Lois II
Lois Lane-Kent took a deep breath as she straightened up to look more closely at the tall man wearing the Superman suit. The suit design was different, a little darker, and definitely more alien, almost New Kryptonian. He was tall, at least two, maybe three inches taller than her husband with the bluest eyes she’d ever seen.
“I’m Superman,” the tall man said, scooping her up easily. He turned to the business-suited woman standing a little way from the fountain. “Stay here, I’ll be right back.”
He took off for Metropolis General Hospital.
Lois I
Lois Lane watched as Superman scooped up the pregnant woman and sped off into the sky. She was alone in a city that looked only vaguely like the one she was supposed to be in and she was annoyed. Who was he to tell her to stay, as if she were a dog, or someone he could simply order about? She was Lois Lane, Pulitzer winning writer and top reporter for the Daily Planet.
“Uh, miss?” A man said, clearing his throat.
She turned to see a man wearing a Superman suit standing next to her. Her eyes widened in confusion.
“There was a pregnant woman here,” he continued. “Where is she?”
“Superman took her to the hospital,” she said. She watched as astonishment, confusion, and something else, flickered across his face. She noted that his eyes were a warm brown. He was shorter than the Superman she knew. A little over six-foot, maybe, and built like a quarterback. But the strong presence was there, the ineffable aura of ‘good’ that she was familiar with.
She put out her hand. “I’m Lois Lane, Daily Planet.”
To her astonishment, he took a step back and looked up into the sky, hands out in supplication. “Come on! Give me a break here, will you!” After a moment, he seemed to come to a decision and held out his hand to her. “Okay, Miss Lane, let’s find out where your Superman took Mrs. Kent.”
“Mrs. Kent?” Lois repeated as Superman scooped her up and let go of gravity.
A moment later, they touched down in front of the emergency room entrance of Metropolis General Hospital. He set her on her feet and strode into the building, keeping hold of her hand so she had to hurry to keep up with him.
Superman, her Superman, was standing to one side of the room, trying to keep out of the way. The brown-eyed one let go of her hand and walked over to the admissions desk.
“Has Lois Lane-Kent been checked in?” he asked.
“Yes, sir, Superman,” the admissions clerk said. “She’s on her way up to the birthing suites. He brought her in.” She nodded her head in the direction of the other Superman. “Relative of yours?”
“Not sure, yet,” the brown-eyed one said. “At least he’s not a clone. I’m not all that fond of clones, you know.”
The clerk chuckled. “I assume Mister Kent is on his way.”
“He should be here in a minute,” the brown-eyed one said. “In the meantime, is there a place I can put them until he gets here?” He indicated Lois and the blue-eyed Superman.
“There’s a little waiting room around the corner,” the clerk said. “They should be okay there.”
The brown-eyed Superman beckoned for her and her Superman to follow him to the waiting room. He stopped the taller one. “Kal-El, I presume,” he said. Her Superman nodded. There was a worried look in his eyes.
“I assume you have some civvies?”
Again, he nodded.
“You might want to change,” the brown-eyed one suggested. “You’ll be less conspicuous. And try to stay out of trouble.” He looked straight at Lois. “If that’s at all possible.”
He left the room, closing the door behind him.
Lois turned to her companion. “Superman, what is going on here?” she hissed.
“We’re in an alternate dimension. A different universe. I don’t know how, except maybe that storm we went through. It wasn’t a normal storm, I know that.”
“So, what do we do?”
He gave her a crooked grin. “Try to get on his good side. I haven’t done such a good job of it, so far. Mrs. Kent was waiting for him to show up. She was seriously annoyed with me.”
“Mrs. Kent?” It suddenly dawned on her. “Lois Lane-Kent?”
He nodded. “Clark Kent’s wife. He’s married. To Lois Lane.”
He had the most peculiar look on his face, almost as if he couldn’t quite believe what he’d just said.
“He’s right, though. I’d better make myself less conspicuous.”
“You have a change of clothes?”
Again, that impossibly familiar grin. “I’ll be right back.”
