Author's Note: I don't own Superman, I wish! No profit sought here, just reader enjoyment and feedback.
This story is very similar to, but also very much AU from the TV Smallville, but it will still cover those events. Starts out similar, will diverge more as time goes on. Clark won't be so angsty, and Lana obsessed. I will tackle things a bit differently though. And Jor-El is the caring father figure from Superman/Superman II/Superman Returns.
This story combines elements of Smallville, Superman (1978) and the 80s comics. Also, I'll probably be sticking to the Clark/and allies centric viewpoint, I don't know how much I will be trying to get into Lex's head. Hope you all enjoy, please review.
Prologue
Planet Krypton: Jor-El's Lab
Jor-El was bustling quickly about his lab, finishing the small ship that would carry his infant son to Earth rescuing him from the imminent destruction of Krypton. He was completing a systems diagnostic on the tiny spacecraft as Lara entered the room, holding their infant son, Kal-El, tightly in her arms.
"Have you finished?" Lara asked, as she came to a standstill before Jor-El's work table.
"Nearly." Jor-El replied, before sighing. "It's the only answer, Lara. If he remains here with us... he will die as surely as we will."
"But why Earth, Jor-El? They're primitives, thousands of years behind us."
"He will need that advantage, to survive. Their atmosphere will... will sustain him." Jor-El explained, as he turned to look at his wife and son. He glanced back at the ship, and made a further adjustment to its learning matrix, which would educate his son in Kryptonian culture, science, history and much more on his three year flight to Earth. And then he checked the stasis matrix, which would suspend time for the infant, so that he would not physically age or require food. All systems on the ship were operative; he turned to face his wife. Her eyes were filled with unshed tears.
"He will defy their gravity." Lara whispered softly.
"He will look like one of them." Jor-El continued his explanation.
"He won't BE one of them." Lara countered.
"No." He agreed with a grim smile, "His dense molecular structure will make him strong."
"He'll be odd. Different!" Lara tried to persuade her husband, once again, to pick another destination.
Jor-El continued on, "He'll be fast, virtually invulnerable."
"Isolated. Alone." Lara said quietly to herself, in an almost whimper like voice, giving up.
"He will not be alone." Jor-El said, turning to face Lara once more. He then proceeded to hold up a bluish crystal in the shape of his family crest, taking a long look at it. "He will never be alone." He placed it in a small storage slot in the ship. It glowed brightly for a moment, before dimming and going into a standby mode, waiting for the day his young son would need it.
"It is time..." Jor-El said quietly, turning around to stare at his son, who was still being embraced by Lara.
She nodded slightly, tightening her arms around Kal-El. She walked forward, before bending down and laying the small infant into the bowl shaped chamber. "Goodbye, Kal-El. I love you." She whispered to him, as the straightened up, before returning to her husband's side.
Jor-El moved forward, placing the octagonal shaped key into its slot on the ship. Metal slid from both sides of the frame to seal the ship and make it airtight. "Goodbye, My Son." He said, as the tiny ship launched itself into the sky.
As soon as the pod flew past Krypton's atmosphere, the blue crystal Jor-El placed into the ship flashed again. The learning matrix activated, and Jor-El's voice echoed out of no-where, comforting the little infant as he settled into his long stasis induced slumber.
"You will travel far, my little Kal-El. But we will never leave you... even in the face of our deaths... the richness of our lives shall be yours. All that I have, all that I've learned, everything I feel... all this, and more... I bequeath you, my son. You will carry me inside you all the days of your life. You will make my strength your own, and see my life through your own eyes, as your life will be seen through mine. The son becomes the father, and the father… the son. This is all I can send you, Kal-El."
The pre-recorded message would replay at regular intervals in between the learning programs to remind the small boy of his family and home, until the spaceship, and the meteoric remains of the once proud planet Krypton, which followed his small craft, entered earth's atmosphere, heading for their date with destiny.
