The Last Daughter of Krypton - IC

[ChasNicollette]

Chloe. Following leads, protecting sources.

For all of Chloe's brave talk, she wasn't amazing with heights. She had a little trouble with the Ferris Wheel at the Lowell County Fair, for frack's sake. And then there had been that incident in the new clock tower back in November.

Her stomach lurched more than a little when she saw the map spread out beneath their levitating feet, and she wondered if this is what it was like for Rose and for Kara and J'onn, all those flyers... she remembered sitting atop that windmill with Merick and discussing rebuilding the town. (They still had a lot of work to do. She wished Merick could be here, to see the town like she could now see it... The Earth was still scarred where The Black Ship had hit, and Crater Lake still gave her the willies.)

But Var-Sen was strong and he was safe and Chloe clung to him and knew for a fact, somehow somehow knew that if she fell, if she dropped, for any reason, then Merick would be there to catch her even if Var-Sen couldn't. Beyond sense, beyond reason, she knew that Merick would be there.

(Showing up is what Merick did best.)

But John Smith was busy scanning their tiny hamlet below and in virtually no time at all--

"There," he told Chloe, "in that small shop there," as he pointed below them.

He began their descent quickly, vectoring his flight path to touch down easily in a narrow municipal trash truck alleyway that ran beside the line of shops on the street.

He released Chloe. "Remind me to sign that note for you," he teased.

Chloe's head was spinning a little, she held that head tight for a moment and then grinned at him. "I can just see the look on the nurse's face now: 'How on Earth did you get airsick while reading up on Shakespeare?'"

Recovering swiftly, she moved to the mouth of the alley, she heard tires squealing, she saw Eric's car in front of the magic shop...

...she saw Kara standing by that car, and Chloe raised her hand to wave to Kara and call out to her...

...but then Kara was gone, in that way that only Kryptonians and a Martian could get gone. Vanished, faster than the speed of sight.

Chloe lowered her hand, completely dumbfounded. "Uh. Kara?"

...her phone buzzed in her holster, and snapping this open, she rapidly absorbed the text from Damian. Having done so, she hammered out a lightning reply: 'Class rings? Will do. Thanks, DC.'

She glanced over her shoulder at Var-Sen. "Damian wants us to check out Kara's class ring; apparently there's reports of her acting... strangely? I don't know what that means. But we better find out."

Pursing her lips, she grimaced. "You'd better follow her. You'd better hurry."

 

[Abraxas Winterlight]

"Mum's coming," Rose murmured. "Not much longer now."

I sighed with relief and breathed out words. Words too low for human ears, but easy enough for Rose to hear. "Thank God. I was about to just shift and leave."

I squeezed Roses hand again and turned to Miss Summers.

"Could you contact the attendance office for me please and our teachers. We will be waiting outside for Mrs. McCrimmon."

I didn't bother waiting for an answer. With Rose's hand in mine I made my way out the door and out front.


Throughout the school shadows rippled and shifted. I was having a hard time finding my calm.

 

[AmenRa]

She glanced over her shoulder at Var-Sen. "Damian wants us to check out Kara's class ring; apparently there's reports of her acting... strangely? I don't know what that means. But we better find out."

Class ring? What effect could a class ring have on Kara?

Class rings had gemstones in them!

And one of Smallville High's colors was red.

If the makers of the ring went cheaply, and even instead of cut glass or quartz they used a worthless chunk of meteorite....

Red meteorite...

Red Kryptonite. Harmless to Humans. But, to a Kryptonian, it was the equivalant of a drug. Intoxicating to some degree. Mood altering. Inhibition negating. Addictive. Strength enhancing. But, ultimately, dangerous as the user became reckless, unfocused, and unable to rationalize their behavior.

Var-Sen had spent considerable time during one of his many scientific discoveries while on Earth and on Sanctuary cataloguing the various forms of the radioactive by-products of his exploded homeworld. He knew Kryptonite came in green, black, silver, blue, and....red.

Pursing her lips, she grimaced. "You'd better follow her. You'd better hurry."

"Contact the Martian," he told her. "We may need him."

And with that, Var-Sen sped away in the literal blink of an eye in pursuit of the Last Daughter of Krypton.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Chloe. Sound the alarm.

"Contact the Martian," he told her. "We may need him."

And with that, Var-Sen sped away in the literal blink of an eye in pursuit of the Last Daughter of Krypton.

