The Last Daughter of Krypton - IC

[Superman1496]

Maybe you're right Chloe. Bruce said. I don't think they're coming back tonight, wherever they went. He added.

Bruce just starred off into the night sky. 'did they took off? Is that what happened here?' He thought to himself.

'Alfred is going to think I'm crazy when I tell him about this.' He thought. Then he remembered that Alfred wasn't going to be there tonight. He would be by himself.

The thought made him have butterflies. He didn't like being alone, not even home for a night. He just didn't like it.

Alright, so, we have to take the truck back. I can drop you two off, and head back to the school if you want. Bruce said as he turned to Pete and Chloe.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Rose

"The rocks are yours, huh?" Rose laughed hollowly. "I guess I should have seen that coming."

She shut herself up in a hurry. She didn't know how he was going to react to a lack of respect...

"I kind of know how it feels," Rose whispered, "to have nowhere to belong. To have nowhere that's home. I don't think I know exactly how it feels? But I think I kind of know how it feels. Because... I've never felt like I've belonged here. (Not in Smallville, that's not what I mean...) I've never felt like I've belonged on this planet, belonged in this plane of existence."

She smiled faintly, and hoped she wasn't hurting his feelings.

"I always felt like," she pondered, "this world was kind of a disappointment. That as bright and beautiful as it could be, that it wasn't bright enough. It wasn't beautiful enough. The colours are dull, the sounds are... smells and tastes and everything all muted. Like a bad version of a movie, leaked to The Internet before post-production's all done. I'm waiting for the theatrical release. I'm waiting for the good version."

She looked away from the darkening sky, the gleaming pinpricks of white in the infinite Black, and back down at The Earth.

"Maybe I'm just a spoiled brat," she lamented, "but I always felt more at home in fairy-tales and myths and epics than in my own body, my own skin, my own molecules. I always felt more at home in Rivendell than in Keystone, more at home under the light of The Lamppost than under the light of The Sun.

"(Well, that's not true,)" she corrected herself, "(not always. There was this one time, I was on a rooftop with a beautiful friend and all seemed right with this world. But I don't know where she is right now.)"

Rose returned her gaze to Var-Sen's face, and she gently hugged Var-Sen's arms as he held her. Tried to encourage him.

"It's not exactly the same, I know," she nodded. "But it might be kinda the same. You're looking for your own beautiful friend, huh? This... this Chosen One you were talking about? What's gonna use The Key? You're looking for a better world and a beautiful friend, and I guess I can understand that.

"I want to help you," Rose declared, "but I don't know how."

 

[AmenRa]

Var-Sen considered Rose's words.

"Perhaps, someday, Rose," he sighed, "you will be able to go 'There and Back Again'".

He began to slowly lower their altitude. He already considered Chloe and Bruce and Pete would be asking a million questions now. But he wasn't the one who would have to explain things. If Rose never felt like she belonged, she was about to really feel what it meant to be alone.

But yet there was such a bond of commonality between all of them. He even felt it when he was around them, and perhaps that was why he was so comfortable.

"I am not so much searching for a friend as I am an enemy," he admitted. "I do not trust many, and I fear for my own discovery. My powers are almost without limits, but there could be ways to destroy me and others like me.

"I believe dark forces are at work, Rose. There will be a time when the good will have to stand against the bad. If you want to help, then lend your gifts to the side of the righteous."

Var-Sen released her and drifted away. "I am glad that I have made a friend. You are a special girl, and you are special to me. Should you need me, you have but to call. I will hear you, and I will come."

And then he dropped below and stretched out his hands in front of him. He literally blurred the air between them as he suddenly accelerated to near the speed of light.

He thought, as he flew, that he should return to the cave and collect his SUV. But no, not now. He needed to think, he needed solitude. A few minutes later, he found himself sitting atop a skyscraper sized iceberg in the Arctic Ocean.

So it begins....

 

[Ravenloft]

After spending time with the Graves family, Misty in particular, showing her every consideration in this time of reunion, Lex excused himself from their company twenty minutes before he was to meet Dr. Emil at The Talon, reaffirming Misty's father's directive that she aught to return to school the very next day. He peeled into The Talon's cramped parking lot a mear 7 minutes later, in a red ferarri. Striding into the establishment with typical Luthor pride, he looked about and gave a nod to several people who took notice of his arival, and then again to Dr. Emil and his two men. He smiled as he approached them.

"My good Dr. Emil, you have thoroughly impressed me! One day... One day! And you returned an old friend to life, and into the arms of his loving family. You have made many friends, not the least of them, me. If you are interested, I would greatly like to continue funding you, LuthorCorps resourses at your disposal, with not a whit of further imposition on my part. I would like to see what a man of such great intellect might come up with next..."

