All Marvel and DC Characters in this work of fanfiction belong to their respective comic book publishing companies and anyone else involved. Since this story involves mostly original characters-who happen to be their children-there shouldn't be a law saying I can't make any money from their use. But there is so I have to write this stupid disclaimer…..
Author's note: This fic was inspired by HERO HIGH, by Lady-Knight/Floriana on , which itself was inspired by Monster High and Ever After High. While I have borrowed-with her permission of course-several concepts and names of characters, I have changed others and put my own spin on certain themes. While I have heard of DC Superhero Girls I would have preferred it if they had done it like this….
Laura Lane Kent eyed the wide open field in front of her that ended in a short cliff over a narrow creek, taking several short breaths. All right, Laura, she thought carefully, it's now or never.
The fourteen year old girl began to run. Quickly, building up speed, she was running faster than any of her godmother Lana Ross's horses, or her parents' car, or even a speeding bullet. None of this was new to her. All her life she was stronger and faster than most others; few other than her father and those in the Allen/West family were faster. But just days ago, a solar flare had erupted, and now she was even stronger and faster than before. Her senses were now enhanced; she could see through things and hear better than before; she could even emit beams of heat from her eyes and blow icy breath from her mouth.
Just like her father.
Since then, Laura had spent her time on her grandparents' farm, where she'd spent her summers since she was seven, learning to control her new abilities. Yesterday her father had come flying in and coached her on how to tune out the noises she was now hearing and to control her heat and x-ray vision.
But there was one more thing she needed to see if she could do.
Laura ran to the edge of the cliff, and leaped, straight up in the air, to her delight, higher and higher, the air whipping through her long black hair. She looked down, and saw her grandparents' farm below seem as small as a child's playset, while ahead of her she could see the town of Smallville, cars moving about, people going about their business.
Joy and elation filled Laura as she still rose into the air. I'm flying! She thought with glee, I'm actually flying! Just like Dad! I can't wait to-
And then she fell.
"NNNNNOOOOO!" Laura cried as the ground raced toward her. She tried flapping her arms, willing herself into the air, kicking her legs-all to no avail as she landed with a SPLASH! into the creek.
Sitting up in the two foot shallow creek, Laura pulled off the special goggles her father made to help with her vision-they were built from a special crystal that were as transparent yet dense as lead and impervious to her heat vision-and wiped the water away from her eyes.
"Are you all right sweetie?" Laura looked to her right and saw an elderly couple along with a brown haired girl about her own age, and two white dogs floating in the air.
"I'm fine, Grandma," Laura said as she stood up and ringed the water from her hair. "I got hit by a Mac Truck last year, remember?"
Martha Kent gave a small smile. "Dearie, your father has survived nuclear explosions and even came back from the dead, but every time he dons those blue tights and red cape I worry. It goes with being a mother-and a grandmother."
"And you didn't feel anything at all?" the brown haired girl exclaimed as Laura walked over to them from out of the creek. "I mean, you must have jumped a mile into the air before you came crashing down."
"No, May," Laura sighed. How could she explain it to her friend? Sure she sensed the impact, but it didn't really hurt. The only times she'd felt what could be described as pain was when her father had tested her sensitivity to kryptonite or she'd gone to Themyscaria to be trained in Amazon martial arts-and had to practice in a room lit by red sun radiation lamps or recent complications with her vision powers.
Her grandfather Jonathon Kent peered down at Laura from behind his thick rimmed glasses. "Were you trying to see if you could fly?"
Laura's shoulder slumped as she nodded. "I must have looked pretty silly up there, huh?"
"No, not really," Jonathon said, and then added, "you might want to be a little more careful, though. Suppose Jack or Billy had come to work today?" Jack Evens and Billy McCombie were two neighboring farmers who, after Jonathon Kent's heart attack two years ago, leased the land adjoining their own.
Suddenly thinking of her grandfather's condition made Laura's ears pick up his heart; hearing the weak heartbeats reminded the girl of his fragile health and made her further depressed. "I'll be more careful. Grandpa," she promised, "It's just-just that next week, May and I will be starting at the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning," she continued. "How's it going to look when the people there find out that I'm Superman's daughter and I can't fly?"
Martha placed a reassuring hand on her granddaughter's shoulder. "Dear, your father couldn't fly until he was eighteen. You've still got a few years."
