Disclaimer: All characters belong to the respective copyright holders, including DC comics, Warner Bros., December 3rd Productions and anyone else with a stake in the Superman franchise. Only any original ideas in here are mine.

AN: Thanks for returning. Now…will we find out some more of the mysteries? Wait…did you think the story was almost finished? Read on to find out. Muhwahwah!

Finally I got this chapter finished. My muse was so pleased with the previous chapters, I think she ran off congratulating herself and didn't return. Well, since she decided to continue the story, she finally got back to work. Sheesh! Nothing like a temperamental Muse to irritate a writer. But I apologize for the length of time it took to get this out.

Hopefully you will enjoy this chapter as well….

Life quickly returned to normal for Clark after his discharge from the hospital. At least, the casual observer would think so. In fact, some of his co-workers teased him about returning to work too early because he didn't trust Lois on her own, a comment met with a frosty glare from the woman in question. After a week recuperating at home, Clark was back at work, writing articles with Lois. However, below the surface, he and Lois had quite the adjustment to make, given the new information she now knew about her partner.

Now that Lois was in on the secret, she couldn't wait to see how Clark incorporated his powers into his regular life. However, that took a while to happen, for Clark's powers were slow to return due to the lingering results of Luthor's torture and the extended exposure to kryptonite. Unlike Clark, Superman took a little longer to recuperate. It took two weeks of sitting in the sunshine every chance he got to see the return of his super speed. Then another week for his super breath. Another week, and his heat vision was present. However, it took a month for his ability to fly to return. Clark knew it was back when one morning he woke to find himself levitating above his bed once more. Luckily, he took off for the clouds before letting out a yelp of joy which resulted in a sonic boom on the earth below.

The next several months also consisted of Clark attempting to fill Lois in all sorts of 'super' details about his life. Unfortunately, Lois still had some anger to process when the occasional story revealed something Clark had pulled off practically right in front of her which she never knew about. But Clark quickly learned how to help her balance the anger with the hurt she felt, and slowly she worked out those abandonment issues which continued to occasionally flare up.

It took a good three months before things fell into a pattern of what Clark would consider 'normal'. Lois was becoming accustomed to his way of life, his powers had all returned, and he was back doing rescues. Clark thought he could finally enjoy his life, and appreciate the blossoming romantic relationship he and Lois were sharing.

Until the day another Superman showed up.

Clark was out on an assignment, following up on a lead for a story about the Metropolis school board. He returned to the newsroom only to find it abuzz about the latest news story being broadcast on all TV's. As most of the observers left the TV monitors to return to their work, Clark realized he had missed something huge.

Lois pulled her eyes from the screens as she felt him approach. Leaning close to him, Lois whispered, "Great job! I do believe it was one of your best."

Clark's eyes roamed over the newsroom, but only saw his colleagues either working or discussing things amongst themselves. No one was watching them. "I don't know what you mean, Lois," he whispered back.

She pulled away at him to look him square in the eye, surprise evident on her face. "What do you mean, you don't know? You saved an airliner from crashing in Tokyo. Quite a magnificent rescue." Her eyes searched his face for clues as to what he was talking about.

His mind scrambled as to what comment he was going to make first. "It wasn't me, Lois. I was following that lead on McBride and possible corruption in the school board. I've been in Metropolis all morning."

Lois searched his face for any sign of joking or teasing, but she found none. "I don't know, Clark, but someone looking like you, sounding like you, and flying like you, saved all of those people and prevented the airplane from crashing. He didn't stick around for interviews, but I didn't think that was strange. He…you…must have had something important to do." She didn't know what to say. "You're sure it wasn't you?"

Clark couldn't help himself; he allowed a small chuckle to escape his lips. "I'm one hundred percent sure it wasn't me, Lois. But I don't know who it could be. I have no brothers, no cousins, nothing. I thought I was the only one on Earth with my powers."

Lois was about to say something when Perry approached them. "What are you two standing here gabbing? I know it happened in Tokyo, but why aren't we on this story about Superman? Why was he in Tokyo anyway? He didn't stick around for any interviews, so maybe he's waiting for you two to show up to tell his story to. We missed out on the main story, but we sure could do a follow-up."

Clark asked, "Do you want us to go to Tokyo, Mr. White?"

"Well, if that would stop you two from wasting time, why yes." Pausing, as though he was waiting for them to realize his sarcasm, he then continued. "Wait, no. The story isn't there anymore. Just get busy trying to locate Superman and see why he was in Tokyo."

Clark watched as their boss headed for his office. He pursed his lips in thought and turned to Lois. Before he could say anything, Lois said, "I think you should go to Tokyo and check it out, Clark. I'll stay here, and…cover you if necessary." Shrugging, she added, "Maybe there are some clues there as to who this…imposter is."

