Aurora Borealis – The Complete Story 2/7
By Ken Janney
This story is rated PG-13.
Comments are always welcomed at ken.janney@kjanney.com
Disclaimers: The characters in this story are property of DC, December 3rd productions and Warner Bros. No Copyright infringement is intended. I have just borrowed the characters for a short time.
This story originated with a single scene that I had written as a suggested plot device for another author. It was rejected in favor of another one. I still liked the idea so I wrote a story around it. This is only loosely related to my Matchmaker series.
I wish to thank Artemis and Morgana for the beta on this.
< > denotes thoughts
* * denotes emphasis
Previously
Had this enemy of theirs been in the bathroom waiting for her?
No, that was illogical. First, they would have had to have had no heartbeat of their own because he would have heard it. That could mean a robot of some sort. He concentrated on his memory of the moment. He played it back in his eidetic memory like a videotape in slowmo mode. He had heard the door close and then there was the sound of her bag hitting the floor. Then her surprised yelp. No, wait a second. Go back. There was the sound of her bag hitting the floor and then suddenly there *was* a second heartbeat. It was rapid but he only heard a total of four beats. Two before Lois’ yelp, two after and then silence. Someone materialized in the bathroom with Lois and took her away. She wasn’t just snatched away by some sort of transporter beam. There had been human intervention. Someone or some ones had physically grabbed her and pulled her into, something and took her somewhere. No, not some ones, someone. There had only been one other heartbeat.
That ruled out a robot.
Then the full reality hit him like a crushing blow. If it *was* Tempus it could be anywhere *and* any *when*! With the ability to travel through time he could have taken her anytime from the prehistoric past where she could be eaten by a dinosaur to the far distant future of a dead world devoid of humanity.
What other possibilities were there? None.
It all came back to … Tempus?!?!?!?!?! But, how could it be him? Wasn’t he incarcerated? They had left him in jail in the distant past. Didn’t he have that bulky time sled that he had to use? That would seem to rule out Tempus. But, if he had acquired a device similar to the new one Herb had used it could be possible.
Okay, if not Tempus, then who?
Lacking any logical candidates from the past it could be some new enemy. If he didn’t hear something, if no new enemy showed up that only left one possibility …Tempus.
First thing to do would be to scour the city; a daunting task in itself, but the logical starting point. He would have to use all of his powers, sight, hearing, smell to try to locate her. Realizing just how big a job this was going to be he now knew that he was going to need help and a lot of it. There was no time to lose.
And now:
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Chapter 2
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He exited the apartment at superspeed and started combing the city, moving in an ever expanding circle with the apartment as the center. Once he actually got into the search he realized that he would have to slow down because if he didn’t he was liable to miss something.
As he flew he used his x-ray vision to examine every closed space. As he proceeded on this course he quickly realized, as first one then another and another room showed him couples together eating, cuddling, arguing and embarrassingly in intimate contact, that in his attempt to find Lois he would actually be having to breach the privacy of untold numbers of citizens. He had to steel himself to the effort. He thought to himself that locating Lois was more important than that petty concern. Suddenly he stopped in mid flight and came to a hover. Just what was he doing? Why was it that he would just toss his ethics aside when it was Lois that was missing? What would Lois think of him if he did that? His ethics were a big part of what made him Superman and to just throw them away because one person, even if it *was* Lois, was missing would compromise him. He would have to be selective of where he looked.
There were some underground facilities that he couldn’t see into because of lead shielding and also some areas that still had lead based paint. These, for the most part were old air raid shelters and older commercial enterprises or apartment houses. They would be the most likely since the person that did this must know his secret so they would also know his weaknesses. He would need police assistance to examine these.
It was still afternoon so he swung by the Planet. As he flew in through the large windows he spotted Jimmy at his desk. As he landed next to him he noted that Jimmy was concentrating on what was on his monitor and didn’t realize that he was there. Quietly he said, “Jimmy?”
Surprised, Jimmy looked up at him. Seeing just who it was he quickly switched gears from the research he had been doing and jumping to his feet asked, “Superman! What can I do for you?”
Superman folded his arms across his chest and said, “Clark has told me many times just how good a researcher you are. I’d like to ask if you could do something for me.”
“Sure Superman! Anything you want. I’ll help anyway I can.”
“Thanks Jimmy, I appreciate it. I need a city plan with all of the lead lined fallout shelters indicated.”
Jimmy’s eagerness to help the superhero was obvious as he said, “Sure Superman. How soon do you need it?”
With a sardonic smile Superman said, “Ten minutes ago.”
“Wow, that quick, huh?” He sat back down at his desk and brought up his computer in a new search routine. “Let me see what I can find. Just give me a few minutes.” He said that as he worked. A few minutes later a printer started spitting out page after page of a composite map of the city. It was broken down by quadrants. When Superman saw this he said, "Thanks, Jimmy! Breaking it down like that will be a big help."
With a satisfied smile he replied "I tried to anticipate what you needed. What's the project?"
Not wishing to reveal too much just yet he replied, "A search for a missing person."
Pleased that his guess had been correct he said, "That's kinda what I thought when you asked for lead lined bunkers. You can't see into them so what are you going to do ask the MPD to check them out?"
"Yeah, something like that."
"Who's missing, if you don't mind my asking?"
"It would be a little premature to tell you that."
In a conspiratorial tone he said, "Okay, I understand. What if I promised to keep it off the record?"
"Still too early. I need to see what can be done first."
Defeated and yet hopeful, Jimmy replied, "Okay, Superman. If you need any more help, you know how to find me."
