Two, Each Their Own

By Mercury

Part 1 1996, Alternate

The two men looked up from their work, startled, to glance at a
third. All were dressed in black, well tailored clothes, and
wearing distinctive torcs.

One of the men turned around. "What was that, Flix?"

The man who'd called out waved backwards towards a large,
high-tech piece of equipment. "We've got problems, Chisjor. Big
problems."

Chisjor turned back to the other man and raised his eyebrows in
query, and received a shrug in reply.

"We've got plenty of time yet, Flix, calm down; We'll be ready."

Flix shouted angrily at the last man. "Shut up, Jilse, and get
over here, both of you."

The two men joined the third, gathering around the machine's main
console.

"It doesn't make sense."

"I know, Jilse, that's what I said - we're in trouble." Flix
looked exasperated.

"These readings are showing some sort of major disturbance in the
timeline. The effect rippling back from our time. It looks
like... well it's as though the future has just disappeared."

"No. _Our_ future has disappeared. There's a time dichotomy about
thirty years from now. The resolution front will manifest in
about two days. I don't think our line won. In two days, unless
we can fix it, we will never have existed."

"Can't we jump ahead? If we miss the eventuality, we'll be
safe."

"Not this time, it seems to effect us personally; We can move
forward about thirty years, decreasing at about six months per
subjective hour, plus latent time effects if we t- jump. We can
t-jump back," he checked some readings, "about two hundred years.
At two hundred we'd have about..." Flix checked again. "Three
minutes before resolution." We try and go forward more than
thirty years or back more than two Cs, we won't get there."

Jilse looked at the other two. "Then we've got to find out what
happened, when, and stop it." He pulled out a strange weapon,
checking the power-read out. "Don't know about you two but I'm
going to fry anything that threatens _my_ future."

***

Clark sat up, his heart pounding.

"She's dead."

The dream faded, though the dread did not. He looked around, the
darkness hiding nothing. There was no threat; The apartment was
empty. The streets quiet even to his hearing.

He lay back, mind whirling, refusing to relinquish her memory.
He'd had the same dream most nights for the past three weeks; he
knew that the way things had worked out was inevitable, but that
did not ease the ache in his heart, or bring her any closer to
him.

Unable to sleep, the air was his only escape, taking solace in
being able to help others. But as much as bringing succour to the
needy gave his life purpose, that life was still empty.

Lana had not returned his calls which was understandable, but
painful; that option was closed to him.

Work at The Planet was no longer the way it had been. How can you
investigate corruption in the city when you are recognised more
often than the focus of your story? His friends acted the same,
but they could not hide everything, their eyes saying "you're
different, not like us". How often had the laughter ceased when
he made an appearance, no one wanting to appear trivial before
Superman.

This route was for the best, he knew, life had been so fearful in
hiding, and his sole would always bear the burden of knowing that
there were thousands who had less than even him due to his lack
of courage - how many lives had he saved in the past three weeks?
How many had been lost in the past ten years?

Sitting atop the Lexcorp building in Metropolis, impervious to
the bitter cold, Clark wondered how often _he_ had done the same.
It couldn't have been often; there would be no reason to savour
your sorrow if there was someone to love.

***

"Perry? What happened to Lois?"

Perry looked up, perplexed, at the man in front of him. Superman
was dressed strangely. A dark suit, white shirt; A figure from
the past.

"What's the matter, Sup... Clark? You look lost."

"I can't stop thinking about her. Lois that is. What happened to
her?"

"She returned to the alternate universe didn't she; That's what
you told me anyway. Not sure I believe half of it, but then, I'm
not sure I believe in _you_." There was a quick laugh.

Clark couldn't help but grin; Perry at least, had remained pretty
much unchanged.

"No. _Our_ Lois. You were shocked at her re- appearance, but... I
don't know, it's as though you always knew she was going to
return."

"Well, you know Clark, that is... was, Lois; You couldn't stop
her from anything, but she'd always be back with the scoop. She
had enough life for two people..." Perry's face fell,
momentarily, to be replaced by a false grin. "Still waiting for
her to burst in here with an exclusive and force me to change
tomorrow's lead at the last moment, again." Perry drifted off
into thought, returning with a shake of his head. He looked at
Clark. "You're serious about this aren't you?" He didn't wait for
a reply. "Three years ago. Nearly four now, she stumbled across
some story about gun runners operating out of the Congo; pretty
unusual - who runs guns out of the Congo? Anyway I couldn't stop
her from going, didn't even want to, but I managed to get her to
take someone along - Morris was his name, good man. They'd always
seemed to get along together, and I knew she would be reluctant
to work with anyone, never mind a stranger." Perry shook his head
sadly. "Came back in a box. What they could find of him anyway.
No messages, notes, nothing. No sound from Lois either. It was
like she'd vanished from the face of the planet. I sent five, six
people there over the next couple of months; No one could find
anything. The police in the area were no help, saying foreigners
should stay out of things that didn't concern them and that
no-one would ever see Lois Lane again. They were right too, if
you don't count..." Perry bowed his head. "Still gets to me, even
after all these years. She was a vital woman, I still can't
believe she vanished. She could talk God into giving her an
exclusive and would persuade the devil himself that black was
white if it suited her."

"I can believe that. But, if you couldn't find any sign of her,
why does she have a plot in the cemetery?"

"What are you talking about, Clark? Lois with the worms? I told
you, we heard nothing; The Lanes wouldn't get together for
Judgment day, never mind sticking a marker in the ground with no
body, and it wasn't The Planet. Lois doesn't have a grave; She's
not even legally dead yet."

Perry turned to hide a tear from his friend. "Still paying her
salary. When she returns I'll not have her penniless."

***

The Congo might be hours away for Lex Airlines, but it was a
matter of minutes for Superman.

Perry had told him where Lois had gone, close enough anyway;
There had been no body in the grave with Lois's name, though he'd
trembled like a leaf as his vision bored through the earth; his
relief had left him shaking for what seemed like hours. Perry had
said he'd try and find out who'd raised the stone, but in the
meantime, Superman had a mission.

The dense jungle overgrowth would have presented problems for the
normal explorer, but not for someone who could fly over the
treetops, looking down with penetrating super vision; any area
could be covered in moments. His first scan of the area showed
some signs of previous inhabitation, long since ravaged by the
voracious jungle. The nearest city of any size was over 30 miles
away - there did not seem to be much use in inquiring there.
Closer there were several small towns and villages, inhabited
mostly by poor farmers, hacking a living out of the unforgiving
jungle. No one that superman was able to find could give any
insight into what had happened in the past. That there had been
some sort of event was unquestioned; the people told stories of
many foreigners going missing - not all of whom were found again.
Fully half of the people were convinced that the events of three
years ago was the work of devils and that any questioning of them
was sure to bring destruction. He checked out the area where the
events were supposed to have occurred, but other than some
strange coloration's in the soil, and an uncomfortable resonance
from the flora, he could find nothing. Whatever events had taken
place were not going to be uncovered by questioning current
inhabitants or by searching the uncommunicative ground.

***

"Clark, what did you expect? It's been nearly four years after
all, and no one I sent was able to find out anything after four
weeks; the best report I got back said that the whole caboodle
had been shipped off into outer space, and everyone there was now
imprisoned with Lincoln and Hubbard. Couldn't print it though;
the man, Stepman, got to say all this disappeared as well. It
would have been fun for the Planet to print a UFO story, but I
wouldn't do so without corroboration."

"I don't know, Perry. I would have thought that someone would
have remembered something useful. All I got was talk of devils
and aliens. It's just so frustrating; There should have been some
trace of past events; I scanned the earth around the camp and
couldn't find any traces of bodies, no signs of a fight,
anything; just the strange soil and the odd plants. I could
almost believe that they _did_ get kidnapped by aliens except, if
they had, no doubt Lois would have been back with an exclusive."
Clark's grin could not hide the pain behind it.

"Never mind, son; I should hear back from my sources soon. If we
can get a lead on who planted that marker for Lois, we may get
some clues we can follow up."

***

Perry had to wait for several hours before he could speak to
Clark again; Whilst things had calmed down a lot with the arrival
of Superman on the scene, there were still a lot of guns on the
streets and enough people who were more than willing to use them.
Tempus may have caused the problem, or at least fanned its fires;
but he had not stuck around to sort things out. When Clark did
make an appearance, it was as Superman. Perry could never quite
figure out how to deal with the change, but with years of
experience with the paper he could bluff his way past anything;
It helped that he could see the change had been for the better.
In the past, Clark had always seemed a little wary, on edge -
_defensive_; Superman showed none of this - Superman seemed to
need to help as much as Metropolis needed helping.

"Cleaned up a few more bad guys?"

"Yes, though I don't know how many more the prisons can deal
with. Some of these are people I've picked up before, half the
time they seem to get put straight back on the streets - no room
at the penitentiary."

"We can only bring it to the public's attention, Clark; as long
as you write it up they'll learn about it. Circulation has never
been so good. Everybody wants to be rescued by the man of steel -
they also want to read what he has to say."

"Well, I doubt that having the most popular mayor in history as
editor had an adverse affect either; I still can't figure out how
they let you get away with spending so much time here, on top of
your duties as mayor."

Perry laughed. "Well I tell you - if they want you bad, they'll
let you do anything. I told them when I started that I'd work
nine to five as mayor; If they wanted more hours they'd need two
elections - one for the day job and one for the night. Once they
picked themselves up, they saw the light." Perry grinned from ear
to ear. "I sure do love the smell of fear in the boardroom."

Superman could not help but smile.

"Well..." Perry was cut off mid sentence by the strident cry of
the phone.

"What? Where? No, no, I'll send someone along right away. Hold
on."

Perry looked up. "Its my source, Harry, he's in a bad way..." He
glanced around. Superman had already gone, his hearing being more
than capable of picking up the voice on the other end of the
phone line.

***

"Lips" Harry, one-time thief and lifelong troublemaker was in
trouble himself. Nothing had gone right from the moment Perry had
asked him a simple question about a gravestone. Now it looked as
though the chance to work off a favour was not going to be so
easy after all. His hand reached down to his side again. The
blood was not flowing so fast now, though he didn't know if that
was good or bad. There was certainly enough of it pooled around.
He should have been more careful - the name and address the
graveyard plot was allocated to was too obvious. It could only
have been genuine or a trap. A trap he'd walked into with both
eyes closed. Harry was hoping that whoever Perry sent would get
to him quickly. He didn't think that he was supposed to survive
his "lesson", as they'd called it. Odd, though, that they hadn't
relieved him of his phone when they'd taken his gun.

Superman landed behind a gust of wind, blowing dust in Harry's
eyes. Blinking away the tears, Harry looked up. Silhouetted by
the mid-day sun, all he can see are a pair of blue clad legs and
someone standing with arms akimbo.

"Superman! Never thought I'd say it, but am I glad to see you."

"This time my help does not come free - you've got some questions
to ans..." Superman didn't get to finish his sentence. Too busy
concentrating on Harry, he'd not paid attention to other sounds
around him. A wave of fire rolled towards him from the barrel of
a strange weapon; Superman just had time to register the danger
before his reactions took over. He picked up Harry at superspeed
and flew out, through the closed door, splinters of wood
scattered before him. He stopped in the courtyard, carefully
lowering Harry to the ground, and headed back to the building to
apprehend his assailant.

Everything turned red-orange as he was engulfed in flame. The
incendiary cone was not powerful enough to kill him, but it was
enough to char his cape and suit, and the heat left him dazed and
reeling. Before Superman could recover from the onslaught another
weapon was brought to bear. A bullet, made of a material harder
than steel, slammed into his chest with incredible force,
spinning him round. Clark had rarely been physically hurt before
and the pain was unbelievable. The vacuum left by his supersonic
exit extinguished the last of the flames and made mini-whirlpools
from the smoking tarmac.

***

Chisjor lowered his weapon and rubbed his eyes. The man he'd shot
at did not reappear. He jumped down from the roof where he'd been
keeping watch, blase to the thirty foot drop, and moved over to
where Flix was poking the treacly black mess created by the
earlier flames with a booted foot. Flix had dropped the
incinerator, useless until it recharged, and had unlimbered a
plasma rifle like Jilse's.

"What the hell was that?" Chisjor could not keep the wonder out
of his voice, though Flix did not seem to notice the slip.

"I have no idea. I can't believe he - it - survived the I3 - I've
used this thing to burn into bank vaults. Where's Jilse?"

