Flying Lessons

By Nicola Baker <Nicola@njbaker.freeserve.co.uk>

Rated: G

Submitted: May 2001

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Three indistinct forms crept along the chain-link fence surrounding the high-security, secret government warehouse. In the darkness, it was impossible to tell whether they were male or female. Suddenly, lightning cracked, making the middle figure jump. The first figure glanced back to make sure the others were all right, then continued onwards.

As the lightning cracked again and again, the figures were revealed to be two men and a woman. One man wore glasses, but he wasn't looking through them. They were perched on the end of his nose, and he was squinting through the rain towards the warehouse. This wasn't because he was long-sighted, although that would be his excuse if anyone asked. Instead, it was because his X-ray vision wouldn't work through the glasses.

Looking into the warehouse, Clark could see the guards moving around. He mentally cursed Perils insistence that he and Lois would need a photographer. With just the two of them, getting inside would be simple, but with Jimmy here it would be harder. There was no way that Clark could explain how he knew where the guards were before he could see them.

A door slammed, faintly heard over the wind and rain.

The three friends paused, each resting a hand against the fence to steady themselves. The lightning was very close now, and was coming very fast. Listening to the guards, Clark learned that that night's meeting had been cancelled. He was just thinking of a way to suggest going home that wouldn't give his secret away when a bolt of lightning came from directly above them and struck the surprised reporter squarely on the head.

***

Lois jumped in shock when the lightning hit her husband, and couldn't suppress a moment of worry for her husband's health. Almost immediately she reminded herself that Clark wasn't going to be hurt by a little lightning. She blinked a couple of times to clear her vision. Then she wondered why she wasn't fried. After all, she was touching the fence that Clark was touching when he was hit...

Lois looked at the fence speculatively. She remembered what Clark had told her about Resplendent Man, and she remembered how overwhelmed she had felt when UltraWoman first got superpowers. She felt the same now. Quickly she tried out some of the less obvious powers. She could hear Clark's heartbeat, and yes, she grinned mischievously, the X-ray vision was working. UltraWoman was back!

Clark was looking at her worriedly.

"Lois? Are you OK?" he asked quietly, trusting to the thunder to prevent the guards in the warehouse hearing.

"Yes, Clark." She looked him in the eye, trying to convey her meaning. "You could even say I feel Ultra good." He looked blank, so she glanced significantly at the fence, where three hands still rested.

Clark's eyes widened, and then the couple simultaneously looked at Jimmy.

"You OK, Jimmy?" asked Clark softly.

Jimmy looked dazed. "I think there's something wrong with my eyes, and why are you shouting? Come to think of it, why is everything so loud?"

Lois and Clark exchanged worried looks, and then Clark sighed.

"We might as well tell him, Lois. He's going to figure it out soon anyway."

Lois muttered something indistinct, and then nodded.

"What's wrong with me?" asked Jimmy plaintively. "Am I going to die?" Even as he said it, it sounded ridiculous, but he still glared at his friends when they burst out laughing.

When he stopped, Clark said, sounding deadly serious, "I doubt it, Jimmy. You have superpowers."

"I do? How did that happen?"

"Um...the lightning. Look, the meeting in there was cancelled. Let's go back to our house and we can talk about it."

Jimmy looked like he was going to ask something, but obviously decided it wasn't worth it. He shrugged his shoulders and uncomplainingly followed Lois and Clark back to the Jeep.

***

Fifteen minutes later, the three wet reporters entered the house on Hyperion Avenue. As soon as they were inside, Jimmy turned to the others and said, "Now are you going to tell me how come I have superpowers? Because, you know, I *am* quite curious."

Clark sighed again and gestured towards the couch. "This could take some time. Why don't we sit down." He noticed his wife staring at Jimmy with that look in her eyes, and then Jimmy exclaimed, "Hey! I'm dry! How?"

Lois grinned, and didn't answer, instead turning towards Clark. When he was dry too he pulled down his glasses and squinted at her, using his heat vision to return the favour.

Ignoring Jimmy's questions, Clark sat down. Lois disappeared upstairs, returning a few moments later with a gleam in her eyes that Clark recognised. He started to worry, and turned to Jimmy.

