Work Text:
Rachel Maxwell was sitting on the outbound train from Metropolis to Gotham. Flying to Gotham was always a coin toss if the plane would land immediately or circle the city until one of its bad guys were contained. The train was easier and Gotham Central Station was build with safety precautions. You could be in the station but with several amnesties and safety features.
Besides the time difference was only 45 minutes.
She closed her eyes and was ready to grab her headphones. Suddenly it felt like she was moving. She turned back and saw a tall man with glasses putting away his luggage. He sat down. Like a bad tv show she realized a bomb was under his seat. It exploded as he sat down.
The fire spread through out the car. The couple behind her screamed for less than half a second before it engulfed them. Rachel screamed and tried to block the flames with her arms futilely. She felt the shrapnel enter her arm then the flames. The fire burned her throat and lungs before it went dark.
Rachel came back to herself. She turned and saw the tall man with glasses putting up his luggage.
“STOP! There’s a bomb! A bomb! I swear there’s a bomb! We’re gonna die! We’re gonna die!!” The man with glasses walked to her.
“Hey, lets take deep breaths. In and out.” He said softly.
“We need to get out of here!” She screamed and ran out. The couple behind her got up and she knew they were going to get a train attendant. They got off and quickly got to the person on the platform. The man with glasses was following looking concerned. He still had his luggage in hand when the train suddenly blew.
Rachel screamed. The couple screamed. The man with the glasses stared in surprise. He blinked then laughed nervously. The police came and swarmed the platform.
Rachel was taken in for questioning. The hours and hours of questioning came. Her answer was doubted. Rachel claimed a vision had saved them but she wasn’t a meta human. No one in her family was meta human. She hadn’t had any accident to make her one.
Her alibis saved her. She had a regular office job with security cameras. They all pointed to her being in office for the last week. The train had just come in from Kentucky. She wouldn’t have had time to place the bomb.
Rachel went home.
She turned to the internet for answers.
Why had she been given a vision?
Forums in the most obscure of the internet gave her a vague answer. Several year old posts asking what to do with the visions. The fact that people were suddenly dying in the order of their visions. Rachel swallowed.
She’d pissed off Death by stopping the bomb killing them. It wouldn’t stop until it got them all and would start with the man with the glasses.
The man with the glasses was surprisingly easy to find, Clark Kent of the Daily Planet. She had to warn him. He was going to die. They had to stop Death. They had to find a way to stop it.
Maybe the Justice Gang would know what to do. If she could get them to believe her. First she had to try and save Clark Kent.
Clark was having a weird day. First his electric razor had tripped him and caused him to hit his head against his sink. He had to replace that later.
On his commute to the Planet he end up tripping down the stairs and slamming his head against the railing, denting it. Luckily, no one had really noticed it. He quickly went to his train car.
Everything was okay until lunch. Cat was excitedly talking with her hands about the latest lead she had. She had a knife in her hand. She put it down for one moment. Jimmy had stumbled and put out his hand to brace himself. His hand hit the knife handle. It ended up launching the knife directly at Clark. It stabbed through his shirt just under his armpit. His new shirt had a hole in it already.
Everyone fussed over him.
Clark sighed. He excused himself to the bathroom and used a change of clothes he had at the office. Not like he didn’t have plenty of experience doing that.
Everyone thought he had IBS so they never really asked about it after it was ‘known’ why he vanished at a moments notice to the bathroom sometimes. In all honestly Clark would be more annoyed if it wasn’t the most convenient excuse. People didn’t want to embarrass him to bring it up.
Clark washed his hands in the sink when he heard a crack overhead. He looked up and saw one of the overhead light’s screws fall down. It started swinging. Okay, guess he should fix that. He looked out briefly with his X-ray vision. No one was coming. He quickly grabbed the screw, flew up and fixed the light.
That was the last of the weird things that day at least.
The next day his trip to Gotham was back on. He was taking a car from the Daily Planet. He had an interview with Bruce Wayne. Luckily Wayne had been kind enough to reschedule this interview given the bomb incident.
Lois was with him.
“You got everything? Keys, money, decoy money? Itinerary for the hotel? Computer?”
“Shoot, I forgot my laptop. I knew I forgot something.” Lois laughed.
“I’ll get it for you. By the way your shoe’s untied.” She said and turned back to the elevator. Clark looked down at his shoe. That was odd. His laces almost never came lose. He usually heard that.
He bent down and went to tie them. He heard the twang of something as he kneeled. He tied the knot. He looked up. The delivery truck next to him was rolling at him. Clark put up his hand and stopped it. Huh, guess that was the brake line. He pushed it back. He flew to get something to keep it in place. There.
Lois came out as he was done.
“You playing mechanic?”
“The brake line broke. It was rolling toward me. Imagine if it had hit someone else.” He said. Lois made a soft ‘huh’.
“I’ll let Perry know. Here’s your laptop.”
“Thanks. See you later. I’ll call you tonight.” He leaned down to kiss her. The lights above them flickered. He heard a screw come loose again. Clark pushed Lois back and caught the light fixture as it came down. “Get Perry to check out the lights. I was almost hit by another one in the bathroom yesterday.” She said.
“I will. Let that break. We can tell Perry it almost hit us.”
“Okay.” He agreed and let it drop with force. “See you later.”
“Bye, Clark.”
Clark headed out. Maybe he’d walked under a ladder or something. Ma always said bad luck came in batches. What was the cure again? He’d have to call Ma.
During his trip to Gotham, he really made it a point to call ma after a semi crashed into this car. He was fine of course. A robber shot him and took his dinner. Bruce Wayne tripped and stabbed him with a letter opener. It ‘luckily’ broke and Wayne was too mortified to ask anymore questions about that.
What a ridiculous trip.
He sent his report to Perry and decided to go home for the weekend. As he flew up into the air he was hit by a passenger flight that was going down.
Oh come on! Yeah he needed a break in Kansas. Ma and Pa would be great for grounding him.
Rachel Maxwell had gotten an interview with Mr. Terrific. She hadn’t found Clark Kent. She wasn’t sure where he was. His work wasn’t giving her any information.
“Hello, Ms. Maxwell. I read your report. You believe Death is targeting you and the passengers of the train car you managed to avoid?”
“Yes, and it is going to get us in the order we should’ve died. Clark Kent was the first to die. You have to find him.” Terrific’s face twisted for a quick second. Rachel had the feeling he was trying very hard not to laugh.
“We’ll do our best.” He said. “Please continue.” Rachel gave him everything she had. The website. The history. The visions. He nodded and escorted her to a secure location. She’d wait there.
Downstairs Mr. Terrific burst out laughing as Clark Kent looked at the pitchfork that had fallen onto his head in bemusement.