Jilse came jogging up. "Did you get him?"

"No, damn you! Why couldn't you have waited. We needed to find
out what's going on, not blast everything in sight."

"Someone comes flying in through the door, you want me to wait!
It's a good job I didn't - you saw how quickly he moved; If we'd
let him get close we wouldn't have stood a chance."

"Well you might be right this time; but next time, wait!"

Chisjor finished looking around and returned. "Don't know about
you guys, but my money's on whatever that was being involved
somehow. No way was that normal. I can handle the flying, but the
speed and... and..." Chisjor was at a loss for words. "There was
no mention of any such man in our briefing pack; he has to be a
new addition on the scene."

Flix turned to face him. "It's not enough though. To cause a time
event requires a time based paradox; for that you need a time
machine. Unless that thing can time travel, and there's been no
signs of any time travel for the past two weeks, he's not the
only part of this story."

They returned to the warehouse where they'd lain in ambush, and
prepared to leave.

"Right, Jilse - you hook up to whatever library services exist in
this time and find out what that was back there. See if you can
find out more about what brought that "Harry" person here in the
first place as well. Chisjor, you see if you can whip up some
more firepower. Look sharp people we've got about forty hours
left. I'll see if I can locate the chronal point where it all
started."

***

Clark arrived back at the Planet only minutes after he'd left.

Perry looked up to see a blackened figure standing on his carpet,
uniform in tatters and what looked like a bruise, visible through
one of the larger holes.

"Clark! By all the wives of Elvis, you look a mess. What
happened?"

"I have no idea, Perry. I went to pick up Harry, but there was
someone waiting there; They had some sort of energy weapon, and a
high-powered rifle." Superman rubbed the bruise, concern written
on his face. "I found Harry, but lost him again." Clark shook his
head. "I don't know who they were, or what weapons they were
using - I've never come across anything that could hurt me
before, except that Kryptonite stuff that Tempus had - but Harry
found _someone_ involved in this."

"Where is Harry?"

"He'd gone when I went back to look for him, and I'm not in any
state to search the city for him at the moment. He's probably
with some back-street doctor somewhere."

"So we're back to square one; nothing to go on."

"Not quite, Perry; Those weapons were not from this time - no one
has anything like that."

"You don't think it's Tempus again do you? I thought he was taken
back to the other universe with Lois?"

"I don't know, Perry, but I intend to find out. I left Tempus's
hideout to the police - I didn't want to do anything that
reminded me of Lois before - this time I have to look for
myself."

***

It was easy for Superman to gain access to the underground
hideout; The police knew a good thing when they saw one, and four
weeks of Superhelp had made them see quite a lot more criminals
than usual; They weren't going to stand in his way, in fact the
officer in charge handed him the keys personally.

The whole place had been thoroughly searched, but the people who
did the looking had relied on normal eyesight and investigative
procedure, procedure hampered by a tight budget and too few
staff. Deep sight soon revealed the sealed off sections under the
floor. It looked as though they'd been closed permanently, for
the only entrance was sealed with a huge concrete block, fixed
permanently in place with quick- drying cement.

Clark was as neat as possible breaking a hole through the floor,
but the concrete was thick; it was a ghost-like wraith that
descended into the basement, Superman's uniform hidden by a think
layer of concrete dust.

Inside was an Aladdin's cave of un-recovered gold and gems -
presumably from the other timeline - computer equipment and high
tech machinery. The tabletops were clean and tidy; everything in
its place. Something seemed _familiar_ to Clark, though he could
not place it - it was as though there was someone he knew
standing behind him. There was a disturbing background hum as
well, the unsettling harmonics drowning out everything else,
though the sound was not loud.

In one corner was an antique writing desk, the polished wood
inlaid with intricate whorls of rosewood and teak. On the desk
was a notebook.

The book was a diary. The cover was worn and dog- eared, the
pages travel stained and patchy in places. It seemed to start
with Tempus escaping from Jail. Clark checked the dates. This had
been a long time ago. The last entry was hurried, and detailed
the events from the TV debate. It said nothing about future
plans. Reading the diary took seconds, but revealed little;
Tempus appeared to have used the diary to record events, not
thoughts, and had not been keeping up very well for the few days
before he fled.

Clark put down the diary and looked around the other areas of the
basement. Whilst the working areas had been clean and tidy, the
living quarters showed signs of a rapid departure. Drawers had
been emptied and left open, items of clothing were scattered
around, discarded. Obviously Tempus had thought he would be
followed faster than he had been. The entrance had shown signs of
being partially sealed from within. Either there was an exit
further along, or...

The next room contained the answer in the form of a time machine.
There was a few month's worth of dust over everything, but it was
not so thick as to obscure the fact that there had been one other
machine in the room; apparently standing for some time on one
spot. The remaining machine was free from dust, though oddly the
ground beneath wasn't. Clark glanced around, but his were the
only footprints.

***

"You can't use the thing, Clark." Perry felt as though he'd said
it a thousand times. "How do you know that Tempus hasn't
booby-trapped it?"

"I don't, chief, but I have to take that chance; this appears to
be the only way I am going to be able to find out what happened
to Lois; I'll take any risk necessary to find her. Perhaps you
don't understand that, but it's the way it is."

Perry looked Clark in the eye. "I can understand that, Clark, I
once felt the same way about Alice. Do what you have to do and
I'll back you up. Just be careful, OK?"

"You know me, chief, careful is my middle name."

"Up until last week, I'd have believed you; I'm not so sure
anymore."

"Well I'll do my best. I don't think that Tempus had any time to
do any mischief, and I've got a funny feeling that he wouldn't
have done anything even if he'd had the chance. Deep down, I'm
not sure that he really wants me dead."

"Well don't count on that, Clark. You're the toughest thing I
know, but it doesn't mean you can't get hurt. Have you figured
out how to work the time machine yet?"

"Yeah; seems pretty simple. You set the date you want to go to,
standard Gregorian Calendar, put in the latitude and longitude of
your destination and press the button. He'd fitted some sort of
flying capability, so if you're not sure of where you're going to
arrive you can hover overhead to check things out. Oh, and
there's a lever too; Top labelled 1 and the bottom 2; I think I
can make a fairly good guess as to what that does. It was set to
2, and Tempus is originally from the other universe."

"Hmm, I wonder if that's it, two universes? Not sure I like the
idea of there being hundreds of alternate universes out there;
too much room for things to go wrong."

" But think of all the things that could go right too, chief. It
doesn't matter anyway - we only appear to have two choices and
until I've found _our_ Lois I'm not going to look for any
others."

Perry smiled. "Life's too complicated as it is, huh?"

***

Clark sat down in the plush leather seats. The whole thing had a
peculiarly baroque feel about it, and he wondered why Tempus had
designed his this way. He could understand H G Well's machine
looking like this, but someone from the far future? That was
unimportant though, for the moment. Clark glanced at the
controls. He'd pre-set one of the memory buttons with a time ten
minutes in the future, and had set the main controls to the
current time, and a nearby location. The lever had been changed
to "1". There was one person who knew what had happened in the
Congo three years ago, and Superman was going to ask her a few
questions.

***

1996, Original Reality

Lois threw down the documents.

"Damn!"

She buried her head in her arms, taking a few moments rest.
Bittersweet memories played across her mind, unresolved. She
could almost feel Clark's presence, reaching out across the
light-years, just as it had when he had left her.

A sudden gust of wind shook her from her reverie, and she turned
expecting to see Clark, his arrival scattering her papers as it
so often had. Breeze from the open window fluttered the curtains,
the cool air a welcome addition to the warm apartment. She shook
her head. Clark was beyond reach on New Krypton. Every day
brought with it new hope, but Lois did not really expect to see
him back for some time; once again their story seemed to be
destined for tragedy. She turned back to the documents and
gasped.

"Clark!" She was out of her chair and in his arms faster than she
believed possible. "Clark, you've returned." She tilted her head
up to kiss him, arms going behind his head to draw him to her.
She was surprised at the resistance. Looking into his eyes, Lois
saw both longing and concern.

"Lois, I... I think you'd better sit back down."

Lois drew back, pulling his hands with her, to gain a wider view,
her eyes questioning.

"What is it, Clark? Is something wrong? I wasn't... I didn't
think..." She moved back in to hug him. "...It's been too long."

Clark pushed her gently away.

"Lois, I'm not who you think I am... I mean, I am, but..."

Lois could only stare blindly for an eternal second, before she
felt her legs weakening. Groping behind for her chair, Lois
carefully sat down, unable to speak; understanding in her eyes.

"Lois, what is wrong? Has something happened to Clark? _Your_
Clark, I mean? Where is he?" He ruthlessly quelled the jealous
surge in his breast.

"Oh, Clark." The cry was one of despair. "Why does this keep
happening to us?" Lois bowed her head.

Clark felt her sorrow as though it were his, but the conflict in
him left him unable to do anything but stand in mute agony. The
woman he loved was hurting; how could he not bleed? But he also
knew that Lois had given her heart to another.

"Lois, if I can help I will. You know that. What's happened?"

Lois sat down again, her pacing having relieved most of her
tension.

"There is nothing to be done, Clark - we... Clark cannot discard
his principals, and that is part of the man I love. Even if I
cannot thank his people for what they have done to us, I will not
regret that he is the man he is - they will never have his love
the way I do." Clark could only watch as Lois wept, though he
desperately wanted to comfort her.

Lois sniffed, and wiped her eyes, her pride winning over sorrow.
Temporarily.

"Clark. You came here for a reason, what is it?" Lois had
determination in her eyes.

It was Clark's turn to pace. "I tried to, Lois, but I could not
forget you. You changed my life, and your leaving created a void
without hope. I tried to let my purpose fulfill me, but... but as
much as it does, my life is still empty. You have shown me what
it is to _live_. Before, it was simply moving from day to day."

Lois stood, moving to hold his hand, but Clark gently pulled
away, not wanting the distraction.

"When you visited my world, you came across..." Clark paused.
"...signs that you had no counterpart; a gravestone etched with
your name, Perry's reaction, the things Wells said. It did not
occur to me at the time, but you did not show any particular
distress or shock at this; I thought about my own situation and
decided that were our roles reversed, I would feel as though part
of me had been lost..."

"The whole thing was a shock to me, Clark, at first I thought it
was _me_ lying there and that I was dead; I suppose the date on
the stone should have given it away. After Herbert explained it
to me, I never got a chance to consider it. I suppose... thinking
about it now... I know that _I_ could never accept my own death,
I must only assume that she, Lois, felt the same way." Lois shook
her head. "You always see yourself as being the centre of things.
It is not nice to be shown how blithely the world can continue
without you."

"But that is it exactly, Lois. _I_ cannot continue without you -
If I have to accept that you cannot live in my world, then I must
do as I can to help myself."

"But Clark, I - _she_ is dead, you can't change that. Can you?"

"I checked the grave, Lois; there was no body there, not even a
coffin. Perry knows nothing about it, and I had to rescue someone
asking questions about the gravestone."

Lois looked up. She could see a story as well as Clark could.

"How about her family? It could be a cenotaph; Perry might not
have been told - not if her father is anything like mine was
three years ago."

"There's no church records, I checked - the plot had been
reserved for many years; probably why it was chosen."

"Well, that aside, even if the grave is a false one, where has
she been for three years? It was 1996 when I got to your world,
the grave said 1993, and Perry thought I'd been gone for that
long."

"Exactly - where were you? You remembered the story that Perry
talked about - gun running in the Congo; The universes are very
different, but there are a lot of similarities; there must be for
there to be two Planets with me, Perry and the others working at
both. This event could well be almost identical, except that you
returned from one, but not the other."

"But, Clark, how will this help... of course you have a time
machine, like Tempus's - but can you change time? It's been three
years - one person may not be much in the scheme of things, but
even so the changes that person could make... What about the
effect it would have on the way things are - were?" Lois was
unsure what to think; her heart wanted to save "herself", her
mind knew that such thoughts could have unforeseen consequences.

"Lois, I have to believe that I can do something, what use living
otherwise? Tempus certainly believed that he could change the
past to affect the future; you told me yourself that he tried to
kill Clark as a child. You affected me dramatically, and you were
not from my universe, an effect from out of time. Besides, your
story to Perry may well be true... Lois may well be in a mission
somewhere with amnesia." Clark gave a rueful smile at that
unlikely possibility.

"Don't talk to me about amnesia. I wish I could forget all about
it." Lois looked up quickly. "I didn't say that." She gave a
tentative smile at Clark's puzzlement, but did not explain. "So
how can I help?"

