I am well aware that self inserts can be very cliché, and annoying to some. I've tried to take a few bits of Skysaber's advice in writing this one. Namely; Import your own villain, establish your limits, and throw in a few nonstandards into the equation. Just so your insert is not always ahead of the game. It's more interesting that way.

Lyda Mae (RavenDove) Huff

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The Dove & The Raven: Part I

by Lyda Mae (RavenDove) Huff

Chapter One: A World I Know, and Don't.

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I come from a world where all true heroes are mortal.

A place where people have done such terrible things we could use a Superman, but all we have are are ordinary men and women, who die to save their brothers each day, and go unmourned by all but the few who knew them in person.

Not the masses I see in the pictures on the wall in front of me. It is a shrine to a man that came back from the dead, but I don't mean Jesus.

He is not real, this place the creation of writers and day dreamers, and yet here I stand. I'm in a dream or a nightmare. "I must be living a Sue." I said to myself. How I got here I do not know. How I will leave is just as much a mystery, but there is only one person here that I know of who might help me.

I feel dizzy as I walk to the reception desk. All I can do is hope that the lady there won't consider me a crackpot.

"May I help you Ms.?" the receptionist asked in a polite voice.

"I'm looking for either Clark Kent or Lois Lane." I say with as much strength as I can muster.

"Do you have an appointment?"

"No, but what I have to say to them just might be a matter of life and death." I try not to sound too agitated as I say this.

"Who's life are you referring too?"

"Superman's." I can tell she doesn't believe me. "I know what caused yesterday's black out, and some how I doubt that anyone but Superman would believe me."

"Would you care to give me a try?" The lady sounds like she is trying to humor a mental patient, which sadly isn't far from the truth.

"Would you believe me if I said it was a trans-dimensional crossover gateway." The vertigo is getting worse, the longer I stand here.

"That doesn't sound so far fetched."

I turn around to see a man behind me. He is wearing glasses and a very nice gray suit with a blueish green tie. It is not hard to see that he is who I'm looking for. He's just got his hair arranged in a more business like manner than in the photos on the wall. I know it was he that spoke, and I want to respond, but it sticks in my throat. I don't know how much he heard, or how long he's been standing there.

"I've seen some pretty strange things in this city, Ms..."

"Huff." I manage to say. "My name is Lyda Huff, and I would rather not say more here in the front lobby."

"Why is that?" He asked me very softly.

"Because There are some things that you, and Ms. Lane would not like said in public." I sigh, as I try to ground myself from the dizziness. "Things that Superman has told you off the record, which he would really rather stay that way."

"How are you so sure that I'm in such confidence with Superman" Kent asked.

"Because I was eavesdropping." I said as I grabbed hold of the counter.

He looked at me with a little confusion for a moment, but he knows that he will only find out what I mean is by talking with me. "You don't look well Ms. Huff." He said as he offered me his hand.

"I'm not well." I admitted. "I may not have much more time to talk with you, so you can either lead me somewhere out of earshot, our lend me cab fare to the nearest free clinic."

He helped me to the front door. "We can talk in my car while I help you to get to that clinic myself."

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Once we were safely on the road I spoke in a very hushed tone. "I know that you're Superman Mr. Kent, and the reason I know it was a dimensional crossover gateway that caused the blackout is because I came through it."

"Is that why you're ill as well?" He asked.

I tried very hard to keep my eyes closed as the motion of the car was making me nauseous. "I don't know how I got into the gateway. I remember taking a fall over a baby gate, and the next thing I'm looking at myself on a roof top as a power substation is blowing up."

"What do you mean looking at yourself?" He asked with concern.

"I was laying on the roof top and I saw myself standing over me." It was becoming hard to breath. "It was like I was looking as a shadow of myself, then she jumped onto a fire escape and was gone."

"How is it you know so much about me? And why do you think this is a matter of life and death?"

"In the world I come from there are no superheroes. Just stories about them. I've always like stories about you." I pause to take in a deep breath. " As for the danger, it's hard to explain. I've always had a dark half inside me. A part that I've struggle to keep in control for my whole life. It's not in my head any more, and that part of me would love to hurt you and everything else that I would dare to feel love for."

Kent looked over at me with interest. "You think this thing you saw was that dark half."

"It would make sense." I said. "At least as much sense as me riding in a car with a comic book character, and she would know everything that I know."

"That is a point." he seemed to be thinking things over. "I know a doctor that might be more useful in helping than any at a free clinic."

I try to take a deep breath. "If you're thinking Emile Hamilton, then I'd rather not."

He looked a little insulted at the comment. "What's wrong with Dr. Hamilton?"

It was hard to come up with a responds to that. "Not all of the stories about this world follow the same path. In some Dr. Hamilton is a very good and competent man, in others he is a crackpot or in even others he is a criminal."

"What are you expecting in this version of my world from what you've seen so far?"

"Frightening eccentric," I said, "in the versions were Doomsday came he's too weird to inspire confidence, and though he's definitely a genius he's just a little thick in the head about some things."

"Is he the head of Star Labs?"

"In those versions where he is he's more competent,"I said, "except when Star Labs is owned by Lionel Luthour at any point."

"What happens in those versions?"

"He's a Kryptonite crazed criminal."

Kent parked the car in an abandoned lot. "In this reality it's Emily Hamilton, not Emile and she's very good at dealing with Meta human problems."

"I'm not a Meta human," I said, "I'm a mental patient who must have got a bad batch of meds."

"I'm afraid not Ms. Huff," he said, "because if you're just having a bad hallucination then I'm not real, and I was very real before I met you this morning."

"I suppose you plan on changing clothes and flying me to Star Labs."

"It did make more sense to take you there as Superman."

"Keep low then," I tried not to look to unsettled by events, "I have this vertigo problem and a wicked fear of heights."

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If this is continued at all it will be a while before I get back to it. I'm involved with too much to promise a quick conclusion.

Lyda Mae (RavenDove) Huff

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