The Last Daughter of Krypton - IC

[ChasNicollette]

Ceri. "Don't fear The Reaper."

I stood up slowly, blinking back tears. Whether they were from Mer trying to break my nose or from seeing my best friends girl so cold and lifeless I didn't know. I looked over and saw Ceri with the Kent's. I made my way over and stopped in front of Ceri. "I tried Ceri. All the training in Shadow and here, and I couldn't stop her. I couldn't stop her." Then quieter, barely a whisper, I said "But I stopped myself before I killed her. Too close Ceri, I got too close to loosing myself."

I sank to my knees in the dirt in front of Ceri. I didn't have anything left on me right now but exhaustion.

There was something very... priestly about this.

A young man brokenhearted beyond repair, kneeling at the feet of a woman for whom a childhood of indoctrination had only been the beginning of her spiritual journey. Her... calling.

She touched her hand to his head in a benediction, her palm like a crown upon him.

"Twice," she murmured. "Twice yeh were nearly lost."

"If you had slain yehr enemy, yeh would have been lost."

"If your enemy had slain yeh, yeh would have been lost."

"The living can find forgiveness, redemption," she murmured.

"The dead find only what comes with forgiveness, or with its lack."

She sank to one knee and she looked him right in the eye, uncaring what The Kents or anyone else might think of her.

"Yeh did yehr best with what yeh knew," she shook her head. "There's no shame in that, no needing forgiveness. There are consequences to our actions in this life, to be certain, but ultimately, yeh eh'n't worse off karmically."

She smiled faintly, one hand on each of Kyle Greystone's shoulders.

"That having been said?"

"If yeh die and break yehr grandparents' hearts," she warned him, natural as could be, as though she were discussing schedules for his next semester's classes, "if yeh die and break my Rosy's heart?"

"I will bluddy well come after yeh into The Dark and when yeh see me there I will be very very cross indeed."

 

[ChasNicollette]

Lex. Calculating.

"I don't know everyone Lex. There is nothing but mass chaos here now Lex. All I know is there have been multiple explosions and I'm sensing lots of fighting and confusion. I can't make anything out because of all the chaos in everyone's minds. Many are even trying to just forget what has happened and aren't very coherent mentally at all. I don't know what to do Lex." Misty was nearly crying over the phone sure she wasn't making any sense herself. The pain confusion and everything else was overwhelming.

Lex was in his car in a heartbeat, GPSing the location of the limousine, crossreffing this with his location.

Main Street.

Every time I turn my back...

(At least I wasn't in Metropolis when this happened.)

The car purred to life, and he connected the phone to a built-in aux hook-up, turning the interior of his car into one big speakerphone.

"What what do I do Lex I no we have to help them."

Roaring away from the site of Benjamin Wallis' apparent defeat, Lex's mind raced with the possibilities, raced with greater noise and impetus even than the engine of this particularly exquisite automobile.

"The best thing we can do to help them," Lex suggested, rather reasonably, "is to assist the authorities in getting to the bottom of this. You say that the people present can't make head or tail of what's happened, incoherent, perhaps... and it isn't easy for me to suggest this, these are innocent people, they have their privacy, not like the forces we've united against, but... could you nudge one of them to remember? Perhaps a jostling from your unique conversational style will help to clarify matters."

"I'm en route, in any case," Lex explained to her. "I'll be with you shortly."

 

[TearsoftheWorld]

Jonathan and Martha

With their daughter soaring up into the sky, the Kents were left near breathless. What had happened to their daughter? Martha was near tears, but she was a strong woman and her face did not reveal any such emotions. Jonathan was stalwart as ever, comforting his wife and getting things fixed around the house. Ceri had suggested that they leave the farm, but Jonathan would never do that.

And as long as her husband remained steadfast, so would Martha.

Jonathan looked at the nearly broken Wraith when J'onn carried him over, and in that moment he knew that Kara had gone too far.

This was more than simple teenage rebellion.

She had to be taken down.

"As long as Kara Zor-El wears the ring she can not be stopped," J'onn had told them rather bluntly, anger clearly written on his face, "save for destroying her completely."

"Destroy her?" Martha said, looking completely shocked. Jonathan strengthened his hold on his wife, assuaging her fears.

It would not come to that.

The Martian left Kyle to their care, and Rose, understandably, was begging and pleading for someone to do something about their wayward daughter. J'onn walked over to their tractor and then used his abilities to sever one of the weights in half. A resounding clang spread throughout the farm, rattling Martha before he had finished with his labor. J'onn walked back moments later, handling off a crudely made box to Rose.

"Once you have disabled her with this, I will remove the ring and destroy it."

Martha feared for her daughter, her instincts as a mother clouding her judgment. Jonathan had such paternal instincts as well, but he trusted in these people. Rose was Kara's best friend. Var-Sen and Raya were from the same race as their adopted daughter, and J'onn had been watching over her for many, many years.

