Missing Lois - TOC Extra Disclaimer: I have once again borrowed song titles that I do not own in any way, shape or manner. I do not take credit for these wonderful songs or songwriting abilities, only on the effect music wreaks on my characters. (Examples of the songs as well as credits follow the Part.)
Story Notes: This story is mostly set in alt-dimension, although visits to the canon dimension do happen from time-to-time.
- Clark = Alt-Clark unless otherwise noted
- Lucy El = pregnant canon Lois avoiding the curse by hiding out with alt-Clark, aka Lois's secret identity
- Kal = what Lois-Lucy and alt-Clark call canon Clark
- Lois = alt-Lois, wife of Lex Luthor
- Lola Luthor = Clois, 'wife' of Lex Luthor
- Sam Lane = alt-Lois's Dad, Lois's doctor & roommate
- Dr. Bernard Klein = S.T.A.R. Labs scientist and Superman's 'doctor'
- Lex Luthor = no explanation necessary, same bad guy as always, this time bald
- Junior = Lex Luthor, Jr., Lex's first born son, creator of the Neuroscanner
- Asabi = Lex Luthor's body guard and Lola's guard
- Jaxon Xavier = Lex Luthor's son and spy at
The Planet, does website design and research for the paper
***
Where we left off in Chapter 4: Part 12:“Me?” She squeaked. “Really, Lexy? Do you really love me?” She looked at him with adoration. It made Clark’s stomach crawl.
“Of course, my love,” Lex replied uncomfortably. “A word.” He took her elbow and led her away.
Clark tried to listen, but Lex swirled his finger in the air and the band started to play at that moment, deafening him. Instead, he watched Lex and ‘Lola’ have their discussion. Something about it seemed off, yet familiar. Then it clicked. She reminded him of that clone of Lois that had argued with Kal that day he rescued the younger Lois from her dimension’s Lex Luthor.
Taking a few steps back, Clark leaned against a pillar as the room started spinning. The clone. It all made sense. She looked like Lois, but was superficial, materialistic, child-like. That would explain why he felt nothing, felt empty around her. She wasn’t
his Lois. If this was a the clone, where was the real Lois Lane?
Part 13Clark pulled the device that Dr. Klein had given him out of his pocket and flipped it on. This time a second light blinked, slowly and steadily. He was here; Junior was in this building, controlling her, spying on her at this very moment. He swallowed. His Lois was nearby.
Lola stomped away from Lex and up to Clark. Right up to him. She pressed her body against his. “Clark,” she whispered in his ear. “Dance with me.”
Swallowing, Clark slipped the device back into his pocket. The clone, Lola, took his hand and led him out to the dance floor as the band began to play something slow. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her body against his again. He knew she wasn’t Lois, but she still smelled like Lois, sounded like Lois, and felt like Lois.
“Mrs. Luthor…”
She leaned her cheek against his. “Call me, Lola, Clark. We both know I’m not the real Mrs. Luthor nor will I ever be.”
He leaned back to look at her, but she pulled him close again.
Lola continued, “I’ll never be able to seduce you, will I?”
Clark wasn’t expecting these turn of events. That must have been some argument with Lex. “No matter how tempted I may be, Lola. I’m sorry, no.”
“Now, you’re just being kind.” She chuckled. “I overheard Lex say that you never lie or break a promise, is that true?”
“Yes.” Clark had always tried his best to be truthful, before Lucy had come into his life.
“Lex lies to me all the time and is always breaking his promises to me. Will you save me?” Lola looked up at him, her eyes big and full of hope.
“Save you from what, Lola?”
“The storm, silly.” Lola ran her fingers down his chest. “Can’t you hear it roaring outside? Lex says you have really good hearing.”
Clark closed his eyes, taking hold of her hand so the clone would stop touching him like that, and listened. The cyclone was indeed really starting to blow. He had forgotten all about the storm in this windowless room.
“Lex says that only you can save me from the storm; he’s not going to save me. So, if I tell you what you want to know, will you promise to save me, too? Save both of us from the storm and him?” She sneered when she referred to ‘her husband’.
Clark stepped back so that he could look her in the eye. “Both of you?”
The music stopped and they looked up to the stage.
“My wife has agreed to sing us a song or two,” Lex was saying from the microphone. He held his hand out to her. “Darling?”
Lola looked at Clark. “Promise?” she whispered.
Clark nodded.
She flashed him a quick grin, before walking slowly over to the microphone. With a glare at Lex, Lola coughed. “Please, pardon my voice. I’m just recovering from an illness.”
Clark realized that she didn’t want to sing; Lex forcing her to perform for him had been the last straw, causing the clone to rebel.
