Chapter Two: Gift from the Stars.
The presence of this ship caught Jean completely off guard. What was more was that she was pretty sure that Harry was caught off guard with this ship. She nudged him slightly and brought him out of the stupor that he forced himself into.
It was obvious that he was caught off guard by the presence of the ship that was there.
"Harry?" Jean asked in a tentative voice. When she was sure that Harry's full attention was on her, she spoke. "Do you have the slightest idea why some kind of ship would be down here?"
Harry shook his head in negative. He grew up around this area; he must have been down by this place a dozen times. He didn't have a slightest clue about a ship ever being down here. Something must have happened.
He slid down by the area of the damn and analyzed the crack. He could feel the energy pulsing out.
"The Earthquake brought the ship out of stasis," Harry concluded, a frown slowly crossing his face. He pushed his finger up and down the crack, slowly analyzing it.
"So, wait, you're telling me that the ship was…..wait that's what you're telling me, isn't it?" Jean asked and she felt herself blown completely away. She shook her head and cleared her thoughts. "You're telling me that there was a ship down here and it was just hiding from everyone?"
Harry smiled. "Maybe it was hiding. Maybe the components were so damaged that some kind of failsafe on the ship enacted to keep the person inside safe."
He didn't really know. There was something down here. The wall was built here many years ago. It shouldn't have been that hard to find something that was missing for this long.
Harry could hear someone approach at the speed of light. He was pretty sure that she heard the dull alarm hum of the ship underneath the dam as well.
A dark haired youth a few years younger than Harry skidded to stop next to him. Her bright blue eyes shined in confusion. She wore a black tank top and a red jacket, along with a pair of jean shorts. She had a full figured body and was the pinnacle of health.
Especially for someone who technically died not too long ago.
Her name was Claire Kent, but she was born something else. She was born Clara Jor-El and sent to Earth extremely early on. She arrived in a meteor shower that rained down many years ago. She was found in a field by Jonathan and Martha Kent, although her adopted father died when she was very young.
Harry acknowledge her presence, and gave her a stern look.
"Claire, you really shouldn't be out here now after nearly dying," Harry said to the girl.
Jean nearly snorted. Only Harry could say that statement with a straight face and act like it was not out of the ordinary.
Claire put her hands on her hips and firmly looked at Harry. "I heard the hum…..I wanted to make sure that everyone was okay."
The two of them stared each other down and there was a long moment where both of them kept their lingering gaze on each other. It was hard to tell what was going to happen next with them.
"There's a Kryptonian ship down there, you know," Harry told her.
Claire suddenly looked gobsmacked. Words failed the young dark haired farm girl who just happened to be an alien.
"That….that would explain it," she choked out, having to entangle her tongue. "That would explain why the alarm assaulted my eardrums."
Harry nodded in response and he saw the pieces of Kryptonite lingering at the bottom of the river. Claire cringed in response.
It had been a very long time since she had that particular problem with dealing with that mineral. It didn't affect her as much. The memories of the trouble that it caused her in the long and distant past caused her to cringe.
Jean touched her hand to the edge of the wall and she could feel the thoughts that pulsed into her mind.
'Help,' a faint mental whisper said, ensnaring its way into Jean's mind.
Harry could hear it as well and Claire could hear it when Jean linked their minds up.
"So, there is someone down there," Claire said and she edged over to figure out what she needed to do.
Harry shook his head. "We don't know if we're dealing with an unstable vessel or not. Trying to remove it without taking the proper safeguards could flood the entire city or worse"
Claire frowned, she didn't even think of that even if it should have been the most obvious thing in her mind. Her eyes fixated on the vessel down beneath her.
"We can't just leave her down there, can we?" Claire asked and Harry shook his head.
"We can't and we won't," Harry said firmly.
Another tremble of the alarm echoed and Harry added something.
"Not to mention that any of the more unsavory forces getting their hands on this ship," Harry said trailing off and he added again when it came to his mind. "Not to mention some of the more savory forces."
