The World's Greatest Superheroes..... IF I COULD TURN BACK TIME
JLA #18 - July, Year 2	by Curt Fernlund

Part 10: More Minutes and Seconds

The Newsroom of the Daily Planet- Metropolis:
9:35 a.m. EST

Lois Lane-Kent stared at the computer screen, reading and rereading the story scrolling before her. She just did not understand it- could not believe it.

SUPERMAN ATTACKS SUPERGIRL

There were photographs by one of the Planet's staff photographers that had been on the scene of the initial fight between Supergirl and the Guardian against the Meta-terrorist, Shrapnel. By all accounts the villain had been giving the pair of heroes a run for their money, at least until Superman had arrived on scene. The Man of Steel had made short work of the exploding extortionist, literally melting him so that he could no longer explode--at least until the unique properties of his Meta Gene allowed his body to heal.

Then for some unknown reason, according to all the witnesses present, Superman had attacked Supergirl! It was madness.

Lois leaned back in her chair, ignoring the frantic buzz of the Planet's newsroom as she read on. There were people running back and forth, shouting across the room and slamming things around. Someone was yelling on a telephone and the dull clatter of computer keypads droned on perpetually in the background. It was a sound that still thrilled her to the very core of her being. The sounds of being in the thick of things, at the forefront of breaking news! The sounds of journalism!

She sipped at her coffee, the sounds comforting her as she read again how the Man of Steel had first crippled the Guardian, and then went toe to toe for a few rounds with the Maid of Might. They had exchanged words throughout their short battle, but the SCU had kept everyone far back, so no one really knew just what they were saying. One of Lois' sources that was on hand said that before the police had moved the crowd away he had heard Superman asking over someone called 'Kara'. Lois Lane-Kent had no idea who that might be, but she had jotted down the name, intending to find out.

Superman had ended the battle by apparently employing ultrasonics, at least according to the brief statement that one Dr. Johnson of the Cadmus Project offered. He gave an even briefer description of just what Superman had done, choosing the exact frequency to use that would scramble a person's thinking process but not actually do any lasting damage. Those people within range suffered a nosebleed and a throbbing headache afterwards, but were otherwise unharmed. The only real damage done was to Supergirl and the Guardian, both of whom had been immediately transported to Cadmus for treatment. A later official UPI statement not ten minutes old from Cadmus reported that both were alive and well and would recover after treatment and rest. They had apparently been very lucky.

In a final note in the story it was said that Superman extinguished a building fire that he had inadvertently started in his battle with the Guardian. The reporter of the story had speculated at the end of his piece, editorializing over the damage that the Man of Steel had caused and then--seemingly with a change of heart--had corrected. Lois was surprised that Perry White would have allowed the piece through, though it had been close to deadline for the midmorning edition.

Lois Lane-Kent set her empty mug down and slid back under her desk. She slid her stockinged feet back into the dark loafers that she had hastily chosen along with her blue jeans and a simple purple blouse. Her long brown hair was a mess, frazzled and held back out of her eyes with a scrunchie, and her face was, if not clean at least free from any makeup. She had dashed out of the empty apartment that she shared with her husband that morning in a hurry. She had woken late, her alarm clock softly droning the news at a low level. She must have woken at some point and hit the snooze button and accidentally brushed the volume control in the process.

At any rate she had woken to hear the current update of the super battle and immediately felt the far side of the bed for her husband, knowing full well in a half-sleepy haze what she would find. The opposite side of the king-sized bed was cold, and a quick inspection showed that it had not been slept in that night. Clark Kent had not been home at all.

That was nothing new or even shocking. Nothing to get worried over. Lois had spent many a night alone in the gargantuan bed, rattling around in the huge empty apartment waiting for her husband to come home. It was a worrisome life at times she had to admit, not unlike being the wife of a policeman or fireman only ten times worse. A thousand times worse! Her husband was the ultimate peacekeeper on the planet. The final word in rescue heroes and paramedics.

She was married to Superman!

