Sour Blood

By Betty Huang <quiettornado7491@gmail.com>

Rated PG

Submitted November 1999

Summary: Criminals use a mysterious rock to kidnap Clark Kent.

Author's Note: This story was written under the assumption that Lois had only one child — one that is born out of Lois, not given to them for adoption. The time frame that I thought would be best is thirteen years after the story that I had read, "Revenge of the Huntress."

***

After exposure to Red Kryptonite by the Nutridge sisters, Lois till this very day still has an occasional lapse of ill feeling. It was sort of a raining day in Metropolis. The skies were beginning to clear up. Clark and Lois walked to the Daily Planet for work.

A brief accident interrupted them as Superman was summoned to a quick rescue attempt.

In an underground basement, many crooks and criminals had gathered to find a way to get revenge on Superman, the one who put them in prison. One criminal spoke up and said, "Fellow criminal and comrades, all you need to do is to get Clark to think his wife is in danger and you've lured superman into our trap."

"Lure Clark? We're trying to get Superman not Clark Kent."

"Guys. Listen to me. Superman is Clark Kent." All of a sudden, all the crooks had a sudden look of hatred toward Clark Kent and looked as if they were planning their next move.

"Wow!"

"And this time, no one can save him."

"Okay, guys. I have a plan."

"Wait a minute, how do I know your telling me the truth?"

"Okay, Mr. Skeptic. I'll prove it. My ex-cell mate is having an interview with Clark Kent in two days. We'll just have to hide a lead box with Kryptonite under the table. And Mr. Gadget here will make it."

That evening Clark went home with his wife, and on the way home, they picked up their 12 year old teen-age son, Joey Kent.

"Hello dad. Hi mom."

"Did you have a nice day at school, today?"

"Yes. But the teacher did ask me to give you this note. I swear it wasn't my fault. This school bully was beating up on a little boy. What can I do? I couldn't sit by and watch the kid being beat up. "

"You had to help them," said Lois.

"Yes." He paused as he remembers how hard he hit the boy. "I hit him as hard as I could and he went flying backwards, right into a wall, few yards away. And when class got out early today, I went to the gym to practice basketball. During the practice, I found out that I had the ability to fly."

"Was anyone there?" said Clark.

"Son, we need to talk," Lois said.

During dinner, Lois and Clark ate dinner and explained to their son about how his dad came to earth and learned of his powers. Clark also taught Joey Kent how to use the other powers of his.

Two days went by and nothing newsworthy happened until Clark was summoned to interview a man on death roll who was claiming his innocence. But unknown to Clark Kent, there was a metal box stuck under the table. The security camera was rigged to broadcast the interview, live, to the thieves' hide out. Once Clark sat down at the table, the men on the other side of the camera used a remote control to open the box lid under the table. Clark soon started feeling strange and had to reschedule the interview at a later date and went right home extremely tired out. Clark didn't give a date or time before he left the interview.

The next day at work, Clark still felt a little bit sleepy but drank some coffee to wake himself up. But despise the coffee, Kent was still a little groggy. Clark yawned.

"Didn't get enough sleep, last night?" Lois asks Clark.

"Sleepy." Clark sat on the window ledge to recharge his Superman powers. "It is odd, Lois. I slept very well last night but it seems like I can't recharge myself."

"Have you seen Doctor Klein?"

"No. I'll just sleep earlier tonight."

Perry White came into the room after answering a phone call. "Clark. Chuck would like to rearrange a better time for the interview."

Clark made the appointment for three hours later. "Sure, I'll meet you there. I just have some research to finish." Unknown to Clark, the person on the other side was not the thief he was interviewing but a cleaver imitator of voices.

Near an alley way, the thief Barry used his voice to trick Clark into the alley by pretending that he was the one that Clark was interviewing.

"What are you doing here? I thought you were in prison."

"I broke out last night after you left. I couldn't take it anymore." As the figure disappeared into the alley, Clark followed despite the fact that every bone in his body told him not to. Clark needed more information on the man's story.

That was when the man took out the stone, Kranite, which was 80% Kryptonite.

Clark collapsed at the sudden exposure and blacked out.

That evening Clark walked into the house. "Hi, Hon. I'm home."

"I thought you had an interview to go to?"

"Oh that didn't take long. Shall we eat?"

But, unknown to Lois, the crooks had gotten their revenge on Superman, and had put him in a basement prison behind bars.

Clark struggled to regain consciousness from the exposure to the unknown substance that he could not see. He also began to fight to stay awake, as a sudden flash back of that fateful day that he was held captive at the basement as Diana's captive. It was then a familiar voice for Clark that spoke up for all the thieves.

"Well Clark Kent or should I say Superman. It is nice to meet you again. As you can see, I am free now, the man you put on death role. I'm not just speaking of myself. There are others here with me that would like to see you dead. And don't bother looking for the Kryptonite, it's hidden where you can't get to. But maybe now, I don't have to worry about you. You're too weak by now to even be able to open the compartment."

But as soon as Clark finished scanning the room and found out that the Kryptonite wasn't even in the room but the rays came from somewhere, he fought back the horrible feeling he had, and knew there was only one way out. He yelled "Junior!"

At Lois and Clark's home, their son heard his father's scream but was confused. His father was sitting right there next to them, eating dinner. He x-rayed what he thought was his father and found out that it was just an android.

"Mom, get back."

"What's wrong?"

"That thing is not dad."

Joey Kent took a few minutes to destroy the android and then left through the window to find his dad.

At the interview site, Clark took one attempt to reach the door, and then said, "Junior." As Clark became unconscious, Junior dove through the roof and looked at his unconscious father and said, "Dad". He took one of his father's arms and put it around his shoulder and flew off into the air.

