonathan began, "Son, we knew nothing would stop you from coming back if you were still alive--" "--but when you didn't come back, we finally gave up hope," his mother finished. "But Lois never did. She was certain you were alive . . . somewhere." "Lois-- Less than two hours ago, we were--" Clark bit off the rest of the sentence, even though his parents probably had a good idea what he and Lois had been doing. "--and suddenly I'm the father of a two-year-old, and she had to go through all of it alone." "Not completely alone," Jonathan said. "Honey, Lois came to us right away, when you first vanished and again when she found out she was pregnant. And after CJ was born, we moved to Metropolis to give her a hand." "She's a special woman, son." "I know, Dad." She *had* to be special to put up with him. Martha chimed in, "And CJ's just the sweetest little thing. He's so much like you were at that age." Lois came into the living room then, and Clark's face lit with the smile he reserved for her. "Mom, Dad, I have to go, but I'll come by and see you tomorrow. . . . Okay, I will. Bye." He hung up the phone. "Mom said to tell you 'hi.' Did he get back to sleep okay?" She nodded. "Thank God he has your temperament." She met his warm brown gaze and added, as she had said on their first date so long before, "'The perfect son.'" He stepped closer to her, grasping her hands, a smile flickering at the corner of his mouth to let her know he remembered. "Mom said you were the only one who never lost hope." "I--I couldn't. I could feel you . . . reaching for me. It was like an open channel between us--" She sniffed and pulled her hands away to wipe her eyes again. "I just couldn't hear what you were trying to tell me." "Lois, honey." His hand cupped the side of her neck, his thumb stroking her cheek. "The thought of you kept me conscious--kept me *alive* after the reactor blew." She covered his hand with hers and closed her eyes. "The way you touch me--I've missed it so much." Clark bent down to kiss her, his lips clinging to hers, his other hand coming up to frame her face. The kiss deepened as the passion between them flared to life, and he moved closer to her, pressing the length of his body against hers. "Lois," he murmured, groping for the top buttons on her blouse to unfasten them and push the fabric off her shoulder. He broke off their kiss to trace his mouth across her bare shoulder. Lois shivered. She had dreamed of this, night after lonely night, putting herself to sleep in his arms, remembering his hands and mouth on her body-- --but after three years, the memories had almost become a dream, and she was unexpectedly afraid to face reality. Her withdrawal was subtle, more mental than physical, but Clark felt it and raised his head to ask, "Lois?" She couldn't meet his heated gaze. "I--uh-- Can we walk?" His eyes narrowed as he studied her face, but he nodded. "Okay." She pulled away, straightening her blouse and picking up the phone book to flip agitatedly through it. "Let me call the Papouloses. Patti can watch CJ until we get back." "Papoulos?" "Oh, that's right; you don't-- They live down the street. Kathleen works at the Planet, and her daughter Patti watches CJ when your parents can't." "Does she know?" "Know?" Clark gave their hand signal for flying, and Lois suddenly understood. "Oh. No, you were right. CJ's just an ordinary little boy. So far." *************** The street outside their townhouse was dark and deserted, and Lois and Clark walked side-by-side, not quite touching. "If I've got this right, one minute you were saving the space station, and the next, you were knocking at my--our window and it was three years later." At his nod, she continued, "It's pretty obvious that you leaped forward in time. But, how?" Clark began slowly, "I was at top speed by the time the reactor blew, and it just flung me away. I think maybe that extra boost put me over the speed of light for a second--and I wound up here. . . . Lois--" She recognized that tone. He had been patient and let her find a more neutral place for this conversation, but now he wanted an answer. And she didn't have anything to give him, except-- "I know, Clark. It's just . . . too soon. I look at you, and it's like double vision--the real you and the memories I've been hanging onto for three years. I can't . . . I just need a little time--before we . . ." Lois saw the longing and the quickly buried hurt in his expression, and she suddenly realized what this meant to him. In an instant, he had gone from a much loved and desired husband to an outsider again, locked out of his own bedroom. She laid a gentle hand on his arm. "Clark--" "It's okay, Lois," he said, a tiny, brief smile quirking one corner of his mouth. "I guess we both need some time to get used to this." *************** Their meandering path took them to the park where so many of the important events in their relationship had occurred, and they sat on the edge of the fountain. Lois trailed her fingers through the cool water as she thought about how her life had just turned upside-down again. Apparently, Clark had been thinking about the upheaval in his life, too. "Investigating gun-running into Somalia from South Yemen? That's the best you and Perry could come up with?" he teased. Oh god. How many times had he tried to cheer her up as he looked into the ruins of his life or dreams? She swallowed tears and tried to match his gallantry. "Coming up with a story isn't as easy as you think." She flicked water drops at him, and he ducked, grinning. "I don't know if you remember, but that's how Lois in the alternate Metropolis disappeared. Except it was the Congo . . . I think." His smile faded, and he looked up at the night sky, then turned back to say, "This is all so strange. Perry knowing. My folks living in Metropolis. You--*us*--being parents. CJ . . . Lois, I don't know how to deal with this." Lois stared at her clasped hands for a moment. "When you first disappeared, I didn't know how to go on. How to face each day without you. And thenn I found out I was pregnant . ." She swept a fall of hair behind one ear. "After all our hoping and worrying . . . and then you weren't there to share it." Raising her gaze to Clark's tense face, she gently laid her hand against his cheek. "Being pregnant with your baby gave me a reason to keep going. Especially when it had been so long and you still hadn't come back and it seemed like CJ was the only part of you I would ever have. . . ." She lowered her hand, her gaze focused on the past. After a long moment, she said, "I don't know how to deal with it either, Clark, except just to . . . go on." He closed his eyes against the pain in her expression. In his whole life, he had wanted nothing more than to make her happy, and it seemed like all he did was make her cry. "I love you, Lois. And I'll give you whatever time you need." She smoothed an unruly lock of hair off his forehead. "I know." *************** Clark drifted silently down the dark hallway, pausing at Lois's bedroom door. The door was ajar--so she could hear CJ at night, she had said--and he closed his eyes, listening for her soft breathing. She was asleep, her breathing deep and regular, the sound as familiar as his reflection in the mirror. An ache gripped his heart with what was almost a physical pain, and he slipped into the room, a quiet ghost from the past. As he had done before, he sat in the chair by the window and watched over her as she slept, finding peace in the nearness of his beloved. *************** "Mommy s'eepin'?" a little voice asked while small hands patted her cheek. "CJ, go 'way," Lois groaned and pulled the covers over her head. "It isn't time to get up yet." "I'm afraid it is, honey. I turned off the alarm so you could sleep while I got CJ ready." Her eyes flew open, and she yanked the sheet off her head. "Clark?" He was wearing dark slacks and a maroon dress shirt with the sleeves rolled back to the elbow, and he looked so like the Kansas farmboy who had befriended her all those years ago that a lump of tears gathered in her throat. He bent down and gently kissed her mouth. "Good morning." "It wasn't a dream," she whispered, touching his face. "Not unless we're having the same one." He smiled, and her heart swelled until she thought it would burst. She traced his lips with her thumb. "Daddy, Daddy! I wanna eat!" CJ demanded, interrupting their tender moment. Lois and Clark exchanged a rueful smile. "Daddy?" she asked as their son tugged impatiently at his father's arm. Clark stood up, adding hesitantly, "It's okay that I told him that, isn't it?" She tossed the covers back and sat up, swinging her legs over the edge of the bed, the thin night shirt tightening across her slender shape. "Of course it's okay--Daddy." He smiled stiffly as his dark-eyed gaze slid over her sleek curves and long bare legs. He swallowed--and looked down at his son, who was pulling on his hand and chanting, "B'eakfas' time, Daddy! Let's go eat!" "I think CJ's hungry," he said, and his small mimic echoed, "I'm hung'y." Clark laughed and let CJ lead him from the room. Over his shoulder, he told Lois, "Breakfast is ready when you are." *************** Continued in Pt. 4/7 Leanne Shawler volterra@sd.znet.com http://www.znet.com/~volterra/leanne.html ************************************************************** Lois & Clark: Season 5 http://www.fortunecity.com/tattooine/mothership/60/season5.htm text only version at: http://www.fortunecity.com/tattooine/mothership/60/s5text.htm ************************************************************** Midnight Dreaming: The Original Anthony Warlow Home Page http://www.zweb.com/volterra/anthony.html ************************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 19 Oct 1997 15:03:56 -0700 Reply-To: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" Sender: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" From: Leanne Shawler Subject: S5: Episode 4 (part 4 of 7) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Continued from Act 2 (Pt. 3/7): After dropping CJ off with Jonathan and Martha, Lois and Clark stepped off the elevator into the city room of the Daily Planet, and he paused for a moment, looking at the little changes that had been made in the past three years. In the pit, Jimmy Olsen glanced up from his computer, and his mouth fell open. He sprang out of his chair, whipping around his desk and up the ramp. "CK! CK! My God, you're here!" He hurled himself at his friend and hugged him with so much enthusiasm that he rocked Clark back on his heels. "Jimmy, it's good to see you," Clark said, hugging the younger man in return, clapping him on the back. He held him at arms length. "Hey, look at you." Jimmy's hair was shorter around the ears and neck than it had been three years earlier, and he wore a sports coat over an open-throated shirt and Docker-type slacks. He grinned. "You know how it is. The flannel shirts weren't professional enough. But, CK, you haven't changed a bit." "Thanks." Their noisy greeting had attracted attention from the other staff members who flooded up the ramp to greet Clark. For a few minutes, he was busy shaking hands and accepting kisses on the cheek from the people who had known him three years before. Jimmy stayed close by his side, pelting him with questions. "CK, what happened? Where've you been?" Clark emerged from yet another perfume-scented embrace, blushing as he met Lois's gaze. "It's a long story, Jimmy. Let me go say hi to Perry and I'll give you the whole scoop." Clark drew Lois within the shelter of his arm as the three pushed through a crowd swollen with curious newer employees, and this time, Lois was the one fielding questions. "Yes, this is my--my partner. He's been sloughing off for the past few years." Clark stiffened, and she gave him a questioning look and nudged him in the ribs. "But he better be rested up now. Kerth nominations are just a couple of months away." When they left the crowd behind, Jimmy asked, "So, CK, have you seen the little surprise package you left with Lois?" "Jimmy!" she scolded. Pulling out of his abstraction, Clark said, "What? Oh--" He shot a glance at Lois, a blush darkening his cheeks. "Yeah, CJ and I have been getting to know each other." Jimmy laughed and slapped him on the back. "CK, my man!" he said with approval. Perry White, editor of the Planet, was waiting for them at the door of his office, his smile as bright as if he'd just found Elvis alive and been given the exclusive interview. "Clark--Clark," he said, shaking the younger man's hand and clapping him on the shoulder with his other hand. "Lois kept tellin' me you were alive somewhere, but I never thought . . ." He cleared his throat noisily. "I'm just glad you're back, son. We--Metropolis--" He broke off suddenly, catching himself and nailing Jimmy with his best editor-in-chief glare. "Olsen, your column's due on my desk in an hour if you're makin' today's edition." "Column?" Clark asked. "Computer information column--three times a week," Jimmy answered proudly, and Clark raised his eyebrows in an "I'm impressed" look. Jimmy continued, "But, Chief, I want to hear what happened to CK." "*After* your column's in," Perry told him. Seeing Jimmy's dejection, Clark intervened. "I'll come by your desk and give you the whole story," he promised. Jimmy flashed him a quick grin. "Thanks, CK." Walking backwards, he started toward his desk as the other three entered Perry's office. The kid who had taken his place as "go-fer" stopped him. "Jimmy, who's that with Lois?" "Her other half," he replied and shook his head ruefully, realizing what Clark's reappearance meant to his daydreams about Lois. "Looks like Lane and Kent are back in business." *************** "Lemme get this straight," Perry said. "The gun-runners found you hidin' on their boat, and they were gonna shoot you, so you dove overboard--in the middle of the ocean--" "The Gulf of Arden, actually," Clark added. He hated these excuses; he was a poor liar and it showed. "The Gulf of Arden," Perry repeated slowly. "And a storm drove you to a deserted island where you were stranded till a freighter picked you up a couple of days ago. Is that right?" Lois flung Clark an "I-told-you-so" look. They had heard that tone from Perry too many times--usually when he was shooting down a story they wanted to write or deriding their research or otherwise questioning the intelligence of his top two reporters. Clark shrugged and nodded at the editor. Perry stared at them for another moment, shaking his head. "That's the sorriest excuse for a story I've ever heard," he finally said, "but I wouldn't'a believed half the crazy things that happened to you two if I hadn't seen 'em, so I guess this isn't any worse." "You and Lois didn't leave me with a lot of room with that 'gun-running into Somalia' story," Clark complained, a faint grin belying his grumbling tone. Lois poked him in the side. "Just be glad we bothered to cover for you," she said, and Perry heard the undercurrent of teasing in her voice. His eyes stung briefly, and he turned away, hiding his emotion by moving around his desk to sit in his chair. It had been so long, and he had almost given up on ever seeing the Lois that Clark had painstakingly dug out of her armor-plated shell. But he wasn't about to tell either of them that. "Well, Clark, if you want your old job back, it's yours." "Thanks, Perry," Clark said gratefully. "I appreciate that." The graying editor nodded. "Just start bringin' in some front page stories. That'll be thanks enough. That and seein' you--the *other* you--cleanin' the criminals off the streets," he said with satisfaction. "It'll be good to run Superman exclusives again. In fact, why don't you write that one up, Clark? 