"But what if-what if I can't at all?" Laura said. "I'm only half Kryptonian. What if I'm stuck to leaping great distances and running at super speed?"
"Kandoria is half-Kryptonian too, in a way," Jonathon indicated the smaller of the flying dogs, which had just landed at Laura's feet, her father Krypto right beside her. Laura smiled, remembering when her parents told her how they were trying to conceive, and found that the Kryptonian genome would not work with human genetics. With the aid of Dr. Emil Hamilton, a scientist friend they experimented with Krypto and an Earth canine, and Kandoria was the result. With what they learned, Laura's parents were finally able to have her. "And she was able to fly once she was grown. So likely it may be the same for you."
"Maybe." Laura knelt down; it was hard to stay depressed when her dog was looking her in the face with those big puppy eyes of hers. She smiled as Kandoria licked her face, her depression already fading.
"Just remember something sweetie," Martha said. "It's not your father's ability to fly or his other powers that make him super-its what's in here." She tapped on Laura's heart. "Now, why don't you go inside and shower? And when you're done, that apple pie I laid on the windowsill this morning should be cooled down."
"I'm going to have to ask your grandmother that recipe," May Parker said as they walked up the stairs to the guest bedroom-Laura's father's old boyhood room. "Mom would love to try it out." The brunette let out a sigh. "Of course, I'm going to have to do a lot of web slinging tomorrow to work it off." She gave a mocking glare Laura. "How come you never seem to gain any weight?"
"Solar charged metabolism." Laura was in a better mood; few things could lift her out of gloom like her Grandma Kent's apple pie.
"Some girls have all the luck." May took a closer look at Laura. "Those glasses don't really change your look that much. How come people keep from figuring your Dad's Superman?"
"Laura adjusted the aforementioned glasses; like the goggles she wore earlier they were made from Kryptonian crystals that were impervious to her heat vision and diluted the x-ray spectrum in case either of her new vision powers came on by accident. The two turned around the corner and entered the guest room. "He does his best to act in such a manner that, well, it never occurs to people he could be Superman. Most don't even guess he has a secret identity-like they think he spends all his spare time in the Fortress up north." Laura touched her glasses again. "You don't think they make me look like a dork, do you?"
"Nope," said May. "They make you look positively a-dork-able." Laura mock-glared at her friend. "Seriously, you look good. Why do you ask?" Before Laura could answer, May answered her own question. "It's Clark Ross, isn't it?" May went on, "It's all right. He's a cute guy, and I saw the way you two were holding hands at the county fair last week."
"It's just-he gets back from football camp in two days, and we've been texting each other-we agreed to go out when he gets back-,"
"-and you won't be seeing each other much after school starts next week," May finished for her. "Although I'd feel a little creeped out, dating someone named after my Dad." Returning to the previous subject she added, "And he won't think anything about your glasses. Not if he's the kind of guy worth liking."
Laura lay down on her bed and glanced up at the ceiling. "You excited? About school next week?"
"Oh yeah," May said. She stood across from Laura's bed and then flipped upside down onto the ceiling. "I mean, sure I'll miss all my friends back at Midtown, but we'll both get to meet new people, especially ones like us that we won't have to hide our powers from-who we can really be ourselves around. Wouldn't you like that?"
"Yeah," Laura sighed. Clark's parents Pete and Lana were her father's two oldest friends and knew about his secret identity but hadn't told their son. So far, the topic had never come up, although Laura feared it might. As far as Clark knew, Laura was simply going to a fancy private school in upstate New York, which was true-but there was more to it.
Years ago, when Laura had only been a toddler, there had be great unrest among various superhero groups over the issue about the relationship between them and government supervision. The issue had come to head when a bill was passed through the U.S. Congress and signed by the President requiring all super-powered beings to register their powers and identities with the Government. To many superheroes that used their anonymity to protect their loved ones like Laura's father, this was unacceptable. Others however-most notably Iron Man and Green Lantern-argued it allowed for better accountability and trust. The issue split the ranks of the Justice League, the Avengers, and various other groups and teams, degenerating into a civil war between the heroes.
Though both factions had tried to avoid such, collateral damage and unintended casualties occurred-namely the deaths of the Flash, Black Goliath, and Firestorm. Finally, Captain America, who led the anti-registration faction, decided enough was enough and surrendered only to be assassinated-or so the world thought.
