Yes, I'm idiot. Yes, I've started another fic without finishing any of the others sitting on here. Yes, I will probably take forever and a day to update this fic, same as the others. Sad thing is they all have endings! Anyway, I need to do some serious venting this weekend and writing seems to be the best distraction I possess.
So, this is a future fic. The premiss is that we're not quite in Utopia but I recon it's pretty damn close. I'm still being vague about how far into the future, so please try to excuse any incosistancies or even indulge in your own interpretation. I'm using the term Legion although these characters have absolutely no association with The Legion of Superheroes. Sorry guys, no cameos coming up. All the superheroes in this fic are of Kryptonian descent in varying degrees. Hopefully I make it fairly clear in the fic, but just to iterate there are plenty of humans/kryptonian hybrids in this universe although many still choose to remain anonymous.
Hope you enjoy,
P.S. sorry, it's yet another female protagonist. I gotta start giving my stories a little more gender equality :P
This was not how I had planned to spend my Saturday morning. In fact this was not how I had planned to spend any morning. The room was like a looming amphitheatre and I could feel hundreds of eyes crawling over me. My father's hand shivered violently, but his grip on my own hand was unwavering.
One little emotional outburst and here I am, feeling like Prometheus on trial before the gods. Of course it's always been easy to mistake these people for gods; so easy when half a dozen of them are nonchalantly flying overhead with their judgemental stares. Not flying to or from anywhere, just floating in midair as if it is the most natural thing in the world! Although for them I suppose it is natural.
I can't help looking around, trying to glance at every face. I take in their eyes, their skin, their hair, their clothes; it's like a rainbow of earthly cultures. But then, earthly doesn't quite cover it either.
I am in way over my head.
"Elrick, you know all too well your presence here is an affront to the protocols of the Legion!" a woman seated about ten feet above us, snaps at us indignantly.
She sits sedately in her sky rise throne with the countenance of a person used to having their words followed without question. I crane my neck up, dazzled by the waves of hair that fall down to her elbows, shimmering silver - not grey but silver – and her sharp eyes looking like amber against her chestnut skin. I can see the faintest of lines around her eyes, which means this woman has probably been around for centuries.
"My dear wife had absolute faith in the Legion. She was devoted to her duty and I believe every word that she had ever spoken of the Legion is true. It was her wish, that should Kalese come in to her inheritance, that the Legion would guide her in the intervening years just as she was." That was more words than my father would normally speak in a whole month, let alone a single conversation. His grip on my hand tightened, but it still didn't come close to hurting me.
"After your wife's treachery, you are foolish to believe we would indulge in any such requests." The silver haired woman replied. Was it my imagination or were her eyes glowing red?
"You supposition is flawed! You base her betrayal on a genetic aspect the she herself was not even aware of!" I saw my father glaring, something I had never seen my placid and genteel father do before. Never had I known him to raise his voice, or forcefully rebuke someone who opposed him so assuredly. But then, no one had ever discussed my mother with him in front of me before. No had ever accused her of being a traitor.
"A genetic aspect that was once the potential down fall of the House of El!" She replied, and my confusion was only mounting, "For the sake of the Legion – for the Earth – we cannot abide such a liability!"
Her eyes were definitely glowing now, which was really freaking me out; especially as her gaze seemed directed straight at my father. Before I knew it I was addressing the silver lady myself, furious by my own ignorance. What had my father not told me?
"Whoa! Now hold on a darn second here! I only just found out this week that my mother was in the Legion in the first place! If that weren't shock enough, I found myself punching holes through granite and bending flag poles in my school yard. Now you tellin' me my mother was a traitor through genetics? I thought her genetics was the same as yours! Now what in the Sam Hill was I not told?" I fumed.
I look between the silver lady and my father and both are watching me with a steely gaze.
"It's irrelevant bigotry, Kalese. You have every right to be here." My father assures me.
He seems stalwart but I can't help doubting his conviction. There's a reason the Legion have been revered so highly and for so long. I wouldn't be the first super to be tossed out these halls.
"It is not irrelevant," silver lady replies, "The Legion must put their duty above all things and in this case Kalese would always be a source of apprehension. We cannot afford such discord in out ranks. To protect the Earth and to protect our own I must reject any kind of application."
"Then you would ignore all the years my wife sacrificed for the Legion? She gave her own life in service to you, and you still doubt her?" I'm still not entirely clear on the details of my mother's death but I can hear my father is on the verge of tears; a man whose boldest emotional outburst is a firm handshake or maybe a light kiss on the forehead.
"Please, Kalese belongs with the Legion, with her brethren. She has her mother's spirit; she deserves a chance to prove her worth. She deserves a chance to stand as a hero. You can help her in ways I could never possibly imagine."
