Chapter Ten

It's a Mad, Mad World

The past week had been choppy at best, a mixture of emergencies and calming down after the Toyman affair. The League was still on high alert due to Zod being on the loose, Clark had added extra security to the Fortress so that Zod couldn't gain access to the Fortress' technology, but with every available member helping with the hunt for the Kryptonian General they had found nothing and that made Zod even more dangerous. It meant he was planning something. He'd retreated after their fight, to regroup and to plan.

It was for that reason that Clark had spent most of the week living nearly four lives; working at the Planet, keeping an eye on Dawn, his patrol duties and also helping with the league. For any other man it would make him keel over, but Clark wasn't a normal man and was managing, but even so he felt the tiredness creeping in. Despite flying between his different lives there was one thing that connected them all; the strange crack in Kahndaq.

It hadn't taken long for every news station to find out about the events of Kahndaq. The league had tried to keep it quiet, but in the space of a day a religious following had surrounded the small village, bring followers and fanatics alike to see the 'miracle'. Clark was sympathetic to their beliefs, he'd grown up believing in God and despite Jor-El's training he continued to believe in a high power out there, but even he could see the danger of what it posed, it had been twice in the past week he had had to stop someone from jumping in and finding salvation. With that the League had doubled their guard around the area with the reluctant help of the Kahndaq government (reluctant because they didn't like foreigners encroaching on their matters), however it didn't stop them coming and it didn't stop the whole world knowing.

What was this crack?

What did it mean?

Was it a sign from god?

A prophecy of the End of the World?

Had anyone checked the Mayan Calendar?!

These were all the questions being asked by the press and people alike, all of them searching for answers all of which neither the League or the governments could answer. Mainly because neither had the answers. The League was looking for every scientific explanation it could find with Ray, Ronnie/Stein and Victor all looking for answers or anyway of stopping the crack. Up to now it had come to nothing.

"Don't you have a date?" a voice echoed from behind Clark as he oversaw everything. The world was in a panic he was just thankful they were able to keep Zod under wraps; otherwise it could have gotten worse. Clark turned to see Xander stood there, having just come in from Slayer HQ he had spent a lot of time up here with League providing whatever help he can. Giles had been doing the same looking over every text he could find to figure out what was going on and whether this was a foretold in the texts. Up to now, no it hadn't.

"Lois is in Kahndaq covering the cracks," Clark replied with a look of disapproval not liking the fact that Lois was so close to something so dangerous. She had made it her duty and a rather bad habit of putting herself in danger to get the scoop and get to the truth of everything; it was one of the few things that made him admire her and also makes him scared for her. She didn't have any superpowers, all she had was herself. He didn't think any less of her because of this, but he couldn't help but feel protective. "She's coming in later tonight, so we've doing it tomorrow."

"Right," Xander said sensing something as he moved forward to check the monitors, "scary isn't it?"

"We've faced worse," Clark sighed realizing that this was their lot in life. "Just wish the light at the end of the tunnel was easier to see."

"I was talking more about moving on, but yeah we'll find a way we always do," Xander said rubbing the back of his head as looked up at the monitors as the whole world went crazy. Every talk show, news show and day time television was covering the cracks; even Letterman came back to cover them. Jack Ryder was flying back and forth to Kahndaq and GCN to report on it along with Vicki Vale, his co-anchor; he didn't want her getting full control of 'his' show after all. Cat Grant had got a spot on the Daily Show for WGBS discussing how the stars of Hollywood were dealing with the news of cracks, interviewing fashion designers and movie stars on their thoughts on them; she and Harmony were battling it out for Daytime Television Queen. "They're all look for answers," Xander observed.

"And they're looking at us to provide them," Clark replied.

"You look beat, how long you been on duty?" Xander asked as he noticed the slightly small bags under Clark's eyes, which is saying something considering Clark could go days without sleep. The strain really is showing.

"About twelve hours," Clark said with a yawn as he finally let the strain of the past few days get to him at last, "I've been leading the hunt for Zod, but there's been no luck. I've had the Fortress on red alert trying to track but nothing, plus the crack has everyone going nuts."

