Chapter Nine - Completing The Line-Up

As Chloe Sullivan ran out of the church, she failed to notice the large limousine parked outside. If she'd looked at the limousine minutes earlier she might have noticed President Luthor getting out, whereas if she'd looked at it minutes later she'd have definitely noticed a charred Volkswagen colliding with it. At the moment though it was, by large limousine standards, entirely un-noteworthy and so it was just as well it went unnoticed.

What Chloe Sullivan couldn't fail to notice however, as she neared her destination, was the bald figure, dressed all in black, standing there admiring the Tardis.

"Lex?"

Lex, an older Lex than Chloe was used to, turned towards her. "I noticed this police telephone box on my way here. Interesting phenomenon, don't you think?"

Chloe watched Lex, standing there in his black coat, his hands in his pockets and a knowing look on his face. She recognized that look, but she'd never seen it on Lex's face before, only Lionel's.

Lex continued. "I consider myself something of a Doctor Who fan, young Miss Sullivan, and was therefore somewhat surprised when a blue police telephone box was observed in Smallville, only for a few minutes, back in March 2004. Now, I'd normally put this sort of unbelievable event down to a suicidal streak in my informant, but the police telephone box appeared again in 2005, this time reportedly remaining outside The Talon for several hours, until several people, including yourself and Lana Lang, climbed into it and it dematerialized."

"You can't be serious," laughed Chloe.

"That's what you told me then," countered Lex. "So do you care to explain to me how you haven't aged since that day?"

Chloe looked at Lex and knew that not telling him the truth would only be delaying the inevitable. "Okay, Lex, it's the Tardis. Turns out that, in some reality, it's actually real."

"The Doctor's in there?" gasped Lex, suddenly sounding like an awestruck fan rather than the President Of The United States.

Chloe nodded. "And I better get in there quick or he'll be leaving without me."

"I'm coming with you," said Lex matter-of-factly.

"No, Lex, you can't. I know the Tardis is big inside but we've already got The Doctor, Clark, Lana, Zod, Ursa, Rose, and little Jimmy. It's confusing enough as it is."

"It doesn't matter," explained Lex. "I'm The President and I've got jurisdiction here. Now let me see The Doctor."

"Okay," said Chloe, using the key The Doctor had given her earlier to get inside The Tardis, "but don't get your hopes up."


While Chloe had been at the older Clark's wedding, the younger Clark had been sat in the Tardis talking to Rose, who was bringing him up to speed with the reason for their reality-spanning escapades and the nature of The Doctor. Just like Clark himself, The Doctor was the last remaining member of his race, although, unlike Clark, he had two hearts and he fought alien monsters and so on and so on but Clark was finding it difficult to concentrate, his attention invariably being drawn to Zod and Ursa, sat there silently across from him.

Lana stood by the Tardis' control console with Jimmy while The Doctor was regaling them with tales of his past lives, but, just like Clark, her attention kept wandering. She just couldn't help looking at Clark, noticing that he'd been deliberately avoiding her gaze since he returned from whenever and wherever, and also noticing that he couldn't help looking over at Ursa.

Normally Ursa would have seen the way that Clark was looking over at her and would be working out ways to turn it to her advantage, but any feelings of deviousness had been replaced by feelings of melancholy, and it was all because of Non. Only hours ago they'd had infinite power at their disposal, but Non's death had hammered home their new mortality - she almost wished she was back in The Phantom Zone where they'd spent all those decades not aging.

Zod sat there, looking at Ursa, knowing that she was feeling as helpless as he was. But all they had to do was wait. After all, The Doctor was taking them to a weapon which could transfer Superman's powers, and Zod was determined that those powers would be his, just as young Clark's powers would go to Ursa. And then they'd have infinite life-spans with an infinite number of realities to conquer and rule.

Suddenly Zod's dreams of multiversal domination were interrupted by Chloe Sullivan bursting into the Tardis.

"Hey, everybody, I've brought an old friend with me."

Lex Luthor entered and cast his gaze around the Tardis. "I thought it would be bigger."

"And who are you?" asked The Doctor, with barely disguised disdain.

"I'm President Lex Luthor and you're taking me with you."

Clark turned his gaze away from Lex, still remembering the freaks Lex had created in that hopefully averted future.

Zod, Ursa and Jimmy looked at the man claiming to be Lex Luthor. It definitely wasn't any of the Lex Luthors they remembered.

"Wow, you're old," exclaimed Lana.

"And you're Lana," retorted Lex. "I think I win."

Suddenly Chloe's cell phone started ringing. Shocked, Chloe answered it. "Hello?"

After listening to the caller talking for a few seconds, she then proceeded to pass the phone to The Doctor. "It's old me for you. She says that it's urgent."

"Thanks," said The Doctor, and then turned his attention from Chloe to Chloe. "So, what's so urgent?"

The Doctor looked thoughtful as he listened to the older Chloe before finally replying "Typical! Okay, I'll sort everything out, don't worry. Oh, and Chloe, do we end up taking Lex?"

The Doctor grimaced as he ended the phone call. "Okay, Mister President, looks like you're along for the ride."

"Thank you, Doctor," said Lex, "but where exactly are we going? Strange alien worlds?"

The Doctor smiled. "Even better, Lex. We're going to save Superman."

"Good grief!" exclaimed Lex.

"Actually, Lex, we're going to save all Supermen," added Jimmy.

Just as Lex was having second thoughts, The Doctor activated the control console and the Tardis dematerialized, only to reappear moments later (although years earlier) in a different Metropolis.

"Okay, everybody out," said The Doctor, opening the door of the Tardis. "I've got to pop back to the other Metropolis to tidy up some loose ends."

The Tardis' passengers poured out onto the sidewalk.

Suddenly Lana saw a shadow overhead. "Look! Up in the sky!" she yelled.

"It's a bird! It's a plane!" added Rose enthusiastically, trying to get into the spirit of things.

All the others looked at her strangely. How could she possibly mistake a flying man for a bird or plane.

Clark looked up at the flying man. Nice color scheme, he thought, and then suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Oh, Clark," said The Doctor, "you better come with me. We need to talk."