Group Therapy

By Shayne Terry  <byron212@yahoo.com >

Rated: PG

Submitted: October 2006  __________

He couldn't take his eyes off them. The cartoon and the  black-and-white man, the sullen teenager, the young man with the  wooden facial expressions and the tall one. Each of them claimed  to be Clark Kent, and yet not one of them looked at all like  him.

The cartoon was the worst. Somehow he managed to be two  dimensional in a three dimensional world. Clark found himself  looking for the edge, but from the side he was perfectly  invisible. Worse, he was the only one in the Superman suit,  although Clark could see that three of the others were wearing  them under their clothes. The teenager had nothing but boxers.

Trapped in a white room, each of them had tried the door only to  find it locked and impervious to their abilities. Clark's X-ray  vision worked within the confines of the room, but he couldn't  make anything out outside the walls. He saw expressions on the  faces of the others that led him to think they had come to the  same conclusion.

The black-and-white man sat heavily in his seat. His clothes were  vintage forties, as was his haircut. He was thicker in the jaw  than the others, and Clark wondered if that was what happened to  Kryptonians as they got older. He might have to slow down on the  Twinkies.

"This is obviously a plot by Luthor." The tall man with the  piercing blue eyes spoke suddenly, his expression intense.

Most of the others nodded, though Clark noted that the teenager  seemed surprised.

"The Luthor of my world is dead," Clark said quietly. "And it  doesn't seem like his style to bring all of us together like  this."

"I can't imagine that Lex would be able to do all of this," the  teenager murmured, staring at the cartoon once again. "Even if he  wanted to."

"I'm guessing that we come from parallel worlds," Clark said  quietly. "I've dealt with things like this before."

"How do I know that you aren't all just imposters?" The cartoon  spoke finally. He seemed as fascinated by the side view of  everyone else as they did of him.

"They'd have made us look alike if they wanted to create fake  Supermen," Clark said with some feeling of authority. "I've had  to deal with clones before."

"I mostly dealt with gangsters and mad scientists," the  black-and-white man spoke again. He'd been looking more and more  glum. He looked up hopefully. "Maybe this was all just an  accident, an experiment gone wrong."

"Then what about this room?" Clark asked. "If it was an accident,  we'd be able to push our way through the door."

Glancing at the wooden-faced man beside him, the blue-eyed, tall  man said, "This has gone on long enough."

He leapt to his feet and charged toward the door, moving at an  incredible speed. Even to Clark's special vision, he moved so  fast he was a blur.

The door exploded, but the tall man came flying backward. He hit  Clark, and Clark was stunned by the impact.

He was stunned, and it took a moment before he realized that the  blue-eyed man was already on his feet and holding out a hand to  him.

"Sorry about that," the man said. He turned his head slightly and  said, "But at least we've learned something."

The force of the impact had caused the entire front end of the  room to collapse. On the other side of the wall was a sight Clark  had hoped to never see again.

They were moving along the time stream.

**************

The expressionless man handed over the picture.

Clark stared at it for a moment, feeling a moment of heartache.  "He's cute. How old is he?"

"He's five. Lois named him Jason."

"So you and Lois are together?" Clark asked quietly. It was  painful, knowing that he would never have a child of his own.

The other man shook his head. "I left her for five years. She  hasn't quite forgiven me."

Clark blinked. "I'd have thought Lois would be able to find Clark  Kent anywhere on the planet...."

"I went back to Krypton."

That got the attention of everyone else in the room.

Seeing the dawning hope in some of the others eyes, the  wooden-faced man shook his head. "There were no survivors. It was  a dead planet."

************

"I just don't understand how you could have slept with her  without telling her who you were." Clark shook his head. "I could  never do that."

"You asked her to marry her without telling her..."

"That's different. I would have told her before we got married."

"I erased her memory." The blue-eyed man spoke suddenly, looking  troubled. "It was tearing her apart that we couldn't be  together."

"I still don't understand why you couldn't..." Clark felt  frustrated. The expressionless man and the blue-eyed man seemed  to have trouble understanding the idea of a personal life. They  seemed to think they were above humanity, apart from it.

They didn't seem to understand that Superman was a man before he  had ever been super.

The teenager spoke for the first time. "I don't understand why  you all seem to be obsessed with Lois Lane. If she's anything  like my Lois, she's pigheaded, arrogant, determined, obsessive  and annoying."

For once, Clark found himself nodding in unison with the other  four men in the room. "Danger-prone too."

He grinned. "So you know Lois already, do you?"

Clark wondered for a moment what it might have been like, knowing  Lois as a teenager.

"Lana Lang is the love of my life," the teenager said stubbornly.  "I don't care what you say."

"I knew a time traveler once," Clark said, "who said that in  every world he'd been to with a Clark Kent, there was a Lois Lane  that he loved."

The teenager shook his head again, staring at the floor.

****************

"So you got Lois to marry you." The cartoon sat down beside him,  turned slightly so that Clark could see him.

Nodding, Clark said, "I asked her out on a date as Clark. It  really does wonders."

He could hear the teenager in the background muttering to  himself.

*************

Clark wondered how long it would be before someone came to the  rescue. This cube, at least, did not seem to be shrinking, and  luckily none of them seemed to have a need to eat, but the  boredom was starting to get to them all.

The cartoon was speaking again. "The League has to know I'm  missing by now. They'll get us out of here as soon as Batman  figures out how to do it."

The whole idea of other super-powered heroes was mind boggling.  It might have been nice to have had some help, although some of  the villains the cartoon talked about Clark didn't like the sound  of at all. This Darkseid character, for example.

