Disclaimer -- As Lewis and Clark explored the uncharted Louisiana Purchase with Sacajawea as their guide, so I too explore the uncharted lands of imagination with Siegal, Shuster, Donner, Millar, Gough and Singer as my guides. I humbly invite you, the reader, to join me.

The lights were on at the Kent farmhouse but no one was home, unless you counted the Sheriff, two Deputies and a Crime Scene Analysis Unit from the Kansas State Bureau of Investigation. Lois Lane had spent a lot of time on the Kent farm years ago. Lois had worked for Martha Kent when she took her husband's seat in the State Senate after his heart finally gave out and before that for Jonathan during his campaign. Before that, she had even lived in the farm house for a few months while Clark was a senior at Smallville High. Clark had protested sleeping on the couch and she had protested the dog Shelby, but each had survived. Anyway, she believed that knew what this farm should look like. And cracked tree limbs, smashed out windows, and blasted doorframes aside, Lois could look at the way the shadows moved inside and know that none of them was Martha, Jason or Clark.

Lois turned to her fiancé Richard White to say, "They're not here, let's go." But Richard wasn't there next to her. Richard stood a couple of steps away leaning in through the back window of the cab paying the cab driver and sending him away. Next to his feet on the dusty country road were both of their "go bags," containing laptop computers, changes of clothes and toiletry items. She started to complain at him for sending the cabbie away too soon, but Richard had just spent half the night flying her a thousand miles in to the heartland on barely a moment's notice. He deserved better. "Richard," she called, too loudly in the stillness of the predawn grey.

Lois's voice carried past the yellow crime scene tape, down the gavel driveway and into the open window of the Lowell County Sheriffs car parked there, running. Inside the car, a Deputy, who may have been dozing or may have been watching his iPod, bolted upright at the sound of her voice. He looked slightly guilty.

As the cab rumbled away in the still air, Richard turned around and smiled at the love of his life, Lois Lane. "Hey, this would feel like we were chasing a story together, if we weren't chasing our son."

"They're not here." She said simply.

"Where are they?" Richard asked rhetorically as he and Lois surveyed the damage to the Kent farmhouse from the yellow crime scene tape. Then they looked at each other, chuckled and looked back at the Sheriffs car, as they noticed the Deputy glancing around furtively and fixing on the Sheriff. He sagged in relief when he looked back down the driveway and saw her looking at the ground, examining tire tracks with the state crime lab guys.

"He looks like the kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar." Richard commented. They both chuckled some more. The break in tension felt good to both of them.

"I bet he's the one in charge of the entry list." Lois remarked as she reached over and entwined her fingers with Richard's. The Deputy smoothed out his uniform and exited the car. "Maybe not," she observed. Then he had to open the door again and grab the clip board.

"I guess so." Richard replied and ran his free hand over his face, trying to hide his laughter. "We should wipe the smiles off our faces and try to show some respect."

"…To Deputy Dawg over there." Lois twisted sideways slightly and laughed behind Richard's shoulder.

The Deputy walked up to Lois and Richard, "Something funny folks?" he asked in a slightly belligerent tone.

"We're just breaking the tension. It's been a long night flying here from Metropolis, especially for him." Lois said, flashing the Deputy her 500 Watt smile. He certainly didn't rate the 1000 Watt smile.

The Deputy relaxed a bit, "See some ID, please?"

Blearily, Richard reached into his jacket pocket and pulled his drivers' license out of his wallet. Lois, who had slept during the first part of the flight, was a bit more alert and handed the Deputy her Press Pass. Taking both IDs, the Deputy stepped backward a few steps almost to the front of his police car. He made some notes on his clipboard and then reached up with his writing hand to key the mic on his other shoulder. Neither Richard nor Lois could hear what he said.

Sheriff Adams detached herself from where the Crime Scene team was finishing up with the window frame pieces, glass fragments and tire tracks. She made her way up to the end of the drive. "It's not too often that the Daily Planet beats the Smallville Ledger to a story out here in Lowell County." Handing over the IDs, the Deputy retreated to his car.

Lois began to stammer about the flight in the sea plane and her son. With a gentle touch on the arm, Richard quieted her. He turned to the Sheriff, "She's had a strenuous evening. We both have, because I was the one flying that airplane she was talking about. But we came here on a tip from Superman."

"Superman? I thought all you big city media types had turned your backs on him." The Sheriff looked very sternly at Lois Lane. "You didn't think anyone out here read the Inquisitor did you, kiddo?"

"Ma'am, we at the Daily Planet," Richard gestured to include both himself and Lois, "prefer not to go with a story until we have all the facts."

