Daniel drank the large cup of coffee Art had given him in one go, lowered the empty cup, and took a slow breath before looking at the three people in front of him.
His head was already pounding from everything that had happened, and now he had to deal with a big mess.
"First, Kara and Harleen — stop pulling me around. I'm not dealing with that bullshit right now."
Both women looked disappointed, but neither argued.
He turned to Kara, expression serious. "And second, Kara, this is your cousin. That's final."
She stared at Clark with genuine confusion. "I don't remember him. Why are you telling me this stranger is my cousin?"
Daniel didn't answer right away. He watched her face carefully. "How did we first meet?"
She answered without hesitation. "It was during the invasion. I was under magical control, and you broke the spell. After that, you took care of me."
Clark's expression changed. He remembered that day.
Daniel had broken the magic controlling Kara, but afterward Clark had taken her to the Fortress of Solitude — helped her understand Earth, her powers, what it meant for the two of them to be the last survivors of Krypton.
Kara remembered the event.
She just remembered it differently.
Daniel's eyes narrowed. "Okay."
He pulled out his phone and called Bruce.
Bruce answered after a few rings.
"Bruce, do you know anyone named Clark Kent?"
A brief silence. "No."
Daniel's expression hardened. "You've never heard that name?"
"No. Why?"
He looked directly at Clark. "Nothing. Forget it." He ended the call.
Clark stared at him. "Bruce doesn't know me?"
"Apparently not."
Daniel called Diana next.
"Diana, where are you?"
"I'm with Rachel. We think we're getting close to finding information about her mother. Why?"
He paused. "Do you know Clark Kent?"
Silence. "Clark Kent? No. Is he someone I should know?"
His face went fully serious. "No. Just call me if anything strange happens." He ended the call, setting the phone on the table.
Clark watched him. "What did she say?"
"She doesn't know you either."
The room fell silent.
Daniel looked at Kara, then Clark. "This isn't normal."
Kara crossed her arms. "Daniel, you're acting like this man disappearing from everyone's memory proves something."
"It does." He pointed at Clark.
"You remembered the invasion. You remembered me breaking the spell. But you don't remember him." Her expression tightened as he went on.
"Bruce doesn't know Clark. Diana doesn't know Clark. You're telling me you've never met him. And yet there's another guy on television wearing his symbol and calling himself Superman."
Clark looked toward the television. For the first time, the weight of the situation seemed to settle over him.
Daniel leaned forward. "Clark, this isn't someone erasing your name from a few people's memories." He glanced at the screen again.
"Something has changed reality around you. Someone took your identity, and whatever they did rewrote things so everyone believes he's Superman instead of you."
Clark's face showed confusion. "But why weren't you affected?"
"I don't know," Daniel said. He was different in more ways than even he fully understood, so there was no point pretending he had an answer.
He stood up. "I'm going to find that fake Superman and see what he knows."
Before Clark could say anything else, Daniel vanished.
***
"Hello, Superman."
Daniel appeared in the middle of the crosswalk as the man in the Superman suit was helping an elderly man across the street.
The man looked at Daniel and smiled without the slightest sign of surprise. "Oh, Reaper. Just give me a moment. I'm helping here."
Daniel stared at him. The way he said it was completely natural, like seeing Daniel appear out of nowhere was something he'd experienced dozens of times before.
"Yeah. Meet me on the roof after you're finished with your public service."
"Sure, my friend."
Daniel vanished.
A few minutes later, the man landed on the rooftop where Daniel was waiting, walking over casually, no trace of suspicion or hostility. "Why did you want to meet me, my friend?"
"My friend?"
The man smiled. "Of course. You called me here, didn't you?"
"I did."
"Then what's wrong?"
Daniel's expression stayed serious. "I want to know who you are."
The smile faded slightly. "You already know me."
"That's the problem." He stepped closer. "I don't remember ever meeting you."
The man looked genuinely confused. "You really don't remember?"
"No."
He looked at Daniel like the question itself was strange.
"We've been through plenty together. You don't remember stopping the alien invasion of Metropolis? We fought those ships together."
"There was that time we stopped the attack downtown, and then we worked together to deal with the people." He kept going, listing one event after another — battles, rescues — as though they were shared memories.
Daniel listened without interrupting.
Something bothered him about the way the man described everything. Every event he mentioned had happened publicly.
The invasion had been on the news. The battles had been witnessed by thousands. Anyone who'd followed Superman's activities could know all of it.
His eyes narrowed. He's only talking about things the public knows.
He decided to test him. "Say, Superman — when did we first meet, and where?"
The man didn't hesitate. "Wasn't it during the Metropolis invasion?"
Daniel's smile slowly formed. "Yeah."
He already knew the answer was wrong.
Clark Kent's first meeting with Daniel had happened much earlier, on the Kent family farm in Kansas — not something the public knew about, and this man hadn't mentioned it because he didn't know it existed.
Daniel looked him over again.
Definitely an impostor.
The man might have Superman's appearance, his powers, even enough surface knowledge to fake his public history. But he didn't know the private details.
*****
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