She nodded firmly to the space where Var-Sen had been just an instant previously.

And she glanced skyward. She took a deep breath.

And tried her very best to banish any thoroughly inappropriate and ill-timed crushtastic thoughts.

'J'onn. (I hope you're not busy.) Zero in on Var-Sen. We've got an apparent 911 with Double-K.'

She hesitated. Took another breath. Thought again, hard: 'Fast would be better than slow.'

 

[ChasNicollette]

Rose. "But soon enough you're gonna think of me, and how I used to be."

I sighed with relief and breathed out words. Words too low for human ears, but easy enough for Rose to hear. "Thank God. I was about to just shift and leave."

I squeezed Roses hand again and turned to Miss Summers.

Rose smiled faintly as she caught his murmur just on the threshold of her enhanced sensorium.

I've got you. We've got you.

You are not alone.

Kyle requested due process with the administration. Good thinking. Rose suspected that would have been one of the things that Ceri would have had her ask her dad, but it was good to have that base covered in case her dad was, well, her dad.

The Absent-Minded Professor.

With Rose's hand in mine I made my way out the door and out front.

And as they walked out, she found her dad's name in her contact list and highlighted it, made to press "send." ...but then a prickle and a goosebumpy hush filtered over her skin, and quick eyes caught the flickers of the darkness dancing at the edges of the walls, at the rims of lockers, in the spaces between fluorescent tubes.

Throughout the school shadows rippled and shifted. I was having a hard time finding my calm.

And softly, gently, just like he'd whispered to her, just loud enough for him to hear her...

...she sang to him.

"'All day,'" she crooned, modulating the cadence of her voice, soothing, soothing,
"'Staring at the ceiling
Making friends with shadows on my wall
All night
Hearing voices telling me
That I should get some sleep
Because tomorrow might be good for something
Hold on
I'm feeling like I'm headed for a
Breakdown
I don't know why
I'm not crazy, I'm just a little unwell...'"

...they stepped out into the pale bright of the winter day and she gazed at him, her song trailing off into the air like a wafting snowflake.

"We could, you know," she watched him carefully. "Just... jump. But it would be way too suspicious. Five minutes after hearing the news from a teacher, you're a hundred miles away at your grandfather's bedside. It's up to you. There's nothing more important than the love of family. But would your grand-dad want you to give up your secrets so easily, given how hard he's lived to protect them?"

There was a hint and a haunt of her mother's strength and her mother's wisdom in her unnaturally blue eyes. Just a hint. And a haunt.

"We'll get there," she murmured. "But we'll get there like people. Because that's the way it must be done, and that is the way we must do it."

 

[Abraxas Winterlight]

Kyle

"I know sweetling, I know. Sometimes it's harder to be a man than a hero. The hardest is to be both."

I held both of her hands in mine and looked down into her blue eyes. "Grandpa taught me that. Your mom will be here soon."

I rested my forehead against hers and let out a long breath, stilling the shadows both inside and outside of me.

 

[Varshanka]

Zatanna

Quick as a wink her store went from full to empty. Her eating companions gone in a flurry, following in the wake of the strange girl.

Rolling her head, Zatanna relieved the crick in her neck that had begun building as soon as the new girl, Kara, had tinkled her bell. The crick that had climbed exponentially with the entry of the Malar from the back.

Looking down at the aforementioned creature of darkness she nodded once. “Kees. Dnif. Kcart.”

Snuffling the hound bounded forwards, and leaped, shifting in the air. Flesh rippling. Bones snapping and reforming. A smooth blend of liquid flesh and hard muscle. It’s new form set it hit the window, and melted through it. Flapping upwards.

Closing her eyes Zatanna focused inwards, and outwards, her mind seeing what the Malara saw, and felt. She could feel the glass sliding around her flesh, the wind ruffling the hairs on her arms. The blue sky above, the ground below.

And she saw.. the girl Kara cross the street in a breath, a man and girl step from an alley that had no other egress.

Words reached through the Malar, words of import and impact. Chosen One. What Chosen One? Chosen for Good or Evil?

What was going on here? She wondered as her eyes opened and she walked out into the street. Watching and listening with her own eyes and ears.

