Clark & Lois – When Worlds and Universes Collide - Matchmaker Chronicle V 8 4/37
By KenJ <ken.janney@kjanney.com>
This version is rated PG-13
Alpha 023 x Gamma 004 x Tau -120 – Canon Lois and Clark universe also called – Prime
Alpha 023 x Gamma 004 x Tau -124 – Alternate Prime - Lori and Clark
Alpha 023 x Gamma 025 x Tau 036 – Alt 1, Alt Clark and Kryptonian Lois – (Alt 1 )
Alpha -120 x Gamma 255 x Tau -190 – Alt 2 Kryptonian Lois' home universe.
Alpha 023 x Gamma 025 x Tau 040 – Alt 1 alternate (Alt 3) Alt Lois and Alt Clark
Previously
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Universal Locator Designation
Alpha 023 x Gamma 025 x Tau 040 – Alt 3
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“Pete, I need to say that you’re the best friend I’ve ever had, except for Lois. You discovered my secret on your own and kept it and me safe all these years. Lana has known for some time. I told her about myself when we were getting serious. She has kept my secret all these years also. Thank you, both of you.”
“About Lois’ powers, that’s something we want to look into and you’re just the guy to do that for us.” Clark got up and went to a side table from which he retrieved a small packet. “Here is some of the residue from the Star Sapphires I gave Lois for our wedding. Those are the source of her powers. We need to have these pieces analyzed. Since you’re the head of the Geology and Metallurgy lab at S. T. A. R. Labs, I figured you would have the facilities to do just that. The jeweler that cut and polished the gems said that they were a never before seen variety. You’ve seen them; in fact Lois has the earrings and ring on now. See, they have a double star. We need to know what this stone is and where it came from.”
“I’ll get on it right away.”
“There’s another thing.” Clark got up and went to the secret compartment. He picked up the laser and opened the case. “Here is what caused Lois to acquire my powers. This is actually a laser, not a video cam. Watch this.” Clark went over and doused the lights. When he did the red crystal in the laser chamber began to glow. At the same time Lois’ earrings and ring began to glow brighter and brighter. “Wow, we hadn’t noticed that before! Lois, look at your ring!”
“Wow, I can feel my strength increasing! I don’t have the full set on and I don’t usually feel this strong with just these pieces. What’s happening?”
“It’s like the Sapphires are reacting to the red crystal!”
“We’re going to need to test this out. If your smaller gems can be supercharged by the red crystal you may not have to carry around the whole set all the time. You might be able to get away with just a few and the red crystal. Pete, we need this checked out. Can you do it for us?”
“You can count on me. I’ll start tomorrow. Can I have one of the smaller ‘energized’ jewels as well as the residue and the red crystal?”
“Sure, here you go.” Lois handed him one of the smaller gems from a concealed pocket.
“Here’s what happened, we were at the White Orchid Ball …“ Clark went on to tell the entire story.
“Wow, that’s some story. From what you’re saying it looks like you could be right. It looks like the gems are acting like a storage battery for your powers and imparting them to Lois. I’d like to try something. Could you put the jewelry on Lana and see if she gets powers?”
Lois said, “Sure! Lana, let’s get you decked out. Come on up to our room.”
Lana and Lois disappeared upstairs.
“You know Pete; if this works there may be no keeping her down. She may want a set for herself!”
“You think?”
They both started laughing.
A few minutes later the girls came downstairs.
Lois turned to Lana and said, “Okay Lana, let’s see what you can do. Let’s try something simple. Try picking up that living room chair.”
Lana moved over behind the indicated chair and bending down tried to lift it, without any success.
Clark offered, “How about this. The first power Lois had was superhearing. See if you can hear my heartbeat.”
Lana got a look of extreme concentration on her face and held it for several minutes. Finally she relaxed and said, “Nope, nothing.”
Lois said, “Here let me touch the gems.” She did and immediately she had her full powers back. “I hear you heartbeat as well as everyone else’s. I guess that means that I’m the only one the jewels will work with.”
