Chapter Thirty-Eight - Sons And Glovers

Daniel Clamp looked at the bald man, covered in gremlin blood, wearing a plaid shirt, cricket trousers and one black glove. The same man who'd just called him father.

"Is this some kind of paternity suit?" he asked, looking at the man quizzically.

Lex looked at the man who looked just like his father, but then, remembering he was in a different reality, quickly pulled himself together. "No, I'm sorry. You just reminded me of my father, although he's dead now."

"Sorry to hear about that ," said Daniel sincerely. "Did those creatures get him?"

"No, it was a long time ago," replied Lex.

"Looks like you had a run in with those creatures yourself," observed Daniel.

"Yes, they were a minor annoyance," admitted Lex, who decided to spare the Lionel look-alike the full grisly story of how he'd used one of the gremlin's claws to slice open the back of two of the other gremlins' heads and then plunged his hands into those two gremlins, using them as glove puppets to kill the rest.

"I'm impressed," said the clearly impressed Daniel Clamp. "Very resourceful. I could use a man like you, Mister …"

"You can call me Lex," replied Lex.

"No, no, that would never work," explained Daniel, walking back and forth, shaking his head. "With that bald head everybody would associate you with that sleazeball Lex Luthor from the Superman comics. No, let me think … Lex is short for Alexander. Hey, can I call you Al?"

Lex hid his thoughts behind a pleasant smile and replied "That would be fine, Mister …"

At which point Daniel Clamp burst out laughing. "You crack me up, Al. You really do. Imagine pretending not to know multi-billionaire Daniel Clamp, owner of this hi-tech building we're now standing in."

"Yes, I'm a regular laugh riot," replied Lex. "But actually, to tell the truth, I'm from the future."

"I should have known," said Daniel. "The strange outfit, the bald head. Are you a future historian visiting to research me?"

"No, Mister Clamp, I'm just passing through."

"But you could work for me, Al," said Daniel, wrapping his arm around Lex's shoulders. "You could be my apprentice. With your knowledge of future fashion we'd be unstoppable. Just imagine it - plaid would be the new black …"

"Funny you should mention that," started Lex, but Daniel's monologue had only just started.

"… After all, plaid had to come into fashion one day. Why not tomorrow? And what a great selling point - getting it covered in creature gunk actually improves its appearance. And then there's the one glove idea - we can double our glove-selling profits with that idea. Whenever anybody hears the term one-glover in the future they'll think back to me."

Lex felt a bit uneasy. This stranger was being nicer to him than his own late father ever was. This was just too weird for Lex and he wasn't sure how much longer he could handle it. "I've got to go," he said, removing Daniel's arm from his shoulder, trying to show no emotion.

"But Al, I thought we were friends," said a hurt Daniel as Lex walked away.

Lex said nothing, but just kept walking towards the gremlin-corpse-filled elevator.

"At least tell me who's President in the future," shouted Daniel.

"Some guy called Al," replied Lex, as he pressed the elevator button.

And then the elevator doors closed leaving Lex alone - which was the way Lex liked it.


Meanwhile, on a stairwell several floors below, Chloe Sullivan was bumping into a raven-haired girl running the other way.

"Sorry," said Chloe, "but you better get out of here. There are these weird little monsters up there."

"I know," replied the girl. "They're all over the building."

"Any ideas what they are?" asked Chloe.

"Yeah, I know. Me and Billy encountered them back in my hometown one Christmas."

"Wow, that must have been the worst Christmas ever," said Chloe, unaware of how much she'd later regret saying that sentence.

"No, that wasn't the worst Christmas," replied the girl, her face suddenly serious, a tear in the corner of her eye. Chloe recognized that face - it was just like Lana's whenever she told of her parents' blind date with a space rock.

"I don't like to talk about it," continued the girl. Chloe recognized that sentence - it was the same one Lana used immediately prior to talking about it.

The girl then launched into a story of how, one Christmas, they'd found her father dead in the chimney dressed as Santa Claus.

