The Last Daughter of Krypton - IC

[TearsoftheWorld]

Kara glanced over at Rose as she nearly collapsed against the walls of the cave, and it was evident that the struggle for the Crystals had taken its toll on her. She and the others had fought valiantly the last few days, pushing their very limits beyond their limitations.

Even Heroes have the right to bleed

"I think Destiny can wait a little while longer," Kara said.

The hospital? No... they couldn't really explain what had happened. Two of the Crystals were already placed on the console in the middle of the room, and Kara held the third. She held the Crystal of Air, but it was the Crystal of Fire that she needed right now.

It was the Stone that Rose needed.

"Sorry dad," Kara mumbled to herself as she walked up to the console, picking up the Crystal of Fire from its resting place. It was a clear stone with Kryptonian symbols imprinted into the surface, created to restore that which was taken away.

"Here," Kara said as she handed the stone over to Rose, moving swiftly over to her side.

Please work...

"Kara..."

Kara raised an eyebrow and she felt a shiver run down her spine. That voice... sounded so familiar. Forgotten... but so familiar. As strange as it seemed, it was a voice she had heard all her life, yet never before recognized.

"You have a destiny to fulfill."

"Dad?"

"Yes, Kara. I am Zor-El. It is time you accepted your destiny. You cannot wait any longer," Zor-El warned.

Kara looked over at Rose, and the young Kryptonian could see her health restored to her almost instantly. The Crystal of Fire seemed to glow in the presence of the other stones, anxious it seemed to be reunited after so many years apart.

Here we go.
Life's waiting to begin.

Kara accepted the Crystal of Fire back from Rose once its power had been called upon, and she placed it back in the altar in the center of the room.

Life's waiting to begin.

Kara Zor-El placed the last stone in the altar, uniting all three together. Light seemed to radiate from the stones, glowing brightly and illuminating the entire cavern. Soon the Three became One... a Crystal of Knowledge. It looked beautiful, possessing a light inside that burned as fiercely as the hope inside Kara's heart.

"This is just one step in your journey," Zor-El said to her.

Kara finally took a deep breath and reached out to grab the Crystal of Knowledge. It felt warm and cool in her hands, glowing brighter and brighter until she was practically blinded by its radiance. She was reminded of her escape from the Phantom Zone, where her body was forcibly torn away from one realm and thrust into another.

 

[AmenRa]

Var Sen, J'onn

The Martian Manhunter and Var-Sen stood witness as the human Rose was re-powered by the Kryptonian element.

It was wonderful, for the Crystal of Fire had now been used for good and without pretense of evil, and it had been wielded by the very person for whom it had been destined.

Var-Sen reached out and put his arm around Rose and whispered softly, "what you are about to see will be unlike nothing you've ever witnessed before." He then nodded to Kara, who seemed to be listening to something else.

J'onn J'onzz seemed to be hearing something too, and when Var-Sen listened deeper, he heard the voice of an old friend.

Zor-El's consciousness had been downloaded into the now-formed Crystal of Knowledge. Zor-El would now guide his only child, the Last Daughter of Krypton, to her destiny.

When Kara picked up the Crystal of Knowledge, the light that emanated from it was almost blinding, even to Kryptonian and Martian eyes.

Kara Zor-El was immediately transported away from the cave. The console then went dark again, and J'onn moved aside as the stone wall once again slid into place.

J'onn turned to Var-Sen and Rose. "It has begun," he said.

Var-Sen nodded. "I am no longer needed here," he told his Martian friend as just a hint of sadness crept into his voice. He was overjoyed that Kara had finally taken control of the Crystal, but he was saddened because he knew it was time for him to leave. "I must find Raya, and then we will prepare our own destiny." He then looked down to Rose. "And I think a reunion with the rest of our friends is well overdue."

 

[camerindrake]

Damian

Black Hood slipped in hearing the good doctor and Chloe speaking. He spoke his part, "And there are those things in the world of the fantastic that can scar. A man who has only one thing on his concious. The death of another man. However his method cant be mundane. It must be extravagent. In his mind humorous. However, even in these scenarios one must endure. One must be willing to make the great sacrifice. Be willing to stop those who would endanger others. I might be out of place in speaking of these things. I simply think they must be said.

Black Hood then remembered something not so dark., "And then there are the holders of the ring. They have said that they wouldnt give up a single chance they ever had to fly by Orions belt for all they have ever sacrificed. That moment when you see a new star being born. Not once has a member of that Corps said they wouldnt make the same choice if given that chance again."

Black Hood concluded, "The fnatastic can go both ways to be certain. Physical and mental. Light and darkness. The fantastic can be many things. I being what I am have just had the place of keeping the dark from becoming to strong. But some would say that a certain institution has revolving doors. I am tempted to agree."

Black Hood then turns on the radio and turns the dial until he hears the name Cobblepot. "Thats right Mr Oswald Cobblepot is opening the second of what he has said will be the start of a chain of nightclubs right here in Metropolis. He has invited the whole city to join him in the Grand opening of The Iceberg Lounge."

Black Hood shook his head and murmered under his breath, "Penguin"

 

[ChasNicollette]

Threshold Station. Later.

"So what'd they get away with?" the cool-eyed uniformed man demanded, wrists crossed behind himself and an imported cigar clamped in his teeth. "Gimme the long and the short of it."

Pale, the supervisor stood behind this general, silenced by the four stars that gleamed at him.

They stood in the storage bay, and the small numbers that were assigned to Threshold Station were combing through the place for clues. A couple of men combed through the crates, checking manifests.

One man had what looked like a Geiger counter strapped to his hip, and was circling slowly, weilding the device's detecting wand like a diviner might weild a divining rod.

Looking up from one of those manifests, one of the men perusing the crates shook his head slowly. "From what we can tell, General, they didn't get away with much. So far, only a single environmental-incursion EVA suit is missing, from a crate cut open with near-surgical precision. But one of the other crates has a smiley face on it, evidently drawn with a fingertip. Also, Lewisham found a little bit of, uh, excrement. Over in a corner."

"Threshold Station got itself shit on?" the general blinked. "What're you saying, that this was some kinda high-end anti-military prank performed by what, time-travelers?"

"Uncertain, sir," the man replied with a tight little wince. "I mean, we're obviously still waiting on DNA testing and other forensics, but the, uh, shit in question, sir, didn't appear human."

The man with the Geiger counter nodded easily. Evidently, this was Lewisham.

"I'd stake my professional reputation on it, General-sir," he declared briskly. "My wife has a cat. The droppings were feline."

"Hnh," the general grunted. "Time-travelers with a cat. What've you got on your scanner, Lewisham? You figured out how that booming thing got in and out?"

Lewisham could only shake his head at that. "It's not a form of energy I can identify. (There seems to be multiple contradictory waveforms.) It's not in any of my databases, not the quantum-field experiments, not the Proteum synthesis, not the ambient-matter protocols. It certainly doesn't match the various inter-dimensional cross-rips that appeared around the world this morning in the upper atmosphere, if that's what you're wondering."