Normally she would not have been too worried, had it been a normal morning. Or at the least a normal morning in the lives of Mr. and Mrs. Superman. He had been going to the Justice League's new base on the Moon; the Watchtower, for a quick meeting with some of his fellow members in the League he had said. Lois Kent had no reason to think otherwise, and had no reason to worry. There was no emergency, no power mad megalomaniac threatening to blow up the world or take over Tulsa. It was just an informal gathering of friends. If anything, Lois had felt a little slighted as it was one of the few things that she could not really share with her husband. It would have been like he was going to a Gentleman's Club she supposed, except that Wonder Woman and the Black Canary would probably both be there as well.

Lois frowned as she had when Clark had kissed her goodbye the night before as that thought crept through her mind once again. She felt a little jealous of the two superheroines, but really, there was not a blessed thing that she could do outside of giving her husband the cold shoulder and make him feel guilty for a time. The only thing was that when he finally returned home he would not have a clue as to what he had done wrong. And truth of the matter was, he had not done anything wrong, but she would not tell him that. At least for awhile--

But then she had heard the news and had hurriedly dressed and dashed from the apartment. She had taken a cab past the scene of the battle but the fight was long over and she could see at a glance that she would learn nothing new there. Cadmus and the SCU had cordoned off the area and swept it clean, leaving the finishing touches to the regular police and fire departments. She had recognized no one that she knew by name, so directed the hack to the offices of the Daily Planet. She had made her way up to the newsroom and checked in with the Floor Editor before heading for her desk. She waved to Perry White in his office but saw that the Planet's Editor in Chief was in some heated discussion on the phone. He nodded at her, but that was all and she was glad. She did not need a lecture on punctuality that morning.

She found several messages already lighting up her phone as she slid behind her desk and kicked off her shoes. Hastily she listened to them all, hoping that one would be from Clark but was sadly disappointed. There was a message from one of her more reliable sources that said he had been on scene for the morning battle. She called him back and listened as he recounted all that he had seen and heard. She asked a few questions at the end of his account, but really the only fresh information that he had to add to the news stories was that name-

Kara.

There was also a blank message on the answering machine. It was short and showed no number on the Caller ID when she checked and thought that queer. There had always been a problem with the machine--Lois had never really been all that good with technology and had never managed to set up the thing properly. Whenever she checked her messages without inputting her personal ID code the machine registered her activity as a blank phone message with no return number as it was showing now. She thought that it could be a computer generated sales call as she had gotten them before. They were annoying as no one answered when the phone was picked up--just a staticky noise while the computer on the other end waited for the marketer to establish a proper connection. This morning however, at the time that was registered on the Caller ID; it was too much a coincidence! Someone had checked her messages before she had arrived--just after seven that morning.

Lois Lane-Kent brought up the inter-office browser on her computer and typed the name Kara into the search box. She clicked on the 'GO' button and watched as the progress bar slowly started to lengthen. She got up and strolled across the back corner of the newsroom, towards the small kitchenette to refill her coffee mug. The search of the newspapers that had been transferred to the Planet's network would take some time. The paper had a T-1 Line connection to the Internet, but that did not extend to in-house files. Her own computer at her desk was set up with an ungodly amount of gigabytes for storage and megabytes for speed, but her screen was clogged with icons and shortcuts and she knew that she had innumerable processes constantly running in the background. Her PC was bogged down, as was almost everyone else's in the newsroom and all were active on the network all the time. There was a constant bottleneck as people searched the in-house files and past issues that had been transferred to the system hard drive. Add to that the constant phone calls and the rerouting of printer commands, the people calling up programs from the core memory, the transferring of files from one desk to another and the system tended to get bogged down.

Lois poured herself a big mug of bitter coffee loaded with way too much sugar. She sipped at the steaming cup as she made her way back to her desk, wincing at the taste but relishing the rush that the caffeine and sugar would give her. She was still dragging, and would not hit her stride for another hour or two. She settled into her desk and thumped the mouse sitting on the foam pad emblazoned with a big, stylized red 'S' as her screen saver had come to life. Lois gasped as she looked at the screen, choking on her coffee.

