Chapter Twelve - Uninvited Guests
Ursa watched her booted foot flying towards Lex Luthor's head, only to be stopped short by a man appearing out of nowhere and grabbing her ankle. She immediately recognized the costume, although the face was different from the one she remembered.
"Superman?" she shrieked, as she hopped about on one foot, trying to maintain her balance.
"I'm glad you've heard of me," replied the most famous man on the planet. "Now perhaps you could tell me just what you think you're doing by attacking this man?"
Ursa was silent, as Superman maintained the grip on her ankle and looked towards the man her foot had been flying towards. "Are you okay?"
Lex looked at the Man of Steel with amusement. This Superman didn't recognize Lex, although, truth be told, if not for the outfit Lex wouldn't have recognized Superman. Still, there must be other similarities besides the costume, thought Lex, as his gloved hand took a small lead-lined box out of his pocket.
"Yes, I'm okay," replied Lex indignantly. "No thanks to you. What kept you? My Superman would have been here so much sooner. Almost had to go to Plan B."
"Your Superman?" asked Superman.
"Yes, I come from a different reality where Superman's got a different face than yours," explained Lex, "just like this reality's Lex Luthor has a different face than mine. By the way, does this work here?"
Lex opened his box, and Superman fell to the ground in agony, releasing his grasp on Ursa.
"I'll take that as a yes," said Lex, placing the box, and its glowing green contents, on the ground near Superman (well, just out of arm's reach, to be precise).
Lex turned his attention back to Ursa. "So, where were we?"
"I was about to kill you," she reminded him, resting one of her boots on Superman's back.
"Bad idea," replied Lex, straightening his jacket. "After all, I can get you back to Krypton."
Suddenly the non-melodious tones of Perry White's voice were echoing throughout the Daily Planet offices. "Great Caesar's Gho-" he started to exclaim as large swathes of mist suddenly appeared from nowhere along with, at the center of the mist, a fedora-wearing cloaked figure.
Suddenly every figure in the office froze in place, apart from the mysterious figure and two other young people, who he now addressed.
"Greetings, Rose Tyler and Jimmy Olsen," he exclaimed. "If men knew me, they would know me as The Phantom Stranger."
"Hi," said Rose. "Nice special effects."
"You are not of this reality," continued The Phantom Stranger, completely ignoring Rose's comment. "You are on a quest."
"That's about right," replied Jimmy with a nod.
"In that case I know of one that may help you," continued The Stranger. "She lives in New York. But first we must collect your companions."
And before either Rose or Jimmy could say anything, the mist grew thicker, engulfing them, and then they, like the mist, suddenly disappeared and the Planet's offices resumed their activity.
"-st!" said Perry White, although he wasn't sure why.
Time travel was complicated, very complicated - especially the way that Doc Brown had described it to Clark earlier that day. The thing that made it so extraordinarily complicated was that time travel worked differently in different realities. In some realities, such as the one that Jimmy Olsen had started out in, a time traveler's actions would cause a separate parallel timeline to be created. In other realities, such as the one that Clark was from and was now standing in the future of, there just wasn't the room for separate timelines, and so any temporal disturbances would cause reality to be overwritten. Even the thoughts he were having now, about going back in time to save Jor-El's life, were starting to cause ripples through time that were even now, imperceptibly, beginning to alter the world around him.
And then Clark realized just how ridiculous his thoughts were, as he stood in the church, hidden in the shadows, and saw the happiness on his face as he married Lois Lane. Suddenly his dreams of changing the past vanished and, as a result, reality gave a sigh of relief and returned to normal.
And then the other Clark winked at him. Oh no, his future self had spotted him. The Doctor had warned him to keep away from his other self, and now they'd made eye contact. Still, his future self had more important things to do than talk to him, and no-one else had noticed him. Not even the Chloe hiding behind the plant.
"Hello, Clark," whispered a voice beside him. "Not like you to hide in the shadows."
Clark Kent looked at the person who'd managed to creep up on him. He'd never seen the face before, not all of it, but Clark had quite a good memory. Actually, quite a good memory was something of an understatement. These days Clark's memory was such that he remembered every last detail of everything that went on around him - he could have told you all the words in all the articles on the Wall of Weird, not to mention the fonts used and where the creases were in the paper. Now, looking at the face opposite him, he instantly recognized the musculature, the skin tone, the imperfections. Of course that face, like its owner, had grown older since he'd last seen it, and the minute signs of damage around the chin suggested that the man had been in several fights during those years. Still there was only one man it could be.
"You're Batman!" Clark whispered back.
"Yes, but I'm wearing my Bruce Wayne costume, so I'd appreciate it if we stuck to civilian names."
"You tried to kill me …" started Clark, struggling to maintain a whisper.
"… in a future that never existed," continued Bruce calmly. "Yes, your older self told me about it. So, Clark, you've got a time machine. Big responsibility. Thinking of using it? Change the past maybe?"
"Why should I even talk to you?" replied Clark irritably. "You're just going to tell me not to use it."
"Not at all, Clark. If I had one, I'd use it."
"Well, I'm not going to," responded Clark. "The future's looking bright. I'm not going to risk changing that."
"Fair enough, Clark," said Bruce disappointedly. "One day you'll tell me about how you weren't ruled by destiny, about how you made your own future. Just a pity you're not prepared to make your own past. Anyway, enough of that, let's enjoy your wedding. It's just a shame Lana couldn't make it."
Clark looked around the church. He'd been looking at Lois so much he hadn't even noticed Lana was missing. Suddenly his super-hearing picked up the two Chloes' conversation:
So, where's Lana today?
Well, there's a tragic tale
Bruce Wayne felt a sudden draught and looked around to see that Clark was no longer there. Some things never changed, he thought. However, one thing had started to change, albeit imperceptibly - reality.
