"Remember, my daughter, you are not one of them. You are one descendant from a powerful civilization. Our world is long gone, but we still remain. More importantly, you still remain. You are not the only one, my dear. There is another of our kind here, one who can teach you to harness your gifts, to appreciate them, in the way that your mother and I were never able to. Find him, befriend him, and love him, as you and he were meant to. We will always be watching you from afar, dearest one, and know, no matter what, that we are proud of you, and love you, and miss you; our darling daughter, Jaina, of the house of May."

The words echoed in her head as she listened to the recording. Jenna Mortimer was like every other 17-year old girl. She had hobbies, made decent grades, liked some sports, and had a crush on a movie star. She was unlike other teens as well. She was an orphan who lived in an institution in upstate New York. She wasn't just an illegal alien; she was an alien. She was the last female survivor of a dead planet called Krypton. She had a steel-like density, super hearing, x-ray vision, laser vision, and invulnerability like all Kryptonians. Like Kryptonians on Earth, she could travel at super speeds, fly, and had super strength.

She removed her headphones with a sigh. She listened to that recording each night before falling asleep, as well as looking at all the pictures and articles she had on Kal-El, or Superman as he called himself. She noticed some similarities between the two of them. They both had incredibly dark hair and unearthly blue eyes, as well as powers. But, that seemed to be the end of the comparison. She was barely over 100lbs, and stood at a mere 5'2". She sighed, looking out the lead lined windows with bars on them. Today was her 17th birthday. The 15th celebration of her birth without her parents, they having died in an 'accident' at the institution when she was 2.

For the last fifteen years, she had to live in a cramped, dull room lined with lead to keep her from escaping. She had minimal tutoring, only knew basic math, barely any science, and couldn't read anything harder than Dr. Seuss. She had even less training in her powers, so she had no idea to what extent they could reach. Her control over them was practically non-existent. The doctors who watched over her were constantly creating situations for her to show her range and aptitude. They had awoken her early that day, promising her a special treat for a demonstration. They wanted her to use her laser vision, the one power she had the least control over, and the 'special treat' was probably just a bowl of ice cream. Of course, she hadn't been able to find out, considering she couldn't control her eyes. She wasn't even total certain how she activated her laser vision. That was what made it so dangerous. She couldn't live a life outside in the real world when she might accidentally laser someone, and kill them, with her eyes.

The loud alarm sounded, telling her it was lights out. She shoved her disc man and headphones, along with her binder of Kal-El articles and pictures, into the backpack under the bed. The only other thing in there was a blue blanket with an 'S' on it, a velvet bag containing 8 clear, cylindrical, crystals, and, for a birthday present today, a camera, never used, but certainly not new. She lay down in her bed, trying to envision her parents, Cor-May and Maya, or Cortland and Mary Mortimer as they had been called on Earth. She remembered so little of them that she had to use her imagination. She liked to think that her parents looked something like Santa and Mrs. Claus. Someone fat, very jolly, with deep laughs and twinkling eyes. She saw them, her father with a red cape, her mother a yellow cape, and her wearing her blue blanket as a cape, flying through the air, far away from the institution. Jenna fell asleep with a smile on her face on her birthday, for the first time.

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She awoke around 2, to an extremely soft thud repeating itself against her door. She slowly got up and opened it. Her closest friend Jeremy, his twin Justine, and the mute kid who followed them around that everyone called Ace, were all standing outside her door.

"You know you are the only one here who could have heard us knocking like that." Justine pointed out as they snuck their way down to the cafeteria.

"Ta-da!" Jeremy said, bringing out a carton of chocolate ice cream, four paper bowls, and four spoons.

She smiled. "Thanks, you guys."

Ace grinned, giving her a tight hug.

"You didn't even get anything sweet on your birthday, just another failed attempt to shoot heat out of your eyes," said Justine, "none of us thought that was fair for the birthday girl."

Jenna eagerly scooped some of the cold chocolate into her mouth. Any form of sweet or candy like food was a novelty where they lived. Jenna kept an ear out for any of the guards hearing them as they quietly talked the night away.

"Try to see if you can see anyone coming." Jeremy suggested.

Jenna sighed. "I try not to do anything with my eyes, you guys. You know I might accidentally burn something."

Ace gave her hand a sympathetic squeeze.

"Just try." Jeremy prodded.