And from the shadows Lex Luther, who had been one of the Act's backers, announced his bid for the Presidency-and won. With so many now backing the Registration Act, Laura's father withdrew from hero activity-until the breakout from the Phantom Zone by General Zod and an army of thousands of the worst criminals in Krypton's history with the goal of terraforming Earth into a New Krypton.
Most of what Laura remembered was of being kept at her father's Fortress of Solitude along with her mother and Grandma and Grandpa Kent, while Superman and the rest of the Justice League fought the rouge Kryptonians with the aid of the Avengers, the Justice Society, the X-Men and various other superhero groups-and even President Luther's two black-ops teams of convicted supervillains the Thunderbolts and Suicide Squad. That fight claimed the lives of thousands, including Laura's other grandfather General Sam Lane, and finally ended when while struggling with Laura's father, General Zod was shot in the head with a kryptonite bullet by Thunderbolts Director Norman Osborn-whose bullets were given to him by Luther.
President Luther gave a televised offering of reconciliation to Superman-but it was really a trap. For the area where they were to meet was an abandoned waterfront, where no reporters or other media were allowed, and waiting with President Luther in the guise of a Secret Service agent, was the kryptonite-powered cyborg Metallo. Laura looked up at May, clinging with her back to the wall of her bedroom. If her father's then boss J. Jonah Jameson hadn't order him to go down to Metropolis to take pictures in spite of the Federal order-well there was no way to know what would have happened. What did transpire afterwards-Spider-man coming to Superman's aid, their meeting up with Batman, Luther's announcement of a nationwide manhunt of the three while simultaneously ordering then S.H.I.E.L.D. director Norman Osborn and his team of pseudo-Avengers to lay siege to Asgard above Broxton Oklahoma-all was concocted by Luther to conceal the fact that a giant kryptonite meteor was heading straight for earth. If Norman Osborn hadn't revealed all this after the Avengers factions-led by Captain America who had miraculously returned from the dead-had stopped him, and the Sentry hadn't sacrificed himself to destroy the meteor, then civilization-maybe all life on earth-would have ended.
The arrest and impeachment of Lex Luther and his cronies led to the Registration act being revoked-and a compromise formed between the two opposing factions. The X-Man and Avenger James Howlett, aka Wolverine, had recently broken from the main branch of the X-Men, and set up his own school. Named in honor of the late Jean Grey, the school was in a remote out of the way part of New York away from prying eyes, where young mutants and other super powered beings would be able to practice without people seeing. He brokered a deal with the government that children of known superheroes-mutants, aliens, altered humans or even normal humans with special talents or abilities-would attend the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning and their identities of those who wished to remain anonymous would be kept by him and his staff-and only them.
"It's a shame we're not going to be roommates though," Laura added, then went on, "I mean, I've only really known you since we met in April, but you're the closest friend I've got who knows about my Dad-and the rest of our family."
"I'm awfully glad my own Dad suggested I come here for the summer when my spider-powers emerged," agreed May. "But don't the others in the Justice League have kids?"
"Yes, but I've only met most of them a few times," Laura admitted. "Dad likes to keep his personal life and his identity as Superman separate as possible. There's only one I actually know well-,"
"And that would be me." Both girls startled to see another girl about their age, the same height as Laura, with wavy mid-length black hair and brown eyes sitting at Laura's desk, with Kandoria curled up on her lap.
"Lyta!" Laura cried out as she got up from her bed. "What are you doing here? I thought you were spending the summer on Themyscaria!"
"I was," the new girl said. She glanced over at May, then back at Laura. "Can she be trusted?" she asked-in Kryptonian.
Laura blinked in surprise. Not that the girl had spoken Kryptonian-both her parents spoke it- but that it was perfect-better than Laura's own, in fact.
Laura nodded then looked back at May. "May, this is Lyta. She's-,"
"Themyscaria?" May leaped down from the wall and walked over to Lyta. "Are you Wonder Woman's daughter?"
Lyta nodded. "My name's actually Hippolyta, after my grandmother. But most just call me Lyta for short." She looked May over closely. "And you're May Anne Parker. Your mother is Mary Jane Watson-Parker, former actress and current fashion designer, and your father is Peter Parker, high school Chemistry and Physics teacher at Midtown High in New York City-and secretly Spider-Man. And you also have a six year old brother named Benjamin and an eight month old sister named Gwen."
