Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Lois & Clark Fanfic The Long Road Home Part 36 - Comments

Thanks for your patience and greetings from North Africa!

Can't wait to hear what you guys think.

Regards,

Rac

Yeah, you posted another part!

Hope you are enjoying North Africa!

Great part but now I'm all curious to know what happens next!

More soon please! I love this story!

Logically I know they're going to get out of it (probably), but I'm still worried. So come back quickly!

Amber

Rac,
I'm glad you're settled enough to return to posting.
I guess I'll have to stock up on gum as nail biting is a very real possibility at this point.

Looking forward to next few parts!

Ah, the angst flows again! Welcome back, Rac. It was a great part, full of tension. So baby Jon is an early Kryptonite detector, eh.
Hope you can write often now that you are settled.
Be careful out there.
Artemis

Hi Rac,

So glad to see this story back, and you have ramped up the tension right off. Already I'm sitting on the edge of my seat.

I hope you are enjoying Africa, but still finding time to write the next part, so I can unclench my fingers.

Yours Jenni

Good to have you back, Rac! Hope you have managed to get settled in North Africa.

I loved the B-plot of this part, and I'm trying to survive the A-plot.

Ann

Hi Rac!
Glad operation 'Move East' was successful. And of course, that there is an update to this mess, erm, story.

The family scenes really built up the tension, knowing there Triad-K out there, ready to wreak havoc on this version our favorite family at any moment.

Oh boy. I think, even Lex has never been displayed this sinister. Sure, he used children as guinea-pigs but he didn't use them as bait. And there is a worst case scenario, one in which the Triads could turn up as minced meat, cooked to perfection.

At first, I thought, one more nail in their coffin, but after the way things unfolded, I believe this was a critical mistake by the Hsiao. Kryptonite won't saturate a room, so removing the shielding only served as a warning.

Common sense (some call hope and trust that the author would hurt as much as the gentle reader) tells us that the toys will end up in one piece, mostly. But there's still the possibility that M&J will have to raise another orphan.

Then there's the option of Hsiao crossing paths with M&J on their way to Star Labs

Michael

Great job
I love seeing Lois and Clark being parents and bonding with their child.

More soonnnnnnn plzzzzzzzzzzz

This is a terrific use of dramatic beats in a long story. We see that Clark and Lois are getting along much better with each other. They've worked past the vital issues between them, Clark is dealing with his past on New Krypton and putting it in his past (where it belongs), and they've settled into their lives quite nicely, even contemplating adding a child to their super-family.

But here come the Triads. These people are colder than Lex Luthor - at least he believed that he loved Lois. They want only money and power, not necessarily in that order. And they're willing to go to any lengths to achieve their goals.

But they've made a mistake. They never figured on Superman or Ultra Woman being in the building when they exposed the green K. They never dreamed that they would threaten the super-couple's child.

And that may prove to be their undoing. A normal human parent can accomplish near-impossible things when his or her child is in mortal danger, and these are not normal parents. Superman and Ultra Woman have already started the evacuation process, and now they're going to try to defuse the bombs. (That remote trigger might lead them right to the perp, too.)

But I see another danger, this one for Clark. Innocent children have been targeted for callous murder. His wife is threatened. His child is threatened. That hard-won combat experience is likely to help him here, but it might also allow him to take a step which Superman should never take.

At the very least, one or both of them will be faced with the choice of whether or not to take a life in order to save many innocent ones. If Clark, it will be like New Krypton all over again. He'll have to deal with all that all over again, with the added complication that he'll feel that he couldn't get away from the violence and death. If Lois, she'll be forced to be just like her husband. And then she'll really understand what he went through. Of course, that won't be at all easy for her, even though Clark will understand in a way that no other man could.

Any way this goes, it's about to get very interesting.

Thank you all for taking the time to read and comment. Life here is good. It takes some time adjusting, as you can imagine it’s been a big change, but hey, I get to see cities where the “new” part of town is 700 years old.

Thanks for commenting, DW. More is coming up.

I do like nasty cliffhangers, Amberlea. But this does have a resolution, I swear.

Hi Avia. I will try to post more regularly, so as not to encourage bad habits, like nail biting.

Artemis, I figured Jon would be particularly sensitive, given that he’s never been exposed to Kryptonite before. I never got why in the series, baby Kal El, as visited by Tempus, didn’t seem bothered by the Kryptonite. Of course, that’s probably because it’s hard to make babies do something just for the sake of filming it. Still, you imagine the kid would have been fussy at some point during the making of that episode.
Hi Jenni. I am finding time to write as my work schedule is much more civilized than it was when I was in the private sector. I’ll be posting more soon. Thanks for reading and commenting.

Ann, I promise, there will be more B-Plot in the future.

Thanks for your comments, Michael. I agree that Hsiao is particularly cold-blooded. In comparing him to Luthor, it’s kind of a toss-up as I see them both as essentially amoral (as opposed to immoral). They might understand what others consider to be right and wrong, but they certainly don’t care. As for the bombs, you’ll what sort of demonic machinations I, erm… Hsiao is up to shortly.

Seme, glad you enjoyed the family scenes at the beginning. I can’t be mean to my characters all of the time…

More is coming up soon!

Rac

Sorry for not including your comments in my reply, Terry. My internet connection is so spotty I have to formulate posts and then paste them in during the brief flashes of connectivity (when I can't get to a wifi cafe, that is). Thanks for your very thoughtful comments. I agree that having Jon in danger is more than enough of a motivator for these two to do the impossible. As you'll see in the next part however, there might be some factors that complicate the immediate and sudden desire that anyone whose child was endangered would have to get justice (or retribution) against the person who'd tried to harm that child.