Chapter 1
It was a dark humid night, the distance sounds of thunder and the occasional flash of the lightning welcomed Lois Lane to the rural town of Smallville. She wished it was under better circumstances, better yet she wished she never have had to make this journey in the first place. She wished she was back in Metropolis, back in the arms of the man she had fallen in love with in just a few short weeks. However, that was now over, both of them had to stop running and once again face the reality of their lives. They had parted ways with no means to contact each other, their reunion left to the hands of fate. That had been a month ago. The month following hadn't been any better for Lois, her heart already broken at the separation from her love, was shattered with the news of her cousin Chloe's and her uncle's death. She had later learnt that Chloe wasn't just an unfortunate victim of an accident, but rather someone had targeted her to silence her. Her cousin was set to testify in the trial of the billionaire Lionel Luthor for murder, and it seemed he had managed to arrange for Chloe's safe house to explode. Lois had never felt more hatred for anyone else in her life; she vowed to not let Chloe's sacrifice be in vain. With the trial nearing, Lois set out to prove Lionel Luthor's connection to her cousin's death. She was alone in her quest; on a night like this she wished she had Kal with her.
They had met at a nightclub in Metropolis, both underaged, both running from something and both searching for a connection. A connection they found in each other. He was wild and untamed, led by his desires. She would later learn that the inconspicuous ring on his hand fueled his behaviour. Red Kryptonite he had called it, it lowered his inhibitions and let out everything he had suppressed. He had told her how he was the last survivor of long gone planet, and how the burden of his abilities and his biological father's demands had suffocated him. The scar on his chest, a symbol of his disobedience, had fascinated and appalled her. She didn't know how he could live with the pain it must cause him. He had told her that she tamed his heart; that he was more like himself when he was with her and that she helped reconcile his two personas. That he didn't need the ring as long as she was with him. She had helped him with the guilt of having hurt the people who had raised him, and helped him past the rejection he had felt from them. She in turn told him of her overbearing father, who treated her more like one of his soldiers than his daughter. How she had been forced to become a mother to her younger sister, and the guilt she felt towards her. She had told him more things about herself than she had to anyone before. She just wished she had told him her real name.
She had gone to Metropolis and had met him under the name of Kay Andrews in an attempt to distance herself from Lois Lane. As for Kal, she knew it was his birth name, but she knew he too was keeping his true name from her. She had followed his lead. It was an almost magical existence, it was Kal and Kay against the world and the short two months that they were together had been the happiest of her life. However reality was not far away from them, creeping into the seams of their life, with the reminders of what they still had to face. And they had to face them alone. The visible reminders to Kal were all too poignant; he had to face his parents, biological and adoptive. He had reluctantly decided to come to terms with his destiny, which meant he had to leave, without knowing when or if he would return. She had understood. He told her that he loved her and he would try everything in his power to find his way back to her. They spent one final night together comforting and loving each other and most importantly saying goodbye.
"K-E-N-T. Kent. It's a farm. Do they even have addresses?" Lois asked frustratedly into her phone as she tried to navigate her way through Smallville's country roads. It was a lead that Chloe had given in her in her recording for her best friend Clark Kent.
"Mm-mm-mm. Look, the last super genius I had on the line told me to turn right on Route 31. Now I'm totally lost...Oh, about a billion stalks of corn." She said replied sarcastically feeling more annoyed and cranky than ever, it wasn't helped by the fact that ever since learning of Chloe's death she had not slept well and had the occasional bouts of nausea and an ill constitution to certain foods. She had attributed them to the amount of stress she was under. The current weather was also not helping Lois's mood, the thunder and lightning had increased in their frequency.
A bolt of lightning struck the cornfield to the right of Lois's car caused her phone to short out.
"Aah! That's just great." Lois exclaimed exasperated. She put the phone away and pulled down the visor above her seat revealing a mirror and a cigarette strapped onto the visor. She grabbed the cigarette and looked into the mirror.
"Okay, if you smoke this, you are gonna spend the rest of the night hating yourself." She said as she looked at herself in the mirror. She dropped the cigarette and reached into her bag for a piece of gum. She had tried Nicorrette but it had left her feeling nauseous, so she stuck to regular gum. Just as she took her eyes of the road, lightning struck the road in front of her car causing a small explosion of sparks and a cloud of smoke. Lois quickly swerved to the right to avoid the lightning. She lost control of the car and drove off the side of the road into a corn field. She drove through several yards of cornstalks taller than her car until she finally managed to come to a stop, unharmed. She took a deep breath. Then she looked up into the cloudy sky. She was startled as three bolts of lightning shot out of the clouds from three separate places. Halfway to the ground, they converged into one bolt and struck the ground not far from Lois's car creating a shimmering white ball of energy that expanded and then shot itself at her car.
"Aah!" Lois shouted ducking to protect herself. After the energy dissipated, there was a huge circle of flattened cornstalks in front of Lois's car and several small fires burned in random locations in the circle. Orange bolts of energy shot from fire to fire creating half-realised patterns before disappearing again. Lois slowly rose her eyes above the dashboard and peeked through her windshield cautiously. She then stepped out of the car and looked into the crop circle, awe-struck. The headlights on her car revealed a heavily muscled naked man lying with his back to Lois. She walked toward him.
"Oh my God!" She exclaimed at the thought of the man having been hit by three bolts of lightning at once. She carefully approached but stopped as she saw the man plant his hand on to the ground and push himself to a standing position with his back to Lois.
"Are you- are you okay? Lois stammered out getting a weird feeling of recognition. The man, however, did not respond.
"What's your name?" She asked walking towards him.
"I don't know." He replied turning around to face her.