"How do you know all this?" May asked in shock.
Lyta gave a quick smile. "My-family-keeps files on these sorts of things."
And that's not even half the story, Laura thought. Looking the Amazon girl square in the eyes, Laura said, "How'd you get here? I'm certain I would've heard even your mom's invisible plane landing within
three miles of here." Especially now with my new super hearing.
"I'll get to that," said Lyta then went on, "I was on Themyscaria, and as you know, Laura, my Mom had to give up her immortality when she married Dad. Well, this summer, my Grandmother and the council elders decided that someone would have to eventually take her place as the Amazon's representative in Man's World. Although Grandma didn't want me to, I disguise myself and entered-then won.
"Grandma wasn't happy, but she took me to the Temple, and there I received the blessing of the Gods and-," she floated up three feet into the air-"I can fly!"
She can fly. Laura wanted to be happy for her friend but she felt jealousy gnawing at her. She can fly and I can't. Lyta continued, "And I see you've had an upgrade in power too."
"How'd you know that?"
"That recent solar flare, and the fact you weren't wearing those glasses when we video-chatted 2 weeks ago," Lyta pointed out. "I know you draw energy from the sun like your Dad Laura, so it must have affected you, and I'm guessing those glasses have something to do with you getting x-ray or heat vision?"
Laura sighed; Lyta always had been good at drawing conclusions from tiny clues. "They're made from a translucent Kryptonian crystal," she said then told how they helped keep her new vision powers in check until she learned how to control them. "I've got super-hearing now too, plus I'm even stronger and faster than before."
Lyta nodded. "Me too-well about the last two; my senses are still pretty normal. But I didn't come to talk about our powers." She looked at Laura's desk. "May I use your laptop?" Laura sighed then nodded.
Lyta produced a computer CD from her black leather jacket. "We'll be starting our freshman year at the Jean Grey School next week, remember?" Laura and May both nodded. "Well, it also happens that the first class from S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Youth Detention Center will also be starting there too. I've got on this disc files on every one of them-their backgrounds, powers, abilities, everything."
Laura thought back again to just after Lex Luther's impeachment and imprisonment. In the aftermath, a whole host of supervillains whom he and Norman Osborn used to do their dirty work had also been arrested and detained-and many of them, it turned out had children. After much discussion, finally the government set up a detention center for them under S.H.I.E.L.D. supervision where they would be educated and monitored, and it was agreed with Wolverine that they too would attend his school when they came of age.
Lyta inserted the disc into the laptop gave the rundown on all the villains' children she had on file. Bullseye's daughter. Captain Boomerang's granddaughter. Giganta's son. Clayface's daughter. Captain Cold's son. Silver Banshee's daughter. Lobo's son. Two-Face's daughter. Baron Zemo's grandson. The Riddler's Scarecrow's son. Toyman's son. Killer Frost's daughter. Merlyn's granddaughter. Silver Swan's daughter. The sons and daughters of the Wrecking Crew. The list went on and on.
When she got to Mary Corbin, the daughter of John Corbin AKA Metallo, Lyta said, "She was fifteen at the time of the Phantom Zone breakout, and was at a mall where the first of General Zod's soldiers had broken through. She was assumed to be among those killed in the general massacre, but last year, on discovering a secret Lexcorp facility, authorities found her brain being kept alive in a jar-along with a robotic body similar to her father's Luther had designed for her. The body was activated, her brain placed inside, and she's spent the last year at the Detention Center adjusting."
That poor girl, Laura thought. What must it have been like, going out for an ordinary day of shopping at the mall, only to get caught in the beginnings of a full scale alien invasion, then to wake up fifteen years later to find herself nothing more than a brain in a mechanical shell? Then something else occurred to Laura. "She's not powered by-?!"
A wry smile appeared on Lyta's face. "No, she doesn't run on kryptonite. Originally her body was designed to, but with Tony Stark's help S.H.I.E.L.D. technicians designed an A.R.C. reactor similar to the one that powers his Iron Man Armor. She'll be perfectly safe for you to be around."
Laura breathed a sigh of relief, then frowned as she thought some more. "Dad really wasn't happy putting these kids in that place. It's not like they did anything wrong themselves; and it's certainly not their fault who their parents were."
