Popular Demand
by Christy2 <iwoohooo@cs.com
Rated PG
Submitted March 2001
________________________________________
This idea came to me because I was annoyed with how the clone arc dragged on
and on, and because I was in the need of writing some comedy!  It takes
place directly following the clone's and Lex's deaths in the subway.
Thanks to the people on Zoomway's boards who gave feedback.  Hope you enjoy. :)
 
POPULAR DEMAND

Superman stumbled through the wrecked-and-still-wrecking subway, clutching
Lois's shoulders and trying his hardest to protect her from the falling
debris, despite his own weakened state.

If he learned nothing else from this experience, he thought as he stumbled
over a pile of cinder blocks, he now knew for sure that Lex Luthor was not a
nice person.  However, Clark had to say one thing for the man: he was a
fighter.  Clark could only hope, even though it wasn't very kind, that Lex
stayed dead this time.  Clark was getting extremely tired of having his and
Lois's life interrupted by one 'bad guy' or the other, and it was even worse
when the bad guy happened to be Clark's arch nemesis.

Clark and Lois came to the point where Lois's clone had said Martha was tied
up, but Clark didn't see her anywhere.  He quickly went over the clone's
directions in his mind, and he knew this had to be the place.  However, he
didn't have time to examine the area further, as the ceiling was crumbling even
faster now.  He could only pray that Martha had found her own way out.

Reluctantly leaving without his mother, he headed towards what he hoped was
the exit.  The air around them was hazy with all the smoke from the fallen
concrete, and Clark could barely see through it. Since he definitely wasn't
feeling 100% after Lex blasted him with that laser, Clark tried to suck in a
deep breath and hold it.  However, this only caused him to erupt into a
coughing fit, and so he decided it would be better to just concentrate on
escaping.

Finally, the dark, mysterious haze gave way to a slightly lighter mysterious
haze, and Clark decided that must be the way to outside.  Just a few more
steps...
Suddenly, Clark felt that Lois might be in danger, and so he looked for what
could be the problem.  However, he quickly found that might not have been a
good idea, because when he looked up, he was met with a very large, very
unfriendly chunk of cement.  It hit him square in the face, and he fell to
the ground, Lois falling beside him.

The haze grew continuously thicker until all that he saw was darkness.

* * *

Wanda was having another one of those falling dreams.  Well, actually, she
couldn't really remember the last time she had had a falling dream, but she
knew she was having one now.  One moment she was leaning on a big, brawny,
bright man, and the next moment she was hurtling towards the ground.

She jerked up with a start, thoroughly confused.  She had been dreaming,
hadn't she?  She looked around.  She was outside somewhere in the bright
sunlight, and lo and behold, beside her lay a big, brawny, bright man.  She
blinked her eyes a few times, wondering if she could perhaps still be
dreaming, but she soon realized she wasn't.

She sat up slowly, her head pounding.  Curiously, she poked the man beside
her, wondering if he were still alive.  What was it Kent had called him?
Superman?  Well, he didn't look so super right now.  Actually, if Wanda had
had the chance to name him, she would have called him Adorableman. He was
lying on his stomach, his head turned towards her and his bright red cape
billowing out over him.  His eyes were closed, and looked as if he were only
sleeping.  Wanda certainly hoped so, because if he *were* dead, it would
have been a terrible waste of a superb male specimen.

Wanda immediately felt horrible for thinking these thoughts; after all,
Kent, the love of her life, had just died!  However, much to her
embarrassment, she felt...empty.  Not empty like the better half of her had
just passed away, but empty emotionally.  Like maybe Kent really wasn't the
man for her.  She had always thought her life would be perfect if Kent loved
her, but when he did, things hadn't turned out the way she had expected.

Adorableman stirred beside her, and she sat waiting expectantly.  His eyes 
fluttered a few times before he groaned, then his vision focused on her.  He 
didn't say anything, but he rose up on his knees so he was leaning on the palms 
of his hands.  He sat up all the way, cradling his head in one hand.

"Hey, you okay?" Wanda asked.  He stared at her blankly for a few moments.

"Unhh..."

"We never got properly introduced inside.  I'm Wanda De-" she faltered
mid-name, wondering briefly why 'Wanda Detroit' sounded so strange.

"Wanda D?" he echoed.

"Wanda Detroit," she finished, more strongly.  He repeated her name again,
and she sent him a long look.  "You got a name?  Kent called you-"

He cut her off smoothly. "Charles. Charles King.  It's a pleasure."

* * *

Charles shifted awkwardly within his tight leather pants and expensive
leather jacket.  He wasn't used to performing, or to the stage.  Not for the
first time that night, he wondered how Wanda had managed to talk him into
this.  The past one and a half days all seemed like such a blur to him.
Well actually, they were probably the clearest memories he had.  Everything
before then was so hazy that he really didn't remember much at all.  He
liked to blame this on the fact that his life hadn't really started until he
met Wanda, which, quite frankly, seemed like the truth.