 

[camerindrake]

Damian

Damian thought to J'onn, "We may have an issue with a certain teenage Kryptonian. Dinah texted me that she saw her wearing a class ring. I suspect its Red K. However where I am from the most that Red K was known to be a wild card. Unlike blue and green which have defined attributes."

Damian's tapping of his pencil became quicker knowing there is nothing he could do until after school. However his thoughts started running through his anti Kryptonian weapons. He realizes then he has no blue only green and curses himself.

 

[LuckyVic]

Oh Damn running late

Barry was about to ask Jamie something when the bell rang. He now had a few minutes to get to his next class. Which meant he needed to get his butt in gear. He took the oppertunity that presented itself when Jamie looked away momentarily and inhaled his food thanks to some superspeed. "Well I better get moving, or else the kids will think I'm a slacker." he told his new comrad.

<tags if ya wanna>

OOC: I know it's not much but best i can come up with at the moment.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Jamie. The Man With Ten Senses and No Common Sense.

The bell rang, and Jamie wolfed his coffee, glancing at the building, glancing at the sky. There was something very... acoustic about the air today. Synaesthetic. As though there had been sonic booms in the stratosphere and he was only just now hearing them as a mild sort of tinnitus.

Strange sort of feeling.

Like an aftertaste of mint that won't go away.

Although. I do rather like mint. Maybe an aftertaste of pears?

I hate pears.

But as he looked away from Barry Allen, there came a bit of a rush, a whirligig sort of feeling, all helter-skelter, kaleidoscopic, his frontal lobe like a mosaic rushing by at a million hertz.

And, completely disoriented, a little bit staggered, he had to put down his coffee mug and his coffee pot in a hurry to keep from dropping them into the snow.

His right eye twitched and he rubbed it, bleary, glancing at Barry's trays.

What in clever blue blazes was that? (Also, erm, weren't those full a minute ago?)

But there were funny little afterimages dancing on his retinas, like staring at a sky during the thunderstorm and having the shapes of lightning etched on one's eyes when one looks away, and he wasn't sure what he was looking at and he wasn't sure if he was remembering right about the quantity of food.

"Well I better get moving, or else the kids will think I'm a slacker." he told his new comrad.

Blinking rapidly, shaking his head a bit, Jamie tried to clear his eyesight as he climbed up from the picnic table, he nodded and walked away, though he seemed to have trouble remembering where the school--

Oh, right, there it is.

Reorienting himself, he carried his coffee mug and the carafe, both handles in one hand and the other hand in his trouser pocket, smiling lopsidedly at Barry. "Yes, no, of course. No rest for the wicked."

"Back to work. I'll see you 'round the corridors, I'm sure."

His eye twitched again, but he attempted to disguise it as a wink.

Well. That was... different.

 

[Lunaramblings]

Merick grinned as Chloe softly smooched his head. He loved her. He didn't understand it. It was all too new. But somehow, he knew he would never love anyone or anything like he loved his intrepid reporter.

"Have fun storming the castle!" Merick called after his girlfriend. Still smiling as she went.

Merick quickly finished his lunch and stood to leave. Smiling he nods to those around him as he walks away.

Merick had been training hard. About the only thing he had been doing for the last several months. Edmund had been relentless. Between the "shed" he built for their training exercises, and his insistence that Merick learn every martial art known to man, Merick was exhausted. He had really been burning the candle at both ends. Merick had also been practicing his skills with his teleporting. He rarely missed his mark these days. Well, unless he was distracted. Merick still had the bruise from the coffee table in the den that he broke last week.

Merick strode into his next class, Music Appreciation. He was just sitting down when the Teacher walked in.

"You know, Mer, from what I heard, this is the only class you ever make it to on time, or actually, early. Why is that."

"Well, this is really one of my only classes I really enjoy. I mean, where else can I listen to Rush and drink Yoohoo while arguing who the better drummer is, Keith Moon, Lars Ulrich or Peter Criss?"

"Well, I guess that is a fair answer. So, how are you coming with the guitar?"

"Gave it up. But I got my grandfather to buy me a pretty sweet keyboard. I learned Yankee Doodle. Also, I heard this sweet band called Where's Fluffy? They're pretty cool? Ever hear of them?"

"Oh, yeah! They did this weird scavenger hunt show in New York once.... Spent like the whole night trying to find them. Saw a cool indy band called The Jerk Offs in the process, those guys were good too, anyway, eventually I found the show, and it was pretty awesome. I moved out here not long after."