"Tell me what happened in the Congo; I don't think I will be able
to change things twice, so I want to do things properly the first
time." He smiled. "So to speak." Clark resumed pacing. "If I go
back in time to see what happened and then fail to change it,
what would happen if I were then to try to change it again?"

"Don't, Clark, I'm getting a headache thinking about wasn't-will
be and maybe-ifs." Lois shook her head. "But it's pointless
anyway; nothing did happen in the Congo. Nothing dangerous
anyway."

Clark had to laugh. "Lois, you wouldn't know danger if it bit
you."

"Well, OK, perhaps there was some danger, but I was never in
_real_ trouble."

"Nothing? How about Morris? What happened to him?"

"Morris? Who's Morris?"

"Perry said that you took someone along with you; a photographer
called Morris."

"No, Clark; you know me... perhaps you don't - I wouldn't work
with _anyone_ before Clark. I don't recall anyone of that name
working at the Planet though. It was four years ago, but I think
I'd remember."

"That ruins any chance of figuring out what happened to Lois
then; In my universe Morris was killed and Lois never returned -
If you were never in any real danger we can't really compare the
two."

"What are you going to do?"

"If I can't find out second hand what happened, I shall just have
to go back and find out myself."

***

Lois stared blankly at the empty spot. She could still feel his
presence. Finally snapping out of it, she could only shake her
head, gentle tears damp on her cheek.

"Good luck." was all she could whisper.

The phrase hung in the air like a bad omen.

***

1996, Alternate

Flix took the DataAssist from Jilse and fast wound to the
beginning of the report.

"Busy person then, this _Superman_. He's been the headlines for
three months. Before that nothing. Not many facts; none of the
papers have actually come out with what he's capable of, though
his achievements are significant. They don't say much about where
he's from either, other than to say he used to work for The Daily
Planet before suddenly revealing himself. They seem a bit sketchy
about that, even The Planet, though it suggests that he's not
mobile; It would seem as though his first appearance was at a
debate between the current mayor and his opponent, though there
appears to be a video of him rescuing some woman from a little
while before that. Why did he suddenly choose to take an interest
in things, Jilse? Did you get that figured out?"

"Nope, he's made very few public comments, except to say that..."
Jilse had to sneer... "'...I'm here to help.' He still writes for
the Planet, though not as frequently - presumably too busy out
saving the world." There was a pause whilst he reviewed his own
information. "Something interesting though; He first turned up at
the debate with the woman from that video - then she vanishes.
The whole thing was televised - I've included the file for you;"
He gestured at the PDA. "That woman, a man called Tempus - he was
one of the debaters - and the man with the bomb all vanished not
long after. The inquiry mentions their disappearance, though it
seems to have been played down - probably because one of the
witnesses was the mayor. Maybe that's something to work on?"

"Damn right it is. I'll come back to this later. Now, how about
weapons?"

Chisjor dropped a heavy gun on the table and smiled.

"Well, we should stand a bit more of a chance this time; I've
managed to put together a few extras." He gestured towards the
worksurface where he'd been gathering equipment.

"I've unshipped the stasis field projector. It's not quite up to
TP standards, but theoretically it can contain a small nuclear
explosion - don't see why it can't hold even this Superman. I've
modified the rifles to give a higher rate of fire; they're not
designed for it, so don't count on them lasting too long. I've
also got a giga-laser, which will probably work, and a shock
inducer, which probably won't." he grinned an evil grin. "But
it's fun, so I'll take it." Serious again he continued. "Finally
I've reprogrammed the recall function of your TCs; should be a
lot easier to effect a physical displacement which will counter
his speed somewhat. Don't know why that wasn't done long ago."

Flix picked up the laser thoughtfully.

"I remember using one of these a while back - always used to
think they were stupidly overpowered." He shook his head. "Let's
hope they're enough." He put the gun down and continued. "OK,
I've looked into tracking the chronal point. I think I've found a
couple, which is inconvenient. On the other hand, we should only
need to deal with one, which means we've more choice - if we can
figure which is the easiest to go for." He picked up his own
computer, referring to it.

"The first one, _subjectively_, was about four months ago. Slap
bang on the date of that debate we were discussing. Fairly
obvious that one; whoever this Superman is, he will have a big
effect on the future; more importantly he's obviously a
temporally induced phenomenon - his presence caused the whole
problem so he must have been introduced out of time, even if he's
been around for a while. The second _subjective_, but the _first_
chronological point is about three years ago. I don't need to
spell this out for you; we've got a time traveller on our hands -
this happened _after_ the debate subjectively. The final one is
at the boundaries of our temporal node, about 2030 - obviously
the one that finally does for us since the effects will easily
extend to 2300 or further; it appears to be a continual effect
over a period of a couple of weeks, and is probably the least
amenable to change. We wouldn't have time that close to
resolution to do anything anyway, so we won't be attempting that
one." Flix tossed the computer onto the table. "Jilse, did you
find out anything about that woman? From the clip she was pretty
striking, and in that man's arms - probably a connection there."

Jilse looked up. "Yeah, I picked up some info on her; haven't had
time to review it yet, hang on." He grabbed up the DataAssist
from where Flix had dropped it and tapped a few buttons, asking
the computer to summarise the data.

"Hmm not as much as there should be; it looks as though there's
some missing. The girl goes by the name of Lois Lane. There were
a couple of stories about her after the debate; she was a
reporter for the same paper as Superman but..." Jilse swore.
"This isn't the first time she's disappeared; Three years ago,
something, doesn't say what, happened in the Congo and she
vanished."

Chisjor spoke up. "So she's probably the one we want... turns up,
does what she needs to do and vanishes. Rather sloppy though; you
can't leave like that too often without being noticed by
someone."

"Like us you mean." Jilse smiled.

Chisjor nodded. "I don't know why the TP haven't caught up with
her though, disrupting time like this they must have had plenty
of warning. Unless _she's_ TP?"

"No way they would let one of theirs be this messy. I can only
think that they _want_ these changes, which is not good - but why
now, and why not do it themselves? There must be some other
aspect we're missing."

Flix waved them down. "Enough of this - we don't have time to
figure these things out. There's not enough time to track down
this 'Superman', which would probably be the best solution since
he's almost certainly the focus, so we're just have to take a
gamble that she's the one that's causing the changes and take her
out as soon as possible. I'll wager this Lois Lane character has
gone back to finish whatever she started here. I don't think we
know enough about the situation to take her out at or near the
time of the debate; we'd probably end up doing something on TV
and we can't afford that. So get out your jungle gear guys, we're
going to the Congo, and we're due to arrive about four years
ago."

***

Part 2 1993, Alternate

Lois Lane stepped off the plane onto solid ground once again. She
was already sweating and wiped her brow with the back of her
hand. A bag landed on the ground besides her, raising a cloud of
dust.

"Watch it, Morris." She turned back to the plane, shading her
eyes from the noon sun, blinding even through her sunglasses.

Charlie Morris stepped through the plane door, stooping to get
through. He was burdened with several bags, and seemed to be
suffering from the heat even more than Lois was.

"Sorry, Lois, didn't realise you were so close."

Lois grunted acknowledgment and turned back to view the
surroundings.

"What a dump. I hope this lead doesn't turn out to be a cold
trail."

"Wouldn't be the first time for me, Lois, but somehow I don't
think that will be a problem - you always seem to strike lucky.
If you want to call it that."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I don't know - it's just that you seem to spend most of your
time dodging bullets. Not my idea of fun."

"Don't be such a wimp, Charlie. We're going to be in- and-out so
fast we'll be returning on the flight we came in on; get the
scoop and have a write up by Friday. I'll even let you do the
typing." She turned her head back at him so he could see her "you
know I'm right" smile.

"Can it, Lois." Charlie shook his head. Lois was great to look
at, but the price was way too high.

They picked up the bags and headed for the nearby road. There
didn't seem to be any airport terminal. The strip of dirt they'd
landed on was the runway for the nearby area, but there was
little call for it and there was no customs or facilities, though
there was a small building that apparently served as a control
tower and booking office. Somehow Charlie didn't think that much
of the outgoing cargo was legal.

They had arranged for a jeep in advance. The price was
outrageous, unsurprisingly. It was waiting for them when they got
to the road, which was gratifying since, by some miracle, the
plane was several hours early. The driver was asleep, feet
propped out of the window, his hat over his face. Lois tapped her
foot for a couple of seconds, and then coughed loudly. There was
no response. More foot tapping ensued. Charlie sighed and shook
the man's leg. He woke with a start, swiping his hat away and
sitting up. He calmed a little when he saw the reporters and
handed over the keys without a word, apparently recognising them
from a description. Either that or he was very trusting. His
responsibilities over, the man placed his hat firmly on his head
and trudged off towards the horizon. From his walk, a long way to
go, and plenty of time to get there.

Lois shook her head and tossed the keys to Charlie.

Charlie sighed. It was going to be a long week.

***

Clark had decided that it would be best to go undercover. Having
Superman appear in 1993, three years before his first public
outing, might cause problems, but sightings of a flying man could
be assigned to the same bin as UFOs. He'd found out the date of
Lois's arrival in the Congo and decided to arrive the day before.
That would give him a chance to scout things out a little,
without having to wait too long for Lois to show up.

When he arrived the first thing he did was to hide the time
machine. He had considered leaving it somewhere in Metropolis,
rather than risk the local climate, but decided that it would be
best to have it nearby in case of need - however fast he could
fly, it still took time to cover distance, and he knew no one in
Metropolis in this time anyway.

Having arranged a hotel room and dropped off his few bags, Clark
set out to find out what was happening.

***

Lois led the way, Charlie struggling to catch up; he'd meant to
stand his ground and insist that Lois carry her share of the
baggage, the caring nineties man should stick up for his rights
after all, but somehow reason never seemed to work properly
around Lois. All his careful thought and arguments meant nothing
when Lois's unspoken assumption was that Charlie would carry
everything. He could not even think of how to complain about this
- Lois had a way about her that defied normal thought.

They were heading through the only road in the town, the few
shops and houses making up the largest settlement in the area.
Charlie's silence was not martyred, and in his mood he almost
missed the man who stepped out from around side of their hotel.
Charlie was too tired to take in many details, noting only that
the man was handsome and self assured; That and the brief flash
of recognition as his eyes glanced across the two of them. No;
Charlie realised that the man had recognised Lois, not him. The
look was there only for an instant, and then the man was gone,
behind them. Charlie looked behind. The man didn't do the same.
Charlie struggled to catch up with Lois.

"Lois," he paused for breath. "Lois, that man we just passed - do
you know him?"

Lois glanced back at Charlie. "Man? What man?"

Charlie sighed. Perhaps he'd be better off as a librarian. Books
weren't great on conversation, but they weren't very demanding
either. "That man we just passed recognised you, Lois, but hid it
pretty quickly. I thought you said you'd never been here
before."

"I haven't." The voice was petulant.

"Well, I think we should contact the office; I don't like this."

"Relax, Charlie; I've never been here before, and there is not
even the slightest possibility that anyone here knows me. I've
only just got onto this story. He was probably just captivated by
my winning charm." Lois gave him her smile. Charlie had to admit
there was some possibility to that - he grinned, careful not to
let Lois see - if he was smiling at her "winning charm", the man
obviously didn't know Lois.

***

Clark had searched a thirty mile radius from where Lois's plane
was due to land; He'd located what appeared to be the
gun-runner's camp, but that aside he'd noticed nothing unusual.
There had been two camps that he could find, though they appeared
to be unrelated. Some of the equipment at one of the camps looked
a little odd, but that was nothing unusual for this sort of area.
Some of it no doubt dated back to before the first world war.

Once he'd mapped out the local area in his head, he couldn't
really do anything but wait. Lois wasn't due to arrive for
several hours, but when she did, no harm would come to her whilst
he was alive. He decided to do one more scout around, just to
make sure.

***

Lois carefully poked her head round the huge tree bole, idly
brushing her hair back. There was a quiet _snap_ behind her, and
she spun, finger to her lips. "Shhhh". Charlie thought that that
was probably louder than the twig snapping, but decided it would
be wiser not to say anything. He waved down her frantic signals
to be quiet and whispered to her.