And many more years to come.

Rose was off like a rocket, and the others soon followed suit.

There was little the Kents could do but wait for their daughter to return home. Without warning, Chloe Sullivan and Merick ported in to their location, the pair bathed in a strange emerald glow. There were so many things that were strange to them, but considering their daughter was an alien they were able to take things in stride.

"Anyone else hurt?" Merick inquired.

"No, thankfully," Martha said. Ceri, still shaken, said much the same thing.

"Okay. Mrs. Kent, you might wanna avert your gaze."

"What?"

Chloe's hands and fingers glowed brightly, the purest white that the aging woman had ever seen. It was something to behold, but the power Chloe wielded came with a heavy price. That light spread out around the young Sullivan girl and the Wraith, and when it faded away Chloe was left lifeless on the ground.

"Chloe!"

Martha was quick to her side, lifting up the young girl and trying to rouse her. Kyle was awake by that point, and with tears in his eyes he came down and took Chloe away from her, resting her head in his lap and looking at everyone gathered around them.

"She's going to come back to us, Right Mer??"

With an emerald hand Merick helped Kyle back up to his feet, and Martha took Chloe into her hands once again. Merick, none too pleased that Chloe had sacrificed herself to help Kyle, punched him squarely in the nose before dropping to his knees to take hold of the woman he loved. Kyle had walked over to Ceri and begged for forgiveness for all that he had done and failed to do.

Jonathan also took a knee beside Kyle, looking at him sternly but with only kindness in his heart.

"You did your best, and you've made us proud. Just... take it easy from now on."

 

[ChasNicollette]

Rose and Raya. "While My Guitar Gently Weeps."

They held each other together in the dusts at the end of the world, a place that looked as though it had fallen off of the edge of the map.

And beside them loomed a great and terrible thing, something that belonged on no map of Earth that had ever been cartographed.

But he shed mass like a duck's back would shed water, and he dispensed of the poison pill from the sands beneath Crater Lake.

Kara clung to her desperately, whispering her sorries, and Rose's heart broke every time she heard it. And each time her heart broke and reformed anew, it was a little less hardened against those whispers.

"Shhh," J'onn said tenderly, wrapping his arms around the pair. "It is over."

And he held them close and he sang to them in a voice so eloquently plaintive that it made Rose want to weep all the harder.

A song so beautiful she felt as though she didn't deserve to hear it...

All the harder still when Var-Sen touched his hand to Kara's shoulder.

And then Raya was there, having already set her bone and realigned her shoulder that her powers might heal her properly, unflinchingly she had done these things for herself. She had picked up that staff and deactivated it, secreting it away in her robes. And she touched Var-Sen's shoulder, and touched Rose's shoulder, that they would all be linked.

When J'onn had finished, Kara stood up slowly and helped Rose to her feet. Another tear slid down her cheek...

Rose's hand was in Kara's and Kara already had that impossible strength back, Kara had been an emerald-tinted shade of her former self only seconds ago, and she was already vastly more powerful than a host of mortal men.

She was mighty to save.

She was mighty to destroy.

Rose was on her feet again.

And she knew this was the Kara would would save the world.

"It is time to go home, now."

Rose sniffled and flicked her own tears away into the salt of the plains.

"Yeah. Way past. Way past time."

Kara wrapped her arms around her best friend and held on tight.

"I'll make things better. I promise," she whispered softly.

Rose could only nod, and hold her friend as tight as she could, tight tight tight slightly superhumanly strong, she didn't have to be afraid of hurting Kara.

And she didn't want to. Not anymore.

"I know," she whispered. "I know."

Raya quietly swept her wide red cape off of her shoulders and swirled it around the two of them, around Rose and Kara, the emblem of The House of Sen emblazoned on the cape in such a way that it rested on the middle of Kara's back. The cape would permit Rose to retain her dignity with her badly-seared clothing, and would signify the unity The Last Daughter had found with this human companion.

"Do what you were born to do, Kara Zor-El," Raya instructed her. "Show us the way."

Rose closed her eyes again, tightly, resting her forehead against Kara's shoulder, recalling one of her mother's favourite phrases: "Become who you were born to be."

 

[ChasNicollette]

Jamie (and Pete). "Running Against the Wind."

"Ok so you don't know what did this. What about a guess?" Barry asked as he crouched down next to him and looked at the remains and wondered if he could figure out what it was in the lab.

Barry crouched beside Jamie, and Jamie crouched back down beside Barry.

"A guess," he mumbled. "I never guess."

He paused, tilted his head, reconsidered somewhat. "Well. Hardly ever."

Squinting his eyes, he licked his finger and held it up in the air between them as though he were orienteering and checking the direction of the wind.