Someone had hacked into her system and left her a two worded message--

The Morgue

Lois gasped, the first thought spiraling through her head that Clark was dead and at the city morgue downtown. Then she relaxed, realizing that someone wanted her to go down to the basement, to the Daily Planet's Morgue, where copies of old issues of the Planet were stored in newsprint as well as on microfilm. Without hesitation she hurried to the elevator.

The basement of the Daily Planet Building was dim and cool. Half of the lights were out to save some cost on electricity and the temperature was kept at a constant 55° F to preserve the integrity of the newsprint, some of which were more than a century old. Lois stepped out of the elevator, her heels clacking on the cold linoleum floor as she made her way to the desk of the Keeper of the Archives.

Mrs. Higgins had been a member of the Daily Planet staff longer even than Perry White. Some people said that she had been with the paper from its founding, but that was a joke of course as the Dutch that had first founded the city had founded the newspaper over two centuries ago. It had been called the Sun originally, and then the Daily Star for many years until the owners had changed the name to the Daily Planet at about the same time that Perry White had taken over as Editor and started his policy changes. Perry had fought long and hard with the owners to keep Mrs. Higgins on staff when she had reached retirement age. Lois knew that retired journalists did not have a chance when they left their positions, as the severance package and retirement insurance were not nearly enough to survive on, even coupled with Medicare and Social Security. He had finally won, keeping Mrs. Higgins on payroll at part time status, just enough to keep her insurance going and give her something to do with her life. Her husband was long dead, and Perry knew that she would waste away and die if she was forced to leave the job that she loved so much, and the paper that she had helped to build.

Lois Lane-Kent gasped as she approached the morgue's main desk. Mrs. Higgins at first glance appeared to be asleep, but Lois knew better. Mrs. Higgins, despite her age did not nap. Lois ran forward and put a finger to the woman's throat as she was slumped back in repose in her chair. She was not dead--Lois sighed with relief--but she was not asleep either. She was unconscious, and a quick scrutiny of the body told Lois why. Either Mr. Spock was on the premises, or someone who knew the martial arts. Mrs. Higgins had been knocked out by pressure applied to a nerve cluster in the neck, cutting off blood and oxygen to the brain. She would recover with a stiff neck and a headache, but otherwise she would be fine.

Lois left the Planet's archivist where she was and slowly crept down the darkened hallway towards the library proper. She could see light coming from one of the small reading rooms that housed one of the old microfilm readers. The rest of the place seemed deserted, so Lois continued slowly forward.

She glanced into the room, but saw no one within. There was a desk attached to one wall and three chairs in the cramped room. On the raised shelf of the desk sat the almost obsolete reader as well as a laptop computer and printer. There was also a telephone hanging from the wall and a casing that held the flickering fluorescent lights overhead in the cork-tiled, yellowed ceiling. The room reeked of old cigarette smoke and Lois felt an old and forgotten craving rise up inside her. She had not had a cigarette in years, but she was nervous and wanting one now as she inched into the cramped little room.

Lois slipped into one of the battered fold-up chairs and glanced over her shoulder before turning her full attention to the reader. On screen was the negative, black and white image of a story that had run in the Planet over a year earlier. It was one of Clark's; the accounting of the first appearance of Supergirl. The headline read 'Supergirl or Super-relative?', and the story told the basic facts of Supergirl's debut as well as speculation on her origins. Lois knew that Clark was not related to the woman, but several people had supposed that she was some form of relative; a cousin perhaps from Krypton. Clark had handled the story well, showing all sides but taking none despite his personal ties to the material. In the end she was dubbed the 'Maid of Might', the newest hero of Metropolis and accepted favorably with the Man of Steel's blessings. It was not long after that she had teamed with Lex Luthor and Team Luthor as his personal hero on Lex Corp staff. Only recently had she gone independent again, spending some time with the Titans in New York and appearing with the defunct Justice League International on occasion.

"There's more!"

