Chapter Two
Clark pulled the Kent family truck into the driveway and glanced over at Wells, who was still sipping his coffee in the passenger seat.
"I don't know what my parents are going to say when I tell them I came home with a writer from the 19th century," Clark commented.
Wells glanced at his pocket watch again. "Actually, your parents are still at the farmer's market, and won't be back until 5:17."
Clark blinked. "All right, you're really starting to freak me out."
Wells frowned. "My dear boy, if you're getting 'freaked out' already, I'm not quite sure you'll be able to handle any of this."
"Any of what? I wish you'd just tell me what's going on."
Wells opened the door and exited the vehicle. Clark turned off the engine and followed suit.
"Very well. I'll be as forthcoming as possible." Wells took a deep breath. "As you deduced earlier, I am a time traveler. In my journeys through time, I discovered something quite interesting. There exists not just one reality, one universe, but rather an infinite number of alternate worlds and alternate timelines, each unique in its own way. Some are very much alike, some are startlingly different. You, Clark, exist in many of these realities that I have seen, in some form or another."
"I do?"
"Yes… the lone survivor of a dying world, sent here in a rocket as an infant. You grow up, under the influence of Earth's yellow sun, to develop powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men."
"You know all about me, then… about Krypton… everything?" Clark was finding it hard to be skeptical of this man, despite his fantastic claims. He just knew too many details to be a fraud.
"The story remains the same, though details change," Wells said. "I spent a lot of time with one particular version of yourself, from another reality. In fact, in the future of that universe, your descendants go on to create a perfect Utopian society."
"And what about my universe?"
Wells sighed. "That is why I've come. As I said, Clark… there is something wrong with the future of your universe."
Wells reached into his pocket and pulled out a small white cube. He casually tossed it into the air. Suddenly, it wasn't a cube any more. It opened up and expanded into a kind of window, hanging there in mid-air, right in front of them. A strange blue light poured out of it. Clark slowly walked around the window, looking at it from all angles and trying to comprehend what he was seeing.
"What is this?"
"This is a window through time. It's a bit of technology I picked up from the future of that other world I spoke of. It's much more convenient than my previous mode of time travel."
Clark wasn't even hearing him. He cautiously reached out a hand toward the window of light. It felt cold. He pulled his hand back.
"I realize this is all a bit much to take in," Wells said. "But, if you would be so kind as to come with me, perhaps this will all make a bit more sense."
"Come with you… through this? Like… walk through it?"
"Yes, quite," Wells said, as though it was the most natural thing in the world. "Don't worry, my boy, I'll have you back in no time." He glanced at his pocket watch again. "I mean that literally, you know. Once we fix the flaw in the time stream, I'll drop you back at this very moment, and it will be as though you never left."
Clark looked around, hoping for a moment that Pete Ross was going to jump out of the bushes and reveal that this was all some big practical joke. No such luck.
"All right," Clark said, finally. "Let's go."
Wells smiled. "Excellent." He gestured towards the window, indicating for Clark to go first.
Warily, Clark reached out his hand again. This time, he reached right into the shimmering blue light. It felt like reaching into a cold swimming pool. He looked back at Wells. What if this was some kind of trap? He pulled his hand back again.
Just then, his super hearing picked up the sound of Lana Lang's car approaching the Kent farm. Lana must have left her shift at the Talon early. She was on her way there. There was no way Clark would be able to explain Wells, much less the freakish blue window through time hanging in the middle of the air.
"You'll drop me right back here when this is all done?" he asked, quickly.
"Indeed."
Clark plunged his hand back into the window, then stepped the rest of the way through.
For a moment, he felt as though he didn't exist. His feet were not touching any solid ground. The blue light invaded his pupils so intensely that it made it impossible for him to see even his own hand in front of his face. The intense cold sensation was so strong that he couldn't feel anything else. He wanted to turn around, to get out of whatever this was, but he was unable to sense his own body enough to even move it. Then, in less than a second, he was coming out of another window. He stumbled forward, trying to regain his balance as his feet hit solid ground once more.