I know this hurts my father to say. Ever since my mother died, he has been the only constant in my life. Although quiet and unassuming, I always knew he was there. No matter how deeply absorbed into notes or data sheets he became, he would answer my cries in an instant. He did everything for me, and it was killing him that I had a problem he could not fix.
And this was a problem. How do you turn off powers you never even knew you had?
Of course I still hadn't entirely forgiven him for lying to me about my mother but he had his reasons.
/
"Dad, what did I do? One second Sherri was yelling at me, then next thing I know there was a hole in the wall! I didn't even break the skin! What am I Daddy?" I brandish my fist in horror at its pristine appearance.
He holds me close, not a shred of the fear in him that I feel myself. I'm some kind of destructive monster and my father is hugging me.
"Now now, it's not your fault." My dad assures me. Maybe he thinks I'm hallucinating. Maybe he doesn't realise he's holding a monster in his arms?
"Don't you get it? I punched-through-a-solid-brick-wall! I'm a walking disaster! I'm gonna kill someone! Then Cameron shoved me off the bleachers and I bent the flag pole. It nearly snapped in half and I don't have a scratch on me! Dad! I'm some kind of monster!" I'm shaking but I only notice this because my father still has me gripped tightly in his arms. His glasses shake with my tremors and I would have found the movement comical if I wasn't so freaked out.
"You're not a monster." He whispers.
"I am! But if I'm not, what am I? Am I even human? Am I the result of some laboratory accident?" For the briefest moment suspicion flashes through me and I wonder if my father's research has always been as benevolent as he makes out. But just as quickly it is gone. My father could never do something like this to another human being. He doesn't even like rat poison. But I still wonder.
"Daddy, where did I come from? Am I really your daughter? Did you take me away from an evil scientist? Am I an experiment? Did I really have a mother?" I have vague flashes of her face. I was so young when she died, I wonder if she really was as beautiful as I remember. Maybe she was just a fallacy like my own humanity.
He shakes his head determinedly, "You are my daughter. You are the only daughter of Mr and Mrs. Elrick Brenner."
I take a moment to collect myself. My father doesn't seem shocked or surprised at all. When I first burst into his office earlier this afternoon, he didn't even hesitate to hold me and march me home. It was only as I controlled my tearful hiccoughs that I realised there was a china cup in my hand, swirling with what smelled like my father's favourite type of tea.
I wouldn't drink it but holding it normally soothed even the most ragged of nerves. This time I felt like a bull in a china shop, and the cup like tissue paper in my grasp. I gingerly set it down on the table.
"Daddy, the things that happened to me today, they're not normal. What's happening to me? People don't just break through solid walls, especially not high-schoolers. I mean the only people on earth that can do things like that are… are…"
His gaze doesn't waver from mine. There's not a shred of doubt in my father's eyes. He seems almost proud if not the tiniest bit sad.
"Daddy, the only other people like this on the planet are the Legion? How is that even possible? The only way I could be a super is if… you?" But I already know it couldn't be possible. My honest-to-a-fault father could never keep a secret like that from me. At least that's what I used to think, "My… mother?"
He seems to shrink but clearly responds, "You're mother was a member of the Legion."
The silence is deafening. I need a distraction to help me compute this titanic sized revelation. But there is nothing but the ticking of our kitchen clock and the Metropolis afternoon traffic outside to break the silence.
I rise automatically to retreat and my father looks up at me pleadingly.
"Wait," is all he can say.
"Why did you never tell me? Is my mother even really dead? Why would you hide this from me? Who am I really? Is everything a lie?"
"Everything except your mother's alter ego was the truth."
I hold myself back from fleeing.
"So she was a super. And she died as one of the Legion?" I croaked out as best I can.
"Yes."
"And now I'm a super too? That's what happened today? I have kryptonian powers from my mother?" I continue, trying to flatten the panic creeping into my voice.
He nods solemnly.
"Why didn't you ever tell me? Did you think I wouldn't notice? Did you want to punish me for my mother's death?" I hiss at my father. I know I sound ridiculous and I can see the hurt in his eyes but I'm just too confused and angry. He shakes his head vehemently at me again but all I want is an explanation. He never wasted words before, and I certainly didn't want him to now.
"It was to protect you. Your mother was an unaccounted throwback. It was uncertain if you could inherit your mother's gifts. And after she died, I hoped to spare you from your mother's burden."
For the briefest moment I didn't see my father anymore. Instead I saw a shrunken man, lost and still grieving for his wife. I forget sometimes, even though I miss her, I never really knew my mother; not the way my father did.
"What about the Legion? Why have I never seen them?" I asked. It was no secret that the Legion kept tabs on any super offspring, even if the identities of those kids were kept sealed tight.
