Chapter Five
Clark stared at the caped figure in the cell across from his. The symbol on his chest was a familiar one. It seemed to be a variation of the mark that Jor-El had burned into Clark's chest before he left for Metropolis.
"Super… Man?" Clark repeated the name Wells had just said. "You're… you're me?" Clark asked.
"In a manner of speaking," Wells answered. "This is the Clark Kent of another world."
Clark raised an eyebrow. "What's with the tights?"
The man called Superman sighed and folded his arms.
"In every other reality that I've come across, Clark, you become a hero," Wells explained. "A savior to the people of Earth. Their champion. Their Superman."
"And that's what I wear?" Clark asked.
"That costume has become a beacon of hope for millions," Wells said. "A symbol for truth and justice."
"Yeah, but… come on," Clark protested.
"Hey," Superman said, looking annoyed. "My mother made me this costume."
Clark tilted his head to the side and looked the blue and red tights up and down. Now that Superman had said that, somehow, he could see his mother making something like that for him.
"All right…" Clark said, still skeptical. "So, what're you doing here?" he asked Superman.
"I was kidnapped and brought here," Superman explained. "I was chasing after a ruthless vigilante called Vixen, who had super speed. When I finally caught up to her, I saw that someone else had gotten to her first. A man, dressed all in black and wearing a symbol like mine on his chest, flew down from the sky and ripped Vixen in two with his bare hands. What I hadn't realized up until that moment was that Vixen was actually some kind of sophisticated robot… she wasn't human."
He paused, shifting his gaze away from Clark.
"The most disturbing thing was, I don't think he realized it either, until after he tore her apart," Superman said solemnly.
"Then what happened?" Clark asked.
Superman sighed, and stared at the floor.
. . . . . . . .
Superman and the man dressed in black stood in a kind of stunned silence for a moment, staring at the pile of circuitry and metal that was once the vigilante known as Vixen. The man held in his right hand a piece of her arm. In his left, part of her leg. Her head lay unceremoniously in the street, staring lifelessly up at them, wires hanging from her open mouth.
The man tossed the remaining metallic body parts to the ground. "Superman, I presume?" he asked.
"Yes, I am. And I don't know if you're aware of just what that symbol on your chest really means," Superman said, noting that the man in black wore a very similar emblem to his own, though his was silver instead of red and yellow.
"I know what this symbol is," the man said. "It's the mark of my ancestors. The family crest of the House of El."
Superman was speechless. He and the man in black circled each other slowly, looking each other up and down. A crowd began to gather in streets, pointing and calling to one another.
"What do you want?" Superman asked.
The man in black held up a small white cube, and slowly turned it over in his hands. He approached Superman, taking two large strides and stopping right in front of him.
"To fulfill my destiny."
He tossed the cube in the air, and it seemed to freeze there for a moment in time. Then the man reared back and punched Superman square in the face, sending the Man of Steel reeling backwards and knocking him off his feet. He hit the ground with a thud, holding his jaw where he'd been hit. He pulled his hand away to find blood on his fingers.
Superman was a man who had rarely felt pain, at least not without kryptonite being involved. He didn't get hurt. He didn't bleed. And yet, he had just been floored with one punch, and he was bleeding. People started panicking and running for cover.
The cube expanded into a kind of window with a strange blue light emanating from it. The man stood in front of it, the blue light casting him in an ominous silhouette.
"Get up," the man said, his voice cold and full of menace.
Superman got to his feet. The man threw another punch, but Superman caught his fist in mid-swing, grabbing it his hand. The man threw his other arm around Superman's neck, holding him in a headlock. The two struggled with each other, thrashing around violently.
The man squeezed tighter around Superman's neck. He took a step backward, pulling Superman with him. Another step, closer to the window of blue light.
"Why…" Superman choked out, trying to pull the man's arm away from his windpipe. "Why… are you… doing this?"
"Because I'm the Last Son."
They both fell backward into the window, as the blue light engulfed them.
The window disappeared, and the two men were gone.
. . . . . . . .
Clark watched Superman as he told the story of the man in black who had brought him to this universe. He noticed with unease that Superman had avoided Clark's eyes the whole time.
"The man who attacked you and brought you here… it was me, wasn't it?" Clark asked.
Superman just stared silently at Clark for a moment, then replied, "Yes."
"Ah, well, rather, it was this future's version of you, my boy," Wells offered.
"I get it," Clark said. "But it's still my fault."
"The fact that your future self has started to affect other realities makes this a very dire situation," Wells said. "If he continues to abduct and imprison the Supermen of other realities, he could extend his reign to other worlds as well."
"So how do we stop him?" Superman asked.
"I don't know," Wells said, his tone grim.
"Wells… I recognized the time window technology that was used to bring me here," Superman said. "Tempus is involved in this somehow, isn't he?"
"Who is this Tempus?" Clark asked.
Wells sighed again. "Tempus is a time-traveling fiend, who comes from the future. Superman and I have crossed paths with him several times. He has devoted himself to preventing the Utopian society that Superman's descendants create, and spreading mayhem in its place."
"Looks like he's done a good job," Clark muttered.
"How did he do this?" Superman asked. "He changed something in the past?"
"Yes. I've had some trouble pinpointing exactly what he's done… it seems he may have changed more than one thing. However, there was… a very significant event, that I was able to pinpoint."
"What was it?" Clark asked.
Wells hesitated. "I'll tell you what I've learned, as best I can…" he said. "But Clark… I think you'd better brace yourself for this."
