Welcome to the 2026 Kerth Quiz: Best Episode Adaptation
SPIFFY DISCLAIMER THINGY!: All the stories featured in this quiz qualify for the Best Episode Adaptation story, but this quiz is not a stamp of recommendation for nomination. There are more fantastic stories which qualify for this category, but this quiz only covers 7 randomly chosen ones.
(Instructions are blatantly copied/linked from previous Kerth Quizzes.)CATEGORY: These are stories that are up to approximately 900 words (1-5kb). Keep in mind that this quiz highlights a specific category to help remind us of which stories had kisses, revelations, new characters, etc. They help when voting since sometimes categories (like kiss and waffy and even dramatic) can start to feel like they overlap, but they do all have specific distinctions! And you’ll want to nomination and vote based on what best matches each category!
- This quiz is Best Episode Adaptation: Episode Adaptations alter the events of, or start from a specific point in, a particular episode. This includes full episode rewrites, alternate endings, and in-betweenies that fill in the little moments we didn’t see on screen.
RECOMMENDATIONS: Don't forget that recommendations for other favorite eligible stories are *very* welcome and encouraged! So don't forget to add these in a section after your guesses!
QUIZ RULES: One point each for getting the story and author from the quote. Plus, shiny gold stars for those who recognize their own stories. Please don't forget to mention which number you're answering. Rule recap: Open hard drive and open boards (+AO3!), *don't* forget to snip out the excerpts in your replies, and don't forget the spoiler tag when you post in the replies thread.
The DEADLINE for entries for this quiz is
SATURDAY, JANUARY 24, 2026, by 11:59 p.m (Eastern Time Zone), which is when the next quiz will be posted.
Here’s the full list of
Eligible Stories.
Here are the full quiz instructions:
Countdown to Kerth Quizzes Extended Instructions and Disclaimers.
Please post your answers
HERE.
Good luck!
Evie
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EXCERPT #1:"Ladies, listen up. Our first bachelor for tonight is Clark Kent, the male half of Lane and Kent - our hottest team in town. The minimum bid for Clark Kent is $30.”
Immediately, hands fly up. Susan from advertising raises to $40 and the head mistress follows suit. It’s a miracle Mayson still hasn’t returned, though she has a knack for bad timing. The price rises quicker than I expected. Up until now I’d pushed the idea of dating Clark as far from my mind as I could. After what happened last time I wasn't sure we were there yet. But if I don't act, one of these women is going to steal Clark from me.
What if it’s the head mistress? What if it’s Mayson?
Would he be willing to risk another date with me? He hasn't asked again, and I sure didn't have the nerve to bring it up.
“100 Dollars for a date with this handsome young man!” Perry yells. “Do I hear 110?”
Before I can chicken out I raise my hand.
“110 Dollars from his partner.” Perry smirks.
Clark furrows his brows, but then the corner of his mouth twitches into a smile. More bids are made and this time I keep up. If just to see his 1000 watt smile again. In the end only the head mistress and I are left. But I fight tooth and nail because suddenly I want this.
I need this.
A real date with Clark to chase away the demons of the past.
I need to prove to myself there's one decent man, refusing to give up on me though I made his life so very difficult.
“250 Dollars going once, going twice and sold to Lois Lane. Congratulations, darling.”
A surge of excitement rushes through me and I can't help but smile as I watch Clark's face. For a moment he stands there, eyes wide, lips not quite a smile, but close. He looks like his world is turned upside down. But then his lips twitch and frozen shock gradually changes into a full-blown smile, all gorgeous 1000 watts he’s capable of. My heart starts racing.
“Thank you, son!” With another pat on the back, Perry excuses Clark from the stage.
EXCERPT #2:“Hi, Lois.”
Huh? Oh, look who’s deigned to show up…
“Men are pigs,” I heartily inform my own bum of a partner slash wannabe-boyfriend. After all, you have to actually show up, go on more than one date, and stick to your girlfriend’s side if you want to be a boyfriend, don’t you? The pompous voice from the squeaky speaker of the mini-TV the bum’s wife—Elise, wasn’t it?—had brought, interrupts me from further explaining our relationship status to Clark.
I don’t want to eavesdrop on the boob tube’s equivalent of the National Whisper, but the show is about the bum’s plans for suing Superman, and you never know what information might prove useful in taking him down. Still, listening in on the incessant, self-aggrandizing drone of the “news” anchor mixed with Dregg’s own notions of entitlement makes me lose interest in the weak coffee they serve at Le Petit Bistro. As I glance over at Clark, I can see he’s thinking along the same lines. He might not be a Class-A boyfriend, but at least he’s a good friend to Superman. That’s something to build a relationship on, isn’t it?
There’s a sudden explosion from the small electronic device, followed by a much larger, verbal explosion from the target of my investigation. What a surprise, the equipment failure must have been the wife’s fault. Say what you will about Daddy, he never blamed Mother for his affairs. He would have had to care to do that.
The bum races off to find a new TV to watch himself on, and then Elise as she pays the check she was stuck with. Now I guess it’s finally time to address the other couple in the room.
“Well?” I give Clark the chance to explain himself.
“Well, what?” The clueless expression on his face exposes him as just one more typical, oblivious man.
“Time to talk.”
Still nothing from Clark. Great!
“Clark, we were on a date. And you just disappeared and never came back.”
EXCERPT #3:They’d argued about it all the way back from Smallville – from the rental to the plane to the taxi. They never should have gone, she said. He shouldn’t have been anywhere near there. He knew what was there. It was too risky. He could have been killed. She could have lost him!
Why couldn’t he understand that?!
