"So is this what we're really going to do?" Tom Marasu grumbled.

The producers and writers of "Smallville" had gathered to plan the final episode. Not for the first time, Jeff Larson wished he had not hired the new intern Thomas G. Marasu.

The meeting had not even yet opened, and Marasu was already offering his views.

"Most of this two hours will be filler," the intern said in his usual sarcastic tone.. "I mean, it's only going to take Clark a few seconds to put on the costume, right?"

"Actually," Larson said, "we thought we'd have Jonathan hand Clark the costume."

"What? A ghost?" Marasu sputtered. As he went on, he sounded like Sam Winchester with the voice of Jon Cryer. "Seriously? Are we doing 'The Lion King' now? Hey, while we're at it, why don't we just have a cosmic being named Deus Ex Machina appear and solve everyone's problems? Or maybe Galactus could come down from space and get in a fist fight with Darkseid?"

The more Marasu grumbled the redder his face got, Larson along with him. The director of visual effects looked both intrigued and alarmed.

"Oh," Marasu huffed, "and maybe Batman and Captain America could break up the fight with their inspiring example!"

A corporate lawyer was about to pipe up about copyright infringement but Larson motioned him to be silent.

Brad Peterman chimed in. "Actually, we thought we'd do something like that with Clark and Oliver. While they have their fight at the wedding, Clark tells Oliver he believes in him. And that makes the Omega symbol go away."

"Lame," Marasu muttered. "How often does that happen on TV? Some character makes a big speech, and the other character instantly magically changes." Marasu shook his head. "That'd be like someone changing Darkseid's mind just by being nice to him." He slipped into a deep grumbling voice that was thunderously loud and eerily realistic. "Your words of kindness don't impress me, human! I destroy entire planets before breakfast!"

Larson thought he felt the table vibrate. Marasu slipped back into his normal voice. "Assuming Darkseid actually eats breakfast, of course."

As usual, the others tried hard to ignore Marasu. As they all looked away from the intern, Kathy Sanders spoke up.

"We thought we'd have a scene where Clark and Lois read their vows to each other from opposite sides of an apartment door." She pressed clasped hands to her cheek. "It'll be so romantic."

"And we'll repeat some of the vows at the wedding," Peterman chirped.

"Why don't we just get to the fight? We trying to bore the viewer?"

Larson sighed while Kathy looked dreamily at the ceiling. "And we'll have Chloe read a comic book to her son."

Larson nodded. "The 'Smallville' comic book. With Superman on the last page."

"But," Marasu ventured cautiously, "if there's a 'Smallville' comic book, won't most people be able to figure out Clark Kent is Superman?"

The others looked away again, Larson sighing loudly in exasperation..

"Okay, but we will see Clark in the Superman costume, right?" Marasu became unusually cheerful, rare for him. "I mean, how about that scene at the end of that one episode, where Lois is off in Egypt? And Clark is trying to save Cat Grant from Deadshot. At the end, Clark appears in the red leather jacket. That was so colorful! That was almost like a Fleischer cartoon. So when Clark puts on the costume, we'll have a nice colorful shot of that, right?"

While Larson sighed and shook his head, Kathy gave Marasu a very serious look. "This is 'Smallville,' not Superman."

"We'll only see very tiny shots of Clark in the costume," Peterman said with a grin.

For a moment, Marasu stared. Then:

"So fans wait ten years for this moment, and then nothing? Just the ghost of Jonathan Kent?"

Larson looked ready to emit smoke from his ears. "All right, Tom. That's it. You're out of here!"

As Marasu left the meeting, he retreated to an empty storage closet. There he reverted to his natural form, that of Darkseid.

After Darkseid was cast out of the body of Lionel Luthoe, he wandered around another dimension. There he stumbled across both Dawn Stiles and Isobel. Dawn pointed him to a world where "Smallville" was only a TV show, and there was no real Clark Kent to stop him. ("Genius," Dawn insisted of her handiwork.) Isobel used her magic to help Darkseid assume the form of Marasu.

Back in his natural form, Darkseid was very pleased. He felt sure this final episode of "Smallville" would disappoint many fans and drive them into deep despair. They would then be easy prey for the Darkness.

But Darkseid had not counted on the power of the Internet and the positive spirit of "Smallville" fans. Within minutes of the airing of the final episode, fans posted comments like this:

'This final episode is as good as the 'Star Wars' prequels...The Most Awesome Movies Ever Made! Yeah!"

"This final episode is even better than the final episode of 'Quantum Leap.' Which was freakin' awesome, dude!"

"This last episode was as good as my favorite movie 'Donnie Darko,' which I watch over and over again and always find some new meaning. Absolutely awesome!"

"This is the best final episode ever made. And if you don't think so, you're stupid."

One disappointed viewer posted: "I wish there'd been a fist fight between Galactus and Darkseid."

If a few were disappointed, they were not enough to increase Darkseid's power. And so thanks to the positive spirit and exuberant cheerfulness of fans of "Smallville," the world was saved from the Darkness and Darkseid.