"Most of them didn't have any close relatives or anybody who'd take them in; and how likely would anyone want to be a foster parent to the child of a known mass murderer or psychopath?" Lyta held up a hand. "I'm not saying this was ideal, but sometimes we just have to accept the way things are." She clicked on the laptop mouse and brought up two more files. "And some of them aren't so innocent. Like these two: Adrian Kyle and Felicity Hardy."
May leaned in closer to the laptop screen. "I know about that girl," she said, pointing to the image of a blonde-haired girl about their age, dressed in tight black leather. "She's the Black Cat's daughter. Her mom had just pulled a major heist in Manhattan's Diamond District and my dad arrived to catch her. Black Cat gave him a huge chase around the buildings of New York; only when he finally caught up to her it wasn't the Black Cat-it was Felicity acting as a decoy for her mom."
"And she was sent to the Detention Center shortly afterwards," said Lyta. "As for this guy," She clicked on the picture of a young blond-haired boy in his early teens, "he assisted his mother Catwoman in several nighttime burglaries-," she clicked again to show him a couple years younger, like eleven or twelve and wearing a black set of tights with three red slash marks across the chest and a pair of goggles similar to ones Laura had seen on pictures of Catwoman, "before being caught by Batman."
May was giggling. "He dressed like his mom?"
"Don't laugh," Lyta said. "His mother trained him in the art of thievery from an early age, and he's top notch fighter for his age-he's been allowed by the Detention Center authorities to compete in local kickboxing events and has three regional championships under his belt."
"I seem to recall," said Laura, "that Batman was involved several years ago with Catwoman. Any chance that he's-?"
"No," Lyta's face went cold but from what Laura couldn't be sure. Anger? Disappointment? Embarrassment? I really need to learn how to read people better. "Adrian's father's this guy." Lyta clicked again and an image of a man dressed in what looked like a brown and tan version of Batman's costume appeared on screen, with three slashes similar to the boy's on the chest. Another picture showed an athletic middle-aged man who bore an uncanny resemblance to Adrian. "Thomas Blake. AKA Catman. Generally regarded as a second stringer; a good fighter yet incompetent at criminal schemes.
"In addition to competing in local martial arts events, Mr. Kyle and Miss Hardy own between them several show quality cats that they enter in regional cat shows. However, at three of them, several cat-show patrons reported wallets, watches, jewelry and other valuables missing."
"And you think these two stole them?" Laura asked.
"No one could prove anything," Lyta admitted. "But the reports stopped when the Detention Center doubled the guards that went with Kyle and Hardy and kept a closer eye on them. I don't think it's a coincidence." Scrolling down the screen, she added, "Physical testing has confirmed that both also have mutant powers-namely that Felicity can affect probability-not on a grand scale or in flashy way like the Scarlet Witch but enough so that people around her often seem to have bad luck. As for 'Catboy,' he seems to have a low-level empathic bond with felines. In other words, he can make cats do his bidding."
"Really?" said May. "That doesn't sound like any major threat."
"Not just your typical alley cats or house pets," Lyta said. "He was taken under supervision to wildlife preserve and there any cat-bobcats, lynxes, or cougars-all responded to him the same way ordinary domesticated cats do.
"However, these are the ones I'm most concerned about." After Lyta clicked on the screen again this time to show a girl who looked like she stepped off the stage for the musical CATS. "Katherine Minerva, daughter of Barbara Minerva, the Cheetah. Inherited her mother's cheetah curse." She clicked on several icons that contained numerous accounts of the girl's disruptive behavior. "She has gotten into numerous fights with other detainees at the center, gotten several others into trouble by sneaking out and getting caught vandalizing, and even has twice put security personnel into intensive care. Worse," another click showed an image of a man dressed like the Flash but the colors were reversed-a yellow cowelled bodysuit with red lightning bolts at the temples and another in a black circle across the chest. "Zoom, the Reverse-Flash. Real name Hunter Zoloman. Borderline sociopathic speedster, onetime lover of Barbara Minerva-and DNA test proved to be Katherine Minerva's father. And recently, it seems, she's inherited his temporal-speed powers as well as her mother's abilities."
"You mean-?" Laura remembered her father's stories about how he'd encountered both of them. Due to the mystic nature of her powers, Cheetah's teeth and claws could even cut Superman, and Zoom, like either of the Flashes was too fast for even him to follow. Put the two together…. "Wait-doesn't the Detention Center require it's super powered detainees to wear collars that suppress their powers?"