"If I had to," he enunciated slowly, "conjecture, on the other hand..."

He looked at Barry quietly. "I'd think that something came through. From somewhere else. Exchanging places with something that was already here. And it... the thing coming through... couldn't completely manifest. Either not completely, or not for every long. And the resultant backlash was... catastrophic."

Jamie squinted. "Which leaves me to wonder. What did that do to the thing with which it was trying to swap? Can't have been any fun."

Jamie's speculation hung in the air between the two scientists like the still-settling plaster dust in the hall.

Neither of them knew, apparently, what to make of this data. Jamie, because he'd lost track of that eerie, nostril-burning scent, and Barry-- well, Jamie could only speculate about Barry's mindset, but perhaps Barry was dubious about Jamie's ability to leap to such Fortean conclusions.

But this silence lasted only seconds before a deputy swung around the corner, peering in through the hole in the outside wall, one hand on his radio and the other hand on the gun holstered at his hip.

"Y'all're teachers?" he demanded. "Any casualties?"

Jamie rose to his feet, rose from that crouch, and he arched a sympathetic eyebrow at Barry. "'When constabulary duty's to be done, to be done, a policeman's life is not a happy one.'"

He moved closer to the deputy, his back to Barry. "I suppose you'll be wanting a sitrep, then."

The deputy grimaced. "Perfesser, please. There ain't nothin' more annoyin' ta officers'a th' peace than civilians attemptin' ta talk fancy like on TV, makin' 'emselves sound more important."

Jamie's eye twitched infinitesimally. Civilian. Yeah, I suppose. (If you only knew, mate.)

But he nodded, he nodded: "Right, right, o'course, jargon'd just get in the way. Anyway, near as I can calculate, this appears to be the epicentre of the blast. There's no remains in the rubble, no-one directly killed or injured, thank God. I was right outside when it happened--"

He hesitated. "Oh. I've got a homeroom. Should I be--?"

"If yer an eyewitness, Perfesser," the deputy shook his head, "I'm gonna need yer report. Stat."

Jamie smiled coolly. So much for not using jargon.

...eventually, their conversation moved into the hallway, the other side of the cratered bathroom, the deputy scribbling stuff down in a notebook and occasionally using his radio to relay data to dispatch, and then to Sheriff Miller once the emergency personnel had gathered outside.

And then, and then... and then Edmund and Dale Tennylson went whizzing by at top speed, and their top speeds were really quite jaw-droppingly high.

Again, not to compare with Barry. But again, things that aren't yet to be known.

Jamie trailed off mid-sentence, watching them run, pursed his lips. "...right."

"'Scuse me," he muttered, quick blurt, and stopping only to grab his coat and scarf from that locker, he sprinted after the two men. Where they were going, probably there would be trouble. (Either they'd find it or they'd start it, they were good at either.)

Jamie blurred by Damian, looked like the lad was determinedly heading somewhere, not to mention talking to an actual girl good on you, mate best not to call attention to him in his, erm, civilian guise.

The coat flapped behind him as he threw this on. The scarf followed quickly after.

The deputy stared after him.

"Everybody in this town good at runnin', now?" he asked no-one in particular.

Jamie skidded to a halt in the doorway of Gordon's class just in time to hear Pete Ross opine: "I heard Mr. Ed there was a big track star back in olden times. Heard he could give Doc Hamilton a run for his pounds sterling."

Jamie grimaced good-naturedly at that. "Well. That's never been empirically verified. And you know how important empiricism is to a scientist worth his salt."

 

[TearsoftheWorld]

"It is time to go home, now."

"Yeah. Way past. Way past time."

Kara nodded in agreement just as Raya wrapped her cape around the two teenagers, and the way that the symbol of the House of Sen rested towards her back felt oddly comfortable to the young Kryptonian. In her mind she was already picturing how the House of El would look emblazoned on a cape of her own.

"Do what you were born to do, Kara Zor-El. Show us the way."

"Become who you were born to be."

Believe that the sun will shine tomorrow

"Okay. Let's go."

Kara Zor-El hovered up in the air for a moment, the cape that was wrapped around her shoulders fell off her body as she flew up into the air, making sure not to fly too far away from her friends as she led them back to the Fortress of Solitude.

The Bonneville Salt Flats quickly faded from view, and moving up into the Arctic North was like trading in one alien surface for another, though the glittering crystal spires of the Fortress held a special place in her heart.

 

[Tymeless]

Misty thought about Lex's advice. She really didn't like the idea of messing with anyone's head that could be considered an innocent. The thought that she might be violating anyone was scary to her. She realized the power she held was to powerful for anyone to possess but she did agree with Lex that if it was used in an appropriate way then the power could be a good thing to possess.

As she waited for Lex she got out of the limo and approached a boy around her age. She thought if she was lucky she could manipulate this boy to get the information out of him she wanted without having to mess with his mind any.