Harry put up the charms around the area to keep people from getting in here. Well the people who weren't in his best interests to nose around. He knew that he couldn't hold things together forever, but he could try.
He hoped that he could try at least. Harry's finger trailed over the crack again and he closed his eyes.
One wrong jolt of magic could crack the dam open or worse overload the energy core of that ship . He had to treat this wall and the ship like it was a small infant. Any rough treatment of it would cause something to break.
"He knows what he's doing," a voice said and Claire and Jean turned around to see Lily Evans having appeared in a blink of an eye.
The moment Lily found out about this, she felt the need to haul her ass down there to deal with it. Carol said that she would divert the attention of others away the best she could. That might only be a temporary measure at best. Lily wouldn't be as naïve to think that Carol would be able to keep them held together.
"SWORD knows, don't they?" Claire asked, no sooner did she see Lily join her.
Lily focused on her son's careful extraction of the ship. She nodded in response.
"SWORD knows, SHIELD knows, pretty much anyone good or bad might know at this point," Lily added and she really wished that she could have a time table here of when they could expect someone showing up.
She should assume that it would be soon. Thankfully they were forewarned.
Harry worked his magic. That was the best that they could hope for. Lily saw the ship covered with slime and muck.
"All of the power must have diverted to keeping the cargo safe," Claire muttered underneath her breath. "You know, because these ships have sensors to keep them really clean."
Lily nodded, she was well aware of Kryptonian technology. It was an amazing piece of architecture. They had some real pride in their vessels. They were among the most magnificent in the universe from what Lily saw. Not that there wasn't a lot of competition.
"Okay, I've got the ship out and it's hanging on by a thread," Harry told her. "With all of the Kryptonite down here, if these shields failed, it could kill a person."
Lily was about to ask if her son exaggerated, but he knew better.
"We need to get the Kryptonite out of there, before some nutcase uses it in their latest super soldier cocktail," Harry added to his mother.
Lily nodded in response. "Leave it to me."
Claire was glad that they have preemptively dodged a bullet with that one. She had too many bad memories taking on the meteor freak of the week when she was growing up.
"We're going to get the ship out of here," Harry added, when he stabilized it. He diverted as much power as the ship had left back to the stasis chamber. "Even if it was Kryptonian, it wouldn't be a good idea to leave it lying around."
"Yeah, there's AIM, Cadmus, HYDRA, Doom, Sinister, Osborn, the League of Shadows, just to name a few," Jean rattled off and she was sure that there was even more. That was just off of the top of her head.
"Not to mention SHIELD doesn't have a one hundred percent success rate with the most savory people in the world," Lily added.
It was true. There was a common checkbox ticked on the super villain resume of any felon and it was the fact that they were once a SHIELD agent.
"Well, we know that we're not going to leave this ship lying around," Jean answered. She drew out her breath. "So where are we going to put it….."
"The Castle would be a nice place," Lily added, but Harry and Claire made a decision.
"The Castle would be good, but I think that I've got a better place," Claire said and she nodded a faded family crest on the side of the ship.
She couldn't completely make it out with pinpoint precision. If her hunch was right though, it would be better to open the ship up at a place.
"So, are we going to take it to the Fortress?" Harry asked her.
Claire almost could see through the walls of the ship. It had a light layer of lead through it. Why they would add that? It seemed like a design flaw in the ship.
"Yes, we'll take it to the Fortress," Claire confirmed. "If it's not a good person out there, we have the Phantom Zone portal ready to go."
Claire didn't want to go down that road, even if it was necessary. She wouldn't wish the Phantom Zone on her worst enemy and she had quite a few of them. Likely an entire wing full of time at Belle Reve who wanted to kill her or worse.
"Well let's hope that we don't have to go there," Harry said to her and he grabbed her hand.
Claire really hoped that she didn't have to go there either. She was so sick and tired of every other survivor from Krypton, save one, trying to kill her. It was starting to become a recurring trait.
"I'll see what I can do delay them," Lily said, nervously checking her son's charm work. They were good but you couldn't be too careful. "But you know Fury."
