Chapter Sixty-Two

Meanwhile, on Earth Two…

Chloe stared at photos on her phone as she drank her third latte at the Talon. The photos were ones she forwarded to herself from her alternate cousin's phone. She stared at one photo in particular.

A photo where Clark Kent was kissing Chloe Sullivan.

But the Chloe Sullivan in that photo wasn't her. She had tried to go with Clark to the Spring Formal their freshman year and it hadn't gone the way she planned. Clark abandoned her on the dance floor to go save Lana Lang, who had been in the way of a tornado. Clark had been successful in finding Lana by the side of the road and taking her to the hospital. In an act of self-defense, Chloe told Clark she just wanted to remain friends. Instead of protesting, Clark accepted the offer willingly. Too willingly. But here he was, kissing her doppelganger.

Did she blow her chance with Clark? Did he really want to be with her instead of Lana? Chloe visualized the photos someone had taken of her and Clark. The two of them were smiling as they danced close. Did she push Clark away too soon?

Clark Kent. The man of mystery. There were questions surrounding his adoption. And after his kidnapping, there were now questions regarding how the Kent farm had been run. The amount of people Mr. Kent hired and the volunteers were more than enough to replace Clark's labor, yet there was so much more to be done. How had the family continued for all this time without extra help?

In the back of her mind, Chloe always suspected that Clark maybe was infected by the meteor rocks like other people in this town. Whenever someone was in trouble, Clark was there to help. Clark had been there when Sean attacked her at the pool. Clark had been there to help after her kidnapping by Deputy Watts. He had been there when she and Lana had been kidnapped by Ian Randall and both of his selves had tried to throw them off a bridge.

Clark was always there to save her.

But maybe it wasn't Clark entirely.

Strange things didn't stop happening since he left. Lana had almost been attacked in the Talon during closing hours by three drunk college goons. She confessed to Chloe how scared she had been, being alone in the coffee shop with those men. Then, suddenly, all three froze in place as if they were statues. It was a weirder story than the one Chloe had to write a few weeks ago, where Cyrus Krupp was institutionalized in Belle Reeve after building a device to contact his alien parents. And those stories had been followed by Smallville High jocks robbing Luthor Corp trucks in order to receive meteor rock enhanced steroids so they could get scholarships. The group had been found unconscious and bound in front of a robbed truck, alien masks besides them.

Chloe traced her finger across the photo. Wishing it had been her. Wishing Clark was here. Wishing they were together.

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Garth sat in the Legion shelter. He was bored. There were so many things he wanted to see in this time period. Smallville High. The Talon. They still existed in his time, but it wasn't the same as viewing things in the time where history was made. But being a time traveler, Garth was committed to not changing the timeline. Which meant no touching. No interfering.

And above all: no tourism.

Lightning Lad, or Garth, came from the 21st century. A time where world peace was established all because of people in the Justice League like Superman. Or, Clark Kent, as he was known here in this time. The Legion had been notified of a discrepancy in the timeline and they raced to the day it was caused.

Clark Kent had disappeared, unexplainably. And the Legion was unable to determine where he went. They were able to time travel using Legion rings, but for long term assignments like this, a temporary shelter was set up which allowed them a refuge place where they could be free of the worry of causing damage to the timeline and altering events. It was invisible to naked eye and floated a few centimeters above the ground to not interfere with the ecosystem.

Can't step on a butterfly. Maybe that's why the rings allow all of us to fly, Garth mused to himself.

This particular assignment was lasting longer than his normal missions. The timeline remained in flux, so the Legion remained behind to prevent some recorded calamities Clark had prevented. There was the time where Lana was confronted alone in the Talon by thugs. Saturn Girl, or Imra, caused them to stop in their tracks using her telepathy, allowing the police to show up and prevent Lana from receiving further harm. Then, there was the time Lana was almost drowned by a clone of her younger friend, Emily. The group had allowed the young child to get caught by Luthor Corp security and placed in a secure lab. No matter how guilty they felt, seeing a young child escorted to a lab, that was how this timeline played out and they needed to keep their interference to a minimum.

Now, the Legion finally received confirmation of where Kal-El had gone. A Lois from another Earth had dropped by, saying that Clark was now in her Earth. The Legion had always been aware of the multiverse. It had been proved over and over again. Garth himself had even been called to travel to a few alternate Earths. But now, one of Earth's greatest heroes had been kidnapped, and without knowing exactly which Earth, the chances of rescuing him and bringing him back to his Earth, where he needed to exist, was minimal.

Garth's musings were interrupted by the return of Rokk, or Cosmic Boy, and Imra. Without any other options, the two had begun to travel to different Earths, hoping to randomly come across the one Kal-El had been kidnapped into.

"Any luck?" Garth asked, knowing the answer already. Their faces said it all.

"No." Rokk said. "But a new timeline hasn't been set yet. Which means that there's still a chance Kal-El will return."

"So, what exactly does that mean we do?"

"The only thing we can do." Imra said. "We hope."

For the episode "Visitor", without Clark's interference, Cyrus would still have built the device and being unable to contact his birth parents, who he believed were aliens, he still would have suffered his mental breakdown. Since Clark Kent was gone, Lionel wouldn't ask Chloe to investigate him, which is why I didn't mention it.

The butterfly comment is in reference to the short story "A Sound of Thunder" by Ray Bradbury.