"Do you remember Resplendent Man?" When Jimmy nodded, he continued, "There was something we didn't put in that story. Several things actually. He didn't just wake up one morning with superpowers. He got them from Superman." With a little prompting from Lois, he told Jimmy the whole story. When he was finished, Jimmy was only a little less confused.

"So, what you're saying is, if Superman is struck by lightning while he's touching another person, they get his powers? But Superman wasn't there tonight, only us. I must be missing something." He paused, thinking, and then jokingly said, "Oh, hey, maybe you're Superman! Or Lois could be UltraWoman! Now there's an idea."

Jimmy looked at the expressions on the faces of his friends, and his eyes widened. "You're kidding, right? You're not kidding. Oh man! Which one of you has superpowers?"

"Originally, just me," confessed Clark, taking off his glasses. "That's how I knew the meeting had been cancelled."

Lois broke in, the excitement barely repressed in her voice, "But now, thanks to that lightning, UltraWoman is back." She stood up and spun in place, revealing the UltraWoman costume that she had found in the closet a few minutes ago.

"Oh," was all that Jimmy could say.

***

On a remote hill in the middle of nowhere a short time later, a peculiar sight would have greeted the eyes of any observers who happened to glance that way. But Clark had chosen this hill because there were no observers. That way there was less chance of accidents happening. Jimmy had as little control of his powers as Lois, and indeed Clark, had had when they first got theirs.

***

Several hours later, Jimmy had control of his powers. He could even fly reasonably well.

"Now for the fun bit." Clark grinned. "Do you want a costume?"

Jimmy nodded, and eagerly replied that he did, but where would he get one? He couldn't sew.

Lois grinned. She spun into her costume, and held out her hand to Jimmy.

"Do you remember when Superman saved the space shuttle? Amy Platt asked where he got his costume, and he said..."

"My mother made it!" exclaimed Jimmy. He looked at Clark. "Martha made your costume?"

Clark spun into his costume, and nodded. "You up for a trip to Kansas?"

Lois giggled. "Just follow the Yellow Brick Road!"

Three figures disappeared into the sky, heading west, towards the setting sun.

***

Martha Kent was heading across the farmyard towards the house when she heard joyful laughter. She looked around, trying to find the source. Suddenly a movement in the sky caught her eye, and she shouted.

"Jonathan!! Come here!" As her husband appeared on the porch behind her, she stared at the three figures coming towards them, swooping and diving, tumbling around each other in mid- air. Martha's first thought was that the New Kryptonians had come back, but these figures were having too much fun for that. The figures were closer now, and the bemused couple could see that one of them was their son.

The three human birds seemed to sense that they were being watched, because they stopped tumbling, and looked towards the farm. And then they were there, landing grandly, two capes billowing in the breeze.

Jonathan and Martha looked at one another in puzzlement, and then turned to greet their guests.

"Hello, Superman. UltraWoman? We haven't seen you for a long time. Jimmy? When did you learn to fly?"

Clark just grinned. "Hi, Mom, hi, Dad. We had a little bit of an accident with some lightning."

***

The Daily Planet newsroom was as noisy as ever. On the bank of TVs, the news was playing. Reporters were rushing in and out, chasing leads. Researchers were carrying thick folders to and from the Records room. Lois and Clark were in Perry's office discussing their next assignment.

Three heads snapped up, cocked to one side, with almost identical expressions on the faces. Jimmy glanced round to find the rest of the team. Listening to the fire chief on the radio, he nodded. This sounded big. He got up.

"Lois, Clark, phone call on line two!" he stuck his head into Perry's office and rescued his friends. They hastily made their excuses to Perry, and the three reporters headed for the stairwell.

***

Jimmy looked up from the paper he was reading. Seeing Lois and Clark, he asked, "Does it get any less weird?"

Clark looked at the paper, and saw the headlines, "UltraWoman Returns" by Lois Lane, and "Third Mysterious Superhero" by James Olsen. He chuckled.

"Writing about yourself? No. But wait 'till the tabloids come up with something. Then *reading* about yourself can get really interesting."

The three reporters, friends, and sometime superheroes dissolved into laughter, and went back to work. Life could only get more interesting.

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