“This first song is Lex’s favorite. I sang it to him when we first met and he always requests it,” she said as if she had a bad taste in her mouth. Then she started singing ‘
I’ve Got A Crush On You.’ Lola, it turned out, only had a decent voice, definitely nowhere near Lucy’s natural talent. That was why she did not want to sing. She knew it would give her away to be the fraud that she was. Anyone who had heard the real Lois Lane sing would know she wasn’t her.
It was sad the way Lex forced her to perform even when she could not perform to Lois’s standards. Lex must know he had an imperfect copy. Had he had made her for him, Clark Kent? Had he made her to seduce him, so he would think he was getting the real deal? But there was more to Lois than a beautiful body; her soul couldn’t be cloned. Lex wouldn’t know that Clark could recognize that Lola wasn’t his Lois. Lex didn’t know of Clark’s ace in the hole, Lucy.
Clark pulled the device out of his pocket and inched away from the band. Lex really did love this song. The billionaire stared at Lola, watching her perform. In the blink of an eye, Clark was out the door and in an elevator riding up.
After five floors, Clark realized that the blinking light was slowing not getting faster. He was moving away from Junior’s Neuroscanner, not towards it. What had Jaxon said about his step-brother? “
Junior had some kind of birth defect on his face – a skull malformation – so he likes to stay hidden away from people.” He must be downstairs in the basement, out of sight.
Getting out on the next floor, Clark took another elevator heading down. The light started to blink faster. He was getting closer. He stopped and listened. Lola was still singing to Lex. He should be back in the ballroom before the end of her song… before Luthor noticed he was no longer there. He was down as low as he could go and although the light was blinking extremely fast, he knew he wasn’t there yet. Clark wandered through the maintenance room, past water heaters and electrical pipes and industrial sized washing machines until he found a freight elevator. It was standing open. He stepped inside and noticed it went down another two levels.
Clark tried the sub-sub-basement first. It wasn’t like the other basement he had just come from. The walls, though cement, were painted and had sconces in the shape of torches. He passed a hydroponic rose garden and he heard music. Lola was still singing to Lex; she was near the end of her song. He wasn’t going to make it back to the party in time. Either Lex Jr. had the sounds of the party piped down there or they were being played for Lois and he was listening to her, listening to Lola.
“Can you believe Father actually thinks that Clark Kent will fall for her?” Lex, Jr. chuckled into his microphone – his direct connection to Lois. “Listen to her. Talent must be attached to the soul, not the body. Your hero is a fool, thinking my clone is you. But, then again, he has never met the real you and she does have your exquisite body. Pressing that nice body of yours against him when they dance. Whispering ‘rescue me’ in his ear as they dance. And he’ll take her away and here you will stay with us. By the time he realizes he has the wrong woman, you, Father and I will no longer be in Singapore.” He laughed.
Clark’s skin crawled as Junior’s slimy voice taunted her.
“Shut up, you sick snake. I can’t hear Lola.” That was Lois. Alive and well, and giving it back as much as she was getting it. Her voice emerged out of the console speakers. Luthor must have her elsewhere in the building. “Come on, Lola. Come on. You can do it,” she encouraged the clone.
The song had ended and they could hear the polite applause. “This next song was taught to me by the only person who was ever nice to me,” Lola was saying. “She believes that I can do anything I set my heart on. So, I sing this song for the real Lola, up on the one hundred and fifth floor, and I dedicate it to her husband, Lex Luthor.” There were gasps from the party guests. “Oh, by the way, darling, we want a divorce.” Then Lola started to sing, “
You Don’t Own Me.”
Clark smiled.
Thank you, Lola.Junior hissed. “Oh, no, no, no. She went off script!”
He could hear Lois singing along with Lola, her voice melodic and seductive as she rejected Lex through her clone.
“You shouldn’t have done that!” Lex Jr. growled into the microphone and Lois screamed out in pain. “Your little stunt worth it, step-Mummy?”
Clark came around the corner and knocked Junior out of his chair and across the room. He turned down the pain amplifiers and Lois stopped screaming, but he could still hear her panting for breath. The console indicated her heart rate was still elevated. He stared at the console until it melted and smoked in front of him, the components fried under his heat vision.
As Lex Jr. tried to crawl away, Clark picked him up by his smoking jacket lapels. The left side of Junior’s head seemed larger than the right; perhaps it was, or maybe it just seemed so because the hair on that side of his head only grew in patches. His face wasn’t symmetrical like most humans either. The skull around the left ocular cavity almost covered his eye, giving him the appearance of having recently lost a boxing match. He wasn’t ugly per se, but he certainly didn’t fit in Luthor’s ‘perfect’ world.
Clark pulled the little black control box out of his hand, crushing the Neuroscanner into dust, as he said, “No more, Junior.”
“Just tell me one thing,” Junior begged, staring at Clark as he dangled from his hand. “Who is she? Who’s the woman with Lola’s genetic fingerprint? The one who made you Superman?”
Clark smiled at him. “Lois Lane, of course.”