"'Various?'" the general blinked. "My brief said 'three.' Does three count as 'various?'"

Lewisham went pale. "Uh, no, sir. There were more than three. There were... quite a few, really. We still don't know exactly how many. Satellite networks were still rebooting at the time."

The general smirked ruefully around his cigar. "So much for your 'professional reputation.'"

Lewisham's paled features blushed furiously in an instant. "Sir, General, sir, if I might return to the matter directly at hand? Our own systems were still undergoing fluctuation at the time of the incident, but one of our comms filters managed to decode a single SMS transmission while it was coming back online, pure luck, but this might be a clue."

"And that was?" the general gestured magnaminously, giving Threshold's science guy a chance to redeem himself.

"'Bilbo,'" Lewisham declared. "We're not sure of its meaning in context, but it's almost certainly a Tolkien reference."

The general took a bitter puff from his cigar. "Goddamn pot-smoking hippies."

"Sammy," a voice echoed from behind the general, and the general glanced over his shoulder at the source of the voice in question, arching his eyebrow.

The silenced supervisor closed his eyes in horror.

Another four stars. And these were far more intimidating by far.

"Wade," General Sam Lane greeted his counterpart.

"You're done here," General Wade Eiling replied, his moustached lip curled in dismissal.

Behind the taller, skinnier Eiling stood two men in USAF uniforms, all lantern jaws and flat-top haircuts and broad shoulders, very much alike. The one on Eiling's right, however, seemed somehow more sinister than the one on Eiling's left. The one on the left was all America and apple pie. The one on the right was more... Watergate.

Eiling strode forward, peering down his nose at the stockier, brawnier, balding Lane.

"Your cushy Kansas base job turning you deaf as well as soggy 'round the mid-section, Sammy?" Wade snarled, scowling. "I said you're done here. This is my project, this is my headache. I appreciate you being all... neighbourly and rushing out here soon as you got wind that shit had hit the fan, but as I'm the one who'll be reporting this to Oversight..."

"I smell what you're steppin' in, Wade," Sam nodded, completely unruffled. "Don't you worry. I'll make myself scarce."

But as he moved to walk past General Eiling, General Lane paused, and glanced at the taller, bristling fellow: "Just keep this in mind when you do file that report to Congress: the thing what got stolen was a uniform with this base's insignia on it. Maybe these were some punk kids from the future collecting for their scrap-book, but more than likely we've got us some present-day snoops. And now they have proof that something called 'Threshold' exists. Not to mention your little... ongoing pet project. We don't got any clue what dropped through those cross-rips, but I'd bet good green gold-backed Uncle Sam dollars that it's connected to that downed passenger jet, that crashed LuthorCorp private jet, and these worldwide power outages. You know what that tells me?"

Wade's lip twitched. "I know, Sammy. I know. The shit's hitting the fan on a macro scale. Global. The newest arms race will be metagenetic. And it's getting started a whole lot earlier than we thought."

Sam grunted. "I made a promise on my wife's grave that my daughters would grow up in a better world. Seems to me we're in danger of them not having a world left to grow up in at all."

Wade's jaw clenched, a muscle twitching in the side of his neck. He said nothing more.

Sam pushed past him and walked out of the storage area, greeting the two men who had entered with Eiling.

"Captain," he nodded to the one that had been on Eiling's left.

"Major," he harrumphed to the one that had been on Eiling's right.

"General," they replied, crisply, simultaneous.

Lane departed, and Eiling stood there for a moment, fuming.

"Nate," Eiling eventually growled to those same two men, "Clifford."

"Get this pigsty cleaned up. We got bigger clusterfucks to attend."

 

[ChasNicollette]

Honduras. Earlier.

When, that morning, The Sun rose and shone upon a certain nameless mountain swathed in jungle, it bore witness to a field of carnage.

Mud dried amidst blood.

Bodies lay scattered. Some of these were terrorists. Some of these were sympathetic rebel soldiers.

Almost almost all of them were dead.

But as that Sun rose, debris shifted.

And a hulking hairless fellow managed to dig his scathed and bleeding form out from the wreckage of a building. He was... not happy.

He was less happy still when he saw that every single one of his men were dead. And that comrades of theirs were dead as well. There was evidence of genuflection, and of fleeing... he could see this amongst the smudgy muddy bloody tracks.

Raza shook his head, and growled softly.

He glanced up at the sunlit sky and enunciated, in Mongolian: <"'I alone escaped to tell thee.'">

And a voice came from behind him, a seething, furious voice, a voice that could stun kings and overturn regimes just on the strength of its word...

"Tell. Me. What?"

Raza's eyes widened, and instantly he discovered his own hidden reserves of cowardice. He wheeled to face the owner of this voice, and he fell to his knees in the blood and the mud.

He hunched in a posture of religious penitence and he bowed his head deeply, even as he clutched at the golden ring that adorned his thumb.

The man whom Raza feared strode out of the shadowed jungle and poked the bowing terrorist with his cane.

He wore black clothing and a disdainful scowl.

"Explain to me what happened here," he demanded, "and perhaps I shall let you keep your miserable life. Perhaps I shall even let you keep that ring."

Raza nodded helplessly, and staggered to his feet. "Thank you. Mercy from one such as yourself is a rare and beautiful--"

Raza didn't even see the man move, didn't even see him clench his fist. All he knew next was that he was sprawled back in the mud and the blood and his head was pounding and blood poured down from his nose.

"My mercy does not extend to prattlers and time-wasters," grimaced Henri Ducard.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Maralinga. Now.

Nightmares raged.

Nightmares mingled with memories.

Memories that were themselves nightmares.

And, aching and disoriented, Raya Ro-Zan sat up with a start.

Beneath her, the cot on which she'd been lain crumpled with the force of her sudden movement and she hit the floor with a thwump. The floor cracked a little, and she stood with a sharp, single motion, surprised to find herself unharmed.

Wherever she was, the building materials were hardly worth the effort to build with.

She glanced down at herself. She was no longer clad in her robes. Instead she wore a black shirt with buttons, and black trousers. Her feet were bare, and her hair was tousled.

Her beautiful face contorted a bit as her bewilderment reached critical mass.

She glanced around.

The room was dark and full of shadows. But she blinked twice and these shadows became almost as light as day. It was a small room. Musty. Scattered with piled cloth fabrics, these forms of raiment not unlike the clothing she had seen on the Earth-raised Kara Zor-El, not unlike the kind which she wore now.

<"Earth?"> she wondered, in Kryptonian. <"I am on Earth?">

The door swung open and a slender young man stood there, early twenties, arching an eyebrow beneath wavy auburn hair. In a thick accent, he reflected: "Well. The good news is, you're up and talking. The bad news is, you've broken my sleeping arrangements and you're not talking any language I know."

Raya listened, head tilted for a moment. Of course. Earth raiment, Earth languages.