"Yes," affirmed Lyta. "But the collars come off when they come to the Jean Grey School. That was the agreement Headmaster Howlett made with the government. But according to all her tests, Katherine Minerva can only maintain her super speed for short bursts-any longer and she gets worn out.
"And then there's this girl." Another click and another photo appeared-this one of a short slender girl with a very pale complexion, her ruby-red lips stretched into a wide smile, and her hair-. "Carly Quinzel-daughter of Harleen Quinzel A.K.A. Harley Quinn-and the Joker."
May's eyes went wide. "Is that hair and skin real?"
Lyta nodded. "Apparently, when the Joker took that acid bath that bleached his skin and gave him green hair his genes were altered and he passed them on to his daughter." The Amazon girl clicked the mouse and a long list of pages opened. "It seems that Miss Quinzel was diagnosed by the Detention Center psychologists at a very young age as mentally imbalanced, and prone to acting out in the form of pranks on both the staff and other detainees." Lyta lead off the screen the record of the clown like girl's antics, from whoopee cushions on the Detention Center staff meeting room seats to cream pies flung out from the kitchen cabinets. "The kicker seems to be when, after a long stretch of good behavior, she was allowed to compete on the junior competition of Cuisine Saboteur-under a disguise and assumed name of course."
"Is that the Cooking Channel's competition show that allows contestants to sabotage each other while they cook?" Laura asked.
"Yeah!" May said then added, "I, uh, watch it with my mom sometimes."
"Well, be that as it may, she entered, and made it all the way to the final round before being eliminated," Lyta said. "But as the winner, a Miss Susan Matsudo was being presented with the grand prize, she, the host Allen Green and the judge Jason Roots all had an attack of massive flatulence-and then came down with violent diarrhea. On national television."
"I saw that!" May said between giggles, and Laura herself was trying hard not to laugh. "That caused a riot at the studio-for weeks, the lifestyle section at the Daily Bugle talked about little else!"
"And you think this girl-the Joker's daughter-caused it?" Laura peered closely at her friend; Lyta's blank face gave a firm nod. "How-how could she have done that?"
"My family has some connections to the studio; I was able to use them to gain access the studio and the leftovers from the show and analyzed them. Miss Matsudo's chocolate éclair had a combination of hydrocolloids and cellular choroids that apparently, in the right combination, can induce such a reaction in a human body."
"Wait a minute," said May. "I watch that show, and only the judge eats the finished meal. How could this girl or Green have ingested these chemicals?"
Lyta clicked on another icon, and video footage showed Susan Matsudo cooking during the course of the show-and tasting her food while she cooked. "And various times during the course of the show, Miss Quinzel had attempted sabotage on her-not big enough to ruin her opponent, but she could have slipped the components into Miss Matsudo's cooking without notice." She clicked again and showed video footage of Miss Quinzel 'accidently' spraying Dalton Green causing flour or salt to get blown in his face. "The result could likely happen only when the components were mixed-a trick often used by her father in mass poisoning."
"Still-she didn't really hurt anyone," Laura interjected. "I mean, it was just a harmless prank."
"Harmless?" Lyta's left eyebrow raised upward. "Laura, hydrochlorides and cellular choroids are the primary ingredients in the Joker's Joker Venom-that poison he used to bring death to thousands of people-with a smile! She just used them in a different combination!"
Laura shuddered; she'd read accounts of the Joker's many murders and the uniquely grotesque way he pulled them "But you don't have any proof that she meant to do anything more than what happened, do you?"
"No," Lyta admitted. "And it's likely this little stunt was all she intended. But the next time it may not be so harmless."
Lyta then went on to describe Jules Octavius, the son of the infamous criminal Dr. Octopus. The boy had no record of offenses himself-in truth he was one of Detention Center's better behaved charges. Yet he seemed to have inherited his father's scientific genius-and at regional science fair, handed in as his project a home built atomic bomb. "It would have needed uranium to actually work, which, of course he couldn't acquire legally," Lyta said then added, "but you do realize what he's capable of? If he could make something like that, what else could he do?
"Then there's this guy." On the laptop screen appeared the face of a boy in his early teens, with an angry, arrogant expression. "Zak-Zod."
"The son of General Zod," Laura said under her breath.