"Do you miss New York?"

"Sometimes. Then I realize I am not being mugged by a drag queen that looks like Andre the Giant and Margaret Thatcher's love child. Seriously, I miss the music scene, but the city itself, not so much. Besides, seems that since I have lived here, there has been a fair bit of excitement. Alright Mer, I gotta make some xerox's of the sheet music for The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. I am still a little confused how you talked me into making that out song of the semester. You really have odd tastes Mer. See ya in a few."

Merick nodded and grinned as Mr. Gordon left the room.

 

[TearsoftheWorld]

As Ceri's vehicle came to a screeching halt and turned at the last second, Kara unfurled her arms and watched as Rose's mother stepped out from the drivers seat and slammed the door shut behind her. She smiled, if barely, at the young Kryptonian as she looked over the roof of her car. Kara could see through her smile, sensing the urgency and annoyance that she desperately tried to keep in check.

"I dun have time for this. Surely if yeh'd like me to permit yeh to go freely wherever yeh like, yeh should exchange me the same freedom."

"Permit me?"

Such an odd choice of words.

Such empty words.

Kara didn't need anyone's permission to do anything. With that ring on her finger... she could do just about anything she wanted. Her parents would certainly disapprove of her behavior but... they weren't really her parents anyways.

She didn't need them either.

"I need to go. Right now. There are more important things afoot, Chosen One, more important even than you."

Kara cracked a smile.

The Chosen One.

"Oh rea-"

Suddenly Kara felt the hairs on her neck stand up, and she could feel the air move around her as Var-Sen of all people came into view.

"Hello Professor. Ms. McCrimmon here was speeding and I was just about to tell to her that she needs to slow down a bit. Apparently there's something more important than highway safety, although right now I can't imagine what."

 

[AmenRa]

"Hello Professor. Ms. McCrimmon here was speeding and I was just about to tell to her that she needs to slow down a bit. Apparently there's something more important than highway safety, although right now I can't imagine what."

The Daughter of Zor-El was definitely not herself. Var-Sen could see it in her eyes. He could hear it in the way she spoke. He moved close to her, and he saw the high school class ring she was wearing on her hand.

The gemstone in the center was red.

"I am sure Ms. McCrimmon has a good reason for her excessive speed," he said as he glanced to Ceri behind the wheel of the Saab. "However, I believe that the sheriff's office is better suited to handle violations of the speeding statutes right now."

Var-Sen gently placed his hand on Kara's shoulder. He gave her a smile he usually only reserved for his beloved Raya. "It is good to see you, Kara," he told her sincerely. "I would like to talk to you for a moment. I have something for you."

 

[AmenRa]

'J'onn. (I hope you're not busy.) Zero in on Var-Sen. We've got an apparent 911 with Double-K.'

The voice J'onn J'onzz heard was soothing in his mind. His telepathic link with Chloe Sullivan was very strong, having been forged through events that brought them close together. There was an emotional content to her thought, something he could not quite place. It almost made him smile, despite the urgency of the message.

He connected with her, assuring her he would be vigilant.

I am searching for him now.

As his mind touched the Kryptonian scientist, another urgent telepathic call came through.

We may have an issue with a certain teenage Kryptonian. Dinah texted me that she saw her wearing a class ring. I suspect its Red K. However where I am from the most that Red K was known to be a wild card. Unlike blue and green which have defined attributes."

I understand, my friend. I am en route to her now.

He stood from his desk in the empty classroom, and he totally disappeared from view. Now invisible, the Martian Manhunter phased through walls and ceilings and took flight to the street where he had located Var-Sen.

He stopped in mid-air, hovering invisibly, his super-keen hearing and eyesight watching them below him. He saw Chloe, near an alleyway.

I am here, Chloe. I am watching.

 

[TearsoftheWorld]

"However, I believe that the sheriff's office is better suited to handle violations of the speeding statutes right now."

"Better suited? Right now the only thing the Sheriff's department is suited for is..."

Kara paused for a moment and then wondered what should follow next. Like a deer caught in the headlights she seemed to forget what she was saying, but with a slight shrug of her shoulders moments later she moved on.

What did she care?

"Eh, you're right. What do I care? So what do you have for me?" Kara asked, using her hand to push Var-Sen's off of her shoulder. She took a few steps back and then sat down on the hood of Ceri's vehicle, folding her arms across her chest.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Ceri. "Can we pretend that airplanes in the night sky are like shooting stars?"

