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ONE

"Do you recognize him?" Chloe asked, placing a photo on the kitchen counter.

Martha shook her head. "I would have said that I've never seen him before if this picture didn't show me talking to him," she remarked in wonder.

Chloe stared thoughtfully at the photo. "Well, I wouldn't think you would be able to remember every person that came to the Talon for a cup of joe."

Martha sighed. This was one time she wished that she could remember them all.

Chloe turned her attention to Mr. Kent. "I was able to get in contact with Lois's father."

Jonathan's eyebrows rose. "Good. What did he say?"

"Well…" Chloe began with a slight grimace. "He said that he would be giving you a call."

Jonathan noted Chloe's expression and was about to probe for more information when the house phone rang.

Chloe glanced at her watch and smirked. "That would be him." Her uncle had a thing with punctuality.

"Kent Residence," Jonathan said into the receiver as he shot a curious look in Chloe's direction. "General Lane, yes… well, we… Actually, I don't think that's necessary… No…"

Chloe smiled awkwardly at Mrs. Kent's questioning expression. She understood what it was like being on the phone with Lois's father.

"Thank you… Good-bye." Jonathan hung up the phone and rubbed his jaw.

"What was all that about?" Martha asked.

"Lois's father apologized for her dragging our son into trouble and requests that we call him when she returns from going AWOL."

Martha frowned. "He's not concerned?"

"He's a father," Jonathan offered. "I'm sure he's concerned… just not as much as we are, I guess. He said Lois has done this type of thing before and that he has decided to help her straighten out."

That's putting it mildly, Chloe thought as she glanced away from the two adults. She had a feeling that once Lois returned, she would be leaving Smallville with an armed escort. But that was something to be concerned with after she got home safely.

Martha turned back to Chloe. "We spoke to Sheriff Adams earlier. It seems that both Lois and Clark have a history…"

Chloe met the older woman's gaze. She knew what this meant. Juvenile records were supposed to be sealed, but now that both Lois and Clark had exhibited at-risk behavior in the past, their missing persons case would only get cursory treatment.

While Clark's past only included a couple of run-away instances, Lois's background was a bit shadier. "It wasn't her fault," she interjected. "She took the fall for Lucy so the General wouldn't know…"

Martha was both relieved and concerned. Relieved that she hadn't guessed wrong about Lois's character, and concerned that the younger Lane seemed to be flirting with the law an awful lot.

"Lois was actually taking her sister to the store to return the items, but… well, the sales clerk wasn't so understanding," Chloe continued. "Most people would get off light for a first time offense, but the general never wants to miss an opportunity for discipline."

Martha and Jonathan exchanged a look.

Chloe noticed the exchange. "I think he meant well… he's just not always sure what to do when it comes to Lois. She ended up at one of those boot camp things in Arizona, and by the time she got back, he'd sent Lucy to boarding school. He said Lois was a bad influence." She ended breathlessly.

"Was that too much information?" Chloe asked. "Because, sometimes I'm not sure when to stop… I just don't want you guys thinking that Lois was as bad as she gets labeled to be."

Martha gave her a maternal smile and reached out to lay a hand on Chloe's forearm. "No, sweetie. Thank you for sharing. I'm really sorry that Lois had to go through that."

Chloe swallowed and nodded. "Ok, well, I'm just going to take these pictures around town and see if anything turns up. I have to work tomorrow, but I'll check in as soon as I can."

"Thank you, Chloe. That means a lot," Jonathan said, as he walked her to the door.

"Oh, this is great."

"No, what would be great is if you would stop complaining for five minutes," Clark shot back.

"So, when did saying 'this is great' become a complaint?" Lois asked, arching an eyebrow.

Clark shook his head. "You were being sarcastic when you said it."

"Hmmm. I think I still am. What in the world possessed you to go spelunking at 2 in the morning, anyway?"

"You didn't have to follow me," Clark replied, evading the question.

Lois shrugged. "I figured it would be good if you had some backup."

Clark turned his attention from the path they were walking on to face her. "So, you do care about me," he said in an achingly sweet voice.