"Quiet, Lois? You're making more noise than I am." He checked his
camera; The humiliation of losing a critical shot was something
to be experienced once only. Charlie had suffered once, and never
again. The camera was ready, as he knew it was, but it never hurt
to check, especially since he'd barely had time to unpack it
before Lois had hurried them off. He hadn't wanted to come on
this trip, but Perry had a silver tongue when he wanted
something, and the way he'd phrased it had made a trip with Lois
seem like heaven. Charlie hadn't worked with Lois for a long
time, and now he remembered why. She _was_ the best, but... He
sighed and moved into position, removing the lens cap from his
camera. Lois hadn't said anything more, which was out of
character since she always liked to get the last word.

Charlie peered around the other side of the tree. What he saw
wasn't what he'd been expecting.

There was a small clearing ahead, as Lois had said there would
be, and there were a large number of packing crates in various
states of assembly or disassembly, which was also to be expected.
What Charlie had not expected was to find it looking, in part,
like a battleground. There were at least three men dead, lying in
pools of blood, and there were several others either prostrate
with agony or clutching wounds of one kind or another. It looked
as thought the fight had been short and bloody, and for some
reason had appeared to end in a stalemate. There appeared to be
two sides; five remaining on one, six on the other though one of
those did not appear to be carrying a weapon. Those that were
armed were carrying machine guns and were standing in awkward
poses that seemed to suggest both frozen rabbits and striking
snakes at once. Charlie swung his camera off his shoulder as
quickly as possible and began to shoot, the whirring of the
camera almost inaudible against the background noise of the
jungle.

The first reel of film used, Charlie turned to look for Lois
whilst reloading. He almost dropped the camera when he couldn't
see her. He spun around. Nothing. Facing the clearing again he
suppressed a groan when he saw Lois edging forward in what he
judged to be a pretty good leopard crawl. The two sides were
talking, but too quietly for the words to be distinguished
against the sounds of squawking birds and chittering critters. It
appeared as though Lois wanted to hear what was being said.

***

Clark banked slowly round the edge of the perimeter he'd defined
for himself and decided to head back to the airport to follow
Lois in. He'd checked out the whole area several times and there
was nothing of note except in the small clearing where the
gun-runners were camped. There were quite a few of them, but he
felt that even without his help Lois would have managed to sneak
in and out; they were a disorganised and undisciplined bunch. The
air had been rather tense, but that didn't worry him. If they all
shot each other before Lois arrived, so much the better.

Clark was careful as he approached the airstrip; there was no
radar, but it wouldn't do for someone to spot him. No doubt,
given the area, any such story would be dismissed out of hand,
but there was no point in taking chances. That meant landing
about half a mile away and walking the rest of the way. Even if
he were willing to risk being seen in the air, he certainly did
not want to scare the pilot of the plane and possibly cause a
crash. From what the other Lois had told him, Tempus at least
believed that it was possible to change the future by altering
the past - that was what he was here for after all.

Clark judged that he was about ten minutes early. The other Lois
had told him that _her_ Clark did not wear a watch because it
would be too obvious a similarity between his two alter-egos. He
suspected that if his own experience was anything to go by, a
watch was unnecessary anyway. He'd always had an un-erring sense
of time, and could guess the time accurate to about five
minutes.

Twenty minutes later he was beginning to get worried. He headed
for the main building on the site. There was no control tower as
such, but flights were tracked to enable deliveries to be picked
up. It was likely that the plane Lois was coming in on would be
carrying cargo other than the two reporters.

Bantu wasn't his best language, and the chances were that the
dialect spoken would not be one he was familiar with, so he was
pleased to find that the sleepy man he found in the building
spoke French, though he showed a marked reluctance to do anything
- the post was clearly a sinecure, and anything that involved
work, however minor was definitely to be avoided.

"No. There's nothing due in for two days now - some postal cargo
and medical supplies I think." The man gave a realistic though
obviously false yawn. "I suggest that you come back then if you
want anything from the flight."

"No, you don't understand. There's a flight due in today; From
America. I'm supposed to meet some people coming in on it." That
wasn't quite a lie; He was supposed to meet Lois because he
wanted to, he just hadn't told anyone.

The man gave Clark a poisonous look, and slowly levered himself
up out of the chair where he'd been sleeping. He pulled forward a
logbook and checked through it, mouthing the words as he drew his
finger down the lines.

He shook his head. "There you go; came in earlier today, in the
morning. Not my shift. Left about..." he looked up at the old
wall clock, ticking loudly above the door. "...about four, five
hours ago."

"It can't have done." Clark's voice was pleading. "It wasn't due
in till ten minutes ago. Flights are never early." Well most
flights involving him were, but his experience with commercial
airlines had not been for the better.

"Well my friend, this one was. The book says that they loaded up
early, everyone was there so the pilot took off." He looked up,
an easy grin on his face. "Private airfield. They can leave when
they want." He shook his head. "Sorry, looks like _you're_ late
this time. Now if you don't mind, I have lots to do." Without
waiting for a reply, the man lay pointedly back in his chair and
pulled a hat over his head.

The man hurriedly grabbed it off a moment later; The sudden gust
of wind was gone as quickly as it had come, apparently taking the
American with it. Crossing himself, the man carefully put the hat
back over his face and lay back in the chair.

Clark didn't care whether he'd been seen or not, he was too
concerned about Lois. Perry had mentioned nothing about the plane
being early. On the other hand it had sounded like a spur of the
moment thing; If neither Lois or Charlie returned alive then
there would have been no one to tell him. Four hours was a long
time though. He couldn't see Lois taking that long to settle into
the hotel they had to have booked. No doubt she'd be out of there
as quickly as possible to check out the gun-runner's camp -
knowing Lois she'd already got all the details and was one her
way back to the States. Clark knew that things didn't work that
way though, and moreover, he knew that they _hadn't_ happened
that way.

A flock of birds were scattered by Superman's vortex as it swept
over them, pulling not a few feathers loose. The clearing was but
seconds away for Superman, but Clark was concerned
nether-the-less; _something_ had happened to Lois in the past, he
would never forgive himself if he had had the chance to change
things and he'd blown it.

***

Charlie held his breath, hardly daring to move as Lois crept
closer. His heart beat frantically against his ribs, loud in his
ears. He carefully re-loaded the camera and prepared it. He might
well be worrying for Lois, but he probably should be concerned
for himself in case he missed a shot that Lois wanted, and no
doubt if she alerted anyone _he'd_ be the one shot - Lois would
just give them a _look_ and walk off.

Lois had crept to within about twenty five feet of the two sides,
apparently well hidden by the dense undergrowth. In her
characteristic way, she brushed her hair back from her ears and
leaned further forward.

Charlie slowly released his breath when it appeared as though
Lois was not going to get any closer, and raised his camera. His
heart nearly leapt out of his throat when there was a cry behind
him and he felt something prod into his back. Frantic he spun
around, losing his balance in the process. As he fell to the
ground he saw two of the gun-runners behind him. One had just
called out to those in the clearing, the other had jabbed him
with the barrel of his machine gun. The one who'd called out was
waving other people over, and pointing to Lois. Charlie saw one
of the men reach out for his camera and instinctively pulled it
back, fending him off with his free hand. Charlie saw a slow
snarl creep across the man's face as he stepped back and brought
his gun into line with Charlie's head. He saw the man's finger
tighten on the trigger as he heard Lois cry out behind him.

***

Clark was heading for the clearing as fast as he could, sensing
that something was wrong. He heard a woman cry out. He'd
recognise that voice anywhere. _Lois_. Straining mightily he
increased speed and flashed through the clearing at supersonic
speed, his eyes picking out the two sides in the clearing, four
people off to one side with three others converging. One of the
four was Lois, though she did not appear to be in immediate
danger despite her cry. It looked as though she'd spotted one of
the men about to fire on someone lying on the ground.

All the man saw as he pulled the trigger was a brown flash. He
looked down at his stinging hands, eyes wide at the red welts
already appearing. His gun had simply vanished from his hands. He
wondered what had happened to the bullet, since he'd heard the
gun fire it's first shot.

Charlie shuddered as he realised how close he'd come to dying.
He'd seen the man pull the trigger, had _thought_ he'd heard the
sound of the gun firing, even if he shouldn't have heard a shot
aimed at him; the gun's barrel was pointed straight at his
forehead. His breath came out in shudders as he tried to pull
himself together. It wasn't over yet.

Lois could only gape. She'd called out when she saw Charlie about
to be shot, knowing the futility of it, but unable to help
herself. Now she didn't know what to think. Something had flashed
past her eyes, and after she'd blinked the gun was gone from the
man's hand.

***

Clark crumpled the gun in one hand, and squashed the hot bullet
in his other. He flung both away into the jungle, a danger to no
one now. He spun round to head back. Lois was still in trouble.

He flashed in towards the clearing, eyes darting around to scan
for any threat. He nearly stopped as one of the men came into
view. Clark knew him, and he should have been locked up in
another universe.

Tempus was back.

About to descend, Clark was suddenly struck by a strange force;
it felt like nothing he'd encountered before and stopped him dead
in the air. He struggled against its invisible clutches but
whilst he was making progress it was too slow. He felt himself
being drawn to the ground.

***

Suddenly a voice cried out, the resonant tones radiating
command.

"Stop!" Silence descended as everyone halted in shock. Lois
turned to see who'd called out and saw a tall, handsome man with
arrogant eyes, incongruously dressed in a suit, cuff one of the
gun-runners to the ground when the man did not follow his command
instantly. The man a had large handgun, apparently no match for
the other's machine gun, but the man fell back cowed,
none-the-less. She slowly stood, there being no point in trying
to hide any longer, and looked around. For all that her situation
appeared to be perilous, she felt strangely calm. Everyone else
appeared to be looking around in as much surprise as she was, so
Lois scanned for an opportunity to escape. Her hopes sank when
she laid eyes on Charlie; He was being dragged to his feet by one
of the men who'd discovered them; from the spreading bruise on
his cheek, he'd been struck at least once. Not all the men
surrounding Charlie were concentrating on him or the man who'd
called out though; two of them were staring open-mouthed at
something in the air off to one side. Lois turned to try and see
what they were staring at, and couldn't help but stare herself as
she caught a glimpse through the trees of what appeared to be a
man hanging in mid-air surrounded by a glowing blue field. She
doubted that anyone actually in the clearing would be able to see
the same sight, but hesitated to point it out; anything unusual
might be an opportunity.

Before Lois had a chance to do anything else she was flung to the
ground by a titanic explosion, the shock wave following a
blinding flash and fireball. When she recovered the man was gone,
apparently taking with him a large portion of the jungle. The
people in the clearing, not having been as close to the blast
were already back on their feet, some of those closer than Lois
were still stunned.

Lois shook her head to clear it. There were three more men in the
clearing now, and they were headed in her direction. The look in
their eyes was not pleasant.

***

Clark clutched his head as consciousness returned. His whole body
felt as though a thousand soldiers had been marched over it, and
he guessed that his head felt the way many of his friends felt
after a night out drinking.

He blinked his eyes open, everything snapping crisply into focus.
He was lying in a clearing burnt out of the forest; from the heat
still radiating from the ground, it had been burnt recently. He
levered himself off the ground and tried to stand up. He had been
hit by some sort of explosion, and was still a bit groggy. He was
stopped halfway by a forcefield, apparently the same as the one
that had held him earlier, though this time it was not visible
until he bumped into it causing it to flicker, shimmers mapping
out the points where it touched him. Not ready to force the
issue, he sat back down and looked around.

Four men had risen at his movement and were approaching. Three of
them were holding strange weapons, none like any he'd seen
before, and each different. The fourth held what looked like a
small computer and a remote control device. It was the last man
who spoke when the four were arranged around Superman. They
seemed reluctant to approach too closely, though whether or not
that was because of him or the forcefield Superman did not know.

"Who are you and why are you interfering?" the man's voice was
high pitched and it grated on Superman's ears. It was also
emotionless and cold.

"Perhaps I could ask the same of you?" Superman looked around.
None of the men showed any interest in this, no anger, irritation
or any other emotion.

"You are an anachronism and should be removed. Before we do that
we must know who you are, why you are interfering and where you
came from. Tell us."

Superman folded his arms.

The men did not move or make any comment. They seemed happy to
wait till the end of time. Which perhaps they were. Superman,
however, had other concerns. The fate of Lois was uncertain. He
was not going to get this close and fail.

"If I am out of my time, you most certainly are also; You can
hardly claim that this..." he waved his arms around to indicate
the forcefield. "...is current technology, and those weapons
you're carrying..."

"Constrain your replies to match the question."

