"So, what happened to the members of the JSA?" Lois asked Grant.
She'd spent the night at a small hotel a few doors down from his apartment and had returned the next morning after getting some clean clothes and feeling much fresher for it. Ted Grant was still a little prickly, but he understood they had a mutual enemy and was at least willing to help her figure a few things out.
He shrugged as he poured juice into a glass from the pitcher. "We split." He sighed. "There were problems long before Checkmate. Truth is, Hawkman crossed a line when he went after the guy who killed his wife."
"Shayera."
He nodded. "He refused to listen to reason and well, none of us could really deal with it. Then Checkmate tried to recruit us and when we wouldn't …" He picked up his own glass of juice. "Far as I know, Carter's still in Metropolis. He created a museum, housing artifacts from the Society. I did try to contact him after Sandman and the Star-Spangled Kid were killed but he never replied to my messages."
Lois couldn't really blame Carter. After his friends were killed, it was little wonder the man had chosen to disappear. She got the feeling, however, that that wasn't the full story.
She remembered reading about the death of Sylvester Pemberton, otherwise known as the Star-Spangled Kid. Chloe hadn't said much but it sounded like the League had gone after the killer themselves and were almost killed in the process.
"I need to get back to the States somehow," she said. "But not as Lois Lane."
"I can't help you with that, but I might know someone who can get you on a ship. No questions asked."
"I don't know," she said slowly, not willing to face the thought of being stuck on a ship for even two weeks, knowing anything could happen. "A ship would take time to get to port. If Checkmate found out where I was, they could be waiting for me at the port."
"You could walk out that door now and they could be waiting for you. What's so urgent about getting back to America?" he asked.
"My son," she told him.
Grant raised his eyebrows. "Your son?"
"Mine, and uh, the friend I told you about. If Waller finds out the truth about him …"
"He'd be a target. Look, it's the best I can do, Lane. Just how are you planning on forcing Checkmate to back off?"
"I don't know," she admitted. "I don't know if I can think that far ahead."
"Well you better think fast, girl, because if your friend is what you say he is, and your kid is his, the kid's going to be in a hell of a lot of trouble."
"Why does Waller want us so badly?" she sighed.
"Let me tell you something about Amanda Waller. She's as cold as ice and twice as hard. She does not value human life and will send someone to their death without blinking an eye. She's also paranoid as hell. If your ex is what you say he is, she will think nothing of locking him in a lab and dissecting him like a lab rat."
"I don't even know if that ship I saw was his," Lois protested, shuddering at the thought of Kal being opened up for dissection. She had never told him, but for most of the week before he had left she had had nightmares about that very same thing. When she found out she was pregnant, she had had nightmares again, only this time it was both Kal and her baby.
"For all I know he could have gone back and forgotten all about me."
Grant shook his head. "If he's anything like you describe Lane, there'd be no way in hell he could ever forget you. I've only known you a day and I think you're a hell of a woman. If I were thirty years younger …"
Lois considered her options over the next few days. She needed to get back to the States, but there was no way she could fly. The identification papers were good but not good enough to pass inspection by US customs officers.
There was still the option of the ship, which she supposed would be a lot quicker than trying to travel through China and Russia.
She could try contacting Chloe and Oliver at Watchtower, but she didn't want to take the chance that Checkmate would somehow manage to intercept any communications. She knew they would still be worrying about her. It was a week since she had left Singapore.
She returned to Grant's apartment the following day.
"All right," she said, sighing. "I've been weighing up my options and it looks like the ship's the only way to go."
"Well, you're in luck. Buddy of mine has a container ship leaving at four tomorrow morning. I already told him you might be coming."
She frowned at him. How had he known she would say yes? He smirked at her.
"I may have only known you a few days, Lane, but I know your reputation. You're like your old man. Tough as boots and twice as stubborn. I never said this was going to be the easy option Lane. My buddy's condition is your passage ain't free. You'll have to work your ass off but in return you get about two dozen guys who will do their utmost to protect you." He scratched his lip. "Listen, when you can get to Metropolis, look up Carter Hall. If he's still around."
She nodded. "Thanks for everything."
He shrugged as if it was nothing. "Just make that bitch sorry she was ever born and we'll call it even."
Lois found herself grinning for the first time in she didn't know how long.
"Don't worry," she said. "I will."
She was up early the next morning. Ted had contacted his friend, who was the ship's captain, and he had told her he would pick her up and drive her to the port. The only catch was she would be leaving at three in the morning, as the ship needed to get under way by five. Lois didn't want to tell him that she had been woken by reveille every morning as a child so this was no hardship.
