Thoughts...

Wow. What a powerful start of a story, and it raises so many questions: Do his captors know who he is? Is Superman even a publicly known figure in your story's universe? What are the captors' intents toward him? Are they really holding him prisoner, or are they holding him for his own protection? (The jokes at his expense make me think the former, but the jokes might be part of the hard shell people in difficult serving roles sometimes develop for self preservation.) If they are not holding him prisoner per se, but think he is a delusional human, why have they not returned him to the U.S.? If, however, they realize that he is Superman, surely they would realize what a dangerous game they are playing -- that sooner or later his strength and memory might return, and they would not be able to contain him then?

Could the shots they are giving him contain very low doses of kryptonite? They don't appear to have enough in them to cause Clark pain. (I think it a reasonable assumption that the narrator is Clark, but there is always the possibility that you'll pull a "gotcha" in the next part.)

If his captors wish him ill, why are they giving him things to occupy his days?

My guesses on all of my questions: It is Clark, and his captors know that they are keeping Superman prisoner.

In any event, you know a story has captured a reader's attention when it raises so many questions in the reader's mind. Well done.

Looking forward to part two.

Joy,
Lynn

Fascinated and intrigued. Can't wait to see the other part. So many questions, as Lynn said. Is it Clark? Do they know he is Superman? Will he get out? Will he get back to Metropolis? How long has he been gone? Has Lois missed Clark? Has the world missed Superman? Has Lois put Clark's disappearance together with Superman's?

ARGH!

Next part please.

Hmmmmm....

So many questions! So well written....and so excited for the next part .

1991. Does this mean that Clark isn't Superman yet? Has he ever been to Metropolis? Does he know Lois? Maybe his fondness for The Daily Planet newspaper is based on childhood dreams of making it big, working there one day. But...if this is based on ASU--he would have been working in Metropolis, living in Metropolis--I'd guess.

In the original episode, memories of Lois instigate his memory returning. I wonder if he has 'Lois' at all in his mind to even help him recall?

Like Lynn stated--you have me questioning, so you must have very much captured my attention .

Great job, loved the flow of the piece...
Laura

Thanks everyone for giving it a shot and I'm glad everyone has enjoyed it. I guess I was too subtle that it was set in 1991, before cannon. I'll put that in the summary for the archives.

Lynn - The story is set only from Clark's perspective and in his state of mind he has no idea that he should fear being studied or what their real intentions could be. There is no Superman yet so his abilities are unknown. I think part 2 will answer most of your questions, but it may leave you with new ones.

KatherineKent - For now I'll answer it is Clark and he's been missing for about two months.

LMA - The next part should be coming soon, maybe tomorrow, just working out some last 1st person kinks.

You're right, it's 1991 and he isn't Superman yet and has not been to Metropolis or met Lois. He's still out traveling the world before he moved to Metropolis. In ASU it was memories of him as Superman with Lois, mostly rescuing from what I can remember, that gets him to remember who he was. He Clark thoughts alone couldn't unlock his brain. He doesn't have those memories in this version, so what will cause him to remember?

Thanks for mentioning the flow. When I first sent it to beta, I was worried that it was going to be too raw and scattered, leaving everyone as confused as Clark. I wanted it to come across that he wasn't just lost in the world but that he was lost in every way.

In cannon he has Lois, Henderson, Perry, Jimmy and his parents all telling him who he is while he's also trying to discover that for himself. Here it's not just that he has no one and his parents can't exactly put out an apb on him and come to his rescue, it's that the people 'helping' him are crushing any thought that comes to him that might actually tell him about himself, delaying him from finding out who he is. He's so caught up in that, he's failing to realize they may have other motives for holding him.

It opens up a whole world of possibilities as to who 'they' are and what they are wanting to do with him and the information. You'll have to check back for part 2 to see if any of that get's answered.

Hi chickberry!
This plus ASU, we’re talking Clark’s amnesia from his POV, then?



Oh boy.

Is that Superman? And he’s stuck in hmm…Russia? China? Or is that actually ‘Lost’? Have only heard about it, so no idea on the internal dynamics of that show, but something about mysteries going on might fit?

So, not Superman, otherwise they’d be more…circumspect?

Might they not know about Superman?

He been travelling India?

Yes, definitely a story where Clark never moved to Metropolis and became Superman.

Kryptonite embedded in Nightfall?

Huh, 1991?

Oops? Let’s hope they don’t use surveillance cams.

Yeah…well… /heads over to part 2/

Michael