 

[ChasNicollette]

Rose (with apologies to Incubus)

Var-Sen was not the only one who required time to think.

'I'd like to close my eyes go numb,' Brandon Boyd sang,
'but there's a cold wind coming from
the top of the highest high-rise today.

It's not a breeze cause it blows hard.
Yes and it wants me to discard
the humanity I know
Watch The Warmth blow away.

Don't let the world bring you down
Not everyone here is that fucked up and cold
Remember why you came
and while you're alive
experience The Warmth
before you grow old.'

Rose McCrimmon lingered in the upper troposphere for a little bit longer, dwelling on things.

Things were true that she'd always believed were true, believed against all reason. The world was bigger and brighter and faster and stronger than ever she had allowed herself to perceive, but still? It was nothing like she'd imagined.

Nothing at all.

She turned back towards the ground below, and she descended, pouring herself through wind and clouds to terra firma far distant.

She didn't go home.

She flew first to The Kent Farm, and she alighted gently on the roof of the building, the very same spot where she had sat with Kara the night before.

(Had it been so recently? It felt like months had gone by.)

She stood there, and she remembered the transcendent little moment in which she had dwelled with Kara Kent, and she wished... despite all she had seen and done this day... that she could maybe have stayed in that moment forever.

Rose gazed into the depths of the house, hovering around it with glinting blue eyes peering through the walls using infrared sight. There were smudges in there, smudges of blue and red and purple and orange...

But there were only two smudges that were people.

Kara was not at home, at least not that Rose could perceive.

Rose worried, and she wondered.

There was an odd kind of ache in her heart when she wondered if her brand-new friend was gone forever.

'Meet me in Outer Space
We could spend the night, watch The Earth come up
I've grown tired of that place, won't you come with me
We could start again

How do you do it, make me feel like I do
How do you do it, it's better than I ever knew

Meet me in Outer Space
I will hold you close, If you're afraid of heights
I need you to see this place...'

'...You are stellar.
You are stellar.'

She lingered there for a moment, standing on tip-toes in the air.

She flew off into the gathering evening.

She wondered how far she could fly, how fast. One autumn, her mother had taken her out to Willard, Oklahoma, right on the border with Kansas, and it had been really pretty there when the leaves had turned. Rose wondered if she could fly there and be back before too late.

Maybe if she flew up high, and came back down again? Flying in a straight line would take her some time indeed.

She glanced up at the sky, and she decided, with a pang, that she didn't want to go up there again. Not yet.

And she realised, as she drew closer to her nearby house, that she didn't want to go home again yet either. Still.

She banked away, she yawed and she rolled and she pitched and with a rush of wind she took back off into the sky.

Rose didn't come down until she landed at the little gas station on Route 16.

There were vending machines outside, and a little change machine, as the spot doubled as a kind of rest area for people driving the back roads towards Metropolis. But the five-dollar bill in her pocket had been ruined by water and by heat and by cold stratospheric winds, and the change machine wouldn't take it.

She sat down in kind of a crumple on the kerb next to the payphone and she put her head in her hands.

She wanted to call her mom's mobile. She wanted to call Kyle. She wanted to call Chloe, maybe, and explain? But how could she explain?

Rose McCrimmon suddenly felt very much alone. She crumpled a little more where she sat there on the kerb.

Again, she missed Kara.

'The world's a rollercoaster
And I am not strapped in
Maybe I should hold with care
My hands are busy in the air
Saying:

"I wish you were here
I wish you were here
I wish you were here
I wish you were here."'

 

[ChasNicollette]

Chloe and Pete

"That makes sense," Pete nodded. "But you might not have to take the truck back to the school 'till tomorrow. If I know SMC, and I kinda do a little? They're gonna want to keep Earl overnight for observation. So you could maybe bring the truck to school with you in the morning, but you don't have to strand yourself there tonight."

Chloe hugged herself against Bruce, and she looked exhausted.

Aliens and superhumans. Is she a meteor freak? Was it the train accident? But she's not from around here, not originally, she could have picked something up in The Other Twin Cities...

But despite all this, she gazed up at Bruce's face and she saw something in him that spoke to her compassion, her nigh-indefatigable compassion, and she winced.

"You look like somebody punched you in the hypothalamus," she noted. "Bruce, are you gonna be okay?"

It was highly ironic, feeling as she did, that she would ask anyone if they were okay. And she knew it.

But there she was, asking anyway.

 

[Superman1496]

Chloe hugged Bruce before asking him if he was ok. Yeah, I'll be fine. We should get going though. Bruce said, looking back at her.

He knew it was a lie, but after all, he would be ok, and what could she do about it anyways.

He lead them over to the truck and had a funny thought. Well, either one of you is riding in the back, or someone is going to be riding the middle. Bruce said. He laughed a little inside. Then he opened up the truck door, and looked at Chloe.