'Superman Returns.'" "Uhh, I don't--" Clark began, frowning. Lois cut across him. "Superman isn't back yet, and he isn't *going* to be. Not for a while." "What? I thought you told me--" His head pointed to Clark, and he wiggled his eyebrows up and down. "--You know." "No, that's true," Lois said. "But . . ." She looked at Clark for help. "Clark Kent and Superman can't disappear and reappear together, or people'll guess. And then Lois and CJ and my folks and everyone I care about will be in danger." Perry White frowned. "All right," he said reluctantly. Then he pointed at Clark. "But you make sure no one scoops us on the 'return' story." Clark grinned. "I think you can pretty much count on that one, Chief. Did you have something you wanted me to start working on?" "Not yet. Help Lois with her story--she's been draggin' her feet on it, and I want it ready for tomorrow's paper." "Thanks, Perry," Lois said sarcastically, starting for the door. "Oh, and, Clark--" He turned back. "Yes, Chief?" "When you're done spreadin' that cock-and-bull desert island story, I wanna hear the *real* story." He nodded. "Okay." *************** At Lois's desk, Clark stood behind her, one hand on the back of her chair, and leaned forward to look at the story she called up on her monitor. "May I?" he asked, and she scooted the keyboard toward him. He rapidly paged through the screens, reading the story at superspeed while she watched his look of concentration. It had been so long since he had read over her shoulder like this, and it felt so right--except his hand should have been on her shoulder. "So, what's the problem?" he asked. Then Lois realized what he was referring to, and she blushed. "I--um--Perry wants 2500 words, and I can't stretch it past 2000. And I'm padding to get that." "I noticed." She raised her eyebrows at his quick agreement, and he reflected the look back at her. "You don't want a partner who can't pull his weight, do you?" he challenged. There was something odd about the way he said "partner," but Clark continued before she could question him. "How 'bout a sidebar on--on the incidence of family hostage situations?" Lois wrinkled her nose. "Too narrow. What about the problems leading to custody battles? We could do a few interviews to go along with it." "Like Dr. Friskin and some combatants?" "Or survivors," she said dryly. He squeezed her shoulder in sympathy; then his eyes narrowed thoughtfully. "Survivors . . . that could work." He focused on her face. "Okay, how's this? Survivors of custody battles--how it affects them in later life." Lois nodded. God, she'd missed this--the way they bounced ideas off each other, each suggestion triggering a thought from the other. "I like that. I'll call Dr. Friskin while you track down some 'children of divorce' recovery groups." "Okay," Clark said and straightened up to look around the room. "That is, if I can find a phone." "Conference room?" she suggested, reaching for her receiver. He started across the large city room, but after a couple of steps, he turned back to the supply room for a notebook and pen. As he went, he nodded to familiar faces. Jimmy was typing frantically, so Clark didn't disturb him. Notebook in hand, he stepped back into the empty hallway and closed the supply room door just as Cat Grant, wearing a skin-tight mini-dress, sashayed past him. "Hi, Clark," she said in a husky, come-hither voice and blew him a kiss. "Hi," he said automatically, then realized whom he'd seen. "Cat?" He followed her around the corner into the city room, but she was nowhere in sight. Puzzled, he stopped. She had looked exactly as she had six years earlier, and even for someone who cultivated an air of blase sophistication, her total lack of response to his reappearance after three years was astonishing. He shook his head and crossed the room to Lois, who was just hanging up the phone. "When did Cat come back to the Planet?" he asked. "She didn't." Lois punched in another number and put the receiver to her ear. "But I just saw . . ." Clark lowered his glasses to scan the rooms leading off the city room. Nothing. He pushed his glasses back up, frowning. *************** At a table at the sidewalk cafe near the Planet, Lois spread out her notes, pushing several plates to one side as she did so. Clark smothered a grin, but she looked up and caught it. "What?" she asked. "I was remembering what you said about working at the kitchen table . . . where you could really spread out." She thought back. Then, "Oh!" and she laughed. "We never did get to try that." Clark's dark gaze snapped up to meet hers, and she shivered at the hot urgency in his expression. He touched her hand, and the heat and the shivering burrowed deep inside her. "Lois . . ." She could hardly breathe past the furious pulse in her throat. She'd forgotten how his desire awakened an immediate answer in her, and the uncontrolled response of her body--and her emotions--frightened her. Three years of burying those intense feelings took over, and she looked away. "I--uh--I forgot how much we used to laugh together," Lois managed breathlessly. Clark took a deep breath and pulled his hand back, his mouth tightening. He looked closed and withdrawn, just as he had the first time she turned down his proposal. She hated that expression on his open, loving face--and hated herself for putting it there. But--wasn't this the second time she'd seen it today? The first time . . . "What did I say earlier? When I was introducing you to the newer staff members." She saw him remember. "Nothing." "No, Clark, what was it?" she persisted. Lois Lane wasn't one of the top reporters in the country for nothing, and she wasn't going to let this fish wiggle off the hook. He saw her determination and shrugged. "You told them I was your partner." "And . . . ?" His gaze flicked up to hers, then dropped again to the table. "Lois, I'm not just your partner. I'm your husband. . . . Aren't I?" Was that it? That she had called him her partner rather than her husband? Relief brought her left hand from her lap so quickly that she knocked her purse to the ground, where it lay unnoticed. Lois placed her hand over his, her wedding band and engagement ring sparkling in the sunlight. Clark turned his hand to clasp hers, rubbing his thumb over the rings. He closed his eyes for a moment, and when he opened them again, the withdrawn look had been replaced by hope. His voice soft and husky, he asked, "Do you still love me?" She met his gaze squarely. "I never stopped." He lifted her hand to his lips. Lost in each other's gaze, they didn't notice the busboy clearing the table. "Honey . . ." Clark began, interlacing his fingers with hers. Smiling, Lois waited for him to continue-- --and her expression abruptly changed to wide-eyed surprise. "What?" Clark asked. "Is a historical re-enactment society meeting in Metropolis?" "You're asking me?" He turned around to look behind him and saw red-coated English soldiers marching past in formal battle lines, their rifles lowered to fire. A movement caught Clark's attention, and he saw several men in rough homespun dodge behind parked cars and level their muzzle-loaders at the English columns. An officer on horseback yelled, "Fire!" and the English guns spurted flame and lead balls--real lead balls, Clark saw in horror. A man in homespun crumpled in a heap, and car windows shattered along the street. But even as Clark yanked at his tie and started for cover, the soldiers vanished, and the only sounds in the street were the distant traffic and a crying child. Clark lowered his glasses and scanned the glass-littered street, but all the combatants were gone, even the man who had been shot. END ACT 2; CONTINUED IN ACT 3 (Pt. 5/7) ************************* Leanne Shawler volterra@sd.znet.com http://www.znet.com/~volterra/leanne.html ************************************************************** Lois & Clark: Season 5 http://www.fortunecity.com/tattooine/mothership/60/season5.htm text only version at: http://www.fortunecity.com/tattooine/mothership/60/s5text.htm ************************************************************** Midnight Dreaming: The Original Anthony Warlow Home Page http://www.zweb.com/volterra/anthony.html ************************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 19 Oct 1997 15:04:32 -0700 Reply-To: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" Sender: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" From: Leanne Shawler Subject: S5: Episode 4 (part 5 of 7) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Continued from Pt. 4/7: ACT 3 "Where are those two?" Perry muttered impatiently as he stood in front of the television with Jimmy at his side. "What's the use of havin' world-class reporters on staff when they're never a--" He heard the elevator open, and he turned around. "Lois! Clark! Get over here!" Clark grinned and ducked his head to hide it. With his life in a total upheaval, it was a pleasure to find that some things hadn't changed. He followed Lois, who said, "Perry, you'll never believe what we saw--" The editor held up his hand for silence. "Not now, Lois. Listen." "--peculiar appearances and disappearances today. Do we have--?" The LNN anchor paused, listening to her audio feed. "Yes, it-- We have video footage from a witness to the events at the EPRAD Space Center this morning." The screen switched to a grainy picture of a woman and two children posed in front of the space center door, waving madly to the camera, which then slued around to focus on the empty launch pad. Lois crossed her arms and rolled her eyes back at Clark. He was focused on the TV screen, but he glanced down and gently squeezed her shoulder, nodding back toward the picture. She looked back, and her shoulder stiffened under his hand as, in an instant, the amateurish picture of an empty launch pad filled with metal and burning gas and the roar of massive engines. "What the--?" The image on the screen staggered drunkenly, then pulled back from a zoom to a wide angle shot, the picture a blur of yellow and white until the autofocus caught up with the new viewpoint. There was a soft gasp from the Planet staff at the suddenly sharp image--of a launch vehicle on the launch pad, engines firing for lift-off. Clark recognized the space station module immediately, and his hand tightened on Lois's shoulder. After all, he had handled it--been nearly killed by it--only the day before. "Prometheus," he breathed in her ear. Her eyes widened, and she said what he couldn't, raising her voice to be heard over the thundering engines. "Perry, isn't that--isn't that the Prometheus?" Perry shot a look at the pair, his eyes narrowing on Clark's impassive face. He turned back to the television. "That was over seven years ago, Lois. You'll have to check it out." His last word boomed into the sudden silence as the launch vehicle vanished as abruptly as it had appeared. On the screen, a tour guide and her little flock of tourists cautiously raised their heads from the pavement. Then the scene cut to the LNN anchor. "That was uncut footage taken at the EPRAD Space Center earlier today. We have a report from Mike--" Perry drew his finger across his throat in a "cut-it" gesture, and the TV fell silent. "Well?" he asked Lois and Clark. "We saw something similar at lunch," she said. "A Revolutionary War battle in the middle of the street. I blinked and there they were, and then bang, they were gone." Clark nodded. "I saw it, too. I also saw--" He hesitated, recognizing the significance of the earlier encounter. "--Cat Grant in the hall this morning. She passed me and vanished in the news room." "Is Cat in town?" Lois directed the question to Perry. Clark shook his head. "You don't understand. Her hair, her clothes, the way she said 'hi'-- It was just like when I first joined the Planet." Perry frowned, thinking hard. "All right, you two. Get after this. I don't know what's goin' on, but there's a story in it, and I want the Planet to have it." He turned and headed to his office, signaling Jimmy's replacement to follow him. At Lois's desk, she and Clark discussed where to start. "Okay, what have we got?" She ticked off the incidents on her fingers. "Your Cat sighting--from six, seven years ago?" He nodded. "The Prometheus module at EPRAD--maybe seven years ago." "And the street battle with redcoats--over 200 years ago. Are these real? Are they hallucinations? Re-enactments?" "The bullets broke windshields in the cars on the street," Clark reminded her. "And I saw scorch marks on the launch pad after the module disappeared," she added, "And unless someone's figured out how to tape a hallucination . . ." He grinned. "I think we can eliminate that one. So, where to next?" They looked at each other. "S.T.A.R. Labs," they said in unison. *************** They exited the elevator into the parking garage, still discussing their story. "Three strange incidents with what in common?" Lois continued. "Apparent movement in time," Clark said. "They all occurred in Metropolis." "And all of them happened . . . since my return." Lois stopped digging through her purse for her keys and looked at him sharply. "Do you think--?" She stopped, feeling suddenly light-headed, and she grabbed for Clark, reassured by the solid feel of his biceps under her hands. He slid his arms around her, holding her protectively close. The cool, shadowy parking garage wavered-- "What's--" --and dissolved into sparkling sunlight. "--happening?" Lois finished. Clark looked around. Grass, flowers, trees. Patches of shade surrounding a sunlit meadow. The sun was warm on his head and shoulders, and he heard the soft hum of bees investigating the flowers, the distant whistles of courting birds, the murmurous song of tumbling water. The breeze smelled of flowers and green growing things. "I think *we* shifted." She raised her head, quickly taking in the sylvan setting. "If we're still in Metropolis, this must be the past." He shook his head. "No. This isn't wilderness. It's been planted, cared for." She started to protest, then stopped. "I guess you would know--farmboy." She slanted a look at him to see how he took the bantering reminder of her old snobbishness. "But it still looks wild to me." "Lois, Centennial Park looks wild to you," he teased, smiling over his shoulder as he stepped away, lowering his glasses to see what lay beyond their idyllic surroundings. Beyond the trees were ... more trees and artfully designed meadows like the one they were in. No towns, no farms, no industry. Just an enormous park, a playground for-- "There are some people about half a mile from here." "Clark, look at this!" The leashed excitement in her voice yanked him away from his explorations to her side. Lois had found a bench under a tree and was studying a control panel built into one of the arms. She skimmed a finger over the panel, and a woman suddenly appeared before them. "Welcome to Renaissance Park," the female figure said, her clothing vaguely reminiscent of what Tempus had worn when they first met him. Several signposts sprang up around her. "Please touch the appropriate marker to hear more about the park's services." Clark already had his glasses down and was scanning the strange woman. "Hologram," he said. "Hmmm. History, Presentations, Activities, Rest Stations, Exits," Lois read. She turned to Clark. "What do you think?" "I think this technology is way beyond anything we have today." "I know *that.* I meant, what do you think I should try?" "Rest Stations?" "Ha, ha." Her look would have withered a lesser man where he stood, but Clark saw the appreciative glint in her eye, and he grinned. She touched the 'History' signpost, then jerked her hand back, rubbing her fingers and thumb together. "It tingles," she explained at Clark's concerned look, "but it's solid." The holographic female returned. "Renaissance Park was established in 2215 to celebrate the reclamation of the previously despoiled coastal lands. With the harnessing of fusion technology and the subsequent elimination of fossil fuel pollution..." Above the hologram's voice, Clark heard a mechanical pumping sound, and he lowered his glasses to look at the ground beneath their feet. Deep under the surface, he saw a city, buildings reaching up to a bright but indeterminate sky, people walking or traveling on moving sidewalks. He pushed his glasses back up on his nose when Lois said, "Clark, you won't believe this. We're in--" "--Metropolis," they said together. The park wavered, and Lois tripped into Clark's arms as the grass and trees dissolved into the street in front of the Planet's parking garage. "That's worse than a ride on the Centrifuge," Lois said, swaying. Clark frowned in concern and kept one hand around her waist. "Are you okay?" She pressed the heels of her hands against her temples. "I think so. Or I will be, as soon as everything quits spinning." She lowered her hands and pressed them to his chest. "Clark, did I hear her say, '2215'?" He nodded, and she went on, "We traveled into the future! God, what a story. Do you think that's what those other apparitions are? People--objects--out of time?" "I think so, but, Lois--" "This is just incredible. We've got to get over to S.T.A.R. Labs and talk to Dr. Klein." She looked around. "Where's my Jeep?" "Inside the garage--where we were until we walked across that meadow." His agitation beat at her, but she didn't understand why he was so troubled. "What're you saying?" "Ten feet that way," he pointed back toward the garage, "and we'd have been inside that wall when we came back." Her eyes widened. "Like--like the tour that was nearly fried by Prometheus when it suddenly appeared on the launch pad." "Just like that." His voice was grim, and even through the glasses, she recognized Superman's stern visage. "We've got to get to S.T.A.R. Labs," she whispered, but this time, she wasn't thinking about the story. *************** Lois drove her jeep with her usual competence, while Clark wrote questions in his notebook to ask Dr. Klein. "Should we tell Dr. Klein we think Superman was in a time-travel accident?" he asked. She frowned at his uncertainty. "Sure. Why not?" He tapped the end of his pen against his notebook. "It's kinda risky, don't you think? He might . . ." "What? *Oh.