After the destruction of the World Engines and the death of General Zod, those of his followers who weren't immediately killed were apprehended and held in red-sunlamp lit cells, including Zod's wife and accomplice Faora. Brought before a UN tribunal, and with all means of access to Phantom Zone destroyed, the remaining rogue Kryptonians were sentenced to death by kryptonite. Only Zod and Faora's then 3 year old son was spared.
"The boy was given over to President Luther and security director Osborne," Lyta continued, "and was-well, tortured, to be frank. They subjected him to various forms of kryptonite, shades of solar radiation, and even tested with various forms of magic." Laura winced, remembering when her father and Dr. Hamilton had tested her own sensitivity to Kryptonite. While it was shown she had a higher resistance to the radioactive fragment of her ancestral world than a full blooded Kryptonian she still didn't like to go near it. "Fortunately it ended with Luther and Osborne's downfall, yet even though the Detention Center hasn't been anywhere near as harsh, Zak-Zod has been most troublesome. He's completely disrespectful to the Center's staff, often expresses contempt for earth people or anyone who isn't Kryptonian, and has frequently been subjected to the Center's discipline."
"And he's Kryptonian," Laura said flatly.
"You mean," May said, "he could be as powerful as Laura's dad?"
"He's worn a collar specifically designed to suppress his Kryptonian powers," Lyta said. "According to the rules that collar comes off when he leaves the Center for the Jean Grey School like the others. There are safeguards in place but it's still something to worry about.
"And here's my biggest concern." Lyta clicked and an image of a young girl in her early teens with long red hair, fair porcelain skin and emerald green eyes. Laura's own brown eyes went wide as she recognized the girl even before Lyta spoke, "Lena Luther."
"She's former President Lex Luther's daughter, right?" May asked.
Lyta nodded. "And after her father's impeachment and conviction, she, like most other supervillians' children, was detained at S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Youth Detention Center-yet at the request of a certain Clark Kent," and now she spun the chair around to face Laura, "she was allowed to come here to the Kent Farm every summer."
Laura nodded. "Dad felt that, since Lena was innocent of her father's crimes, she shouldn't have to spend all her childhood at that place. So she came here-at first there was S.H.I.E.L.D. agents staying around but after a few weeks they let up and didn't come back-and Lena and I became friends."
"Hold it right there," May interjected. "You mean you became friends with Lena Luther? The daughter of the man who hates your dad more than anyone, who tried numerous times to either discredit or murder him?"
Laura nodded. "Lena's not her father. She's kind and nice; she wouldn't hurt a fly. We did a whole lot together, like camp out, shop, go fishing with Grandpa, even joined 4-H together."
Lyta's left eyebrow-oddly shaped similar to a bat's wing-rose up inquisitively. "Then why, according to my files, last year Lena left and went back to the Detention Center after only 3 weeks here?"
Laura's shoulders slumped; she was afraid Lyta would be getting to this. "We had gone fishing at McDougal's Pond and were walking back alongside of the road when all of a sudden an eighteen wheeler coming by had somehow gotten out of control."
"Wait a minute-was that the Mac truck you said you got hit by earlier today?" May asked. Laura nodded.
"I shoved Lena aside right before the truck hit me. I wasn't hurt of course, but I looked inside the cab and saw the driver was unconscious. I ripped the door off the cab, and rushed him to Smallville General at super speed. Turned out he had a massive stroke, but I managed to get him there in time to save his life-,"
"But Lena saw you," Lyta finished.
Laura nodded. "I came back to her and she wanted an explanation and I-I told her everything."
"You mean you told her your dad is Superman?" May exclaimed.
"She would have found out anyway when we went to the Jean Grey School together," Laura said defensively. "Besides, what should I have done? Do nothing and hope an ambulance could get to the truck driver in time? Or lie to Lena?"
"No," Lyta said flatly. "But it complicates things. And judging by the fact that she went right back to the Detention Center I gather she didn't take it well?"
"No." If anything that had been an understatement. Lena had been furious; absently Laura rubbed her left cheek where Lena had punched her. It hadn't really hurt; in fact if Laura hadn't rolled with the punch Lena's fingers would have broken. "Lena-she doesn't-or didn't-believe her father did all those things. She thinks that her father was framed by S.H.I.E.L.D.-and by our parents." Laura let out a long sigh then added, "When she left, I tried calling, e-mailing and texting Lena, but she wouldn't answer-until about when school started up and I got a text from her. She apologized for how she acted, but said she had to deal with some things and asked me not to contact her."
