"Guten Morgen."

"Do you always answer your phone like that?" Chloe asked with a chuckle.

"When in Germany and it's morning, yes," Lois answered.

"How are you doing?" Chloe asked taking a more serious tone.

"Fine. I miss my own country every now and then but if I were a country personified, I'd probably be Germany. Do you know they have a holiday for getting drunk and then there's a holiday where old ladies can beat people with sticks. I can't wait until I'm old enough for a stick. I'd like to beat the crap out of a few coworkers."

"I have to remember to visit you on one of those holidays. I have to remember just to visit you. It's been what a year?"

"And 3 days. How's the Metropolis Daily Planet treating you?"

"Nice. I'm not an intern anymore. My salary went from 10,000 to 20,000. I'm wealthy."

"Any interesting stories?"

"I'm working on an Intergang story. I'll tell you what Metropolis needs is a superhero."

"No, the world needs a superhero. Can you believe I'm working on the same story in Berlin?"

"It's being spread to ever major country in the world. We should collaborate on this. If we could just figure out who's behind it."

"I have my theories. It definitely originated in Metropolis. Bill Church is my main suspect."

"Bill Church? I met him at a charity function. He seemed really sweet and nice."

"The cruelest leaders are often the most charming on the surface. That's how they get people to follow them and anyway, I said he was just one of my suspects. Email me all the information you have and I'll email you mine."

"It's a deal."

"I know you're rich and everything but Lucy talked to me from the U.S. for 10 minutes and it cost her 34 dollars."

"I know it cost me 56 last time. That's why I only make these calls once a month. I'll email you first chance I get. Auf Wiedersehen."

"Auf Wiedersehen."

Chloe hung up the phone and watched Clark come through the door. "I'd bet a year's salary that you eavesdropped on my phone conversation."

Clark gave a noncommittal grunt.

Chloe's heart went out to him. He hadn't been the same since Lois left. There were days she was almost tempted to tell him the truth but she never did. "So you heard us talking about needing a superhero then? You know you're one of the few people who could cover the globe."

To Chloe's surprise, he finally agreed. "I do know. I trained with Jor-El awhile ago. It only took a couple of days. I even got this ridiculous house of El suit as a disguise. I've just been putting it off but Lois is right. It's time the world had a superhero."

---

Lois was on top of the German Daily Planet building. It was evening and the stars were just coming out. It was her own private place. The wall was so low on the rooftop that it discouraged people from coming out onto the unenclosed height.

She breathed in the sweet taste of nicotine. She knew she shouldn't have taken up smoking again. The very first time she had smoked a cigarette, which was at 14, she knew she shouldn't have. They were cancer sticks, a form of assisted suicide, not that she or other smokers meant it to be. When the girl had offered it to her she wasn't sure exactly what had gone through her mind. Maybe it was partly teenage rebellion but more than likely it had made her feel close to her mother. The girl had laughed when Lois had hesitated at lighting it and said, "After all, how many people really die of smoking cigarettes? I don't know any, do you?" Of course, Lois had known someone, her mother but she lit it anyway. She had quit at 17. It was the day before she turned 18 and could start buying them legally but that in itself took some of the joy out of it and it was a bad habit after all. She hadn't smoked since that day, not even once. She'd have liked to say it was mere willpower and mind over matter but gum and nicotine patches had helped. Nevertheless, not a day had gone be that she hadn't wanted one. That was the curse of an addiction. She had always carried a pack around with her just to know they were there but it was always the same pack that she had owned at 17. High stress made her cravings practically unbearable and she guessed the Clark situation qualified as extra high stress. She had smoked the 4-year-old pack her first day in Germany. She normally went through 2 packs a day now and she also drank a little more than she should have but smoking was her main addiction. However, the smoke never quite made it past her lungs to fill the hole in her heart but at least it relaxed her, if only for a few minutes.

She was quite invaluable at her job, not only because of her reporting skills but because none of the other Americans who worked there spoke German quite as well as she did. Her accent was so good, people often thought she was a native. Her dad had been stationed here for awhile. She barely remembered the Berlin wall being up. It had often confused her why they couldn't go over to the other side and even at 3, her curiosity had made her yearn to see the other side. It was lucky she had been too young to try and scale it, although they worried more about people escaping than entering. Her mother had tried to explain it to her but the world of adults was often beyond a child's understanding. She certainly remembered the wall coming down. They had watched people breaking the wall down from their apartment window for weeks. Her dad actually had a piece of the wall but so did a lot of people. Germany was peaceful these days, though it had taken decades to get this way. It wasn't a bad place to live but it wasn't where her heart was.

It was so dark that only the light from her cigarette lit up the rooftop. The sounds of the city filled the silence. She blew a couple smoke rings to amuse herself, and then she let her mind wonder to the Intergang story. Despite what Chloe had told her about Bill Church, she couldn't shake the bad feeling she had about him and that's mostly what it was, a bad feeling. She needed evidence and that was hard to get since he lived in Metropolis but if she worked with Chloe, it wouldn't be impossible.

Before she knew anybody else had come out, 2 hands shoved her hard, sending her off the roof. She screamed, not because she thought it would help but from the sheer force of the fall. One thing was for sure, she couldn't commit adultery once she hit the pavement. She had definitely changed the future. She shut her eyes tight and waited for impact. Instead, she felt 2 arms grab her in midair.

TBC