Chapter Three: Kryptonians and Kryptonite
The night after Kim met the wrath of Hego, James had decided that Kim could sleep, and the discussion could wait until the morning. Kim had no trouble sleeping, but it was a restless sleep as the day's events unlocked deeply hidden memories in Kim's mind. It was as if the day had woken up a dormant part of her. Something deep inside, something alien, surfaced as Kim drifted off to sleep. As Kim dreamed, she could see a man and woman talking as she looked at them. Something about their body language conveyed fear and panic. When the man and his wife looked at Kim, the girl reached out for them to find she was a baby! "(Calm yourself, my little Kara.)" The woman said with a sad smile as she looked as if she was going to cry. The man looked at his distraught wife. "(Laura, she will survive. I built it to take her to Earth.)" Laura shivered. "(Remember us, Kara Jor-El. Do not forget, my daughter.)" Then, Kim's view began to shake as things rumbled around her. With a deafening explosion, Kim jarred awake with a scream.
Anne came running. The woman had never heard Kim cry out in such pain. It was utterly heart-wrenching. Vainly, Anne tried to console her crying daughter with an arm around the teen's shoulders. "Kimmie, what happened?!" In her distraught state, Kim spoke in a tongue that Anne couldn't recognize or even begin to translate. "(I-I saw a planet e-explode! I-I w-was a b-baby, and…and…they were my PARENTS!)" Kim stumbled over the alien words only because of her distraught state, and Anne had a sneaking suspicion that the language Kim now spoke was truly her born tongue. Anne took note of an interesting happening with families of patients she cared for who were at least somewhat bilingual. When distressed or emotionally strained, the family members would unconsciously slip back to their native language and temporarily forget English. Anne tried again. "Slow…down." Anne told Kim in a gentle tone. "What happened?" Kim slowly retold Anne the tale of her dream. Kim noticed Anne's pained expression. "Kim, I think it's time you, your father, and I had a talk." The tone of voice Ann used drove all the remaining weariness from Kim in an instant. What's going on? Kim thought in mild panic.
James and Anne led Kim to a seemingly unoccupied area of the backyard. Suddenly, James stooped down and punched a pass code into a keypad that appeared out of what seemed to be natural grass. Once the keypad was green lit, a thumbprint scanner appeared next to it. James gingerly offered his thump to the scanner. Then, Kim heard a muffled latch open. She looked at Anne and James and was surprised when the pair did not react to the noise. Shrugging it off, Kim followed her parents down into what resembled a storm cellar and laboratory smashed together. Pieces of unfinished prototype rocket systems lay on workbenches to the left while schematics and unfinished diagrams of various rocket systems were on the right side of the room. Strangely, Kim felt herself wake up under the invigorating light of the lamps overhead
Kim then noticed a rather large rectangular pine box in the center of the room against the back wall. Kim seemed to be pulled toward the box in a slow walk. Kim didn't seem to notice there was a padlock on the crate and snapped the steel latch, lock and all, with ease. When the lid fell of the crate, Kim gasped. Inside the crate, a pristine but relatively small craft rested inside. As she took a step back and stared at the craft in shock, James and Anne. "We call this 'The Stork'." Anne said with a half-hearted chuckle to try and ease the tension he could feel in the room. Kim paid no mind to the attempt at a joke, however, and reached for the pod's window. James sighed. "I think its power is drained, Kimmie-Cub," James told her in warning. "When we found you, it opened to let you out, but when we brought the ship home, I couldn't get it to open again. "This is where Middleton got its major tech jump from." Kim mumbled as her hand stopped short of the hatch. Looking back at James, Kim only received a nod as conformation.
Putting her mind back on the task at hand and filing her Dad's response away for further investigation later, Kim gently placed her hand on the lid. With a hiss, the hatch slowly rose at Kim's touch. Inside, there was little to the untrained observer: a red blanket folded carefully in the corner and small toy that looked like an odd-colored version of Kim's Pandaroo; with more natural and even fur coloration than the version Kim currently slept with. Kim's eyes, which were used to looking for small details, were quickly drawn to an ever so slight discoloration of the paneling near the nose of the ship. As Kim touched it, the panel slid out to reveal a small box in a drawer.