Kara cracked a smile.

The Chosen One.

"Oh rea-"

Suddenly Kara felt the hairs on her neck stand up, and she could feel the air move around her as Var-Sen of all people came into view.

Ceri arched an eyebrow, a jumble of emotions Cuisinarting its way through the core of her, and what emerged from the jumble was incredulous relief. "Hulloh, John."

Oh thank God and Everyone Else. Someone equipped to handle this.

"Hello Professor. Ms. McCrimmon here was speeding and I was just about to tell to her that she needs to slow down a bit. Apparently there's something more important than highway safety, although right now I can't imagine what."

The Daughter of Zor-El was definitely not herself. Var-Sen could see it in her eyes. He could hear it in the way she spoke. He moved close to her, and he saw the high school class ring she was wearing on her hand.

The gemstone in the center was red.

For a moment, Ceri attempted to wrestle the ignominy of having to back down from such an aspersion from a little girl, from getting snarked at by her daughter's friend.

She reminded herself how that fractured skull had felt when stupidly attempting to duke it out with Aethyr, the woman Rose had later bravely slain.

Her jaw clenched, and she slithered back into the car. Hopefully, Var-Sen would defuse the situation and she'd be able to get back to running her mission of mercy.

"I am sure Ms. McCrimmon has a good reason for her excessive speed," he said as he glanced to Ceri behind the wheel of the Saab. "However, I believe that the sheriff's office is better suited to handle violations of the speeding statutes right now."

Ceri grimaced faintly. Catch me if they can.

"Better suited? Right now the only thing the Sheriff's department is suited for is..."

Kara trailed off and shrugged. Ceri wondered what that meant, and what sort of ADHD Kara's sudden demeanour-shift entailed that Kara would just abandon sentences mid-enunciation.

Var-Sen gently placed his hand on Kara's shoulder. He gave her a smile he usually only reserved for his beloved Raya. "It is good to see you, Kara," he told her sincerely. "I would like to talk to you for a moment. I have something for you."

Ceri registered that smile with a bit of bemusement. It was... quite a smile.

This Raya creature was a lucky woman.

"Eh, you're right. What do I care? So what do you have for me?" Kara asked, using her hand to push Var-Sen's off of her shoulder. She took a few steps back and then sat down on the hood of Ceri's vehicle, folding her arms across her chest.

Ceri clawed her hand through her hair. She looked at the clock radio on the dash, biting the inside of her cheek. She flexed her fingers on the steering wheel.

Right.

I really don't have farking time f'r this. I really really don't.

She could throw the Saab into gear, pound down hard on the accelerator, reverse hard out from under Kara, maybe take her by surprise...

...but no, Kara, Kara, all she had to do was punch downwards, faster than a speeding bullet, she'd knock the engine down into the road and anchor herself to the hood in the same instant.

She had to get out of the car.

Now.

Slinging her arm behind and down, she grabbed the small automotive fire extinguisher out from under the passenger seat, and having grabbed this, she yanked a handkerchief out of her pocket.

Watching Kara and John, watching carefully, carefully, she glanced down at her mobile. Her thumb moved like lightning, hunting and pecking an SMS to both Kyle and Rose, hoping to God (and Everyone Else) that between both of them, they'd get the message right away.

R&K- roadblock: t-port to Saab int, windows will be blacked out - require immediate evac to our garage, explain in a mo'.

Then, yanking the pin on the extinguisher, she clapped the hanky over her mouth, and began hosing the windshields and the windows with foam...

The car went dark, Kara vanished from sight, and Ceri's cool eyes gave Var-Sen one last look before she disappeared to all but X-ray vision, the windows obscured. Good luck. I'm sorry.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Rose. "I could really use a wish right now."

Rose held Kyle tightly, eyes closed against the bright of the day.

But then her phone buzzed in her pocket and reluctantly she drew away, glancing down at the LCD. She blinked, and she stared at Kyle.

"Did you get this?" she prompted. "Mum. She's. In trouble? I dunno."

She glanced around for someplace dark...

"Can you do what she's asking?"

 

[ChasNicollette]

Chloe. No obit for you.

I am here, Chloe. I am watching.

Striding hurriedly away from the alley mouth, Chloe smiled softly at J'onn's reassuring presence.