All the crooks who were listening in on the speaker, looked through the one way glass as if they were frozen in time with the expression of amazement as they thought, "Superman has a son."

Once home, Lois helped Joey Kent put Clark to bed. He was still wearing his regular clothes without the glasses. Then, Lois called for Dr. Klein.

Five minutes later, Dr. Klein arrives at the Kent's home. "I came over as fast as I could when I heard the news. Where is he?"

"Upstairs, sleeping."

Dr. Klein went upstairs to examine the sleeping Kent. But later the news was bad.

"How is he doctor?"

"Not good. I'm afraid whatever he was exposed to has a longer lasting effect on Clark. I took some blood samples (with a Kryptonite head needle) and I should have the results by morning." But, as he was about to leave …

"Dr. Klein, tell me is it Kryptonite."

"What ever it is it is definitely is not Kryptonite."

But by morning, Superman's powers were not recharged. He was getting weaker by the moment and slipping further into a coma.

At 8 am, Dr Klein finished his tests and research and came right over to Clark's house. Dr. Klein went straight to the point. "I did some research and found out that a few months ago, we had a meteor fallout and two kinds of rocks had landed on the northern side of Canada. Anyhow, it seems like one of the rocks is called Kranite and it has the same chemical compound as the one that I've found in Clark's blood test. It seems to be blocking his ability to regenerate himself and is contaminating his blood. Unfortunately the researchers are out in California and can't give me anymore detail before the lines cut off all communication to and from Canada. They did manage to get the important sample from Canada to me before the storm". Junior walked in from the other room.

"How's Dad?"

"Bad, I'm afraid." Lois turned to introduce her son to Dr. Klein. "Junior, this is Doctor Klein. He's your dad's doctor. Dr. Klein, this is our son Joey."

"You have a son!" He paused. "I've did some studying. I have two serums here with me." Dr. Klein tried the first one but all it did was raise Clark's heart rate up. Then he tried the mushroom based serum, made of the mushroom seed that came with the Kranite, and was comparable with the mushroom seed that they had found around the site of the shuttle that baby superman came in.

At the end of the long wait for Clark to awake, Clark finally came out of the coma feeling still weak and drowsy.

"Clark, are you okay? Are you feeling better now?"

"Yeah, still a little sleepy." Then, he remembered hearing one man mention a plot to kill some children. "What day is today?"

Joey Kent replied, "The day after I found you in that basement, dad."

Clark tried to get up, but had a difficult time at it.

"Clark. You should rest."

" I have to get to that school bus before … it …" Clark sat back down after a sudden dizzy spell.

"Before what, Clark?"

"Before the bus goes over the bridge." Clark looks up at his son. "Junior, you have to go."

"Sure dad." He leaves.

"Use the red suit," commanded his mother. Junior spun into his suit and then approched the window to put on his face mask before he flew off.

Junior got there in time to stop the private school bus, bound for a nature center camp area, before it went over the bridge.

Later research revealed that there were more than ten kids on that bus that were sons and daughters of the executives of wealthy companies out in Chicago and New York. They had sent them to a small private school so they could be safe from attempted killers. Neither Superman, nor anyone on the company's executive team, seemed to remember this man.

The next day, Clark returned back to work to find out who was behind all these killings. Jimmy brought a file to Clark for him to look over. Lois pressed the answer button on her personal message answering machine on her table.

"Clark, isn't that the man you wrote a story on?"

"Yes, the evident was very convincing and it all pointed to him. I think Superman took him to jail at one time too. I believe his name is Clarence Blank."

"Well, now we have a name to the mystery voice and now to find out if he is on the wealthy company's board list, six years ago."

Joey Kent walked out of the elevator to be greeted by Perry White. "Well, look at you. I haven't seen you since you were this little."

"Yes, that was a long time ago. Excuse me, I need to go see my parents."

"Sure."

"What brings you here?" Lois asked. Joey shows his parents a detention slip.

"I have to report to detention tomorrow because I had to skip class to rescue some of the kids from that bus accident, because there was another attempt on their lives."

"Are they okay?"

"Yes, I managed to stop it."

"How come Superman wasn't there, Clark?"

"It might be the treatment that he received the other day."

But the next day at work, Clark was doing some paperwork and never heard a word that Lois had said. Clark finally looked up when Lois tapped on his shoulder. But all Clark heard was silence, even when Clark was looking at Lois and saw her lips moving without sound coming out from her mouth. After a few minutes, Clark heard everything that was outside of the newsroom. He covered his ears as he heard a siren from six miles away.

That evening, after Lois and Clark had been home for ten minutes, they were talking about what had been going on. Then the bell rang. It was Dr. Klein holding onto his suitcase of research. He showed Clark some mixed Kryptonite pills that had a lot of other nutritional value for Clark. He also showed them the mushroom that was at the site of the meteor fall out.

"Clark, remember this is only an experiment. If you start having any side effects, stop taking it." Clark took the bottles of mushroom type pills from Dr. Klein.

At a nearby park, two cops set up a sting, using one of the rich executive kids as bait.

After three hours of wait, they saw the man they were expecting to see. They caught him red handed.

But after two days in jail, the crook called one of his thugs and ask them to deliver a package to the Kent residence for him.

Two hours later, Clark came home to see a nicely wraped present on the living room table. He read the letter. "To Clark, from your wife Lois. With love."

But when Clark opened it, all he saw was a green rock that he reconized as Kryptonite. But, it did not effect Clark, which made Clark really think. Lois walked in at this moment and saw that Clark was holding the Kryptonite and shocked to see that he wasn't affected.

THE END