If Chloe had been Lana then she would have just shook the girl and told her to get over it. After all, she'd only lost one parent and it was his own dumb fault anyway and, since most accidents happen in the home, it was hardly on the same improbability scale as getting hit by a meteorite. Unfortunately Chloe was Chloe so she tried to console the girl by saying "That's tragic. I guess you must really hate that holiday."

"No," replied the girl, "I hate all holidays. First there's New Year's Day …"


Elsewhere, in a different reality, in 1961 Smallville, Zod was wondering what to do with his new powers. Of course he could just fly out of the cave, destroy all of Smallville, demand that the Earth make him President and command Kal-El's allegiance. Although, with all that was going on these days, he wasn't sure whether to say "Come to me, son of Jor-El! Kneel before Zod" or "Come to me, son of Zod! Kneel before Jor-El!"

Then again, knowledge was power, and only he knew of his newly regained abilities. Maybe it was time to play a more tactical game this time around, at least until Ursa's powers were restored. In the meantime he had a computer full of information in front of him along with a mind now capable of storing all of that information.

"Activate!" he said, and a beam of energy came out of the cave wall and hit him - only now, with his new super-strength, it was incapable of holding him in place. As he strode backwards and forwards, the beam moving with him, Zod searched through the computer's database.

Many hours later a voice from behind him distracted him. "You've changed," said Ursa, entering the cave.

"Oh," said Zod, suddenly stopping in his tracks. "You mean my walking around. Yes, I'm starting to get used to this computer."

"No, I meant your appearance," said Ursa.

Zod said nothing, although presumably Ursa had noticed the change in him.

"Your hair," continued Ursa. "It's gone white at the sides, along with your beard."

Zod was shocked. Presumably the initial strain of being held by that energy beam had taken its toll.

"Actually it makes you look more …" began Ursa,

"Distinguished?" suggested Zod.

"Old," corrected Ursa.

Zod, used to Ursa's putdowns by now, didn't react. "So, where's Kal?"

"He said he was going out to get the lay of the land."

"The lay of the land?" echoed Zod.

"Yes, presumably Louise's nickname," replied Ursa. "Although, since the Lana who beat you up used martial arts, it suggests that you killed the real Louise, and the Louise in Smallville is probably Lana."

"I could kill Lana now if you wish," said Zod.

"No, she'll die from a gunshot wound soon enough," said Ursa. "Although Kal was adamant this morning that he could save Louise this time, but I put him straight. Trust me, after my chat with Clark, Lana or Louise or whoever she is will die just like history's already decided."


Clark set out towards Smallville that morning to do everything that he'd already seen happen. He'd had big ideas about changing things, but those sort of ideas had got Lana killed. If that wasn't enough, Ursa had just given him a big lecture about how letting Louise live could have untold effects on the future and that Lana might not even end up being born. He couldn't risk it. The only reason he was here was to save Lana and if that meant Louise had to die then so be it.

Of course Ursa had also suggested that the drifter he'd seen originally might have actually been his father and the real Jor-El wouldn't be turning up in Smallville this time just because he saw Clark waiting for him. Of course that would also mean that that medallion from Lex was some form of trick, but why would his future self be playing tricks on him?

Clark looked at the mem-O-random hanging around his neck and wished that he could just forget everything that had happened to him since he'd arrived back in 1961 Smallville. Of course, with his memory, he couldn't, but the mem-O-random could and duly obliged, clearing its memory of all the events it had thus far recorded.

Clark tried to make his walk into Smallville drag on as long as possible, but finally he arrived. Resting his arm on a mailbox he looked around at the 1961 Smallville streets. Then he wandered along the sidewalk seeing things the way he'd already seen them.

Meanwhile, across the street, Lana, who'd got out of the house early that morning to avoid Dexter, had decided to take another look at the Talon. As she came out of the Talon reading a magazine, a man suddenly ran up to her and, pointing a gun at her, gestured towards her purse.

"Give it over!" he shouted.

Lana had never seen the man before but she remembered enough about the future to know that it was Lachlan Luthor, the man who'd eventually end up killing her.

"Get away from me!" she shouted in horror, but this didn't deter Lachlan.

"Give me the money!" he shouted, "I know you've got it! Give it!"

