Chapter 2
Lois crossed the road to the truck as quickly as she could without drawing unwanted attention. She allowed herself one furtive glance over her shoulder to see if Marcus was following her, but it seemed like he'd accepted her leaving without too much suspicion.
As she approached the vehicle, she could see that Clark looked horribly pale. His head lay back against the rest on the passenger side and his eyes were closed. They snapped open as she entered through the driver's side door.
'Are you okay?' they said to each other in unison.
She raised her eyebrow at him, and he sighed.
'I'm fine,' he reassured her weakly.
'You don't look fine,' she disagreed, worry evident in her voice.
She looked him up and down, her eyes resting on his cuts and bruises.
'Clark, your hands!' she exclaimed, reaching out to examine them.
He flinched away from her touch and pulled his sleeves down over his wounds self-consciously.
She felt surprised for a moment, until she remembered how long it had taken Clark to stop shrinking away from her touch after his time as Lex's prisoner. Whatever he'd been through in that RV had shaken him back to a state of defensive self preservation.
He gave her a grave look, his head obviously spinning with worst case scenarios.
'We have bigger things to worry about,' he said ominously.
She sat back in her seat, knowing by now that when he closed her out like this, it was better to give him space than to push harder
'One thing's for sure,' he continued, his tone filled with dread. 'You were right about knowing it when I saw it.'
Lois turned the keys in the ignition and pulled away quickly, recognising the need to put some distance between her husband and the man getting up from his seat in the diner across the road.
Marcus threw his fist at the wall of the RV with a frustrated howl.
'How could you have been so stupid?!' he berated himself as he surveyed the damage.
Lois had always been his soft spot. Guess some things never changed. Whoever had attacked the RV had known exactly what to destroy to shut down his AI.
His fingers traced the outline of two charred holes burnt through the cabinet that concealed the main electrical circuit board. The unmistakeable marks of heat vision.
It had to be him.
So, his meeting with Lois had been nothing more than a distraction for Superman to sneak on board. He felt disgusted once again with her loyalty to him in this world. Maybe he didn't see it because he didn't want to see it.
Even now, after everything he'd been through, he was still underestimating the man of steel.
Of course, the Superman of his world had never shown anything but brute force in all of their encounters. Once he'd destroyed Metropolis, he'd had nothing left to hide.
This Superman, his polite exterior still intact, apparently preferred more subtle tactics – and he had a world-famous reporter as a willing side kick.
What had Superman discovered about him? Had his AI detected the threat? It seemed likely, why else would he attack his security system? Maybe he'd been incapacitated before he had a chance to discover the suit, leaving his alias still unknown
Marcus kicked the remnants of the AI's communication device to the side and made his way up to the front of the RV to take his seat behind the wheel.
Fixing his AI would have to wait. He needed to stop the shipment she'd alerted him too before he'd met with his wife's doppelganger.
'Wait, wait, wait… so he's 'The Stranger'... and he's a Luthor?' Lois questioned her husband in disbelief.
She'd headed out of town towards the farmhouse but had pulled in nearby once Clark had started explaining the events in the RV. She couldn't concentrate on the road while trying to process this.
Clark shook his head, just as confused. 'I know, it makes no sense. I can only tell you what I saw. He had the suit hidden at the back of a cabinet, along with an arsenal of kryptonite weapons.'
Lois' mind drifted back to the recent break in to a DOD facility in Mongolia that her Dad had warned them about. He'd known exactly where to go to stock up on the deadly meteorite.
Lois noticed the look on her husbands face. He was hesitating, grappling with how to tell her something more.
'What else?' she insisted, giving him a knowing look.
'There was a security system,' he revealed. 'It was set up to recognise a Kryptonian threat.'
He looked at her apologetically.
'It knew you were Kryptonian?' she hissed loudly.
He nodded and she saw him tense in the way he always did when his secret was involved.
'It scanned me,' he explained. 'Once it knew I was Kryptonian, the RV went into shutdown and two bright red lights came on. Red solar lamps. I felt weak immediately, like I did back when Lex…' Clark trailed off, unable to finish his sentence.
She knew the memory of being bloodied and beaten in Lex's red sun room still haunted him, even if later events had made it look like a walk in the park.