"Hello, I'm Misty Graves and my sister was inside the building. Do you have any idea what's going on?" Misty began to cry convincingly because she could feel the pain of so many people.

"Sorry, Misty but I really don't know anything. It was just to much all I can remember is I was inside and then boom." The boy claimed.

After a couple more minutes Misty realized she wasn't going to get anywhere without making a mental suggestion or two.

"Is there anything else you can tell me please. I really need to know so I can help everyone." She asked sweetly while mentally she was thinking 'Please close your eyes and think back to what happened inside. Tell yourself you remember everything and then you will remember everything. Think I want to tell the pretty girl before me everything.

 

[Varshanka]

She prayed.

She begged.

She pleaded.

Silently she cried to be free.

The priest watched her from the back and after several minutes decided she needed someone to talk to. Someone to help her. Hense he moved forwards and down her pew to sit beside her.

“Are you alright, my child?” he asked.

And with horror he pushed away from her when she looked at him.

Her eyes burned with a white light. A light that froze his soul. A light that made his bladder loosen. The lords prayer sprang to his lips as his spine rippled in terror.

A finger lifted and touched burning lips. “Shhh..” the creature whispered, silencing the priest in a blink. Reaching out, flames rippling across it’s flesh the thing that had been the new girl made the sign of the cross over the priests chest. And with a single word the Priests eyes boiled to cinders, his scream silenced before it began.

Storming from the church, the creature launched itself forwards, running at speeds no human could ever reach. A single word rippling across the psychic realm. A word of hate. A word that was virtually screamed across the mental realm.

And in the church a pew burned next to a dead priest.

****

It had covered half the distance to it’s target when the burning need was gone. The burning need for Vengeance. And with a whimpering sigh the new girl slammed into a brick wall, pulverizing several hundred pounds of brick, stone, and mortar in a moment.

Staggering back she blinked for a moment, memories of what had happened washing over her. Memories of what IT had done. But something still called. Not the burning screaming itch, but something. So she walked.

She walked towards a farm on the edge of town. And not long after she started her journey she felt something. Something… new.

 

[Abraxas Winterlight]

I listened to the words of two adults I trusted implicitly.

One was the mother of the girl I was in love with, and a surrogate mother to me.

The other one of the wisest men I knew. Wisdom from years of watching, learning, and living by his principles.

And I had come close to trying to kill his daughter. Kryptonian flesh parted for my claws. It would have been, while not easy, possible for me to go in under her rib cage and pulled out her heart like an overripe fruit.

Thats how you killed vampires without using a stake, and I was well practiced at doing that.

"Mr Kent, Mrs McCrimmon, I am ok. Just a bit drained is all."

I stood and looked over to Mer and Chloe. She had done this before, but it still scared the hell out of all of us when she did. I would talk to Mer in a bit and apologize for putting Chloe in this situation.

Kara was just so damned fast! Faster than Zod, and I think stronger too. If I hadn't blacked out I may have gotten her to Shadow, where I could control her.

At least I kept the Kents safe. If in her madness she had harmed them, when she came back to herself it would have killed her.

I looked around and surveyed the damage. Not enough for the big green and two Kryptonians, plus my Rose to have done wrangling the Kents daughter.

"Rose and the others are still after Kara aren't they?" I said, looking at Ceri. She nodded and I closed my eyes, then opened them.

"I shall stay here. I would only be an added distraction." I said.

Shadows then swirled around me as I let the power of the land of muted darkness flow through me. I felt more alive, almost reborn as the power wrapped me in it's embrace.

"I will be your guardian, and theirs" I said, pointing at Merick and Chloe, "until Rose and the others return."


(OOC: Chas, if you want me to edit that head nod from Ceri out let me know. I gotta go feed my woman and I want to get this posted before I go)

 

[AmenRa]

Smith and Jones

When Kara Zor-El took to the air, Var-Sen of Krypton gave his wife a long look that told her in so many different ways the way he felt about her.

Not only was she the most beautiful creature he had ever seen, and not only was her kiss intoxicating, and the pleasures they shared incomparable, but she was a warrior, in the truest sense.

This little crisis was over, thankfully. The Kryptonian scientist longed to finish his mission to Earth, and so he took to the air behind Kara, trailing her for a moment, then catching up to her, where he gave her a warm smile.

"I'm proud of you, Kara," he told her, "even though you strayed from the path only you can walk, you never truly lost who you are inside. There is a lot to be said for that. Our race, in all it's ultimate science and logic, are as prone to the weaknesses as any other across the universe."

The Martian Manhunter joined them an instant later, his cape fluttering behind him as he soared along. "It is my honor to escort the last of Krypton to the Fortress of Solitude," he announced.

Var-Sen turned and smiled at J'onn. "With an escort such as you, J'onn J'onzz, surely we will need no other."