Superman was fed up with the conversation, and he didn't have
time to continue anyway. Bunching his muscles he leapt up as hard
as possible, trying to break through the forcefield with brute
strength.

"Cease your struggles. They are futile. The containment field can
hold..." the man broke off, for the first time showing some
emotion, though it flickered so briefly across his features that
it was impossible to decide what it had been. At his words,
Clark's anger had been fuelled further and gritting his teeth he
strained harder. Without warning there was an electronic screech
from the remote-control and simultaneously the field had
vanished. With it, so did Superman. With nothing holding him back
all his energy was suddenly released. He had a vague sense of
some of the weapons firing at the spot where he'd been held,
moments too late.

***

The man holding the remote glanced at it. The generator had shut
down, overloaded. It would take time to repair. He spoke without
looking at the others.

"I do not know what that was. Have you encountered such before?"

Each in turn indicated that they had not. "No".

Satisfied, the first man continued.

"It was presumably a construct, though I have never encountered
one so powerful before. It is possible that it is part of the
disruption. Officer 378, you will find any references to such a
device, in this or any other time. Officer 379 and Officer 413,
you will repair the containment field. I will remove the other
anachronisms."

Without a further word the man handed the remote to one of the
men in exchange for the man's weapon. Calibrating it, he
activated a device on his belt and levitated into the air, before
turning and heading off.

***

Lois looked at the men approaching. They did not appear to be
part of any of the groups arranged in the clearing, being dressed
differently if nothing else. Each wore a solid band around their
necks, metallic looking, though coloured black. They were
carrying what appeared to be weapons, though of what kind Lois
did not know. Strange knobs and spikes protruded at odd angles,
deceiving the eye. Lois, however was not concerned with
appearances at this point. The men approached to within ten
meters and then as one raised their weapons, apparently unworried
that everyone else in the clearing did likewise. Many of the
watchers appeared to be confused as to who exactly were their
enemies as they nervously moved to try and cover several targets
at once.

The centre man of the three, a tall slender figure, spoke first.

"Well, Officer. Would you like to arrest us before we shoot you?"
This provoked amusement from the other two. The first smiled
wryly at the others before turning back. Lois shook off her
surprise and opened her mouth to speak, but was cut off before
she could begin.

"No, I don't think we need to hear you go through the motions
after all." the man smiled. "Goodbye, officer."

Lois prepared to run, frightened as she'd never been before - the
man in front of her gave every indication of being about to shoot
her down in cold blood. From his words he had apparently mistaken
her for someone else, but wasn't going to give her time to tell
him that.

He was halted by a shot. Looking around he spotted the man who'd
stopped the fighting earlier.

The tall man spoke angrily. "Keep out of this, _static_. This is
none of your concern."

"Oh but I think it is. This woman has plagued me far too often to
allowed a quick death. I won't let you deprive me of my
pleasure."

Lois had had enough.

"Will everyone stop accusing me of being someone I'm not. You!"
she indicated the leader of the three newcomers. "I'm no law
official, so you can stop pointing that weapon at me. And you!"
turning to the suited man. "Whoever you are, I've never laid eyes
on you before, so I don't see how I can have plagued you for as
long as you seem to think I have."

"Come now, Lois." This was spoken with mock reproach. "You mean
to say you _still_ don't remember me." The man's smile said that
not only did he know that Lois had never seen him before, but
that he was going to play this game anyway. "After all this time.
A man could get quite depressed."

The tall man turned to one of the others.

"Jilse. Any of these morons important to the timeline?"

The bulkiest of the three men lowered his weapon long enough to
locate a strange instrument from an inside pocket. He waved it
around, appeared disappointed with the result, shook it, and
tapped the screen.

"Can't tell, Flix. Either they all are or none are. Something is
interfering with the readings." He nodded towards Lois. "We know
she's viable; The rest? I say waste 'em, we don't have time for
this crap."

The laughter was long and loud. "I like your style, little man."
Brushing down his suit the man seemed blissfully unconcerned with
the threat. "Get right down to the point. Lay the issues out for
all to see." He snapped his fingers.

Half of the men in the clearing, apparently waiting for just this
signal, opened fire. Lois responded without thought, dropping to
the ground and looking around to be sure not to miss anything.
She'd been in similar situations more times than she liked to
think about, and knew that if you blinked you'd never straighten
out what actually happened. She wasn't sure looking made any
difference in this case though; She could _see_ what was
happening, but it didn't make it any more understandable.

The three men were still standing, unmoving, in the hail of
bullets. Each was surrounded by a patchwork of blue splashes as
the bullets hit _something_ and stopped dead. Every now and then
there'd be a flash of sparks as one of the bullets ricocheted off
the protective field.

This display of wizardry seemed to settle the issue for the
remainder of the people in the clearing, from both sides; They
all decided that the three were their real enemies and opened
fire as well, perhaps hoping that shear volume would suffice
where smaller numbers had failed. This seemed to galvanise the
men into action. The largest of the three raised his weapon, long
and thin, the end distorted with off-shooting spikes. A single
pencil thin beam of light twinkled into existence, cutting the
man who'd first opened fire in half. The man fell to the ground
without a sound. The big man turned to the others and grinned.

"Stitch that!" his grin widened and he turned back, this time the
others also bringing their weapons to bear. Before they could
fire there was a load crack, and the big man fell back with a
cry, one hand going back to clutch his shoulder.

"Damn, missed. This will never do." The suited man gave an
insouciant smile and raised the gun to fire again, only to dive
to one side with an unexpected turn of speed when the tall man
fired his weapon. A staccato rattle was what Lois heard. What she
saw looked like lightning, chewing up the ground, chasing the
moving target. The gun raised a huge cloud of ripped up earth,
obscuring the whole area. One of the gun-runners, who had not
moved so quickly, gave a piercing scream and dropped to the
ground clutching the ruins of a leg and hip.

Lois was suddenly gripped from behind by fingers of steel and
pulled to her feet. Before she could react she was fifty feet in
the air and accelerating rapidly towards the setting sun.
Panicking she frantically craned her neck back, kicking her legs
and clawing backwards with both arms. A calm voice spoke into her
ear, the other way to the way she'd been trying to turn.

"Shhhh, Lois, you're safe now." the voice was reminiscent of her
mother's soothing her after a childhood nightmare, though her
mother's voice had never been that reassuring. It was a man's
voice, and filled with warmth. She turned to see a concerned face
gazing at hers, eyes searching for something.

"I... uh... what..." Lois had never felt so tongue tied before.
She mentally stilled herself and considered the situation.
Suddenly she remembered what was happening. "Charlie!"

"Don't worry, I'll go back for him." The ground approached
rapidly, resolving into a clearing by one of the tracks that
passed for roads in the Congo. By the speed they'd been
travelling she guessed they were at least half a mile away.
Before she could confront her rescuer, if that was what he was,
there was a subdued whoosh, raising a cloud of dust, and the man
was gone. Lois could only gaze in wonder at the receding form.

***

Charlie blinked his eyes. He could scarcely believe what he'd
just seen. When the shooting had started, he'd instinctively
fallen to the ground, much as he'd seen Lois do. This had
undoubtedly saved his life, as he knew the men behind him would
not have held their fire till he was out of the way. Once it was
obvious that he was not going to be killed instantly, Charlie had
looked around to where he remembered Lois to be. She'd been lying
with her head raised, apparently unconcerned for herself, when a
speed-blurred human form had descended and gabbed her, departing
almost too rapidly for the eye to follow. He blinked again but
Lois did not reappear.

He looked around the high skyline, the angle steep from the tall
trees. Just when he was about to look down again, he spotted a
speck heading to the clearing out of the fringes of the sun. The
figure was moving rapidly, and appeared to be dressed in some
kind of uniform. Lois was nowhere in sight. Suddenly there was a
shout from the clearing.

When Charlie turned he was shocked at what he saw. He'd only
looked away for a few seconds, but now most of the gun-runners,
from both sides, were on the ground either dead or badly wounded
from a variety of weapons; some were cut up from the laser like
weapon, some were burned, and some appeared to have been shot
with a rapid fire projectile weapon of some kind. Of the man in
the suit there was no sign, though the tallest man appeared to be
wounded in addition to the injury sustained by the big man
earlier. The shout he'd heard had been from one of the remaining
gun-runners, all of whom were now running madly for the trees.
For some reason the three standing in the centre of the clearing
made no move to stop them. Instead they turned to face Charlie.

He heard the last man, one who had not spoken before, mutter
something that sounded like "Oh well, one more won't hurt..."
before drawing a bead on Charlie with the strange weapon he was
carrying.

Charlie cried out reflexively, but before he even heard the sound
of his own voice there was a blurred flicker as something shot
between him and the man's weapon. The flash of the weapon's
firing was hidden by the figure in front of him, but Charlie's
legs still shook as he realised how close to death he'd come,
again. There was a sound to his left. He spun to face it. Another
figure was descending into the clearing. This one was moving in a
standing position, and was carrying a weapon. It was the flying
figure he'd seen earlier, dressed in black. The gun was pointed
at Charlie.

Superman turned at the shot. He'd not heard the other's approach,
his attention focused on the three in the clearing. The plasma
shot that had hit him had burned fiercely for a moment, but that
pain had gone, and with it, he thought, the danger. That had not
been the case however. Charlie was lying in the ground, a look of
astonishment on his face. Most of his chest was missing,
vaporised by the man hovering in the clearing.

***

Lois looked around. The road stretched off into the dusty dusk in
both directions. However much she wanted to wait for her rescuer
to return, she did not want to hang around in the middle of an
unknown jungle. Sighing, she adjusted her broad jungle hat, still
miraculously held in place, and mentally flipped a coin.
Muttering to herself about Charlie and compasses, she headed off
into the sunset.

Lois barely noticed the time going by, too occupied with thoughts
of the mysterious stranger who had flown down into the clearing,
picked her up as easily as she would a child, and carried her off
to safety. The glimpses she'd had of him offered little in the
way of explanation. All she knew was that for a brief time in his
arms, she'd felt _safe_. For some reason that upset the normally
calm Lois. That he'd been dressed, incongruously, in what looked
like jungle gear, rather than the costumes one might expect from
comics mattered little. Human or alien, no one with a voice so
soothing could be construed a threat.

The voice that startled her from her reverie was equally
soothing, though it held a glimmer of smug satisfaction that sent
shivers down her spine.

"Hello again, Lois. Glad you could make it. Getting a bit noisy
back there wouldn't you say?"

Lois stepped back a pace, and realising that she'd done so, chose
bluster as the best course.

"Ahhh, another one of the 'Hello, Lois, prepare to die' brigade.
If I were this well known back in Metropolis I wouldn't need to
write for a living."

"So unkind? What have I done to deserve such unthinking hatred?"
The man gave himself a smile. "And such a fate too. Everywhere I
go, up pops Miss Lane and a certain boy in blue." He made a
theatrical gesture, indicating the crystal sky above, now
flooding with darkness. "One could grow quite distressed with the
sound of lady luck's tumbling dice; if only snake's eyes were so
certain."

"Who are you? And how do you know me?" Lois paused, only to
continue as the man was about to reply. "And what right do you
have to threaten me?" Lois was angry now, and ready to keep
going. "And... And..."

"Lois. Lois." his pronunciation of her name was both chiding and
patronising. The man bowed with a flourish, doffing an imaginary
hat. "My name is Tempus." He smiled. "Whilst you may not know me,
I most certainly know you, and have many reasons for holding you
in less than the highest regard. Since your counterpart is
temporarily out of reach, and since you have so conveniently
fallen into my hands I must, perforce, satisfy my requirements
with the unknowing." At Lois's rapid back-peddling, Tempus drew
his handgun from his jacket. "Unfortunately the presence of that
muscle brain Clark Kent forces me to act somewhat precipitously,
and you will be required to facilitate my escape. He has an
irritating habit of turning up at the right moment, though this
time I have no doubt that he is here for you rather than my good
self. Fate, it seems, is not done with me, and as usual I have
been dealt one card short of a flush. You will make me a fine
joker." The man closed in, and asked in a conversational manner
"I don't suppose you have any kryptonite handy do you? No, I
thought not."

Lois looked aghast at the man, who was clearly insane. She wasn't
prepared to risk his gun though; it alone had proved effective
against the defenses of the three strangers who'd also appeared
to want to kill her, and she doubted that her skin would fare her
better. Lois Lane seemed to be popular today, and she'd find out
why if it was the last thing she did. Lois decided that perhaps
she ought to rephrase that thought.