A moment later, Wells stepped through the window behind him. "Yes, it is a bit disorienting the first time. Should have warned you. Sorry." The window closed in on itself, and turned back into the white cube. Wells placed it back in his pocket.
Clark looked around. They seemed to be in some kind of small, one-room log cabin. It was modestly decorated, mostly with furniture that looked to be out of the 1800s. A fire burned in the fire place, keeping the room warm. A large grandfather clock stood against the wall next to the fire place. Clark quickly noticed that there was no door. There was one window, but the curtains were closed. There did not seem to be any light seeping through, so Clark guessed it was night time.
"This is the future?" Clark asked.
Wells chuckled. "No, dear boy. This is my home away from home… where I go to 'get away from it all,' if you will."
"Where… um… 'when' are we?" Clark asked.
"We are no time. We are no place."
This was beginning to be too much for Clark to grasp. "How is that possible?" he asked, his voice revealing his frustration.
"Are you familiar with the 'big bang' theory, Clark?"
"Sure... the moment the universe was created."
Wells walked over to the window. He pulled open the curtains.
Clark slowly approached the window. He blinked. He blinked again. Outside, there was nothing. Absolutely nothing. Not really darkness, but no light, either. No sky. No stars. No ground. Just absolute nothing.
"We are in an alternate reality where the big bang never happened," Wells explained, like it was a perfectly logical explanation. "This universe, quite simply, does not exist."
Clark turned away from the window. He started to say something several times, then stopped himself, as if he was physically unable to convey the words that his mind was trying desperately to form.
"How?" he finally blurted out.
Wells looked puzzled. He didn't understand what part of it Clark didn't get. "How what?"
"How can we exist here if nothing else does? What are we breathing? What is this house built on? How come everything doesn't just disappear, or fall apart, or drift away or something? And aren't you worried you might mess something up? I mean, even if there is no universe here, what if you being here somehow… I don't know… screws up the… nothingness?"
Wells laughed. "Ahh… not to worry, Clark."
He walked over to the grandfather clock. He reached up and grabbed hold of the face of the clock, and swung it open. Inside was a complex network of microscopic machinery. In the center of it all was a beautiful shimmering diamond, with millions of individual laser beams passing through it from all different directions.
"It's an invention of mine. I call it a Temporal Disruption Regulator. It causes this house and everything in it to vibrate at a slightly different frequency than everything else in this reality."
"'Everything else' being nothing," Clark said, still confused.
"Yes, now you're getting it," Wells said. "It effectively prevents us from being affected by the time stream, and prevents the time stream from being affected by anything that we do. Think of it as creating a… a force field, around the cabin, keeping us in and everything else out."
"'Everything else' being nothing," Clark said, once again.
"Indeed."
Clark rubbed his temples. He'd never experienced a real headache before, but he had a feeling this must what it felt like. "Look, Mr. Wells… this is all a bit much."
"I understand, Clark. My apologies."
"Can we just get on with whatever it is that we need to do to fix my future?"
Wells' expression turned from cheerful to grim. "Ah… well, I'm afraid I haven't been quite up front about everything, my dear boy."
"What do you mean?"
"The problem, Clark… is you. What you become, in the future of your own reality. It has changed. The future your world once held was bright and full of hope. Now, it's become a horrific abomination, and it's begun to affect other realities as well. I'm afraid I can't allow it to continue."
Clark was genuinely scared by the tone Wells' voice had taken on. "What are you saying?"
"I'm saying, dear boy, that at least until I figure out what has gone wrong with your future… I cannot allow you to leave this place. The future of your world, and others, depends upon it." Wells once again took out the white cube. He tossed it into the air, and the window returned. "Don't try to follow me, Clark. I've recalibrated the window. If you try to pass through it, it will throw us both into the void of eternity."
With that, Wells stepped through the window. It closed behind him, leaving Clark Kent alone in the cabin in the middle of nowhere, the middle of nothing, the middle of never.