The men had obviously been warned she was coming, but while there were a couple of crew members who stared as she came on board, nothing was said. She was shown to the crew quarters, given a tiny room with only a bunk and a small table. It would be cramped for the two weeks or so they would be sailing, but she didn't care.
She was given a job keeping the galley clean. Fortunately, she wasn't asked to cook anything. Grant had obviously told the captain, Alan, that she was not the best of cooks. She could manage, sort of, but not for a crew of twenty or so hungry men.
Her other job was helping to clean the deck when necessary. Alan had already warned her that they would be stopping at other ports on their way to Los Angeles and she was to stay below deck in her cabin at those times, out of sight. He clearly understood the necessity of keeping her presence on the ship under wraps and every crewman had been ordered not to speak a word either.
When she was called down to the mess for dinner, she noticed a tall man with dark blond hair working in the galley. He smiled at her.
"You must be Lois," he said. "I'm Jay."
"Hi," she said.
"Listen, the men can get kind of raucous, but don't pay any attention to anything they say. They like to blow off steam, but they're a good bunch of guys."
"Oh don't worry," she assured him. "I grew up around Navy Seals and Green Berets."
"Yeah," he replied. "Alan told me about that. Just FYI though. Some of these guys haven't seen a woman in months. Their language can be, uh, colourful."
Jay was not wrong, Lois thought later as she sat with the crew. Some of them, like Jay, were around Ted Grant's age, but a few others were her age, or younger. As the night wore on and the drinks got lower in their bottles, they forgot to watch their 'ps and qs'. It seemed that Alan had warned them not to make any kind of pass at her as they otherwise seemed to be on their best behaviour.
She studied them as they continued to drink. A couple of the men were only drinking coffee, having been assigned to night watch. Most of them had that camaraderie that she would have expected to come from those used to spending hours with only each other for company, but there appeared to be more to it than that.
She decided to watch them closely over the next few days, just to see if her suspicions about the men were right.
It had been a few years since she had seen Kal working at super speed, but there was no mistaking it when she observed Rick Tyler working at more than twice normal speed. He also seemed to be stronger than most normal people, able to heft loads which would be too much for an ordinary man, even a power lifter.
Then there was Jay, who not only seemed to be very skilled at chopping up vegetables, but his hands seemed to be a blur as he worked.
Thirdly was the ship's doctor. Charles McNider was both Jay and Alan's age, and he was blind. What seemed stranger still was that she had bumped into him one night in the corridor. While she had had trouble seeing, he had no problem at all, and she didn't think it had anything to do with his being blind.
She finally had to speak up. Lois decided to help Jay one night in preparing the meal.
"Jay, I need to ask you something."
He looked at her. "Uh oh," he smiled. "That's the intrepid reporter's face."
"I guess you'd be used to reporters wouldn't you?" she said. "I mean, you haven't always been a sailor on a cargo ship."
"What are you getting at, Lane?"
"Who are you, really? For that matter, who is Alan, or Charles, or Rick?"
"Who do you think we are?" he asked.
"I think you're with the Justice Society," she said. "Or you were."
He was silent as he studied her.
"How much did Teddy tell you, anyway?"
Teddy? she thought. Ted Grant had never been less like a 'teddy'. He was prickly and bad-tempered, certainly not a 'teddy' kind of person.
"Enough for me to put two and two together. So, who are you? Or who were you?"
"They used to call me the Flash," Jay admitted. "Alan was a Green Lantern, Charles was Doctor Mid-Nite and Rick's father used to be known as Hourman. He died not long after Checkmate had some of our members arrested."
"So you've been hiding, all this time? Why?"
"For the same reason you've been running around, never staying in one place, for the past fourteen years. We know all about you, Lois. We know who you're hiding from and why. I have to say, what you're doing to protect your son is noble, but it's hurting both you and your son."
"I didn't have a choice. I couldn't protect him and look over my shoulder at the same time."
"Still, you had to know that Waller wasn't going to buy the story about your son." He canted his head at her look. "We did some research too."
Lois had always had the feeling Waller wouldn't buy the story.
"If that's true," she asked, "then why has Waller left him alone all this time?"
"Because like it or not, she doesn't want to risk jail time for kidnapping a minor. Even if the kid is what Ted told us he is, he's still a kid and Waller's bosses wouldn't take kindly to being implicated in a felony. Checkmate would be shut down for good."
