And now it's on to Superman and Lois. You guys already know that this one will be different from the old story in several ways, just like the other ones have been. Hope you like it.
To say Superman was surprised when there was no emergency at the site his super hearing had picked up on was an understatement.
"What is going on?" Superman asked.
"Clark Kent." a new voice said and Superman whirled around to see a man in a bulky and honestly kind of ridiculous, even by his standards, suit, complete with a cape. However, what really concerned him was that he knew his real name.
"How do you know who I am?" Superman demanded as his eyes glowed, but to his surprise, the man just chuckled.
"Because I am the Monitor. And you'll understand what that means in a moment." Mar Novu said as he waved his hand and suddenly, Superman actually stumbled back as he received new memories of life he'd never lived. Or a life he'd never lived in this universe. But now he remembered the old one. A world where Kara had finally become a hero like he always wanted her to be and now he hoped she would be again.
"Novu." Clark said as he calmed down.
"I apologize for deceiving you Mr. Kent, but I think we both know you wouldn't have reacted well if I'd just shown up at your home in Smallville." Novu said.
"You're not wrong. But now I remember everything. The old multiverse, the fact that I used to only have one infant son, a world where Kara finally stopped hiding." Clark said and Novu chuckled.
"She won't be doing that for much longer, since as one of the paragons, her memories of the old universe are still intact, though I did give her the memories of her counterpart from this earth to help her blend in." Novu said and Clark smiled.
"Any chance you could give my wife Lois a similar treatment so that she remembers too?" Clark asked.
"That is a task that must fall to J'onn J'onzz, whose status as a paragon allowed him to remember the old world as well. I only restored your memories because Kryptonians have a natural immunity to his telepathy on Earth." Novu said.
"Right. That makes sense. The other paragons, they remember?" Clark asked.
"They do, except for one." Novu said.
"Which one?" Clark asked.
"Lex Luthor." Novu said, alarming Clark.
"What? Lex was never a paragon." Clark demanded.
"It's my understanding that as a precaution, he used a page he stole from the book of destiny to rewrite reality to make himself the paragon of truth instead of your Earth 96 counterpart." Novu said and Clark chuckled humorlessly.
"Lex Luthor, the paragon of truth. The irony of that is almost hilarious." Clark said.
"Don't worry, as a favor to your cousin, I erased Lex's memory of the old earth, mainly because if I didn't it would mean that he'd know the identities of Supergirl, Batwoman, Green Arrow and the Flash." Novu said and Clark sighed in relief.
"That's good. Especially since he won't remember his old plans." Clark said.
"Perhaps I can offer you a bit of advice on what to do with him, since you and I both know that no matter how insane he might be, you won't kill him." Novu said.
"What?" Clark asked.
"You know that any prison on Earth won't hold him, but you also know a place that can. A place that your people sent those like Lex Luthor for decades." Novu said.
"The Phantom Zone." Clark realized and Novu nodded.
"You know as well as I do that once someone is in there, they don't get out unless someone lets them out, which is something that is very unlikely." Novu said and Clark nodded.
"The only people devoted enough to Lex to do that are not smart enough to figure out how to do it." Clark said, thinking of both Mercy and Otis Graves, since while Lillian loved her son, she didn't love him enough to risk her own reputation by rescuing him. And of course, Lena hated her brother's guts.
"Is there anything else?" Clark asked the Monitor.
"No, I just wanted to make you aware of the truth, since you will be needed in shaping this new universe. Unless a new crisis begins, I doubt you will be seeing me again." Novu said as he vanished.
"Well, that was interesting." Superman said as he flew back towards Smallville as he thought about the differences between his old life and his current one. The biggest difference being that in this universe, he and Lois didn't have just one son, they had two. Jonathan and Jordan, both of them named after his fathers. Jonathan after his adoptive father Jonathan Kent and Jordan after his Kryptonian father, Jor-El. Also, they were both in their teen years, as opposed to the Jonathan of the old reality who'd been a little under a year old. Something that made Clark grateful that he had his memories from this earth so he'd remember watching the boys grow up.
Other differences in this reality were that now he and Lois had moved to Smallville when she was pregnant with the boys so that his mom could help out with them, should they develop powers, which they both did. Both of his sons had inherited Clark's kryptonian heritage, however, neither of them had inherited all of his powers. Jordan had inherited his super strength, freeze breath and super hearing while Jonathan had inherited his superspeed, heat vision and x-ray vision, though they were both more durable than an average human was, though it wasn't quite at his or Kara's level yet. Which reminded him that he was not the only kryptonian who was a parent, since he remembered that in this reality, Kara had adopted a young Dyralian girl named Esme a few years ago and she was Clark's honorary niece, just like the boys were Kara's honorary nephews. Anyways, Clark also remembered that he'd quit his job at the Daily Planet shortly after they'd moved to Smallville so that he could help his mother out with the farm since she was getting older and while Martha Kent had never let age slow her down, even she did acknowledge that she had limits. And more recently, Lois had actually lost her job at the Daily Planet due to the new owner deciding that her previous arrangement of working remotely from Smallville was no longer profitable. However, that may have been a good thing since Lois was once again pregnant. However, one of the changes that really surprised Clark was his father-in-law. In this universe, Sam Lane had done a complete 180 in terms of personality. While before he was an arrogant asshole who believed that Kryptonians were the biggest threat to this planet, now it was the exact opposite. Now Sam believed that the world needed Superman and he even knew the truth. That would take some getting used to, but Clark figured as long as they never restored Sam's memories, then it couldn't hurt, especially if it meant that Lois could have a real relationship with her father and the boys could have one with their grandfather.
And those were just some of the differences Superman thought of as he flew home.