"We managed to keep you a secret from the Legion." That astounded me. Who knew you could hide things from the Legion? "You were so young and there was every chance you would be like me. Your mother wanted to take precautions and then…"
He didn't need to tell me more. I knew the rest.
"And then she died."
Wait, did he mean that my mother's death had something to do with protecting me? What could they possibly need to protect me from? If I was a normal kid the Legion wouldn't have any interest in me, but if they knew I was a super I'd instantly come under their jurisdiction. That was their job: protect the earth and train kryptonian descendants.
Wow! My mother and I had a kryptonian ancestor somewhere on the family tree! Somehow that seemed easier to digest that the thought that I had inherited super powers.
There were several strains of kryptonian hybrids in the world. After official liaisons began between Earth and New Krypton, an embassy was established and not long after that a new generation of supers appeared.
With the appearance of more 'Supermen', such hybrids became a common sight on earth, but those hybrid families still kept to themselves. The Legion itself set out to regulate the number of capes flying around, to protect both the Earth and the hybrid families living here.
"Your mother had concerns about her genetic origins. Kryptonian throwbacks are rare and the Legion has yet to discover what triggers such an occurrence after generations of recessive kryptonian traits. Of the throwbacks that have existed, very few have even been able to trace exactly which family their krytonian heritage originates from."
"So mom didn't know either, until she… did things?" I ask hesitantly. I still can't quite find words to express the bizarre events surrounding me.
"She was a little younger than you. As with all throwbacks, the Legion had concerns with training a hybrid with no prior contact with the kryptonian community. But your mother was exemplary; even out shining students with the most prestigious of lineages."
"Did you know… when you married her?" I asked in trepidation. My mother had always been a painful subject so I rarely had chances to ask such things.
"Yes. I had always had my suspicions, and your mother never denied it, but it was a long time before she openly admitted to me what she could do; only then was she happy to marry me."
Somehow that didn't surprise me. My father never tolerated dishonesty, but he always respected a person's privacy. Suddenly I felt sympathy for my father. He wasn't just protecting me; he was protecting my mother's memory. The deceit still stung, but I could understand how hard it would be telling a secret that hadn't been yours to begin with.
But it was my secret now. If I wanted to know the truth about my mother – the super part of my mother – there was only one place I would find the answers.
/
"I'm here because I thought I was doing the right thing. My mother came to you just the same, and I know my heritage is somewhat ambiguous but the only reason you all can trace you families so far back is 'cos it's easier to pick out the ancestors that can fly!" I look up in earnest, but silver lady's expression hasn't changed one bit.
"All I want is the truth. Maybe it would have been easier if I'd had no powers and I lived a normal life ignorant of all this, but that's not who I am anymore. And isn't that what you all are supposed to stand for? The truth?" I ask bitterly.
I'm left in silence. I catch a few pairs of eyes overhead glancing from one to another, conferring with each other without saying a word. Then silver lady decides to stand. Except there is no podium to stand on and silver lady simply floats down to the floor, taking two strides straight towards myself and my father.
"How ironic that it is the truth you desire from us, when your mother could do no such thing for the Legion," I refuse to back away despite the hostility emanating from this woman, "It is not the ambiguity of your ancestry that concerns us. It is the ancestry that we are certain of, which is a danger to us all."
"What?" I look to my father and he shakes his head apologetically. Is anybody going to give me a straight answer? Silver lady takes note of our silent exchange. She doesn't seem anymore pleased than I am.
"You want to know who you are? Very well. Kalese, come with me." She does not give me a moment to refuse and has already turned away.
"Regent, please!" My father cries.
"Mr Brenner, you will remain here. You seem so intent to conceal information from the Legion," she makes a pointed glance at me, "then it is only fair that the Legion has the right to discretion from you."
As much as it pains me, I walk away from my father. This may be my only chance to change the Legion's verdict.
I trot to keep up with her forceful stride. Apparently not every Legionnaire likes to show off their ability to fly, but it doesn't make this woman any less swift.
Doors close behind us with a decisive 'thunk' and the only light source is ahead through the archway. I look ahead wondering if anyone outside the Legion has ever come this far into the inner sanctum. The Legion Head Quarters is a public building but a lot of it is still closed off to unauthorised personnel.
I soon catch up to imperious silver lady, making efforts to match her pace, "Look my dad was only trying to protect me. I know you ain't happy about all this but there's no reason to –"
I stop in my tracks, finally reaching the end of the corridor, dazzled by the sunlight blazing through the high arched windows surrounding the chamber. It's not just sunlight that stalls me. The bright beams bounce off of an enormous statue, at least thirty feet high with two historic faces looking out into the distance beyond the surrounding walls, smiling at a brighter future. The greatest minds of Metropolis – of the world – Lois Lane and Kal-El, the founders of the first krypto-terran family.