*" Lois finally saw what he was worried about. "No, Clark, it's okay. He already knows." She smiled to herself, remembering. "He sure was surprised when he realized that I was the girlfriend Superman had been talking about." "He knows?" "He was my doctor while I was pregnant with CJ." At his look, she added defensively, "Well, after all the tests he ran on you, he knew more about Superman's physiology than anyone else." Clark still looked appalled, and Lois asked, "What?" He shook his head. "Nothing. It's just--I was worried about people finding out about our baby--about CJ--and now it seems like everyone knows." The cell phone rang, and Clark answered it while Lois eased the jeep through the heavy traffic. "Oh, hi, Mom," he said, then listened for a moment. "Dinner? Let me check with Lois." He covered the receiver and raised his eyebrows in question. She nodded. "Sure, but let her know we're working on a story, so we might be late." Nodding, he said into the handset, "Sounds great, Mom. But I'm not sure when we'll be done with this story. . . . Okay. Whatever you want to do will be fine. . . . See you then." He closed the cell phone. "Chicken and dumplings," he told Lois. She groaned, braking for a red light. "Your mom's dinners always cost me an extra hour on the treadmill." Clark's appreciative gaze slipped down her body. "It doesn't seem to have hurt you any." His voice was like a warm caress on her skin. Breathless, she turned to look at him--and promptly lost herself in his eyes. "Clark." The blare of several horns jerked her attention back to the road, and she guided the jeep down the street. *************** "Dr. Klein, we have a few questions for you," Lois said as she and Clark entered the scientist's lab at S.T.A.R. Labs. He looked up from the experiment he was monitoring and shoved his goggles on top of his head. "Lois--and *Clark*!" He stepped forward and shook Clark's hand vigorously. "It's good to see you're alive. What happened when--" he lowered his voice-- "Superman . . . vanished three years ago?" Clark frowned and glanced at Lois. At her encouraging nod, he took a deep breath, assuming a more Superman-like posture. "I didn't disappear anywhere. The explosion knocked me halfway to the moon, and I came back as quickly as I could. But when I arrived, three years had passed." "Hmm," Klein murmured to himself. "Could be relativistic time dilation." "What's time dilation?" Lois asked. The scientist focused on her. "When a body approaches the speed of light, time slows down for it relative to the rest of the universe." Clark considered his words. "So, if I was going fast enough, a few minutes might have passed for me while three years passed here on earth." Klein nodded. "That would follow the laws of physics as we know them." Lois broke in, impatient with their technical conversation. "Dr. Klein, about these mysteriously appearing and disappearing objects and people?" "Oh, yes. I have a theory about that." "Time displacements?" Clark asked. "That's what's happening, yes." Klein studied him for a moment. "When did you return--relative to these time displacements?" Clark glanced at Lois, and she shrugged and said, "About ten hours before the first recorded sighting." Klein let out his breath in a long sigh. "That's it. It's got to be time travel. It's the only thing that explains the ensuing pattern of chaos." "'Ensuing pattern of--' What're you talking about?" Lois asked. Her question aroused him from some theoretical daydream. "Didn't I say?" "No," Lois said. "Dr. Klein, what's your theory about the time displacements?" The scientist went into lecture mode. "Assuming that these people and objects are displaced in time rather than spontaneously generated, such historical cross-overs are probably the result of a tear in the space-time continuum." Lois blinked and automatically put on her reporter's "I-can-follow-anything" face, missing the dawning horror in Clark's eyes. "Which means?" she prompted. "Which means that the historical cross-overs will get worse until the orderly flow of time collapses." Then, at the look on his visitors' faces, he added in dismay, "Have I been too blunt again?" "Do you have any idea how long it might take?" Clark asked. Dr. Klein typed a few commands into his computer and turned back to the two reporters while the program loaded. "I've run some calculations and tried to model the effect, but . . . Well, let's just see what we've come up with," he added as the monitor flickered and displayed something that resembled a rug thrown over scattered toys, except the rug was like a fine mesh. Near one corner, the mesh was broken. As he typed in a few more commands, the tear began to spread like an unraveling sweater until the image no longer resembled a rug but a wad of loose, broken threads. "Hmmm," he murmured, frowning as he studied the numbers along the edge of the picture. He straightened up, glanced back at the monitor, then looked at Lois and Clark. "This is just a rough estimate, you understand, and I haven't even tested my hypothesis to be sure it's accurate--" Lois interrupted, "Dr. Klein, *please.*" "Well, at the current acceleration of occurrences, if you don't fix the situation within the next 36 hours, you won't be able to fix it at all." Clark broke the appalled silence that followed. "Fix it? What can I do?" Dr. Klein turned off the monitor and began closing down his other experiment, suddenly too busy to meet Clark's eyes. "Since your time-travel caused the tear--" Lois fired up in her husband's defense. "That's ridiculous! Time travel doesn't do that! I've--I've--" She hesitated then decided to share her experience with the scientist. "I've traveled in a time machine, and it didn't have an effect like this." "Really?" Dr. Klein was quickly distracted. "Who--" "We met a time traveler who--never mind that," she said, feeling Clark vibrating with impatience next to her. "It doesn't matter. What matters is that we traveled through time and *nothing happened.*" Frowning, Dr. Klein considered his hypothesis. After a moment, he shook his head. "No, I know I'm right. It's the only thing that--Maybe a machine designed to cross time can--" He broke off, staggering. At the familiar sensation, Clark pulled Lois against him and reached for Dr. Klein's arm as the walls wavered-- --and dissolved into a grimy street in front of a rundown building, the paint hanging in shreds from the wooden siding and eaves. Clark looked down the street and saw several old-fashioned cars parked along the curb; men in double-breasted suits and wide-legged pants and fedoras; women in calf-length low-waisted dresses, bobbed hair, and cloche hats; boys in knickerbockers and newsboy caps. Perhaps the people had been walking along the street before, but now they gathered in whispering, finger-pointing groups. "When?" Lois asked, lifting her head from Clark's chest and pushing herself a few inches away. "Nineteen-twenties, I think," he answered. Beside them, Dr. Klein shook his head and looked around. "That was--" He noticed their surroundings and shook his head again, as if to remove wisps of a lingering dream. "This is incredible! Where--? When--?" He muttered to himself, "Twenties, I'd guess. Those look like flappers. But where? Metropolis?" Fascinated and eager to explore their surroundings, the scientist stepped away, and Clark tightened an unyielding hand on his arm. "Dr. Klein, don't move. We're exactly where we were before--" "--And if you move, you could end up inside a wall when we go back," Lois finished. Dr. Klein's eyes widened, and what he saw in their faces seemed to convince him because he inched closer to them. Taking advantage of his uncharacteristic silence, Lois continued, "You were saying something before this time shift about what a time machine could or couldn't do?" "What? Oh, yes." He dragged his attention away from their curious audience. "I suppose that a machine designed for it might slip between the threads in the fabric of time, so to speak, but that isn't what happened here. You--Superman-- you--" He looked confused: knowing that Clark Kent was Superman and looking Clark in the face and calling him Superman were two different things. "It was a brute force accident that brought you here--or *there,*" he added, flustered by the contradictions of their current location. Lois opened her mouth to question him further, when the shriek of skidding tires drowned out her words. A car careened around the corner, and a dark-suited man leaned out the window, firing bursts of bullets from an automatic rifle. Up and down the street, people flung themselves to the pavement, their terrified screaming competing with the sound of the groaning engine, the rapid-fire bark of the rifle, and the squealing tires. "Get *down*!" Clark ordered over his shoulder when the spray of bullets turned on them, his hands a blur as he caught the lead pellets. Dr. Klein dropped awkwardly to the ground, with Lois following more slowly. She lifted her head, watching as Clark pulled down his glasses and focused his heat vision on the gangster's rifle. The gun began to smoke and then glow, and the thug swore violently and dropped it in the street. He yelled something at the driver, and the car shot off as the street and buildings again wavered-- --and dissolved into the familiar walls of Dr. Klein's lab at S.T.A.R. Labs. Clark squatted down and helped Lois sit up. She clung to him for a moment, finally managing a shaky laugh. "This keeps up, and I'll have to get something for motion sickness. Dr. Klein--" She turned to look at the scientist, who still lay on the floor in a curiously forlorn heap. Clark frowned, releasing her to reach for the other man, and froze for an instant as he touched the doctor. Slowly, reluctantly, Clark turned him over, dreading confirmation of what he had felt. Dr. Klein's eyes were half-open, and only a tiny spot of red showed on his white shirt when his tweed jacket fell open. Lois gasped, her hand to her mouth, while Clark's hand slipped over the scientist's eyes, easing them closed. "Oh, God, Clark. He's--" "--dead." His head bowed over the still body. "I should have been paying more attention. I could have stopped those gangsters before they fired a shot." His pain and guilt puzzled her, drawing her away from the horror of Dr. Klein's death. Hadn't Clark come to terms with his limitations long ago? But his need pulled at her, and she set a gentle hand on his shoulder. "Clark . . ." He stubbornly kept his head down, and she continued, "You can't do everything. It wasn't your fault." "No. He died because I was careless . . . distracted." He raised his head, and she saw the tears reddening his eyes. "Lois, it could have been you as easily as him." "But it wasn't. I'm okay." She cupped his face between her hands. "I'm *o-kay*." "I know." Pulling her into his arms, Clark leaned his forehead against hers. "But what about next time, and the next?" "Clark, you can't torture yourself with that. We've always--" He shook his head. "I don't mean all the other things we've gone through. I mean, this time thing. This tear in space-time. It's just going to get worse, and now we've lost the only person who had any idea how to fix it." END ACT 3; CONTINUED IN ACT 4 (Pt. 6/7) ************************* Leanne Shawler volterra@sd.znet.com http://www.znet.com/~volterra/leanne.html ************************************************************** Lois & Clark: Season 5 http://www.fortunecity.com/tattooine/mothership/60/season5.htm text only version at: http://www.fortunecity.com/tattooine/mothership/60/s5text.htm ************************************************************** Midnight Dreaming: The Original Anthony Warlow Home Page http://www.zweb.com/volterra/anthony.html ************************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 19 Oct 1997 15:05:09 -0700 Reply-To: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" Sender: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" From: Leanne Shawler Subject: S5: Episode 4 (part 6 of 7) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Continued from Pt. 5/7 ACT 4 Lois stared at Clark in horror, realizing the burden of guilt he was carrying. Dr. Klein's death was more than just the loss of one life; it could mean the end of all life. "Oh, God," she whispered. But Lois Lane had never quietly accepted the inevitable before, and she wasn't starting now. "Then it's up to us, Clark. We have to figure out how to fix this tear." Despite her brave words, the blind, inward-turning look on his face frightened her; he was still buried under the weight of his responsibility for this entire situation. But without him, they couldn't fix what had gone so horribly wrong. Scared and more in need of his quiet strength than she was willing to admit, Lois grabbed Clark's shoulders and shook him--or tried to. "Clark, snap out of it!" she cried. "Dr. Klein said we're running out of time!" The raw edge of panic in her voice reached him, and his eyes focused on her face. He looked puzzled for an instant; then his expression sharpened as he thought about what she had said. "Lois, how can *we* fix something like this?" She shook her head, adding stubbornly, "Dr. Klein thought you could, so there's got to be a way." "Yeah. Well, he said I was the one who tore it in the first place." Clark considered what had gone on since he rescued the Prometheus. "It was bad enough when I just thought the lives of 300 colonists were at stake, but this-- This is the end of everything." He shook his head, a sad smile tugging at one corner of his mouth. "This whole situation is so unreal that I keep thinking it must be a dream. And that I'll wake up with you in my arms and find out that none of this happened." Lois smiled sadly and placed her hand on his chest. "I know. I--" She stopped, a blaze of insight dawning on her face. "'None of this happened . . .' Clark, that's it! If you go back through the tear--" "--I can stop this whole thing before it happens," he finished, immediately grasping what she was trying to say. "But how do I get back to my own time?" *************** "How does he get back to his own time?" Lois said, scooping chicken and dumplings into a plastic bowl. Martha and Jonathan Kent's apartment had a large family kitchen, and the couple was at the double sink washing the dinner dishes. "I mean, even if we could figure out a way to boost his speed like the explosion did, how can we be sure he'll go *back* rather than further forward?" Martha paused, thinking as she held a plate with soap suds dripping into the dish water. She glanced at Jonathan, then let the plate slide into the rinse water. "It's been a while since I read Hawking," she began, "but if matter is still becoming more organized at this point in time, I think we can assume that the universe has a stronger pull toward order than chaos." Jonathan exchanged a smile with Lois behind Martha's head. He often teased his wife about her love of esoteric knowledge, but it was as much a part of her as her loving support and wry sense of humor. She saw their look but ignored it, continuing, "So if you manage to recreate the accident that brought Clark here, the universe will try to mend itself by sending him back to where he started." She paused again. "I think." Lois laughed and hugged the older woman. "No wonder Clark turned out the way he did, Martha." A child's giggle and a man's deeper growl interrupted them, and Lois turned back to see CJ, clean and clad only in a pair of briefs, shoot into the kitchen. Clark followed more slowly, growling ferociously and threatening his small runaway with horrible punishments. The front of his T-shirt and shorts were soaked, and he had soap suds in his hair. He clutched his son's fuzzy blue sleeper in one large hand. Lois thought he had never looked more gorgeous. CJ scampered across the tile floor toward her, pausing to look over his shoulder at his pursuer and giggling louder when Clark said, "And when I catch you, I'm gonna hold you down and tickle you." Clark lunged forward and grabbed CJ just before he reached Lois, and swung his laughing, shrieking son into the air. Tucked under his father's arm like a football, CJ tilted his head up and demanded, "Fly, Daddy!" Clark gave him a startled look--then relaxed when he saw the little boy holding his arms out like an airplane. "Up you go, CJ," he said, lifting his son above his head. Grinning at the lip-buzzing noise CJ considered appropriate for an airplane engine, Clark looked back at Lois and his parents. "Recreating the accident makes sense, but I don't know how I can set off an explosion of that size to bump up my speed." He waited a moment for a response, but his family just stared at him, and he smiled crookedly. "C'mon, ace, the airport's thisaway." Lois watched them leave, her expression sad and thoughtful. Jonathan put a gentle hand on her shoulder. "Are you okay?" "What?" Lois jerked, then tried to summon a reassuring smile. "I'm all right, Jonathan. I'm . . . fine." *************** Lois unlocked and opened the door of their townhouse, switching on the lights as she entered. Clark followed her, CJ asleep in his arms, and waited while she hung up her coat. She turned back from the coat rack and saw him brushing a kiss across his son's forehead, and her mouth twisted as she held back tears. He glanced up. "Lois?" She shook her head and wiped the corners of her eyes. "I wanted to see that