"Well, they're not leaving the asylum anytime soon so go home," Xander said moving forward towards the monitors and taking up the position, "I'll take over here, you go get some sleep. You got a big date tomorrow and you need to look sharp."

"You're sending Dawn to give me wardrobe advice aren't you?" Clark replied knowingly and amusement, Dawn really took after Buffy on the shopping front which could mean a lot of heavy bags and very fast talking that even Clark couldn't understand half the time. "That should be fun," Clark replied as Xander gave him a smug smile as he looked over the monitors.

"Oh I'm counting on it, CK," Xander chimed as he radioed himself in to the other leaguers to let them know he was taking over monitor duty. "Now, go have a taco on me."

Clark smiled appreciatively as he stood up patting Xander gently on the shoulder as he walked away. He had always had this problem of holding the world on his shoulders and feeling like he had to do it all himself, but that was the point of the league; to shoulder the burden of the world together. He just needed a reminder every now and again. It's something he has come to accept about life that he can't solve everything but at the same time it hasn't stopped him trying.


The world was going mad, Lois thought as she looked down at the world below from her flight back to America. The past week the whole world had gone nuts since the conference in Washington with every news network and newspaper covering the strange cracks that had appeared in Kahndaq. Lois had hoped that things would have calmed down after the whole conference and Dawn kidnapping, mainly due to their non-date with Clark, but as with their lot in life things had never been easy.

So instead of seeing a monster truck rally, Lois had been sat in a press conference in the Kahndaq embassy building were most of the press people had been kept for the past week. The local government had not really been rather accommodating to the press, but then a dictatorial state wouldn't really be accommodating to the foreign press. Lois had kept her nose to the ground and got some information back to Perry. After nearly a week, the government officials had agreed to give a few words and by that they meant a good few words Lois found out as she sat in the conference room. Turns out that the government was still undergoing investigations but was working closely with the Justice League to see the cause and origin of this strange anomaly, though Lois could tell that this was done reluctantly from some of her sources and the general feeling of the government was that this was Superman's fault. That was the deal the government had made with the League; they can come in to Kahndaq but not Superman. Perry had had a field day with that scoop.

Meanwhile, Clark was 'supposedly', and Lois knew exactly what he was doing almost half of the time, was hanging about in Washington getting the thoughts on American people. As she walked through Metropolis Airport and was welcomed back to the big apricot she could see just how nuts the world had become in just one week. Newspapers like the Inquisitor and the Star had headlines like 'Hole in the World!' 'Is this the End?!"

"Beware the coming of the end is near!" a ranter cried out through a microphone as he stood at the corner of the street on what looked like a vegetable box and continued to rant out and give warnings to the people passing-by ignoring his ramblings, "God's wrath has finally come upon us and come to heal a land too long ignored by its neighbors and crumbling under corruption and decadence..."

His voice was muffled as he wasn't alone Lois noticed as she looked over to see a long line of people doing the same, all of them trying to get their point across and give warnings to the general populace. Their voices echoed across the street as Lois walked to the taxi rank to hail a cab, which was difficult as the weight of her bags was weighing her down.

"The world is doomed! For too long we've taken Mother Earth for granted and now she's fighting back!"

"We shall be reborn!"

"The aliens have contaminated the Earth! Down with the False God!"

Great, Lois thought as a cab flew past her, I come back and am surrounded by the raving loonys and can't even get a cab.

"Need a hand?" a familiar voice appeared from behind her causing her to smile, which she hid as she turned to find Clark stood there smiling down at her.

"I should of known your homespun breeding would mean you'd come pick me up, Smallville," Lois replied as she tossed one of her bags into Clark's arms turning and with two fingers giving a high-pitched whistle that both hailed down a cab and nearly made Clark's ears pop.

"So how was your trip?" Clark asked as he got inside the cab after putting Lois' cases in the boot of the cab.

"Wonderful," Lois grumbled sarcastically, "if you call sitting in an embassy for a week, were you can't go anywhere and are given nothing to go on."

"Kahndaq's panicking and to be fair so is every other country," Clark replied knowingly having got this information from both his Superman and Clark Kent persona, having both covered the government's talks on the situation and also been involved in some of them through this past week. "Some of Kahndaq's neighbors are concerned that they're experimenting something supernatural or extraterrestrial. The government here is even concerned about it, which is why they've fought for the Justice League get in."