"You will address me as Regent or Ma'am. I am the protector of this institution and for the sake of all who reside here I demand respect. Do I make myself clear?" silver lady snaps at me.
Her eyes aren't glowing but I can feel the heat of her stare.
"Yes Ma'am," I reply reluctantly.
She turns away from me again without a backwards glance. Her hand comes up in a commanding gesture and proclaims loudly, "I assume you are aware of whose depiction we stand before?"
"Of course," I roll my eyes, wondering where she's going with this. She looks back at me sternly. "Of course, Ma'am," I amend, which seems to placate her.
"Before you, stand the founders of our society. Without the wisdom and heroism of Lane and Kent, we would not exist. The one force that represented the greatest threat to out founders came in the form of Lex Luthor."
"Who?" I wonder aloud.
"Be grateful for yet another ignorance which you are not burdened with," the Regent sneered, "Lex Luthor was a powerful man in centuries past. His power was sourced from greed and suffering; a soulless creature that on many occasions almost succeeded in destroying the House of El. His psychosis led him to a single desire: to surpass and destroy Superman."
"What does this have to do with my mother?" I ask warily. I could tolerate the history lesson if it meant I would be accepted by the Legion, but I had severe doubts this would be the case.
"It has everything to do with your mother," the Regent continued, "for centuries we believed the world was rid of Luthor's evil. His final attempt on the House of El cost him his life but it seems some of his progeny slipped through our grasp…"
"I still don't follow you…" but there was a niggling thought at the back of my mind that knew where this was going.
"Although your mother's kryptonian roots has never been entirely clear, it came to light that she was – that you are – a direct descendant of Lex Luthor." The Regent turned back to me but her expression was unreadable.
How was I supposed to respond to that? I don't even know who this Luthor guy is! Then I remembered my father's hesitance, his assertion that my mother was unaware of this 'fault'.
"That's ridiculous! You can't judge us on an ancestor we never even met!" I snort indignantly, "I mean come on! There are like a couple of thousands descendants of Genghis Khan in the world right now. You're not going to judge them by the same merit are you? My mother didn't even know about this Luthor guy!"
"Your mother's awareness of her connection to Luthor is still up for debate. But that aside, once she was certain of her lineage she still concealed that information from the Legion. Which begs the question how long she concealed that information and why?"
"Probably because you would have overreacted like complete nutter-butters just like you are now!" I snap furiously, "Ma'am."
"Such secrecy and suspicion cannot be tolerated within the Legion. We have more than just out own lives to protect. Any infraction to our codes must be rectified to the highest degree."
"Because my mother held back one tiny little thing about her past?" I bemoaned.
"Because she betrayed the trust of the Legion, and without trust we are nothing."
"So that's it. Grandpa Luthor was an egotistical jerk and I pay the price?" I reply sullenly.
"I make this decision in your best interest too Kalese. You're better off not having the temptations of power thrust upon you. Go back home, embrace your life as Kalese Brenner and forget about the Legion. In a civilian life you will not have to live in the shadow of Luthor's name."
"I shouldn't have to in either case. I'm my own person and not a replication of some savage from the twenty first century." I grumble.
She doesn't respond immediately, only staring up into the faces of heroes long passed. I wonder if she's even listening to me anymore or if this wonderful lecture is finally over.
"Can't you just give me a chance? What's the worst that could happen?" I plead but the silence I receive is stony at best, "I'm sorry my father kept me hidden from you, but coming here, joining the Legion; I thought that it was finally going to bring some sense into my life. I thought I'd found a purpose; that I wouldn't be a nobody anymore!"
"Perhaps you should have stayed that way," she whispers, but the words ring loud and clear throughout the chamber. I feel my heart constrict, grieving over something that up until this week I didn't even know I could lose. I can't seem to move.
Suddenly I feel a fresh bout of sympathy for my mother and my father. No wonder they didn't want me anywhere near the Legion. If the rest were anything like the Regent then they were nothing but a bunch of heartless fools.
"Kalese, I have made my decision. Go home. The Legion does not welcome you nor should you seek us out again." The Regent spoke, her words cutting with their finality.
I blinked, and in that instant the Regent was gone. The doors we had entered through began to swing open with a heavy clunk. I slowly walked back towards my father, my heart so heavy I was certain I would never be able to fly.
Hope that was as fun for you as cathartic it was for me XD
Kalese is still a developing character, so far the only thing I've decided for definite is that she's female and a teenager, probably about 16 (and possibly taller than her father). The rest I leave up to you! I'm kind of curious to see what any of my readers imagine her to be.
And sorry in advance, but I can almost guarantee I won't be going anywhere near this again for the next week or two.
Ciao!
XJaxX