One curious aspect of life in The Phantom Zone was that all languages were immediately translated, and Raya had grown accustomed to this. However, Earth had been a subject of Kryptonian study since time immemorial and The House of El in particular had ever had a soft spot for the little blue planet.

She spoke English well enough.

"This is easily amended," she adjusted accordingly. "And I extend to you utmost apology regarding your destructed flimsy bed."

The lad grinned at her, if a bit ruefully. "Well, no worries, luv. Been meaning to get an actual bed with a frame. Much as I'd prefer to have broken the sack in heated copulation, this works almost as well."

Raya arched an eyebrow. "'Heated copulation?' I do not mean to appear prudish, but you are unknown to me."

The lad waved dismissively. "No, no, not with you. Daft. I'm sure you're pretty enough, but I'm more of a bloke's bloke, if you catch my meaning."

Raya blinked. This did not translate at all. "I do not catch it."

Her host squinted. "I'm a poofter? I, uh, don't go for females. Of any sort."

Raya nodded easily. This concept was more familiar to her. "Ah, I see!"

He chuckled, thoroughly sheepish. "Besides, if I'd wanted that sort of thing from you, I could have had an eyeful and a handful when I was changing you out of that fancy-dress. Lucky for us, my sister's about your size and she always leaves things behind whenever she pops 'round."

She glanced down at herself all over again, and turned a little bit pink. "Well. Your discretion. Is appreciated."

Extending a hand, the lad half-shrugged: "Well, now that we've been properly introduced? Hugh Dawkins, originally of Apple Island, otherwise known as Tasmania."

"I am Raya, originally of The House of Zan," she replied simply, and while she did reach for his hand to shake it in reply, she remembered how easily she cracked his floor and then lowered her hand again in a hurry. "Thank you. How did I come to be here?"

Hugh frowned softly. "I was sort of hoping you could tell me. I'm chummy with the folks in Maralinga because we all hate The Big Smoke just about equally-- well, among other reasons --and they brought you to me because, well, one white person should know what to do with another white person, eh? Makes logical sense. But they told me you... you fell from the sky?"

Raya glanced skyward, and with a shiver of surprise she found that she could see right through the ceiling and roof of his oh-so-very humble cabin abode and could gaze right up to the skies unhindered. She blinked, and refocused, and the opacity of the building re-asserted itself.

Yellow suns are welcoming suns, even after they have set.

She smiled at Hugh. "I am told that one of your religions has angels falling from the sky, cast out of a Holy Place in fire and discontent, condemned to a dark eternity. Perhaps in contrast with this, I myself have fallen from Hell and found a Paradise."

Hugh blinked. "Beg yours?"

Raya opened her mouth perhaps to explain further -- but found herself immediately silenced as her ears, themselves fully superhumanly opened, detected the sound of The Crystal of El discharging its energies.

With a cry of recognition, she ran from that place, powerful strides launching her away at a tremendous rate... she reached for the doorknob but overshot and simply shattered the door off of its hinges.

She crossed twenty yards in an instant and skidded to a stop.

She glanced around, slowly... they were in a wide wide place. A place of sandstone and desert and shrubby, stubby grasses. The sky was panoramic above them...

But she saw not Kara, nor Var-Sen, nor any wielder of The Crystal of El.

She had heard it... she frowned, and hesitated. She could not simply go running about... not at such destructive speeds, not when she was so unfamiliar with the terrain. She could cause much damage to the natural loveliness of this place, not to mention such kind individuals as Hugh Dawkins.

She frowned softly, there in her black Henley shirt and black jeans, as Hugh came running up beside her.

Raya would have to trust that others could find her.

"Strewth," Hugh blinked at her, shaking his head. "Plant the foot, Sheila, pack a wallop."

Raya grimaced, and trailed her fingers through her hair. "This is embarrassing."

"Not as much as you'd think," Hugh chuckled faintly, "I broke my share of doorframes as a jackaroo. But is anything the matter? You look like The Devil-- heh --just waltzed on your grave."

"My 'bloke' and I have been separated," Raya confessed, dismal. "I do not know how to reach him again."

Hugh patted her gently on the arm. "She'll be apples. She'll be bonzer."

Raya did not catch his meaning at all. But she sensed his comfort, and his optimism. She smiled faintly, and she nodded.

"So she will."

 

[ChasNicollette]

Rose

Kara gave her The Crystal.

And it was cold, at first. Cool and metallic. The cool of a cave barely touched by sunlight.

Rose gazed into The Crystal like she was reading her fortune, and she ran her finger over the Kryptonian symbol thereupon. "Fire," this was, or "Power"-- just like "Water" was also "Transference" and "Air" was also "Hope," homonyms --and this was "P" in the Kryptonian alphanumeric system.

(Apparently Kryptonian was like Japanese in that they used pictographs as their primary mode of language, but they had letters and such to express concepts that didn't necessarily translate into picture form. The Japanese called theirs katakana. Rose didn't know what they'd called it on Krypton.)

Then, as she gazed, as she caressed, something shifted inside The Crystal of Fire.

Light billowed forth and Rose's eyes went wide. The Crystal was no longer cool to the touch.

It was warm. It was warm like John Smith, it was warm like Kara Kent, it was warm like a Kryptonian made powerful and the warm suffused her it filled her it flooded her it filled her like Air like Water like Fire...

She shuddered and clenched her eyes and threw her head back but not because of pain. Because of relief.

The light soaked every cell in her body. It was like bathing in a sun.

And in that instant, Rose understood why Kryptonians worshiped Rao.

Suns were Fire of a sort. And they brought Life.

She opened her eyes as the light faded. The pain in her throat and chest was gone, and she felt like she'd slept for a week. (She remembered saying she needed something like that, she'd been in a treehouse with Kyle, it seemed so long ago...)

Her eyes shone blue blue soft soft deep deep sky and she handed Kara back her Crystal. She felt right again. She felt brave again. She felt strong again.

She was Fire and Ice. She was The Valkyrie Missile.

"Thank you," she murmured.

Var-Sen reached out and put his arm around Rose and whispered softly, "what you are about to see will be unlike nothing you've ever witnessed before." He then nodded to Kara, who seemed to be listening to something else.

Rose blinked, bewildered for a moment. Because while her ears were sharp, it seemed liked she was the only one in the room who couldn't hear the tune to which the others were tapping their feet.

For extee ears only?

And then the pieces came together. Molecular alchemy. Universal harmonics.

Kara grasped it. The Holy Grail of Krypton. Twenty-eight galaxies worth of knowledge and power and glory.

And light again filled the room...

More light even than before, so much light that as much as Rose wanted to see this to see this through she couldn't help but look away.

And when the photons settled, when the sparkles and sizzles were no longer dancing before Rose's eyes, Kara was gone.

Rose panicked for a moment The Phantom Zone it was just like The Phantom Zone Kara was gone again no more Double-K ever-ever-ever...

The Console Room closed itself off with a grim sort of finality.

J'onn turned to Var-Sen and Rose. "It has begun," he said.