Your chariot awaits m'lady. Bruce said.

 

[TearsoftheWorld]

Kara sat on the couch in the living room, a blanket wrapped around her while she watched the sun rise up above the horizon. Yesterday had been... well it had been an interesting day. Even with the dawn of a new day she had a hard time shaking off the weird vibes that had suddenly come over her.

First it was the piercing shrieks that she had heard while she was away from home. Even covering her ears she felt the screeching noises calling out to her, only stopping after a few brief moments.

Then it had been the strange disturbance during the night. Kara had felt it deep within her, and she felt more afraid then than she had ever felt in her entire life.

But what had it been? Was it linked to the strange noise earlier that day? Was it a warning sign, of sorts?

Kara didn't know.

"Breakfast is on the table," Martha said, coming into the living room and gently brushing aside some of Kara's blond hair. Though she might have exemplified their personalities and habits, Kara held no resemblance to either Martha or Jonathan.

"K'ay" Kara said, nodding her head as she took the blanket off and got up from the couch, walking into the kitchen to sit down at the table. School was in a few hours, and she was still a bit nervous about going.

 

[Abraxas Winterlight]

Wraith

Darkness. On the surface it seems to be a simple word, but in my world it was like snow to Eskimos, it was everything.
I had been shifting in and out of shadows for a few years now, but this was different. Longer. A second stretched out.
The shadows finally spit me out, but not where I wanted to be. I was in a huge room. Rough hewn stone walls, Fire pits on both sides. Throughout the room were sconces, with torches burning a cold, blue flame. The entire room looked like it came out of the dark ages, including the throne.
I walked closer to the huge throne. It appeared to be made entirely of some sort of black bone. Above the throne, looming over it was the skull of a huge beast, black like the throne. Horns, fangs, a reptilian like build. If I didn’t know better I would swear it was a dragon’s skull.

“It is, my Knight. Azrandal did not heed my warning, and forfeited his life in the process. It was a glorious fight, for the Great Drakes do not die easy, but in the end he could not stand against me.”

I turned and stopped, stunned by what I saw. Walking toward me was a woman, but she was so much more. Her skin was dusky, her hair a black velvet drape framing her face. And her eyes. They were just like mine, only brighter. The leather outfit was also interesting.

She stopped at the throne, turned and sat. She stared at me a few moments, then began speaking again.

“ You are probably wondering who I am, and where you are. I am Llandra, and I am the ruler of this realm. You are in your real home my knight, the demiplane of Shadow. This is where you draw your power from, and where in time you will rule with me, by my side.”

“Wha… what?????? I was born in San Antonio, not here! I’ve never been here before in my life! I got these powers because I’m what we call a “mutant” . I said.

She laughed at that. (She had a very rich, throaty laugh.)

“ Once a millennia one is born to the mortal plane that can touch the outer ones. Sometimes the forces of Hel get a disciple on Earth, sometimes the powers Celestial get one. I believe your people called him Jesus. This time it was you, my knight, who was born to both your world and ours. This land is your destiny.. Eventually.”

She shifted in her throne and continued.

"Whether you accept it or not you are a creature of Shadow, and are restricted and empowered by all that entails. You notice you do not sleep anymore, nor do you feel hunger or thirst? That is but a small part of the changes wrought upon you. You are immortal, my knight. Times hand will not kill you, nor will mortal pestilence touch you. Your powers are drawn from Shadow, a realm of darkness, chaos and magic. On your world the arcane is but a fragment of what it was, so your powers are lessened. On other worlds, such as Faerun, your powers would be much greater. You can do much more than you know, with training. That is why I brought you here.”

“In two years time, on your eighteenth birthday, you will come to me, and your training will begin in earnest. Once complete you will be allowed to go as you wish. I have eternity to wait for you my knight. Go amuse yourself in the world that you believe is yours, your home will await you."

At that she got a strange (ok, this all was strange) look in her face.

“But know this, according to the accords with Hel and Celestia, your powers will not work on Consecrated ground, and no mortal woman will your seed grow. There will only be you on the mortal plane, alone among my forces… for now. Now go, and I will see thee anon, in two years of your time.”


Cold blue fire swirled around me and the shadows whirled as I felt myself being thrown through existence, I screamed and hit solid ground. I heard horses whinnying, and noticed I was in a large patch of hoarfrost on the floor of a barn. I slowly stood up, horses still voicing their displeasure, and the world tilted. I moved over to a bale of hay and sat down. I could feel the sun outside, so I knew it was daylight.

Of all the strangeness that had happened to me, where had at least eighteen hours gone, and why had she sent me to the Kent farm????

 

[AmenRa]

He ended up at home, after all. He dug around for a few minutes, searching through his apartments for a book. He x-rayed a few cupboards and closets until he finally found what he was searching for.