***

Clark was frozen with indecision; For all that Charlie was
clearly dead, he still had an instinctive urge to try and help.
He'd resigned himself to the fact that he would never be able to
help all those in trouble, however much he might want to, but as
ever it was the individuals that affected him the most. Charlie
must have seen him rescue Lois and perhaps hoped the same for
himself. To have that hope snatched away at the last moment was a
cruel way to die.

Clark glanced at Charlie's killer. It was the leader of the men
who'd captured him earlier, though he did not appear to be
immediately threatening at the moment. The other three, by
appearance those he'd met four years in the future - two days
ago, also seemed a little unsure. The earlier scene was re-
enacted. Fewer players, but all were equally unsure as to who was
the real enemy and who just a threat.

Chisjor spoke to Flix without turning. "Shit, never gets any
easier does it. I guess this guy's mobile too. How come you
didn't pick up his movements?"

Flix grunted, but said nothing.

"We didn't pick up mister TP over there, the vanishing lady, or
mister sarcastic either." Jilse was absently rubbing his shoulder
wound, itching as it healed.

Chisjor laughed, a little crazily to Clark's ears. "I guess we
should get a show of hands then - okay people, own up, anyone
actually belong in '93?"

Jilse turned to Flix when no one answered. "Oh well, I guess I
can shoot them all."

The man uniformed in black chose that moment to speak.

"Jilse Maron, Flix Yuand, Jake Halivand, you are all wanted by
the Temporal Police for multiple violations of the Temporal Code.
I, Officer 56, as a duly appointed representative of the Temporal
Police am arresting you in preparation for trial. Release your
weapons or be destroyed." Officer 56 turned to Superman.
"Construct, you are judged in violation of the t-Metrop treaty
and a hazard to time. Shut down, you will be destroyed shortly."

Clark decided that it was time to act. Lois could still be in
danger, from these people if no one else. Unarmed they would be
less dangerous. He stepped towards Chisjor, the man closest to
him.

Chisjor and the other two reacted instantly, and faster than
Clark had ever seen humans move before.

Flix's weapon was a projectile weapon, though the rate of fire
made it appear like a laser of some form. Hundreds of
harder-than-steel rounds impacted on Superman with devastating
force, spinning him round and knocking him down. Chisjor's weapon
produced a cone effect, visible by the distortion it caused in
the air. Subjected to random and powerful shocks Clark shuddered
on the ground, every atom trying to separate from every other,
only Superman's dense structure and personal field providing any
defense. The ground beneath him churned, turned to fine dust by
the shocks. Jilse's laser seemed to be the least effective,
perhaps due to Superman's solar induced powers, but it was still
a powerful weapon.

Chisjor stopped firing. The shock inducer was creating too much
dust, obscuring everyone's vision. The others stopped as well,
since Clark had stopped moving. He called to the hovering man.

"Oi! Cop! You said it was a threat to time; ours as well as
yours. Help us before it recovers. We can settle our differences
later." Chisjor turned back to Clark. The dust had been largely
cleared by the laser, molten slag bubbling round Superman's still
form. "Is it dead?" Chisjor's words seemed to have a revitalising
effect, for Clark groaned and tried to rise. "Tough beggar, isn't
it." Chisjor fired his weapon again, causing a fountain of liquid
rock to splash everywhere. Clark fell back down.

"Careful you fool." Jilse flicked the rapidly cooling mess off
his boots. He looked at Officer 56. "Well, you got anything that
can destroy this? We don't seem to be having much luck." at the
other's lack of response, Jilse grew angry. "Look, if you're not
going to help... I doubt _you_ can survive a giga-laser." He
waved his weapon at the policeman. "This _thing_ is as much a
threat to you as to us. Your instruments must have shown you the
temporal effect; It's not just us that will disappear in a few
hours - the whole timeline is rearranging itself, 2030 onwards,
and I don't think you feature in the rerun."

Officer 56 appeared to make up his mind. "Very well. The code
does allow for this situation. We will combine our efforts. After
resolution you will surrender or relocate. Accept."

Jilse looked at Flix. Flix shrugged his shoulders. "Agreed. This
is a lousy decade anyway." The four, three uneasy and one
impassive, turned to look at the motionless form on the ground.

Officer 56 pulled a comm-unit from his belt. "Report." Replacing
it he turned to the three criminals.

"My time console shows three nexii. This one was judged the most
volatile. There is no indication of a single individual being the
cause." He gestured at Clark. "I also picked up no signs of this
one's arrival or movements. Explain."

Flix shrugged again. "Whatever it is, it's new. It first showed
up in '96, along with a woman who we were about to dispose of
before..." he confronted the officer. "Who's movements _have_ you
picked up? _We've_ only just got here, you've just said that this
thing doesn't show up on your sensors, though we know it's mobile
- for all we know _you_ could be the cause of all this."

"Negative. Temporal anomalies were apparent before TP
intervention." he paused, thinking. Then "If you arrived within
the past ten hours then you are not responsible either and have
not caused the effects Central picked up. If it was not this
construct either, then there is another displaced person in this
time."

Jilse nodded. "Mister Sarcastic. That gun of his looked like a
charged p-rg. Had to have been to penetrate our shields. Not from
this era..."

Flix continued for him. "Yeah, so that makes another player in
this game. Us, you," a nod to the policeman "the vanishing woman
- Lois Lane will do for a name at the moment, that," a nod to
Clark, "and Mister Sarcastic. Nice name, Jilse. We know that
we're not to blame, you probably aren't, so it's one or all of
the other three. When does this nexus converge?"

Jilse and Officer 56 spoke almost simultaneously. "Five hours."
and "Five hours, seven minutes." respectively.

Flix looked worried. "Not long. So we need to find out which of
them is involved and undo whatever they've done or are about to
do. Even if we can kill whatever this thing is, we don't know
that it will resolve in our favour. I hadn't realised how many
forces were involved. I suppose it's a good thing we didn't kill
Lois Lane just now; we need to find her and Mister Sarcastic and
get some answers."

Officer 56 spoke. "We must hold the construct until we are ready.
It has already penetrated a level five containment field."

"We've got one rated at 4.75. Combined they might work.
Chisjor."

"On it." Chisjor headed off out of the clearing.

As he was leaving three black clad forms entered, raising their
weapons as they did so.

Officer 56 halted them. "Code 3262, section seven. These are not
targets. For now."

"So kind." Jilse was scathing.

"Officer 378, what did you determine?"

"Nothing. There is no mention of any such construct in any of our
files. It is almost certainly a time phenomenon."

"Good, that matches my conjecture. Officer 413. Restrain the
construct. Criminal Jake Halivand will be supplying an additional
field. Ensure maximum compatibility." When officer 413 had left
to gather the required equipment, officer 56 turned to the other
two again. "Officer 378 find out why we have only detected the
movements of these." He gestured to Flix, Jilse, and the
direction that Chisjor had headed off for. "There are three
other, apparently disparate, displaced people in this time. How
did they get here without alerting us?"

***

Lois struggled against Tempus's grip, to no avail.

"You don't have to grip so hard; you have a gun, I'm not going to
run away."

"You're guardian angle is out there somewhere - I'm not going to
give him any opportunity to snatch you away. Once I'm safe I'll
release your arm. Then I'll shoot you, admittedly, but at least
it won't hurt any more." Tempus seemed rather disinterested in
the whole affair.

"Why won't anyone listen to me? I don't know you, I don't know
those people in the clearing, and I don't know who it was who
rescued me and then vanished leaving me literally in your
clutches. I almost wish I'd listened to Charlie."

"Yes, I know that, Lois, but isn't it so much more fun this way?"
Tempus gave Lois a broad smile.

"Hardly." Lois struggled an bit more, then stamped her foot,
almost tripping up, as Tempus did not slacken his pace to
accommodate her.

"That's what I always loved about you, Lois, such fire, such
spirit. Now stop struggling or I shall knock you out and carry
you. Your protestations are not becoming, Herbert always used to
do a much better job."

Lois snarled in frustration and walked on for a while longer.

"Where are we going anyway. You may as well tell me, I'm not
exactly going to do anything with the information am I? And who's
Herbert?"

"Well, I suppose excitement is always enhanced by knowing a
little, but not too much. We're currently headed for my time
machine. I've accomplished all I can here at the moment, thanks
to everyone deciding to crash the party, and I intend to head for
less troubled climes."

"There's no need to treat me like a child." her voice spoke
volumes.

"I would never do that, Lois, nauseating things, children. If you
would like I can kill you any time you like - anything strike
your fancy? Ancient Rome perhaps? You could scream whilst it
burns. Or Paris in the spring. Such a charming city. One more
corpse will hardly be noticed. I could even put up a gravestone
for you. Probably going to have to anyway - it's never wise to
interfere with your own past, and my past remembers someone very
like you becoming somewhat concerned in Metropolis cemetery.
Ahhh, I can just see stone 'One more story before I sleep...'
sounds good, or maybe..."

Lois kicked at Tempus's shins, and succeeded in falling over.

"You really should be a little more dignified, Lois, what will
people say?"

Tempus was surprisingly gentle helping her up, though his grip
remained strong. "We've not got far to go, Lois, If I were you I
would be thinking of a few suitable last words."

***

It took longer for Clark to recover this time, and the pain was a
lot greater. As he recovered, he was careful not to show signs of
stirring, since he had no desire to be rendered unconscious
again. In the background he could hear two men talking, his
superhearing easily making out the words. He recognised the first
voice as being the leader of the men who'd first captured him,
the second as being the tall man from the clearing.

"...your instruments are not as advanced as ours, you would not
have picked up all the signs."

"There's not a lot in it, my friend, but that's irrelevant
anyway; tell me what you've found."

"Officer 413 has determined that there are two additional time
capable machines operating within a frame of 4 days and 100
miles. They are both working on the same, previously undetected,
frequency - presumably utilising different principals to our own.
This is why they have remained undetected for so long. The
distortion they cause is displaced but still locatable once you
know what to look for. One arrived about three days ago, having
made a local hop of about two weeks; it could have come from
anywhere prior to that. The other arrived about 15 hours ago,
having travelled approximately four years; either 1989 or 1996.
From your story we can safely assume it came from 1996."

"Only two? That would suggest that Lane and Mister Sarcastic are
working together and the creature we've captured is working
independently. Strange, I'd have thought them enemies from what
they said in the clearing. And the creature stopped us from
killing Lane..."

"Speculation is useless at this point. One of the machines is
active, and we have located it nearby. It is likely that either
one or both of the others will return to the machine. We will
wait."

"It's all very well for you to say we'll wait; you're no
different to the construct. Life or death - what's the
difference? But I only have a couple of hours till resolution. I
don't intend to go down without a fight."

"You will get your chance. The man, at least, has advanced
weaponry. You are more than welcome to remove that threat for
us."

"Thank you _very_ much."

***

"So who were all those people in the clearing? You seemed to know
them." Lois could no more stop asking questions than the sun
could stop shining. In the current situation it might also give
her a chance of survival.

"I presume that you mean the charming trio so ignobly intent on
relieving you of your life. I don't know them, I know _of_ them.
They appeared to be one of the by-products of this universe's
darker future; that is to say, time criminals. Distressingly
advanced physiology. Given their presence and their killing of my
associates, carefully chosen from this time, I can only assume
that some representative of the authorities governing their time
will also be along shortly - you can't go around chopping people
out of time and not expect it to have an effect on the future."

"Are you insane? No, scratch that, I _know_ you're insane. You
expect me to believe that you and they are time- travellers? I
don't suppose you met H. G. Wells along the way did you?"

"No, Lois, I don't expect you to believe me. You always were far
too self-righteous to believe in the simple things like
time-travel. Superheros are more your style. But I do sincerely
hope that H. G. Wells does turn up again, I would relish the
opportunity to be finally rid of him as well."

"Ah-ha! So if you know me, but I've never seen you before, you
must have met me in my future - So you can't hurt me, or you
won't be able to meet me later." Lois shook her head, not quite
sure what she'd just said.

"Lois, so sharp, so quick. So wrong. Unfortunately for you, I
haven't met _you_ before, I _have_ met your counterpart in
another universe."

"Ha! Good story, Beelzebub! Like I'm going to believe _that_!"

"Must you always punctuate your sentences with exclamation marks,
Lois? It gets so tiring after a while. Believe what you will, it
makes little difference to me."