Rose wasn't sure what at all had happened, but neither John nor J'onn seemed particularly broken up about it. Kara was gone, but she wasn't gone some place bad. She hadn't gone to an ending. She'd gone to a beginning.

And while Rose was disappointed she couldn't go with her friend, she knew that certain things were not for human eyes to see, nor for human ears to hear.

"Bon chance," Rose breathed. "Come home safe."

Var-Sen nodded. "I am no longer needed here," he told his Martian friend as just a hint of sadness crept into his voice. He was overjoyed that Kara had finally taken control of the Crystal, but he was saddened because he knew it was time for him to leave. "I must find Raya, and then we will prepare our own destiny." He then looked down to Rose. "And I think a reunion with the rest of our friends is well overdue."

Rose picked herself up, and dusted herself off, and was delighted to discover that she no longer needed to support herself with antigrav.

Going up on tip-toes, she hugged John tightly, and she blinked a bit, blinked away tears.

She knew a goodbye when she heard one. Or, at least, a prelude to goodbye.

"Thank you for believing in me," she whispered. "Tell your ladylove that she better treat you right, or I'll kick her ass, I don't care what colour of sunlight she's hopped up on."

Sinking back onto her heels, she glanced across at J'onn, and sniffled softly as she flicked a tear away.

"Don't tell me you're going somewhere, too?"

 

[AmenRa]

Var-Sen tossled Rose's hair and whispered back, "I'm not left here, yet. There is still work to be done. I must make sure all is well with all of you, and that you have set yourselves well upon your journey before I take my leave."

He then turned half-way towards the Green Martian. "I would be most relieved to know they had a gaurdian. A protector, a mentor, someone they can trust."

"I am already much a part of them as they are a part of me," the Martian Manhunter said in response to both Var-Sen's and Rose's question. "And while I won't interfere with their growing up, I will most certainly be around should they need me."

Var-Sen nodded with a smile. He then motioned towards the cave entrance, while checking into each pocket he had in the clothes he wore. He produced a set of BMW keys.

His SUV was still parked outside the cave.

"Shall we?"

 

[AmenRa]

Wayne Manor

Post deleted by author.

 

[Abraxas Winterlight]

Bekka & Wraith

OOC: sorry for the delay. Brain has not been wired for writing lately.


I followed Bekka out into the main passenger compartment, where the rest of the gang was. Shadows swirled and moaned around me, and I looked down on my sister with human (mostly) eyes once more, then I knelt down and pulled her into a tight embrace.

"I've missed you sis."

"I know. I'll try and come out more often Kyle, but you know how things get."

"yes, I do know." I said, and stood up.

"So, what were you checking in there while talking to the serpent in our midst?"

"Oh, the girls have GPS trackers and com units on them. I have had Odin keeping me updated on where they are, though it it hard when they move at mach-six plus." She pulled it out and looked again, frowning again. She then punched a series of commands into her unit, waited then put it away.

"The Scion went off grid, Odin thinks interdimensional like you do, then appeared back on grid outside of Smallville. Your Valkyrie when she left her went and fetched Scion, then they went to the Kawatche Caves outside of town. Signals were lost for a time, some sort of energy field interference, then they popped back up about three minutes ago."

Rose was at the caves!! I could go to her. She was looking pretty battered when I last saw her. I narrowed my eyes to call upon Shadow.

Then a pain in my right ear stopped me cold!

"Ow ow OW!!! Bekka!! Leggo my ear!!!"


Bekka released my ear and stared at me hard. "Stay put you interdimensional jumping bean, I ain't done with you yet!"

Bekka then rolled down to face everyone who was in the passenger area.

"First off, let me introduce myself. As most of you have figured out, I am this lummox's big sister. Rebecca Greystone, and yes, the rumors of my brothers death have been greatly exaggerated," She sent a very pointed look at Edmond Tennylson, "and I prefer to keep things quiet concerning him.

The missing team members are safe as far as I know. Your daughter is safe with the Professor and they are currently in Smallville. Kara is currently off-grid, and I hope to learn more about her whereabouts soon.

We have a seven hour flight to the states, with one refelling stop. Make yourselves comfortable, and please don't hesitate to ask me or any of my staff anything.

Also, Lex Luthor is in the compartment I just came from. He is under guard and does not know who is on this flight, and I plan to keep him in the dark.

Now, any questions?"

 

[AmenRa]

An Audi TT pulled into the large, circular drive of Wayne Manor. A man got out, tall, thin, blonde hair, vivid blue eyes, and carrying an old, gnarled cane.

He walked slowly and with a noticeable limp, the result of a climbing accident in Norway several years ago, and he used the cane as his walking aid very easily. The cane itself was not much more than a wooden stick, appearing very ancient, as if had been the sceptre of some wood elf or wizard from ages past. Inscribed upon it, visible only through close inspection, were Runes from old Norse, back when men and women both fought against themselves and the elements while they traveled the world.

He stopped at the large entrance door and pressed the doorbell button. He waited. No one came. He did not know the residents of the manor, Alfred and young Bruce, were away. He was simply passing through on his way to a new position at Metropolis Medical Center as a resident surgeon. He had wanted to stop by, to say hello to an old friend, and to see how the young Bruce Wayne was growing up. He had not seen either since the funeral, where he had last said goodbye to a mentor and friend, Dr. Thomas Wayne and his wife, Martha.

After waiting for a while, he finally gave up. He took a business card from his wallet and slipped it into the doorsill. He then got into his Audi and drove away.

The name on the card read:

DONALD BLAKE, M.D., F.A.C.S.

 

[TearsoftheWorld]

The Fortress of Solitude

There was a bright flash of light, and Kara was once again reminded of her short time spent in the Phantom Zone. Her hand was bloodied up pretty badly, and the harsh winds howled in her ears. She had placed her hand down against the altar by the gateway, and in a matter of moments her body had been thrust out of the Zone and back towards Earth.

That same feeling came over her once again, though she was brought to a place a little closer to home than the last time.

Disoriented at first, Kara soon regained her composure, and she turned around in circles as she took in her surroundings.

Snow...

And mountains that seemingly reached towards the heavens themselves. The sky above was a deep blue, and clouds rolled over head, providing only a brief moment of shade from the yellow sun. She held in her hands the Crystal of Knowledge, and it looked just as beautiful as when she saw it form itself inside the cave.

"This is where your destiny will begin, Kara," Zor-El said to her.

"Where am I?" she called out, her blue eyes searching for a face or a person.

"You are on Earth, Kara. Far from your home in Smallville. Here is where your destiny shall begin."

"How?"

"You must learn to harness the knowledge stored inside the crystal," Zor-El told her. Kara held the Crystal of Knowledge in her open palm, staring at it as if trying to discern its secrets. She was startled when, as if acting upon by a hidden force, the Crystal began to float into the air.

"Cause that's normal, right?" Kara muttered to herself.