When You Can't See Them: Visitors From Outer Space by Dr. Virgil Swann.

Var-Sen thumbed through the pages for a moment until he came to a series of photographs taken through a high-powered, space-borne telescope. The first photograph was of a spiral galaxy many light years from Earth. The next photograph was of a deeper part of that spiral galaxy, showing an oversized red star. And the final photograph showed what could be a planet, or as the caption told, merely a speck of dust on the camera lens, in orbit around that red star.

But Var-Sen knew the photograph was of a planet indeed. It was his home. It was Krypton.

And a tear welled up in his eyes because he knew that it was no more.

Var-Sen considered it was time to return to the cave and collect his SUV. Surely Chloe, Bruce, and Pete had left by now. He wished for no more questions tonight, although when the time came he would tell Chloe all she wanted to know.

He decided to leave via the apartment's balcony. As he opened the double doors to it, he noticed something black and crumbly on the floor of the balcony.

A closer examination revealed it to be a cookie.

An Oreo cookie.

Curious, he thought. As the sky began to lighten with the rising sun he flew away towards Smallville.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Chloe and Pete

Pete then did something else he wouldn't just do for anyone.

He chuckled softly.

"Far be it from me to cramp a billionaire's style," he cracked, firing off a wink. "But just so you know? The view from the back of a moving pickup is total aces, and both y'all'll be missin' out. Just so you know."

And with that, he vaulted into the back of the truck. He took a moment to make sure everything was strapped down so it wouldn't shift as the truck took turns, and sat himself down beside the wheel well with his bag against a big ol' bag of leaves.

Wearily, Chloe smiled softly at Pete.

Selfless to the very last. She couldn't ask for a better friend.

But then she turned back to Bruce, and she curtsied to him-- she lamented the fact that she wasn't wearing a skirt any more, because a curtsy just didn't look nearly as good in jeans --and then she boarded the proffered chariot.

"I guess maybe I should have asked my dad to wait for us," Chloe reflected, as she buckled in. "But then, far be it from us to fend for ourselves, right?"

She leaned back, and she closed her eyes, and when she opened those eyes again she just gazed up at the ceiling of the cab.

Her voice was a whisper. "Please take me home, Bruce," she confessed with a hush. "I need to go crazy. I need to lose my mind and freak out over this... and... and I'm just too self-conscious to do this where people can see me."

She looked at him, her face a stained-glass mosaic of different varieties of emotional exhaustion.

"I promise to stay sane long enough to give you directions," she grinned lopsidedly, swallowing hard enough to be heard in that small space. "After that? No promises. Maybe we can do this again some time? Maybe with fewer superspeedsters messing up the joint and ruining the mood?"

 

[ChasNicollette]

Emil (and Meyer & Boyajian)

Emil smiled faintly, and he sipped his coffee, and he paid little heed to both Meyer and Boyajian sitting on either side of him. He wondered if they knew he'd figured out they were more than just escorts and babysitters; he wondered if they knew he'd realised they were there to make sure he couldn't get away? They couldn't afford to, given he'd started suspecting what he had about LuthorCorp's weapons program.

Maybe Boyajian was oblivious, but Meyer was smarter than that.

Of course they knew, of course they knew he knew, and if they knew, then someone as devious as Alexander Luthor...

Everyone knew everyone else was not what he seemed, and for the moment there was... there was an unspoken détente about this sort of thing. And Emil Hamilton was hardly one to break détentes, this was bad for business.

He leaned back in his chair and eyed Lex over the rims of his spectacles.

"A little bit of freeform R&D?" he mused, running his tongue over and around his teeth. "Just like the old days, working for Buckingham and Downing Street with my mad hatter of a younger brother."

He let a little lopsided smile form at the corner of his mouth.

"But my priorities are a little different now," he chuckled softly, "as you may or may not have ascertained. Of course, I'll fiddle around with my share of party favours and QVC merchandise, what kind of scientist would I be if I refused that sort of thing? Pays the bills, balances the budget, return on investment."

His eye twitched, though, and that blue blue gaze seemed to tighten somehow.

"But of late I have developed quite a passion for, shall we say, geology?" he pointed out. "And I think this is something in which you yourself have cultivated an interest, Mister Luthor. You want to give me free rein on a project? Carte blanche, if you will? Let me study this geology. And I promise you a return on your investment beyond your wildest dreams."

 

[AmenRa]

Var-Sen skimmed the tops of the trees that interspersed the fields of Lowell County, Kansas. He dipped low, flying with the rise and fall of the landscape until he came to the cave. He silently touched down as he watched an old truck lumber away into the distance.

He entered the cave once again. Alone this time, he could better concentrate on the happenings with the cave writings.