"Hardly true," J'onn reminded him, "for Kara holds all the power here. And not such in the physical sense, for surely she is strong as we have all seen, but what is in her heart. She has returned to us a virtuous soul, and for that, Earth herself can rejoice."

Var-Sen nodded. "Eloquently put," he stated, "for an overgrown Martian sand lizard with red eyes."

J'onn almost smiled.

Almost.

They followed Kara to the Fortress. Var-Sen then remembered that not only did he have something for Kara, but for Rose as well.

 

[LuckyVic]

Barry Allen

Barry used the momentary distraction provided by Jamie to run to his lab and back in the blink of an eye. He hated using his power like that, but he thought it necessary. He gathered some samples from the creator and then rushed it back to the school lab before anyone could miss him.

"Everybody in this town good at runnin', now?" he asked no-one in particular.

"Honestly I couldn't say. I'm new here after all." Barry told the officer. "Deputy I have to get to my next class. So unless there's anything else?"

"No that's all Mr. Allen, if we need anything we'll be in touch."

Barry nodded and went on to the chem lab. When he got there the kids, since most of them were trying to find out what had gone on at the bathroom, were also just arriving. "Ok as I'm sure most of you have already heard. My name is Barry Allen and I'm your new chemistry teacher. Some of you are probably wondering why you took this course, or what relavent use could this class be to any of you in the real world." He said as he walked over to some beakers he had set up earlier and turned on the flame heating the dark liquid that was within it. He went on with the usual first day introductions and then took attendence. When he was done he walked back to the beakers, turned off the flame and drank some of what was inside. "Don't worry, it's just a chemically created version of coffee. All of the benefits, but none of the side effects. Just one of the things I might teach a few of you... if you want to learn." he said with a smile and then went on with his class.

 

[AmenRa]

Imminent Domain

As much as he was a child of Odin, the Allfather of Asgard, he was also a child of Gaeia, the Elder Goddess of Earth.

A not well-known fact that Thor possessed not only the power of the storm, but the power of Mother Earth as well. A power that, until now, he had not called upon.

But this day, as Earth had opened up and the elements of building had come forth from the chasm, that power was in full effect.

Asgard was once again.

He climbed the steps, and he sat upon the ledge of the high wall where he looked out upon the prairie before him.

High overhead a hawk flew, gliding and circling on thermal updrafts, its keen eyesight scanning the grasses below for a meal. Thor was reminded of Heimdall, the keeper of Asgard, the guardian who once stood at the Rainbow Bridge and challenged all who would pass. Heimdall, who's eyes could penetrate the veil of the Nine Worlds, who's ears could hear the flutter of a butterfly's wings a thousand leagues away.

And there was Baldur, and Hogun, and Volstagg.

Kelda, and Sif.

Loki.

Thor propped his chin upon his fist and looked to the western sky. There were clouds there, and he heard the distant sound of thunder.

There was still much work to be done.

Much work, indeed.

 

[ChasNicollette]

"Take a photograph, it'll be the last."

After a couple more minutes Misty realized she wasn't going to get anywhere without making a mental suggestion or two.

"Is there anything else you can tell me please. I really need to know so I can help everyone." She asked sweetly while mentally she was thinking 'Please close your eyes and think back to what happened inside. Tell yourself you remember everything and then you will remember everything. Think I want to tell the pretty girl before me everything.

Almost involuntarily, as though his lids were weighted, the lad felt his eyes slide closed. This surprised him, because initially he'd rather have kept looking at the girl... she was rather pretty.

But then his eyes were closed and he was seeing not the girl before him, but shades... images...

...as though through a glass darkly, as though from a great and terrible distance...

He saw a car going much too fast, and a blur, a blur of a girl, golden haired, going even faster... he couldn't see her face but her voice was made of arrogance. He saw a Man in Black, they were so strong, everywhere they moved there was Destruction.

It was all jagged... there was another force in his head, like fingers and like a voice, like a red sandstorm obfuscating what he saw... there was a crater in the front of the flower shop adjoining The Talon, there was a light like a green-glowing candle, there was a white light alongside the green...

...the boy fell to one knee, shaken, trembling, in a cold sweat, holding his head in his hands...

"I remember..."

"...it was a nightmare."

But like Bruce Wayne once upon a time, he remembered like a ghost amidst a prophecy... he remembered a golden girl. He remembered an angel.

He struggled to his feet, and blinked at Misty like he had no idea where he was.

"I'm sorry," he mumbled. "I must have zoned out there for a minute. Who... who are you again?"

 

[ChasNicollette]

Ceri. "Maybe we can meet again, further down the river."

"Mr Kent, Mrs McCrimmon, I am ok. Just a bit drained is all."

"Well," Ceri murmured softly, a little more forgiving, now, the true depth of her wrath having passed Wraith over. "Yeh're entitled."