Lex's hatred of Superman had developed quickly, but it's impact on their lives spanned decades. He'd done everything in his power to break the man of steel, and by the end, he very nearly had.
Lois' voice softened. 'Clark, it can't be him,' she reassured, placing her hand on his arm. 'He's in a coma. They told us, even if he did wake up, his brain damage is too extensive for him to ever be a threat again.'
'I know,' he sighed, obviously having considered the possibility carefully. 'I can't hear anything that would indicate he's escaped. Besides, The Stranger said he was from another world.'
That piece of information seemed like a lifeline he was holding on to.
'With everything we know about the multiverse… do you think this could be a Lex from a parallel universe?' he asked.
'Who knows!' Lois shook her head. 'Maybe he's related to Lex somehow? Maybe a son we don't know about?' she reached for wild theories, desperately trying to make sense of this new information.
Her hands flew up in defeat. She had no more idea than he did.
Her phone beeped, pulled her attention away from their guesswork.
'It's Chrissy,' she told him before picking up and answering, 'Hey boss.'
'Lois! I have a contact in shipping at Edge's mines… Well, I mean, not really a contact, more like an ex who really never got over me,' Chrissy started to babble down the phone.
Lois bit her tongue. She was not in the most patient mood.
'Chrissy,' she stated, softly but firmly encouraging her to get to the point.
Chrissy caught her tone and cut to the chase.
'Edge is about to send a shipment out. Do you think it's X-Kryptonite?' she asked.
'Only one way to find out,' she said with determination. 'Thanks, Boss.'
She hung up the phone and looked wordlessly at Clark as she started up the truck. She knew he'd heard the update, and neither of them needed to speak to confirm where they were going.
Luthor or no Luthor, whatever Morgan Edge was doing in those mines was still a priority.
They needed to follow that shipment.
Jordan threw down the book he was reading in frustration.
He felt like a prisoner in his own body. He'd tried taking the soundproof headphones off earlier but the onslaught of unbearable sound had overwhelmed him and he'd given up. Now he wasn't sure what was worse – the boredom or the pain.
'You're going to have to work through it, okay?' his dads voice replayed in his mind. 'One sound at a time.' Jordan glanced around the room, stopping curiously when he saw the clock on the mantel piece. 'Could that work?' he wondered.
The rhythmic sound of the ticking clock would surely be similar to the slow drops of water that his Dad had tried to get him to focus on earlier. It had to be worth a try. He couldn't stay like this forever!
Slowly he lifted the headphones off his ears.
'Just focus on one sound,' he told himself. Immediately the rush of noises came in all at once – alarms, voices, birds, traffic, buzzing. The sounds tried to drown out the ticking off the clock, but he clenched his jaw against the pain and tried to push it all away.
'Just focus on the clock,' he willed himself.
The right hand moved to the hour, and the added sound of the chime shot through his nervous system, making his head drop down. He strained against the pain, trying to hold on as long as he could.
Finally, it became too much for him and he frantically pulled the headphones back over his ears. He panted heavily resting his hands on the mantlepiece to recover from the effort, before collapsing back down in his seat. He felt utterly defeated.
Clark rubbed his hands together absentmindedly. The cuts and bruises were now fully healed and his powers seemed to have returned, but the memory of his recent vulnerability lingered.
'Are they still up ahead?' Lois asked, knowing her husband could see all the way to Metropolis if he wanted to.
Since his colour had returned, she seemed to have renewed a bit of her usual confidence.
'Yeah. About two miles up,' he confirmed. 'It looks like they've got an escort.'
Clark shifted his focus and his x-ray vision kicked in to reveal the men on board the van they were tailing behind.
'There's a panel van with four guys with guns inside,' he reported back.
'That seems on brand for Edge,' Lois replied, making no attempt to hide her disdain.
'What do you wanna do?' Clark asked, at the same time using his telescopic vision to search further ahead and see if there was anything else of note.
'Let's just keep following,' she replied. 'I wanna see where they're taking the X-Kryptonite.'
To his surprise, Marcus Bridgewater came into view, blocking the road with his RV. He had an assault rifle by his side and was clearly preparing to attack the shipment.