“No, I mean, did I shoot the right…” but Junior said no more, because Clark threw him against the concrete wall, where he whimpered then blacked out.
Clark looked down at his crumpled, yet still living, body. “No, you toad. You shot the wrong person entirely.”
He kicked over the console and made sure there wasn’t a part of it still intact before leaving the basement. On the ride back to the main floor of the building, he changed into his blue suit.
***
The wind gusts from the cyclone had become very strong. He couldn’t imagine why Luthor had left Lois up on the hundred and fifth floor during such a storm. The other buildings did block some of the wind, but this building was taller than the surrounding ones, leaving the upper floors exposed to the high winds. Superman tried to fly straight up, but even he was getting blown around by the blasts of air. There was one floor with a light still on and he aimed for it. He misjudged the gusts this high up and was blown straight through the window.
Luckily, the occupant of this apartment had already evacuated, but forgot to turn off a light. He shook the glass from his suit and hair. After a quick survey of the room, Superman realized he was only on the hundred and fourth floor. With a slight jump he was able to climb up to the next balcony without flying through another window. The balcony door was unlocked. He slid it open and walked into the room, then closed the door behind him, cutting off the wind and noise.
Superman could still hear Lola’s voice and music being piped in through the speakers. He was surprised Lex hadn’t pulled her from the stage. The lights were off, but he was sure this was Lois’s room. He could see her silhouette pacing, illuminated from the light under the door that must connect her room to the rest of the suite. She sang softly along with Lola. “
I’m free and I long to be free…” His heart swelled at the sound of her voice; this was definitely his Lois.
As he closed the door to the balcony, she spoke. “Hello?” She jumped into her karate stance facing him. “Who’s there?”
“A friend,” he replied, a smile emerging on his lips. Stunning and feisty, yep, definitely Lois.
“How did you get in here?”
“Through the window,” he replied, calmly.
“Are you nuts? We are on the hundred and fifth floor. Didn’t you notice the wind?” She was still bouncing around in her karate stance. “What do you want?”
The room was dark so perhaps she couldn’t see him. He clicked on the lamp next to the bed, but she didn’t react to the changing of light.
“I’m here to help you,” Superman said, moving slowly closer, towards her.
“Stop! I can hear you moving about. Just stop. I know karate, you know.”
He smiled, standing still with his arms crossed. “So, I can see.”
“Lucky you. Who are you?”
Superman stared at her. Something was wrong. Why didn’t she recognize him? Why wasn’t she looking at him?
“Who sent you?” she asked when he hadn’t spoken.
“Clark Kent,” he replied at the same time.
Lois lowered her hands for a moment. Then she raised them up, again. “Really? You know Clark Kent?” Her voice seemed rougher. “Prove it.”
Lois knew his name, his heart sang. She trusted Clark Kent. He racked his brain. How could he prove who he was to someone who had never met him? “Rainbows follow thunderstorms,” he finally said. Her father had said she would know what that meant.
Lois dropped her hands and fell to her knees. “You know my father?” she murmured with relief.
“Yes, very well,” he answered, kneeling down next to her. “Shall we go?” His hand shook slightly with anticipation as he placed it on her shoulder. The electricity that flowed between them was strong, sharper than what he had felt with Lucy. It was all he could do not to pull her into his arms.
She jumped away from him. “Don’t touch me!”
Clark’s hands rose into the air as his heart erupted in shock. She couldn’t see. “I’m sorry, Lois. I didn’t realize you were blind.” He shook his head and then growled, “That monster blinded you.” Rage for Lex rose like bile into his throat but he pushed it down. His anger would only frighten her.
The lights flickered and went out. He heard the hum of electricity disappear. They were in the dark once again. He heard a softer low hum begin and knew the emergency generator must have kicked on because he could now see a faint glow from the emergency lighting in the hall outside her door.
“Yeah.” She gulped, crawling towards him. “Say it again.”
“What?”
“My name.” She was right next to him. He could feel the warmth of her breath on his cheeks. “I haven’t heard it in over three years.”
“Lois? Are you ready to go? I’m going to lift you up into my arms.”
“I’m blind, but I can still walk.”
“Out the window?” he teased.
She scooted away from him. “You are nuts. We’re on the hundred and fifth floor!”
Superman smiled. She really had no idea who he was. When she had called the paper that time, she wasn’t calling for Superman to help her, but the investigative reporter, Clark Kent. “I can fly,” he explained.
“No, really. Let’s just take the elevator.”
“The power just got knocked out from the storm.”
Something banged against her door. “Lola, darling. I’ll get you out of there in a minute,” Lex called.
Now Superman knew why he hadn’t pulled Lola from the stage. After Lola’s announcement, Lex must have headed straight to Lois’s room. Lois moved away from the door and closer to Superman.
“Trust me,” Superman said.