"Rose and the others are still after Kara aren't they?" I said, looking at Ceri. She nodded and I closed my eyes, then opened them.

Ceri's eyes, too, were closed. For a sometime holy woman, she prayed with relative infrequency. But she prayed now. For Rose.

"Yeah," she murmured. "They are."

"I shall stay here. I would only be an added distraction." I said.

Ceri smirked faintly. "Smartest thing yeh've said all day," she murmured.

Shadows then swirled around me as I let the power of the land of muted darkness flow through me. I felt more alive, almost reborn as the power wrapped me in it's embrace.

"I will be your guardian, and theirs" I said, pointing at Merick and Chloe, "until Rose and the others return."

"'They also serve who only stand and wait,'" Ceri reminded Kyle as she put her hands in the pockets of her jacket.

"Oh, and Merick?" she grinned, and indicated Wraith's face with a nod of her chin. "That was a good hit. Ted'd be proud."

 

[ChasNicollette]

Lex and Cliff. "You'll never hear this song; you'll never see the movie in my head."

Lex' car cut through Granville and into the outskirts of Smallville.

His hands gripped the steering wheel like twin vises.

His phone rang.

"Pronto," he declared in Italian, and the phone awoke.

"...sir?"

Sydney Happersen.

Mercy's elder brother and a fair left hand in the absence of Mercy as his right.

He tended to snivel, and Lex wasn't above enjoying that.

"Tell me you have good news, Happersen," Lex growled, cutting off a corner much to a pedestrian's surprise.

Happersen hesitated, then: "I'm sorry, sir. We've reached the crater, and... and there's nothing here."

Lex' eyes narrowed. "Nothing."

Happersen again hesitated, perhaps this time to gulp nervously: "Sir, as you know, any vehicle that could have approached would have been disabled at quite a radius by the bizarre electromagnetic phenomena that had surrounded the area, we've had to travel a considerable distance through the wilds of Canada on foot."

Lex' scowl was audible on a variety of levels, like the rumbling infrasound of thunder in the distance. "Nothing."

Happersen was silent for a long, long moment.

"...please don't have me eliminated, sir."

Lex skidded around another bend, his jaw set, his eyes like darkly emerald glass.

"You'll live. Since you asked so nicely. Now get back to Kansas, apparently it's quite a long walk."

Before Lex could terminate the connection, Happersen spoke up again: "...sir?"

"...make it good."

"Now that the electromagnetic interference has abated," Happersen related hurriedly, "we've restored our satellite uplink, and we've received an e-mail from our man at NOAA. There's some extraordinary seismic activity occurring in Oklahoma... and there's traces of the same EM signature that accompanied the crater."

Lex' lip curled. "Happersen. Tell me you've retasked some of our satellites to corroborate this."

There was silence.

"Happersen..."

"Doing it now, sir. I'll call you back when I know more."

...and then the line went silent more finally.

"Idiot."

Lex skidded into the parking lot of Smallville Savings and Loan, threw his vehicle into park. He punched the steering wheel, and he shook his head sharply.

"Idiot idiot idiot."

The phone rang again. Cliff this time, according to the ID.

Lex took a deep breath. And another.

He closed his eyes, and murmured: "Pronto."

...Cliff was standing on a street corner with a drink tray in his hand, a mocha latte for Misty sitting in one corner and a dark roast sitting steaming in the other corner for himself. He was watching Misty with a bystander.

"She seems to be pursuing the truth, sir," Cliff murmured. "I take it she's let you know what's happening?"

Lex pursed his lips. "That's affirm. Not unlike Miss Graves herself, I'm capable of giving just the right nudge when people don't quite have sufficient initiative to nudge themselves. To that end: bring her to me when she's done, I'm just off Main Street in the S&L lot. One last-ditch attempt to keep secret my presence in Smallville."

"Understood," Cliff replied. "Very good, sir."

Lex hung up. And steepled his fingers. "Good to know I'm not completely surrounded by incompetents."

Pocketing his phone, Cliff returned to the car to wait for Misty, setting the tray of drinks on the seat beside him.

And reflected how much colder his boss' voice was than the winter air outside.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Raya and Rose. "I'm a stranger in this town."

Raya flew in silence; she was usually rather Spartan of speech, uttering words only when there was something of importance for her to contribute. She returned Var-Sen's look, her own expression speaking volume after volume...

...but she said nary a word.

That was okay with Rose. Rose had a lot on her mind, a lot ricocheting about in her skull. The cape that Kara had abandoned had been swirled anew around her shoulders to protect her compromised clothing from the tearing winds, and she was borne once more by Raya.

The world slid by beneath them. The Sun gazed sombrely at them from above, like the golden Cyclopean eye of some primordial deity.

