Action Comics #10: "Return to Smallville, Part 2"

Pete started a pot of coffee and the two old friends shared a couple of slices of Ma’s blueberry pie. But Clark was not into it with his usual gusto. He had just had a bombshell dropped on him, and was, not unsurprisingly, distracted.

“I wanted to tell you, buddy, believe me, I really did.” Pete said around a mouthful. “But this was always Lana’s secret to keep. Nobody here in town even knew she had had a baby for a long time. Connor was almost three years old the first time she brought him to Smallville, and she wasn’t volunteering any information other than she was raising him alone.”

“She never spoke about the father?” Clark looked puzzled.

Pete shook his head. “Never. Naturally, I made some inquiries, but the only local candidate was, well, you!” He gave his friend an apologetic look. “And as no one could imagine Lana hiding this from you, or you not taking responsibility, we all just assumed the father was some guy in Star City.”

“We?” Clark asked with a raised eyebrow. “Who else knows?”

“Not a lot of folks, really.” Pete thought for a moment. “Of course, this is Smallville, so probably just the whole town.” He finished, ruefully.

“Including Ma and Pa?!?”

“Yep.” Pete sipped his coffee, watching his stunned friend carefully. “No one ever told you because at first they just assumed that you knew, being as close to Lana as you were. But when it became obvious that you didn’t know, everyone agreed you should hear it from Lana.”

“Everyone…? What, was there a town hall meeting about it?”

“Well… This is Smallville, Clark…”

Clark put his head in his hands and groaned.

After a moment, Pete asked directly: “Is he your son?”

Clark looked up, looking for all the world, clueless. He put his elbow on the table and his chin on his fist. “I don’t know. But he very well could be.”

“So you and Lana…?” Pete hedged delicately.

“It was one night.” Clark’s eyes grew distant, remembering. “We had both come home, after graduation. She was accepting the position with the orchestra in Star City, and I was about to backpack across the world… It felt like it was goodbye for us, a last opportunity to explore what we meant to each other…”

“Alright, loverboy, I don’t need a play-byplay.” Pete refilled both their mugs and took a seat across from Clark. “Surely you asked her about Connor. What did she tell you?”

“She was pretty noncommittal about it.” Clark shrugged and exhaled a breath. “She said that she was the only parent her son ever had or ever needed, and that he was a very well-adjusted little boy. A little on the shy side, but athletic. Good in school. She said she never saw the point of telling the father, as they had gone their separate ways.”

“Ouch.” Pete remarked.

“How well do you know Connor, Pete?” Clark fixed his friend with an intent stare. “Has he ever--- you know!---.” He mimed bending a steel bar.

“Shot lasers out of his eyes?” Pete finished the sentence. “No. Lana’s only brought him around a handful of times, but I’ve taken him to a few football games, and he’s never seemed anything but a normal, human boy… Of course, your powers really didn’t start to manifest until we were in High School…”

“Right…” Clark sat there, looking thoughtful.

“Listen, Clark.” Pete finally said, with some exasperation. “It’s no secret that Lana’s always been in love with you. But she’s not the type to use her son to lure you back to her, or to influence your feelings. If there’s a chance of you and Lana rekindling what you once had, then I’m sure she doesn’t want the situation with Connor prejudicing your feelings. It has to be for the right reasons, and not out of some misplaced, old-fashioned sense of responsibility. If it’s not to be, then having Connor’s father in her life might just be too painful for her. It’s not easy to live with a reminder of what we can’t have.” He finished with a sad, knowing expression.

It was in that moment that Clark realized that Pete Ross was truly in love with Lana Lang. The tragedy of it was that he loved his friend Clark no less…

“You’re a good friend, Pete.” Clark shook his head, amazed at his luck, and in awe of the depths of humanity within his childhood pal. “And a wise man.”

“Yeah, well,” He playfully slugged Clark in the shoulder as he rose to collect the pie plates. “Some of us can only save the world one person at a time.”