Lois Lane-Kent squeaked in surprise as the cold voice sounded behind her. A shadow fell on her from behind, and she immediately spun about to see the Batman standing in the doorway. He looked cold and grim in his own right, and darker than she recalled. She had met the Gotham Guardian on a few occasions, and Clark talked about him all the time. Superman respected all of his peers, but he spoke of the Batman almost with a reverence, an awe that was reserved for him alone. He had no Meta powers, but Clark said that he was the smartest man that he had ever met. Lois thought that he was the spookiest.

"B-Batman," she stuttered, wishing that her heart would slow back to a normal pace, "you startled me."

He did not apologize but stepped forward, scrolling through the machine's options. Lois watched as old news stories sped past at a speed that she could barely read, negative images of old photos and bold headlines that she had forgotten. The screen finally stopped at the Batman's command on another story that she had never read. She vaguely recalled the time frame of the story, when Clark had vanished for a time as he did on occasion. They had been rivals back then, rather than lovers and married. He had barely spoken about that time, and she knew better than to press the issue, but as she read the story- again with a Clark Kent byline- she wished that she had.

It was a story from his hometown, Smallville, Kansas regarding an appearance by Superman concerning an alien invasion. Apparently an eyewitness had seen a battle between some aliens that had landed in a spherical space ship and battled Superman for a time. There were four of them, and one of them sounded like Brainiac with his green skin and yellow hair. There was a brief battle before Superman took the fight into an old building on the outskirts of the town at an old stone quarry. The witness recounted that a Superman robot--he assumed, though it was smaller--appeared and shortly thereafter they all vanished, speeding off into the sky. Clark of course had put his own special spin on the story, stating the facts but steering the reader away from them at the same time. The whole story was labeled a hoax, a quote from Superman saying that the aliens were teenagers out on a lark and the entire affair was a senior prank by students from Smallville High.

Lois glanced up at the Caped Crusader who was standing behind her, reading over her shoulder. "I don't see the connection," she said, staring at the grim, frowning man. "What has this to do with Supergirl? And who is this 'Kara'?"

The Batman leaned forward and flipped open the laptop computer sitting on the shelf. It had apparently been dormant rather than off, and Lois could see that the Batman--she assumed-- ad logged into the Planet's network under Clark's name and ID. He had brought up the news stories of a few years ago. The stories concerning the Crisis, when the world's skies had gone red and stormy. It was another case that Superman had never fully explained, and even the stories in the newspapers had no real explanation about what had happened. Someone called the Anti-Monitor had tried to destroy all of creation somehow, and if not for the valiant effort of all of the Earth's heroes he might have actually succeeded. Many heroes died in that affair; the original Dove, Kole of the Titans, even Barry Allen, the second Flash! In the end the heroes had won and the Anti-Monitor had been destroyed. Lois did not know all of the facts. No one did save for those few heroes that had gone into the Anti-Matter Universe and attacked the Anti-Monitor in that final battle. Heroes of power like Captain Marvel, the Green Lanterns, Power Girl and of course, Superman. He never spoke of that battle, of what had happened there in that other universe, but Lois knew that it had touched him deeply and she never pressed for an explanation. He would tell her when he was ready.

"I'm sorry, Batman." Lois leaned back in her chair and pinched the bridge of her nose. She remembered just how much she hated searching the micro files in the morgue. The eyestrain was murder. "Maybe I'm just not awake yet, or maybe I'm a little slow on the uptake, but I just don't see the connection. I wrote my share of Crisis stories, so I know the basics. Supergirl wasn't even around then, and what does all of that have to do with a half-baked UFO sighting in Smallville, Kansas?"

"Smallville, Mrs. Kent? The place where Superman was raised?"

The Batman was not one to give away information, but Lois had to wonder just how much he actually knew. He was Superman's oldest friend in the super hero community--if you could call them friends--but still she had to wonder just how much Clark had actually told him. Was Batman here because he knew she was Superman's wife, or was he here because she was a good reporter and because she was involved in covering the Man of Steel's escapades? The Dark Knight gave nothing away, and she was not sure just what she should say in return. She heard the Batman sigh, and he almost seemed to sag as he stood up straight, his body hidden beneath the folds of his cloak.