'I... don't think that's gonna happen,' he said slowly, tensing again at the sight of the man who had been referred to as Captain Luthor.
He felt pretty confident he'd managed to destroy any evidence of his visit to the RV, but he couldn't help wondering what the man knew.
'What is it?' Lois asked with concern, immediately sensing the shift in her partner's tone.
'He's definitely proving he could be a Luthor,' he mused out loud. At his wife's impatient look, he explaine. 'It's Marcus. It looks like he's going to attack the shipment.'
The truck ahead slowed as it approached it's would be attacker. Clark's super hearing kicked in as one of the men spoke into a radio.
'Hey, guys, we got someone in the road up here. Be ready,' he heard the driver of the truck say.
'Locked and loaded, boys. It's go time,' said a voice from within the smaller van behind.
The men inside began readying their weapons. Clark sighed.
'Things are gonna get ugly if I don't do something,' he explained to Lois quickly.
Not sure if he was protecting Marcus or the men in the van, Clark super sped out the passenger side door. He grabbed the van off the street effortlessly and flew it out to the desert, placing it at the top of a canyon. They wouldn't be going anywhere for a while.
Within seconds, he was back in the truck.
There was a time when Clark's sudden use of powers would have shocked his wife but she barely flinched, keeping her focus on the scene up ahead.
He heard Marcus approach the truck from the front, pointing his weapon at the driver threateningly.
'Out of the truck! Get out of the truck!' he demanded, and Clark watched the driver comply without question.
'Turn around. Get on your knees,' Marcus instructed, holding the weapon steadily on his captive.
The man did as he was told again, clasping his hands behind his head for good measure.
Marcus looked up as he heard their vehicle approaching.
'Don't move,' he threatened the man, directing the rifle at his face for emphasis.
Thankfully the man seemed to be just a driver for hire and not a super powered threat.
He made his way towards their truck as Lois pulled to a stop, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a small piece of tech. He threw it casually up into the air and it flew backwards like a magnet drawn to the back doors of the truck. The device began beeping slowly.
Lois and Clark got out of either side of the vehicle. He eyed his wife warily as she stormed over to the mysterious man, anger fuelling her steps.
'What are you doing?' she demanded.
The devices beeping alarm quickened.
'I assume the same thing you are,' he replied calmly.
The device on the truck doors suddenly exploded, causing Lois to jump back in surprise.
Clark's reaction was a fraction slower, for a moment forgetting his usual instinct to respond like any other human. Regretfully, Marcus seemed to notice. He frowned at him for a moment, before Lois' tirade pulled his attention back to her.
'No, we were following the truck hoping to find out where it was headed, which, now, we'll never know since you decided to go full-on Rambo!' she yelled at him, lifting her hands in exasperation.
Marcus ignored her tirade and headed into the truck, grabbing the handle of the silver case that sat at it's centre.
'I couldn't risk letting this get where it was going,' he explained as he jumped back out of the truck and lifted the case up.
Clark tried to x-ray the metal container but he couldn't see anything. It was lined with lead. Seemed like everyone knew about that particular blind spot of his these days.
He looked up and realised Marcus' was watching him again curiously. Clark tried to act naturally, but the man's attention was extremely unsettling.
Had he managed to restore the AI somehow? Had there been other cameras on board?
Did he know who he really was?
'Cause that's what Edge is gonna use to build his army?' Clark offered, trying to seem as clueless and innocent as possible.
'So, you believe me now?' he said, turning his attention back to Lois again.
No, Clark thought. He couldn't know. There's no way he'd still be playing this game of cat and mouse if he had all the information the AI would have provided him.
'Enough. Games,' she said urgently.
Clark could tell his wife had completely lost patience for the man's cryptic responses, and she seemed much less worried than he was about the danger he presented. 'Just tell us what you know!'
'Fine,' he agreed, to Clark's surprise, gesturing back towards the RV. 'Follow me.'
He gave his wife a cautious look as they followed him, keeping his super senses on high alert for any sign of a trap.
Jordan slapped the book down on the bed beside him once again. Being trapped like this was driving him mad.
He pulled the headphones off, gritting his teeth against the sounds that invaded his system. He bore the attack on his senses for only a few seconds, before lifting the protective coverings back to his head.