"Yes," Harry agreed tensely. "I know Fury."
There was sometimes where he wished that he didn't but he did know Fury.
"So how are you feeling after your ordeal?" Lily asked Claire.
"Well, it took a while for me to come back from it," Claire said in a nonchalant voice. "Dying is surreal but at least I took that monster down with me."
Lily hoped that Claire was right about taking the monster down with her. The aptly named Doomsday wiped out pretty much everyone in his path. It was pure luck that she managed to do what she did.
"Still wish that I would have been there," Harry told her.
Claire placed her hands on her hips and sighed. "It isn't your fault. You needed to prepare for the trials of Sorcerer Supreme. You can't babysit me every single hour of the day, you know."
Harry knew, but it didn't stop him from wishing that he could have done even more to help.
He opened a portal and with Claire and Jean's assistance, the ship was hauled towards the portal. Before they left, Harry fixed the damage that he caused to the dam. He was sure that the workmen would be surprised that the dam was not only undamaged but new as ever.
It was off from the warmth of Smallville into the cold of the Arctic.
"Your father is not a good interior decorator," Jean commented to Claire the second they arrived at the Fortress.
"Jor-El…well he did the best we could," Claire said. She conceded that Jean had a point.
The magnificent palace looked imposing with crystals jutting out from every direction. They glimmered with power. The gates opened in reaction for Claire when she entered.
"Beside his presence has been limited from the Fortress anyway, even if his legacy lives on," Claire said, with a shadow of a smile.
"Can't deny that the man knew about a lot though," Harry said and Claire shrugged.
"Not denying that, but you can still be smart and make idiotic decisions," Claire said with a smile.
Harry wasn't going to deny that. To say that he made the perfect decision every time would be a folly. That being said, they walked past the gates, into a more warmth area. A roaring fire rumbled before them, somehow burning despite the intense cold.
Jean appreciated the heat, even though she bundled up. Or rather Harry bundled her up when they got here. Her eyes traveled down the hallways and she saw a large bed over to the side. A decked out bathroom area could be seen as well, with a heated toilet and showers that pumped warm water into the Fortress.
A miniature kitchen area with real comfortable furniture was the final thing they could see before they entered the main part of the Chamber.
"I see you made some modifications," Harry said to Claire.
"Well, I had some help," Claire responded sheepishly with a shrug.
"Still it gives the place a lot more life," Harry prompted.
That was true, Claire thought that if she came back to life, she should have given her Fortress some life as well. The inner most chamber was cold and sterile as always even though the crystals were modified to give some additional warmth.
It might have not been the most ideal solution in the world. Claire lead Jean and Harry inside the Chamber.
"Welcome back, Clara."
A bright light appeared in the Fortress and the three dimensional image of a very beautiful woman popped out to face them. She resembled Claire to a tee. The only different was that she had blonde hair as opposed to jet black. It was obvious to anyone who could see where she got her looks after all.
"Mother, it is good to see you again," Claire said with a smile. "You have retrieved the ship that I have sent you."
Lara nodded in confirmation. "Yes, Clara, I have retrieved the ship. You were right to send it here. I didn't even know that she made the trip to Earth. The defenses on that ship must have been so accurate that no one could pick her up. She was well hidden indeed."
Lara wouldn't deny that was a good thing that no one picked her up. It was a good thing that her daughter and her friends found the ship when they did. Otherwise there would be problems.
"I think that it was good that we were in the right place at the right time," Harry told Lara. "And it's good to see you again."
Lara smiled. "It's good to see you Harry, you too as well Jean, and congratulations on passing your trials Harry."
Harry smiled, he couldn't help but feel pleased with himself. It was an accomplishment that was worth it.
He waited to see what Lara had to say when she looked over the ship. The woman's lips curled into a momentary frown.
"The ship may be beyond repair," Lara added and she became business like as usual. "Some of the components could be salvaged. If she built this ship, then she wanted to ensure that her daughter or anyone else had the safest passage from the planet."
