"The Joke's on You, Me and Everybody"

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…prologue…

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Jimmy Olsen was the first casualty.

He was an innocent. A bystander caught in the path of two forces he could not withstand, and he paid the price.

Most surprisingly, it was Clark Kent who started the war.

Most people who knew Clark would never have dreamed he was capable of such a thing. An unassuming man by nature, he was unfailingly honest, and well-mannered without a hint of menace or mean-spiritedness.

Later, Clark would regret the part he played in what happened. He never meant for it all to get so out of control.

He would realise that a tiny action today could have repercussions that echo into the future. He cast the pebble into the still pool that caused the ripples, and Jimmy would suffer the consequences.

He wouldn't even be able to adequately explain why he did it. It was an impulse. A whim. A sudden desire.

He just didn't know.

The time for questions and recriminations would come later. Endless nights lying awake, analysing his own motives and actions – playing the hopeless game of "what if?' over and over again.

But it was useless.

He couldn't change the past.

Always, he'd come back to that day… that day when he'd done that foolish, stupid thing, and he'd ask himself 'Why?'

Why, why, why did he think it was a good idea to put salt instead of sugar in Lois' coffee?