"Superman confides in me to a point, Mrs. Kent." He answered her unspoken questions as though reading her mind. "For some reason he considers me a friend, though I've given him no reason to do so. It's been my experience that in this business there is no room for friendship. Regardless, Superman talks to me.

"Not so long ago we had a mission that was not really related to League business. It involved Intergang, and their incursion within Gotham. Luthor was behind the case, but the details involved a series of murders that incriminated . . . Superman. We solved the case together, but Superman confided in me that he had in fact killed someone once before--" Lois gasped once again, but the Batman pressed on, ignoring her--

"Apparently Superman was called upon by extra-dimensional duplicates of myself, Lex Luthor and Lana Lang to help save a version of the Earth that was under siege by a trio of villains from that dimension's planet Krypton. I don't know all of the facts, but these three villains apparently escaped from yet another dimension where they were serving time for crimes that they committed on that Krypton called the Phantom Zone. These three criminals- called Jax-Ur, Faora Hu-Ul and General Zod proceeded to lay waste to this other-dimensional Earth, all but destroying it in the end. It all sounded a bit fantastical to me, at least until Superman went on to tell me about the final battle during the Crisis.

"To us, the Crisis was just a great event that threatened to wipe the universe from existence."

"You make it sound so commonplace."

"I have to remain impartial, Mrs. Kent. Otherwise I'd go mad."

Lois stared at the Dark Knight and felt a shiver run up her spine. He actually sounded afraid, and that terrified her more than anything she had ever encountered before.

"Superman told me of that final battle against the Anti-Monitor in that anti-matter universe. All of the greatest heroes of the world giving their all to save our reality. What we did not know, at least according to the Man of Steel was that our reality was the last of an infinite number that had already fallen to the Anti-Monitor. Again, I don't have all of the facts. Superman would not elucidate, and frankly I'm not sure that I really wanted to know. It was a bit beyond the bounds of what I normally deal with. The red skies were apparently the harbinger of the devastation that wiped realities from existence, all machinations of the Anti-Monitor. Our reality was the last to stand against him, the survivors of some of those other universes having run to ours for shelter. Harbinger, Pariah, and for that matter all of the members of the Justice Society and the Freedom Fighters, Captain Marvel and his family line, Blue Beetle and Peacemaker! All of them came from other worlds."

"You're crazy!" Lois Lane-Kent stared at the man in the bat suit that stood before her and saw for the first time just how ridiculous he looked, and how insane he seemed. "I remember my father telling me about the Justice Society in World War Two. I remember when the Blue Beetle joined the Justice League. Captain Marvel has been a hero for years!"

"So we were made to think. When the greater heroes defeated the Anti-Monitor all of the realities merged into one. The histories of the Justice Society and Captain Marvel and all the others were incorporated into our own. Reality morphed and twisted to accommodate the new universe that we reside in now. All of the infinite realities were crammed into one. This one!"

Lois held her head in her hands and moaned. Her mind was spinning. Had she heard all of this from anyone else she would have thought it all to be the ravings of a madman. But this was Batman . . . THE Batman! The man that her husband respected the most in the entire world. She stared up at the Gotham Guardian--

"But what does this have to do with Supergirl, and aliens in Smallville?"

"Many people died in the Crisis. Entire realities, and many heroes and regular people from our own as well. One of those people was Supergirl!"

"What?"

"Not the Supergirl we know that exists today, but in actuality, the cousin of Superman. We all know how Barry Allen died, chasing a bolt of anti-matter energy back through time to prevent the destruction of our world at a crucial moment. What none of us recall is that a very brave and noble girl died in hand-to-hand combat against the Anti-Monitor, and her name was Supergirl.

"Her true name was Kara Zor-El, and she was Superman's cousin from Krypton. She lived in one of those many other realities, apparently the one where we all originated from. She gave her life, hoping to defeat the Anti-Monitor, but in the end simply injuring him and pushing his time table back to assure that the rest of us would succeed in the end. It was a valiant effort, and was unfortunately forgotten by almost everyone."