Once again Kara reached out and took hold of the Crystal of Knowledge. She pulled her arm back and then swiftly threw it forward, launching the Crystal far into the distance. Her eyes followed it path in the sky, right up until the moment the Crystal stopped moving. And just as suddenly as it stopped, the Crystal then plunged itself down into the ground, sending up a geyser of snow into the air.

All Kara Zor-El could do was watch in awe as the ground beneath her began to shake, and for a moment she wondered whether she had done the right thing by throwing the Crystal. She soon received her answer, for though the Earth began to collapse on itself, towering crystals began shooting out from the ground, crisscrossing each other and forming a sort of monumental structure... a a sort of igloo formed of crystals. From a distance the structure glittered like diamonds, sparkling under the light of the sun.

"Kara... you have traveled far. One journey has ended. A new journey is about to begin."

 

[AmenRa]

The Fortress of Solitude

Crystals that had been cast from crystals made up the structure. The 'Father Crystal', the Crystal of Knowledge, was a shining example of Kryptonian technology, far beyond the known sciences of man. It had been programmed as it were to evolve the elements around it, to change them, to construct growable, moldable, and shapeable crystals that formed a structure not unlike the buildings on that once great world of Krypton.

Kara Zor-El, upon her entry into this new place, found the Crystal of Knowledge resting on a pedestal, the pedestal itself constructed of crystal. There was a console of sorts behind this, a chest-high construct of hollow tubes and crystal spires, into which other solid crystals rested.

Resting within the sheer whiteness of this place was the artificial intelligence of its creator, Zor-El. A consciousness that had been resting within Kara's tiny spacecraft for so long, then within the control room of the cave, and finally within the Crystal of Knowledge, Zor-El's memories, his very essence, now powered the structure where the Last Daughter of Krypton now stood.

As Kara walked farther into the control room, a blue-white light shone down upon the control console, and Zor-El spoke. Not as he did before, in hushed overtones, but in a loud, yet soft voice.

Welcome home, Kara,

There was a pause, and then:

My child, you do not remember me. By now, I will have been dead for over a thousand of your Earth years. My thought patterns and consciousness were downloaded into the ship that brought you here from your home world of Krypton. It is through this artificial intelligence that I am able to be with you here in this place, your refuge, your Fortress of Solitude.

The light over the console slowly changed to a holographic projection of Krypton. The Great Dome could be seen, as well as the spires and taller crystaline structures of the larger cities. The hologram then dissolved into a still photo scene of Zor-El, Allura, and Kara as a newborn baby.

Kara, you are the last born survivor of Krypton. You were sent to Earth to escape the certain destruction of our planet. Although you have been raised as a human, you are not one of them. Your journey has been a difficult one; it will continue to be. You have great powers but you are confused as to how to use them. All this I know. Here in this Fortress, you and I will work together to train you for the tasks that lie ahead.

Within the memory banks of this Fortress is our collected knowledge spanning the 28 known galaxies. This place is a resource, a library of sorts, but it is much more than that. This structure was created to resemble Krypton, and as such it is empowered with the technology of our home world. This place will serve as your home, my daughter, and as a reminder of your heritage and birthright as the last survivor of the House of El.

The holo-photo dissolved to a holo of Zor-El, silver-haired, compassionate, and an almost sad look on his face as he gazed upon the striking features of a daughter he could not hold or touch.

When you have reached your 18th year among the humans, you will return to me to begin your training. Until that time, live as one of them, learn from them, and when you have questions return here, and I will answer them.

They are a good people, Kara. They wish to be. They only lack the light to show them the way. It for this reason above all else, their capacity for good, that I have sent them you.

You must use your powers only for good, my daughter. Remember two things to guide you until you return to me: it is forbidden for you to interfere with Human history, and never set one above the other.

Go now, Kara, and return to me as I have instructed. Your mother and I love you, my little Kara, and we will always be with you. Krypton will always be with you.

And then the holo of Zor-El faded to black, with only a faint beam of light shining down upon the control console. The Crystal of Knowledge, which had been brightly glowing, dimmed as well as the Fortress of Solitude powered down.l

 

[TearsoftheWorld]

Kara remained motionless as the Fortress of Solitude continued to grow, and crystal spires shot out of the chasm, gleaming under the light of the yellow sun. Though she couldn’t remember her time spent on Krypton, there was something comforting in the sight of the way the crystals formed. It was familiar, like a memory long since forgotten. In a small corner of the world, far from civilization, Krypton was reborn.

Finally she began moving again, trekking her way across the snow banks before coming across a path leading directly into the crystalline structure.

It was inside that Kara came across the central console, and yet all around her she saw nothing but crystals. To be honest she rather preferred the sight of trees and hills and rivers and lakes, but she couldn’t have everything her way. She was not human, merely living among them.

Zor-El welcomed her warmly to her, as her described it, Fortress of Solitude. She watched as the A.I. displayed for her an image of Krypton, and then changed into a photograph of her family.

Her biological parents… right in front of her.

But she could not touch them, even as she reached out her hand she could not feel their warmth.

“Mom…?” Kara said weakly before the image disappeared.

Zor-El replaced the still image, offering the young Kryptonian advice and council. He spoke of her training, and for her destiny to serve mankind justly. She was to be their light. Their protector.

“There’s so much I can learn from you,” Kara said, even as the Fortress began to power down she felt like shouting out all the frustration she had been feeling ever since she first learned she was different. “So much… I want to know,” she mumbled inaudibly.

What was there left for her to do? In some ways she felt angry towards her father, putting her through so much only to have her wait even longer. But she would still respect his decision, waiting until her 18th birthday when she would return to the Fortress for her training. Kara ran out of the fortress, her body resembling little but a red blur as she ran quickly over the arctic snow.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Rose

At first, Rose was disheartened by the sound of it... the sound of J'onn withdrawing into the background, shapeshifting away when he had shown her so much, he had befriended her when she otherwise might have buckled under the strain of Var-Sen's loss...

But there were worse things to say than 'I'll be there when you need me.'

'And lo, I am with you... always.'

Rose could accept 'I am with you always.' That would do okay.

Var-Sen pulled out that car key.

And Rose grinned.

She grinned, and then she started laughing, apropos of nothing...

She laughed until she was as red in the face as she was in her hair, alternating between fists in the sky and wrapping her arms across her stomach.

It was cleansing laughter, cathartic, a release of tension and a genuine expression of delight and entertainment.

She bent over, breathing hard, laughing and laughing and laughing...

Rose wiped a tear from her eye, grinning as she straightened, blew air through her lips, and shook her head.

"The SUV," she murmured. "You know, three days ago if you'd shown me that key, I'd've had a conniption fit about getting into cars with strangers? But now... now... now my brain is going, 'Professor, why would we leave a carbon footprint when we can fly, and you under solar power no less?' You can tell I've been hanging with That Sullivan Girl too much."

She grinned, and she shook her head, and she gestured to that key.

"There's beauty in the mundane, isn't there?" she wondered. "I never thought there used to be. But with all the weird stuff that's happened to us over the last few, there's just something real comforting about it. The shape of it. The workmanship, the engineering..."