She looked at her ice cream for a while, before looking straight at the wall, a firm look of resolve on her face. Concentrating hard, she tried to imagine her eyes seeing through the wall. After about ten seconds, with nothing happening, she gave up.

Justine patted her on the back. "You just have to find a better environment in which to practice.

She raised her eyebrows. "Yeah, like I'm ever going to have that."

They ever so quietly snuck through the halls to get to their rooms. Jenna was about to wish them goodnight when Ace quickly entered her room, grabbed her bag, and ran out down the hallway.

He made no sound as they chased him into a section of the basement. There, he stopped against a wall, looking beyond it.

"Ace, what's going on?" Jenna kneeled next to him. He looked at her, a big smile on his face, and pointed. All three heads turned to see a rickety window. It was barely big enough for her to fit through, but it was broken, so it was slightly open.

Jenna shook her head.

"You've gotta do it, Jaina-May," Justine whispered. She turned to see her twin friends, identical eager looks spread across their faces.

"What about you guys?"

Jeremy snorted. "There's no way we can get away with this! We don't have the super speed you have Jenna."

Ace nodded at her, a joyous expression on his face.

"Gotta do it," Justine repeated.

Jenna looked at the window again, a sudden urge to escape rising to the surface. She gave them all big hugs, then leaped up to the window. There was a soft thump when her body hit the wall, but it wasn't too loud, and of course, she was absolutely fine. She would have levitated or whatever she could do, but she couldn't risk her lack of control. Slowly opening the window, she dropped her bag through it, and then, with one last wave to her friends, mouthing a thank you for them being such great people and giving her the best present ever, she leaped out of the window, landing on the ground to grab her bag. She started to creep across the grounds. It would probably be better to use super speed, but she wasn't sure if that would make too much noise.

"Hey, you there!" She froze, turning slowly. Webber, a security guard with a mustache and a sneer, stood there, pointing a flashlight right at her.

He grinned, walking up to her. "Well, if it isn't the little alien out of bed."

"Webber…" She started, slowly stepping backward, away from them. He took a small step towards her, before she turned and tried to leap forward to fly. He caught her around the waste, causing her to fall.

"Oh –" she exclaimed with surprise.

Webber had fallen on the ground, practically right on top of her.

"I should get you to bed, Miss E.T." He growled into her ear. Her eyes widened, and she immediately began to struggle against him. He grabbed at her shirt, trying to hold her arms down, but only succeeded in making a huge rip in her sleeve, causing it to hang limply from her arm. He then fought against her hands at the waist of her pajama bottoms, her wrenching away as the string to tie them up was drawn out in his hands. They bottoms were large on her, and she super sped her way through tying them at her hip. The guard looked at her in shock when she did this. She couldn't help but give a hint of a smile at that. He then lunged at her, but the moment he came in contact with her, she gathered her strength in her arms, and pushed him. He went flying back across the lawn, straight into the wall, hitting it with a loud thud. She quickly grabbed her bag, and then super sped her way out of the property.

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She tried three times to fly, but was unsuccessful. She just couldn't get the hang of it. She was able to leap a mile or two at a time, but she had to do it in private. She knew she couldn't give herself away. Why, oh why did Kansas have to be so far from New York?

She arrived in Smallville around 3 am, leaping a half a mile into the city border. She was exhausted. She needed to find Kal-El if just to collapse in his arms so she could get a good nights sleep. She walked slowly down the main street of the town, looking longingly at a shop called 'The Talon', wishing she could get something to eat. She took a deep breath once she saw the first of the crop fields, realizing she could super speed through them. She closed her eyes, fought back the sleep creeping along her brain, and ran.

She ran until she was physically incapable of running any farther. She stopped by falling down to the ground, her torn clothes hanging from her small frame, her bag right next to her. She was too tired to do anything else tonight. She didn't even hear the footsteps of a person trotting up to her.

She felt a gentle hand lightly shaking her shoulder, lifting her face from the ground. Her eyes slowly opened. There was a man there, tall, dark, extremely handsome, with unearthly blue eyes. She knew who he was the moment she saw him.

She smiled. "Kal-El. I knew I'd find you." She used her last ebb of strength to reach her arm up, her hand catching his neck, bringing his head down to hers. She didn't see the surprised look on his face as she kissed him, a long, soft kiss on the lips. She then fainted, her arm falling to the ground next to her. Clark looked at her in surprise. Before gently gathering her and her back pack in his arms, and flying back through the cornfields, to his farm.