"LET GO OF ME! LET GO OF ME, NOW!" Lois screamed her head off, as Kal-El dragged her through the Kawatche caves. He still had the disc in his pocket that would take them both to the Fortress. He just needed to get to the console AND tolerate Lois's squalling!
"Why are we in these creepy caves?! Answer me, Kal-El! People have been murdered here!"
"No one has ever died here. Those are just foolish tales made up by bored townspeople." Kal-El said blithely.
"How the hell would you know? You just arrived on this PLANET a few years ago...what are you taking out of your pocket there?" Lois demanded to know, while still writhing in his grip. Kal-El held on to Lois's arm with one hand, while inserting the disc into the console.
Lois suddenly became quiet. Kal-El was taking her someplace beyond this cave. Good God, Lois thought, was this how the Kryptonians returned to Krypton? Maybe there was no 'space station'. Whatever was going on, Lois decided that she needed to find out, for the sake of mankind!
The world suddenly seemed to spin. No, Lois thought, more like slide back and forth, and she found herself grabbing on to Kal-El to keep from falling! Or that was what it felt like was going to happen. She closed her eyes.
When she opened them again, she saw they had traveled to...Antarctica or someplace? All she knew was it was some sort of winter dwelling.
"You can let go of me, unless you don't want to." Kal-El said in a tone that sounded slightly teasing. Lois quickly pulled herself out of his arms and moved away from him to look around. She spotted a strange fixture and sat down on it.
Lois then yawned for a long time. Meaning her mouth stayed open as if the yawn would never end. When it did cease, she saw Kal-El regarding her with what she could have sworn was an expression of worry. Lois dismissed that thought. She had to be imagining it.
"What is this place?" Lois asked.
"I think you should rest until your strength returns. And HERE, you will be able to recover."
Lois shook her head slightly.
"It's the middle of the night, Kal-El and I'm not up to listening to your riddles." she said, now standing up. "I want you to tell me where we are or..."
Suddenly, Lois began to slump to the ground, as fatigue overwhelmed her! Kal-El caught her before she reached the ground, picked her up and carried her around a corner... to his bed. He placed her in it, then covered her with silver bedsheets, before looking down at her.
This situation still needed to be explained to Lois, fully. Kal-El tore his eyes off of her and left the bedroom. He walked over to the console and began assembling crystals. He would leave Lois a holographic explanation of why she was here and what was going to happen, himself.
Once he assembled the crystals, Kal-El began removing his clothing. This would be a very 'special message'. One where he would be without clothing.
After, he would be leaving Lois here alone for a few hours, while he and his father made it clear to Bruce Wayne and General Lane, that if they wanted to see Lois or Alfred again, they would begin playing by Kryptonian rules from now on.
Ella would never quite know what had awakened her at three in the morning. She looked over at the empty space of Jor-El's and tried not to worry. Neither Kal-El nor Lois, truly understood what Jor-El and herself had. Kal-El had all but dismissed her worry. Then again, Kal-El all but dismissed her in general. And there were times when Ella would swear that Kal-El thought she was 'temporary' presence in his father's life!
He never said that, of course, but it was just a feeling Ella always got from him. Ella always chalked up her failure to connect with him, on the fact that she and Sam Lane had never had a son. Maybe if they had, Ella could relate to Kal-El more.
She got up and put on a robe. She decided to go down to the library and find something to read. Maybe that would take away this feeling she had. This foreboding that Jor-El's message was off. Even sinister.
Ella stopped by Lois's room to look in on her, and was startled to find her not there. It was three in the morning! Where had she gotten off to? Maybe Lois was on the lower floors as well?
But when Ella finally reached the first floor, she got the surprise of her life!
Jor-El was in the library with a much older man that looked vaguely familiar...
"Ella, darling," Jor-El said, moving to embrace her. Ella hugged him tightly, while eyeing the other man. She pulled out of her husband's arms.
"Jor-El, I thought you were supposed to be gone for weeks?"
"Yes, well my plans changed. Bruce was nice enough to loan us Alfred for Thanksgiving. He's going skiing with some socialite." Jor-El said casually. Ella frowned.
"I don't understand. I saw Lois earlier and got the impression that things were back on with Bruce. Why would he suddenly spend a holiday with another woman?" Ella asked.
Alfred decided to do what he could for Master Bruce. He had been abducted from Wayne Manor, in front of Bruce and General Lane, who was more worried for the fate of his daughter. Jor-El made it clear that he would expose Bruce's identity as Batman, if Alfred did not play along with this story he was telling his wife. Alfred knew Master Bruce would get him out of this, and was just grateful that Jor-El had not thrown him in a cage or locked him up somewhere.