And there just wasn't anything else to be seen on the wall. He had hoped he would see something he had missed before.

But no such luck. The writings, save for the Kryptonian, were all Greek to him. Even though he spoke Greek, so they were instead all Kawatche.

And that was one language Zor-El hadn't taught him.

 

[Superman1496]

Bruce took the two passangers home, and dropped them off after sharing some encouraging words with Chloe, trying to get her to feel a little bit better about the bizzare night they just had.

Bruce drove back to his mansion. Alfred was gone for the night, so Bruce was home alone for the night.

He laughed at himself a little, noticing that he had parked the goat-truck in the front of Wayne Manor, something that was contested by that of Lex Luthor only.

He walked inside and headed straight to his study. On his desk he found books on Kawache writings, and symbols. Two men popped into his head.

Henri Ducard, or John Smith a.k.a Var-Sen of Krypton.

Two people who had just been thrown into his life, and he didn't know how to trust the both of them completly.

Bruce read through the books for a while, until the clock chimed three o'clock.

Bruce went to bed for the night. A few hours later, he awoke to get ready for school. The sun was coming up over the fields outside.

Alfred wasn't home yet, and he didn't expect him to be. Bruce went to the kitchen and cooked himself some eggs and bacon. Sitting on the kitchen island, Bruce glanced over at the books of Kawatche sitting on the table in the next room.

Chloe would like to see those, and could probably do more use with them then he. But if Bruce could see this, why couldn't Var-Sen?

Unless it was Ducard, and he wanted Bruce to find something out about those caves...

Or the ones that the writings spoke about..

 

[AmenRa]

"Language and writing were made available to him," came a voice from behind.

Var-Sen didn't turn around. "The poetry of Kitai. The philosophy of Sung," he said, finishing the quote. He then smiled, turning slowly around. Behind him stood an old colleague, a college professor of some fame, or notoriety, depending upon who was questioning.

"The last I heard," he said to the man in the hat, "is that you were in Egypt. Sallah hinted you had found Tannis."

The man adjusted the brown fedora a bit in the front. He then squared his shoulders and sighed. "Did Sallah tell you what he left in Cairo?"

Var-Sen didn't reply.

"Whomever it was that was looking for what he gave you slaughtered the diggers at the site where he recovered it," the man replied. "I just thought you should know this, that there still are men willing to kill to possess it."

Var-Sen turned slightly and gestured to the wall full of ancient writings in front of him. "Throughout history men have killed for treasure. I remember Carter was accused of being nothing more than a grave robber," he offerred. "Besides, Jones, how do you know I have it?"

The man in the hat didn't answer. He just simply smiled and walked from the cave, leaving the Kryptonian to stare after him.

Outside, his eyes flashed red and he streaked off into the morning sky.

Var-Sen stood perplexed. That was the oddest visit from a college professor he had ever had. Something about Dr. Jones wasn't right, though, this time. It was almost as if he were reading scripted lines.

Or as if he knew the answers to the questions before Var-Sen could give them.

 

[TearsoftheWorld]

Kara picked up her red jacket and slid her arms through the sleeves, adjusting it slightly.

"Well, I'm off." Kara said.

Hopefully today would be slightly normal. Kara really wasn't in the mood for any nasty surprises.

"Have fun." Martha said as Kara came up to kiss her on the cheek.

"See you after school." Kara added, smiling at her father as he was drinking some milk straight out of the jug. Martha rolled her eyes and swiped the bottle away from him before he could continue.

It was a Kent tradition to drink straight out of the carton, something that annoyed Martha to no end.

"We have some new posts that need putting in. I'll have a few started, you can finish the rest when you get home." Jonathan said, listing out a few chores for her after school.

"Jonathan!"

"What?"

Martha glared at him for a moment until she shifted her glance towards their young daughter.

"Hurry up or you'll miss the bus," Martha said, and with a nod of her head Kara ran in a normal pace and out the door, down the road and stopping where the bus was scheduled to grab her. She had plenty of time to kill so there wasn't any need for her to use her super speed.

Kara hadn't really made any strong friendships with her classmates, save for perhaps Rose. The young Kryptonian wondered if she would get to see her today. There didn't seem any real reasons why not, though. Perhaps she was just worried that her absence yesterday might have worn those connections away.

With a sigh she finally heard a low rumbling sound coming from the distance, and within a few moments she saw the bus come around the corner. It took a little while for it to reach her, and she climbed aboard when the double doors opened up. She gave a polite smile to the driver and walked down the thin aisle to find an empty seat. There was one about halfway down the line, and she quickly sat down by the window. Her musty old jacket stood in sharp contrast to the light blue shirt that she wore, and she fiddled with the metallic wristbands that she wore.

A small piece of home.