"She didn't seem to have any qualms about kidnapping me," Lois said bitterly.
"You were just a pawn in her game to get your boyfriend," Jay explained gently. "She probably figured you wouldn't be able to tell anyone without revealing the truth about him."
"That's the whole point. I didn't know the truth. Not then." She sighed. "But I guess Waller didn't care about that either."
"Ted's right. There's no length the woman won't go to to get what she wants."
"And what does she want?" Lois asked. "Why does she keep hunting me down? I mean, just when I think it's safe to start my life again …"
"Because she wants power. Not the power of authority."
Lois nodded in understanding. Amanda Waller was just greedy enough to want the power someone like Kal had. Like Lex Luthor, who saw only the threat that Kal's power represented and never saw the humanity in him that stopped him abusing that power.
"Why you?" she asked. "Why here?"
"Because Ted likes you and he thinks you have it within you to shut someone like Waller down for good. And because maybe it's time we all stopped hiding."
He smiled at her and gestured toward the vegetables.
"Come on. They'll be yelling for dinner soon and you know what twenty men are like when they're hungry."
Lois grinned at him and nodded, setting to work.
Over the rest of the journey she began to see the crew in a new light. The men were all fiercely protective of her. She wondered if all of them had abilities or whether it was only a few of them. Not that it mattered, she thought.
Alan approached her as she stood out on deck late one night, unable to sleep.
"We'll be in Los Angeles tomorrow," he said. "I have to tell you, Lane, you're one hell of a hard worker."
"I figured I owed it to you. I'm grateful for everything you have done."
"At the risk of repeating what Ted told you, I believe you can take Waller down for good. You've got guts, Lane. I guess that's what makes you the reporter you are."
"I don't know about that," she said wryly. "Considering I've spent the last ten years on the run."
"Most of us have spent the last thirty odd years doing the same thing. We all deal with it in our own way."
"Thank you," she said. "Thank you for helping me."
He smiled and walked away. Lois continued to stand out on the deck until it became too cold to do so.
As they sailed in to the port the next day, Lois prepared to leave. While it was highly illegal, the men had decided she couldn't take the chance with customs, knowing her name would be red-flagged and she would very likely be detained by officers. Jay was the only one capable of moving fast enough so they could get across the bay to Huntington Beach before the ship reached port.
She picked up her bag and reported to the galley. Jay was waiting, jacket in hand.
"Ready?" he asked.
She nodded, a little nervous about being taken at super speed.
"It'll be fine," Jay assured her. "Just hang on tight and don't let go."
"Easy for you to say," she muttered.
The crew were waiting for her on the deck when they went up top. All were eager to see her off.
"You take care of yourself kid," Alan told her.
"I will," she said.
She quickly said her goodbyes and stepped into Jay's arms, feeling them tighten around her, then closed her eyes, thinking it would be easier if she couldn't see them moving.
They had arranged it that Jay would take her to a famous restaurant on the beach, or at least fairly close to it, knowing if there were too many people around they might see her appear out of nowhere. This time of year, early fall, there were fewer people hanging out at the beach but Jay still didn't want to take chances.
It seemed like only a couple of minutes before Jay was gently telling her to open her eyes. Lois looked around, realising they had stopped in a parking lot, which was almost empty. She could see the restaurant about a hundred yards away.
"You okay?" Jay asked softly.
"Yeah, it's just … I'm back on home soil. It feels good."
"I know it's not Metropolis …"
"No, this is good. I spent about a year near here when I was a kid. I'll be okay."
Jay scratched his upper lip. He looked up, watching something in the distance, but Lois didn't turn around.
"I better get back to the ship," he told her. "But if you need anything …"
"I'll contact you, I promise."
"Take care of yourself kiddo," he said.
"Thank you Jay."
She watched him disappear, then shifted her bag on her shoulder before turning in the direction of the restaurant. As she started walking, she frowned at two figures approaching from the other side of the restaurant. One of them looked like …
The closer they came, the more familiar they looked. Lois stopped walking, staring at the two men … no, not men, she thought. One of them, yes, but the other one was a teenager. Both had dark hair. The man was about six foot three, with a muscular body. The boy was only a couple of inches shorter and leaner. Other than that, they were almost identical in looks.
The man was staring back at her as he continued to approach. Lois felt her heart jump, almost paralysed in shock as she watched him get closer and closer.
"Oh my god!" she gasped. "Kal!"