Lana said, “It’s just as well. I don’t think I would want the responsibility that goes along with having those powers anyhow. Clark, I was a fool. All that time I tried to make you deny your powers, I was trying to deny what you were. Now that you have come out into the open with it and I can see how much good you’re doing and can do in the future, I want to just kick myself. What I was doing was almost criminal. I’m glad you found Lois and I’m glad you opened my eyes, not just to that but to Pete as well. Thanks.”
While she had been speaking Lana had been divesting herself of the jewels and giving them back to Lois.
“Lana, I’m just happy that things have worked out.”
Lois said, “Lana, you want to go for that ride I promised you?
“I’d love to.”
Lois spun into her uniform which elicited a ‘Wow” from both Lana and Pete. She held out her hand to Lana and grasping it led her to the back door.
When they returned Lana was flushed with excitement. “I’ve never in my life imagined it could be like that. Clark, all those times you offered to take me flying and I turned you down! *What* was I *thinking*!?!? It was wonderful!”
Lois said, “Lana, there will be times that we go out to Smallville. Maybe you and Pete would like to come with us occasionally.”
“Could we? That would be wonderful!”
“You guys could stay in the guestroom at the farm.”
Pete answered for the both of them “We’d love to guys, thanks.”
Lois spun back into her casual clothes, grabbed Lana and led her back into the dining room. Lana stood, watching in amazement, as Lois and Clark cleared the table at superspeed so that the girls could have it for paperwork while they planned the wedding. Pete and Clark went into the living room to catch what was left of the Metropolis Metros / Philadelphia Phillies game.
And now -
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Chapter 04 – Herb Shows Up
February 28, 1993* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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Clark and Lois had flown to the Congo and were waiting for Herb. Clark was sure that he was at the agreed upon spot and that he just had to wait patiently.
They were both dressed similarly in shorts and short sleeve shirts. They had on knee socks and short hiking boots. Lois’ had the top three buttons of her shirt unbuttoned revealing a hint of her cleavage.
With a little bit of frustration in his voice he said to Lois “Herb said he would be here between 12:00, noon and 3:00 PM local time”
Lois suggested, “Maybe he’s been delayed.”
“Lois, he’s a time traveler. There’s no such thing as being delayed.”
“Then maybe he’s not coming.”
“He seemed so sure. Something must have happened.”
Suddenly what looked like a doorway opened in front of them and Herb stepped through. The doorway automatically closed behind him.
When Clark recovered from his surprise and got a good look at Herb he noticed that he was somewhat older than he had been when he had dropped him off. The Herb that had dropped him off had in fact been the 1912 incarnation whereas this was the 1917 version. “Herb, I was getting worried that you wouldn’t be here. What happened to your Time Sled?"
“Oh, the Time Sled, yes, so sorry, my boy. It’s a long story. We've made some changes since I saw you last, yes, some changes." Catching sight of Lois he started to smile and said, "Ah, I see that Lois is with you! You look lovely my dear. You look absolutely radiant.”
“Lois, please allow me to introduce Herbert George Wells. Herb, Lois Lane-Kent.
My Lois and my wife.” Herb could hear the obvious love and pride in his voice as Clark spoke these words.
Lois stuck out her hand. Herb took it in both hands and shook it. Lois said, “I take it that I have you to thank for bringing Clark back in time so that he could save me.”
Very humbly Herb replied, “Yes, my dear. I was in some small way able to assist Clark in his quest. He had tried and tried to find you to no avail. I was able to facilitate his efforts in a way that was not possible for him.”
“Then in a very real sense I owe my life to you.” Lois threw her arms around his neck and gave Herb a big kiss on the cheek.
Herb was more than a little flustered by all this attention and blushed. He cleared his throat and stammered, “I, uh, I can … cannot tell you how hap … happy I am to have been able to assist in this matter. As I explained to Clark when I first proposed to help him, my main goal in this life is now to see to it that as many universes within the greater multiverse move to utopia as possible. If my small efforts have facilitated this, then I am amply repaid.”
“Now that we are together,” Lois looked over at Clark the love obvious in her eyes, “there is nothing that’s going to separate us.”
“Jolly good show! Then the mission was successful! Actually I knew it had been. That’s what delayed me, so to speak. You see, you weren’t supposed to be here, well, we didn’t know there was a here and it took a while to find you.” Enigmatically he continued, “We are starting to understand the creation of alternate universes more all the time.’