It was then that Harry got a brief message from his mother. It pretty much confirmed everything that he thought.
"Looks like that we got the ship out of there just in time, SHIELD agents are at the dam, and there were agents of AIM that cleared out just before they arrived," Harry said.
Claire sighed. "Boy, do they ever work fast."
Harry agreed with Claire, sometimes they did work fast.
"So are we dealing with a friendly visitor?" Harry asked.
"She did seem very distressed," Jean imputed and the haunting echoes of that thought still crept into her mind.
Bright light bathed the ship. Underneath the mess and muck, they could see a sleek silvery surface, with various Kryptonian writing over it. One of the most prominent letters was the silver S in a shield. It was the family crest to the House of El.
"She would be very distressed, and you just barely caught this in time," Lara commented grimly. All sets of eyes went towards her. "Her ship's shields faded and the Kryptonite radiation would have seeped in. That level of radiation could kill anyone within moments if they're not shielded properly. It doesn't matter if they were Kryptonian or not."
Lara already prepared another shield for this one. The shields were extremely difficult to make the first time even if she had the technology and knowledge. With Lily and Harry helping her, it was a piece of cake.
"I think that Gwen will be disappointed that she's out of town," Claire commented with a grin on her face.
"Any more or any less than Chloe?" Harry asked Claire.
Claire frowned. "Actually I think that Lois might be more upset that she missed out on this. Given that would be the scoop of the century. No matter how dangerous it is. And you know she thinks that she's slacking off if I didn't have to save her from certain death at least three times a week."
Harry laughed. That was one of those situations where if you snoozed, you lost and someone lost big time.
Lara prepared to deliver the multiple step process of getting the ship open. She might need to use yellow sunlight stimulation to jump start the girl's vitals. She lapsed in a catatonic state after that one panicked thought.
She was a doctor, so she was used to patience and a steady hand in grave situations. The power of the crystals allowed her to make an incision into the ship and slowly pry it open. This had to be done without damaging the precious cargo inside which was most important thing.
Lily was certain that she was going to get a million questions. She put up monitoring charms to see when SHIELD would show up.
If Fury found out, he would likely chew Lily out about it. If he did that, then Lily had some material to counter him. Smallville was supposed to be under her jurisdiction and by extension Harry's. That was the agreement they made a long time ago. There were too many dangerous threats that SHIELD could upset the applecart regarding if Harry or Lily didn't have a direct hand.
"Yes, Maria," Lily said when she got a communication link. "Oh, now Fury wants to talk to me, does he?"
Lily mentally counted to ten when she returned to her office at SWORD. She knew that Carol would want to talk to her about this. She knew little more than the fact that this was a Kryptonian ship and the components came close to failing.
She would head down to the Fortress right after she had this discussion and it would be quite the discussion.
"Fury, this is Agent Evans, what do you need?" Lily asked in her cool and calm tone.
"I'm certain you know that SHIELD got a distress signal down by the area of Smallville," Fury said.
"And when you got down there, you couldn't find anything, could you?" Lily asked, her voice calm and crisp.
It was a battle of wills between two very strong tempered people. Something had to give but the question was of what. What had to give? They would find out shortly.
"By the time we got down there, we couldn't find anything, the trail gone cold," Fury said. "AIM found out as well."
"Do you think that AIM took whatever was down there?" Lily asked.
"AIM didn't find it either, and I know that there has been a lot of weird things going down there, especially regarding that Doomsday incident," Fury said.
"All of your SHIELD agents returned intact after that little mission," Lily replied, keeping calm and cool.
"Yes, because you teleported them off," Fury countered hotly.
"I'm going to be honest with you, no one would have been able to take down Doomsday," Lily said and she paused. "Maybe the Avengers might have been able to do so if they weren't trapped in another realm."
Lily actually shuddered at the thought of property damage between a battle between Hulk and Doomsday. Now that would be a horrifying thought.
"You know what happened the ship, don't you?" Fury asked her.
Direct and to the point, Lily almost would have liked that if she wasn't so annoyed on sheer principle.