"I don't remember any of this."

"You weren't supposed to. And as far as I know, none of us were. I hazard to guess that Superman and Captain Marvel and all of the rest have forgotten all of this as well. I don't necessarily agree with all of this cosmic activity, but I do know that reality tends to set itself right after a time. We were not meant to remember, and before long the both of us will forget all of this again."

"Then how do you know all of this?"

"I plan ahead, Mrs. Kent. I plan for every contingency that I can think of in the time that I'm allowed. When Superman told me all of this, and the rest of what I have to tell you, I committed it all to recordings that I filed away within my personal computers--computers that are somewhat special. On a regular basis an alarm brings up an announcement for me to listen to the recordings that I made, and I remember. Someone has to. When all of this started I remembered certain things and called up the files on my own. As soon as I heard the story of the Crisis and what came after, it all fell together."

"What came after?"

"It was not long after the Crisis when Superman encountered the four aliens in Smallville. Superman told me that they were apparently members of a crime-fighting force from the future, and were not actually aliens at all, at least not in the sense we know. He encountered four of them; Blok, the Invisible Kid, Brainiac-5, and Sun Boy, members of the Legion of Superheroes. They had traveled back in time from the Thirtieth Century to delve into their own past after the Crisis. Again, I don't know all of the facts, but they apparently numbered one of their own as Superboy, whom they considered their greatest member and had actually modeled their futuristic group after his exploits. They had encountered some discrepancy after the Crisis with their own history. Their Superboy had ceased to exist, according to what Superman had told me, yet they all remembered him and the impact that he had made on their group. Several of them had traveled back in time to set things straight; the four I mentioned, and others, including Valor who was now a member of their group in the future."

"Valor!" Lois sat forward, her head spinning with confusion. "I've met him. He was at least as strong as Superman! And Brainiac-5 was with the young heroes that helped in the fight against the Sun Eater not too long ago!" Batman nodded--

"Valor goes by the name of Mon-El in the future. A version of Superman's own name because apparently he met this Superboy at some point. As I understand it, one of their future villains had somehow created a pocket dimension, a segment of time where he had stolen a bit of Superman's life and molded it into his own twisted ideal. In this pocket dimension, Superman was rocketed to Earth by his parents, Jor-El and Lara when the planet of his birth exploded. He crashed in Kansas, just outside of Smallville where he was found by Jonathan and Martha Kent. They gave him up to Social Services, then went through the process of adopting him as their own son. Superman--baby Kal-El, Clark Kent grew through babyhood and childhood, went to school and eventually left for college to Metropolis where he later became a mild-mannered reporter for a greater Metropolitan newspaper. He started his career as a teenager, joining the Legion of Super-Heroes in the Thirtieth Century as their greatest member. He grew up with his friend Lex Luthor, whom he saved from a chemical fire but accidentally caused his hair to fall out due to his inexperience. Luthor hated the Kryptonian from then on and swore revenge, and tried to kill him many times over and tried to take over the--"

"Stop it!" Lois screamed, grabbing at her head. "Stop it! It's too much! Too much . . ."

Batman fell silent, watching as Lois Lane-Kent began to sob. It was an incredible amount of information to take in, and he knew that it all sounded foreign and strange, especially to those that knew of Superman's 'other' life. The life that they had all come to know. He waited until the woman had collected herself before going on--

"Superman transcribed his encounter with the Legion of Superheroes into the archived records in the Justice League's computers in the Watchtower. I've read them of course. Superman is quite an author, and his journalistic abilities are outstanding. He has a unique style of telling a tale and still dancing about the truth. In the archives he told of his encounter with the Legion, however he left out a few pertinent facts. Facts that only someone who knew a great deal about his private life would know were missing. Someone like me, Mrs. Kent--or you."