John and J'onn.

They were in safe hands.

But. She was getting left behind and it had just occurred to her that she could be useful here, she didn't have to just stay off on the sidelines inking her bylines.

Her hand flew to her head.

'J'onn, please: t-path to Merick, tell him where I am, to come get me, bring me to Kara. If she's going to be hurting people...

...I can heal them.

Tell Merick I need him.

Please.'

 

[Abraxas Winterlight]

Kyle

Could I?

I could change here certainly. Sunlight only impeded me going immaterial and my short range teleports. I could shift myself to Shadow from anywhere but holy ground.

A car though, that I did not know.

"Your mom better not blame me for the ticket." I said as I pulled Rose over to a darker corner of the entryway and shifted into my armor, then shifted us both to Shadow.

We appeared in the grand hall of my palace. Most of it was still being built, but this structure was mostly complete. Torches lit the hall in shifting bands of light and dark, and fragrant herbs burned in scent pots, giving it a soothing feel. I could hear workers on other parts of the castle hammering and banging.

The fact that we had ported in just paces from a young maiden sort of escaped me until she squeaked and dropped a handfull of rushes to the floor as she fell down into a full on absolution.

"My Lord!!" she gasped in Shadowspeak. "I did not see you. I am at your service."

I sighed. They STILL were doing the bowing crap. As much as I tried they just wouldn't stop. Al'thon, my majordomo just laughed when I complained.

"Stand up Mellisande. This is Rose, my consort. She is to be taken to my chambers and treated as you would treat me. She does not speak our language, but I will instruct her to follow you. Let Al'thon know I am bringing another from my realm here in a few minutes." I said in Shadowspeak.

I turned to Rose then. "Follow Mellisande here. She will take you to my rooms here. I'll be back in a few minutes with your mom."
Shadows ripped a hole through dimensions and deposited me in a cramped, cold and completely oxygen free car. I couldn't see shit! I felt around until I hit Ceri's shoulder, squeezed it twice, then ported us back to Shadow.

Once Ceri stopped coughing and started breathing I once more placed my hand on her shoulder. Of course, I was almost eight feet tall here, with much more menacing armor and a flaming crown of cold blue flames over my head.

"Come with me, Rose is in my quarters waiting for us."

 

[Lunaramblings]

Merick was smiling as sat before a keyboard in the music room. He started playing an melody that had interested him the other night. Soft and elegant. He had no idea what he was doing. Like most things he was good at, it sort of came naturally. He was so focused he apparently didn't hear the new guy when he entered.

"That is a beautiful song." The man smiled as he leaned on the wall beside the keyboard.

Merick shifted slightly, surprised. "Heh. Thanks. I uh... its just this thing that has been in my head for a couple days. I'm sorry, do I know you?" Merick grinned as he looked up at his visitor.

"Not as such."

"Okay, I gotta say, I am kinda getting this real stranger-danger sensation thing goin' on right now. I am not particularly partial to candy, and I am in a lot of trouble at the moment, so I can't help you find your puppy. So, short of you kidnapping me or something is there something I can help you with?"

The man began to laugh. "You are an interesting young man. I just was passing by and needed to give you a message. Please, hear my message and be prepared. Something bad is coming. Someone very bad. You need to be ready. You need to protect them. You must remember all that you have been taught. And you must find what you have not. This is important. Please. Be prepared."

Merick felt chills as the man placed his hand on his shoulder. Merick felt... something. Before Merick could stand, before he had time to think. The man was gone. Merick was alone once more.

"That was... right... no more mixing cultures at lunch. I knew that place in Morocco looked shifty..."

 

[ChasNicollette]

Rose and Ceri. "'Tween Sacred and Profane hovers The Earth and falls The Shadow."

Brazen as could be, there in the day, he brought about a little patch of night and they were gone.

Rose closed her eyes and held her breath and prayed not to be eaten by dragons.

But when she opened her eyes, they were outside not of that eerie tower but of the royal place they were making for their newly-risen Lord. Which, that was simultaneously cool and frightening, that her boyfriend should be the essential king of anywhere...

Incense and torchsmoke filled the air, and darkness wafted about with the flickering of fire.

When she'd last seen this place they'd just broken the foundations; she always forgot how much faster time passed in Shadow than on Earth. Again, it was like Narnia, she should have the hang of that by now.