"Mrs. El, I can assure you Master Bruce has all of the regard in the world for your daughter. I believe he confided that he was only doing this as a ruse." Alfred informed her.
"A ruse? For what?" Ella asked him.
"Mr. Wayne is your daughter's employer now. He has expressed concern of what people may think about Miss Lane's position at the Daily Planet if they knew she was involved with him." Alfred lied.
"Lois has never been the type to care what other people think. But then again, I see Mr. Wayne's point." Ella conceded. Still, dating other women just to keep people from thinking that he was seeing Lois, was rather drastic. She peered at Alfred again, then looked at her husband.
"Jor-El, we have servants that can help us with Thanksgiving. And surely, Alfred, you have some family you would like to spend time with."
"Alfred's family is Bruce, and as I said, he will not be around. And Alfred wants to help." Jor-El told his wife. "Now why don't you go back up to bed? I'll be along shortly."
Ella gave Jor-El a smoldering kiss that made Alfred avert his eyes! No wonder this man seemed reluctant to give up the wife he had here on Earth. Ella then ended the clinch and touched Jor-El's nose before looking at Alfred again.
"Good night, Alfred. And thank you for coming here. I have no doubt Thanksgiving will be better than ever with you here."
Alfred nodded politely and both he and Jor-El watched Ella leave the room, before Jor-El faced Alfred.
"I am pleased to see that you are being cooperative in this matter. You clearly understand that Bruce's reputation is at stake."
Alfred raised a brow.
"Sir, I am not the one you should be worried for."
"Oh?" Jor-El asked in an almost amused tone.
"Your son, I don't think, would approve of your methods. When he sees me about, roaming free and not tortured..."
"Alfred," Jor-El said in an almost kindly tone, "I can assure you that Kal-El is not torturing Lois. So he cannot expect me to do the same to you. And we would gain nothing from physically harming either of you."
"But would could you possibly expect to come from what you are doing, sir? General Lane will not surrender the weapons he now has against you."
"I don't think you should worry about that now, Alfred. I will show you to your quarters. Just blend in and go along with the cover story." Jor-El said. Alfred said nothing to that. He wondered what Jor-El was going to tell his wife about where Lois was exactly?
Then again, maybe he was leaving that up to Kal-El to explain.
Bruce walked into his office at the Daily Planet and found Oliver, Dinah and Dr. Hamilton already there. It was almost three-thirty. There were already early morning staffers down in the basement.
"We don't have much time," Bruce said tersely, "our plans have went to hell in a handbasket, so to speak."
"What happened?" Oliver asked. "General Lane took The El's away, right?"
"No." Bruce responded, looking at Dinah, "and I don't think you should return to LuthorCorp."
"What's going on?" Dinah asked.
"Everything was fine...until Lois made her way to the prisoners and accidentally let them go."
"Excuse me?!" Oliver snapped.
"Damnit, Bruce! I told you you didn't need to pretend to keep liking her! Now look what's happened!"
"And what do you mean she 'accidentally' let them out? How can we be so sure of that?" Oliver asked.
"Because I had a camera installed in there. They planned the whole thing, that is to egg Lois on enough to get her to let them out, when she thought she was increasing the radioactive strength of the cage. And Kal-El not only told her about the two of us, but he knows about other things as well. The point being, Jor-El has taken Alfred hostage and Kal-El has Lois. General Lane was forced to back down until we could figure out another way out of this."
"Uh, who is 'the two of us'?" Oliver asked, eyeing Dinah and Bruce. But Dr. Hamilton interrupted before he could ask anything more about it.
"Mr. Wayne, I am sorry to hear of your setback, but I do believe that Lois could be in trouble. More so than this Alfred, you speak of."
"Yes," Bruce said, now focusing on Dr. Hamilton, "I was told a little about this on the phone by Dinah. Lois mentioned something about Kal-El grabbing her so hard that he left a mark..."
"On her thigh, Mr. Wayne. And ordinarily I would not break doctor/patient confidentiality, but I felt that there were extenuating circumstances. This mark on Lois means that she is able to carry a full blooded Kryptonian child for this Kal-El. If Kal-El is aware of this at all, there is no way he will not try and impregnate her. Now you say she has been abducted by him. We need to find her."
"Christ!" Oliver hissed. "If that's possible then they can create Kryptonians here. They'd never have to go back."
