Secrets and Suspicious Minds
by
Inspired by Suspicious Minds and Secrets by Clark Luthor 322 who has graciously given me permission to use the idea of their story as the basis of this one.
This is a crossover between Smallville and DC Elseworlds, specifically its certain Smallville characters set in an AU version of the DC Universe Earth-2 reality of golden age heroes and groups. I do not own any of the characters, nor anything connected to Smallville or the DC Universe.
Chapter 1 - Prologue
In the endless reaches of the universe there once existed a planet known as Krypton, a planet that burned like a green star in the distant heavens. A world with a much harsher environment than our own with a gravitational force many times that of Earth. Kryptonian civilization flourished for nearly a half million years when it entered its final golden age with the discovery of the means to cross the vastness of the heavens in the blink of an eye. For more than 100,000 years their civilization prospered as their race spread throughout the known 28 galaxies seeking new worlds to settle upon. They built outposts and colonies on other planets using great machines to reshape whole planetary environments to suit their needs. It was during this period that their civilization reached its zenith and the Kryptonians evolved into a race of supermen whose mental and physical powers were developed to the absolute peak of perfection allowing them to accomplish wonders.
It was at this pinnacle of their evolution that the Kryptonians developed the one thing that would be the subtle and sublime cause of their eventual destruction, the Genesis Chamber. With the Genesis Chamber the Kryptonians had discovered the means to insure what they saw as the genetic purity and perfection of their race. From that time on all Kryptonians were conceived in such chambers. Every child was designed to be perfect and perform a predetermined function within their society as a worker, a warrior, a leader, and so on. Through the final perfection of their race the Kryptonians extended their lifespans, eliminated virtually all diseases, and were able to maintain their population at set level. Due to being able to artificially control their population, Kryptonians no longer saw the need to expand into space to relieve their population problems.
With the pressure of population under their control, Krypton abandoned its space exploration leaving its outpost and colonies on their own. The focus of the civilization now turned inward and slowly withdrew in on itself over the ensuing centuries. Science and technology still advanced, but at far slower, almost glacial, pace. The abandonment of their colonies also meant that Krypton was now completely dependent but only the resources of their native star system to provide for all of their needs. Eventually this led to Krypton's leaders having to resort to harvesting the planet's core when all of their other energy resources became exhausted.
Only one lone voice spoke against this course of action, and that voice was Var-L, the head of Krypton's oldest and most revered houses. It was the House of L that had been responsible for many of Krypton's greatest scientific achievements including the the discovery of the Phantom drives that came to power all of their interstellar ships and the creation of the Phantom Zone to house all of Krypton's criminals. Var-L's research showed him that harvesting the core would be at best a temporary fix, and if it continued for a prolonged period of time it would mean that the planet would in time tear itself apart by implosion.
When his dire warnings didn't come to pass within twenty years, Var-L's concerns were discounted and dismissed. Not long after that Var-L disappeared on one of his research expeditions into Krypton's hinterlands. Some say that he had been silenced by Krypton's Supreme Council, but no one could prove anything and in time people forgot anything about it.
For nearly eighty years a precarious balance was maintained as the leaders of the planet continued to harvest more and more of the core. There is no telling how long this balance could have been maintained, but it became matter of speculative conjecture when a huge spacecraft appeared in Krypton's sky piloted by an entity calling itself Brainiac. Brainiac claimed that he was there to insure that a piece of Krypton would be preserved forever and that the planet's leaders should choose which city they would surrender to him. When they didn't make a choice within the allotted time, Brainiac did it for them by selecting the city of Kandor and shrinking it down to a size to fit within a large clear bottle. The disappearance of Kandor from the planet's surface caused Krypton's core to become even more unbalanced and sped up the rate of its demise. Over the next ten years things seemed to calm down and return to the way things had been, but each passing day actually only increased the speed at which Krypton hurled towards its own destruction.
Again, it was the House of L that saw the planet's swiftly approaching end and attempted to raise the alarm; yet again no one would listen. This time it was Jor-L, Var-L's grandson and Krypton's greatest scientist that tried to warn everyone of the coming calamity. Jor-L and his wife Lara had long seen the erosion of Krypton's civilization for what it truly was and what its cause had been. It was for this reason that they decided to give birth to their child in a natural way, freeing it from any predetermined destiny of fitting a specific place in society with no say in the choice. Lara gave birth to the first natural born child on Krypton in more than several millennia, a son that they named Kal.
Just days later, General Dru-Zod, Krypton's supreme military commander, attempted a coup by against the leadership of the Council. The coup was put down with Jor-L's help, but during it Jor-L and Lara had launched Kal into the stars on the chance that they might never be able to if Zod's revolt did succeed. General Zod was killed by Jor-L during the fighting as he attempted to shoot down the vessel carrying Kal-L, and Zod's followers were condemned to the Phantom Zone. Barely a month later Krypton tore itself apart in a cataclysmic explosion. As it did, one other ship slipped into space following where the other had already gone.
By then Kal-L's ship had completed its journey through star-studded space, landing safely on Earth with its precious burden in a field belonging to Jonathan and Martha Kent of Smallville, Kansas. In early 1916, the childless Kents adopted the infant they had found and as the years went by and the child grew to maturity, he found himself possessed of amazing physical and mental powers far beyond any normal human. Faster than a speeding bullet... more powerful than a locomotive... able to leap tall buildings in a single bound... the infant of Krypton became the Man of Steel, Superman.
As Superman and Clark Kent, the Last Son of Krypton did his part during the Second World War as both a superhero and a fighting man. With the end of the war, there were forces within the government at home that now looked for a new 'enemy' and they set their sights on the very heroes that had helped secure victory. The Heroes Registration Act was supposedly meant to have those who had fought to protect to America to reveal their true identities so the public could show its appreciation.
Many of the heroes questioned the true intent of the law and refused to comply. That meant the disbanding of the Justice Society of America and the All-Star Squadron. Superman, like many of his fellow heroes, has assumed a civilian disguise. Superman still appears when he is truly needed, but he does so as do all the heroes that have chosen to remain in America, as a person sought by the government that had once so proudly served. Now he spends most of his time as Clark Kent, Private Detective, to be in a position within the great city of Metropolis to use his amazing powers in his never ending battle for truth, justice, and protecting the innocent.