"M-me?" Lois snuffed back her tears and wiped at her eyes. Her head was spinning with all of this talk of alternate realities and future timelines. It was so fantastical that it almost seemed to threaten her very sanity. Why, though, she could not imagine. She had been around Superman and the Meta community for years. She had seen and been involved in some of the strangest, most bizarre occurrences to ever threaten mankind, from the Final Night to the Panic in the Sky, even the Crisis! Why should just hearing this new bit of information bother her so? Unless . . .

Unless there was something about the Crisis that was preventing her from remembering, from even considering alternate realities. She remembered what she had heard and written throughout the Crisis. The red skies had been sweeping the planet, plaguing the Earth with violent cosmically charged storms that were killing thousands. She remembered the Anti-Monitor and his hordes of Shadow Demons that had blanketed the Earth despite the best efforts of the world's heroes. She remembered the Flash's ultimate sacrifice, chasing a bolt of anti-matter through time to save everything. But there was more!

Lois remembered a beautiful blonde-haired heroine who had died fighting the Anti-Monitor, though she could not recall her name. It seemed too that Wonder Woman had died, but that was impossible. And the Justice Society had been involved as well, but some of them had been old and different, though strangely familiar. Her head was starting to spin again, and it infuriated her! It was like having a name on the tip of her tongue, but not being able to say it.

Superman, and many of the more mysterious Metas that she had met--like Dr. Fate and Zatanna--had said often enough that the Universe, and reality itself cannot stand paradox. As the Batman had said, after the Crisis when the threat of the Anti-Monitor had been averted, the Universe had righted itself. What if reality had corrected its mistakes, streamlining history into one universe, combining somehow all of the things from the infinite number of realities that fit into its grand scheme? What if then when everything was settled, reality then made everyone forget so that it would not happen again?

But what if something had slipped by? Suppose someone of great power in their own right--someone like the Anti-Monitor or Darkseid had managed to steal a bit of reality away and secret it somehow, saving it from the reality warping of the post-Crisis universe. What if that- what did Batman call it--that Pocket Dimension still existed, still thrived? What would be there? Who--

"Superman encountered the four members of the Legion as was reported by the 'mysterious', anonymous eye witness. They fought of course. That seems to be the mainstay of our community. Fight first and ask questions later. Regardless, when they all calmed down and compared notes, Superman first heard this tale of alternate timelines. I don't know exactly how much he actually recalls of the Crisis, or recalled then, but I expect he took the news better than you or I, since he is Superman. Before he and the Legion could act on what they knew however, they were apparently attacked--by Superboy!"

"Superboy!" Lois whispered, shaking her head. She was gripping the edge of the shelf before her, trying to keep a grip on her own reason. She could feel her mind starting to swirl again. She was being forced to forget. "This Superboy had come from his pocket dimension then?"

Batman nodded. "Chasing the Legion, Superman recorded. The boy had already captured half of their time-traveling team, including Valor, and he wanted the rest."

"But why?" Lois asked, confusion starting to muddle her thoughts. "If they were all friends, and this Superboy was supposed to be the greatest member of their group--the hero that they had modeled their Legion after? It makes no sense!"

"Now you know why I deal with the likes of the Joker and Catwoman." Lois saw that the Batman had almost smiled--almost made a joke. He was trying hard to keep her at ease.

"Superman's best guess was that Superboy was being controlled somehow, either mentally, or by extortion. Superboy used some strange alien device to freeze the Legion and Superman, then took the future heroes back to his reality. Superman managed to follow, and of course ended up fighting the Superboy who he said was vastly more powerful than he was, but less experienced as well.

"It was at this point that Superman's recordings became . . . sketchy. He did not explain exactly how they all reached an understanding, but he did say that the very being that had created that alternate reality was coercing the boy. Apparently Superboy was convinced that the being was the only thing keeping the sweeping storms of the Crisis at bay. They had experienced the red skies as well, at least to a point, and perhaps that being did save them all in some manner, however he was using that against Superboy in the end. Superman said that the boy had to do whatever the villain said to keep his home intact. That included killing his friends in the Legion, and Superman as well.

"The Superboy was too much like our own Superman however, and in the end he rebelled. The last that Superman saw of any of them was their group vanishing into the timestream in their ship, propelled by the incredible powers and speed of Superboy."