As she and Lachlan fought over her purse, Lana, suppressing her natural martial arts mastery in order to fit into the past, ended up falling to the ground. At the same time, a man looking just like Clark appeared out of nowhere and grabbed Lachlan, throwing him against a lamppost. Then the police showed up, but Lana didn't notice them, she was too busy looking at the man who'd saved her who she presumed was Clark's father.

Clark looked at the woman he'd just helped, a woman who looked just like Lana, a woman who'd have to die soon. He helped her to her feet, while Sheriff Billy Tate got out of the police car and grabbed Lachlan.

Normally, both Clark and Lana would have been tempted to launch into an attack on Billy Tate, since he was the man behind Louise's - no, Lana's - imminent death, but both were preoccupied with looking at each other.

"My hero," said Lana, stunned at the man's resemblance to Clark.

Clark, stunned by the woman's resemblance to Lana, and feeling guilty about the feelings he was suddenly having towards her, what with Lana only just dead, replied "You don't strike me as someone who usually needs saving." He didn't think it was a particularly good line, but it was the one he remembered. The truth of the matter was that Louise definitely did need saving, but, in this one case, that was the one thing he just couldn't do.

"Thank you," replied Lana, still stunned at the stranger's resemblance to Clark.

Clark picked up the magazine Lana had dropped and handed it to her, while listening to Lachlan tell Sheriff Tate "Did you see that? He could've killed me."

Half of Clark wished he had killed Lachlan, the other half wished he'd killed Sheriff Tate as well. Suddenly his attention was drawn back to Louise.

"Thanks. I'm Louise," she said.

Clark had been hoping that she'd say that she was Lana and that that whole death thing had been some horrible mistake, but he had to face facts - Lana just wasn't coming back. As he continued looking at Louise, so beautiful, almost as beautiful as Lana had been, he realized that he'd have to make up a name for himself. Then again, he could just use the one he remembered.

"You can call me Joe," he replied.

Lana looked at Joe, and remembered that Joseph was Clark's middle name. There was a coincidence. Then she looked at Joe some more, he certainly wasn't an ordinary Joe. In fact he was the most exciting thing she'd seen in her one day in this past Smallville.

"Well, Joe, you're the most excitement we've had all year," she said, exaggerating slightly.

Clark, admiring Louise's obvious talent for understatement, was then interrupted by Sheriff Tate offering to shake hands. "Well, I guess we owe you our gratitude. Hi, I'm Sheriff Billy Tate. Some reflexes you got there."

"They kind of surprised me, too," replied Clark, using all his concentration to resist crushing Sheriff Tate's hand.

"I haven't seen you around Smallville before," observed Tate.

"I'm just passing through on my way home," replied Clark truthfully, although whether he'd actually get home relied on whether Zod could work out a way to transport them from the caves to Krypton.

"Lucky you," replied Lana. At least Joe would get home. She'd never get home because, for the sake of the Universe, she was going to have to die here in the past

"Forgive Louise," said Tate. "She's got stars in her eyes. Always has."

"There's nothing wrong with that," said Clark. After all, the stars were where he was heading himself.

Clark and Lana continued staring at each other, both of them thinking about other people who they'd never see again who were actually themselves, when Dexter drove up and got out of his car.

"Louise?" he shouted.

Lana looked over at Dexter, annoyed that he'd interrupted her time with the stranger, although she got some comfort out of the fact that she knew she'd be seeing Joe again.

"Everything all right?" added Dexter.

Yeah, everything's fine, thought Lana, apart from the fact that I'm stuck over forty years in the past and I know my expiration date.

"You go on home, Louise," said Tate patronizingly. "I know how Dex hates to miss his bridge game. I'll drop by and get your statement."

Lana looked at Clark. "See you around," she said and then slowly walked to the car. Once she was inside she continued to look at Clark, and Clark continued to look at her, and then Dexter drove himself and Lana away, while Clark kept looking at her as long as his X-ray vision allowed.

"I appreciate your help," said Tate, but that gave no comfort to Clark. He couldn't be of any help to Louise - no help at all.