"Sorry, Fury, I think we might have a bad connection," Lily said.
She couldn't keep a straight face because she could see Fury getting worked up so much that it amused her.
"I didn't take the ship out of there though, if that's what you're wondering," Lily said, and she was being truthful.
She might have given her son the head's up to take the ship out of there. She might have watched her son take the ship out of there. But Lily Evans didn't take the ship out of there. Her hands didn't touch the ship. Magic that was performed from her person never touched the ship. She was being completely truthful.
Lily peered over her shoulder for a brief second, seeing someone lean against the wall, a thinly veiled amused expression on her face.
"You know, it's really amusing when you realize that Fury takes things way too seriously," Carol said and she stepped inside.
Lily would have been amused if she didn't know that Fury was never going to let this one go.
"I know that he knows and I know that I know that he knows, but we both know that there's nothing that he can do about it," Lily said.
"Just don't let it get to your head," Carol said with a smile. "Guess I didn't hold them off for too long."
Lily wasn't going to say that, it was a brilliant bit of misdirection even though it only gave them a half of an hour of go time.
"I wouldn't say that Carol, you did pretty well," Lily confirmed to her and Carol nodded.
She decided to lean in and ask the question. Her curiosity needed to be indulged even though she might live to regret what she said.
"So, Harry was the one that got it out of there, didn't he?"
Lily nodded in affirmation. Carol opened her mouth to ask further questions. Lily decided that it would be best to cut her off.
"The less you know, the better off that you'll be," Lily told Carol.
Carol agreed that was for the best. It would be better to deny you knew things if you didn't know things. She looked at the scanners. Other than that one glitch, all was quiet in the grand scheme of the universe. The forecast for the Earth today appeared to clear with no chance of a sudden alien invasion.
Most people would have been happy about that. Carol disagreed. Something brewed but she didn't know what.
She sighed and pulled out two chairs for both her and Lily. She took a chair to the left and Lily took the one to the right.
"Friend or foe?" Carol asked.
"Hopefully friend, because we've had enough hostile alien invaders from Krypton," Lily added with a shudder.
Carol shook her head. "You know for a race that's most extinct, there does seem to be a lot of them left out there. And most of them want to kill the planet's last daughter."
Lily laughed, she would have to agree with that. She looked around nervously for a second.
"I'm pretty sure that it's safe around here, I know you disable anything that could be tracked when you come in here," Carol said. "So how is Harry doing? It's been a while since the two of us have gotten together."
Lily smiled knowingly. "He's overseeing the extraction process…and I'm sure that he'll be fighting all kinds of threats whose names no one could ever pronounce without spraining their tongue."
Carol amused herself with some of those names. Doctor Strange had a rogue's gallery that was fitting of his name. They were completely and totally out to lunch.
She looked towards the scanner one more time. All was extremely quiet on the Western front.
That normally meant that something was about to happen. She crossed her fingers that it wouldn't.
Claire, Harry, and Jean waited for the extraction process to be completed down in the Fortress. The top half of the ship was opened.
"Preparing the cargo for extraction," Lara said and a beam of light shot out to open up the stasis chamber.
There was someone inside and it wasn't a raging monster which seemed extremely surprising. An extremely attractive and naked blonde girl was removed from the ship.
Her head flipped from one side to the other. Harry saw that she had elegant beauty, with golden blonde hair that shimmered in the light. Her cheekbones remained soft and she had a slender neck. Round breasts that would be the envy of any girl topped off a picture figure with extremely elegant curves. Her tight little ass and long legs, along with perfect feet added to the nice picture.
Claire's eyes watched her progress as well, as the table was set up. The blonde rested on the table back first.
"Preparing for the solar infusion," Lara said.
The girl lapsed into a catatonic state, although Jean could hear a few base thoughts. If she delved even deeper into the girl's mind, she might have heard even more. The horror and the panic of being somewhat aware that there was a world around you but not being able to experience it was mortifying.
Jean frowned, she got a slight headache. It visited her for a second and then it was gone. She could have sworn that she heard several voices overlapped at once.