Turning to walk out of The Cave, Rose chuckled faintly. "Listen to me. I sound like Jubal Early. Or maybe my dad, a little bit. I sound like I want to go to Mrs. Greer's shop on Main Street and buy all her antiques. But I'm not wrong, am I?"

She murmured softly: "There's beauty in the fantastic, such amazing transcendent beauty."

...and then she mused softly. "But there's beauty too in the perfectly normal. There's beauty in the everyday. Everything's Magic."

As she walked out into the daylight, and approached the SUV, she put her hands in her tattered pockets.

...and she said something she never ever thought she'd say: "I can't wait to get back to normal for awhile."

She ran her fingers over the lines of the SUV, the engineering, the workmanship, the mathematics...

And she grinned, and she whispered, referencing an earlier conversation: "'Hi-yo Silver, away!'"

 

[ChasNicollette]

Bruce and Ceri

"Now, any questions?"

Bruce had a worried look on his face.

For whatever reason... the sort of feeling that haunts one after waking up after a particularly impactful nightmare... he felt protective of Kara. Even after she'd shown she could more than take care of herself, whether it be Dodgeball in Gym Class or fighting extraterrestrial generals near Shanghai, there was this underlying-- hunch? --that Kara was important. Not just to the world, not just to the legacy of Krypton, but...

Probably foolish sentiment.

But he had learned a thing or two about detective work lately, both mindset and method, and in all of that he'd learned that hunches were sometimes all you could trust.

He raised his hand. "'Off-grid?'"

"As much as I'm impressed that you apparently had the presence of mind to equip them with global positioning," he mused, "it's a little worrying to me that if the positioning is global and you can't find her, where is she on the globe? Have you tried triangulating from cell-towers and wi-fi networks? What about--"

Ceri smiled faintly. "I'm sure what young Mr. Wayne wants to say is 'thank you' for keeping Lex Luthor under lock and key and watchful eye. And 'thank you' for lifting us back to The States. And 'thank you' for taking care of our wounded."

Bruce paused. Frowned. And nodded. "Yes. Thank you."

Ceri grinned a bit, drawing herself forcefully, kicking and screaming, out of her malaise. "I'm sure he also wants to say that he's sure you're doing the very best you can, with all available resources, to track down our Girl."

Bruce scowled. "Well. Yes. Putting words in my mouth. But yes."

The Welshwoman winked at him. "Someone's got to remind yeh to be polite when Alfred's not around. Goodness knows I've had enough practise reminding skinny English boys not to be rude."

"There are higher priorities than politeness," Bruce harrumphed. "When push comes to shove."

"Often true," Ceri remarked, a wise look in her eyes. "But if civilisation is a thin veneer over the rampant animalistic tendencies of man, isn't it better to maintain that veneer rather than forsake it? Besides, yeh sound like Damian when yeh talk like that."

Bruce blinked.

And looked out the window at the clouds over The Pacific. He had been given pause.

Ceri rose from her seat, and drew closer to Bekka Greystone.

"I did mean that," she murmured. "'Thank you.' For everything."

A tiny little rueful smile graced her lips.

"Now. Yeh said we needed to talk?"

 

[Abraxas Winterlight]

Rebecca Greystone

"I am reduced to guessing Mr. Wayne because due to both Odin and that alien A.I., basically the world is offline. Odin has Gen-Tech satellites up and is currently restoring systems as fast as he can, but this will take time. Kara is off-grid due to the alien energy shielding that those artifacts give off. Earth technology cannot penetrate that, but be assured, I have people working on it in R&D. Keep in mind that this is a theory, as communications are very sketchy. I fully plan to use everything at my disposal, including sending Kyle here if I feel it warranted. I would prefer to keep him here though, as Lex has no idea who he is, and quite frankly, when he spookies up, his mask can't be taken off."


I gave Bekka a glare (which she ignored. Years of practice ya'know.)

Bekka then looked at Rose's mum, and God help me, I got a shiver down my spine.

"Yes Mrs. McCrimmon we do. I have it from some very reliable sources that my brother and your daughter are dating? I have no concerns with Rose, having seen her in action I must really commend you on raising a incredibly bright, talented and brave young woman. I am just a little concerned about Kyle. He is a little young to be dating."

"WHAT!!!!!!" I said, quite a bit louder than I had intended.

 

[AmenRa]

John Smith

Var-Sen gave Rose a smile as he got into the BMW X5 and fastened his seat belt. He put the key in the ignition and turned the engine to start. The German 8 cylinder purred to life, and then he turned to Rose.

"You know," he informed her, "you're right. One can't fly all the time, and shouldn't, just because one can. The last thing we want to do, as I am sure Kara is learning now, is bring too much attention to ourselves. If I were you," he said as he put the car into gear, "I'd be thinking about a way to conceal my identity so the world only knows who you really are, and not whom you pretend to be."

He steered over the dirt road that led away from the Kawatche Cave.

"By the way," he asked, "where, exactly, are we going?"

- - -

The Martian Manhunter had turned himself to invisible as he said goodbye to Rose and Var-Sen. He stood there, melded together with the rock of the cave, and he watched them leave.

He knew the future would find him once again teamed up with the youths he had come so close to over the last few days. They were a superteam of super individuals, and they would be a formidable ally against those who would seek to destroy justice.

He also knew Var-Sen and Raya would soon need his assistance in leaving this world, should they decide to do so. He would speak to friends he knew, and together they would find a place suitable for two displaced Kryptonians to live in peace.

J'onn J'onzz became molecularly intangible and passed through the rock of the cave into the open air beyond, solidifying as he rose higher and higher above the cornfields of Kansas and finally Earth itself. He saw the curvature of the great planet, and mottled blue and green against the blackness of space. How peaceful it looked, how safe.

It was now, because they had defeated an ultimate evil. Earth would serve again to protect another generation of its own protectors because they had stood against her enemy.

He turned to glance quickly in direction of Home, the Red Planet that lay just a short distance by his great speed away. He then turned once again to gaze down at the mighty world of his New Home below.

For the first time in a very, very long time, the Martian Manhunter smiled.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Bruce and Ceri

Bruce digested the thought of worldwide power-loss. And he contemplated the nature of alien energy fields being too powerful for humans to handle.

And he worried for Kara's safety.

He thought he might pray to his parents again... but that seemed like something that should only happen in dire need. That he must needs be self-reliant whenever possible.

He frowned softly, and remained in silence, remained gazing out that window.

Maybe Kara's ancestors can protect her, this time. Instead of mine.

Bekka went on, and complimented Rose, and that made Ceri smile softly.

But then Bekka dropped her bomb on Kyle, and Kyle exploded more than a little.

Ceri's eyelids went to half-mast. And the topography of her soul seemed to shift.

And as if Kyle, God bless him, had never spoken, she replied smoothly to Rebecca: "My own sources, manifold as they are, tell me that yes, there was a certain amount of asking-out, on the part of your 'lummox' brother. And a certain amount of... agreeing to go out, on the part of my 'bright' daughter."

