Chapter 1: Six Degrees of Separation

Ever since he was little, his mother had always told him 'be careful, never lose your temper, and never touch anyone because you might hurt them.' Granted, he assumed that most parents would have just felt satisfactory with giving their kid a 'behave' warning, but his mother couldn't.

It was because they were too different that neither of them could relax around others.

His mother had wanted to homeschool him in the beginning, but he'd insisted that he wanted to go to school with the other kids, even before he could run faster and was stronger than a normal human was. His mother had eventually relented, and that's where the three rules had come in.

Jack Darby could recite them by heart that he heard them so often growing up, and his mother had a good reason to say it over and over too. Neither of them was human, and like his Autobot friends, they were aliens too.

He'd always known was he was, but he'd never known that there were other aliens out there too, and yet he'd made a promise to his mother that he wouldn't tell anyone what he was, them included.

Jack had asked June once what their home planet Krypton was like before it blew up, and June had answered him, though there was always this pained, wistful look on her face and he knew that she was thinking about his father as well. He'd never known his father, having died before he was even born, but his mother had told him it was him who saved them from dying with the rest of their planet.

She had also told him of other Kryptonians that had been saved with them, but she didn't know where they were as she presumed the ship they left in been a bit battered by the asteroid belt around the earth and the ship's automatic piloting system had deployed the suspended animation pods they were each in.

All June could tell him really was that she remembered waking up after her own pod had crashed in the desert and when she found out she was pregnant, the rest was history. Although according to her own findings before her pod had been deployed, the earth had apparently been very young at the time, and Jack had no idea what that meant other than his mother must have been asleep for quite a while.

Jack had wondered about where that ship that was carrying them all could have crashed landed, he also thought about the Kryptonians that were probably on earth, his mother had said that the ship could unfortunately only store about 20 of them because time had been running short, so the ones that were sent to escape the destruction were only his mother and father's closest friends and family.

Family, he must have had other family members on earth somewhere, either walking around or still in suspended animation, still effectively dead to the world.

That particular thought made his gut wrench; how many of them were still in their pods? Jack knew that his mother had dearly wanted to go searching for them herself, but 'other matters' had presented itself and Jack knew all too well that when she said that he knew she meant him.

And yet she'd assure him that Kryptonians were tough, that the ones on earth were given powers beyond human comprehension and they would still be alive, whether they were awake or not.

Still though, it had never stopped Jack from wondering just where the other Kryptonians were.

"Aw, who's a good baby, you are! Yes you are!"

Sarah Lennox laughed as she playfully swatted her husband on the shoulder and held her other hand over his that was on her swollen stomach. "You know that the baby probably can't understand what you're saying, right?"

Will Lennox chuckled lightly as he stood up and hugged his wife; every time he did so making him so grateful that their pods had landed in the general vicinity of each other. He didn't know how he'd handle it if anything happened to Sarah, but he knew nothing good would happen he was sure.

Despite having been married back on Krypton, they had opted for an earth-style wedding as well, to better hide them on this planet they were forced to inhabit. And they had hid rather well too, Will even going so far as to become a military solider, much like his station back on Krypton had been, while Sarah had decided to become an architect, also like her own station back on their home planet, though now she'd taken her maternity leave.

And she was bored.

"Oh, I've heard the other women talk about their bundles of joy, and all this free time had better be worth it." Sarah grumbled, her previously upbeat demeanour all but gone.

And if earth women got hormonal and moody, then it was much worse for a woman who could send you flying clear through a wall.

Will had learned that lesson when he'd poked fun at the fact she was so worked up about how bored she was going to get with her maternity leave. Note to self; never again say anything like that, because even though he was pretty much invincible under the yellow sun, as they both were, that it had still hurt; emotionally as well as it had physically.

"Will, do you ever think of how the others might be doing?" Sarah questioned, her tone abruptly turning somber and Will knew specifically what she was thinking about. "Some of the survivors were just children that their parents wanted to live." She whispered.

Will grabbed her hand in comfort. "If they're not awake, then they're still asleep, and all things considered, that's probably best for the time being."

"I still wonder…" Sarah trailed off as she wrapped her arms around her abdomen.

Will hugged her and kissed her hair. "I do too sometimes."

'Aw man, even with super speed I still end up late.' Sephie Beller thought to herself as she stopped running at the entrance of the observatory. It had always amused her that here she was, an alien, taking a class in an observatory that was looking for other life amongst the stars. The irony wore off quickly as she put on a cheerful smile and waltzed in, her trusty SmartPhone attached to her belt.

Never go anywhere without it; that's her motto and she's sticking to it.

"Hey girl, you're late again." Another one of the students said blandly and she rolled her eyes.

'Thought my super speed would be enough, but it wasn't.' Sephie thought, but since she obviously couldn't say that aloud, all she had to go with was, "My alarm clock broke."

After repeatedly smashing it with her fist that is.

Yeah, for all the love she had for technology, even the backwards electronics on this planet, she still felt guilty for destroying a measly alarm clock in a fit of morning rage.

"Okay students, you like, have your notebooks out?" Dr. Heath Blaisedale said from the podium, and even though she seemed a bit-a lot actually and was-ditzy, she was also incredible smart, one Krypton's top scientists to be exact.

And it just so happened that by chance she and Sephie had managed to find each other in this big world after everyone had been scattered, and when you found a missing piece you didn't leave them. Not for anything.