And then, of course, she glanced up at Kyle, and was reminded of something else she always forgot about Shadow.

...she hesitated.

Flames of blue ringed his cranium and his height and musculature towered and powered over her. Her eyebrows climbed her forehead and moisture left her mouth and she... shivered.

He was beautiful. Secondary mutation, secondary apotheosis.

Down, girl.

Mister Barry who, now?

But there was a pretty little blue thing, pointy-eared, bowing and scraping, with whom Kyle spoke familiarly, bidding her apparently to rise as he spoke a tongue which defied Rose's intellect and intuition to understand.

I turned to Rose then. "Follow Mellisande here. She will take you to my rooms here. I'll be back in a few minutes with your mom."

"Okay," Rose nodded, a little hesitant to walk these halls without that impossible presence by her side, but then he was gone anyway, a rift of black that was darker than black and she stood alone with the pretty blue girl.

A bit distractedly, Rose rubbed her arm and smiled at Mellisande. "So, uh. Rooms?"

Mellisande with her starlessly dark eyes stared blankly at Rose, then simply turned and beckoned and led the way.

Rose smiled nervously. "Right. I don't speak Darnassae, and you don't speak American. (No wonder I always feel like a tourist.)"

But, steeling herself, she followed, up a few flights of stairs seemingly hewn from the living rock. It was a little bit like ascending the towers of Castle Wyvern, from "Gargoyles," except there was no Manhattan spread out beneath it. And, after ascending for a time mercifully brief, Mellisande left Rose standing by the bed in a suite of three rooms themselves palatial.

Rose glanced about, detecting the scent of those soothing herbs burning even nearby. She examined the garderobe, marble tub gleaming with the twilight that seeped in through the window. She trailed her fingers over the edge of the tub and wondered how often Kyle had soaked in here after a hard night's slaying monsters in California or cracking gangster skulls in Gotham.

This was... passing strange. She knew about this side of his life but she wasn't really a part of it.

She supposed this would be like Kara's boyfriend Eric suddenly finding himself in that Arctic fortress-thingy.

Secret identities were a major source of cognitive dissonance.

But then, she understood the value of that sort of place. That sort of space, in which one could simply... retire. A place of solitude.

She resolved to have a place like that for herself someday.

The bedroom had a tapestry hanging on the wall, and she glanced behind it, because tapestries always had secret rooms behind them, it was like a rule. Though she did experience a modicum of startlement when she realised oh, yeah, there really was a door back there.

She let the tapestry fall back into place. The last thing she wanted to do was unleash some misbegotten magickal artefact upon her boyfriend's realm. Or whatever was in there.

(Maybe there's a dead body in there? Like in Anansi Boys.

Oh, there's a pleasant thought.)

She sat in the sitting room, in one of the high-backed velvet-upholstered chairs, and cast a small fireball into the fireplace, lighting and warming the room.

I should call Dad.

She brought out her cellphone, and perhaps unsurprisingly, the LCD displayed nonsense. The time and date were garbled, and the bars of signal were bereft.

Oh.

Right.

Duh.

Laughing softly at herself she put the phone away and sat near the flickering of the fire.

He'll just be a minute.

He'll have Mum with him.

Things'll be okay.

She hesitated.

Wait. Has Mum ever--?

Oh.

Shit.

********​

Darkness swirled around her, cold cold carbon dioxide flooding the atmosphere in lieu of oxygen... her lungs clung to her last inhalation, even as in the darkness she fumbled one-handed to find her appointment book...

The suspension creaked, the darkness bayed, she was no longer alone in the car, and a hand with claws like bayonets clutched her shoulder and though it squeezed reassuringly twice, it did not stab her.

The darkness bayed again, and she breathed the scent of summer and the threshold of night, the scent of ensconced torches and aromatherapeutic petals lit aflame. Air. Air was sweet, and the hanky fell from her mouth and she breathed deeply, hacking on hands and on knees with her raven-dark hair fallen about her countenance.

And that hand was again on her shoulder and again was reassuring and when she glanced up...

...her complexion paled, her fist came up, she stopped, she stopped right there. "Cer o 'ma!"

She glanced around, hurriedly, taking in her environment, minding her surroundings, and then shot her gaze right back up at the looming gloaming king. "Beth yw...?"

But then she answered her own question, answered her own question to the man-monster beside her. "Shadow. This is Shadow."