But then she smiled, ever so faintly. "But I'm also told he never called her back, so perhaps this lets him off the hook? The date hasn't actually happened yet. So long as no date has been gone out on, can we really call it 'dating?'"

Crossing one arm over her stomach, she gnawed on a thumbnail pensively.

"I have my concerns," she murmured. "You say you have no reservations about my daughter. I've known her longer. She's not without her. Erm. 'Idiosyncrasies,' isn't it? And I have my concerns about certain... 'metaphysical' aspects of Kyle's nature. One of my sources is as expert in the field of magic as you can be without having a talking painting of oneself on the wall of Dumbledore's office, and he is... worried... about the possibility of cross-hairs being leveled on Kyle The Wraith."

She tucked a raven-dark forelock behind one ear.

"None of my concerns, however," she continued, looking Rebecca square in the eye, "have to do with Kyle's level of maturity. Your assessment is that he's not ready to engage in relationships with we of the so-called 'fairer' sex. My assessment is that he's ready for tupping anything, full stop. If he wants to brighten my daughter's day by being his darkish self, I'm certainly not going to stop him. I suggest something of a probationary relationship? We'll let them see each other, at least for now, but if either one of them steps out of line... 'divorced, beheaded, died.'"

 

[ChasNicollette]

Rose

Rose climbed in, and buckled up, and gave J'onn a little wave. She couldn't see him, but that didn't mean he wasn't there. Invisible, intangible...

She waved him goodbye, and trusted that he'd see it.

And then, as Var-Sen turned to her, she turned to him.

"You know," he informed her, "you're right. One can't fly all the time, and shouldn't, just because one can. The last thing we want to do, as I am sure Kara is learning now, is bring too much attention to ourselves. If I were you," he said as he put the car into gear, "I'd be thinking about a way to conceal my identity so the world only knows who you really are, and not whom you pretend to be."

"That's a whole kind of existential question," Rose blinked, and then mumbled. "This whole thing with masks and secret identities. I always liked 'Bionic Six.' Those guys never wore any masks, and they didn't hide their personalities, but no-one ever figured out their secret. Doctor Scarab even got into their house one time-- twice if you count the one when he was amnesiac and 'Wilmer' --but he couldn't tell who they were without a bionic circuitry detector or watching ill-advised home videos of their (totally sweet) transformation sequence."

She chuckled, though. "But I guess cartoons from before I was born shouldn't be my guideline for how I live my life."

Tapping her chin, she glanced out at the world... "I had some good luck with a fiery aura earlier. And I've been thinking I need some goggles for high-speed flight, protect my eyes. Maybe... two birds, one stone?"

He steered over the dirt road that led away from the Kawatche Cave.

"By the way," he asked, "where, exactly, are we going?"

She grinned. "Oh. I was hoping maybe you had an idea already."

Rose folded her arm over her stomach and nibbled pensively on a fingernail, in an unconscious coincidental mimickry of one of her mother's mannerisms...

"We could drive around town," she suggested, "like I pretended to Mister Kent me and Kara were gonna do. Suss out the extent of the damage and stuff? Maybe see if the school's still standing? At the very least I'd like to go back to my house and make sure that's okay."

 

[AmenRa]

General Surgery

With the dissipation of the BRAINIAC, the small planet nestled third out from Sol returned to some sort of normalcy as power came back on, machines started back up, and functions of the world's network returned to the now being.

Except for those that had watched, like the Watchtower and the Odin A.I., no one would ever know that the BRAINIAC had nearly helped destroy their world. This was fortunate, for no one would ever know when one day, the Kryptonian A.I. returned to challenge Earth's new champion. This, of course, was in the future, but exactly how far in the future only BRAINIAC knew.

Dr. Donald Blake parked his Audi in the parking garage at Metropolis General Hospital. He got out of the car, a Blackberry to his ear, and retrieved his cane.

"I understand," he was saying as he got out of his car, "but there's just nothing I can do about it right now."

He walked a few paces towards the parking garage elevator, and the conversation continued. "I appreciate the vote of confidence, Tony, and I completely support the entire concept, but right now I am just not in a place where I can help on such an initiative."

As he got into the elevator, he responded once again. "It's not that I'm a team player, Tony. Right now, I'm just not sure I can give myself to such a commitment. I have to...well...sort some things out, first. This is how it is right now. I never asked for this, and I wasn't looking for it, but I've got to deal with it my own way. As soon as I figure some things out, as soon as I figure him out, I'll be in touch."

Blake ended the call, and the cell phone vibrated in his hand immediately. He answered, and could hear the caller very well even with the elevator closed and in operation.

"Dr. Blake?"

"Speaking."

"This is Dr. Scanlan at Smallville Medical Center."

"Good to hear from you," Blake said. "What can I do for you?"

"We're up to our necks right now in trauma coming in from our area. I know MetGen is probably overloaded right now, too, but I also know they've got plenty of help. Since you're close now, Dr. Blake, I could use a surgeon of your caliber. Just for a few days, just to help us clean up."

Don was quiet only long enough to calculate how long it would take him to stop by his new home and pack a change of clothes. "I will be there as soon as I can," he told Scanlan.

As he ended the call, he thought to himself that he would have been better off just camping out in Wayne Manor's front yard. At least he wouldn't have to worry about renting a room in Smallville tonight if he had.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Chloe, Pete, Alfred, Gabe, and Jamie

Chloe sighed, and pushed away her egg salad.

"That just figures," she murmured. "That's the state of the modern American press. Nylon magazine was right: we'll report on Lindsay Lohan's sexual orientation before we'll report on elections in Africa."

Pete chuckled softly, his own version of the infectious grin-- not more infectious than The Tennylson Grin, and not less --wafting over his lips, and he held up a finger like he was firing a starter's pistol: "That's right, people: we are go for Editorial."

"I'm serious, Pete!" Chloe harrumphed. "This whole planet got put through the wringer and the first thing out of anchorpeople's mouths when they get their stations back up isn't distribution of clean drinking water or assessments of damages, it's a new watering hole for the Bakerline haves specially designed to keep out the Suicide Slum have-nots."

"That very much sounds like a Cobblepot thing to do," Alfred agreed, nodding quietly, as he stirred flakes of chocolate into a mug of coffee. "My family's had some dealings with them in the past. 'Iceberg Lounge.' Freezing out the grubby and impoverished, more like. Oswald I've not met, but I've seen pictures--"

He paused, and brought this coffee to Damian, setting it beside him.

"What did you call him?" Afred wondered with a soft frown. "'Penguin?' He... he does resemble, come to think... What a queer nickname. Of course, he would probably think it Imperial. Like an Emperor Penguin."

Gabe frowned. "Not that it's not good to get news from home, but wouldn't a local station give us more news of... well... Texas?"

Jamie mused. "Shortwave transmission. It's probably some bloke from Midvale or Granville with a ham radio set, just trying to get the word out that all's well."