As Kim picked up the object, the girl was surrounded by an image of an alien but vaguely familiar house as two people stood in front of her. "(Hello, Kara.)" The woman said as the man smiled brightly. "(I am Jor-El, your father.)" After he spoke, Kim took a sharp breath as energy shot through her. At the name, Kim smiled faintly and looked at Laura. "(I am Laura, your mother. In time, you will begin to notice that you are much stronger and faster than humans.)" That does explain some things. Kim thought as Jor-El spoke next. "(This power is due to how Kryptonian physiology reacts in the spectrum given off by a yellow sun.)" Kim suddenly remembered how the lamps of the workshop energized her and smiled. Kim couldn't help a shiver as it ran down her spine as her biological father's face grew dark. "(Some will fear you and try to destroy you, Kara, because of your powers. Remember: you are the Last Daughter of Krypton. Make the legacy of our people one of peace, not fear.)" Together, the pair of Kryptonians held hands and smiled at their daughter. "(We love you, Kara, and always will.)"
As the recording cut out, Kim dropped the device and dropped to her knees as a sob took her. Crying and unaware as Kim was, lost in a sea of emotions, Anne's approach went unnoticed until she tried to whisper consoling words to Kim. The words thundered in Kim's sensitive ears. As Kim tried to cover her ears to protect them from the sound, Kim did not realize how close she was to the wall and carved a gash into the concrete with her fingers in their path to her ears. Fear only mounting, Kim did something next none of them expected. She shot through the roof of the lab straight into the sky. Overlooking the skyline of Middleton as dawn just started to reach into the fleeing night, Kim took a deep breath as a feeling of absolute freedom enveloped her and shot off toward Veronica's house in excess of Mach 1.
Slowing her approach, Kim landed softly on Veronica's balcony and quietly walked into her partner's room. The heroine smiled at the scene that was playing in her mind. In some part of her mind, Kim started to sing "Once upon a Dream" from the 1959 classic "Sleeping Beauty". Kim made her way over to the bedside and gently kissed Veronica. As Veronica stirred, Kim thought for a moment that Veronica would come up swinging, but she simply enjoyed the kiss. When Veronica's eyes opened though, they blazed with fury. "Who the hell are you?!" Veronica growled as her fists lit up with fire. As Veronica stood to approach her attacker, Kim began to sway and teeter, her eyes glued to the green flames. "V-Veronica…" Kim croaked out. "It's me!" For some odd reason, Veronica's flames seemed to pull the air from Kim's lungs and sap her strength. Through the early morning light, Kim saw herself in a mirror in Veronica's bathroom and gasped. Kim's hair was now midnight black like Laura and Jor-El's. The teen wore a purple suit with the Crest of El on the chest in black lines with yellow filling! That must have been what the jolt was, Kim thought dimly as she looked into Veronica's eyes.
At the pleading look in Kim's eyes, Veronica immediately extinguished her flames and rushed to Kim's side. "Kimmie…" Veronica looked her over worriedly. "What happened to you?!" The woman asked in fear as she cradled Kim in her arms. "Not…human…" Kim managed as she sat up with a groan. Veronica just stared at Kim with a "You must be fucking insane." Look on her face. Kim just laughed weakly, walked over to the open balcony, and stood out in the growing strength of the early morning sun. Kim quickly felt her strength returning and grinned at Veronica before Kim slowly floated back over to Veronica. "Hego wasn't lying when he suggested I was alien." Kim smiled and got the distinct impression that Veronica was only vaguely paying attention to her as a glazed look washed over Veronica's eyes and her jaw dropped. "You'll catch flies like that, V." Kim said with a giggle. Veronica looked at Kim and shook the remaining vapors of seduction out of her head. "Ok, Kimmie. We need to talk about EVERYTHING."
Please Read and Review. Updates will not be this quick in the future. I'm only posting two chapters now because I had the bulk of this one attached to another story and decided to use it here instead of in that story.