And while J'onzz and Var-Sen were relatively garrulous, The Valkyrie Missile and her golden-tressed escort exchanged not a syllable.

Greens and blues gave way to endless white, and the snow crunched beneath Raya's boots and Rose's melty-soled sneakers.

"'Angels and demons were circling above me,'" Rose murmured, sounding a little bit disconnected. "'Cutting thorns and Milky Way.'"

She shook her head slightly, and touched her fingers to one of the outlying crystals of The Fortress' walls.

"'Watch in awe,'" she breathed, trying to find optimism in a world shaken to its core. "'Aeria gloris.'"

 

[camerindrake]

Sandra

Sandra Wu-San after watching David Cain leave ran towards the people in the hall finding Pete Ross, Edmund Tennyson and Dale Tennyson, There on the floor laid Paul Gordon. She blinked a few times and surveyed The room.

The Chinese girl then remarks, "Um I was about to say there is a crater down the hall but it looks like there is another crisis here. Need any help?"

She then levels her gaze at Edmund, "I recognise Pete and Dr. Tennyson but who are you and why are you standing on Mr. Gordon's desk?"

 

[camerindrake]

Damian and Dinah

Damian gets off his bike walking up to the group as he looks around. He then looks down seeing Chloe very pale and still being held by Merick. Under his black chrome mirrored helm his jaw tightened. He knew now he was to late with the new serum.

The young knight then turns to Jonathan and gives a nod saying, "Mr. Kent," Then turns to Martha, "Mrs. Kent"

He looks to Ceri and asks, "Status."

The Black Hood then turns to Merick and asks, "How long has she been gone."

At that time Dinah pulls up in the Charger skidding to a stop with only mere inches between it and the SUV as she opens the driver side door.

As she steps out sprints to Martha asking "Martha are ye and Jonathan okay?"

 

[Varshanka]

The Newcomer

Crossing a field the newcomer spied a horse. A lonesome looking horse, granted it had a saddle and bridle, and probably a rider somewhere abouts, but she had need. And God would forgive, after all she was borrowing it in HIS service.

Dashing the distance she leaped upwards, her foot sliding into stirrup, her slim leg sliding across it’s back, locking into the counter stirrup, and with a twitch of her heels she was dug in and going. A gallop of the gods pounded across the field, dirt and dust tearing up the ground like a storm of hell. She could feel that itch, that burning itch crawling beneath her skin. This.. riding a horse.. it knew this. It was so familiar, she didn’t even have to think about what to do, or how to do it. Her body responded , a fence flashed under her and she was still moving, another field passed by in a blink, the air around her growing colder. The itch burned to be free…

And she topped the rise and gazed at the scene before her. A warzone, she saw as the horse reared up onto it’s back legs, the fore hooves dancing and clawing at the air, steam billowing from it’s nostrils, eyes glowing like red embers against it’s glossy black skin.

The prey had escaped…

But she spoke nonetheless.

“Innocent.”

And the newcomer twisted the horse around and returned from whence she came. The dark one had escaped, for now. But soon, There would be a reckoning.

 

[Tymeless]

Misty could sense that the boy before her didn't want to close his eyes. He wanted to look at her some more. This made her blush slightly but she stayed focused on all the thoughts and memories running through his head as she had prodded his mind. She felt bad for this invasion of the boys privacy but she knew this was probably the right thing to do.

After her probing she kissed the boy on the cheek and thanked him for talking to her a moment. She then sent the suggestion for the boy to forget the days events other than being kissed by her. She figured it was best to save the boy from the trauma he had experienced today.

She then walked back over towards Cliff and smiled as sweetly as she could after sensing that poor boys memories. After this experience she really wished she could just be a normal teenage girl again so she didn't have to do things like this again. "So Cliff were you able to get my coffee?"

 

[AmenRa]

Smallville High

A delivery van pulled up to the loading zone where deliveries were usually taken by the high school staff.

A delivery man unloaded boxes and boxes of Dell computers.

Some of these her personally wheeled into the classroom that served as the office of The Torch.

And he brought other boxes of software for those computers as well.

A staff member signed for the delivery of computers.

The delivery man and his truck left the school.

On the topmost box of those lining the entry way to The Torch's room there was a note attached, printed on white LuthorCorp stationary and signed by hand with an expensive fountain pen.

PLEASE ACCEPT THESE COMPUTERS FOR USE IN PUBLISHING YOUR SCHOOL NEWSPAPER. WE AT LUTHORCORP HOPE THEY WILL SERVE TO ASSIST IN EXPANDING YOUR QUEST FOR KNOWLEDGE AS YOU WRITE YOUR ENDEAVOURS.

- Lionel Luthor

 

[AmenRa]

"'Angels and demons were circling above me,'" Rose murmured, sounding a little bit disconnected. "'Cutting thorns and Milky Way.'"