Clark II
Clark had gone to the side of the building and changed into his business suit and tie at superspeed. He hurried to the birthing suite on the fifth floor, where he knew Lois was already harassing the birthing room nurses.
“There you are!” his wife called as soon as she caught sight of him. “Who was that other fellow?”
“Superman, I guess,” Clark said. “Remember, this is Metropolis, land of the weird and home of the crazed.”
Lois grimaced at another contraction and he held out his hand for her to squeeze. One of the perks of being Superman, she couldn’t break his hand with her vise-like grip.
He took a moment to look around the room. This was the third delivery they’d had in this very room. CJ had been born at STAR Labs, before Doctors Klein and Anderson determined that half-Kryptonian newborns were indistinguishable in any way from normal newborns. The room itself looked like a regular bedroom. Only the medical equipment in the side-room indicated it was more specialized.
The attendant came in and checked under the sheet to see how his wife was progressing. After three previous deliveries, Clark was still embarrassed to be present while a stranger examined Lois’s cervix. He watched Lois’s face instead as she relaxed between contractions.
“I figure another hour or so,” the attendant said.
“Lois, I need to take a minute and check on our ‘friends’ downstairs.” He leaned over and kissed her on the forehead. “I’ll be right back.”
“You’d better be,” she warned. He feigned a alarm and she giggled.
He hurried down to the waiting room where the other Superman and Lois were supposed to be waiting.
To his surprise, they were still there. They’d gotten cups of coffee and another couple had joined them in the waiting room. The other, younger, couple looked grief stricken. Clark noted that Kal-El and his Lois were talking to them, reassuring them, offering condolences.
Clark wondered if this Kal-El and Lois had children. He’d noted an engagement ring on her hand, but no wedding band and wondered what that meant. His journalist instincts were kicking in and he knew he would be going after answers. He was also going to have to introduce Kal-El to a tailor. The gray suit his counterpart was wearing was simply too out of date to be believed. Oddly, he wasn’t wearing glasses.
All the Clark Kents he’d met during various inter-dimensional treks wore glasses as part of their persona.
Clark cleared his throat to catch their attention and both couples looked up at him standing in the doorway. He nodded to Kal-El and Lois. “Superman told me you were here. I’m Clark Kent.”
Kal-El stood and shook his hand. “I’m . . . Charlie King and this is . . .” He looked back at Lois.
“Wanda,” she announced. “Wanda Detroit.” She looked disconcerted when Clark began to chuckle.
“Well, Ms. Detroit,” he said, fighting back laughter. “I’m sure the Stardust Lounge will be pleased to know you’re back in town.”
He searched his pockets a moment, found his business card case and handed ‘Charlie’ one of his cards. “I think it might be best if you two went down to the Planet and waited there for me. I’ll call my assistant to let her know you’re on your way.”
Clark I
He looked down at the business card in his hand. The Daily Planet logo was embossed in one corner. Clark Kent, editor-in-chief, the address and office phone number, fax, email. Editor-in-Chief? He looked at the other man in surprise and increased respect. This Clark Kent couldn’t be more than five, possibly ten, years older than himself. He was editor-in-chief of the largest newspaper on the east coast?
He handed the card to Lois and saw the same confusion in her eyes.
“Thank you, Mister Kent,” Kal-El said. “We’ll do that.”
“I’ll see you there in a couple hours, then,” Clark Kent said. He nodded a good-bye to the other couple and left the waiting room.
“Clark Kent is the editor of the Planet?” Lois muttered. “But he’s . . .”
“A hack from nowheresville?” Kal-El asked, using X-ray vision to follow his counterpart to the stairwell beside the elevators. “I don’t think so, ‘Wanda’. He may be wearing a Marvin the Martian tie, but that’s not a cheap suit. He is definitely not the Clark Kent you know.” He looked back at Lois. “We’d better get over to the Planet. He’ll be expecting to find us there.”
“And being on Mister Kent’s good side will help us how?”
“Don’t be difficult, please,” Kal-El said. “We’re going to need all the help we can get.”