'This is impossible,' he thought.
Just as he was starting to feel the tug of self pity setting in, a thought occurred to him. What if he tried to find a sound further away. Like the sound of someone's voice, someone he knew.
He reached for his phone and flicked through photos. Sarah's was the first face to come up. He was tempted, but he decided against it. He and Jonathon had felt first hand how awful it was to have your privacy invaded by super hearing... he couldn't do that to her.
Then he saw a picture of his dad in the kitchen back at the townhouse. He pushed aside the tug of nostalgia at the memory of his old life, and smiled mischievously.
'Turnabout's fair play', he reasoned to himself, his dad's invasion of his own privacy still fresh in his mind.
Besides, he wasn't going to really listen in on him, he was just practicing.
Jordan braced himself internally. Once more he removed the headphones, focusing as hard as he could on his dad's face.
At first the cacophony of sounds kicked in as usual, but the picture gave him a sense of purpose.
He couldn't explain exactly how he was doing it, but it felt like he was feeling his way through the different sounds, searching further and further out as he went. Like he was a traveller making his way through the chaos.
Suddenly his Dad's voice came through loud and clear.
'Cause that's what Edge is going to use to build his army?' he heard him say.
As he focused in on him, the rest of the sounds seemed to fade away. He stood up and smiled to himself, relieved and excited. He was really doing it!
His elation subsided when he realised what his Dad had just said. Morgan Edge was building an army? 'So you believe me now?' came a voice he didn't recognise.
Jordan couldn't resist the temptation and continued to listen intently.
'If Edge is using X-Kryptonite to build an army, why would he send such a small shipment?' Lois questioned out loud.
There was still so much that didn't add up, and Clark knew how infuriating his wife found half truths.
'Probably wanted to see who'd come for it,' Marcus replied, sounding nonchalant, like Edge's plans were almost insignificant.
The man glanced at Clark again, and he was unable to shake the sense of warning in the back of his mind. Marcus looked like he was trying to place a familiar face, like something was niggling away at him.
'Well, now that he knows, what's his next move?' Lois's questioned.
Each statement seemed like a challenge, like she was daring him to prove the extent of his knowledge.
'It's hard to say, but we need to be ready,' Marcus replied, holding her fierce stare for a moment before his eyes drifted back to Clark.
Clark met the man's gaze as innocently as he could, fighting the urge to look away or do anything that made it seem like he had something to hide.
He'd been successfully using the glasses as a disguise for decades, but he was starting to feel anxious that Marcus might be seeing past the simple frames.
'Ready how?' he asked, trying to seem blissfully unaware of the way the man was analysing him.
Marcus looked back towards Lois, giving up on his internal puzzle for now.
'It's what I was trying to tell you earlier…' he said.
'You wanna meet Superman,' she confirmed, crossing her arms defiantly.
'It's the only way to stop this,' he responded passionately.
He spoke with so much emotional emphasis, Clark would have been convinced he actually cared if he hadn't heard the name Luthor in that RV.
'Why would I do that? You've given us no reason to trust you,' Lois said with steel in her voice, crossing her arms over her chest.
Clark had been considering their options carefully, and was beginning to wonder whether refusing the man's request was the smartest move.
The man was clearly not going to offer any more answers to the two of them. He was using them to get to Superman, for whatever he had planned for him, and Clark was starting to worry about what he might do when he got bored of asking nicely.
Maybe they could just play along? It seemed clear that the man was unsure of what Superman had discovered in the RV, and that at least gave them one advantage. Maybe they could set up a meet, and use it to trap him instead?
'Uh, Lois,' Clark called to her, gesturing to the side of the road.
Marcus frowned for a second, then rolled his eyes, accepting Clark's desire for a sidebar with his wife.
Lois moved towards him, her arms still firmly crossed, and looked at him expectantly.
He didn't say anything at first, instead giving Marcus a suggestive look.
The other man took the silent hint and walked back towards his RV, giving them space out of ear shot.
'Are you kidding me?' she started as soon as she was sure he couldn't hear them.
She'd obviously correctly guessed what he was thinking.
