"Great Caesar's Ghost, you know we all thought you were dead?" Perry repeated slowly and loudly as if Clark hadn't heard the words from his own mouth when in truth he'd practiced them a thousand times. It was easy to resurrect Superman, godlike in the public's eyes. It was so much harder to resurrect Clark Kent.
He knew his story sounded callous as if he hadn't cared for the people in his life at all. "I never believed Superman was dead. I wanted to chase this story, and I knew the only way I could do that was off the grid. I broke into his tomb and found him missing first."
"And you've been where exactly all these months?"
"Looking for him, Mr. White. I knew you couldn't give me the time off I'd need. And I didn't want anyone to know what I was doing. He was weak, vulnerable and any number of evil people could and would have taken advantage of that. I couldn't let them suspect what I was doing and that meant killing myself off so to speak. I've got the exclusive right here," he said, handing him the typed article. "It tells all about my story and Superman's story. He was willing to interview with me since I was the one to find him up at his fortress in the arctic."
Perry took the article, but he didn't read. "You can't just disappear like that. You let your mother and Lois think you were gone! Lost in the chaos."
"Not exactly, chief," Lois said. "I didn't think he had a leg to stand on with the Superman story, so I covered for him. His mother did too. We had a whole ceremony and everything to make it convincing."
More disbelief except this time it was cast Lois' way. "You knew about this?"
"We should have included you," she said, "but we figured the fewer people who knew about it, the better."
His eyes skimmed the paper, and he finally cracked a smile. "You are one crazy son of a gun. In fact, I don't know who's crazier, you or Lane here."
"Thanks? I think," Clark said, not really sure whether Perry had been giving him a compliment or not, but being compared with Lois, he decided to take it as one.
"It's lucky for you I employ crazy people. In the investigative journalism department anyway. I suppose you'll be wanting your old job back." He didn't even wait for an answer. "You two take Jenny and go get some shots of the aftermath. Get Metropolis' feelings on the alien mind control and their feelings on the future."
As they came out of the office, all eyes were glued on him, half expecting him to be a ghost. They'd get over it. He just hoped no one ever decided that it was a little too suspicious that Superman and Clark Kent had "died" and "risen" at the same time.
sss
"He is all powerful and all good."
"What?" Lex looked at Superman from between his bars as if he was the crazy one. As if he couldn't recall their conversation about God. He recalled it. It'd been one of the most harrowing moments of his life as he feared for his mother's life. Every moment of it was burned vividly into his brain.
"You said if He is all powerful then He can't be all good, and if He's all good then He can't be all powerful, but I'm here to tell you you're wrong. He is both good and all powerful."
He hadn't even been released from his prison cell during the anarchy caused by Darkseid's mind control; he had to resent that, but he wore an expression of false contentment as he asked, "Do tell."
"If men were not free to choose love, we'd be nothing more than puppets, and we've seen what that looks like thanks to Darkseid. Even if we were being told to do good things, it wouldn't be truly living. He freely chooses us, and He wants us to freely choose Him."
"That's not good enough," Lex said completely unmoved. "He could stop the pain and suffering."
"Because there is choice some won't chose Him and so there will be pain and suffering and evil here until God has called to Himself all those who will be called. But He has nothing to do with the evil that takes place; He hates it more than you do, more than any of us. And because He is all good, and because He is powerful, He will one day create a new earth where evil and evil people have no place."
"What about now?" he said practically foaming at the mouth. "People hurt now. Why does He allow it?"
"Even in a fallen world, beauty and goodness can come from suffering if we let it. The way we respond to the evil that happens is our choice. We can allow it to bring us closer or farther from God."
"Well, I choose farther," he said with a smirk and a hatred burning in his eyes that was aimed less at Superman and more at God.
"And that's sad, but you have that option. But I choose closer. If God used His power to take away free will, love would also be gone, and a good, omnipotent God would never allow that."