"But we met the Legion recently," Lois added, "and none of them mentioned that battle or any Superboy."

"No," Batman agreed. "At least not to us."

Lois Lane-Kent settled back into her chair and rubbed at her temples, trying to ease her troubled, throbbing mind. She needed an aspirin, and she could still smell the smoke of cigarettes in the cramped little room that excited old forgotten cravings. She knew what the obvious question must be, and where all of this was probably going, but still she had to ask--

"Why tell me all of this, Batman? Why not go to Clark since he wrote the initial story?" The Batman frowned--

"I'll be blunt, Mrs. Kent. For reasons that are beyond me, Superman considers me one of his best friends. He's told me things. Things probably left best unsaid, but what was done is done. I know that Clark Kent is Superman, Mrs. Kent, and I know that you are his wife."

It was Lois' turn to frown. "I expected as much, but Clark never said in so many words that you knew. Not like he was trying to hide anything from me. That's just him being Clark. If it makes you feel any better he didn't reciprocate. I don't know who you really are." Though as a reporter I have my suspicions, she neglected to add.

"At the moment that does not really matter, Mrs. Kent.

"Lois . . ." Batman faltered for a brief moment, then carried on--

"Lois. I'm telling you all of this because I do not believe that the man that attacked Luthor and Supergirl this morning is the man we both know. I can't go to Clark Kent, because he is not our Clark Kent! At this point, he is the enemy!"

"Not . . . enemy?" Lois gasped. "That's ridiculous! Superman is still Superman, no matter where he comes from. Even if he's not my husband--and I’m not agreeing with you--he must still have the same morals and ideals! He must want to help us!"

"Having watched his actions this morning, I would have to agree. He wants to help us, but in his own way. I believe he wants to help the entire world by saving it and turning it into an image of his own Earth. The Superboy had his own morals and ideals, as did Bizarro for that matter in his own twisted way."

"So . . . What? This Superman that has been attacking heroes and villains this morning is the Superboy grown up?"

Batman nodded. "Yes, Lois. Grown, but corrupted by whoever the being was that created his home dimension. His ideals and beliefs are as twisted as the Bizarro Superman's in their own way. From observing him, I believe that he has an extremely simplistic view as to how the world operates. In his mind, Luthor is a villain needing to be arrested, no matter the law. Supergirl is his cousin from Krypton, and I think he believes that she has been replaced by a duplicate; Matrix. The Justice League is different. Metropolis is different. I believe that he thinks, rather than that he has been displaced, that someone altered his reality. I believe that he is going to try to fix that, no matter the cost."

"My god . . ."

"Exactly. This Superman has the power to do it, Lois. I scanned his body with a Martian diagnostic device this morning when the League encountered him outside of the LexCorp Tower. He is Kryptonian, basically, but his body has been altered. His power levels went off the scale of the scanner's ability to record. The powers of this Superman are on a par with Darkseid or the Anti-Monitor himself. He is most probably the strongest being on the face of the Earth!"

Lois stared at the Batman, trying to read his face--what little that she could see of it. He was serious, she knew, because he was always serious. She tried to comprehend and to hold on to all that he had said. She realized that it would all slip away from her eventually, and wondered how the Batman managed to retain it all. His mind must be like a steel trap, so maintained and orderly to the point of anal-retentiveness. Still she was impressed, and a bit envious--

It came to her like a bolt of lightning! The one question that she should have asked at the outset of the Batman's ramblings, but did not. Or could not? She wondered, then shook her head, feeling it slipping away again--

"Batman!" she snapped, actually leaping to her feet and clutching at the Caped Crusader's shoulders. There was fear in her voice, a terror in her heart that she had not felt since that day that she had thought that Superman had died fighting the monster Doomsday!

"Batman! If the Superman that's here isn't the Superman that we know then where is he?

"Where is our Superman?"

NEXT ISSUE: Lois takes a trip to Smallville, and the Batman rallies the JLA to take on their greatest menace ever…

Superman!