for so long--the two of you together." A smile was beyond her, but she found a more cheerful expression and added, "We should get him to bed." Nodding, Clark trailed her across the living room and up the stairs to CJ's bedroom. Lois left the bedroom light off, the room lit only by the swath of light from the hallway. In the quiet dark, she turned back the covers on CJ's bed, and Clark laid him down on the brightly colored sheets. Stepping out of the way while she eased CJ out of his coat, Clark noticed the sheet pattern. "Superman?" he asked softly. "It's his heritage. Besides--" She gave him a sheepish smile over her shoulder-- "I still have my Superman pajamas." He gently squeezed her shoulder, imagining what she had gone through during the years without him. His hand fell away as she tucked the covers around CJ's shoulders and bent down to kiss his cheek, pausing to breathe in his sweet, clean scent. "Night-night, sweetie," she whispered and kissed him again. Clark drew a ragged breath. All his life, he had dreamed of having this: the woman who loved him, the child of his own blood . . . and now . . . He stroked his son's silky cheek with the backs of his fingers. "Goodnight, CJ," he murmured. "Goodnight, son." He followed Lois into the hallway and closed the door behind them. In the kitchen, he watched while Lois wandered about aimlessly. "Do you want some coffee?" she asked, opening a cabinet and staring into it. "No, thanks," he said. "Lois--" She turned around. "What?" Clark saw the uneasiness behind her restless searching, and he walked up to her and put his hands on her shoulders. "You've done a great job with CJ. He's happy and loving and secure. . . ." Lois listened quietly, her eyes filling with tears, and when he stopped, she cast herself into his arms with a sob. Clark tightened his arms around her, holding her close as she began to cry. "Honey, what's wrong?" he asked against her hair. "I didn't mean to make you cry." "Oh, Clark, it isn't that. It's--if you--if you manage to fix this tear--or whatever it is--CJ will be gone," she cried. She felt his sudden stillness and tried to explain. "Whatever made the reactor on the space station blow up happened while we were . . . making love." She looked into his solemn dark eyes. "So you'll have to get to Prometheus before that--to stop it, I mean--and that means CJ won't be conceived." Her gaze grew unfocused as she examined her feelings. "He'll never exist. . . ." Clark held her as if her touch were all that kept him upright and rested his cheek against her hair. "I know," he said softly. Lois pulled back to look at his face and saw grief and determination mingled in his expression. "You--? You've already thought of this," she realized. "When we were tucking him in, you were saying 'good-bye.'" "Weren't you?" She nodded, unable to trust her voice, and he continued, "Lois, if I don't do this--" "--I know," she interrupted. "All of time and space will unravel." "And then everyone will die--including you and CJ. No second chance. No nothing." Desperate for her to understand, he added, "I can't let that happen. Not if there's *any*thing I can do to stop it." Pulling away with a brief laugh, Lois said, "I don't know why we're making ourselves crazy with this. We don't know how to send you back, anyway." "I *do* know," he said softly. "What?" "I've figured out how to boost my speed enough to send me back." She stared at him. "How?" "Use the sun's gravity to slingshot me through the tear." "Like on Star Trek?" she asked incredulously. Clark seemed a little embarrassed. "Well, yeah, but the EPRAD probe also circled Jupiter that way to pick up speed for the trip to Neptune." Her eyes widened. "Clark, no! It's too dangerous." Three lonely years without him answered for her. A mission in space had taken him from her once; she couldn't face it again. "You nearly died the last time you were in space." "I'll take oxygen with me this time." He cupped his hand over the side of her neck, brushing her cheek with his thumb. "Honey, no matter how risky it is, I have to try. All of space and time is unraveling because of something I did, and I'm the only one who can fix it. I can't just walk away from that." Her big dark eyes blurred with tears as Lois raised her head to meet his earnest gaze. "I know," she said simply. A sob shook her, and she cast herself into his arms, burying her face against his shoulder. "Oh, Clark! I love you." He caught her up against his chest, dropping kisses on every part of her he could reach. "I love you, Lois," he whispered, his lips against her temple. She lifted her face to his, seeking his mouth, her kisses wet and salty with tears. Her arms were locked around his neck, her body pressed against the hard strength of his. "Clark?" she asked against his mouth. "Hmmm?" Clark was too involved in kissing her to make the effort to talk. Holding the back of her head with one hand, he kissed her hungrily, his tongue stroking the slick inner surface of her lips. She was warm and yielding in his arms, and his body was becoming hard and insistent in response. Lois spoke hurriedly between kisses. "Is there enough time for us to make love?" *That* reached him. "Yes," he said into her mouth, moving in for another deep, breathless kiss. He walked her back two steps and lifted her onto the edge of the table, his hands sliding from her waist and up her sides. She sighed, murmuring with pleasure and tightening her thighs around his hips. Her hands splayed across his back, and she slowly rubbed her palms over his hard muscles. She had almost forgotten how much she loved touching and kissing him, how much she enjoyed his strong, beautiful body. In the shadow of personal loss and universal destruction, she needed to affirm life in his arms, and she snuggled closer to him. "Good." *************** Later, shaky but satisfied, Lois lifted her head from the hollow of Clark's shoulder. The sounds of their loving still seemed to echo through the kitchen. "Oh, God," she sighed, "I have missed that so much." He braced himself against the table, moving his lips across her cheek as he murmured heartfelt agreement. She pushed at his bare shoulder teasingly. "What do you mean, 'uh-huh'? It's only been a day for you." Clark cupped her cheek with his hand, his fingers threading through her silky hair. "Honey, last night--not knowing if you still loved me or not--was long enough. I don't think I could face it for three years." Lois pressed a kiss on his lower lip and touched her fingertip to the shimmer of moisture she left, smiling when his lips closed around her finger in a gentle kiss. "You could . . . if you had CJ to keep you going." "Oh god, Lois." His voice broke, and he closed his eyes for a moment, his arms tightening around her. "We really did it, didn't we?" "We really did," she agreed, glad that he was trying to focus on the joy rather than the grief. "I guess even alien biologies couldn't overcome that much love." "Sweetheart." He cupped his hands around her face and pressed butterfly kisses on her eyelids and cheeks and lips. Tears pricked her eyelids. Clark had a way of making her feel utterly loved and cherished. But if she thought about that now--when he was facing such a risky mission--she'd start crying again. "Of course--" she shifted, trying to unstick the back of her thighs from the table-- "I'd think you were even more special--" she slipped her arms around his neck-- "if you'd get me off this hard table." "Honey, I'm sorry," he apologized and easily picked her up and carried her from the kitchen. Lois studied his face from a distance of about four inches as he started up the stairs. "Where are you going?" "To the bedroom." She stroked one hand down his smoothly sculpted chest and leaned in to catch his earlobe between her teeth. Clark paused between one step and the next, his heart rate leaping. "Yes?" he asked, tilting his head to look at her. "The bathroom," she murmured in his ear. "I want to soak in the tub." "The tub?" he repeated, clamping down on the desire that surged through his body. He didn't want to pressure her if she were tired, but some of his favorite fantasies began with Lois relaxing in the tub under a discreet covering of bubbles. A little smile touched the corners of her mouth. "It'll still fit two," she said, her palm rubbing over one of his nipples. "And I might get lonely." He grinned. "Then we'll have to make sure you have some company." And he carried her into the bathroom and shut the door with his foot. *************** Concluded in Pt. 7/7 Leanne Shawler volterra@sd.znet.com http://www.znet.com/~volterra/leanne.html ************************************************************** Lois & Clark: Season 5 http://www.fortunecity.com/tattooine/mothership/60/season5.htm text only version at: http://www.fortunecity.com/tattooine/mothership/60/s5text.htm ************************************************************** Midnight Dreaming: The Original Anthony Warlow Home Page http://www.zweb.com/volterra/anthony.html ************************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 19 Oct 1997 15:05:46 -0700 Reply-To: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" Sender: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" From: Leanne Shawler Subject: S5: Episode 4 (part 7 of 7) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Continued from Act 4 (Pt. 6/7): Hours later, Lois lay on their bed, staring into the dark, cradling Clark's head against her breasts. She pressed trembling lips to his dark head and traced a finger around and around his muscular shoulder, listening to the sound of his even breathing. Looking back, she realized he had made love with her as if it were the last time he would ever see her, ever touch her, and the intensity of his passion hinted at a desperation that frightened her now. She wondered if there were something about this gravitational slingshot maneuver that he wasn't telling her. Or maybe he was just trying to forget what he had to do--and what it would do to his son. She drew a long, shuddering breath. Thinking about CJ was a mistake. Hot tears slid from the corners of her eyes into her hair, and she gulped repeatedly, but her breaths became fast and ragged, and a sob broke from her throat. Before the second sob escaped, two strong arms had gathered her close, pressing her face against Clark's throat and chest. The love that heard and responded to her need, even from the depths of sleep, overwhelmed her, and she began to cry in earnest. Clark didn't try to hush her; he just held her and stroked her long, dark hair and murmured assurances of his love. And when her sobs became sighing, shuddering breaths, he handed her some tissue --then brushed his lips over her forehead while he waited for the fresh tears to quiet. When Lois was calm once more, she asked, "Will you be able to get up to the speed you need?" Clark swallowed hard. He had guessed that she was crying about CJ--and he didn't dare let himself think about it. He had found forgetfulness and a shaky peace in her arms, and he needed the certainty that arose from that. "I should. I *have* to." His voice cracked, and he rushed into an explanation to block the thoughts he couldn't face. "If I accelerate around the sun--" "That isn't what I mean," Lois interrupted. "I mean--can you--? You're not too tired, are you?" she blurted out. Surprised, Clark paused, mentally shifting gears as he assessed the easy power waiting in his body. Then he bent down and, finding her mouth unerringly in the darkness, kissed her. "Don't worry," he whispered against her lips. "It doesn't affect me that way." "Oh. I was afraid that--" She curled against him, her cheek pressed against his chest, and was silent for a long moment. When she finally spoke, her question struck him like a blow and left him breathless. "What do you think it'll be like? When this time line ends, I mean." 'Oh, God.' He had been so wrapped up in their grief over CJ that he hadn't thought about her personal fear--and she would be facing it alone. He tightened his arms around her and tried to swallow the steel ball in his throat, but it wouldn't go away. "Oh, Lois." Hot tears pressed against his eyelids, and Clark blinked them back, searching for some assurance to give her. "I--I think it'll be like waking up from a dream. One minute, you're in the dream, thinking dream thoughts. Then you're awake, and the dream's gone." Her tears were hot against his chest, and she burrowed closer to him. "Hold me, Clark," she whispered, and they clung together in the darkness while his tears met and mingled with hers. *************** Inside Mercury's orbit, the sun was an enormous ball of fire, a nuclear furnace pouring energy into space at a profligate rate, its radiance almost too bright even for Kryptonian eyes. But with each mile he drew closer, Clark felt the power surging ever more fiercely through his body, magnifying his powers as he absorbed more and more of the solar radiation. He had taken off the oxygen tanks in Mercury's shadow, and now, a tiny star glowing with borrowed energy, he hurtled through the silence of space like a photon returning to its source. The sun pulled at him, called to him seductively, filling him with power and promising even more. Inside the shield of its photosphere, he would be like a god, invincible, indestructible, channeling nearly unlimited power at his will. The image hung in his mind for an instant; then the man who had grown up on a Kansas farm laughed, and the dream dissolved like a summer haze. What would he do with that kind of power? Whom could he help? Chained to the star that gave him the power, a 100 million miles from everyone he cared about, he would die of loneliness. 'Lois.' For him, there was only one answer for loneliness, and he reached for yet more speed. *************** Lois rocked back and forth in the darkness, holding CJ close, her tears seeping into his soft, dark hair. Somehow she had said good-bye to Clark without crying, but now she couldn't stop. She wasn't afraid. Not really. Even though she didn't really believe that it would be like waking from a dream. But she didn't want to be alone at the end. And she didn't want to let her baby go. Oh, God. *God.* It wasn't fair. Two years wasn't enough. Lois held her son's small, sleep-warmed body close to her. "I love you, CJ," she whispered and kissed his soft cheek. It was worth it, she told herself, her throat aching with tears. Whatever the price, loving was worth it. Clark had taught her that. She just wished the bill hadn't come due so soon. *************** The tugging of gravity increased as he drew nearer, its pull both a threat and a promise of success. The sun was no longer a ball of fire, but a vast searing light that filled his eyes. Its flames reached out to him like a lover's caress, stroking his super-charged body with heat, drawing him into its gravity well. Protected by the very energy that could kill him, Clark recognized the point of balance when he reached it. It was here and no other place, and he flattened his dive into the photosphere, skimming the surface of the sun, picking up energy as he curved around the immense sphere. Drawn in by gravity and pushed away equally by inertia, his speed multiplied through his revolution, the erupting face of the sun a gold-white blur as he passed. On the opposite side from his approach, Clark's velocity increased the outward-thrusting force until he shot away from the sun, tearing through the eternal day in a blue-to-red curtain of light. For an endless moment, the stars wavered, appearing as streaks of light behind the aurora. Clark lowered his head and kept flying--toward Lois. Still glowing with stored energy, he streaked homeward, praying that he had gone fast enough, that he had traveled backward rather than forward, that he was in time to change what had happened before. *************** Lois locked the door behind them after she and Clark entered their townhouse. She hung up her coat, wondering how to bring up the subject of his uncharacteristic moodiness at the baby shower, when the lights flickered, and she stumbled, suddenly dizzy. She turned. "Clark--?" He was standing by the couch in an aurora of blue and red, clasping his head between his hands as if he were covering his ears. For an instant, his face changed, growing dazzlingly bright, and she almost thought she saw the slicked-back hair and stern expression of Superman. He fell to his knees, and she started toward him, staggering. The shimmering curtain of color disappeared between one heartbeat and the next, and Lois flung herself to her knees beside Clark, one arm sliding around his shoulders as she assured herself of his presence. "Clark?" He raised his head--and it was her Clark, that frightening glow gone from his features, his short hair ruffled by whatever had just happened, his dark eyes searching hers with love and wonder. "Lois--" He broke off, his head lifting as if he heard a distant cry for help. His eyes widened, and he exclaimed, "Prometheus!" "What?" "It's--never mind." He set Lois away from him and, rising to his feet, spun into the red-and-blue