He had long-since doffed his collared coat, and had it slung over his shoulder, wearing beneath only some dusty denim overalls and no t-shirt, giving Lois a good look at his impressive physique for the first time. Even more incriminating was he had not thought to put on his glasses before leaving the house that morning, so essentially, the investigative reporter from Metropolis was seeing a Clark Kent she had never seen before--- one that looked suspiciously like Superman.

“L-L-Lois!” He exclaimed, automatically going into full-on bumbling-Clark mode at the sight of her. “What are you doing here? Don’t get me wrong, it’s nice to see you, but this is awfully far off the beaten path for you, isn’t it? Ma, have you seen my glasses, I lost my tinted pair outside, and was just coming in to find---.”

“Here you are.” Martha had them ready, pressing them into his hand and mouthing the word Sorry, as she passed him to bustle into the living room, pretending she had something to do out there.

He slipped them on, assuming his characteristic hunch as well, but the damage had already been done. Lois Lane was a world-class, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, and he could not miss the triumph in her eyes.

“Actually, I’m following a story.” She told him, sipping the coffee that Martha had poured for her.

“A story? Here in Smallville?” He busied himself with wrapping his coat around him, faking a shiver, and re-positioning his glasses on his nose. “Wow, I didn’t think a big-city girl like yourself would bother with local beauty pageants and county fair type stuff. Slow news week in Metropolis, huh? How’s Jimmy?”

“Oh, it’s a big story, Clark. The scoop of the century, maybe.” She added provocatively, watching his expression as he went to pour himself some coffee. “Careful.” She nodded at his hand as he nervously splashed himself with the steaming fresh liquid. As if reminded that he was burned, he dropped the coffee pot he was pouring with a wince. It shattered on the wood floor, and he flinched back, sucking on his ‘burnt’ hand.

She watched him with some amusement as he stumbled for a towel to clean up the mess, muttering to himself.

“But the most amazing thing is,” She went on as he begin sopping up spilt coffee and carefully picking up splinters of glass. “Is that the story was right in front of my face the whole time. Right across the desk from me, you might say.”

He laughed uneasily. “Huh? What do you mean, Lois? No, don’t tell me! You’ll want to break the story yourself, I know how competitive you are. But, geez, coming all the way out here to Smallville to rub it in? I mean, it’s not like we compete for the same headlines anymore. I just sent Perry a piece for the Sunday Supplement on the plight of Kansas farmers after the crisis. He liked it a lot, he said, and I’m very proud of it. Did he show it to you by any chance? Is that why you’re---.”

“Superman showed up in Metropolis the same month you got a job at the Daily Planet.” She interrupted him, speaking quickly and matter-of-factly. “Despite the fact that you’ve covered your fair share of stories about him, the two of you have never been seen at the same place at the same time. When you moved back to Smallville last year, Superman stopped making daily appearances in Metropolis. You both have black hair and blue eyes, and you are of the same height and build--- I am ashamed to say I’ve never noticed just how physically impressive you are, Clark.”

“Huh? I mean, thanks, Lois. But I don’t see how a series of random coincidences---.”

“Superman,” Lois Lane said succinctly, confidently. “Please, don’t insult my intelligence any further. I’ve been recording this conversation,” A nod to the microcassette recorder on the counter top in front of her. “And when I get back to Metropolis, I intend to do a voice comparison analysis with a recorded interview of Superman in the Planet’s files. But I don’t need to. I’m not an idiot, Clark. I don’t know how you managed to fool me for so long, but now that I know what to look for, it’s as plain as day. Though I have to compliment you: who knew a pair of glasses could be such an effective disguise?”

His eyes got wide, and disbelieving, but behind the thick lenses, she could see the hint of panic.

“You--- think I’m Superman?!?” He laughed, too loud. A little hysterically.

Lois Lane just shrugged, as if to say: Well,… yeah.

“Lois, that’s preposterous!” He sputtered, standing up from the spill and hitting his head on the overhead rack of pots and pans, causing them to jangle. “How can I be Superman? Superman’s from space--- I’m from Kansas! I can show you the bedroom upstairs where I grew up… My mother is in the next room, for crying out loud! How could you even come up with such a---.”

