Thank you for the reviews.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters. They remain the property of D.C. and or Smallville. This is just my artistic interpretation of one possible future for the characters of Smallville.
Chapter 3
Somewhere in the middle of the Antarctic nineteen depraved and deranged villains were standing around a large ice cavern. Several of them had formed groups to protect themselves from the others. At the north end of the cavern there was a raised ledge, and up there stood the old woman. She looked out at the villains she had collected and nodded in approval to herself. She needed their attention so she caused an explosion fifteen feet in front of her and above their heads. They all looked up at her.
"I am the Crone" she told the crowd. "I am the one that has freed you from your cells. I have done this because you will help me with my goal."
"You say that like we have no choice" said a crocodile like man.
"Look around. You are trapped in an ice cavern. Now, either cooperate and get rewarded, or …" Then she pointed at the crocodile man and said, "In gelu dormi." There was a purple flash and then there was a block of ice where Crock had been standing.
"What did you do?" asked one of the others.
"He is sleeping until I free him. Now you all can join him or you can accept my offer to take out Superman."
Two weeks later.
Lois and Courtney were sitting at a table outside the corner café across from the Daily Planet.
"Have you heard any new leads on the escaped villains?" asked Courtney.
"Clark hasn't mentioned anything recently… why? You getting board of being a journalist?"
"Let's just say, I am thinking of following in John Jones' footsteps not Clark's for my secret identity when I graduate."
"Why is it that I always have to go get the coffee?" asked Jimmy as he walked up to the table with 3 cups of coffee. "Isn't that what interns are for anyway?"
"Jimmy! Interns are not slaves" said Lois.
"That's not what I heard from Jeff. He said you had him doing all your errands while you still were working in the basement.
"That was a different time Olsen, and filling your brother's shoes will take more from you than just taking pictures."
"Plus, you're so good at remembering what we like exactly Jimmy" said Courtney with a smile and a wicked grin on her face.
Jimmy started to blush and said, "Oh! I forgot my sugar" as he got up from the table.
"Wow are you sure Star Girl doesn't have the power of persuasion?" asked Lois quietly as Jimmy was walking back into the café.
"Only on some people…"
There was a commotion down the street. Lois and Courtney couldn't see anything but they heard people yelling and lots of running. They were running towards the café and away from something.
"We gotta check that out" said Lois as she got up from the table.
"Lois we should get back to the office, incase this is a trick to get you."
"We are not going to go charging in to rescue the day. I am a reporter," said Lois. Then she saw Jimmy coming out of the café. "Jimmy grab your camera! I smell a story."
"Lois!" said Courtney as she and Jimmy ran after Lois.
When they got down the street, they saw a school bus perpendicular across the street. Through the windows Lois could see the faces of several frightened children, but the most shocking site was the four children holding machineguns atop the bus. They looked like they were standing guard over the bus. Then the door opened and two more children walked out with guns. Behind them came a man dressed in a blue suit with a large top hat.
"Hello people of Metropolis! I don't think we have been properly introduced! I am the Mad Hatter! I have stolen your children, but I will return them if Superman turns himself over to me! I know you are watching so if you don't turn yourself over… well" and he snapped his fingers and the two kids with guns turned and pointed their guns at each other. "Come on Superman! 10-9-8-7-6-5-"
Swoosh came a red and blue blur. Suddenly all the children were relieved of their guns. The guns were now in a small pile about 20 feet in front of the hatter. The blur came to a stop hovering over the now smoldering lump of metal that had been the guns only a few moments before. The hatter was surprised to find a young looking woman standing before him and not the man of steel. She was blond and wore a very similar outfit to Superman.
"Who are you?" asked the Mad Hatter.
"I'm Supergirl and your time in this city is over."
"Kara" gasped Lois before she pulled her hand to her mouth almost immediately.
"What did you say?" asked Jimmy.
"Nothing. More pictures less talking!" responded Lois.
"When did Supergirl get back in town?" asked Courtney.
"This is the first I have heard of it," replied Lois.
"Well I'll just take you instead" said the Hatter as he pulled out a green glowing rock.