 

[Ithica]

Selena looked up at the clock for the hundredth time. Her shift at the Talon was almost over but it was taking forever. She noticed the well dressed man walk in and gave him time to sit down.

She watched him sit down at an already occupied table and walked over to ask him if she could get him anything.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Rose, Ceri, and Jamie (Morning, Day 3)

Rose had, eventually, gone home.

She'd waited 'till it had gotten darker, and then circled the town, seeing the sights.

She'd flown so close to the big windmill at Chandler's Field that it had twirled against the wind for a change.

She'd kicked up spray at Morley Reservoir, and zipped through Carlton Gorge, and given a wide berth to the Luthor Estate.

On and on she had flown, until she had worn herself completely out.

Not that that had been hard, of course. She'd had a busy day.

Rose had flown to her bedroom window so as to circumnavigate any parental conversation, and, like the night before, she had crashed into bed and fallen asleep.

And when she'd woken up-- this time in plenty of time to get ready --she had found her parents already downstairs drinking orange juice and laughing as her mum had made breakfast.

Which.

Which had been weird. Weirder even in turn than the thought that they had begun sleeping together again.

It was so weird to be a family. Even for a moment, even if it didn't last, that was the weirdest thing. It was like The Kents had cast a magical liking-each-other spell on her folks and she just couldn't get over it.

Ceri kissed Rose on the cheek and ran upstairs to get herself showered. "Breakfast's on th' table, love. Drink your juice, eh?"

Rose, already dressed and primped for school-- no braid today, just a ponytail, and her outfit was simple carpenter jeans and a longsleeved black t-shirt with a pale white star on the left side of the chest --sat down at the table beside her dad in his pinstriped pajamas and his green dressing-gown as he sliced bananas into his porridge.

"'Ello, Rosy," he grinned, grinned that ingratiating infuriating grin. "Tell us about school, eh? Fighting off lads with a shepherd's crook, I'd wager?"

Rose gave him a strange look. "Not. Exactly. There was this one boy. He was going to call me, but I went out and I wasn't near a phone."

Jamie frowned. "Ah, bah," he lamented. "That's rather a shame, ennit?"

"Mmnh," Rose shrugged. "I don't mind so much. I might have been too tired for a date anyway. I had to shoot the principal with a fireball to drive an evil spirit out of him. But that was after the fire alarms went off. And before I chased an alien named John Smith up to the stratosphere."

Jamie paused, stock-still, frozen, brown eyes wide, a slice of banana slipping off of his knife to plop noisily in his porridge.

Rose smiled nervously, expecting a riot act of epic proportions.

Jamie pursed his lips, and scrunched his eyes up, and tapped his chin with the flat of the knife.

"'John Smith,'" he repeated. "An alien?"

Rose nodded quietly, though this was hardly the part of the conversation she'd thought her father would latch onto. "Pretty weird, huh?"

Jamie was apparently halfway lost in thought, and he murmured: "Did he have anyone else with him, named Smith? A Sarah-Jane? Or a Mickey?"

Rose blinked. "Not that," she began, and then tried again. "Not that I know of. Is that important?"

Jamie ate a spoonful of porridge, chewed it thoughtfully. "No," he murmured, distantly. "No, I suppose not."

Rose's eyes found the clock as she began eating her own porridge and sipping her juice. There was so much she wanted to ask her dad, but time was limited and much of it would have to wait until the following evening. Stuff about Auntie Claire and about motile shadows and about possession...

But there was one thing, one thing she'd specifically wanted to ask him about.

"Dad?" she prompted.

Jamie blinked and looked at her with surprise, like he'd forgotten she was in the room. "Something on your mind, Rosy?"

Rose toyed with her porridge for a moment more, and then asked: "Can a person create psychological constructs within oneself, erect a mental architecture so as to layer one's aspects, thereby enabling oneself to transition near-seamlessly between these aspects like a chameleon shifting its colours? Has... has that ever been done?"

"Oh, yes, of course, all the time," Jamie nodded fervently, excitedly, lifting a spoonful of porridge and banana to his lips. "It's a very common technique in espionage these days. Helps keep a person's actual identity separate from their cover identity. The really good ones, oh, I mean the really good ones, they can even use these as barriers against telepathic incursion or what have you. You can't read their mind because they've got their mind so compartmentalised. It's really quite brilliant."

Rose drank a big mouthful of juice and digested this. "You sound like you speak from experience. Do... do you speak from experience, Dad?"

Jamie chortled softly. "That? Is... no. No, I've no first-hand experience with that sort of thing. Although?" he raised his spoon like a tsking finger, and he grinned lopsidedly.

"Although?" Rose prompted.

Jamie smirked wistfully. "I asked someone once for help, back in school," he explained. "With a laboratory project? They'd had a lot on their plate, and they couldn't spare me a mitt nor a mo', and they told me... they told me: 'Stone the crows, Hamilton. I'm just one person!' An' that? That got me thinking.