She slid off the stool and rounded the counter to face him, jabbing her finger into his chest.

“How? I opened my eyes! The last time I really spoke to Superman was on a rooftop in Metropolis, just before his fight with Doomsday! We have some unfinished business, and I’ve been waiting a year to continue that conversation. I never gave up on him, Clark! Not even during the crisis, when everyone else thought he was dead. I was the one who sent Wonder Woman and the others to Apokolips to rescue him. I knew he was alive. I knew he would come back! But he didn’t--- not to me! And I want to ask him, straight to his face, why in the world he did this!”

And before he could react, Lois stood up on her tip-toes, grabbed his face in her hands, and kissed him!

Clark froze, resisting at first, the shock of Lois’ reaction taking him utterly by surprise. But it only took a moment before he thawed, and almost against his will responded to the urgency and need in Lois’ kiss. It took him back to that moment on the rooftop, in the early hours of the crisis, when all the world was reeling from the invasion. He had finally let himself feel something he’d been repressing for so long… It had felt glorious. It had sustained him through the days of torture and imprisonment that followed. After the war, and the death of his father made it necessary for Clark to return to Smallville, he had had no choice but to stuff those feelings away again, to again deprive himself for a greater good.

But he had not counted on the head and heart of Lois Lane.

In all too brief a moment, it was over. She pulled away, her eyelashes fluttering open again. Her mouth was still open, and she was about to speak--- when somebody cleared their throat.

In the hallway stood his Ma, Lana and Connor.

Inwardly, Clark groaned.

Martha was saying something about having forgotten that she had invited Lana over for breakfast, but all Clark could see was the look of betrayal and hurt on Lana’s face. She clutched Connor protectively in front of her, the little boy looking up at him with a quizzical expression.

Clark looked from Lois to Lana to Connor, and then back to Lois. He opened his mouth, unsure what was going to come out--- when a piercing whine sounded in his ears.

It actually hurt him, and he staggered backward, away from Lois. A quick glance up at the others told him that they couldn’t hear the strange noise, seeming to come from nowhere and everywhere at once.

Kal-El of Krypton, hear me.

He glanced around, his hands on his ears to block out the noise. But it did no good. Nor could he tell from where the voice was coming.

Don’t bother looking for me, I am miles away and shielded from your sight, continued the disembodied voice. It was cold and metallic. It sent shivers down his spine. Listen to me carefully, Kal-El. There is a comet passing close to this planet, its trajectory taking it within several hundred thousand kilometers of Earth. As we speak, I am pulling it from its orbit, and aiming it directly at Earth. At Smallville, to be precise. Right about now the instruments of those who pass as scientists on this world will be picking up the object, and those with the intellect to understand what I have done will feel their blood run cold.

The voice droning in his head, he could hear little else. But he saw the others crowding around him with some concern. He held up a hand to fend them away, mouthing some excuse about needing some air, and quickly backed out the kitchen door.

The comet is approximately 185 kilometers in diameter and some 550,000 kilometers away, continued the dispassionate voice. And at its current rate of speed, will make impact in 27 minutes. Where it hits will make little difference, really. It will be like every atomic weapon on Earth exploding at the same time in the same place. The entirety of the Midwestern United States will be a crater. Earthquakes and tsunami will wrack every inch of the globe. And a cloud of dust will rise up to cover the planet, completely blotting out the sun, and plunging the world into a nuclear winter from which there will be no end. It will be, what your doomsayers call, an ‘extinction-level event.’

Twenty six minutes.

The readings that were coming in were astonishing. The instruments that had been carefully placed on the comet were sensitive to a micron, and did their work perfectly.

“Fascinating.” Mused the would-be world conqueror from his secret vantage point on Earth. “Under a yellow sun, the Kryptonian is like unto a god. The strength he possesses…! I doubt if even he has tested the limits of it…”

On the monitor screens, Superman, unaware that he was being watched by cloaked alien devices in Earth-orbit, turned and headed back towards home, though he seemed to be in no particular hurry to get there.