She rolled her eyes. "I didn't do it for you. I did it for your folks. The last time you took off in the middle of the night, they were held at gunpoint by your ex's ex, and the house fell down around them. On top of all that, they were worried about their bonehead of a son."

Clark's expression sobered and he silently turned back to face forward.

"Hey, don't get all broody on me," Lois admonished teasingly. "This is what we do. It's our thing…" she said, placing a hand on his arm as he began to walk faster.

Clark slowed his pace. "Yeah, I know."

Lois released his arm and fell into step beside him. She sighed. Picking on Farm Boy was less fun when he didn't fight back. "It wasn't your fault. No one could have stopped the sky from falling," she offered softly.

"Thank you… for being there."

Lois gave him a sideways glance. "You already said that. No need to do it again."

Clark shrugged. "I know, but it's just… Thank you."

Lois understood. She nodded. They continued to walk in silence as she took in their surroundings. Tall buildings lined both sides of the street they were walking down. The city was amazingly still. No one was outside – not quite what she would have expected from a city this size, even two hours after midnight.

Lois brushed her bangs off of her forehead. "This is one crazy dream."

"How could we both be having the same dream?" Clark asked, frowning at the abandoned streets around them.

"Vanilla Sky… Lucid dreams… y'know, all that movie stuff. We'll wake up on the couch with ice cream headaches and the end of some dumb movie will be playing. What was the name of that thing you made me watch last week… Everlast? EverQuest? DeadLast?"

Clark shook his head, refusing to answer the question. He knew she knew the title of the movie. He reached out and pinched her.

"Hey!"

"That wouldn't hurt if it were a dream," he informed her.

She glared in reply to his grin. "I have my theories about that." She silently vowed to retaliate when he least expected it. "Anyway, it's either that or we've just walked into the land of Rod Sterling."

"Who?"

Clark paused mid-stride when he realized that Lois had stopped walking. She stared at him incredulously.

"You're kidding, right?"

Clark shrugged sheepishly.

"I realize that Smallville is barely on the edge of civilization, but with the advent of Direct TV, there is no excuse for ignorance… Rod Sterling… A dimension of sight, a dimension of sound… The Twilight Zone? He's the host."

Clark smiled as he finally caught on to what Lois was talking about. "Oh, yeah, I've seen a couple of those episodes… But, I thought the host was that guy from Phenomenon. The one that played a farmer."

Lois leaned her head back to look at the sky as if searching for some help. He would remember the guy that played the farmer, she thought. "Right title, wrong generation," she told him. "I'm talking black and white, freak you out of your socks television here. You, me, and Chloe are so having a marathon when we get back… from wherever this is."

She began walking again, shaking her head as she passed him. Clark arched an eyebrow in amusement and jogged to catch up to her.

Clark didn't think they were in any sort of Twilight Zone, but the silence and emptiness surrounding them was eerie.

"I don't think it's a dream, lucid or not," Clark stated.

Lois had pretty much abandoned that theory as well. "And I'm not really sold on the alternate dimension thing… but what else could explain us being in a cave one minute and here the next?"

Clark didn't have an answer.

"Where do you think here is anyway?"

Clark's head swiveled as he took another look around. "Singapore?"

Lois chuckled. "Okay, Superslueth, you mind telling me how you came to that conclusion?"

"Well, it's so clean… and I've heard that Singapore is really clean… Hey, it was just a guess. Do you have a better one?" he defended.

That stopped Lois's laughter. "No. I've never been to Singapore, so I couldn't tell you. But that still doesn't make any sense. According to Chloe, those caves have had their fair share of weirdness, but I don't remember her saying anything about it being a transporter bay… you don't just hop continents by leaning against a wall made of rock."

Clark was unsure how to respond. He knew that it in fact was possible to be transported to a different continent from the caves. He and Chloe had both been victims of this type of transportation the day the meteors had fallen the second time. In a flash of bright light, they had been sent to the Arctic. This time, though, it was Lois that was the unintentional passenger.

He glanced over at his companion and realized that she might be cold. While he had donned jeans and a flannel shirt over his tee shirt when he left the house, Lois had remained in her nightwear of pajama bottoms and a baby Met-U tee-shirt. Thankfully, she had traded the bunny slippers for her hiking boots when she set out to follow him.