'We have to find out who he is, what he's after,' Clark stated matter-of-factly, but she didn't look convinced. 'Look, he knows Superman was on board his RV today... I couldn't exactly avoid leaving any evidence after having to destroy his equipment to escape. If we play along now, it'll look like maybe Superman was attacked by his AI before finding anything out. If we refuse, he's going to assume we know he's a threat.'
'But Clark, he has Kryptonite weapons. He knows your weaknesses. He knows everything about your Kryptonian side. It's too risky!' she exclaimed.
'We can ask your dad to back me up. Get the DOD to stand by, step in if he tries anything,' he reasoned. 'We have an opportunity here to go in with the upper hand. We should use it.'
'How can you even be thinking about doing this? If there's even a chance he's another world's Lex Luthor...' her words caught in her throat. 'We can't underestimate him.'
Clark tried to place his confidently on her arms, but realised he was trembling slightly. She obviously noticed, but it actually seemed to calm her down, reassuring her that he wasn't taking it lightly.
'You know I would never do that,' he said softly. 'But what do you think he'll do next if we don't play along? He's already tried to kill me twice. Whoever this guy is, he's going to keep coming after us... and maybe if he thinks he can't get you to set up a meet voluntarily, he'll hurt you, or someone else, to draw Superman out... It's safer for everyone if it looks like we are on his side.'
He sensed his wife's stubborn resolve start to slip.
'You could be walking into a death trap,' she said, making one last attempt to talk him out of it.
'Maybe,' he admitted reluctantly. 'Or maybe we'll be able to put an end to all of this. He's not going to stop Lois, he's convinced I'm his enemy. I have to find out why.'
Lois pulled away from her husband and turned back towards Marcus, who was leaning casually against the RV, watching them curiously.
She hated this plan, it was way too risky... but he had a point. Keeping Marcus in the dark about the knowledge they'd gained from the RV was the best card they had up their sleeve if they wanted to find out who he really was.
She turned back to her husband in defeat.
'Okay, but i'm going to be right there with the DOD,' she informed him.
Her tone made it clear she wasn't asking for permission.
'Lois,' Clark sighed, shaking his head in frustration.
'What? You can put yourself in danger to stop this guy, but for me it's too risky to even be on the side lines?' she challenged.
'You're not the bulletproof one, Lois,' he countered.
'Well neither are you when there's kryptonite bullets involved!' she retorted, a bit too hastily.
A pained expression crossed over Clark's face and she immediately regretted her words. She knew how much he'd had to suffer through after he'd been shot at their 5th anniversary dinner.
'I'm sorry Clark, I didn't mean to...' she started.
'It's okay,' he brushed off her apology and the memories her statement had brought to mind, 'Let's just get this over with.'
He started making his way over to the still unidentified man and she followed closely behind.
'You want answers? I'm willing to tell Superman everything,' Marcus once again spelled out his offer to them as they stood before him.
'I'm not in the habit of just connecting him with people,' Lois showed her hesitation.
'I'm thinking the possible end of the world might warrant an exception,' Marcus replied impatiently.
'Okay,' she said, taking one last regretful glance at Clark. 'I'll arrange a meet. But I want something from you in return,' she added, gesturing towards the silver case. 'That.'
'Okay,' Marcus nodded, before pausing thoughtfully. 'But I need to know one thing first,' he said, holding her gaze meaningfully. 'Do you trust him?'
Lois matched the intensity of his question with her own conviction as she responded, 'With my life.'
He smiled to himself like he was privy to some kind of hidden punchline and she held her breathe against the urge to scold his patronising attitude.
'I thought you'd say that,' he scoffed, with an air of sadness she couldnt quite decipher. 'Set up the meet.'
He closed the lid to the case and handed it over to her, walking back to the The RV with his hands in his pockets and his head hanging low.
Jordan put his phone back in his pocket as his hearing returned to normal. Had he really just heard his dad convince his mom to arrange a dangerous meeting with his alter ego and a guy who was secretly trying to kill him?
His heart was pounding and his thoughts racing. He had no idea what to do, but he knew one thing for sure. He needed to find Jon.
He grabbed his jacket from behind his bedroom door and headed out of the farmhouse towards the school.