"We should try to figure out who might have done this to us," he  said suddenly. "It might give us a chance when we get to the end  of our journey."

**************

"So our best bets are Darkseid, General Zod, Mxyzptlk, or some  random scientist," Clark said, nodding toward the black-and-white  man, "or my own enemy, Tempus."

After a moment of thought, Clark shook his head. "If it was  Tempus, he'd have found a way to let us hear him gloating by now,  although this does look a bit like the kind of time cube he  placed me in once."

"Darkseid might want to take over several dimensions at once,"  the cartoon said quietly. "But I'm not sure why he would leave us  alive."

"Zod would have loved to trap me in the Phantom Zone," the  blue-eyed man said. "But why he'd want the rest of you, I'm not  sure."

The teenager was silent for a long moment before saying, "I think  I might know something."

Seeing that he had the attention of the others, he hesitated,  then said, "I was feeling pretty let down after my last breakup  with Lana. I know it was the twelfth time, but it hurts every  time. I found myself in the Talon...our local coffee shop alone.

"There was a girl behind the counter that I'd never seen before,  and I may have said something I shouldn't."

The black-and-white man placed a reassuring hand on the boy's  shoulder. "Go on, son."

"It all started a little like this."

***********

"So you're saying that every choice we make--every choice  everybody makes--creates an entirely new universe."

The blonde woman, Anya, nodded. "Every choice you've made and  those of the people before you. In some worlds the laws of  physics are completely different because of a small change during  the big bang."

The teenager frowned at her and wondered if he'd had enough  sleep.

"So there are other versions of me out there, versions who lived  whole different lives and made whole different choices."

"Some of them don't even look like you at all," the woman nodded,  smiling. She leaned forward. "Every bad choice you've ever made,  there's a you that made a different choice."

The boy shook his head gloomily. Some of the choices he'd made,  the regrets he'd had...  "I wish I could see that."

"Wish granted." The woman's face shifted, the bones under her  skin altering, becoming something monstrous.

*************

"So that's it," Clark said. "You wished for it and it came true."  He couldn't help the skepticism in his own voice.

The boy nodded glumly. "I can see now that I'm a screw-up no  matter where I go."

"What?" Clark asked.

The boy nodded toward the blue-eyed man and his expressionless  companion. "Those guys don't think they can be human beings.  They've cut themselves off from everybody. I‘m lonely, but  them...." He shuddered.

He glanced at the cartoon. "You too, though not as much."

The black-and-white man said, "Son..."

"You've been in love with Lois Lane and you've never been able to  say anything about it."

The boy shook his head and turned to Clark. "You're the only one  who has the kind of life I think I might like, and it's too late  for me. Your dad is still alive...you've always been a good  person. Me...I've screwed up more often than I want to think  about. I've hurt people, done things I'm ashamed of. All of you  seem proud of the cape, but I don't think I'm ever going to be a  good enough person to live up to what it stands for."

"There's always time for a second chance," Clark said. "You just  have to want to change."

The black-and-white man nodded, and the others nodded as well.  They gathered together, offering their support.

"Being Superman isn't about what you are...it's about who you  are," Clark said.

******************

It seemed like they talked for days, though objectively it was  probably only hours. Clark discovered that, despite their  differences, there were things about his life that these men  understood in ways that no one else did.

Slowly, he felt something release inside himself, and he noticed  the teenager beginning to look more relaxed as well.

They were surprised when the cube finally came to a halt and the  far side of the room gathered in darkness.

A red-skinned creature stepped out of the darkness, and Clark  slowly rose to his feet.

The figure cleared its throat and spoke. "I...um...I'm sorry  about all this," he addressed the boy. "Anyanka didn't realize  you weren't human, or she never would have granted that wish.  Alien wishes are somebody else's department. You are all free to  go."

**********

Clark woke up with his head in Lois's lap, the remains of their  meal spread out around them. He stared up at her for a moment,  feeling absurdly grateful that he had her in his life.

The thought of living like some of his counterparts...always  seeing her but never being together would have been his own  special version of hell.

"You've been asleep for an hour, sleepyhead," Lois said, laughing  gently. She ran her hand slowly through his hair. "I think my  legs are getting a little numb."

Clark pushed himself up to a sitting position.

It had all been a dream.

He should have known, the moment he saw the cartoon.

"I have some news for you," she said. "I took the test today,  three times. I'm pregnant."

He blinked for a moment, stunned. "I thought Dr. Klein said that  we weren't compatible?"

"I know," Lois said quietly. "I guess he was wrong."

She pulled a piece of paper out from the basket beside her. "The  test results are here. You can look at them yourself."

Clark glanced down at them, then blinked. On a white piece of  paper, words began to form.

"Sorry about the inconvenience. Hope this helps, Anyanka."

The paper changed again, and a moment later it was the test  results Lois had obviously been expecting him to see. Clark  hesitated a moment, then hugged her.

Life could be worse.

*******************

The teenager woke, his head against the counter in a puddle of  drool. He shook his head, then blinked as the woman appeared  before him

"You've been here all night, Smallville. I'd have thought Lana  would have at least woken you up."

"I must have been out of it, Lois," Clark said. He'd had such a  strange dream. Five men just like him, all of whom were obsessed  with Lois Lane. He wondered for a moment what they saw in her.

She was infuriating, sure, and pretty, but...

"Would you like to go and get some breakfast?" he asked  abruptly.

She looked surprised, but finally shrugged her shoulders and  said, "The Talon doesn't open for another hour anyway. Sure. I'm  sick of donuts."

And in this world it started, as it had in all the others. For  every Clark there was a Lois, for every Lois, a Clark.

The universe hummed its contentment.

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