After a few seconds of Silence Lyta added, "You do know that Lena visits her father every year at Belle Reve Penitentiary?" Laura nodded. "And that for two hours, they are left alone in a solitary room, with only a guard outside?" After pausing a couple of seconds she added, "What else did you tell her?"
"Nothing!" Laura said. "I didn't mention you, or your family, or any of the others that I know of. I only told her about my dad and our family. No one else's!"
Lyta removed the disk from the laptop and placed it back inside her jacket pocket. "The room they meet in is soundproofed, and apparently Luther was able to wrangle a deal with Warden Colson that the cameras only show pictures but have no audio, so that any conversation he and his daughter have is strictly private."
"You mean-you think Lena might have told her father my family's secret!" Laura exclaimed.
Lyta's face remained expressionless. "It's a possibility. Shortly before I left Themyscaria, Grandmother gave me a lasso like my mom's-and when I meet her next week, I intend to use it on her to find out what she might have revealed."
"You can't just do that!" Laura shouted. "Lyta, Lena's my friend-,"
"Was your friend," Lyta replied. "Laura, you need to stop being such a Pollyanna."
"And you need to stop expecting the worst out of people." Laura felt her blood heat up; she actually liked Lyta but sometimes her analytical and suspicious nature got on Laura's nerves.
Lyta simply stood in front of Laura, her face showing no sign of emotion. "In my experience you're less likely to be disappointed that way."
"Lyta-," Laura began but before she could finish her head pounded and her eyes felt like they were on fire. Red flared up behind her glasses and immediately she closed her eyes. "AAAAAHHHHHHH!"
May ran over to Laura as she covered her eyes and held her hands tight over them. May touch Laura's forehead; it was as hot as if she was burning with fever-then cooled down to normal temperature. "Laura you all right?"
"Yes." Laura let out several short breathes, and then carefully opened her eyes. "Heat vision flare up. Sometimes happens with my x-ray vision too but it's not so painful-," With her eyes fully open Laura looked where Lyta had been standing, only to find that she was gone.
"Where'd she go?" May looked all around the room, only to find no sign of her. Carefully, Laura took off her glasses and scanned with her x-ray vision.
Finally she said, "She must have left just as the flare up edged away."
May rolled her eyes. "That girl gives me the creeps."
Laura smiled. "It's just how she is. Spend some time with her and you get used to it, trust me.
"I don't know much about her mother," May said, "but I never heard of Wonder Woman spying and keeping tabs on people like that. Or coming and going unannounced like that."
For a second Laura wondered if she should do this but only for a second. Lyta already knew a lot about May's family, so this was only fair. "That's because she gets it from her father."
End of Chapter one.
The part about Wonder Woman giving up her immortality-it's my own idea. Basically, it simply means that if an Amazon gives her heart to a man, she must give up her immortality and age like a normal person, so he'd better be worth it.
And speaking of which, who could Lyta's father be? Come on, surely you can guess.
Despite the rather serious nature of the first chapter, I largely mean this to be a lighthearted series, mainly dealing with the typical issues teenagers face-except most of them have superpowers of course! And most chapters will be short, like the webisodes of MH and EAH. I also highly value reader involvement on ideas for characters such as the students, school staff, chapter plots. I have the final say of course, but I want to hear from you!
See if you can figure these characters I've already set up are: Thena, Argo, Stella Rogers, Howie Stark, Quenivere Curry, Darry Allen, Calvin Jordan, Vickie Sage, David and Lydia Queen, Willow Wilson, Jade Wilson, Leslie Banner, James Kord, Francine Barton, Duela Dent, Ombrielle Copplepot, Orestes Murdock, Sandra Marko, William Nelson-Pym, Sheldon Crane, Elsa Karlo, Fiona McDougal, Frankie Lincoln, Claudine Sea Wolf, Morgana Coolidge, Belladonna Maru, Kyle Wilson, Lisa Willis, Sakura Akihiro-Howlett, Zoe Zatarra, M'arkh J'onzz.
Some of these characters are based on canon children-I even have Franklyn and Valeria Richards at this school-Franklyn's a senior while Valeria's the same age as Laura, Lyta and May. And there's another girl with powers and a personality like C.A. Cupid's-and she's Darkseid's granddaughter!