"Here, take this," he said, offering her his flannel shirt.

Lois smirked to cover her appreciation. "You just like seeing me in your shirts."

"Only when they're not stolen," he shot back, accepting her unspoken thank you.

Lois pulled the shirt closer around her torso. She didn't feel guilty about Clark now only being clad in a white tee shirt. She had learned that farm life had made him somehow impervious to cold nights.

She would never admit it, but she had grown to like the soft fabric.

"This is crazy," Lois announced, growing impatient with their mystery. "Where are all the cars?"

Clark noted that he didn't see any cars or parking spaces anywhere. Attuning his senses he registered the presence of motion underground.

"I don't know, but there's a metro underneath us…"

Lois eyed him curiously. "How do you know that?"

Clark froze momentarily before spotting an escape. "There's a sign for it over there. Come on, let's go and check it out."

Lois couldn't believe that she had missed the sign. Then again, she mused, her observation skills weren't always primed at two in the morning without caffeine. Fighting a yawn, she turned to follow Clark as he crossed the street.

She also blamed her sleep-deprived brain for not remembering her phone. She had gone downstairs for a drink of water when she'd noticed Clark creeping down the driveway. Sure that he was up to no good; she had bounded for her boots, leaving the phone on the counter.

A lot of help that was right now, she thought to herself.

They went down the escalator that led to the underground transit system. At first they had assumed the moving stair wasn't working because it remained motionless until they were within three feet of it. The sudden motion breaking up the serenity of the still night had caused both of them to jump.

Thick Plexiglas and single occupancy revolving doors blocked access to the train platform. It seemed that the only way to get through was to buy a ticket.

Gone were the days of jumping turnstiles, Lois told herself with a smirk. "I don't have any money," Lois informed him.

"I've got some," Clark replied. He reached into his pocket and pulled some folded bills out of his wallet.

Lois peered at the ticket kiosk. "Uh, I'm not so sure that's going to help."

"What do you mean?" Clark joined her perusal of the screen. In five different languages, the terminal requested the insertion of a cash card. The slot that was to be used was about a third of the size of a standard US credit card.

"A cash card?" Clark read, confused. He looked around but all of the other machines were identical.

Lois started pressing buttons on the screen.

"What are you doing?"

"Did you know that there is a special code given to elite government personnel so they can access money from any ATM in a state of emergency?"

Clark watched her warily. "You think you can get tickets for us by using this code?"

Lois gave him a funny look. "What makes you think I know the code? Do I look like elite government personnel to you?" She smiled. "This is not quite state of emergency material. The last time I used one of the codes I hacked, they took the entire grid in Southern California down for six hours."

Clark shook his head, somewhat relieved that Lois wasn't that reckless anymore. "So, what are you doing then?"

Lois turned back to the screen. "Trying to figure out where the heck we are… One of these screens has to have something other than 'Beinvenue a la Systeme Publique de Transport…' Wait a minute. It says here that we're in New Troy."

Clark peered over her shoulder. "Where's that?"

Lois shrugged. That was a name she hadn't heard of before. "There was a Troy in Ancient Greece… they had horses." She took a moment to call up a mental picture of the men who had starred in a movie by the same name.

Clark wasn't sure what the expression on her face meant. "Maybe it's the name of a suburb in Singapore," he offered, snapping Lois out of her thoughts.

She shrugged, not convinced that Singapore had suburbs. She was unable to hold in the next yawn that accosted her.

Clark sighed. He knew that it was late and that they needed to come up with a plan, quickly. He hadn't seen a payphone anywhere.

"Let's go back up to the street. Maybe we can find a police station and call my parents."

Lois was too tired to protest. How would his parents be able to help them if they actually had somehow been spirited thousands of miles away? She covered her mouth with her hand as she yawned again, and headed towards the escalator.

Once on street level, they began to walk. Lois rubbed her eyes and shook her head briskly to try to regain some focus. "Hey Smallville… Is there a Daily Planet in Singapore?"

Clark turned his head to look down at her. "I don't know… I don't think so. Why?"

Lois tilted her head to the side thoughtfully. "Because that's what that building over there claims to be."

TBC