3 Years Later…..December, 1986
The tiny spaceship was nearing the end of its flight, passing Earth's moon, it would arrive on Earth in approximately one half hour at its current velocity, and scans put its landing site not far from a place called Smallville, Kansas by the natives. Its precious cargo, the last Son of Krypton was sleeping peacefully, blissfully unaware that his journey was about to end. Around the craft, the rocky remains of Krypton were strung out in a long tail, and while there were not as many as when the craft had started its journey, there were more than enough to provide cover from the surveillance equipment of Earth. The tiny craft simply looked like another meteor. As it approached the planet, it moved away from the other debris in a casual maneuver, re-aligning its trajectory for a smooth entry into the atmosphere. It scanned and removed any evidence of its passage from all of the satellites in the area, leaving no sign of its presence. It entered the atmosphere on the terminal phase of its flight, and transferred all power into the stasis cocoon to protect the tiny infant.
On Earth, in Smallville, Kansas, life was progressing as usual as the inhabitants moved about their daily routines on this snow covered day that seemed much like any other, but the inhabitants had no idea their lives were all about to change forever.
On the Kent farm, Jonathan and Martha were buttoning everything up, covering their vehicles and generally getting the farm ready. The ground was already covered by two inches of snow, it was still snowing, and it was predicted to get much worse.
They were a fairly young couple, both in their mid-thirties, very much in love with each other, but there was a distinct air of sadness around the farm. They had suffered yet another miscarriage at the beginning of the year and they had finally decided to stop trying, it simply wasn't worth the risk to Martha's health.
Jonathon finished feeding the cattle, making sure they had plenty of hay and stepped out of the barn to see his wife Martha had just finished covering the tractor. He walked over to her and took her hands and smiled and they just stood together for a moment. The snow began to pick up and in moments visibility was down to a few feet. Suddenly, a loud boom sounded overhead and both of them looked up to see a fireball pass over the house and they heard the sound of impact as it hit in the field a mile away.
"I think it hit in the back 40!" Jonathon moved quickly, "we need to go check it out, make sure it didn't do any permanent damage."
Martha nodded, and together they moved off into the storm holding hands to keep from getting separated.
Ten minutes later, they found the impact site, and Jonathon moved off to check around it for damage, Martha heard something. Faint, but still audible….it sounded like a crying child! She looked around quickly, searching, and finally saw a something in the crater, she climbed down and there, nested in a blanket was tiny infant, perhaps 2 or 3 months old. She ripped off her coat, and lifted the small child, wrapping his blanket tightly around him, and then covering him with her coat.
"Jonathon!"
Jonathon turned at the sound of Martha's voice, and the urgency of her call spurred him, he ran back around the crater. When he found her, he was stunned. He did not know what he had expected, but it was certainly not to find his wife standing IN the crater with her coat wrapped a baby in a blizzard.
"Martha?"
"He cried out Jonathon, I had to help him. We have to get him inside, or he'll freeze."
He nodded, "What about his parents?"
"I don't think they were from around here."
Jonathon turned and followed her gaze, and saw a small spacecraft sitting down in the crater next to her, still smoking from its entry into Earth's atmosphere. He felt his jaw drop open, and instinctively he looked up. The child was definitely not from around here. He looked down at his wife, and seeing the tender expression on her face as she looked at the infant, he knew that she would not listen to reason.
So be it, he thought, "Martha, let's go, we have to get to the house!"
He went down into the crater and helped her climb out, and together, the three of them made their way quickly back to the farmhouse. Once inside, they un-wrapped the infant, put a diaper on him and carefully rewrapped him in a quilt that Martha had made. They took him up to the nursery that they had been putting off dealing with, and carefully put him down in the cradle there. As Jonathon looked down, he put his hand out and a tiny hand reached up and grabbed his finger in a surprisingly strong grip. At that moment, Jonathon knew he would do anything to protect this little miracle that had literally fallen into their lives.
"What should we call him?" Martha asked in a whisper.
"Clark…… Let's call him Clark." Jonathon whispered back.
"Clark, I like it. Hello, Clark Kent, welcome home. We've been waiting for you a very long time."
They stood together, holding each other, and watched their new son sleep. They had never been so happy, everything was finally right with the world. They knew that they might face unknown issues and complications in the future. But in this moment, they finally had the family they had always so desperately wanted, and that was all that mattered. The next day, Jonathon carefully hid the tiny spacecraft in their storm cellar, away from prying eyes.
As winter wore on, a series of storms tore across Kansas, keeping the Kents isolated on their farm. When the snows finally passed, they introduced their new son to the world, and no one had trouble believing that they had concealed another pregnancy until they were sure, and that Jonathon had delivered the baby. He had plenty of experience in that department.
End of Prologue