"That's the situation in full." Clark leaned forward. He rested his hands between his knees, looking between the two of them. His delivery was flat, a debrief rather than a confession. "During the fight with Titano, I took multiple hits from the kryptonite eye beams. The weakness was significant. But it was also familiar, in a way I couldn't immediately account for." He paused. "Not like the few times I've encountered kryptonite before. Magic and certain scientific methods affect me too, but the people capable of that are just as rare."
"Then what made it familiar?" Jude asked.
"I didn't understand it until Lois screamed."
A short silence.
"Which makes sense," Jude said. "Anyone would scream if they were caught in the fist of a giant irradiated chimpanzee on a Metropolis rooftop."
"Yes. But her voice, the pitch of it, connected something." Clark looked directly at Jude. "What I've been hearing in you isn't background noise. It's a scream. Another version of Lois, in pain. And with it, another version of me."
Silence stretched between them. Jude's expression dropped. "You heard our conversation with Bruce this afternoon," he said.
"I didn't try to," Clark said. "But yes."
"Then you know the relevant parts. Another universe. Multiple parallel worlds. I can move between them."
"That's what I need to ask you about." Clark's voice remained steady, pitched with a low, tight urgency. "How many parallel universes are there?"
"For you, unknowable. For me, effectively infinite."
"Then somewhere out there, while traveling back and forth, you absorbed information from other universes. Passing through, reading them without contact. That's what I'm hearing in you, carried in whatever way you carry these things across."
Jude paused. He nearly said he didn't remember anything like that, but the more honest answer required a check first.
System, did I pick up anything like that when I came back?
System: The most recent smuggling attempt failed. However, prior to arriving in this universe, you had already processed a significant volume of information and story data from across the DC multiverse. This constitutes a form of contact. Due to the one-dimensional separation involved, this is classified as one-way information reading. The source universes remain unaware.
So Clark, Jude thought, has been hearing echoes of other universes through me, passively, just because I read them. His hearing is sensitive enough to pick up cross-universal signal bleed.
What are the odds that the most sensitive ears on the planet happen to be standing next to me in a Gotham cemetery? Right. The matching mechanism. Nothing is a coincidence.
"You're certain," Jude said, "that what you heard was another version of yourself and another version of Lois. In pain."
Clark nodded.
"Then." Clark met Jude's gaze without blinking. "Can you take someone with you when you cross between universes? I want to go. I want to find that Lois and that version of me and help them."
Jude considered the logistics. Taking Superman to another universe isn't technically complicated. The smuggling skill can carry passengers. The group transit option exists. The Flash's account settled itself yesterday when Barry returned home. Superman's hasn't been opened yet. The standard approach probably applies—smuggling, until a mission formalizes the arrangement.
Unless—
System: New Part-Time Assignment Available
A World Without Light
In every story across every universe, Superman is a symbol of hope. He carries strength, courage, kindness—every quality the word human can mean at its best, gathered together and handed to a single person.
Even in the stories where he goes wrong, someone is always there to bring him back. A sufficiently terrible enemy. A sufficiently honest fight. Another version of himself who remembered who he was.
So when Superman truly dies—not defeats, not falls, not fails—when he is simply and finally gone: what happens to the hope?
Note: Superman has always been better at saving others than at watching tragedy unfold in front of him. This time, he flew toward the sound of another version of himself and another Lois, crying out across two universes. Across that distance, the people of tomorrow still have to build tomorrow.
Status: Pending (0%)
Rewards: Metahuman Friendship, Enhanced Physical Abilities
"I'll do it," Jude said immediately.
He couldn't find a reason to say no, not to Clark, and not to what the system was asking.
Batman remained silent throughout the exchange. His eyes tracked the conversation, categorizing the new variables into operational data. His expression gave nothing away.
"You mean it?" Clark's face broke into an uncomplicated, broad smile. He pulled Jude into a hug, his strength carefully calibrated this time. "You're the best. Truly."
"Don't make me regret it in the next thirty seconds," Jude said. "What do we need to prepare? What's the first step?"
"Good question." Jude addressed the interface internally. System, are we smuggling across again?
System: The destination for this assignment is atypical. Standard illegal transit is not recommended. Standard authorized transit is also not recommended. Full disclosure: the system's recommendation is that you do not go to the destination.
Jude stared. What kind of universe rates a 'do not go' from the system?
System: Warning. The target location for this assignment is the Dark Multiverse.
System: Additional warning. The target is one of the Dark Multiverses—the Death of Superman Universe.
System: Searching for information...
System: Search complete. Primary information source: you.
In this universe: Superman and Doomsday killed each other. Hundreds of thousands of civilians died in the battle's aftermath. Lex Luthor died. Ares died. Black Adam died. Deathstroke died. The Parasite died. The League of Assassins was wiped out. The Rogues were wiped out. Every major criminal organization on Earth was destroyed.
The Joker died. Batman died. Superboy died.
Hank Henshaw, the Cyborg Superman, died.
Superman later resurrected through the Life Matrix.
"They're all dead?"
Jude sat with that for a moment. He had read about the Dark Multiverse. He understood it conceptually—the broken universes, the failed timelines, the worlds that existed because they were meant to end. He just hadn't fully internalized what meant to end looked like when the numbers tallied up.
That was what it looked like.
How do you even begin to intervene in something like that?
System: Recommendation. Activate a third-party universe for indirect intervention.
Third-party universe selected.
The Boys universe is now connected.
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