So for the past 12 years they'd stayed together, hoping to keep finding the other Kryptonians, but so far no luck; and they'd kept moving around a lot during those years to avoid suspicion about why they didn't seem to be growing any older. And soon they'd by leaving Arizona to another state after the semester was over.

As for why they both chose to be a student and teacher is because despite having been a top graduate back at the school on Krypton, Sephie loved to learn, and despite Heath being a ditz, she loved to teach. This suited both their needs and they generally came home happy on a good day.

On a bad day it was silent as they tended to avoid each other so they wouldn't be tempted to lash out at the only thing that they knew wouldn't get hurt by their fists.

Or, hurt very much anyway.

The room was surprisingly warm in the little Californian home, but neither occupant really minded as they both sat at the table and ate their lunch. It was the weekend, but even if it had been a school day, neither of them would have cared very much. To them, they'd already got enough of an education back on Krypton and they had never looked forward to any more school.

Now though, they'd give anything to go down stairs and see their parents smiling faces and the red sky outside. They had only been awoken recently, and neither of them had been together.

They'd actually been reunited through a foster home and decided to run away. It's not likely their foster parents would've reported it anyway.

But every day they woke up, it always hurt to see that this wasn't all a dream and their home really was gone.

Sometimes it got so bad that they would go days without eating just so they didn't have to leave their rooms. The only reason they actually left was because they got filthy and needed a wash. It's not like they even needed to eat anyway.

But it was a nice activity to give them something to do.

Speaking of something to do…

"Gotta go wash, Override." Miles Lancaster said abruptly as he rose from his seat and in a blur he had with him a pale, wax, soap, and a large wash rag.

As much as Miles loved his sister, Lori Lancaster suspected that her brother loved that car even more. But then again, she really couldn't fault him for it. Since when you found a piece, you never let it go, and none of them were ever going to be torn apart again.

They'd lost so much back on Krypton and she could only hope the other survivors were as luckier than they were.

"Much to do about nothing." Aaron Blowthwaite muttered to himself as he stared at the blank computer screen, the clock on the bottom corner constantly reminding him of the deadline he had to meet, but what could he write about dog shows?

He sighed and ran a hand through his hair, his frown deepening. Back on Krypton he's been one of the best doctors, yet here he was, stuck on earth and forced to write for a tabloid. Oh how the mighty have fallen.

Well, he could have reapplied to be one here, but after seeing the crass instruments, he'd felt sick to his stomach and decided against it eventually.

But damn if he didn't miss his work.

Still, he could have woken up somewhere else than New York, at least the arts seemed to be sufficient in taste, one of his pleasures back on Krypton had been to see the art in Argo City, but that was all gone now, he thought bitterly and tried to push those memories back.

Even though being a writer had let him go around to other states as the editor demanded of him, he still couldn't find any of his fellow survivors. He wasn't being optimistic when he thought of the fact they weren't dead, he knew very well that they wouldn't be dead, simply for being on earth and under the yellow sun.

The sun charged them up and gave them all incredible powers, but like much him, he knew that they were most likely hiding if they were awake.

He was still a doctor though, and he'd gladly work with such crude instruments to give them a check-up, he'd sworn an oath after all.

But oh how Aaron longed for the days when he could go into the office and be greeted by warm smiles, knowing that he was doing the right thing and making a difference. He could still do that here, but he'd given up that chance for this.

The man shook his head and rose from his seat, thinking that taking a quick run ought to clear his mind.

And it really was a shame he couldn't fly around instead of run, but since he knew that flying would attract far too much attention in New York, running was his only option at the moment.

Maggie Madsen sat in her chair at the computer, one arm resting on the arm rest and the other rubbing her forehead as she found she probably had the most boring job she could have applied for. She felt like falling asleep as she looked at the non-flocculating lines of data.

If she was a normal human she would laughed at the thought of looking for other life, but as it were, she wasn't laughing. This also leant her the option of seeing if any signals that came in were part of an alien race she was familiar with. Because she had studied hard to learn from Krypton's most frequent visitors about their culture.

It was fascinating to say the least.

Maggie suddenly saw the lines begin shifting and sat up in her seat as the symbols played across the screen, the same ones over and over. While anyone else might have seen gibberish, she saw something else.

'It's a distress signal.' Maggie thought and used the primitive keys to send a message back, and while the keys couldn't accommodate the Kryptonian language, she was still able to send at least a broken message back that was a rough translation of location-systems-name?

The message wasn't returned for almost 2 minutes and she let out a sigh of relief at the information she received, but incredulity as well when she found out who was sending the distress signal. It made her stand up abruptly and quickly shut down the system after sending a message back of coming-calm.

Maggie checked the clock and saw that it was almost quitting time, so no one would find it suspicious if she punched out a little earlier, right? It's not like there were that many here anyway.

The blonde woman left the facility until she was sure that no one would see her before she started to run, and soon that run turned her into a blur not able to be seen by human eyes. She felt the loose strands of her hair whipping in her face and felt the rush of exhilaration come over her every time she ran.

It was nothing like flying, but it was close.

Maggie soon felt the slight change in temperature to suggest that she had arrived in the Arctic, but seeing as the cold or heat didn't bother a Kryptonian, she didn't pay much attention to it and used her X-ray vision on the snowy ground to look around for the one who sent the message.

Her eyes soon zeroed in on one patch of ice and her eyes widened at the state he was in, thinking it was a miracle he was even able to send the signal and hurried over to the area, fully intent on getting him out of the ice. "Skyfire!"