"We basically remake ourselves as we go, right?" Jamie continued, "and I wondered, how often do we do that in an average lifetime? How often do we generally reinvent ourselves, become a whole new version of ourselves? Sure, that bloke was spot on, mostly we're only one person at a time. But how many people are we ever... over the course of our existences? I actually made a chart, weighing psychological theories and current events and some theoretical psychohistorical stuff I got from an Asimov novel and you know what? We actually become whole new versions of ourselves more frequently than I expected.

"D'you know?" he grinned, poking the air in front of himself with his spoon, "according to my calculations, I'm actually on my tenth iteration right now. The tenth version of me."

Rose gazed at him blankly for a moment. "Let me get this straight," she proceeded slowly. "You're the... you're the tenth Doctor Jamie Hamilton?"

Jamie beamed like a small sun, eyes dancing. "Manner of speaking, yeah."

Rose opened her mouth to enquire further, but then Uncle Dai's great grandfather clock went off in the front hall and Rose's eyes shot to the kitchen wall clock. Out of time. The bus was coming.

She downed her juice at a gulp and made for the door. "G'bye, Dad!" she called back over her shoulder as she ran. "Love to Mum!"

"Bye, Rosy!" Jamie called after her. "Make good choices!"

A moment later, Ceri emerged from the hall wrapped in burgundy towels, looking for a proper comb. "Who's making what choices, now?"

Absentmindedly, Jamie ate his porridge. He managed, somehow, to not be distracted by the pretty ravenhaired woman wearing nothing but dewdrops and a towel. "Rosy threw a fireball at her headmaster yesterday," he muttered.

Ceri's jaw practically hit the floor. "You-- she did what now?"

Jamie blinked, and once again looked surprised, like he'd forgotten where he was. "I'm. Not sure of the context. I suppose I should have asked."

Ceri glared at Jamie like she'd developed fire powers of her own and was going to reduce her erstwhile ersatz husband to a smouldering crater.

"I'm sure if it's a problem?" Jamie mused, "the faculty will give us a call."

Ceri snatched up the comb she was looking for, and stormed back upstairs. "Bendigedig," she fumed.

Rose clambered onto the bus, feeling no end of nervous.

She would have to face the music with Chloe, Pete and Bruce ere too much longer and--

Kara.

Rose brightened like someone had lit up the sky behind her and she shouldered her way best as she could down the aisle, stopping at the seat that Kara Kent half-occupied.

She grinned faintly, nervously. "Mornin', Double-K," she murmured, leaning on the seat so she didn't lose her balance as the bus pulled away. "D'you... d'you mind if I sit here?"

 

[TearsoftheWorld]

Kara's mind had been up in the clouds as the bus rolled along its route, picking up students now and then before it would make its short trek towards the school. She had her head leaning against the window and her clear blue eyes became lost in the endless fields of corn that lined the side of the road.

"Huh?" she suddenly said, her ears picking up the sound of someone talking to her. She glanced up and to her left, smiling brightly when she saw that it was Rose.

"Oh hey," Kara said, sitting up a bit in her seat, "of course you can." she added excitedly, scooting a little more to give her enough room on the seat. The school buses didn't really offer all that much leg room, but Kara didn't mind.

"How's it going?" the blond Kryptonian asked, enthusiastically welcoming the break from her mundane daydreams.

Kara was just simply glad to see someone she recognized. After what happened yesterday... she needed someone to talk to, to just praddle about and act normally.

 

[Superman1496]

Bruce grabbed the keys to the Corvette and headed out the door. He walked over to the black vehicle, put the books in his satchel, and his satchel in the passenger seat.

Turning on his CD player, and starting the car, he heard the mixed noises of Metallica playing, and the roar of the engine. He took off down the road, passing a school bus along the way.

He took a double shot when he saw blonde hair in the window of the bus. The thought of Kara entered his brain. He hoped that she was ok. He was afraid that he had upset her when he didn't show up at the talon. Even though, he had, been a victim of high school monkeys.

Arriving at school, Bruce got out of the car and sat on a bench in front of the school, just like he had done the first day. He sat and waited for Chloe, Pete, Rose, or Kara to appear. Someone Bruce could talk to.

The feeling of being alone was still with him, and it made him uneasy. He could wait for someone to talk to.

 

[AmenRa]

John Smith checked everything one last time in the mirror.

He had just gotten out of the shower, washing the previous night's grime off, and had dressed in a light blue shirt and black slacks. He was going to wear his black sport coat, the one he usually wore, but he felt this time something besides an old black turtleneck beneath it would be somehow more appropriate.

He looked at himself one more time in the mirror. He didn't look any different. The same dark hair with a few unruly locks. The same clear, dark eyes, tinged a bit with flecks of green.