suit. He reached down to help her to her feet. "I have to go," he said softly and kissed her. "The space station's in trouble." She clung to his hands. "Be careful," she pleaded. Superman or not, his space rescues terrified her. A tiny smile pulled at one corner of his mouth. "I will," he promised and turned away, opening the window and soaring into the night. Lois sighed and kicked off her shoes, then headed into the kitchen to make some herbal tea. *************** In the hazardous research lab on the Prometheus, Dylan keyed in the debugging sequence to check for any typing errors in the program. "Okay . . . it's clean, so we're ready to go." Cliff smoothed his hair back again and wiped his forehead with the back of his hand. He was not a decision-maker; he didn't want the responsibility if anything went wrong. "Shall we--?" Dylan scowled at his partner's attempt to pass all responsibility for the project to him. "Cold feet, Cliff? Don't feel like going down in history as one of the men who made cold fusion practical? Or don't you like the thought of the money from the patents any more?" Cliff glared at the young programmer. "I've never been in this for the money." "Oh, I forgot. You're bringing cheap, unlimited power to the downtrodden masses despite the blindness of your superiors. Yeah, right. You may not care about the recognition or money, but I do." The door slammed open, cutting off their argument, and the two men swung around to look at the intruder. Superman. He took in the situation at a glance--the code on the monitor, Dylan's hands poised at the keyboard--and realized he had barely arrived in time. No time for questions, for determining responsibility or degrees of guilt. If ever there was a time to act decisively, this was it. At superspeed, he shot across the room and plucked Dylan from his seat in front of the computer, then grabbed Cliff and held both of them by the wrist as he keyed the intercom. "Control room?" he called. "Send security to--" He read the location off the sign on the wall-- "HR Lab 4." *************** Clark stepped into the townhouse through the open window. Lois was curled up in the corner of the couch, her head drooping awkwardly to one side, the cold glare of her laptop lighting her face. She snored softly, and Clark felt his heart wrench at having left her yet again to spend the evening by herself. He spun into a T-shirt and sleep shorts, then reached across her shoulder, closed her laptop, and set it on the coffee table. Lois stirred, and as he walked around the end of the couch, she frowned in her sleep, and her voice caught on a sob. "Clar'?" He bent down, sliding one arm under her legs and the other behind her shoulders. "It's okay, honey. I'm here." Clark lifted her easily and started upstairs. She breathed in another sob, and her hands gripped his shirt. "'s gone," she murmured against his neck. "Who is?" he asked. She didn't answer but settled against his shoulder and sighed as he carried her into their room. Clark laid her down on their bed and stroked an unruly lock of hair off her face. She opened drowsy eyes that brightened as they focused on his face. "Clark? Everything okay?" "I got there in time." He dropped a kiss on her lips. "Mmmm. In time for what?" She struggled to sit up and began to unfasten her blouse, looking at him expectantly. "To stop a couple of researchers from bringing a reactor on-line that would have destroyed Prometheus--according to the station superintendent." The last was muffled as he pulled his T-shirt off. Lois frowned. "You heard a call for help from *there*?" "No. They didn't--" Clark shook his head. "Actually," he continued, "I just suddenly . . . knew." She stared at him. "This isn't some weird power that you never knew you had, is it?" "No," he said slowly. "I don't think so. It was the strangest feeling of deja vu. Like I already knew what was gonna happen. . . ." "Do you still feel that way?" "No, it went away after I turned those researchers over to security. It was . . . weird." He shook his head, disturbed by the almost-memory. "I'm sorry. I didn't expect to be so late." Lois dropped the rest of her clothes and pulled on her nightgown. "It's okay. I don't usually try to wait up like that . . . but with you out in space and all. . . ." She shrugged. He drew her into his arms. "You worry about me." "Sometimes," she admitted, curling up against him. Clark touched a gentle finger to the faint tear-track at the corner of her eye. "You were crying in your sleep." Frowning, Lois thought back. "I don't remember what it was about. Just that I lost something . . . someone . . . and it hurt unbearably." She looked up at him, her eyes shimmering with tears. Then she blinked and tried to laugh despite the unreasonable grief clenched around her heart. "Silly dream," she said and quickly changed the subject. "Why did you get so sad and quiet at the baby shower?" "What? Oh . . ." He tried to follow her conversational lead, but it seemed like a lifetime had passed since the party. "I was imagining us playing with *our* baby--and wondering whether he--or she--would be normal . . . or super." "We aren't going to have to deal with floating babies, are we?" she blurted, then bit her lip, embarrassed at revealing such a silly fear. He blinked, surprised. "Floating babies? I hope not. That could make changing diapers . . . interesting." "Sounds like a job for Superman." Clark pulled her close to him. "Hey, none of that. We're a team, remember? Anyway, Mom said I seemed normal at first, so I don't think we need to worry about floating babies." Her relief showed in her face. "Then what are you worried about? Something happening at daycare and people finding out?" A faint smile flickered at the corner of his mouth, but it was an effort. "Yeah. Little kids aren't very good at keeping secrets--especially something that big." "Maybe we can telecommute and write from home," she suggested. He considered that, his expression brightening. "And if we take turns at interviews, maybe we can avoid the whole child care problem." "Except when you're off saving the world." "Superman may have to scale back some. But . . . I've been thinking. We have some good friends. Maybe we just need to trust them and give them a chance to help." Surprised, Lois studied his face. "I didn't think you wanted to let anyone else in on your secret." "I don't," Clark admitted, "but someday we may have to. If a slip-up happened, at least it'd be in front of people who care about us and would keep it a secret." "Well, we have a lot of time before we have to decide anything like that. Especially since I'm not pregnant." She kissed him lightly, but he deepened the kiss. When he drew back, they were both breathless. "Yet." Her eyebrows arched upward. "Have you heard back from Dr. Klein?" "I called him while I was in Helsinki." Clark traced her collarbone with one fingertip, then followed her breastbone down to the neckline of her nightgown. At her soft gasp, he smiled lazily. "He just said there was a glitch when he ran the last sample and that his assistant was setting up the reagents for another test." "So . . . nothing for sure yet." "Not yet--but it sounded like maybe there'd been a glitch with the first sample, too." Lois caught her breath sharply. "Clark . . ." "I know. Anyway, that shouldn't stop us from trying if we want to." He bent down, his lips following the path blazed by his finger. Lois closed her eyes, quivering at the touch of his mouth on her skin. Sleepiness and sorrow alike were forgotten as her hands drifted over his strong shoulders. "Oh, you think Krypton and Earth could achieve an entente tonight?" Clark slid one hand up her thigh, his fingers seeking out the sensitive skin under her nightgown. "Maybe. After some . . . in-depth negotiations." "We'd have to be sure the negotiators covered every angle-- completely." Her voice dropped on the last word, evoking an image that took his breath away. "That could be very time-consuming," he warned her. One hand trailed down his muscular chest. "Do you have something else to do?" Clark let his kiss answer her, but Lois wasn't done yet, and her hand edged between their bodies. When she reached her goal, he caught his breath in a sharp gasp, and she giggled. "I didn't think so," she said smugly. THE END Leanne Shawler volterra@sd.znet.com http://www.znet.com/~volterra/leanne.html ************************************************************** Lois & Clark: Season 5 http://www.fortunecity.com/tattooine/mothership/60/season5.htm text only version at: http://www.fortunecity.com/tattooine/mothership/60/s5text.htm ************************************************************** Midnight Dreaming: The Original Anthony Warlow Home Page http://www.zweb.com/volterra/anthony.html ************************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 19 Oct 1997 15:10:17 -0700 Reply-To: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" Sender: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" From: Leanne Shawler Subject: S5: Promo for Episode 5 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Lois and Clark will be pushed off next week by some pointless "special" which is anything but. Tune in next week to view yet another mind-numbing torture fest - "PolkaHontis" - The story of a desperate young girl whose only joy in life was the 'Oom-Pah' of the Polka band.... In two weeks time .... Preview for "In Vitro Veritas", S5, ep 5. NARRATOR: In Two Weeks on Lois & Clark, Season 5: Young Woman, on phone: " Ms. Lane?" "I need to speak to you. It may be important." Lois: "Maybe he's selling embryos, not eggs. Genetically altered embryos." Klein: ". . . it's so much harder for me to give you bad news." Superman: "Bad news?" Clark, in shock: "I- I can't believe it." Jimmy, looking embarrassed: "This isn't, uh . . . for personal reasons, is it?" Lois: "No, no. Of course not!" Clark: "Jackpot!" Lois, smiling sweetly: "We're ready for anything you have to throw at us, Dr. Daniels." Clark, sighing sadly: "I think the hardest part of the whole thing is>knowing it's all my fault but knowing there's not a thing I can do to control it." Lois, shocked: "But how did you . . .?!?" NARRATOR: In Two Weeks! Only on Season 5! Leanne Shawler volterra@sd.znet.com http://www.znet.com/~volterra/leanne.html ************************************************************** Lois & Clark: Season 5 http://www.fortunecity.com/tattooine/mothership/60/season5.htm text only version at: http://www.fortunecity.com/tattooine/mothership/60/s5text.htm ************************************************************** Midnight Dreaming: The Original Anthony Warlow Home Page http://www.zweb.com/volterra/anthony.html ************************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 19 Oct 1997 19:06:16 -0500 Reply-To: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" Sender: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" From: Alyssa Mondelli Organization: Brought to you by the legal firm of Deceive, Inveigle, & Obfuscate Subject: S5 technical difficulties Comments: To: loiscla@vm.ege.edu.tr MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit ARRGH! Yes, Virginia, there is an Episode 4. I've just spent the last three hours working on the Season 5 webpage, fixing up the new episode and changing the front page a bit, and now that I'm finally ready to upload everything FortuneCity refuses to speak to me. So, if you had your heart set on Sheila Harper's episode "Faster Than a Speeding Bullet" ... well, there's nothing I can do right now. I'll try their server again later tonight. Apologies all around. ==Alyssa in St. Paul== (agmondelli@stthomas.edu)(AlyssaM on the IRC) http://www.fortunecity.com/tattooine/mothership/60/index.htm Disgruntled web-hostess of Lois & Clark Season 5 ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 19 Oct 1997 19:47:56 -0600 Reply-To: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" Sender: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" From: Debby Stark Subject: Re: Brief review... S5: Episode 2 "Time after Time" Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" At 02:01 AM 10/19/97 -0400, Peace wrote: [snip] >Oh, well, the details'll getcha every time! >Peace Well, I still liked 99.8% of the story :) this would have been almost unheard of from me when it comes to critiquing the efforts of *paid* writers... so, yet another pat on the back for you, honey! :D Yet another Parenthood story: My father would call his mother "Mom" and when I heard it (at the tender age of maybe 3), I started calling her that, so she became "Mom" to all us kids, though see was really our grandmother. She was from Michigan and we all lived in southern New Mexico. She's lucky we didn't call her Abuela... :) Debby Debby@swcp.com ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 18 Oct 1997 23:17:53 -0500 Reply-To: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" Sender: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" From: Stefanie Slifer Subject: Re: Brief review... S5: Episode 2 "Time after Time" Zoom writes: >In a message dated 97-10-18 17:46:03 EDT, debby@SWCP.COM writes: > ><< Well, one: I found the terms "Papaw" and "Mamaw" to be consistently > grating. Maybe it was the "w" in them. My internal dialog coach kept wanting > to grab the speaker and force them to pronounce it "papa" and "mama" :) > >> > >This is funny, because in my part of Texas, and I'm guessing because it >overlaps Cajun country, it's not uncommon at all for granchildren to call >their grandparents "mamaw" and "papaw" sort of French really, but with a >drawl added to it. Hmm, I didn't know you lived in Texas. Neat. More to the point, the above reminded me of the fact that my mom calls her parents "Ma-ma" and "Pa-pa"; she learned it in French class in High School. >I won't go into phrases like "Reckon as how?" or "Fixin to" Hee, hee. I don't hear those phrases much around here. Actually, I hear them from my grandpa in Indiana. I guess "Texas drawl" has invaded the world ;-). Hugs, Stefanie =) cute6@juno.com Clark: "Lois! Get a grip, will you!" Lois: "Mmm. Gladly!" ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 19 Oct 1997 21:20:05 -0500 Reply-To: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" Sender: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" From: Alyssa Mondelli Organization: Brought to you by the legal firm of Deceive, Inveigle, & Obfuscate Subject: S5 crisis averted Comments: To: loiscla@vm.ege.edu.tr MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Well, FortuneCity is slower than molasses in January, but I *did* manage to upload everything. The illustrations aren't cooperating very well, but the text is fine. So, if you're feeling reasonably patient, you can check out Episode 4, "Faster Than a Speeding Bullet", at the S5 web page: http://www.fortunecity.com/tattooine/mothership/60/season5.htm There's also a "no-frills" version at: http://www.fortunecity.com/tattooine/mothership/60/s5text.htm ==Alyssa in St. Paul== (agmondelli@stthomas.edu)(AlyssaM on the IRC) http://www.fortunecity.com/tattooine/mothership/60/index.htm Grr... FOX just cut one of my favorite lines from the X-Files pilot. "Who's there?" "Steven Spielberg" ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 19 Oct 1997 22:46:00 -0400 Reply-To: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" Sender: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" From: Laurie Stroh Subject: Re: Brief review... S5: Episode 2 "Time after Time" I have to say that my favorite part of this "episode"....and I liked it very much, was when Lois saw the picture of her and Clark as old folks and learns that they died only days apart of each other.....this literally brought tears to my eyes. Lois and Clark is such a classic love story and the thought that one would die and leave the other alone is almost too much for me to think about.....and this was a wonderful way for the two to learn they didn't hear to worry about the aging difference. Cheers to everyone involved in writing all of the 5th seasons of Lois and Clark and helping to keep the show alive for all of us. This certainly helps me with the thoughts of what if and if only...... Laurie LStroh1856@aol.com ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 19 Oct 1997 22:57:31 -0500 Reply-To: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" Sender: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" From: Adrienne Perez Subject: Looking for a Story Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Hi! Ever since That Old Gang of Mine aired last week I'm been trying to remember an old fanfic...at least I think it was an old fanfic. I seem to remember some sequel where all the gang members started dying and Lois thought that Clark was going to die, too. Does this ring any bells for anyone or am I more deluded than I thought? Thanks Adrienne perezas@xtrabox.com ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 20 Oct 1997 00:08:47 -0400 Reply-To: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" Sender: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" From: Kathy Brown Subject: Re: Looking for a Story In-Reply-To: <3.0.3.16.19800108235719.38b7d4ba@pop.xtrabox.