Supergirl responded immediately by shooting her heat vision at the rock while flying backwards. The Hatter dropped it because it was too hot for him to hold anymore. The rock exploded from the heat vision. Then a blast of lightning hit the Hatter form behind and caused him to fall to the ground. Flying in to hover above him was Lightning Lad. The now gun-less children advanced on the Hatter and Lightning Lad as the Hatter reached up to grab the new hero. Lightning Lad brought together his fists and a blast of electric energy expanded from him. The Hatter fell back down and the kids jerked for a second. Small electrical cards fell off from the kids and then they started to look around themselves like they were waking up from a bad dream.
Supergirl flew back over and picked up the kids still on top of the bus to deliver them to the police waiting at the edge of the crowd. Lightning Lad landed and pulled up the Hatter by his jacket. The police rushed to help him. They searched the Hatter for any other things up his sleeves before placing him in handcuffs. Lightning Lad said thanks to the officer before he and Supergirl flew off.
"I have a feeling that dinner is going to be interesting tonight."
"Why's that Lois?"
"Oh I have a feeling Clark will not be expecting this story," replied Lois.
Across town at the league's headquarters, Clark was going through some of the newest reports about where the kidnapped villains might be. Suddenly there was a swoosh and next to him stood a younger and slightly shorter version of Clark.
"Hey bro."
"Conner? What are you doing here?"
"I overheard you talking to mom about this impending attack on Lois. I have the weekend free and thought I would come to help."
"Did you tell mom about this?"
"No… I just figured it would be a good time for us to bond. I haven't seen you much in the last few months."
"Thanks for thinking of Lois and I Conner, but you should have checked with Mom first."
"You're right. You're not going to send me back to DC are you?"
"No. I think spending a weekend together sounds like a great idea. But, do me a favor first, go tell Mom where you will be"
"Ok" replied Conner before he sped off to tell Martha.
Clark turned back to the monitor to look through some more leads. He noticed a new result had just shown up. Then he heard another woosh.
"Wow that was pretty quick Conner"
"Who's Conner?" asked Kara
Clark turned and saw his cousin. "Kara! I'm so happy to see you! It has been so long."
Then a second whoosh followed by alarms blaring. "INTRUDER, INTRUDER" A second costumed super hero came flying in the room. Tess in her mechanical body charged at the new comer. She jumped up at him and elbowed him in the face. Clark and Kara sped over to brawling pair to pull them apart.
"Tess it's ok. This is my Cousin Kara, and… Garth? Is that you?"
"You bet Sups! It's great to see you too."
Tess calmed down and said, "I apologize, my system had no record of you and I may have over reacted. Stand down watchtower."
"Kara have you been in the future?" asked Clark.
"Yeah, Jor-El told me to seek my own path or risk endangering you if I stayed to fight Darksied. But then we detected a rouge time traveler that attacked you."
"So we came to back you up big guy" finished Garth.
"We had tried to keep a low profile until she made her move"
"It was so awesome to take out a real life twenty-first century super villain like the Mad Hatter, even if he is more one of Batman's rouges than yours. Even weirder though was that he had green K."
"Woah, Mad Hatter, Green K, What?" asked Clark.
Kara and Garth filled him in on what had just happened. "And since Hatter was one of the ones taken from Arkham we figured he is related to this whole thing."
"Batman and Nightwing are on their way from Gotham to assist in the investigation as they put it" Tess added.
"It looks like your team has grown since I was last here," said Kara.
"You could say that."
"Whoa, who made the mess?" said Conner after he whooshed back from telling Martha where he would be for the weekend.
"Who are you?" asked Kara.
"Hi I'm Conner Kent, Clark's brother" he said holding his hand out to shake her hand.
Kara took his hand but was confused. She tried to squeeze it as much as possible, and said "You have Kryptonian powers but this makes no sense."
"Oh you're Kara! Nice to meet you."
"How is this possible?"
"I'm a clone. Part Clark part Lex, but I take after my Clark side more than the other"
"Lex? Kal-El, this is not right. You need to do something. This thing should not exist!"
"Kara!" said Garth while he grabbed her shoulder.
"I'm right here! Don't talk around me" said Conner.
Clark moved between Kara and Conner and said, "Kara, It doesn't matter what should or shouldn't be we have to deal with what is. Conner didn't ask to be created. It wasn't his choice and he has proven himself to me. I think of him as a brother. I hope you will spend some time to get to know him before condemning him."
"I'm sorry Conner. Lex and I have a history and I jumped to the wrong conclusion."