But inside, he felt different. Every cell in his body was energized. He was anew. He was what he was supposed to be.

And today, though, there would be no discussions of Krypton or impending doom, he hoped as he pulled out of his parking area and headed towards the travel route to CKU. At least he hoped. He was going into work, at the library, and perhaps afterward he might pay a visit to Smallville High.

Just to check on them. And her. His new friends.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Rose

Rose eased into the seat beside Kara, resting her hands lightly on the top of the seat in front of her.

Blue eyes flickered about the bus, picking out faces she'd seen the previous day, re-accustoming herself.

This was hard. The crush of the crowds, the babble of the people. This was tough.

(Rose wondered if she was maybe agoraphobic. Probably.)

But there was a young woman sitting next to Rose whose courage had already been inspiring to her, and that was a wonderful thing.

"It's going okay," Rose nodded quietly. "I'm nervous about school. Like, fretting. Everything went so crazy yesterday... I bet you eight dollars there's going to be some kind of aftermath today.

"Did you, um," she wondered, "hear about this? All... all heck broke loose yesterday. You really picked a good day to be absent."

Rose blinked, and she leaned back against the seat, arms draped over her stomach, and she looked at Kara more fully, worriedly.

"Is everything okay with that?" she winced. "I was. I was sort of fretting about you, too."

A tiny little smile teased the corner her lips, and it almost reached her eyes. "Then again, it could've just been one little last day of summer, right? I had one of those too, it's not like I could blame you."

 

[TearsoftheWorld]

Kara smiled as Rose sat down next to her. She had her bag resting down on the floor, nestled between her legs, and her arms were placed gently upon her lap; her fingers playing with the metallic cuffs around her wrists.

"I didn't hear anything. What happened?" Kara asked, looking slightly confused when Rose said all Hell broke loose the other day. She knew it wasn't related to her being absent, but Kara wondered if she might have been able to help out had she actually been there. It seemed like a lot of crazy things were going on in Smallville... a lot of crazy things.

Like... the fact that Kara was an alien and that her space ship was stored away in her families storm cellar.

Kara sighed.

"I was fine. Just... had a lot on my mind. I wasn't really up to going to school, and my parents said it was ok that I stay home." Kara said, half telling the truth and leaving the most important details out. As much as Kara liked and trusted Rose... she just wasn't ready to reveal her secrets.

"I guess it was one of those summer things," Kara agreed, tossing up a smile.

The bus roared a few more times, stopping here and there before it made its way to Smallville High.

"Well, guess we're here," Kara said, glancing out the window.

 

[Abraxas Winterlight]

Wraith

I don't know how long I sat on that hay bale, but eventually I realized that I was getting nothing done here. I stepped back into a empty stall & embraced the shadows, arriving in a heartbeat in my room.

I changed forms, and immediately got the notice that I had a few messages waiting for me. I would have to deal with them later, right now I was almost late for school. A quick change of clothes, new contacts and I was almost ready. I had one last promise to keep.

I moved a chair and got down the file folder I kept hidden on top of my bookcase. Inside was the complete file that San Antonio PD had on my family's murder. I had promised Chole a full interview, and she was going to get one. To do that I wanted her to know what had happened.

I took my armored form again and traveled through Shadow to the old electrical room I used as a entry point into the school. I shifted back and listened, then when I heard nothing I left and made my way to the office of the Torch. The door was not locked, so I went in and sat down. Once Miss Sullivan came in, we were going to have a talk. I could miss my first class if necessary, this in my mind was more important.

 

[AmenRa]

John Smith sat at his desk. He looked very briefly at a file folder labeled "Unreturned". He then logged onto his terminal to check his e-mail.

A knock came at his door. He looked up just in time to see a FedEx delivery guy open it and place a small box on the table nearest him. The delivery man offerred an electronic tablet for Smith to sign. Once the signature had been placed, the FedEx worker turned and left.

Smith looked at the box. He activated his x-ray vision, and within the cardboard there appeared to be numerous layers of bubble-wrap, and beneath that was a piece of a stone tablet with writing on it.

Smith opened the box, and unwrapped the tablet. Its surface was smooth, and it was very, very old. The writing was possibly Latin, because some of the words he recognized. The other words could have been Russian. There appeared to be a drawing of some kind, but it was old and faded, withered away through time. Smith held it very gently, lest he damage it. Further examination revealed symbols that inscribed around the tablet's border. They were Kryptonian.

Look deeper.

And so he did. Using his x-ray vision, Var-Sen found the inside of the tablet was hollow. It once held something inside the cavity, something that was no longer there.

The note accompanying the tablet was simply written:

REGARDS,
LL

Var-Sen rubbed his chin. Chloe was about to have her work cut out for her.