"Strewth," she mumbled, fist hesitant, fist lowering, fist useless against this creature. "Seen yeh like this once, in that library. It's enough to stop a heart, isn't it?"

Taking hold of his wrist, she drew herself to stand, and, tucking her appointment book into her inside jacket pocket with her cellphone, she breathed deeply of the castle air. It smelled, oddly, beneath the smoke herbivorous and illuminating, like something from her childhood, like a trip with her mum and dad to Carreg Cennen when Claire had still been just a baby.

"Come with me, Rose is in my quarters waiting for us."

Calming herself, finding her centre, Ceri nodded quietly. "Of course. Lay on, MacDuff."

"Lay on."

 

[Tymeless]

"Thank you Lex, but before I leave where will I be living while I'm back in town and what do I do about expenses. Daddy took all my credit cards away when we moved. He said I was getting a bit too spoiled." Misty pouted at the loss of her material wealth she had become so accustomed to before her family moved away.

After letting her question hang she stood up and headed towards the door. She thought that heading to her old hangout of a coffee shop might just be the ideal place to head. She might even be lucky enough to run into at least one of her old friends.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Lex. Gilded.

"Thank you Lex, but before I leave where will I be living while I'm back in town and what do I do about expenses. Daddy took all my credit cards away when we moved. He said I was getting a bit too spoiled." Misty pouted at the loss of her material wealth she had become so accustomed to before her family moved away.

After letting her question hang she stood up and headed towards the door.

Lex smiled faintly to himself as she turned away, trailing his fingers across the corner of the blotter on his desk.

"Far be it from me," he mused, "to question the parenting of a trusted colleague. But to be 'spoiled' is to want everything and to give nothing in return. You, however, have promised to assist me in a most important endeavour. It isn't 'spoiling' if you've earned it. And I trust that you will. Earn your keep."

Rising from behind the desk, Lex's expression grew gracious. "There is a guest house on the property of The Luthor Mansion; the man who saved your father's life lived there briefly. If this is not to your liking, there are many properties in Smallville at which I could arrange for rooms to be rented in your name."

His hands slid into his pockets, and he smiled a smile of mutual... understanding. "In the meantime, my driver will have in his possession a company card with a... liberal spending limit. And what kind of man would I be if I did not use what hard work and Providence and my father have given me to take good care of my friends?"

Lex Luthor nodded gently to Misty. "Go have fun. You've earned it."

 

[Tymeless]

On her way out Misty passed back by where Erin was located and went up to her and looked upon her sadly. She wanted to talk to Erin but thought the time right now wasn't right. She would convince Lex to let her see her sometime soon so the two girls could talk alone. She forced a smile as she looked in the girls eyes and projected a thought that it wouldn't be so bad if I would just cooperate a little after all it could help millions.

Misty began to feel guilty for possibly influencing another's mind but she quickly pushed that to the back of her own mind. She felt that if it could help all those people and it wasn't really putting her or Erin in danger then it couldn't be all that bad.

She was then met by Lex's driver who lead her back out of the building and into the limo. "Where to Miss Graves?" The driver asked with a smile.

"I think the Talon would be the ideal place to go. I loved going there before my family relocated." She flashed him a smile. "By the way what should I call you?"

 

[Varshanka]

The newcomer - Miss Kristopheles

Shivering, she sat in the girls bathroom, the door to the last stall closed. She’d itched ever since she got here. A constatnt itching under her skin. There were bad people here. So many bad people. Some worse than others.

Very, very, bad people.

And then the itching faded. Finally it lessened to a soft nag in the back of her skull.

Taking a slow deep calming breath, she tried to relax.

And the bathroom exploded. Concrete tiles, smoldered. Silver backed mirrors puddle like mercury. Metal cubicles shattered like grenades, motel steel flying outwards. Windows vaporized in a blink.

The thing that stood there glared at the smoldering, smoking ruin of a bathroom. And snarled.

In a flash the creature was gone, replaced by a teenage girl, staring in horror at the blasted ruin of a bathroom. Grabbing her bag she ran from the demolition zone, the door hanging by a shattered hinge.

Lost in the crowd of milling students, she made her way away from the area. The buzz in the back of her skull a constant reminder of the cruelty of teens, but for now, the irritable itch... was gone.

Three seconds. That's all it took to turn a bathroom into a warzone.