He remembered waking up to Wanda's face and finding himself dressed in some
crazy red, yellow, and blue spandex outfit.  She quickly helped him find
some normal clothes, and he remembered his insistence that he needed to wear
glasses.  This was still mind-boggling to him, since he seemed able to see
well with or without them, but something in his mind just told him that they
were a required accessory.

But then somehow, Wanda had convinced him to perform at the club with her.
So what if he had a great voice?  He wasn't the type to get up on stage.  At
least, he didn't think he was.  He didn't really recall any high school
plays in his befuddled brain, but then, he hardly remembered high school.

"Mr. King," a screechy voice called to him from outside his dressing room.
"You're on next."

He took a deep breath and ran a hand through his gelled hair.  He was doing
this for Wanda.  He just needed to keep telling himself that.
Wanda met him just off the stage.  "Nervous?" she asked in her normal low,
sultry voice.

"Of course not," he replied confidently, running a hand through his hair.

"Good.  We're up next."

From the stage, Charles heard the act previous to theirs end, and then the
announcer stepped up to the microphone.

"Now, let me welcome back, by popular demand, Wanda Detroit! And her new
partner, Charles King!"

The lights dimmed as Charles and Wanda stepped out.  There was a bit of
applause, and then the room became silent.  Charles took a deep breath and
held his microphone tightly.  The band began playing softly, and Charles
counted the seconds until he came in.

5...4...3... The music erupted into the hard rock music that Charles was so
used to.  2... He smiled confidently over at Wanda.

"On the day I was born, the nurses all gathered round, and they gazed in
wide wonder, at the joy they had found," he started deeply.  Wanda gave him
her cocky half smile, then began singing.

"The head nurse spoke up, said 'leave this one alone'.  She could tell right
away..."

"That I was bad to the bone." As the song continued, Charles shed his jacket
to reveal a white muscle tee, and he threw the jacket to the side of the
stage. He and Wanda carried through the song perfectly together, and Charles
knew that he had finally found his calling.  Here, with Wanda on stage.

The song finished sooner than Charles would have liked, and as the audience
applauded them, he followed Wanda off the stage.  Once they were out of
sight of the audience, Wanda turned to him with a big smile.

"You did great, I knew you were born to perform."

"You're the one that convinced me to do it."

They stepped closer together, and being the bold man he was, Charles slipped
his arms around Wanda's shoulders and dipped down to kiss her.  She
responded to him, deepening the kiss. Something like electricity flowed
between them.
It was like he had just been hit on the head with a cement block.  Clark
stepped back from her, bewildered.

"Lois?" he questioned, extremely confused at just what he was doing.
Lois shook her head a few times, trying to clear it.  She felt as if she had
just slammed her head against a fire hydrant.  Her vision blurred for a
second, and then it cleared to reveal Clark looking down at her, his face a
mixture of worry and confusion.

"What happened?  What are we doing here?" She stepped back, and gave Clark a
good once-over.  "And what are you wearing?" She gaped at his leather pants
and tight-nearly-see-through white muscle tee.

Clark looked down at himself.  "I don't know.  Where are we?"

A man suddenly walked up to them and clapped them both on the shoulder.
"Great job Wanda, Charles.  You had the audience intrigued.  Now, how can I
set you up to perform tomorrow night?"

Clark's mouth suddenly dropped open and the color drained from his face.  He
remembered everything from the past two days, including...

"Did I just sing 'Bad to the Bone' on stage in front of a lot of people?" he
asked Lois, quietly but urgently.

Lois nodded sadly, remembering also.  "I think you did.  We both did."

Clark rubbed the bridge of his nose over his glasses.  The color had 
returned to his face, which was becoming bright red.  "Can we get out 
of here?  Please?"

Someone tapped him on his shoulder, and he turned around.  Martha and
Jonathon were standing behind them. Martha stepped forward, clapping her
hands on Clark's shoulders. "I found another exit from the subway, and when
I came outside and couldn't find you, I thought you had died!  We've been
looking for you two for the past two days, and when we heard Wanda Detroit
and some mysterious partner were going to be singing here tonight, we came
down as fast as we could.  I never thought I would see you here like this!
We were so worried!  Why did you do this to us?"

"I'm sorry, Mom.  We didn't mean to..."

"I certainly didn't mean to be here!" Lois said, feeling strangely exposed
in front of all these people who knew her, but whom she didn't know.

"Let's just get out of here," Clark said, grabbing Lois's arm and walking
towards the exit.  When they were outside, Lois looked at the bar one last 
time; then she clutched Clark's arm even harder.

"Wanda Detroit," she said under her breath, "has left the building.  For
good."

The End