Noting the confused expressions on Lois and Clark, he tried again, “Let me explain it to you this way; when a critical event occurs a new universe is created. You actually passed a critical point and created a new universe. It took a while to realize that that was what had happened. Well, are you ready to move to 1997?”
“No Herb, we can’t do that. We’re established in the here and now. To move ahead would create a discontinuity.”
“Ah, I see, you have actually deduced the facts and correctly I might add. You have found out that you’re the only Clark Kent here.”
“Yes Herb, we discovered that some time ago. We also found that that wasn’t the only change that occurred. We are very happy with the way things have turned out. We’ve now built a life for ourselves together. Lois has acquired a copy of my powers and has joined me in fighting crime as well as in life. She’s going to be taking some time off here pretty soon though.”
With a very broad smile Lois announced “I’m pregnant. We’re going to be parents in about seven months.”
“Well, congratulations to the both of you. I’m happy for you.”
“Herb we realized early on that we had changed history and decided to make the best of it. We’ve been married for close to a year now.” Clark nodded to Lois and they both started to spin, becoming blurs of bright primary colors and when they stopped Superman and Superwoman stood in their places.
“I see that you have adopted a somewhat different uniform. Very becoming and yours, Lois, is spectacular. I can see why you will be taking some time off. Your condition would be very obvious in that uniform. How are you going to explain her absence?”
“When we announced our presence we said we were visitors from New Krypton. My wife has to go back to visit some ailing relatives. She’ll return some time after the baby is delivered. Not too soon after, we don’t want to give too much away.”
“That should do splendidly. Now that I know where you are, do you mind if I drop in occasionally?”
“That would be fine Herb. I do have some questions though. How are the other Lois and Clark? Are they still having trouble conceiving?”
“Well, let’s see, right now it’s also 1993 in their universe and they haven’t even met as yet. I actually don’t think that I’d be giving too much away at this point if I were to tell you that they will be having their first child in 2000. The first of many I might add.”
“How many?”
“I might be giving too much away if I were to answer that particular question. Let’s leave it at this; they will have a long and happy life together as will you. I’ve been to your future and because of your union your universe will achieve utopia in the future. Congratulations my boy and to you my dear. May you live a long and happy life and may your married life be all that you hoped it could be.”
“Are we going to have to deal with Tempus?” Clark asked with some trepidation.
“No, you will not. You will have some major problems to deal with as you have already dealt with Lex Luthor but it will not be anything that you cannot handle on your own. If you see me again it will most likely be a social visit, just checking in as it were or I may be here to recruit your assistance with a problem elsewhere.”
“That will be fine Herb. We’ll look forward to seeing you in the future. Actually, I’m going to request that you give us a visit in a year. Oh, by the way, we live at 348 Hyperion. I liked their house so much we bought it here. The reason for the visit is Lois’ powers. We have been doing some research on them … how Lois acquired them, how they are renewed and especially, if they can be passed on. We are near a resolution of all of our questions. The answers look very promising. At this point I am making the assumption that all of our answers will be what I expect them to be. We’ve discussed it and we would like to enable the other Lois to have the same powers her Clark has. Lois having my powers has, if it were really possible, made us even closer. Now we can share literally everything. We’d like to give that gift to the other Lois.”
“My boy, that is an extremely wonderful gift that you wish to bestow. I will be sure to return in one year and I will do whatever I can to facilitate the process.” Turning to Lois Herb said, “My dear, it has been a pleasure meeting you.” Herb reached for Clark’s hand. “My boy, again, my congratulations and may you enjoy a long married life with Lois.”
Herb pulled out a device from his pocket and entered some coordinates. When he depressed a particular switch a portal opened in the air in front of him. With a final wave to the couple he stepped through and the portal closed behind him.
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Lois and Clark took to the air as soon as Herb had disappeared. Hand-in-hand they returned to Metropolis. After a brief stop at home to change into work clothes, they took off again, landing on the roof of the Daily Planet. They both spun into their work clothes and descended the stairs to the bullpen. They were a little early, even beating Perry White into the office.
They each booted up their workstations and started looking at what investigations they had in process.
A while later Clark’s phone rang. “Daily Planet, Clark Kent.”
