Originally Posted by Terry Leatherwood
Wow.

Been away for a while and I come back to find this beast waiting for me. Excellent tale, DC, and very well told. My favorite line came from H.G. Wells:

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There's no telling what might happen when we rewrite that story.

You're right, there isn't. And when we rewrite something on these boards, there's no telling what might come out. But I'm glad you straightened out the toys and put them back in the box neatly. In fact, you even unraveled one episode arc completely! I think you should write "Injustice Denied" and tell the real story of how Lois and Clark caught a corrupt district attorney and the criminal who dangled the bait in front of him.

Had I been Clark, I'm pretty sure I would have snatched Lois before she got to the execution chamber. Fewer people around to see it happen that way, and Clemmons would have been embarrassed right out of office.

I'm a little fuzzy on the timeline, though. I would have thought that Bruce Wayne would have "aged out" of being Batman by the time Clark made his suicide attempt. But then, you didn't actually state that he was still the Dark Knight, did you? Maybe he'd moved into the role of mentoring his replacement by then.

(What do you call Batman's dog? The Bark Knight! Ha-ha-ha -- oops. Bad joke syndrome.)

You whacked a lot of people in this story. I did wonder if Lucy ever turned up again or if she vanished permanently. I'd guess that her dad didn't even try to find her since he had his own guilty tragedy to deal with.

Powerful story, DC. Keep up the great work!

Thank you for the feedback, Terry! Glad you enjoyed the story.

I'll definitely think about continuing on. My muse has nothing to offer yet, but I always keep those little ideas tucked away in the back of my mind.

As for Clark letting Lois get to the execution chamber before taking action...well, I imagined that a couple of things would play into that. 1) Clark would have been working up until the time of the execution to clear Lois' name. 2) He would have had enough faith in the justice system to belief that "the phone call" would come in and Lois would be pardoned/spared from execution. When both of those things failed to save her, it caused him to lose his faith in the justice system completely, and drowned him in guilt.

I'm envisioning Bruce and Clark as very close in age. (I blame the Justice League cartoons, where they appear to have very little difference in ages.) At most, maybe Bruce is 10 years older. So, Clark would be 29 at the time of Lois' death (the episodes take place before the one which has Lois trying to pull off a surprise 30th birthday party for him). 15 years later, when Clark attempts suicide, he would be 44. Making Bruce anywhere from 44 to 54...not too old to still be an active Batman. And even if he wasn't actively do superhero work, I picture him as one of the heads of the League and possible trainer/mentor to other heroes.

Nice joke. I'll have to pass it on to my husband. He's a sucker for bad jokes. smile

I DID kill a bunch of people, huh? My muse loved it! In my head, Lucy never turned up again. Probably went and changed her name so as not to be associated with any of what went on. I can envision some kind of downward spiral for Sam too, quite possibly leading to his death. (Self blame for being a terrible father, all the years wasted when he and Lois barely spoke, etc.)

Thanks again for reading!

Battle On,
Deadly Chakram

"Being with you is stronger than me alone." ~ Clark Kent

"One little spark of inspiration is at the heart of all creation." ~ Figment the Dragon