"Well then, mister, who was that flying man then? Don't tell me.
Mighty mouse? _Batman_?"

"Someone who I had thought I'd left behind in '96. That damned
pain keeps showing up everywhere, though I suppose some of the
blame must lie at my door this time - _that_ scheme certainly
didn't go to plan. Never mind, once I've returned to my
time-machine he will be easy to dispose of."

"So not infallible are we? Why..."

Lois suppressed a cry as she bumped into Tempus, who had stopped
suddenly.

"Quiet, Lois, we're getting close to the time-machine, and I
don't want to alert anyone."

"And why should I care?" Lois's whisper dripped sarcasm. She had
been unconsciously leaning closer to Tempus to whisper. "Why am I
whispering?" She spoke out loud, pulling away as much as his grip
would allow.

Tempus's hand clamped over her mouth.

"Now-now, Lois, there is no need to get petty. Besides, I don't
think you would like these other people, they don't treat women
very well. Deplorable really." Tempus was dead-pan, though Lois
could sense that he was laughing at his own words.

She struggled again, Tempus's hand muffling her shouts.

They had been walking for about half an hour, so Lois judged them
to have covered about a mile and a half, working round the
clearing. It seemed reasonable that Tempus would have another
hideout nearby to where he'd set up the gun- exchange meeting.
Obviously he was concerned that this hideout might have been
discovered.

Glancing at the device Tempus drew out of a pocket, Lois decided
that his story about time-travel might have some grounds -
whatever it was, it looked very advanced. Tempus pressed a small
stud on one side, and a holographic projection sprung into life,
showing the area ahead in reduced size but great detail. Tempus
grinned at her surprise. "Handy device this. Every criminal
should have one. Fortunately I don't think they have them in this
universe." Touching a pad on the top surface, Tempus began to
move the image around. He quickly located what he was looking
for, a rather ornate vehicle, looking like a four-wheeled
carriage without wheels and the top down. It was standing out in
the open; It did not appear as though Tempus had tried to hide
it. Lois could not see any signs of life.

Tempus carefully moved the image around, observing the machine
from all sides and pulled back, to look from a distance.

"Good disguise, no one will ever think to look for it out in the
open." Lois hissed contemptuously in Tempus's ear.

"Quiet, Lois, just because we can see it doesn't mean that anyone
can." The projection vanished as Tempus flicked the off switch.
"And it looks as though it has remained undetected. Oh well,
Lois, not long to go now, said your prayers?"

"Quite the Lothario, aren't we? Don't worry, Tempus, you'll get
yours." Lois struggled in Tempus's grip again, but was pulled
forward. Tempus often gave the appearance of fragility, but Lois
could feel his fingers biting into her arm painfully.

Standing by the machine, Tempus half turned to face Lois.

"Well, Miss Lane, I really must go now; Sorry you can't come with
me, but dead people are so inconvenient; you have to carry them
everywhere." So saying, Tempus drew his weapon and aimed it,
point-blank at Lois's forehead.

Lois executed a perfect outer-arm block, knocking the gun aside,
but her kick was off target due to her awkward positioning. Lois
looked on in dismay; Tempus still held on to the gun, and was
bringing it round to bear again. Lois could see his finger
tightening on the trigger.

***

Clark sat up in the enclosure. He could _feel_ something was
wrong. How he knew, he couldn't tell, but somewhere Lois was in
trouble.

The others in the clearing had turned at his movement, but
Officer 56 indicated that no one should interfere. He drew his
gun though, as did Flix and Chisjor.

Clark sprung into the air with all his strength, only to be
stopped dead by the forcefield. This time he could make no
progress, the small amount of give being the field taking up the
strain, rather than any weakening. Clark gritted his teeth and
urged himself to even greater effort, to no avail.

Officer 413 held up the control device for Officer 56, who gave a
rare smile.

"Sorry construct. Impressive, but not enough this time."

Clark's vision was slowly dissolving into red, consciousness
fading from the mighty exertion. He fell to the ground, drained.

The men surrounding Superman lowered their weapons and smiled at
one-another.

Clark scanned around wearily, stopping when his eyes alighted on
the field generators. The forcefield was transparent. Laser
vision lanced out, striking the nearest of the two linked
generators. Within moments a cherry-red glow could be seen
spreading from the metal panel, causing sparks to fly from the
screens and controls.

Clark fell back when the field in front of him mirrored over,
reflecting his gaze into a zigzag path around him, stopping when
it struck the ground. A legion of distorted Clarks stared back at
Superman. The mirror was perfect, though slightly rippled.
Everything was bathed in a pale acid light, apparently generated
by the field. Superman raised his head and screamed in
frustration, the shattering sound echoing for an eternity.

***

There was a double boom, so close together they were almost one.
Lois slowly opened her eyes, amazed that she could do so. She
could feel blood trickling down her cheek, a numb streak across
her cheekbone indicating how close Tempus's shot had been to
killing her. The pain would begin later. Tempus was clutching his
hand, stunned by the shot that had ripped the gun from his hand.
Either a good shot or a lucky one. That there had been no follow
up coup-de-grace suggested that whoever had fired the shot had
achieved their intention in disarming Tempus, and did not want to
kill anyone. Yet.

Two figures stepped out into the clearing.

"Nice cloaking device you had there, Mister Sarcastic. Or should
I say Tempus? Thought I recognised you from '96. Pity your
machine's flux capacitor radiates at a fairly distinctive, if
unusual, frequency. Leaving the machine running is great for a
quick getaway, but not very effective if someone's disabled it."
Jilse held up a complex device for Tempus to see.

"I'm afraid that I can't have you killing Miss Lane yet, both of
you have some questions to answer. Then we'll see about who gets
to play with who." Jilse turned to his companion, handing the
strange component over. "If you would be so good, officer,
perhaps you'll repair the damage and we'll head back."

The uniformed man did not seem happy following these
instructions, but he obeyed without comment. When he had finished
he turned to Jilse.

"We cannot use the device to return. Any temporal travel at this
stage will be terminal. Time latency is greater than that
remaining to us."

Jilse nodded. "Get everyone close to me." He holstered his weapon
and reached for the collar around his neck.

Lois took that as an opportunity, and shouldered Tempus into the
officer. As the two collided, Lois turned and ran for the
clearing's edge, hoping to hide in the dense jungle. There was a
shimmering flash ahead, and Jilse appeared in front of her
smiling.

"Ahhh, Teleportation. What would I do without it?" He reached for
Lois.

Her kick this time was perfectly aimed, the point of her toe
striking the big man under his chin. Jilse's head moved about
half an inch. He rubbed a thumb across his chin, savouring the
forming bruise.

"Nice one, Lady. A little harder next time though."

Lois could only stare. The kick should have floored an ox.

Jilse shook his head slowly, a puzzled frown on his face. "You
should be stronger than that. And you should know better than to
try and run when I have a TC." His face assumed his casual smile
again. "Never mind. My brain is not what I'm here for. Flix will
figure you out." Jilse's hand snaked out with lightning speed and
fastened round Lois's neck.

"Now, my little vixen, I suggest you don't struggle too much,
your neck will break before my grip, and it's such a pretty neck
too." Jilse pulled Lois over to Tempus and the officer, and
reached up to his collar.

***

Clark looked up. He'd been trying to figure a way out of the
forcefield, but his laser vision seemed to have no effect other
than to heat the air up, he couldn't see through it, and he'd
already tried to use brute force and failed.

An indentation formed in the field, looking similar to an air
bubble in water, and moved inside the dome. Once half inside, the
smaller bubble vanished with a soundless pop, revealing Lois and
Tempus.

Lois was rubbing her neck, seemingly oblivious to the sweat
streaked blood drying down the side of her face. Tempus's hands
were cuffed behind his back, a scowl on his face. The two were
talking, but the air was strained. Clark did not wait for them to
finish, instead running to Lois, not quite sure how to act, but
his concern overwhelming all other thought.

"Lois, you're hurt! What happened?" Clark gently cupped her face
with his hand, turning her head to see the ugly injury running
for a couple inches across her cheek and below her temple. His
gut wrenched at the danger she'd been in, danger he'd been unable
to prevent. "Who did this?"

Lois angrily shook him off. She wheeled to face him.

"You, him, everyone treats me like some object or child. I don't
know you, and I don't care to know you. This situation is
completely ridiculous, everyone in this stupid jungle seems to
want to kill me." She swung a fist at him, and yelped in pain as
it hit steel hard flesh.

Clark looked on in sympathy. "I don't want to hurt you, Lois. I
want to help, if I can."

"How do you know my name anyway?" Lois was angry, but she still
wanted answers. Pointing to Tempus "He says he's a time
traveller. I suppose you're claiming you are too. And those
people out there, I suppose they're the same? What can't you all
stay in your own time?"

"Yes, Lois, I came here in a time machine." Clark paused, then "I
know your name from someone very like you. I know _of_ you from
my friends, but I would very much like to know you from _you_."

"Well why do you have to come back to now to do that, why not
speak to me then?" Lois was intrigued despite herself. This man
in front of her, sounded so earnest, so concerned. It was hard to
stay angry.

Clark's reply was interrupted in it's inception by Tempus.

"This is sickening. A muscle-bound moron dribbling all over some
self-important reporter. It's like I'm trapped in some ghastly
melodrama. Any more and I shall dissolve into tears." Tempus
looked up theatrically. "What have I done to anger the gods so?
Try and get involved in a little harmless gun-running and the sky
falls on you."

Clark rounded on Tempus. "Shut up, Tempus. You've brought this on
yourself; and probably on Lois too. Unless you've anything
constructive to say, I'd rather not listen to your whining."

"I don't think you have much choice, Clark, unless you've
abandoned your principals all of a sudden?" Tempus's sarcasm was
a little unsure, but he recovered when Clark made no comment.
"No, I didn't think so..."

Lois interrupted. "Will you two stop it. It's fairly easy to see
why you're here." She pointed at Tempus. "But you, Clark, if
that's your name, why are you interfering?"

Clark started to speak, only to have Tempus interject again.

"Just as blind as always, Lois." Tempus was enjoying himself. "It
should be obvious, even to you, the poor brute is in lust. It's
almost enough to make me pity him."

"How can that be?" She turned to Clark. "I've never met you
before, and If you're from the future, why not... unless..."

Tempus could barely contain himself. "And so it dawns.
Delicious."

Clark felt like hitting Tempus, but restrained himself.

"You didn't make it back, Lois. There is no Lois Lane in the 1996
I came from."

"1996?" Lois wondered at the time difference, but decided that
there were more immediate concerns. "What happened?"

"I'm not sure. The only source I have couldn't tell me. From what
I've seen it's amazing there's anything left in 1996; Certainly
Tempus and his friends out there are causing enough damage to
history."

Tempus reacted angrily. "Damage? I was trying to make a few
dollars. No harm done until you showed up with the goons from the
23rd century."

"No harm? How do you explain Lois's dea... disappearance then?
You're not even from this time. I'd wager that you were the one
that killed..." Clark could not bring himself to say that Lois
had died, "...them originally, everything else would follow on
from that."

Tempus was about to respond angrily, when understanding flickered
across his face. "Yes, I suppose it would. Other than yourself,
the two universes are not that different. If I kill Lois here,
first time round, then there's no superman in the future, leading
to... an alternate future with time criminals and police - the
people we see outside. Except that in my past, second time round
- so to speak - I recreated you, which would endanger their very
existence. Ha! No wonder they haven't killed us yet - they don't
know what caused the time upheaval; they don't know if it's
something we've done or are about to do, and if it's something
we've already done then they need to know what it was so they can
undo it."

Lois looked around fearfully. She wanted to explore this apparent
tale of her death, but there was a more apparent danger. "So, if
I understand correctly, they have us here to find out what
happened, after which they can kill us. Being in the jungle makes
me think of bugs all of a sudden."

Tempus cursed, then smiled. "Well, I'm sure they will be open to
reason."

Clark was struck by horrifying inspiration. Killing either him or
Lois was the obvious solution, and since they'd tried and failed
to kill him... Killing Lois wouldn't work in this case, but they
weren't to know that. They obviously didn't know that the Lois
they'd seen in 1996 was not the Lois here in 1993. "We've got to
get out of here." Clark looked around but was at a loss as to
what to do.

Lois began looking around frantically as well, looking for
anything that might help.

"I presume you've tried to break out?" Tempus put on his best
show of sarcasm, but there was an underlying fear there as well.

Clark nodded.