"Thanks for the offer, Jimmy. I'll be back." He took the printout and left through the windows the same way he had entered.
As he was leaving Perry came out of his office and shouted, “Olsen!”
Jimmy had been watching Superman fly away and when he heard Perry he looked in his direction. As soon as he made eye contact Perry shouted, “My office!”
“Right away Chief!” He hustled to the Editor’s office.
By the time he got there Perry was already seated behind his desk. He asked, “What’d Superman want?”
“He needed a city map with all the lead lined bomb shelters marked.”
Scenting a possible story Perry pressed the issue, “What’d he want that for?”
“He said he was searching for a missing person.”
With a knowing look at this confirmation that this could be a story of consequence he kept at it, “At least you got that much. Did you find out just who was missing?”
“Well, no, I didn’t Chief. I asked, but he said it would be too premature to release the name.”
Disappointed, Perry challenged, “Why’d you let that stop you? You know, back in the day that would have been like waving a red flag in front of a bull to a good reporter. I would have kept pushing until I had a name.”
Jimmy, trying to mitigate his perceived failure, said “I offered to keep it off the record and he still refused. Besides Chief, this is Superman you’re talking about. You don’t push him.”
With a look of superiority he said, “Oh no? If he comes back you just let me handle it, son. The ol master’ll show you how it’s done. Now, you get outta here and get back to work.”
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Superman’s next stop was the twelfth precinct and Inspector Bill Henderson.
As soon as he walked in the sergeant on the desk sent him on back.
When he entered Bill’s office he got right to the point, "Inspector, I need your help."
With a look of disbelief, Bill asked, "You need my help? I find that a little hard to believe. What can I do for you, Superman?"
"I'm conducting a search for a missing person and there are places that I can't look because they are lead lined."
With sudden understanding Bill asked, "Who are you looking for?"
"I'd rather not say at this point, if you don't mind."
"Can you at least give me a description?"
"Female, about thirty, approximately five-six, slender, weight about 120, brown hair cut short and brown eyes."
Bill gave him a quizzical look as he finished up and asked, "Is this a joke? That description sounds an awful lot like Lois Lane, uh, excuse me, Lois Kent, we just heard about the wedding. What is this? Kent beat you out and married Lois now you're looking for someone like just like her for yourself?"
"Not exactly Inspector. Can you go with me on this? This is actually a very urgent matter."
"Did Kent put you up to this? Are they playing a game?"
Totally serious now, Superman answered, "No inspector, this is no game. Yes, you’re right. It is Lois.”
Bill slammed both hands down on his desk.
Superman continued, ignoring that interruption. ”You know how long it has taken for them to get married. You know all about Luthor and what he did, creating a clone of Lois and substituting it for her. That was only the tip of the iceberg. There were so many other things they were put through. This is another strange one. Lois has been kidnapped."
While Superman had been speaking Bill had been listening attentively. When Superman finished Bill jumped up and with a tone of incredulity Bill burst out, "Kidnapped?!?!? How did it happen and when? Did Clark witness it? Was there a ransome note? Give me something to go on."
Telling Bill as much of the truth as he could he said, “Clark told me that they were preparing to leave on their honeymoon. He was in one part of the apartment and Lois went into another room and person or persons unknown grabbed her and took her away.”
Bill interrupted, “Wait a minute. Are you telling me that Clark was in the same apartment and he didn’t see or do anything?”
“That’s correct Inspector. It all happened so fast there was nothing he saw or anything he could do to prevent it. Clark contacted me immediately. I’ve been searching the city. It seems inconceivable that they could have gotten out of the city this quickly, but that just might have been possible.”
He gave Bill a searching look as he continued, “If you recall a couple of years ago there was another Superman. We tried to downplay his presence as much as we could. He was another one of Luthor’s creations, a clone of me. He had all of my powers and he almost fooled Lois. He and I had a fight and believe me, it’s no fun fighting yourself. There was a problem with the process that created him though and he was dying even as we struggled. He only lived a very short time afterwards, but if there was another one then she could literally be anywhere in the world by this time.”
“But, Luthor’s gone. He shouldn’t be a threat any longer.”
Superman replied, “I know, but there could be others. We have to examine every possibility.”
Bill queried, “What about Clark? How sure are you that he didn’t do this himself?”
Superman was incredulous as he replied, “Come on Inspector. You know Clark and Lois almost as well as I do. Do you really think Clark would do anything to Lois with all they went through to finally get married?”
Properly chastened, Bill replied, “Well, no I guess not. I bet he’s really broken up about this.”
“Inspector; that might just be the understatement of the century.”
With a sympathetic tone in his voice Bill said, “When you see Clark tell him we’ll do all that we can.”
“I’m sure he’ll appreciate it Inspector. Along that line, I stopped at the Daily Planet and Jimmy Olsen provided me with a printout of all of the locations that there are lead lined bomb shelters in the city. I can’t examine them because the lead blocks my x-ray vision. Could you have them examined?” He offered the printout.
Bill took the sheets of paper and said, “I’ll get some men on this right away. Don’t worry, if she’s in the city, we’ll find her.”
“Thanks Inspector. I’m going to continue my search and expand beyond the city. My fear is that she, in fact, is no longer in the city.”
Bill said, “You go ahead. We’ll do what we can here in the city. By the way, tell Clark, I’m sorry this happened and we’ll do everything we can. Also, I’ll be needing a statement from him and a missing person report.”
“I’ll pass that along to him Inspector. Thanks.” Superman turned and exited the building.
comments go here TBC in Chapter 3