Clark gave her a smile and nodded his thanks. "Hopefully I wouldn't be long."

~~LnC~~LnC~~LnC~~

Clark flew to Tokyo, located the airport where the mishap occurred and touched down behind a building. He quickly changed into his suit and tie, and headed to the general manager's office to get the details of the rescue, additional sources who he could interview, and where the plane was located now. Luckily, for him at least, the plane had been sidelined for a while, so it was still in the hanger. Claiming it was part of the story for him to look at the plane, Clark was able to wrangle a visit to it.

At one point, when his tour guide was distracted by an unrelated question from one of his staff, Clark slipped underneath the plane. He found handprints embedded into the plane itself from the impact of having to slow it down, and placed his hands into the prints. His hands fit perfectly inside the indentations. As if it were his own hands which had made the indentations.

Finding nothing else unusual about the plane, Clark thanked his guide and they returned to the main office. Every source he interviewed there gave no doubt it had been Superman who had rescued the plane. No one expressed any concerns regarding the behavior of Superman, no one acted in surprise or consternation at any of his actions. Except for not sticking around for interviews or to meet his grateful public, like he usually did after a rescue.

Before he left the country, Clark decided to take in lunch in a small restaurant and enjoy the local cuisine in the actual atmosphere for once. It also provided him some opportunity to think things through. Lost in thought, he contemplated what the possibilities were. However, he couldn't come up with anything. Finally, after eating his last bite, he threw the napkin on the table in disgust and left. He indeed was in a hurry to get home to discuss his findings with Lois, to get her interesting view on it all.

~~LnC~~LnC~~LnC~~

Lois had no idea what to think when Clark returned and told her all he had found out over the Japanese take-out he had brought home for her. It was just all so mind-boggling.

"So, you know for sure you have no other relatives who also escaped Krypton before it blew up?" she asked him in between bites of sushi.

Clark rolled his eyes. "I can't be absolutely sure, Lois, but I've never had any information to lead me to believe otherwise. But then, I have no other ideas of what is going on here."

Lois drummed her fingers on the table while she drank her coffee. "We need to arrange a meeting with this other Superman."

Clark quirked an eyebrow at her. "How would we do that?"

"I don't know," Lois shook her head at him, smiling a little. "I thought today I'd come up with the ideas and you bring the details on how to implement them."

"Funny."

"Seriously, though. Who else could have an idea of what's going on?"

"Lois, I've been wracking my brain trying to think this through. I suppose we'll have to wait for his second appearance and see what clues we can get from that appearance. And perhaps I could follow him this time, and talk to him."

"Well, hopefully that will work, since it's our only plan for now."

~~LnC~~LnC~~LnC~~

Over the next month, the mysterious Superman-like person kept popping around at various world catastrophes, rescuing all in trouble, and rushing away again. Most interesting of all, it appeared as though someone always knew when Clark was busy somewhere else before the imposter would appear. Either Clark was at another rescue or conducting an interview where he wouldn't find out about the appearance until after the imposter had left the scene.

Clark and Lois began to feel paranoid, looking over their shoulders so to speak, wondering how something like that could keep occurring. Clark tended to brush it off as coincidence until he could prove otherwise, but Lois insisted it was something more sinister. Even after he scanned both of their apartments for bugs, cameras or other surveillance devices and found nothing, Lois remained unconvinced. Clark, knowing Lois, decided to let it rest, agreed to disagree with her. However, knowing her batting average with being correct on such intuitions, Clark still kept an eye out for clues on any source of surveillance. He had yet to see anything even close to resembling any type of spying or surveillance, but the situation continued to frustrate him.

Lois even began to search the whereabouts of previous Superman enemies. They were all either dead or still in prison. She then began to hunt down relatives, friends, romantic attachments of all the villains…and she still found nothing. It was driving her crazy, not finding anything to substantiate her theory about the other Superman not here for good intentions.

Clark wasn't happy either, because as time went on and the unknown man's rescues increased, he was having increasing difficulty avoiding questions regarding those rescues or coming up with plausible reasons why he didn't want to say anything about them while he gladly talked about the other rescues he actually did. He just couldn't believe they hadn't found one clue as to what was going on. Or had an opportunity to talk to this imposter. Because, indeed, he was an imposter. If he were here with good intentions, he'd have identified himself from the beginning. Not led everyone to believe he was the original Superman by his silence.

Clark shook his head in disgust every time he thought about the imposter. He knew there was something he and Lois were missing, but for the life of him, he had no idea.

Until he read about the mysterious death of a cellular biologist at Metropolis University.

AN: So, what did you think? I am almost as evil as Lex, aren't I? Oh well, it's in the FF writer's imaginary contract, you know, to provide cliffhangers on a fairly regular basis. Just kidding. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it, let me know what you think, and return for the next chapter when it's posted. Thanks again!