Lois looked around again, with less enthusiasm this time. She
kicked the earth with her boot, hurting her toes. Suddenly she
looked up at Clark.

"The bubble. Does it extend under ground as well? I don't suppose
you could..." Lois made a digging motion with her hands.

Clark looked at her, hope shining in his eyes. He became a blur,
spinning round faster than the eye could follow. He sank into the
ground.

Lois looked at the hole in the ground. "What _is_ he?" She was
more than a little in awe of the strange man. Could it be true
what Tempus had said? Perhaps this Clark Kent was in love with
her. Lois wasn't sure what to think about that.

***

Jilse had just about finished updating Flix on the situation when
Chisjor interrupted them, clearly worried.

"Come on, guys, we don't have time to discuss this; The
instruments are already showing initial effects of the resolution
front - we don't have long left. Let's just kill them all and
have done with it - time latency will prevent us from undoing
anything they've done in the past anyway. All we can do is get
rid of them and hope." Chisjor was nervous. They'd been in this
sort of situation before, but previously it hadn't been _them_
about to have their game cancelled. He headed for the field
generators. "Let's just evacuate the air from the dome, that'll
finish off Lane and Tempus; who knows - leave it long enough it
might kill that other thing too. If we survive, we survive - if
not, at least we take someone with us."

Flix seemed to be uncertain, but he knew they had to act quickly.
He nodded curtly. "See if you can get audio in there while you're
at it. Might as well hear what they have to say."

Chisjor shook his head. "Sorry, can't be done. When it's opaque
it blocks everything. Nothing gets in, nothing gets out."

Jilse nodded. "He's right. The thing was designed to contain
nuclear explosions." he glanced at the shimmering dome. "It's a
shame that the lady has to die with the others, not often you
find one with such passion." He flushed as the others started to
jibe him. "Cut it, guys; just making a comment." He couldn't help
smiling though. "Ah, well, there's bound to be another one
somewhere, sometime."

Chisjor flicked a switch on the console, and dome's surface began
to contract slowly.

***

Superman burst up through the ground twenty feet from Jilse. He
shook the dirt from his eyes, and saw the three criminals and the
policemen scattered around the clearing; there was no way he was
going to be able to disarm them all simultaneously. Already the
seven men were turning on him. He flashed to the other side of
the dome to gain some time; It was large enough to hide behind,
and if he was fast he would be able to destroy his opponent's
weapons as they came round the sides.

He was not expecting the attack to be as fast and ferocious as it
was. Clark had grown up on various farms, and avoided trouble in
Metropolis; it was only recently that he'd started to come up
against criminals, and for the most part they were petty crooks
and muggers. Flix, Chisjor and Jilse were experienced, dangerous
men, and the policemen were effectively elite troops, unconcerned
with personal safety. Three of the policemen flew over the top of
the dome using their personal gravity belts, firing their weapons
as they did so. Flix and Jilse darted round from one side of the
dome, Chisjor and the remaining policeman from the other. Even
Superman could not avoid the effects of the seven various weapons
fired simultaneously. He managed to dodge the initial bursts from
the projectile weapons, and the fierce laser beam, but the cone
effects from the plasma gun and the shock inducer were too wide
to avoid and enough to stun him temporarily.

Clark found himself writhing on the ground in agony for the third
time in as many hours. If he didn't recover quickly, the combined
might of the seven men would surely find some way to kill him. He
struggled to his feet, fighting off the welcoming darkness.

***

Lois looked up at Tempus and decided that there was no point in
waiting around. If nothing else, Tempus might take it on himself
to try to kill her, hoping to gain favour with the men outside.
Giving him a jaunty salute, she jumped down the hole, feeling as
though she should be wearing a dress and chasing a rabbit.

Fortunately the hole was not deep, though it was filled with
impenetrable darkness. She groped her way forward until a glow of
light shone ahead. Peering upwards she could see starlight. Clark
had tunnelled out at an angle, making the journey far easier than
it would have been had she had to climb up a vertical hole.

Lois emerged, muddy and blinking, into the dim light of the Congo
night, Lois was almost deafened by the noises coming from the
other side of the dome, flashes of light illuminating the nearby
trees.

Off to one side of the clearing was a large console. Lois had
seen one of the men at it when she and Tempus had been placed
inside the dome. She needed to destroy the force field to remove
the danger of confinement again.

Picking up a nearby rock, Lois pounded on the lights and switches
as hard as she could. The air was filled with the gratifying
sound of crackles and hisses as sparks flew and fuses broke. One
final bash and the dome winked out of existence, revealing the
fight behind it. Lois gasped, her hand reflexively going to her
mouth. Clark was on the ground, curled up. The men were still
firing, maniacal looks on the criminals' faces. The policemen
were impassive but looked determined. Her heart went out to the
strange man who'd tried his best to help her; if she didn't do
anything to help _him_... Her eyes fell on what looked like a
gun, attached by a coiled hose to a large cylinder. She picked up
the strange, heavy weapon and pointed it at the group, now
closing in on Clark's motionless form.

Lois cursed in frustration. She couldn't fire the weapon to
distract them, she didn't know what it did. She put her fingers
to her lips and gave a piercing whistle, something her mother at
least had never forgiven her for learning.

Silence descended as everyone stopped firing and spun around to
face her. Lois raised the gun in what she hoped was a threatening
fashion, and prayed that it would deter them.

Flix knew instantly what the gun was, and saw the look on Lois's
face. The two together were one of the most worrying things he'd
ever seen. He hissed out of the side of his mouth at his friends.
"The I3!" He could see Jilse and Chisjor itching with indecision.
He knew the problem as well. If they fired and hit the weapon,
the chances were they'd all be killed in the resulting explosion.
Hand behind his back he put up three fingers, then two, then one.
The three men reached for their collars simultaneously and
sparkled away, faint pops reaching Lois's ears from the air
rushing in to fill the gaps.

The four policemen did not know what the I3 was, and moreover
would not have cared if they did. All four raised their weapons
and pulled the triggers.

***

Clark's ears still rung from the whistle. His hearing was
especially sensitive to higher ranges, and the sound had jolted
him back to consciousness. Every muscle screaming out for
attention, he slowly inched round so he could see what was
happening. Fortunately no one was looking at him anymore. He saw
three of the men vanish, as the remaining four raised their guns
again. He could see they were going to fire, whatever the
consequence. Drawing from the last of his strength, he breathed
in and then out as hard as he could, his frosty breath
encompassing the tightly grouped men as they fired. The roiling
mist engulfed the men, freezing the metal of their guns as fire
poured out. Something had to give, and the weapons shattered,
shrapnel and flames flashing in all directions.

Clark's strength left him and the night closed in again.

***

Lois saw the four men fall to the ground, lifeless corpses.
Nothing could have survived that explosion. The gun dropped from
her nerveless hands, and she rushed over to Clark, her heart
thudding in her chest. She fell to the ground besides him, and
cradled his head in her lap, feeling for a pulse. His skin was
hard, but beneath it she could feel a faint beating.

Lois felt tears begin when there was a shimmering flicker near
the console she'd left. Flix, Jilse and Chisjor appeared in a
semicircle. Flix dropped his gun and picked up the I3.

"I think we've had enough of this for now, Miss Lane. Say
goodbye."

***

Lois bowed her head and gave Clark a quick kiss. They'd come so
close to surviving, only to fail at this late stage.

There was a distorted humming noise. Lois decided that the three
men were savouring the moment and were not going to fire until
she looked up, so she put on her most defiant smile and raised
her head.

The three men were gripped by a strange glowing effect, spasms
jerking their frames. Flix was in the act of pulling the trigger,
but it looked as though his finger was not quite substantial.
Lois realised that she could see the faint outlines of trees
_through_ them. Jilse gave one last desperate cry, which faded
hauntingly as he phased out of existence. There was a joint
clatter as three guns dropped to the ground.

She looked around. The four bodies that had been nearby had
vanished as well.

***

Clark looked up at the face peering down on him, and decided that
the mud, blood, sweat and tear stained visage was the most
beautiful he'd ever seen. He managed a painful smile. His heart
soared when he received one in return.

"Hello, Lois."

"Hello, Clark." Lois wasn't sure it felt right, calling this
stranger by his first name, but he had risked everything to save
her... "Care to go home?"

Clark groaned and tried to sit up, managing it with Lois's help.

Suddenly his face flashed with fear.

"Tempus!"

"What is it? He's long gone, we don't need to worry about him
anymore."

"No, we have to find him! He still has a time machine, and
there's no telling where he plans to go." Clark forced himself to
his feet. "Where is his time machine?"

"I don't know, we walked to it from where you left me, and Jilse
brought us here by teleportation." Lois stopped, puzzled. "Why
can I still remember them? And their weapons, why did they
remain?"

Clark shook his head. "I don't know, Lois, I don't know any of
the theory. Enough, we have to find Tempus." He wasn't sure he'd
be able to fly long, but he picked up Lois and shot into the
air.

"Recognise anything?"

Lois looked around. Everything looked different from the air.
Then she saw a trail through the jungle, and pictured it from
ground level. "There, over there."

Clark sped as fast as he was able towards where Lois was
pointing.

They alighted just as Tempus reached his machine.

"Tempus!" Clark's voice was enough to startle wildlife for miles
around, but Tempus barely reacted. He dived into the machine's
seat.

"So long, Superman. I must be off."

Tempus activated the time machine.

Nothing happened.

Tempus jabbed repeatedly at the button, frustration growing.

Lois laughed. "Looks like that policeman didn't know how to fix
the machine after all."

Clark lowered Lois to the ground and made his way over to
Tempus.

"Sorry, Tempus, you have an appointment to keep. If I recall
correctly, Herbert said that he left you with the police in the
other universe. I suspect that you got there via here, but I'm
sure the journey was far more fun this way?"

Lois felt a cloud lift from her. Tempus, whom Clark seemed to
think was important, had been apprehended, and now she could head
back to Metropolis with the story of the decade. She could feel
another Pulitzer writing itself in her head.

"Right, let's pick up Charlie and head back to Metropolis. I
assume you're from there, aren't you?"

Clark's face fell.

"Lois..."

Lois could tell the news wasn't good.

"Charlie... He won't be coming back with us."

"What... What happened?" Lois had never felt happy around
Charlie, but she never wished him ill either.

"One of the policemen shot him." Clark's voice said it all.

"Can't you..." Lois searched for words. "Can't you go back and
rescue him. Or something." The last was spoken out of
desperation.

"I'm truly sorry, Lois, but the people at the Planet, back in the
time I came from, they knew Charlie was dead, he's buried in the
city cemetery."

"What about me? I thought I wasn't supposed to have made it back
either." Lois felt at a loss. How could she contest her own
existence?

"No one knew what happened to you, Lois. As far as the world's
concerned you've been missing for three years. If you show up, or
don't show up, it won't matter." Clark looked into her eyes.
"Except to me that is. And your friends back at the Planet."

"What do you mean? Missing for three years? Can't I just
return..."

"Lois, if you go back now, to this time, you'll be changing
history again. Think of all the things you might have done in
three years, all the differences your life would have made. I
think that time has been stretched enough as it is, you saw what
happened to the others in the clearing." Clark stepped over to
Lois, cradling her head as she wept for the dead. "It has to be
this way, Lois. I'm sorry."

Lois pulled from Clark's arms and wiped away her tears.

"What about all the bits and pieces left behind from those
_people_?"

"I scanned this place before I came here. There were all sorts of
weird resonance's and distortions. I expect they were caused by
the weapons and artifacts being broken down by the elements. I've
lived in jungle environments before. It doesn't take long for the
worst of disasters to fade away."

Clark looked over at Tempus.

"We've still got a lot to do though. Tempus to return to his own
universe, someone has to have booked a certain plot in the
cemetery, and there's a gravestone to raise. I suppose I was -
will be - responsible for both of those. And the time machines.
Now I've seen them both, I'm beginning to suspect they're the
same one. So that means we have to put Tempus's back in his
hideout for me to find. And since the place was sealed up, we
won't be able to leave until I've broken the concrete entrance...
I don't know how I'm going to stop the previous me from sensing
our presence in there..." Clark trailed off, beginning to realise
how much more there was to do. "We could be sorting out time
forever."

Lois shook her head, forced to smile at his worried looks.

"Never mind, Clark, if the gravestone is for me, I'll have to
help you come up with a suitable epitaph. It's not every day you
get to do your own." She linked her arm with his.

"Right; where to, _Superman_?"

THE END