"Good thing, too," Sheriff Adams handed back the IDs, "'cause out here in middle America we still believe in our heroes; even if they're wearing black trench coats and sunglasses instead of crimson capes and blue uniforms."

"So, where might we find the Widow Kent?"

"Well, judging from these here tire tracks," the Sheriff took a laser pointer off of her belt and sketched the outline of the tire tracks left as Martha, Jason and Ben had fled in the Ben's pickup "they headed out toward the Kowachee Caves. I have to go out there to check on my people, they haven't found very much. I could give you folks a ride, but only one of you can sit up front."

--x--

Back up north in the Fortress, Lionel Luthor awoke. He sat up and hugged himself against the chill. Glancing across the small crystal side-chamber, he found a dark suit with a cream shirt and penny loafers. Noting absently that this pair of shoes had dimes where the pennies usually went, he thought that they might actually be his own shoes. Looking and listening around as he dressed, he oriented himself and prepared to take the advantage.

Cufflinks buttoned and tie straightened, he stepped confidently out of the side chamber into the vast main chamber and the enormity of the situation struck him. He had gone to sleep in his own bed in Luthor Mansion outside Smallville and awoken in this vast crystal Fortress. Across the chamber, he saw an elegant if tired Martha Kent and a slightly beleaguered Amazon in full battle dress talking quietly. "I forgot how vast this place is." Lionel commented.

"So have I, Lionel, I haven't been here in many years." Martha replied gently.

The Amazon behind Martha shifted her weight into a fighting stance and the look on her face reminded Lionel of the defiance the young Miss Sullivan had shown in some of their earlier dealings back in the months before and weeks after Dark Thursday. "Am I here because of Jor-El?" he asked simply.

"Yes," Martha replied. She didn't volunteer anything further.

"I thought I felt him stirring in my subconscious for many months, now. Is Clark alright? The news about him has been terrible the last several days, until last night. And I just don't know what to make of it." Lionel suddenly felt his age. "I need to get home."

"I drive out to the Mansion for Tea this afternoon and you and I can sort through this." Martha reassured him. After I sort through it with Ben, she thought but did not say.

The Amazon quietly helped them both over to the portal. Martha turned to Lionel, "This portal will take you to the Kowachee Caves, on the other side of Smallville from Luthor Mansion. I hope Clark picked up your phone along with the clothes, so that you can send for a car."

Lionel felt in the pockets of his suit coat and pulled it out. He smiled. "Clark is always so considerate."

--x-x--

Sheriff Rachel Adams released her Deputies from the Kowachee Caves. They hadn't found anything other than the disassembled road sign. The sign itself was sticking out of the black top and the pole was lying neatly next to it. Blood samples had been collected from the pole and the improved road shoulder and finger prints from the sign and the pole. But there wasn't enough blood to warrant calling the State boys over here, especially with perp and victim both gone. She puzzled over it quietly as the Whites gathered their bags from the back seat of her police car.

"Hello, hello, who is out there?" a small voice called from down inside the main cavern.

"Stay back, you two," Sheriff Adams gestured to Lois and Richard as she called for back up and took her flash light and her service weapon off her pistol belt. Shining her light and aiming her weapon, the Sheriff advanced cautiously into the mouth of the cave. "Is that you, Mr. Lionel?"

"Yes, Sheriff, thank Heaven you're here, ma'am." Lionel took a step back to sure footing and straightened up, smiling. "But you're too late," he pointed toward the other entrance to the caves. "I'm afraid they've gone."

"Who's that, sir?" the Sheriff asked with a mixture of suspicion and indulgence in her tone. She lowered her weapon and aimed the light at the roof of the cave where it provided some illumination for both of them.

"Why, whoever brought me down here of course. I haven't been known to suffer from somnambulism. Perhaps I should see my doctor about changing my sleep aid." Lionel could play the doddering fool as the sun's rays cracked over the horizon. He'd played blind years ago. "Could we keep this out of the papers, please."

"Just between you and me, Mr. Lionel, sure, but I think that might actually be up to these two reporters from your newspaper." She gestured to Richard and Lois.

"It's okay, Mr. Luthor," called Lois. "I don't think the Gossip Column is my beat." She glanced at Richard as though to confirm she hadn't been bumped down from the City Beat.

Richard smiled shouldering his pack and Lois's. "Actually, Mr. Luthor, if it's all the same to you, we weren't here, either."

--x-x-x--

Back at the Fortress, Jason asked politely, "Father could we please wait for the naming ceremony, until Mommy and Daddy can get here." Turning to his grandma, the lad added, "He flies a plane, you know."