"This is the house Clark, Kal-El, grew up in," Lois announced after she shut of the engine.
"It's so nice here. There's so much room," Kara said, looking out the window, trying to see how far it was before the land touched the horizon.
"I prefer the city, but coming to the country every once and a while is nice. Come on. You can meet Mrs. Kent, his mother.
Kara shyly followed after her.
Martha only saw Lois at first. "I got your messages. Phone line was down awhile, but it saved the recordings. There was nothing to worry about. I don't much watch or read the news, not with Clark not writing it anymore. It depresses me to see evil running amuck and being glorified as truth in some cases, but I appreciated the warnings." She noticed the brown-haired girl. "Hello."
"This is Linda Lee. Can we come in?"
"Of course."
When they were all seated, Lois began, "Linda's real name is Kara. She's from Krypton and Clark's cousin."
Martha's eyes welled up with tears, part sorrow and part happiness, getting up from her chair to embrace the girl.
Kara told her story again, this time to Martha.
"I knew you'd want to meet her and right now she needs a place to stay," Lois added. "Until she's of age and adjusted to earth. And I thought what better place than the town, the home, that harbored Superman? That is if it's alright with you."
Kara was struggling to breathe. Martha, now sitting beside her on the couch, took her hand and instructed, "Deep and slowly." Then she twisted around to open wide the window behind the couch, letting in fresh air. She also stood up and turned on the ceiling fan overhead.
It wasn't long before Kara was breathing easy again and Lois was sure she'd made the right choice. Martha had raised one Kryptonian child. She could help this one too.
"It's more than alright with me. It would be such an honor and a blessing. We need a story we can tell folks though. My sister and brother-in-law were killed in a car accident about a year ago. You can be Linda Lee Danvers, their daughter. No one around here would question it. Not the way you resemble Clark."
"What do you mean? No one knew he was adopted?" Kara asked, curious.
"Clark came to us in the winter and was young enough that we pretended the blizzard that year kept us from getting to the hospital. If anyone dug into his background, they'd have no reason to question whether we were his biological parents or not."
"You should get Bruce Wayne's help with this," Lois suggested. "He can help you forge what you need. He's got connections and he's got money. On top of which, I know he'd love to help out. Let me give you his number."
"No need. He gave me his number at the funeral. I never thought I'd need to use it, but I have it."
Guilt or had she reminded Bruce of his own mother in more ways than just name? No matter, he had just went up a couple notches in Lois' esteem. She might even grow to like the man before it was through.
"Well, Kara, Linda. I'd love to stay and help you get adjusted, but Perry will have my head. I've already ignored 3 of his calls. You'll be happy here and I'll check in every so often."
"I want to help. Like I did at the bridge. I know it was foolish of me to reveal myself like that, but I heard your scream and I couldn't ignore it. Even though it turned out you already had plenty of help."
"And someday you will," Lois said, "but not today."
"I was just on my way to church before you all got here. Might as well introduce you sooner rather than later, Linda. "
"Has it really been a week since Clark's body went missing?" Lois asked, unable to believe it.
"No, honey. It's Wednesday night. How much sleep have you gotten lately?"
"Not enough," she admitted.
"You'll at least stay the night. Get some rest before you drive back in. If you need to send in a story, we have computers out here in Kansas too. Connected to the internet and everything. "
She smiled. "Okay. You've convinced me." Martha was right. And she wouldn't mind seeing the sheriff in the morning and getting back to chasing down that avenue. And she'd also like to question some of the locals.
"You want to come with us to Bible study?" Martha asked.
Suddenly Lois did. It might be the most normal thing she did all week. And a Bible study likely wouldn't be in the sanctuary. "I'd like that a lot."
sss
"So I kind of let the bridge collapse, but no one got hurt." It sounded like the end to a long story.
Clark was able to open his eyes this time. He was in some Arctic location from the chill in the air that had no effect on him, of course, and the blinding whiteness. He couldn't see his rescuer for all the snow that fell and the light. He could just see a shadowy outline of him.
He felt water dribble into his mouth from a cup the mysterious figure held. The yellow sun gave him all the energy and sustenance he needed, but it was much easier to talk when you didn't feel like you'd had cotton balls stuffed inside your mouth.
"Who are you?" It took all the strength he had to say those 3 little words after the intake of water, but at least he could say them.
"I'm not sure you'd believe me if I told you."
"Alien," he said, referring to himself. "Try me."
He laughed. "My name's Jon. I'm from another world. Another dimension if you will. Kind of like the Twilight Zone, I guess. People would be surprised to discover just how big the universe really is."
He wasn't so shocked. After all, he was laying in the sun, soaking up its rays like some kind of plant. If the young man had said he was St. Nick, he wouldn't have been too rattled. Then again, he was probably too tired to be very surprised about anything. "What time? Day?"
"2:00 a.m. You're probably wondering about the location, but see the sun is in its 6 month cycle up here. You're getting little doses of sun around the clock. It wouldn't be good to overwhelm your body with say a tropical sun. You were for all intents and purposes dead or comatose would be a better word, I suppose, and believe me, I know what that feels like and how hard it is to recover from, but you will be as good as new in a few more days. Be patient."
He noticed the interdimensional traveler had purposely avoided telling him what day it was. The talking had worn him out though and he shut his eyes. He soon succumbed to the darkness again though this time it was a little more gently.
sss
Darkseid landed his ship on an island that no sentient beings inhabited. Beauty was all around him: swaying palm trees, a white sandy beach, and a crystal blue sea, but he saw none of it, so consumed he was with his plan to conquer.
"Await my orders," he told his parademons. "Do not leave this island."
He knew as eager as they were for violence, they feared the violence he was capable of more. He needed a plan before they acted.
He teleported to Metropolis, the once home of Superman. He didn't blend in with Earth's population with his rock-like feature and glowing eyes, but he didn't care.
He was standing on a rooftop, high enough to make the people below him look insignificant but low enough that he could enjoy what he was about to do.
He brought the worst fears of everyone in his sight to reality and suddenly there were spiders, snakes, germs that could be seen with the naked eye, and some people were whisked off where they could face their fears of heights or whatever else it was they were afraid of.
It was one of his favorite powers and he enjoyed the fear and the chaos it created, but most of all he loved the feeling of power he had over these mortal's lives.
He didn't know what to think when the Kryptonian flew into his sight in response to the screams. He immediately probed his mind, desiring to know how he'd escaped death. The tension melted away from his body as thoughts and memories came to light. Then he actually laughed.
A clone. A mere clone. It would be easy to manipulate someone so new to existence. He would bring Earth to submission through "Superman", who was practically a god himself. An "image" the people now loved and the entire world would now rally behind. It would be just like the dream he had given Bruce Wayne, while he worked to figure out the Anti-Life equation that would give him ultimate control.
Things couldn't have played out better. Not in a hundred thousand years. And he knew because he'd lived that many years and more. This was his destiny.