Lois jumped as another loud bang struck the door. She was practically in his arms. “Wait a minute,” she said, lying down on the floor and pulling herself under her bed.
“Hiding from him won’t do any good.”
“I know that. Grab me a bag,” she called to him. Superman looked around.
Another smash against the door. He could hear the wood splintering. “He’s almost through, Lois. We need to go.”
She pulled herself out from under the bed with an armful of notebooks. “The bag?” she asked, holding out her hand. When he didn’t hand her one, she continued. “In the closet.”
He was back a second later, handing it to her. “Oh, you found one. Good.” She dropped the notebooks into the bag and slung it over her shoulder.
With the next crash, the door was splintered through and through. A beam of light shown into the room from Luthor’s flashlight. “Lola! Don’t go with him. He’s insane. He thinks he can fly!” Lex called to her.
Superman scooped her into his arms. After a moment of hesitation, she wrapped her arms around his neck. “Don’t kill me,” she whispered.
“Not planning on it. Hold on tight, Lois. There’s a cyclone out there, so it might be a little bumpy.” He opened the sliding glass door as the first bullets buzzed past them. Superman held up his cape and the bullets bounced right off it.
“Don’t take my wife!” Lex screamed.
Lois held on tighter to him. “Let’s go.”
A second later, they were in the air, wet and spinning. They went up and up and up. Finally, they breached the storm and were over the clouds. He heard her release her breath.
“Am I dead?”
Superman smiled. “No. A few more minutes and you’ll be somewhere safe.” As he flew east, the night became darker, then lighter until the sun rose before them. She missed it all -- she was blind.
It was mid-morning in Smallville when Superman set them down on his front porch.
“Where are we?” Lois shivered in her thin t-shirt and slacks. “It’s freezing.”
“Smallville, Kansas. We’ll be inside in a moment.” He unlocked the house and punched his mom’s birth date into the security pad.
“You’re kidding me, right? Kansas? We were in Singapore not ten minutes ago.”
“More or less. I’m not as fast with a passenger,” Superman said, ushering her inside. “You’ll be safe here for the time being. There’s some food in the fridge. Let me take you to your room.” He took her hand and led her to the stairs. “Here is the staircase,” he warned her.
“What is this place?” she asked as they slowly made their way up.
“Clark Kent’s family home. It’s where he lived before his folks died.”
“Oh. That explains why his pet cause is Metropolis’s orphans. I knew he was a good man when he was still looking for me in January. Either that or crazy.”
Superman chuckled. “You saw that one inch story?”
“Hey, it was about me. Of course, I saw it.”
As he opened the door to the Lois Lane room, Clark wondered how long Lois had been blind. “Welcome home,” he said, turning on the light. “Your clothes are in the closet and drawers.”
Lois stiffened. “Please, tell me I haven’t gone from one prison to another.”
“No, you are not my prisoner, Lois. I thought you would want to unwind for a few days before the media storm that will be your return to Metropolis.”
“Just you and me?” she asked, skeptically, brow raised.
“Actually, just you, if you can manage. I’ve got to get back to Singapore. I promised the clone, Lola, I’d rescue her, too. And then I need to help as much as I can.”
“Help with what?” she asked feeling along the wall until she bumped her leg into the bed and sat down. She drew the quilt from the bed around her shoulders.
“Search and rescue, mostly. There’s going to be a lot of people needing assistance after Cyclone Rafflesia blows out of there.”
“Cyclone? Cyclones don’t form that close to the equator.”
“You can read about it tomorrow.” Superman winced. Of course, she couldn’t read about it. “Lola can read it to you. Clark’s already wired in his story. Apparently, the cyclone was man-made.” He looked at her shivering on the bed. He wanted to zap her with his heat vision or just hold her and tell her everything would be okay, but she didn’t know him from Adam. “I’ll turn up the thermostat and make a fire in the fireplace downstairs, before I go. It will warm up soon enough,” he said hesitating in the doorway. He hated to leave her so soon.
“Wait!” she called, reaching out her hand.
“I’m still here.” He took her hand in his and drew in a breath at the electricity between them.
“Thank you. Anyone ever tell you that you are amazing?”
He laughed. “No. I can honestly say I haven’t heard that one in awhile.” He stood there for a moment holding her hand. “I’ve got to go. I promised Lola.”
“Right,” she said, letting go of his hand. He felt empty without it.
“I’ll be back soon with her. She’ll be able to help you while I’m working in Singapore. In the meantime, get some rest,” he said, pausing for one last look at her. “You’re free, Lois.” She felt a breeze and he was gone.
*** End of Part 13 ***Lola Dane (Teri Hatcher) sings
I've Got a Crush on You written by George & Ira Gershwin
Lesley Gore sings
You Don't Own Me written by John Madara & David White
CommentsChapter 4: Part 14/14