“Surely, he is not impervious to all forms of attack…?” He continued to study the data, still coming in. “My hypersonics appeared to have hurt him. Still… He will not fall to a physical assault. I see now that my original course of action, laid out these many years, is still the best. Time for the trap to spring shut on the Last Son of Krypton…”

And on the vivisectionist’s table behind him, his eye’s propped open by hooks, and the skin and bone of his skull expertly removed to allow robotic arms to work on his brain, Pete Ross whimpered and mourned the loss of his will…

“Swing, Connor! Swing!” Lana shot up from her seat in the bleachers, as the pitch came at her son.

CRACK! The softball sailed over the baseball diamond, and the nine-year old dropped his bat, put his head down and ran for all he was worth.

“Go, go, go!” Lana cheered, as Connor rounded first, his hit bouncing in the outfield. The other team scrambled for the ball, and Lana held her breath as her son and the ball both converged on third base…

“He’s safe!” Declared the third base ref, in a cloud of dust.

Scattered applause rose up from the stands, led by a pleased and proud Lana, just as Clark came up to her and had a seat on the bleacher.

“It was great hit.” He remarked, watching the little boy dust himself off.

Lana resumed her seat, looking at him askance. He was wearing his glasses, a look she was not used to.

“Where’d you run off to in such a hurry?” She asked, sparing him a glance as she waved encouragement at Connor.

“I--- I had just remembered that I left a tractor running out by the north field. By the time I got there, it had overheated, and I had to go into town for a new carburetor...”

Lana grunted, obviously not buying it.

“Lois seems nice.” She commented, offhandedly.

“Lana, about Lois---.” Clark began, but she turned her smile on him, laying an arm on his.

“Clark, you don’t have to explain. We haven’t seen each other in ten years. I’ve had boyfriends, too. Well, not many, you understand. Okay, well, one… But he was a dancer in the ballet and I think he may have been gay, but that’s beside the point. I never expected you not to live your life.”

He shook his head, scratching his chin.

“Lois isn’t my girlfriend, Lana. She’s just a friend. From Metropolis. She’s here working on a story…”

“Really?” She fixed him with an innocent stare. “Is the story about you? Because while you were gone, you were all she could talk about. She wanted to know every little detail about your childhood here. She seemed to be particularly interested that you had taken me to the prom. That’s when Martha broke out the old photo albums. Ms. Lane even stayed for lunch, then I think she was headed over to the bank to interrogate--- Ooops! I mean interview!--- Pete, next.”

“Can we forget about Lois for a moment!” He interjected. There was too much going on. He needed to take one thing at a time, and he would worry about Lois later.

“Can we?” Lana asked coolly, pointedly.

Clark sighed. “I won’t deny that I have feelings for her, Lana. But I don’t know if I’m the man she thinks I am, either. I need to sort that out for myself. And now with you back in my life… What I do know is that you and I need to talk. Because if I’m Connor’s father… then, there are some things you need to know.”

She fixed him with a serious expression, her brow furrowed. “Am I back in you life, Clark?”

He nodded. “I hope so.” He took her hand. “I’ve missed you.” His voice was thick with feeling, and his eyes shone behind those lenses with sincerity.

A reluctant smile turned her lips, and she lowered her head, her bangs falling into her eyes. When she looked back up they were bright with emotion.

“I told Connor we’d go get some ice cream after the game. Why don’t you come with us?”

At the same time across the street, Lois Lane waited and sipped her coffee (best she could do in a town with no Starbucks); she had watched Clark and Lana and that queer little boy go into the soda shoppe, telling herself that she was not being a creepy stalker. She was sure she was right about Clark, but she wasn’t sure yet what she was going to do with the information. And she had never considered before that she might have a rival…

Perhaps she should pack it all up and go back to Metropolis that night? After all, what could be gained by---.

Loud screams and the sound of violence erupted from the shoppe across the street. She glimpsed pandemonium through the plate glass window-front. Before she could do anything else, a concussive blast threw her against a wall, the soda shoppe exploded in a gaseous yellow and red fireball…!