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" At 10:57 PM -0500 10/19/97, Adrienne Perez wrote: >Hi! > >Ever since That Old Gang of Mine aired last week I'm been trying to >remember an old fanfic...at least I think it was an old fanfic. I seem to >remember some sequel where all the gang members started dying and Lois >thought that Clark was going to die, too. Does this ring any bells for >anyone or am I more deluded than I thought? Nope, you're right. Degeneration, by Jeff Brogden. A *great* story. I highly recommend it. Kathy (hey, I keep telling you guys ... fanfic is my life. ) ______________________ Kathy Brown kbrown@toolcity.net KathyB on IRC ______________________ ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 20 Oct 1997 00:10:55 -0400 Reply-To: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" Sender: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" From: Gary Subject: Re: Looking for a Story In-Reply-To: <3.0.3.16.19800108235719.38b7d4ba@pop.xtrabox.com> MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Ah, I remember it well... DEGENERATION by Jeff Brogden (jwbrogden@halnet.com) At 10:57 PM 10/19/97 -0500, you wrote: >Hi! > >Ever since That Old Gang of Mine aired last week I'm been trying to >remember an old fanfic...at least I think it was an old fanfic. I seem to >remember some sequel where all the gang members started dying and Lois >thought that Clark was going to die, too. Does this ring any bells for >anyone or am I more deluded than I thought? > >Thanks > >Adrienne >perezas@xtrabox.com > =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= | Gary A. Rudick mailto:gar8434@rit.edu | | "You decide what you feel heaven is worth" - Deborah Gibson, TWYH | =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 20 Oct 1997 00:25:50 -0400 Reply-To: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" Sender: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" From: Gary Subject: SPOILERS:Review of FTASB MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" First off, a great story by Shelia, but other than DRAMA why does CJ have to not exist (other than a twinkle is his mom's eyes) when Clark goes back in time? Ok, if he goes back through the "rip" to exactly when he left then everything is okay as before, but somehow going back to before the cause of the eventual explosion to stop that? Why? And even if you insist on that, Lois and Clark can still have CJ later, can't they? unless that particular sperm and/or egg is about to expire, right? Or did I read too much into the future Lois' sadness? and she was just upset because this particular future wouldn't exist, but then shouldn't she be happy about that? =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= | Gary A. Rudick mailto:gar8434@rit.edu | | "You decide what you feel heaven is worth" - Deborah Gibson, TWYH | =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 20 Oct 1997 00:34:14 -0400 Reply-To: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" Sender: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" From: Kathy Brown Subject: Re: SPOILERS: Review of FTASB In-Reply-To: <3.0.1.16.19971020002550.4adf87ea@vmspop.isc.rit.edu> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" At 12:25 AM -0400 10/20/97, Gary wrote: >And even if you insist on that, Lois and Clark >can still have CJ later, can't they? unless that particular >sperm and/or egg is about to expire, right? You've got it ... since Clark goes to Prometheus that evening, he and Lois don't make love ... or if they do, it's much later at night (it's left vague as to whether they do or not when he gets home) and it would be a "different batch" of sperm. The idea is that they do not conceive CJ that night, or at least, they are not guaranteed of it. >Or did I read too much into the future Lois' sadness? >and she was just upset because this particular future wouldn't >exist, but then shouldn't she be happy about that? Lois doesn't remember and neither does Clark. It's like a dream to them. They experience deja vu, but since it never really happened (that old time travel paradox), they don't have memories of it. Lois just awoke from a bad dream - where she "lost someone very precious" to her. Kathy ______________________ Kathy Brown kbrown@toolcity.net KathyB on IRC ______________________ ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 20 Oct 1997 08:37:12 -0500 Reply-To: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" Sender: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" From: Jeff Brogden Subject: Re: Looking for a Story In-Reply-To: from "Kathy Brown" at Oct 20, 97 00:08:47 am Content-Type: text > At 10:57 PM -0500 10/19/97, Adrienne Perez wrote: > >Hi! > > > >Ever since That Old Gang of Mine aired last week I'm been trying to > >remember an old fanfic... > > Degeneration, by Jeff Brogden. A *great* story. I highly recommend it. Thanks Kathy for the kind words. I wanted to point out that I actually did "Degeneration" in two parts. It was my first fanfic and after I sent it out - several people asked for more scenes. So I wrote some more to the story - sort of filling in some details. I asked most places that had the story to combine the two. Some just tacked it on the end and others integrated the two. I like reading the integrated one better as it flows nicely that way. Hmmm... I had thought about posting it after the show aired as a "Classic" fanfic but forgot to do so. Should I post it now? ====================================================================== Jeff Brogden Halliburton Energy Services jwbrogden@halnet.com http://www.texhoma.net/~mbrogden/ ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 20 Oct 1997 11:42:45 -0400 Reply-To: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" Sender: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" From: Peace Everett Subject: Re: Looking for a Story In a message dated 97-10-20 09:45:29 EDT, jwbrogden@HALNET.COM writes: > Hmmm... I had thought about posting it after the show aired as a > "Classic" fanfic but forgot to do so. Should I post it now? Definitely, Jeff - it's a good story that bears repeating! Peace ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 20 Oct 1997 13:11:20 -0500 Reply-To: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" Sender: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" From: Jeff Brogden Subject: FANFIC-Classic: Degeneration (1/3) In-Reply-To: <971020114100_-1092701443@emout11.mail.aol.com> from "Peace Everett" at Oct 20, 97 11:42:45 am Content-Type: text Well - here it is - the complete version. It was the first story I wrote. Going back over it I was tempted to change some of my "bad" writing, but left it alone. Never good enough for me... (Note: the "current happenings" mentioned below were mid-1995 happenings :-) ---------------------------------------------------------------- This is my first attempt at fanfic. I am no writer, and don't claim to be. The recent lack of LnC episodes, and the overwhelming LCWS has caused me to move from reader to somewhat writer (this was writen 05/06/95). It is based on TOGoM and current happenings in Marvel's Spiderman series. Hope you enjoy it. Turned out longer than I had planned... sorry. Let me know what you think. NOTE: Originally, there was a rather large hole in it. Several fellow fanfic readers asked that I fill the holes in, so I did. This archive contains the missing scenes that the original story, as posted, didn't have. (Special thanks to Ranica for her help in getting the missing scenes done.) ================================================================= DEGENERATION by Jeff Brogden jwbrogden@halnet.com *** Scene - Metropolis Prison, hospital ward, maximum security wing. A group of doctors and nurses surround the single patient in the room. The only noise is the steady purr and bleep of the vast amounts of machinery attached to the husk of a man now left laying in bed, unaware of his situation. At one time he had been a great man. He controlled perhaps the largest organized crime gang of its time. Al Capone was a man used to being in charge. Now however, his life was in the hands of the machines. Luckily, he was oblivious to this fact. "How did it happen?" asked Dr. Stillwell. "The guards said he started complaining of headaches, dizziness, lack of concentration, that sort of thing. They thought he was just getting senile." responded a nurse. "Shortly after that the degeneration process began. It only took 24 hours to get to this stage..." her voice trailed off. The slow, but steady "bleep, bleep, bleep" of the heart monitor made a sudden change. It skipped a few beats, steadied, then faltered again. "We're loosing him!" Dr. Emil Hamilton shouted. "We can't let him die..." he pleaded. Dr. Stillwell simply said "There is nothing more we can do." The heart monitor went into a flatline. "It's over" commented the nurse without emotion. Dr. Hamilton broke down and began ranting and raving. "If only I could have completed the process of the DNA modification. I didn't know... I... I didn't know that the process was incomplete without the final step to modify their personality traits! I *burned* down my lab... my notes... I can't remember *everything* I did... what I left out..." "It's all right Doctor. We know you tried to save Capone. You may yet save the others. If not..." Dr. Stillwell shrugged, "...they are only criminals. It's not like they are someone who benefit society..." Upon hearing this, Dr. Hamilton was shocked that anyone could care so little about human life. So what if they were *just* criminals! They were human! And alive! At least for a little while. And it was his fault that they were going to die again. Just as he was about to open his mouth to launch into a verbal lashing of Dr. Stillwell's lack of ethics, it hit him. "CLARK!" he choked. Intense fear grabbed him. "Oh my god, Clark! Clark Kent! He... He... Superman used my procedures on him when Clyde shot him! He was cloned with my procedures! That means he might suffer the same fate as Capone!" He was screaming now. The knotting in his stomach threatened to cause him to double over in disgust. 'How could I have done this!' he thought. Dr. Stillwell grabbed him, "Relax Doctor. Maybe Capone is the only one to be affected. None of the others have shown any signs." True. But he would have to start reconstructing his work as soon as possible in case there *were* other cases of the degeneration. Just then, a medical team burst into the room, wheeling Dillinger in on a gurny. One quick glance at the pasty skin was enough to confirm the degeneration process had started. Dr. Hamilton simply started crying again. *** Lois was sitting at her desk at the Daily Planet trying to look as if she was in deep thought about an article she should be working on. Instead, all she could think of was Clark, her partner. There he was, busily working away on some boring scientific article he had latched onto. He was totally engrossed in the work. 'If only he would show that much interest in me' Lois sighed. There was hope though. Earlier, Clark had asked her to go out for dinner after work. It wasn't really a "date" per say, just a casual "Hey Lois, let's go get something to eat after work," as she remembered him saying. She had agreed because she wanted to get Clark to herself and get that boy to talking! She decided to go talk to Clark about where they would be going for dinner. If she couldn't get her mind on her work, then she was going to distract Clark a little as well. Lois got up and walked over to Clark's desk. She stood there quietly, waiting for him to notice her. It only took a second or two, but it seemed like it was forever. "Hey Lois, what's up?" "Oh, nothing much, just wondered what you had planned for us and dinner..." Lois said, trying to sound casual. "Oh, I don't know. Thought we might try that new Indian- food place that opened up over on the south-side," Clark replied, looking up with a questioning look on his face. Lois winched. She really didn't want to go to someplace new - that would mean there would be lots of people, eager to try out the new place. Lots of people meant lots of noise, and distractions. She wanted someplace quieter, where she could have a nice quiet talk with Clark. And they *were* going to talk - even if she had to tackle him if he tried to leave. Clark notice the reaction to his suggestion, even though Lois tried not to make it physically noticeable. "Or, we could go to that little sandwich shop a few blocks from here. The special tonight is Creamy Potato soup and a turkey sub...?" Clark questioned again. "YES! I mean, yes that sounds perfect... ah... good. Sounds good. This way we can talk... if you want to... about anything you might want to talk about. It's a cozy little place and we could talk..." babbled Lois with out really meaning to. "OK Lois," Clark smiled up at her, fixing her with a suddenly serious look, "...we'll talk. I... uh... have something I want to talk to you about as well..." Lois looked into his eyes and read something there. What was it? She couldn't take her eyes off of his. They looked so warm, and inviting. A surge of butterflies came up from her stomach, she noticed she had stepped closer to his desk and Clark was starting to lean forward a bit. "LOIS! PHONE!" Jimmy shouted all to loudly. Poof! The moment was gone. 'Hell!' she thought. 'If it's not Clark running off, its something else. With my luck, it's going to be Dan to top it all off...' She reluctantly stepped back, fixed Clark with a "we-are-not- finished-here-yet" look and walked over to her desk. "Hello, Lois here." It was Bobby Bigmouth. "Lois! Is Clark there? No! Don't answer! Look, I need to talk to you immediately. I'm downstairs in the lobby. Come alone, do not, I repeat, do *not* bring Clark. No food necessary either. Just get down here." Lois glanced to see what Clark was doing, but he had become engrossed in a news broadcast coming over the newsroom television. "OK, ah... well... I will be right down, bye." She hung up the phone. 'That has got to be the weirdest call I have ever had' she thought, puzzled. 'What could be so important to see me now and *without* any food? And why no Clark?' Seeing that now would be a good time to slip out since Clark was watching TV, she grabbed her purse and just caught the elevator going down. Clark had just caught the tail end of the news broadcast about a fire at the National Guard Armory. 'Looks like a job for Superman...' he sighed to himself. He took a quick glance at Lois on the phone and decided to head towards the bathroom. A check with the handy x-ray vision showed the bathroom was empty. 