An Odd Place to Find Oneself

Chapter 7: Dreamsville

Clark sighed and scratched the back of his neck. "Well, I...I guess what we need to do is...try to get some specifics nailed down. Like, when was the first time you noticed any...an...annnny..."

Clark suddenly shook his head vigorously. "Ugh! What...what's happening?"

Wait...did he actually say that, or just think it, or...

"Clark! Clark, we're...we're moving!"

It was Lois' voice. And she was right.

"Aaahh!" Clark yelled involuntarily as currents of...currents of something seemed to swirl about him, and then seemed to push him upward...then downward...then somewhere else...

He should've been getting sick right now, considering his de-Supermanification, but he wasn't.

"S-Superman! What's going on?!" he yelled desperately, not even knowing why, exactly.

"H-how should I know?!" Superman said. But Clark couldn't see him. It was like...he couldn't see anything. Everything around him was changing. The surroundings - what were their surroundings, anyway? Clark didn't think he knew to begin with. And yet it was like they had just been ripped apart, dissolved, and carried away in a current of...whatever it was that was affecting him, Lois and Superman.

Everything - everything was moving. Collapsing. Dissolving. The very fabric of reality was being ripped apart and shifted around. Yet for some reason, Clark wasn't panicked - even though, by all accounts, he should've been.

Somehow, he didn't feel like he was in danger. He couldn't see Lois or Superman, but he wasn't worried about them. Somehow, he felt like he was...in the hands of someone he trusted.

...Jimmy. Jimmy Olsen.

Clark could still see Jimmy Olsen, or...something. He wasn't really seeing him, exactly, but somehow, he was just there. He was...he was all around him.

Okaaayyyy...this is just weird, Clark thought. And yet...it was comforting, somehow.

Clark could tell now that anything vaguely resembling the physical had disappeared. Lois, Superman, his own body...it was all gone.

Clark blinked. Or at least, he thought about blinking.

Why...why does this seem so familiar?

He felt something...he felt...

Lois! Lois! There you are!

Clark! Clark, it's good to see...you...

Why do I get the feeling this has happened before? Lois said.

That's...that's just what I was thinking, Clark said.

Clark felt like he and Lois were being carried somewhere, to some new place...but so far, he wasn't as freaked out as he thought he should be. So far it was pretty relaxing...

Suddenly, Clark felt as though he was being pressed through a sieve. Ak...! Lois...!

No, he - he lost her -

Whaa - ?!

Clark was suddenly surrounded by...by...random stuff. There was no other way to describe it.

He saw a stegosaurus, a large boy yanking some string cheese from the hands of a redheaded kid, Clifford the Big Red Dog, a bunch of people he'd never seen before, a bunch of people he had seen before...

But the weirdest part of all was that, while all this was going on, he felt he was re-experiencing several scenes from his life. Simultaneously.

There was the first time he met Jimmy, the first time he ate lunch with Jimmy, the first time he covered a story with Jimmy, the first time he gave Jimmy a birthday gift...

Picking up a bit of a theme here, Clark thought.

The events just kept coming, and all of them involved, well, Jimmy. And they kept getting more and more recent. There was that time they got hamburgers and Jimmy's had moldy cheese on it, that Halloween they dressed up as Batman and Robin, that time last month when they played Yahtzee together and ate a delicious corn-flake casserole…

Then…there was…him walking into a metal booth…metal headgear clamping itself around him…and then…th-then…

Something like blackness enveloped Clark, and simultaneously, he felt that he was moving somewhere else again.

Suddenly, he felt something. L…Lois?

Clark! Oh, thank goodness…now where are we…

I…I don't…knowwww…

Clark found himself bursting through a door, Lois by his side. Immediately, Jimmy turned to look at them from his desk where he was sitting.

"Clark? Lois? You're…you're okay!" He leaped out of his chair and excitedly ran to meet them, smiling broadly.

"Ha ha, I-I guess so, Jimmy," Clark said, hugging his pal.

Professor Hamilton walked in. "They suddenly woke up from their comas! I…I don't know how to explain it, but they're completely alright!"

We were in comas…? Clark thought. Ah, just roll with it, he quickly told himself. He didn't know why; it seemed like a strange thing to think, and yet it's what came to mind.

"Oh, man! Wow! It's so good to see you guys!" Jimmy said, hugging Lois next. Lois smiled at Jimmy, but then gave Clark a "what-the-heck-is-going-on" look.

Clark just shrugged.

"Pr-Professor!" Reginald said excitedly. "I think it's working! Look at the monitors!"

"Oh?" Hamilton looked over at a screen on one of the machines hooked up to Jimmy. A slightly unsettling grin crept across his face. "Ah, yes. It does look promising."

"Do you think we can get them out of there? Now?" Reginald asked.

Hamilton rubbed his hands together. "It's worth a try."