"Inside scoop?" Lois asked knowingly with a smile.

"Y-yes I may have used my relationship with Xander to get some Intel," Clark stuttered as he lowered his voice wanting to keep Clark Kent and the Slayers relationship quiet.

"Right," Lois nodded inwardly smiling as Clark tried to act sneaky as he kept his identity secret. She had long gotten past the feeling being treated like an idiot, realizing that Clark wasn't doing that entirely and did have great respect for her, she'd seen the 'Lois rules' he kept in his draw; but that didn't mean that she couldn't have some fun with him in the mean time. "So, did Perry ask you to come pick me up?"

"Yep," Clark replied matter-a-factly, "he wants to see you and me. He's been irate all week over this story, 'this is the biggest scoop and I want the Planet to be leading the charge', that's all poor Jim has heard all week. Poor kid thought he could go with you to Kahndaq."

"He'd have been bored stiff, I know I was," Lois huffed as she fell back into her chair. She looked out of the window as she saw more ranters dotted about giving prophecies of doom. "There worlds gone nuts. More so than after Darksied."

"I know," Clark said solemnly as he watched the panick brewing in the streets, "things are really picking up. The Inquisitor and the Star have really been pushing the panic and the Harmony show hasn't really been doing the world any favors."

"Yeah I caught some of it on the plane," Lois replied with disgust at seeing the insufferable airhead playing up the vampire thing for the cameras giving off the notion that she can sense or even prophecy doom. "Never thought I'd say this, I much prefer Cat Grant's show."

"That is surprising," Clark chuckled knowing full well Lois' distain for Cat Grant and the mutual distain her rival felt for her.

"At this rate Smallville, nothing can surprise me," Lois replied as she got ready for whatever the day had ahead for them.


Xander stood looking at the monitors and craziness of the world as everyone clambered for answers or even profit from the cracks. He had always been a restless person, being leader had kind of calmed him down but even so he liked to move about and liked a little bit of excitement, sitting around wasn't really his style. He blamed Buffy for that.

And then, it happened a loud whirring sound echoed through the watchtower knocking him out of his train of thought as he stood up alert switching over from the Cat Grant show, which he had been thoroughly immersed in and not because Cat Grant almost sparkled on the screen, he was very interested in keeping with the day to day issues. He turned to the monitors and the alarms went off; where they under attack? How could someone get into the WatchTower?! He looked around for a signature.

A teleporter, he thought as a signature pinged to life on the screen, but where? He turned around as he heard a bang and gust of wind blew him against the console, his head cracking against the monitors as he fell to the ground. He groaned in pain as he looked up at the figure before him, surrounded in a bright blue light encircling behind her.

"Wow," Xander gasped as he looked up at the woman before him, long flowing curled hair reaching to her lower back cascading down a long golden cape that looked almost see through in its material, her body was covered barely by green bathing suit that showed off her long strong legs that that were covered mostly by golden knee boots, which was armored. The same being said about the rest of her clothes, gold shoulder pads sat connected to a gold collar around her neck, these matched the arm bands and wrist bands all of which gave her the look of a warrior and yet the gold head band with jewels gave her a regal look. It was that look that gave a feeling of awe and one that Xander was feeling very clearly as she stared down at him curiously and yet fiercely at the same time.

"Rise before a Queen human, I am looking for my future mate," she snapped haughtily as though giving him a command.

"I'm right here!" Xander gaped jumping up, a little too quickly so as to make him light headed, waving his hand up as if he were in school and wanting to picked first for gym. "And whom am I addressing, oh your regalness?"

"No, human, I am looking for my equal, my champion, my future king," the woman cried, her voice loud and commanding as though ever word she spoke was of importance, "my name is Maxima of Almerac, its rightful Queen and Champion and I am looking for the one you call Superman; where is Kal-El? Future king of Almerac!"

"Oh come on!" Xander groaned as he felt like he was back in High School and being picked last in gym. Next, beautiful half-naked alien queen that teleports in, he is so... oh forget it, Xander thought with exasperation, they'll probably still be there for Clark.