'Good. Makes things easier...' A quick change and he was gone. *** Down in the lobby, Lois met up with Bobby Bigmouth. He practically jumped on her as soon as the elevator doors had opened. "Lois! Your alone! Great! Let's go somewhere where we can talk..." he stammered, "...someplace where no one will hear..." After going outside, around the side of the Planet and down the alley, Lois finally grabbed Bobby's sleeve and said "Ok this is remote enough. Now what is so important that you didn't need food, and didn't want Clark along. I thought you liked Clark?" "I do! That's just it! I like him, he brings me the best and most authentic ethnic food you can imagine. I don't want to see him..." he paused. Lois shot him a "spill-it- now-or-die" look, and Bobby Bigmouth let loose with the information he had. All of it. About Dr. Hamilton's "clones" suddenly suffering from headaches, dizziness, lack of concentration, and other symptoms Lois couldn't remember. As the tale of the degeneration process poured forth from his mouth, she felt as if the words were wrapping themselves around her - numbing her, sucking away her very life-force. "Lois... Lois? LOIS!?!?" Bobby shouted. She jerked herself to the present, barely able to maintain control of her emotions. "No. No! No! It can't be true!" she insisted. "Wish it wasn't. Maybe... maybe I'm wrong..." he said flatly. He had hoped it would sound better than that. "I mean, I *have* been known to make mistakes before..." he offered. "Maybe you should investigate this to see if it is true before you tell Clark? Eh?" "Yea..." the tears starting to well up as she remembered seeing Clark in her arms - dead. And the total overwhelming joy at seeing him alive. "Yes." she stated with conviction, "I *am* going to find out. I'm NOT going to loose Clark again, not like this." *** Superman arrived at the Armory only to find that it was totally enveloped with flames. People were running like mad away from the building, and the Fire Department was backing away slowly, making sure everyone else was behind them. Clark flew down the the first fireperson he seen and asked what the situation was. "Superman! Boy are we glad to see you! There are still people in there and we can't get to them. The fire started in the Ammunition room, and there is too many explosives for us to risk sending a team in." Clark didn't even answer, with a patented "WOOSH!" he was gone, flying up over the building using his x-ray vision to search for survivors. In the next five minutes, Clark had brought out 20 more people with his super-speed. "Thanks Superman!" exclaimed the Fire Chief, "...that's everyone. They are all accounted for. However, if we don't stop that fire from getting to the explosives stored in the ammunition dump, this whole city block will be a big crater." "Don't worry Chief, I'll zip in and try to cool things down. Just get everyone back outside the blast zone in case something goes wrong." WHOOSH! he was gone again. "That's the bravest person I've ever met," said the Chief. Then he was yelling instructions into the mike of his radio, ordering everyone's retreat. Clark found the explosives, and began using his super-cool breath to try to get the fire under control. The last thing he remembered was wondering what he and Lois was going to talk about over dinner. After that, there was a flash of light and then nothing. The Fire Chief seen the flash and then felt the shockwave as the thunderous BOOM rolled out from the ammunition dump. A large fireball rolled into the sky, mushrooming out, spreading smoke across the horizon. His eyes widened in terror as he thought 'No one could have survived that...' *** (Continued in part 2 of 3) ====================================================================== Jeff Brogden Halliburton Energy Services jwbrogden@halnet.com http://www.texhoma.net/~mbrogden/ ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 20 Oct 1997 13:12:41 -0500 Reply-To: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" Sender: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" From: Jeff Brogden Subject: FANFIC-Classic: Degeneration (2/3) Content-Type: text DEGENERATION part 2/3 *** Everyone in the Daily Planet Newsroom heard the explosion. Perry came running out of his office, looking for Lois and Clark. "Great shades of Elvis, where are those two when you need them." He was about to yell at Jimmy for no other reason than he was there and Lois and Clark were not, when Lois came running out of the elevator. "Chief! Chief! I've got to talk to you!" Lois shouted wildly. "And I've got a few choice words for you too Lois, but right now I need you to get down to the National Guard Armory and check out this explosion!" "But Chief, its Clark, he's...." "Not anywhere to be seen!" Perry interrupted. "Now, unless you want to be covering next weeks Annual Gathering of Heavywieght American Singing Truckers [that's AGHAST to you and me --jwb], then I suggest you get yourself over to the Armory. Take Jimmy and get some photos. I'll send Clark over when I find him. What's left of him anyway after I get through with him..." with that Perry stormed off to his office and slammed the door. Lois, seeing there was not much else she could do, grabbed Jimmy and headed for the elevators. *** Clark woke up in the bathroom at the Daily Planet. He was dressed as Clark, and sitting in a stall. His head was throbbing, and his ears were ringing. 'How did I get here? I remember an explosion, then...' his thoughts trailed off. Somehow, he had managed to fly back to the Planet, get into the bathroom and change back to Clark Kent. 'Oh No!' fear gripped him. 'What if I am in the women's bathroom! How am I going to explain that one!' A quick check with the x-ray vision confirmed he was in the men's room. Using his x- ray vision caused his head to hurt even more. He tried to stand up and almost fell back down. He was incredibly dizzy. He closed his eyes, steadied himself, took a deep breath. 'I'm so confused! Where was that explosion? How long have I been in here?' Slowly his memory returned. He remembered the Armory, the explosion. It had hurled him miles into the air. 'Almost feels as bad as when I hit that meteor' Clark thought. He remembered talking to the Fire Chief, no one had been hurt thank goodness. The Chief could not believe he was still alive, and kept asking if he needed medical attention. Superman had assured him he was fine and had left, somehow making his way back here to the Planet. Clark felt a little better. He needed to get back to his desk before Lois decided he wasn't coming out and charged into the men's room looking for him. That brought a smile to his face - he could just see her storming through the door, the fire in her eyes, the concern on her face. Ha! He left the stall and headed for the door. Passing by the mirror he took a quick glance and stopped. He had soot smudge all over his face and hands! 'Great. I go to the bathroom and come out looking like I got caught in a bonfire. That would be a little tough to explain.' Clark turned on the faucet and bent over to splash water in his face. Again the dizziness hit and he had to grab the sink to keep his balance. 'Geesh! Got to hold it together if I want to appear normal...' *** Perry seen Clark literally stumble out of the men's room, shuffle over to his desk and plop himself down in his chair. Perry's initial reaction was to storm out and chew Clark up one side and down the other for staying out too late the night before and letting it affect his work. He stopped short when he realized that if it was anyone but Clark, that is just what he would do. But this *was* Clark Kent, mild- mannered reporter. 'Something must be wrong,' Perry thought as his brow furrowed. Clark still felt miserable. He couldn't seem to think straight for very long, and the dizziness just made the headache worse. He started rubbing his eyes when he heard Perry walk up and say softly, "Clark? You OK son? You don't look so good." "Oh, I'm OK chief, I think" Clark said as he looked up. Perry could tell from his eyes he wasn't all right. "Look, Clark, why don't you go on home for the rest of the day and try to relax. You look a little beat up..." "It's just a headache and some dizziness. Makes it hard to concentrate. I'm sure I will be OK in a bit." "No, no, you go on home. I don't want you getting any worse, or spreading anything around the newsroom...." Clark had to chuckle a bit to himself, '"spread anything around"? I haven't caught anything to spread around...' Instead he said "But Lois and I have a da... um I mean we were going to get a sandwich after work, and..." Perry stopped him with a wave of his hand. "Lois and Jimmy are down at the Armory explosion. They won't be back for awhile. If it makes you feel better, I'll tell Lois you went home sick, and she should pick up some dinner for the two of you and have her check in on you." Going home *did* sound good. "OK chief, you win. Tell Lois to get me a special, and that I'll leave a key under the mat for her." With that he struggled himself up and trudged out of the newsroom, longing to get to bed. *** Later in the afternoon, Lois and Jimmy came back in after interviewing everyone in sight at the explosion. No one was saying much, but it was looking like it was human error as the cause. The highlight was the descriptions of the survivors on being rescued by Superman. He had pulled them all out at super-speed, and had gone back into the building on a failed attempt to stop the explosion. Superman had left shortly after and was not around for an interview. Lois had not been really disappointed though. In fact, through out the whole ordeal, all she could think about was Clark and what Bobby Bigmouth had told her. 'Bobby has just got to be wrong. Clark can't be in any danger. I can't loose him again!' These thoughts just kept running through her mind over and over. As soon as she got off the elevator, she called out "Clark! Clark!" Perry was standing by Clark's desk with a strange look on his face. Lois ran down from the elevator to Clark's desk and up to Perry. "Where's Clark! I've got to talk to Clark!" "Now Lois, just calm down a second. Clark wasn't feeling well, so I sent him home. It's all my fault he's not here, and won't be able to take you out on your date, er um to dinner after work..." Lois was in shock. "He wasn't feeling well!?!? Wh-Wh- What do you mean, was he, he sick, or... or.." "... I told him I would tell you to pick up some supper and check in on him. He wants the special. He's fine, just a headache and some dizziness," Perry said in his most fatherly voice possible. For some reason, Lois was taking this worse than he would have thought possible. Lois felt like she had just been smacked in the face. She could feel the blood rush to her feet as her whole body paled. Her knees became weak, and a fit of tears threatened to overcome her. She quickly sat down on Clark's chair. "My God Lois, you look like you've seen a ghost. What in tarnation is wrong!" Perry couldn't believe how fast Lois' face had turned pale when he had relayed Clark's condition to her. "Clark's going to be just fine, it's just a headache..." "NO! No you don't understand!" Lois sobbed. She relayed Bobby Bigmouths message to Perry. As the words came gushing out with the tears, Perry found HIS knees weakening. "Great shades of Elvis..." was all he could mutter. *** Clark had made it home and had gone straight to bed. After about an hour he felt better. 'Boy, that explosion sure took a lot out of me,' he thought. He flipped on the radio, tuned in a newsreport to check on the situation and found that everything was going well for Metropolis' finest. 'Good. I really don't feel like going out and being super right now...' Just then the phone rang. "Hello?" "Hello, Clark!?" "Yes, this is Clark Kent, what can I do for you?" "This is Dr. Emil Hamilton, we need to talk..." *** Dr. Emil Hamilton was alone in the prison hospital ward with his last patient - Bonnie Parker. The others were all dead. All he could do was cry and mumble to himself. 'It wasn't suppose to be like this! I was trying to help society. Why oh why did I try and play God? If I hadn't burned my notes, I could have saved them. But I couldn't let anyone else get my notes. Who knows what would have happened then...' He was being torn apart by his delima. 'My only hope of redemption is to save Clark Kent,' he thought. He straightend, set his jaw and started working again on trying to find a cure, or some way to stop the degeneration process. As he tried to work he could still remember how emotional Lois had been while telling him of Clark's death and how overcome with joy she had been to learn that Superman had saved Clark with his processes. An alarm went off. Dr. Hamilton froze as he realized that the heart monitor had just gone into a flatline. He simply walked over and shut it off, turned back around and went back to work on the answer to his problem - saving Clark Kent! WHOOSH! "Dr. Hamilton?" "Sup-Superman! Wha-What are you doing here?" Dr Hamilton stammered. "You have got to help me! You have got to go get Clark Kent and bring him here - fast! Use... use your super-breath to put him in a state of suspended animation or something... We have to have more time, I just can't remember everything right now..." Dr. Hamilton was a pitiful picture of a man, shaking all over and crying. Clark couldn't help but pity the poor man. "Dr. Hamilton - about Clark. I think we need to talk about his... situation, a bit more." *** Clark had managed to calm Dr. Hamilton down enough to talk to him about the degeneration process, and what had gone wrong. "I never got to complete the DNA modification. I wanted to bring these criminals back into the world, modifying their DNA to remove the negative, destructive impulses they had so they could help society see that it is killing itself," Dr. Hamilton explained to Superman. "The way to do this was to isolate the area's of the brain that these impulses were being generated from, and to modify them, genetically removing the unwanted behavior." Dr. Hamilton sat down heavily on a near by chair, "I was able to isolate the proper area's of the brain to modify, and to start the genetic modification while they 'grew' so to speak." He started wringing his hands, looking down at his feet. "The idea was to finish the DNA modification after they had begun to live so the proper tweaking could be done. They never let me get that far... They took over before I could complete the process, and thus the degeneration process started." "Then Clark should be fine. I didn't know to look for any area's in the brain to modify. His development would have been a natural growth just like the first time nature 'built' him," Superman said hopefully. Maybe there was a simple way out after all! "Yes. Yes that is possible..." a look of hope crossed Dr. Hamilton's face. "Still..." the negative look returned, "I will have to examine Clark to make sure everything is all right. That there is absolutely no chance that he will *ever* degenerate!" Dr. Hamilton was talking with an edge to his voice. Clark could see he was not going to be able to talk him out of an examination. Dr. Hamilton had to know for certain that Clark was going to be all right. "What would this examination entail Dr. Hamilton?" Clark queried. "I'll need to perform a simple CAT scan on him. The degeneration is a result of DNA breakdown due to brain imperfections. The brain imperfection is a result of the incomplete modification process." Dr. Hamilton stood up and began pacing as he explained everything, "At first, with Capone, I was not aware that the cloning process introduced brain imperfections. I only did blood tests, that sort of thing, looking for the cause of the degeneration. When Dillinger was brought in, I noticed they had both complained of the same symptoms leading up to the physical degeneration." Turning to look at Superman, Dr. Hamilton continued relaying his path of discovery for him. "Headaches, dizziness, lack of concentration. So I did a CAT scan on both of them and discovered the massive brain imperfections. A CAT scan of both Bonnie and Clyde confirmed the results. Although they were not yet suffering from degeneration, the brain imperfections were there. If Clark Kent doesn't have these imperfections, then he will be OK." The hope in his eyes was incredible. Yet his physical demeanor stated he was still wary of what he might find. 'At least he doesn't want a blood sample. Don't know what I would have done about that,' Clark mused. 'A CAT scan, though. I don't know if that will work on me or not? What will the results be? Will they look "normal"? Don't really have a choice...' "I'll go try to find Clark Kent Dr. Hamilton," Superman said. 'If this doesn't work, I may end up having telling him my secret - if he doesn't figure it out from the CAT scan first...' WHOOSH!! *** (Continued in part 3 of 3) ====================================================================== Jeff Brogden Halliburton Energy Services jwbrogden@halnet.com http://www.texhoma.net/~mbrogden/ ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 20 Oct 1997 13:14:03 -0500 Reply-To: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" Sender: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" From: Jeff Brogden Subject: FANFIC-Classic: Degeneration (3/3) In-Reply-To: <971020114100_-1092701443@emout11.mail.aol.com> from "Peace Everett" at Oct 20, 97 11:42:45 am Content-Type: text DEGENERATION (3/3) *** There was a knock at the door, and Clark Kent stepped into the prison hospital laboratory. "Dr. Hamilton?" "Clark! Oh I am so glad to see you. Do you feel all right?" Dr. Hamilton could hardly hide his emotions. "I feel fine Doctor. Superman said you wanted to do a CAT scan on me?" Clark asked. "Yes yes yes... Come over here and we will get started," Dr. Hamilton lead him into the next room. Clark did as he was instructed, laying perfectly still so the machine could do its thing. After what seemed like an eternity, Dr. Hamilton reappeared next to him, smiling a huge smile. "I take it that everything is all right?" Clark asked. "Every thing is perfect. You have a perfect brain, no damage anywhere. Quite amazing actually..." Dr. Hamilton's face put on a puzzled look. "I find it strange that you didn't have any damage at all..." 'Oh oh.. here it come...' "Maybe the fact that Superman was able to freeze you before there was any tissue damage from being dead, or the fact that Superman said he didn't know to look for an area of the brain to modify, or because..." Dr. Hamilton began muttering to himself. Clark was starting to become uncomfortable. He really didn't want to tell Dr. Hamilton he was Superman, so he had to think of something fast. "Well, whatever the case is," Dr. Hamilton suddenly looked happy again, "...I am glad you are going to be fine. Thank you Mr. Kent." Dr. Hamilton grasped Clark's hand and shook it. "Thank you for giving me a second chance." "No, I think it is I who should thank you," Clark said and shook his hand back. *** Lois arrived at Clark's apartment, only to find it was dark inside. She furiously began pounding on the door, and yelling "Clark! Clark! Open up Clark, it's me Lois..." her throat closed on her as a vision of Clark laying unconscious on the floor filled her mind. Then she remembered Perry said there would be a key under the mat. She flipped it back and found the key laying there, it looked beautiful. She picked it up, unlocked the door, and flew into the apartment. She ran down the stairs, and made a quick lap through the entire apartment only to find no Clark. Fear was really starting to take over now. 