She should only hear less than a handful of thoughts. Her powers were not based off of proximity, the furthest she was able to hear someone's thoughts was about three states over. They were out in the middle of nowhere.
Harry's eyes were on her and Jean shrugged. She reached over and placed her hand gently on his and squeezed it to reassure him that everyone was okay. Harry agreed that everything was okay, at least for now.
"Continuing the next phase of the process," Lara said and she turned to the group in the Fortress. "Please stand back. I don't want any of you to get hurt by any potential power backwash."
Jean, Harry, and Claire all stepped back. A silver shield appeared on either side of them, for added protection.
The crystals turned and bombarded the young girl with a blast of yellow sunlight. Her body heated up on the table and the blinding warmth filled the Fortress.
'I think it might be working,' Jean thought with a smile on her face.
'Yeah, I agree,' Claire thought, she could really feel something.
'Did either of you ever doubt that it would work?' Harry asked both Jean and Claire.
Both girls shook their heads, they didn't really have any doubt that it would work. Lara did her thing to scan the girl all over again.
The vital signs she had popped up on the door and was rather weak. Her power levels slowly climbed up and Lara was encouraged by the process. The stasis field kept her in the ship for all of these years.
Lara was certain that this ship followed Clara's off of the planet, but a miscalculation in direction caused the ship to be thrown off course. It was thrown into where the dam was and buried underneath debris. Eventually the wall was built over it.
At least that was her theory, Lara could be wrong, and she was known to have been wrong before. Eyes popped back over towards the vital signs and they continued to glow in front of her face. The obvious encouraging signs caused Lara's excitement to mount.
A second dose of the simulated yellow solar radiation brought her further out of it. Her fingers rose up and started to twitch briefly.
Jean made the mistake of keeping her mind open too much. She saw the fear in this girl's eyes when she was on a ship. The ship escaped the planet just as the towers fell. The planet burst open.
The redhead heard the screams of millions on the planet. Harry's arm tightened around her waist and that eased her tensions slightly. It didn't ease here completely.
'It's awful,' Jean thought and there was no other way to stop it.
The vitals spiked up where a moderately powered Kryptonian underneath the yellow sun should be. Her body converted her solar reserves into nourishment that replenished her body. Whilst it wasn't as good as food, it would do until she was fed.
Harry watched her and her body shifted against the table.
"Clara, it's time for you to meet her," Lara whispered and the barrier faded straight down.
Claire took a tentative step on through and passed through the gate. Her hands twitched when she tried to stand up straight.
"Your cousin Kara, from Krypton," Lara said and there was jubilation that filled through her voice.
Claire felt relief because they assumed that Kara died with the rest of them on Krypton. The dark haired girl placed her hand on her cousin's hair and slowly ran down it. She didn't quite wake up yet.
Spoke too soon as a pair of bright blue eyes opened. Confusion swam around them. The first thing she saw was Claire.
The blonde looked at Claire with an extremely confused. "Aunt Lara?"
Then she realized that Aunt Lara didn't have dark hair, unless she changed it. Kara Zor-El felt a throbbing motion going through her head and she was confused as anyone what was going on here.
"What in the name of Rao is going on here?" Kara asked.
Claire prepared for an explanation. "My name is Clara, I'm your cousin."
To Be Continued On September 30th 2014.
So yes, we've got Claire Kent in this story, which is going to be the standard for any future stories that don't have Clark/Kal-El as a male lead. If you want a visual representation, just Google Image search Megan Fox Supergirl and you'll get a good enough idea.
Lily doesn't take being told what to do too kindly, does she? Harry got it from somewhere.
Chronically speaking, this is the first time posting wise that anyone reading my stories has seen the slightly modified Fortress of Solitude. Writing wise, it actually made it's debut in Another Life. But if I have to explain the messed up way I juggle all of the projects that I do, we'll be here all day. All I'm going to say I'm writing about half of what I'm posting currently and leave it at that.
Kara's awake and things are getting rolling.
See you this Tuesday.