"It's ok, I mean I live with Martha, who I tried to kill when I was less Clark than I am now. I'm sure we can find a way to move past this."
"I guess I will call Lois to say we are going to have a big family dinner. I don't think we could fit all these people in our apartment. Tess, do you mind if we have it here?"
"Oh.. sure Clark. It would be good for the team to have a get-together."
"Lane-Kent" said Lois as she answered her phone.
"Lois when you and Courtney are done for the day why don't you head over to Watchtower for a big family dinner"
"Sure, But I think we could fit Kara and her friend at our place if you wanted"
"Oh you saw her on the news…"
"Well I was kind of there. Before you get mad we get to write the story for tomorrow's edition!"
"Lois! You are supposed to stay out of these kinds of situations!"
"Clark, it's been two weeks and nothing so far. Besides, Courtney was there the whole time ready to swoop me away should someone come after me" replied Lois.
"As far as squeezing everyone in our apartment, it looks like Conner's also staying with us this weekend plus Bruce and Barb are going to be here at least for one night."
"Watchtower it is! You better come to the office so we can meet this deadline."
"Ok I'll be right there" said Clark i to the phone before hanging up. Then he said to the people around him, "I'll be back for dinner in a few hours. Tess why don't you see if any of the other leaguers want to come for dinner"
"On It."
"I promise to behave while you're out" said Conner as Clark was about to leave.
Clark flew over to the Daily Planet and helped Lois finish the story on the weird Gotham villain's attack on Metropolis. Lois and Courtney Headed over to Watchtower while Clark rand around town to get all the food for the dinner. They had ordered take out from several places mostly because Lois wanted a pretty weird combination of foods.
Lois and Courtney got to watchtower just after seven. Clark arrived a little later and superspeeded up to the kitchen, which was located on the flood below the command center. Tess had convinced Oliver and Bruce to expand the base by adding a set of guest rooms and full kitchen below the main floor. Clark got busy putting the food on the serving platters.
Courtney and Lois had ridden the elevator up to the command floor. They saw Conner setting the dining table, which had all three of its massive leaves in it. Conner had already brought up the extra chairs for the storage room. Conner also had set put a white tablecloth across the table and was just finishing the place settings. On the bar counter near the table was a large selection of drinks.
"Oh Conner this looks great" said Lois as she walked towards the table.
"Lois!" he responded.
Courtney walked over to the Bart and John Jones. Who were talking by one of the monitor stands.
The door to the balcony opened and in walked Diana Prince and Martha Kent.
"Thanks again Diana for the flight from Washington, but next time would you mind telling me that you are doing the flying not a plane before I accept?"
"Sure Martha, but I am much faster than any jet, and I thought you wanted to get here in time for diner." said Diana as she smiled and walked over to the bar to get a drink.
"Mom" yelled Conner as a saw her from the table. Conner ran over to Martha and spun her around in the air.
Lois followed Conner and gave Martha a hug but left the senator's feet on the ground.
"Conner! Between you and Diana I'm sure my hair is a mess. Hi Lois, I'm going to go freshen up before dinner."
Lois saw Kara and her friend from earlier talking to A.C. and Mera, so Lois went over to talk to them, while Conner went to hang out with Bart and Zatanna.
"Kara, it's nice to see you again. So, who's your friend?"
"Hi Lois, This is Garth, but you can call him Lighting Lad" responded Kara.
"Wow the Lois Lane! It's an honor." He said as he held out his hand to shake hers. "Does this mean you are going to write a story about me?"
"Actually, Clark and I just wrote it. I had wanted to go with Electric Lord, but he made me go with Lightning Lad. I guess, now I know why." Lois responded with a smile.
"Sometimes I wish I had a regular job" added A.C.
"Oh the problems of being an underwater king!" said Mera as she punched A.C.'s arm.
"Whatever!" responded A.C. while grinning from ear to ear. "I think I need another drink. Would you like something my Queen?" has said as he bowed before his wife.
"No, I'm fine with my water" said Mera and Garth walked over to the balcony to look out at the skyline to give Lois and her cousin-in-law some time to catch up.
The elevator door opened and Bruce Wayne and Barbara Gordon walked in. Tess walked up to them and asking about their interrogation of Jarvis Tech. Barbara handed Tess a flash drive and pulled Bruce away from the conversation. Tess went to go upload the information. Bruce and Barbara walked over to Lois and Kara.