Chloe examined the radio dial. "Skywave propagation? Frequency's about right, considering the time of day."

"Mm," Jamie nodded, scrutinising those computers still, waiting for a reply, any reply at all, to his voice command, and even as he did this he made a sort of vertical ricochet motion with his fingertip, up-down-up-down, rapid-fire. "Multihop, from the sound of the ionospheric phasing."

Chloe digested this for a moment. "Maybe we can get a signal back out to him, see if he's got any news about Smallville?"

"We got a ham radio set down here?" Pete glanced over at Dale and Marcy.

Chloe glanced at Merick. "There's this thing where, depending on conditions-- time of day, radiation levels, sunspots --our own planet's natural radiation shield, called the ionosphere, can reflect certain frequencies back to earth. Like... like skipping a stone across a pond, except upside down, and both the stone and the pond are made of invisible light."

She paused. "Maybe telepathy bounces off of the ionosphere, too. That's how John Smith was able to contact me? Maybe that's how your brother could... could transmit so far... using telepathic Skywave propagation."

Jamie, meanwhile, keeping one eye on the computers, one eye and one ear, wandered over to lean against the table with the radio on it, regarding Damian quietly.

Alfred came over, handed Jamie his bigger-than-large espresso, and moved on again. ("Cheers. Ta, King Alfred.")

Jamie sipped this, and gazed quietly at Damian. "It's not easy, is it? Being clever. I mean, we were just talking about heightened senses... this is an unfamiliar sensation for me. Being in the presence of someone who knows things I don't. Chloe's bright enough, a very bright bulb indeed, but you've got knowledge way beyond the rest of us. 'Revolving door?' 'Holders of the ring?' This-- what-was-it --'Core?' I dunno what you're going on about."

He smiled lopsidedly. "All I know is, Orion's Belt isn't a constellation, really. It's an asterism. Not an official constellation, and it's easily one of the most recognisable formations of stars in the sky. Just a subset of an existing constellation."

Jamie shook his head, gazed quietly at his coffee for a moment. "They only look like they're in a row when you look at them from Earth. They only line up if you're looking at them from the proper angle. Galactic-geography wise, they've not a thing to do with each other. It's amazing. The things that look like they don't belong, but somehow, suddenly, everything lines up: they do belong."

He patted Damian on the shoulder. "I'm just saying. In me own awkward way. I'm glad you're around."

Jamie Hamilton grinned faintly, and started walking back to those computers, waiting for his own signal to propagate. "Another funny thing about stars. Traditionally, they're named in Arabic. But I'll bet you knew that already. Clever-clogs."

 

[camerindrake]

Damian

Damian Looks over to Jamie and says, "Actually no, I didn't know that about the stars." He looksed back to the radio and continued, "My learnings were very specific when i 'grew up' for a lack of a better term. the concepts of assassination and ways not to be caught. Then I had to reprogram myself into applying it on how to approhend those who would do those very acts. Took eight to learn the first and then more or less to the same to reapply." Damian turned to the scientist, "Sad I could tell you about three dozen ways to kill someone and make it look like an accident. Yet I couldn't tell you three lines from Othello." Damian looked at the ground and sighed to himself and mumbled, "I'll never be as good as father"

He then walked over to the computer, "I have a question, If you had lets say 5.8 million how would you be able to double it in lets say three months. I have a loan from a grandfather who isnt expecting me to be born in lets say another 16 years."

 

[TearsoftheWorld]

Learn to Fly

The Fortress of Solitude slowly shrank into the distance, glittering like a thousand bright stars high up in the night sky. The sun up above continued to pour its light upon the Earth, and Kara Zor-El felt its warm rays continuously replenish her strength. She rank quickly over the arctic terrain, leaving nothing but a billowy trail of snow in her wake.

As Kara ran further away from the Fortress, she replayed her fathers words over and over in her head.

"They are a good people, Kara. They wish to be. They only lack the light to show them the way. It for this reason above all else, their capacity for good, that I have sent them you"

Her father had sent her away; not only to save her from Krypton's destruction, but to help guide humanity towards a better future. How exactly was she supposed to be able to do that? Why couldn't she have begun her training now?

All sorts of questions were flying through Kara's mind, and for a short while she even forgot where she was going. Stopping rather abruptly, Kara found herself standing on a rather steep cliff, one that overlooked the ocean far below.

"That was close," she mumbled to herself, bending her head forward slightly as she looked down at the water.

"Now what?"

Kara grumbled and turned around, her arms folded across her chest.

"It is for this reason... I have sent them you."

"You could have sent me back home, you know," Kara grumbled.

Looking back down, Kara wondered if it was possible to get a good running jump and perhaps land on one of the many glaciers that were floating around in the water.

"Yeah 'cause sending me home would be too easy, right? I suppose a supergirl should learn how to fly first," Kara said, grumbling to herself once more.

"Well... here goes nothing."

Kara took one more calculative look before giving herself plenty of running distance. It was only once Kara was in the air did she finally realize just how stupid of an idea it was to jump in the first place. She began plummeting down towards the icy water below, instinctively raising her arms and turning her head aside as if to protect herself from the impending disaster. It was a silly gesture; one that brought only a brief moment of comfort as she fast approached the deep blue sea.

Yet the expected plunge into the icy depths of the Arctic Ocean never came, and Kara very slowly turned her head forward while a look of confusion swept over her face.

She was floating... hovering not more than a foot away from the waters edge.

A childish smile quickly lit up the young Kryptonian's face, and she looked out at her hands with amusement as they reached down to skim the surface of the water.

 

[Lunaramblings]

Merick looked at Chloe and smiled. He was glad she was here. He was glad they all were.

"Well, something tells me I will learn more about Tommy, more about myself, and real about all of this crap that is going on in the future"

Suddenly, Merick's cell phone rang. Startled Merick fell on the floor, as he fished the phone from his pocket.

"Hello?"

"Hey. M. It's Gar. Umm... is your Dad around? I kinda need his help and I can't reach him."

"Yeah. He is here. Hold on." Merick puts the phone down from his mouth. "Dad, it's Gar. He says he needs help."

Dale walks over puzzled and takes the phone. "Gar, you okay? I was worried about you. Everything ok?"

"No. Not really. Listen are you guys home? I was hoping maybe to talk to you, um in person. I think it would be easier. Sorta."

"We actually are out of town. When the shower happened I got the family outta Dodge. We are staying at my Dad's. Just arrived. But if things are okay now, I figure we might just sleep for a couple hours and then Dad has a helicopter that he can fly us home in. Come over for dinner tonight. Assuming the house is still standing that is."

"Yeah. Ok. I could do that. Um. See you then."

"You sure your okay Gar? Tell you what, go by the house, make your self at home. We will be there as soon as we can."

"Okay Dale. Thank you."

With that the phone was hung up and Dale handed the handset back to Merick.

"Gar sounds shaken up. Soon as we get things sorted we need to get home. He sounded upset. I'm sure he is fine."