Lois opened the bottom drawer of her desk and tossed her purse in with a huff. She’d dropped her suitcase off at home and then gone straight to the Planet. They’d had a morning flight and there was still plenty of light left in the day. She could at least keep her mind busy thinking about her next story instead of reliving those terrifying moments back in Smallville.
It was different this time – it always was. They’d known exactly what was going on over at the Irig farm. Clark had even avoided being exposed to Kryptonite the first time. Lois had asked him why he hadn’t found a way to find and get rid of the stuff before then. How could something as serious as kryptonite have actually slipped his mind? Men!
She turned on her computer and waited impatiently for it to load. Just then, she heard the elevator ding and looked up to see the object of her ire step out. She quickly averted her eyes. Of course he would decide to come in today as well.
He’d decided not to go in as Superman – why give Trask what he wanted? He shouldn’t have gone in at all. He should have let her do the snooping. She could have gathered the evidence they needed to involve the sheriff and Trask would have been arrested . Clark could have stayed far away where he was safe.
But he hadn’t.
The Kryptonite weakened him, made him vulnerable. But that didn’t stop him from jumping in front of her when Trask pulled his gun. The sheriff wasn’t there this time to stop him.
EXCERPT #4:“Meetings not over, son.”
Clark bounced on the balls of his feet, restless. It almost looked like he was floating. In the dimly lit room with his unusually windswept black hair, Perry noted there was something familiar about that silhouette. The seed of an idea was planted. But it was silly. Clark wouldn’t be caught dead in that clown suit. Though, if you squinted The Flying Man sometimes looked like Elvis. And Clark looked nothing like the King.
“It’s not like Lois or Jack to miss a staff meeting,” Clark said. “I thought I’d go call around if that’s okay?” he stumbled over his words with a nervous stutter. Why did it feel like he was being lied to?
“Hell of a way to run a railroad,” he looked down at his notes and then back at the door. Clark was no longer there. Outside the conference room, a storm of papers scattered about; poor Jimmy fell backward as if a strong wind had blown him over.
“Alright, let’s see where was I, oh yeah?” Perry shifted gears. “Cat how goes the human interest piece on The Flying Man?”
If anyone could find dirt on the guy it was Cat. Lois was too close to the story to see objectively. Only four days since he made his big debut saving the Prometheus Space Shuttle and Lois had been saved by him three times. His reporter instincts told him there was something between those two. He had never seen Lois so smitten with a guy before, not even when she went on a date with Bruce Wayne. He couldn't believe Lois would choose Clark over the superhero. Maybe Cat had her wires crossed.
“Zippity squat,” Cat said.
EXCERPT #5:“You should see him, Clark, up close. He’s the most magnificent figure of a man, I’ve ever –”
“Sounds like he made quite an impression on you,” Clark had snarked in response.
“He did,” she had replied, albeit a bit defensively. “Why? Are you jealous?” She wasn’t sure why, but she liked the idea of him being a little jealous. It made no sense. She barely knew him, but something about being around him made her feel…exposed. She didn’t care for it.
“Of Superman?” Clark had responded with a raised eyebrow. “Should I be?” There was something in his tone that bothered her – almost as if there was an inside joke she wasn’t aware of. Did he know something about him? And if so, how?
She shook off those thoughts, remembering that Perry had given them another assignment right before Clark had walked in the door. She grabbed him by the arm and guided him towards the elevators as she spoke.
“Come on, let’s get going.”
“Where to?” He’d asked her. She was surprised at how solid he was. Then she remembered that she’d seen him wearing nothing but a towel when she’d picked him up to interview Samuel Platt. Solid didn’t even begin to describe the chiseled physique he had hidden under that suit. She shivered and pushed the image out of her mind.
“Terrorist shoot-out on sixth,” she replied, keeping her tone business-like. No need to give him any ideas. If they were forced to work together in the future as partners, it would be a strictly platonic situation. She wasn’t about to fall into that trap again, no matter how good he looked in a towel or how nice his smile was. Almost as nice as…
They reached the elevators and she turned to look at Clark, wanting to make the parameters of their relationship abundantly clear.
“And Kent?” He’d looked at her, his eyes hopeful. Too hopeful. She kept her face stony. “I’ll ask the questions.”
EXCERPT #6:The Luthor Corp sign was being taken down.
The building might still be standing, but the House of Luthor had truly fallen.
Lex didn’t live there anymore.
He didn’t live anywhere.
As if reading her thoughts, Superman chose that moment to speak.
“He didn’t win, Lois.”
Her head turned sharply toward him.
“He’s gone,” the hero continued. “Whatever he did, whatever he said, whatever he put out into the world — none of it matters anymore.”
Her temper erupted without warning, hotter than she anticipated.
“How can you say that?” she demanded angrily. “Everything he did! All the lives he ruined! They all counted. And they’re all still ruined now.”
He looked sad again.
“He did a lot of bad things to a lot of good people,” he agreed. “But he didn’t ruin your life.”
She felt the hot tears gather, obscuring her vision.
“You’re right!” she all but shouted at him. “I did that myself!”
“You didn’t,” he said softly.
“I did! I picked this! I picked him! I could have picked C—“ she swallowed that thought before she could say it out loud, before she could breathe it into the world and make it real. “I did,” she said emphatically again.
“He fooled you, Lois,” Superman said slowly. Then he shrugged. “He fooled everyone.”
“He didn’t fool everyone!” she bit out, thinking of Clark again, angry at him for seeing what she couldn’t, and angry at herself for not listening to him. “He didn’t fool –” She stopped herself from saying her partner's name, and met Superman’s eyes. “He didn’t fool you.”
Good luck, everyone!
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In order to help you find all things Kerth for this year, we’ve created a TOC for all the
🏆TOC for Kerth Awards 2026 Posts🏆.
The Kerth Committee
(KSaraSara, Michael, lovetvfan, and Evie)