"It's possible only in a special case, which brings me to something rather indelicate." Dr. Hamilton said. Bruce folded his arms.
"Go ahead. We have to know."
"The only way Lois could possibly have that mark on her, is if the Kryptonian that put it there, had had sexual relations with at least two other women in her family."
"What?" Bruce asked slowly.
"Yes. So this is not something that can just be done. A Kryptonian male, in order to produce a full blooded Kryptonian heir, would have had to have slept with two other members of that woman's family."
"Kal-El has slept with Lois's sister and is involved with her cousin." Dinah confirmed.
"He works fast." Oliver noted. But Bruce's expression looked grave.
"So the same would go for Davis Bloom?" he asked. "Because somehow he doesn't strike me as a guy that runs around."
"That's the thing, Mr. Wayne. I did see the same sort of mark on Mr. Bloom's wife but I managed to get her medical records. She is in the early stages of he pregnancy and is probably not even aware of it yet. And..."
"And what?" Oliver asked.
"The markings look as if Cat Grant is carrying a child with only half Kryptonian genetic markings."
"Meaning what would normally occur if a Kryptonian male and an earth woman created a child." Bruce said.
"But that mark was on Ms. Grant. I don't quite understand what is going on there." Dr. Hamilton said.
"I'm afraid I may. Jor-El has been strongly hinting that Davis Bloom might not be completely Kryptonian. Apparently his parents experimented on him as a baby."
"What the hell?!" Dinah hissed.
"Yes," Bruce said solemnly, "and Jor-El intimated that we would need Kryptonian help to 'stop him'. I told General Lane about this but he seemed to feel that Jor-El was just trying to talk his way out of trouble. I'm not so convinced now."
"It sounds like we need to have a talk with Bloom." Oliver suggested.
"I'll talk to Davis today at Wayne Enterprises. It's about time we know just what this man knows about his own physical make up. Because at this point, neither Jor-El nor Kal-El will tell us."
"But maybe Zod will." Dinah said, thinking about the way Zod's eyes had lit up with interest in her, when he was at LuthorCorp the other day.
"I don't think going near Zod is a smart play. Not yet, anyway." Bruce said. "We're going to have to cut this short. I need to find out where Kal-El has taken Lois. And hopefully I can find her in time before something is done to her that she cannot recover from."
Bruce left the office and said hello to two members of the janitorial staff. He was about to exit through a side door, when he stopped and looked in the staff work room.
Chloe Sullivan was at her desk typing away on something. Chloe was Kal-El's girlfriend. She might know of some other 'places' that Kal-El would take someone he wanted abduct and have sex with. Bruce knew she had not been especially happy with him after their meeting yesterday. Maybe it was time to start anew with Lois's cousin.
Lois yawned and stretched. She felt good and well rested. But as her eyes took in her unfamiliar surroundings, she remembered what had taken place before she went to sleep. Kal-El had kidnapped her to some supernatural hideaway or someplace!
Lois slowly got up from the very cozy bed that she had been in and slowly walked out of the icy looking room. She made her way down a hallway looking for Kal-El, until she came out into the clearing/room they had arrived in.
There was furniture there! Lois walked over to a chair and table that still had price tags on it, from a local Smallville store. Lois suspected Kal-El had used his abilities to rip off this stuff! Lois turned and saw a couch with a note on it. She walked over to it and picked up the piece of paper.
Lois, put the purple crystal into the console in front of you.
Lois looked around and saw something that looked like an ice, large screen television. She walked over to it and saw an array of different colored crystals. She picked up a purple one and inserted it into a hole, guessing that that was how this was going to work...
She jumped when Kal-El's naked image appeared but not on the ice screen! Like right in front of her!
"Jeez, Kallie, put some frickin' clothes on!" Lois squeaked, covering her eyes. Where did he come from all of a sudden? Then again, Kryptonians had that speedy thing going for them...
"If I know you," Kal-El began, "like I think I know you, then you are covering your eyes at the sight of my nudity. I am appearing to you as a hologram. So please sit down on the furniture I have provided and listen."
Lois slowly pulled her hands away from her eyes. Kal-El was a hologram? A naked hologram? Well, then maybe she could just take a few peeks.
Lois swallowed and walked back over to the couch to sit down. She coughed a few times, telling herself that Kal-El was making her uncomfortable on purpose in absentia. But her eyes kept wandering to places she knew they shouldn't and she suspected she was turning red.
"Now that you are seated," Kal-El began, "I can can explain to you how and why you have that mark on your thigh. I will begin by telling you that it will disappear...once you are carrying my child."