“Hey Clark, Pete. I can’t believe how early you are in to work. I tried the house and when you didn’t answer I thought I’d try there.”
“Hey, Pete, what’s up? Not a problem, I hope.”
“Nah, no problem. I was wondering if you and Lois could swing by STAR Labs sometime today. I’ve been thinking about our little project and I think I have a reasonable approach mapped out.”
“Sure, Pete, we can come over right now, if that would be convenient.”
‘Give me a few minutes. Not everyone has as easy a pregnancy as a certain woman I could name. Lana had a rough night and was sick this morning. I’ve been comforting her. I should be there in a half hour or so.”
“What can I say, Pete? Some women are lucky that way.”
“Well, some have a super edge, if you know what I mean.”
Clark was laughing as he replied, “Yeah, I know what you mean. Some women have all of the advantages.” He smiled at Lois. He was sure she was listening in on the entire conversation because she was smiling too. “We’ll see you shortly.”
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Clark told Perry that they had some things to follow up on and asked if they could take it as vacation time. Perry gave his okay and they headed out.
When they arrived at STAR Labs they immediately went back to the Mineralogy/Geology lab and were greeted by Dr. Pete Ross. As soon as they were inside, Pete closed the door. He got right down to business.
“Okay, here’s what we have. First off, I found that we had a small sample of green Kryptonite in storage.”
Clark looked around, worriedly.
Pete calmed him when he said, “Don’t worry, I have it secured in a lead container. The thing is I compared these new samples to it and I am convinced that these are alternate forms of Kryptonite.”
“How could that be? They don’t affect me?”
“Well, if you think about it, they really did. The red form did something to your physiology and Lois’ then the sapphire form stored your powers. That being the case I’ve started calling the red form simply red Kryptonite and the sapphire form, well you can guess.”
“I have fractured the sapphire Kryptonite and the red Kryptonite … for the sake of saving words I think I’ll use SK and RK as a sort of shorthand from now on. Okay, I’ve fractured the RK and weighed out ½ carat portions. The remnants of the SK that you got from the jeweler I have also weighed out. Now, what I propose is that I start handing Lois packets and adjust the weights until we determine just how much of each is necessary to achieve the desired result. Lois, I need you to remove your sapphires.”
Lois did so and then Pete started handing her packets, blue paper packets with SK and red paper packets with RK. Slowly as packets were added she could feel her powers returning. When she felt that she was back to full strength Pete added two extra packets, as a safety margin. He said, “Well, it looks like the SK alone requires a lot more than the SK/RK combination. The way the RK energizes the SK is a mystery, but it sure is effective. To achieve full strength Lois needed only 6 carats of the SK combined with 2.5 carats of the RK. That’s not a whole lot of the material. There’s enough here to take care of many generations.”
Clark looked at Lois and said, “I have an idea. Feel up to another flight to the Congo? I want to visit m. Artois. I’d like him to make another piece of jewelry.”
Lois smiled and said, “We could stop off and visit with Jacques and Madeleine this time! Let’s do it.”
“Okay, we will. Pete, I’ll need enough of the SK and RK to power at least two women.”
Pete picked up the two piles of paper packets he had been using in the testing and handed them to Clark. “Here you go. They’re already weighed out. Remember at least 12 of the blue packets to 5 of the red.”
“Got it, thanks, Pete.” Clark put the packets in his pocket and he and Lois prepared to depart.
Before they did Lois turned to Pete and asked, “Do you and Lana want to join us for dinner?”
With a sly smile, Pete said, “Sure, what is Clark cooking?”
Lois smiled and said, “I don’t know, but it has to be better than anything I could make. At least it will be edible.”
Clark laughed, “Just edible? I’ll have you know that even before you became, you-know-who, you enjoyed my cooking.”
She smiled and said, “You had better believe I did.” Turning to Pete she said, “He is a really good cook, isn’t he?”
With a look of contrition Pete replied, “Actually, it’s a good thing that I married Lana and you married Clark; that way at least one member of each family is a good cook. Lana does all of our cooking. About all I can do well in that line is Bar-B-Q.”
As they were turning away, Clark said, “How about 6:30 this evening? That okay with you?”
“We’ll be there. See you guys later.”
comments go here TBC