She shook her head slightly, and touched her fingers to one of the outlying crystals of The Fortress' walls.

"'Watch in awe,'" she breathed, trying to find optimism in a world shaken to its core. "'Aeria gloris.'"

Var-Sen placed a hand gently on Rose's shoulder as she spoke. He nodded his head, understanding the power and awe this place held.

It reminded him, however, of home.

"'Of this place, I am not born'," he recited, "'yet of this place I am at home.'"

He smiled at her. "An old Kryptonian poem," he explained. "An epic, rivaling that of your Oddysey or Coleridge's Mariner. It is a tale of the founding of a new colony on a distant world, the struggles of life there, and the resulting triumph of an endowed spirit."

"This place," he continued, "this Fortress of Solitude is a refuge not only for Kara, but it serves as a reminder of our Kryptonian legacy. Our past, and our future. And the future of Earth."

The Martian Manhunter said nothing, only looked on with his eyes glowing faintly.

When Var-Sen had finished speaking, J'onn quietly melded into the shadows of the Fortress, slipping away unseen.

J'onn flew back to Smallville, back to the Kent Farm, where he had left a still-formed Wraith in the care of Ceri, Chloe, Merrick, and the Kents.

------

He landed easily on the soil near the barn, near the tractor from which he had taken the weight and forged a container for the deadly Kryptonite.

"I apologize for damaging your farm machinery, Johnathan Kent," J'onn said to him as he approached them.

"And I see our Wraith is once again among the living," he noted.

 

[TearsoftheWorld]

The Kent Farm

"Mr Kent, Mrs McCrimmon, I am ok. Just a bit drained is all."

Jonathan rose up to his feet as Kyle did, one hand clasped over his shoulder while the 'youngster' surveyed the damage that had been caused. Nothing that couldn't be fixed with a good hammer and a hard days work.

"Rose and the others are still after Kara aren't they?" Kyle asked.

Ceri nodded her head and Kyle solemnly nodded his head. His decision to remain behind was a tough one, especially considering the parties involved elsewhere. He retracted his hand and picked up a few pieces of splintered wood, tossing them into a small pile to be picked up again later. He turned just as Damian rode in on his bike, his head covered by a rather dark helmet.

Shortly after he arrived a car came blazing down the driveway, coming to a skidding halt before Dinah stepped out from the drivers seat and then sprinted over to the small group.

"Martha, are ye and Jonathan okay?"

"We're fine," Johnathan said, placing an arm around his wife.

Martha nodded her head in agreement with her husband and then glanced over at J'onn as he landed near the barn.

"I apologize for damaging your farm machinery, Jonathan Kent. And I see our Wraith is once again among the living."

"It's... okay. We'll manage until we can get a new one."

"Is everything alright, J'onn? Is Kara okay? Did anyone get hurt?"

 

[Abraxas Winterlight]

Wrath

J'onn's arrival let loose the fear that had been clenched in my heart. If he was here now then Rose and Kara were OK. I released the power I kept inside me, Shadow bleeding off me until I was once again clothed in flesh.

"Chloe did her mojo J'onn, I am fine now. More worried about her actually. I don't remember how damaged I was when she healed me."

I watched Damien and his guatdian (still not sure what she actually is to him) roll up, him ready to break something as usual.

I walked over by Ceri. I would wait with her until Rose came back.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Jamie and Pete. "Ed Hunter."

Sandra Wu-San after watching David Cain leave ran towards the people in the hall finding Pete Ross, Edmund Tennyson and Dale Tennyson, There on the floor laid Paul Gordon. She blinked a few times and surveyed The room.

The Chinese girl then remarks, "Um I was about to say there is a crater down the hall but it looks like there is another crisis here. Need any help?"

She then levels her gaze at Edmund, "I recognise Pete and Dr. Tennyson but who are you and why are you standing on Mr. Gordon's desk?"

"She's astute," Jamie smirked delightedly, sliding his hands into his pockets, "very astute. Don't you think she's astute? (I saw the crater already, it's a bit of a whopper, ennit?)"

He leaned sideways a bit, next to Sandra's head, as though confessing a secret: "This... is Eddie. Say ''ello, Eddie.' And Eddie, being somewhat light on his feet and somewhat wiry in regards to strength, has provided us a wonderful demonstration of inertia. Now, being astute, and I can tell you're astute, I don't need to tell you what inertia is."

That smirk danced on his lips.

"And I don't need to tell you that Eddie's standing there all dramatic like Johnny Depp on a car in Cry-Baby means he might need to work on his brakes."

Pete grinned. "Okay, Mister G, time to put your trousers back on. There's a lady present."

He nodded solemnly to Sandra. "'Sup?"

"Come to think of it," Jamie mused, moving closer to Paul, and offering him a hand up... "That's an excellent question. You've a bit of static about you, Paul. You all right?"