'Where IS he! Perry said he was going straight home!! Why isn't he here???' she thought frantically. Then she noticed the note on the table. She picked it up and read it: Lois, I got a call from Dr. Emil Hamilton. He needed to see me. Nothing to worry about, I'll tell you about it when I get back. Did you bring the "special" I ordered? Make yourself at home, there are video's and music. I might even have some chocolate ice cream in the fridge. No Rocky Road, sorry. You will just have to use your imagination and use what I have in the kitchen to spruce it up. I think there is some nuts, caramel, marshmellows, and some fudge syrup in the cabinet next to the fridge. Clark "Oh Clark, I... I love chocolate ice cream..." With that she put her head in her hands and started crying all over again. *** Superman was about to land on the balcony of his apartment when he realized there was a light on and the television was playing. A quick peek with the x-ray vision showed him that Lois was on the couch, asleep. He decided to come in the front door, so he zipped up to the roof, and changed into his street clothes. He made sure he made little noise when he came in the front door. He didn't want to startle her and scare her. As he approached her, he could see she had eaten 3/4 of a gallon of his chocolate ice cream - straight from the container - plain. 'Oh oh, wonder what is wrong now,' Clark worried. He stepped around in front of her and noticed she had cried herself to sleep. Her eyes were still puffy and her make-up was streaked down her cheeks. Yet, she was incredibly beautiful laying there. All thoughts left his mind and he kneeled down beside her. He brushed the hair back from her eyes. Slowly he leaned down, hesitated a brief second as his lips hovered over her cheek. Then, making up his mind, he moved over till his lips touched hers ever so slightly. The kiss was like the touch of a feather, soft and gentle. The amount of contact was so light Clark wondered if he was kissing her at all. Slowly Lois' eyes parted to look up at him. She couldn't quite see him, she blinked to get the fog of sleep from her tear-swollen eyes. Clark, noticing she was awake pulled back slowly, locking her eyes to his. "mmm Clark? CLARK!!!" Lois screamed. Instantly she was awake. She threw her arms around his neck and pulled him down on the couch on top of her. "Oh Clark! Clark! Your alive, your not sick! I thought I was never going to see you again. Dr. Hamilton and his clones, they... and then I had to go to the explosion and you were gone when I got back... Perry said you had a headache and Bobby Bigmouth said it was one of the symptoms... and I came here but you were gone... I got so scared..." Lois sobbed and babbled. "So that's why you cried yourself to sleep and ate all my chocolate ice cream..." Clark stated. He was about to ask how Bobby Bigmouth found out, but was interrupted when Lois reached up, put her hand on the back of his head and forced it down to her waiting lips. The kiss was passionate. The blood ran in his ears and he could feel her raw emotions broiling through the kiss. Lois broke the kiss, looked into his eyes as if she needed to say something to him, but didn't know how to start. "Lois, I..." "No Clark, I'm going first." she interrupted. "Clark, I want you to know that I... well I..." RRRIINNGG!! RRIINNGG!! The phone cut her short with its incredibly loud ringing. Clark and Lois instantly became stiff, self-aware of their position and surroundings. RRRIINNGG!! RRIINNGG!! "I, aa, I should get that." Clark mumbled. "Yea, um, you... you need to get that." Lois said in a small voice. RRIINN--- "Hello? Chief! Yea I'm fine. Yes I know about Dr. Hamilton. I went to see him earlier today. No I'm fine, everything is fine. Lois? yea she's right here. My special?" Clark looked at Lois quizzically. Lois blushed. She had completely forgot about supper. "Oh Clark I'm sorry, I was so worried about you I came running over here and forgot to pick up supper." "Ah yea chief, Lois brought my special when she came over, in fact, we were just enjoying it when you called." His face split into one of those incredible smiles as Lois' mouth dropped, her face turning even a brighter red. "Sure chief, we'll be sure to write up the clone thing tomorrow..." Clark shrugged and rolled his eyes, "...Yes it would make a great story. OK, bye" Clark hung up the phone and walked back to the couch. Lois was sitting there looking at her hands as they competed in a wrestling match with themselves. He sat down next to her, grabbed her chin between his forefinger and thumb, turning it up so he could look into her eyes. "I'm sorry you got so scared," Clark said softly. "There is really nothing to worry about any more. I truely am all right." Lois laughed nervously, "That's good. Sorry about supper... we could... you know... go somewhere and get something to eat... if you wanted to..." She was trying not to sound like she didn't want to leave, but it sounded like a failed attempt even to her. "Oh, I don't know, after all, you did bring over something special," he said, looking deep into her eyes. "I would kind of like to try some of that 'special'..." He kissed her softly. "Hmmm... it's good." "Yea?" Lois whispered. Again he kissed her, soft and sweet. "Yea. I think I'll have it more often." With that he put his hand around her neck, pulled her close and kissed her deeply. "You know..." Lois said after some time, "... I think there might be a lot of this special. Think you can handle it?" Clark grinned, "Oh, I think I can handle it just fine..." *** For Clark, time could not slow down far enough. He wanted to stay here with Lois forever. Just like this, her in his arm's, kissing. Lois finally broke the spell, and sat back. "Clark, how does Dr. Hamilton know you will not suffer from the degeneration process?" Lois asked. He could hear the fear in her voice still. "I mean... what if it takes a little longer... or you haven't gotten to some stage or something..." her voice becoming smaller as the words came out. Clark grabbed her and hugged her tightly. As he held her, he told her about the brain imperfections, and the CAT scan, and the results. "Dr. Hamilton said I have a perfect brain!" he stated as he leaned back and smuggly grinned at Lois. "HA!" Lois lightly punched him in the arm. "Don't let it go to your head Clark. If it gets any bigger, you will not be able to get out the door when you take me out for supper," Lois said with a smile. He could tell she was relieved, and the familiar spark was starting to come back. "Supper huh? Still want to go to the sandwich shop for the special?" Clark asked. "Yes. And it's a beautiful night out, let's walk," Lois stood and reached down for his hand. Clark reached up, took her hand and stood. "Don't think for a second though, that any special some sandwich shop has to offer can compete with the 'Lane Special'" Lois teased. Clark raised his eyebrows, "And who's head is going to have trouble fitting through the door?" *** THE END ====================================================================== Jeff Brogden Halliburton Energy Services jwbrogden@halnet.com http://www.texhoma.net/~mbrogden/ ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 21 Oct 1997 06:57:02 +1000 Reply-To: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" Sender: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" From: Jenny Stosser Subject: SPOILERS:Review of FTASB In-Reply-To: <3.0.1.16.19971020002550.4adf87ea@vmspop.isc.rit.edu> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Reading the spoilers for FTASB I never would have guessed that I've read this story before somewhere. Haven't I? Or was it just a strong sense of deja vu that struck me, cos I read it in another timeline? Now I'll have to look through ALL my files and see if I can find it somewhere else! -- Jenny Stosser -*- jenerate@ozramp.net.au -*- (Jenerator or MoiAussie on IRC) This message is umop ap!sdn -*- David is 5 and Megan is 2! Photos on the Stosser Family HomePage: http://www.ozramp.net.au/~jenerate Please Visit! ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 21 Oct 1997 06:58:04 +1000 Reply-To: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" Sender: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" From: Jenny Stosser Subject: Apology: (Was: Re:SPOILERS:Review of FTASB) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Whoops! I think I sent my last message twice to the list. I'll try not to do it again! -- Jenny Stosser -*- jenerate@ozramp.net.au -*- (Jenerator or MoiAussie on IRC) This message is umop ap!sdn -*- David is 5 and Megan is 2! Photos on the Stosser Family HomePage: http://www.ozramp.net.au/~jenerate Please Visit! ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 20 Oct 1997 21:48:24 -0400 Reply-To: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" Sender: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" From: Gary Subject: Re: SPOILERS:Review of FTASB In-Reply-To: <3.0.1.32.19971021065702.006c66f0@mail.ozramp.net.au> MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" At 06:57 AM 10/21/97 +1000, you wrote: >Reading the spoilers for FTASB I never would have guessed that I've read >this story before somewhere. Haven't I? Or was it just a strong sense of >deja vu that struck me, cos I read it in another timeline? Now I'll have >to look through ALL my files and see if I can find it somewhere else! > Look in your Nfanfic folder, that's how I was able to spoil it so quickly... >-- >Jenny Stosser -*- jenerate@ozramp.net.au -*- (Jenerator or MoiAussie on IRC) >This message is umop ap!sdn -*- David is 5 and Megan is 2! Photos on the >Stosser Family HomePage: http://www.ozramp.net.au/~jenerate Please Visit! > =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= | Gary A. Rudick mailto:gar8434@rit.edu | | "You decide what you feel heaven is worth" - Deborah Gibson, TWYH | =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 20 Oct 1997 23:21:01 -0400 Reply-To: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" Sender: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" From: The Zoomway Subject: Re: SPOILERS:Review of FTASB In a message dated 97-10-20 17:05:50 EDT, jenerate@OZRAMP.NET.AU writes: << Reading the spoilers for FTASB I never would have guessed that I've read this story before somewhere. Haven't I? Or was it just a strong sense of deja vu that struck me, cos I read it in another timeline? Now I'll have to look through ALL my files and see if I can find it somewhere else! >> I know Sheila had sent the story to me quite a while back, in fact she may have DCCed it to me on IRC. That might be how you got hold of a copy too. Zoom ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 21 Oct 1997 01:02:23 -0400 Reply-To: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" Sender: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" From: Kathy Brown Subject: Re: SPOILERS:Review of FTASB In-Reply-To: <3.0.1.32.19971021065702.006c66f0@mail.ozramp.net.au> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" At 6:57 AM +1000 10/21/97, Jenny Stosser wrote: >Reading the spoilers for FTASB I never would have guessed that I've read >this story before somewhere. Haven't I? Or was it just a strong sense of >deja vu that struck me, cos I read it in another timeline? Now I'll have >to look through ALL my files and see if I can find it somewhere else! You've read it before, probably in its nfic form. Sheila released the full length, orginal piece last winter, around Dec 1996. The nfic took place while L&C were still engaged. She rewrote it into a PG script version early in 1997 (which she used as a writing sample to shop agents) which would have fit beatifully as a late 4th season or early 5th season piece, and then rewrote it again this fall to match S5 continuity. Kathy (who proofed the story in all its versions, and I still never tire of it ... it's that good.) ______________________ Kathy Brown kbrown@toolcity.net KathyB on IRC ______________________ ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 21 Oct 1997 10:58:44 -0400 Reply-To: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" Sender: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" From: Robin Harris Subject: Re: Looking for a Story Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" >> At 10:57 PM -0500 10/19/97, Adrienne Perez wrote: >> >Hi! >> > >> >Ever since That Old Gang of Mine aired last week I'm been trying to >> >remember an old fanfic... >> >> Degeneration, by Jeff Brogden. A *great* story. I highly recommend it. > >Thanks Kathy for the kind words. I wanted to point out that I actually >did "Degeneration" in two parts. It was my first fanfic and after I >sent it out - several people asked for more scenes. So I wrote some >more to the story - sort of filling in some details. I asked most >places that had the story to combine the two. Some just tacked it on >the end and others integrated the two. I like reading the integrated >one better as it flows nicely that way. > >Hmmm... I had thought about posting it after the show aired as a >"Classic" fanfic but forgot to do so. Should I post it now? > >====================================================================== >Jeff Brogden Halliburton Energy Services >jwbrogden@halnet.com http://www.texhoma.net/~mbrogden/ > >Yep! Robin Harris CDF-Ohio 52 E Lynn St., #400 Columbus, Ohio 43215-3508 614.221.2244 614.221.2247 (fax) ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 22 Oct 1997 01:43:30 +0200 Reply-To: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" Sender: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" From: Zohar Gilboa Subject: Very short review on Degeneration Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Hi all! I loved it! Bye! Just kidding. :-) I liked that it was WAFFy, I don't really care about continuity so I don't mind they kissed so early in the series. :-) I really liked the note when Clark tells Lois he only has chocolate ice cream, no rocky road, then later Lois says she loved chocolate. It was really cute. I love all of these little things that were part of the series. All in all, it was a lot better then my (only) two fanfics. It gave me a desire to write another fanfic. I think I write a lot better then I used to. I'll post it when it's done. :-) BTW, what's going on with the fanfic archive? Where is it located? Didn't here from you in a while. Zohar Gilboa rami_gil@netvision.net.il ; sman@geocities.com http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/2301 Always remember you're unique, just like everybody else. ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 21 Oct 1997 21:44:23 -0400 Reply-To: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" Sender: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" From: Barbara Garonzik Subject: Re: SPOILERS:Review of FTASB In a message dated 97-10-21 01:10:28 EDT, you write: << Kathy (who proofed the story in all its versions, and I still never tire of it ... it's that good.) >> I agree. I think it's one of my favorite nfics. Barn ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 21 Oct 1997 23:49:58 -0400 Reply-To: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" Sender: "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Fanfic" From: Kathy Brown Subject: Fanfic Archive Websites In-Reply-To: <3.0.1.32.19971022014330.00699dfc@netvision.net.il> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" At 1:43 AM +0200 10/22/97, Zohar Gilboa wrote: >BTW, what's going on with the fanfic archive? Where is it located? Didn't >here from you in a while. Something tells me that Zohar has been out of commission for awhile. The Fanfic Archive was taken over by the new staff with no interruption in service in mid-September. There is currently no way to access the new ftp site directly (we're still working on that), but we now have *two* gateways set up by which to download stories. The main Fanfic Archive gateway is now located at: The old gateway (Lauren's) is still up and running at: but is now a mirror site, and as such, may not be as up to date as the main site. Included on these pages are links to the Archive FAQ file (which will tell you how to prepare and submit your own fanfics), links to TUFS and S5 (fanfic fifth seasons), and the always popular "What's New" listing of recently uploaded stories. In addition, an email box has been created especially for fanfic submissions. Stories should be submitted to: . We also have a editing staff consisting of General Editors (who proofread submitted stories prior to uploading) and Story Editors (who are available to work with authors before submission, to help plug plot holes, etc.) Anyone in need of an Editor, even if it's just for a second opinion, should feel free to write to . We are here to help. I hope this answers your questions. Kathy _________________________________ Kathy Brown Editor-In-Chief Lois and Clark Fanfic Archive kbrown@toolcity.net KathyB on IRC _________________________________