"Supergirl I presume" said Bruce as the dynamic duo joined Kara and Lois.
"Oh where are my manners. Bruce Wayne and Barbara Gordon, this is Kara-El, Clark's cousin." said Lois.
"It's nice to meet you Batman, Nightwing. The rumors about Mr. Wayne's charm were not exaggerated" said Kara as she held out her hand.
Bruce extended his hand to meet Kara's and said, "Are you the cousin from Minnesota or Krypton?"
"I see the rumors about your detective skills are also true. Although I don't think I have ever set foot in Minnesota, I'm pretty sure I flew over it a few times."
"I have only been there a few times on business but from what I saw you weren't missing much." said Bruce.
"Any place without homicidal clowns or insane Lewis Carol characters just doesn't have much going for it does it?" said Barbara.
The others stared at her for a minute before Lois grabbed her hand and said, "Barbara there is someone I think you should meet" as she pulled the girl towards the balcony.
"Lois stop trying to set me up with people I have nothing in common with! Didn't you learn anything after the Bart disaster?"
"This is different. Garth here shoots lightning and you have those batons that shock people. That's similar isn't it? Plus he's from the future so… well here he is. Mera could I borrow you for a minute?"
"Sure" replied Mera with a smile as they walked towards the bar where Diana and A.C. were discussing something.
Martha had returned from the bathroom and joined Kara and Mr. Wayne.
"Ah, Senator Kent. It is lovely to see you again."
"Mr. Wayne, I hope you have been entertaining my niece."
"Actually Aunt Martha, Mr. Wayne has been quite charming" said with a smile as she unconsciously pushed her hair behind her ear.
"Maybe I should give you two some more time to get to know each other."
"Oh! Actually I need to go ask Emil something before dinner, but later Bruce you have to tell me that story about Clark being turned into a bunny."
"I want to hear about that too perhaps later at the table."
"I promise. Now Senator if I could get your professional opinion on something before diner."
"I'll try…"
There was a blur around the dinner table as Clark was putting all the food on the tabletop. "All right everyone, dinner is served!"
The people started to make their way towards the table to claim their spot. Just as everyone got close to the table Clark said, "Dig in everyone and make sure you thank Lois for her cooking!" With that everyone around the table froze, even Bart.
Conner started laughing and said, "That means they ordered out! It was an inside joke."
Lois was glaring at Clark, who sat there smiling back at her trying to mouth the words I love you.
Once the plates were passed, everyone settled back into their seats. The large family that was the Justice League all sat around to enjoy this great dinner. Tess joined them as well even though she didn't eat anything. After everyone had finished their meals, Bart took the empty plates downstairs and cleaned them in less than a minute.
Kara stood up holding two nicely wrapped presents. She handed one to Clark and the other to Lois. Then she said, "I know I missed your wedding but I wanted to give your wedding presents. Lois, please open yours first."
Lois didn't have to be told twice and she tore through the wrapping. She discovered a necklace jewelry box. She opened it and gasped. There was a beautiful silver pendant necklace. It had several Kryptonian symbols scrolled on its sides and the front was a beautiful house of El symbol. She turned it around so Clark and everyone else could see it. "It's beautiful Kara."
"I had it made in the future. It's an exact replica of one Aunt Lara used to wear to formal events. I think Jor-El gave it to her for one of their anniversaries. It's said to bring good fortune and help to bring about your destiny."
"Thank you Kara, I love it."
Clark started to open his and saw his father's ring. He pushed it away from himself.
"It's ok Clark, it's also a replica and there is no Blue K. I know Jor-El would want you to have it so I had another one made for you. I also included a Kryptonian style chain that you can wear it around your neck instead of as a ring if you want."
"Thank you Kara."
"Well if you don't go back to the future tomorrow I will have a thank you card for our wedding presents"
"Don't hold your breath, we are still waiting on ours" said A.C. There was some kind of commotion under the table and he turned to look at his wife. Mera put on a large smiled and said, "Orin must be confused…" With that most of the league continued to sit around and enjoy the evening.
Author's notes
Thank you again for reading and please review! This was a rather large chapter that almost doubled the length of this story so far. I know everyone wants to know more about who the old woman is and about Lois's condition. It's coming I promise. I have a paper for school due Friday so I probably will not post the next chapter until next week.