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Chapter Twenty-Nine: Shadows of Discontent Part One
Kara barely could keep a wide grin off of her face when Clark flew out next to her. His latest adventure was very interesting, but the aftermath was what interested her the most. She turned towards Clark, smiling very wildly when locking eyes onto him. The two of them made their journey to the Danvers Household because they had been invited to meet the younger Kara and her sisters. They just took a long way around so they could have an opportunity to talk to each other on their way out.
Clark had been beyond amused by that particular look on Kara's face. She looked very giddy in response.
"She finally did it," Kara said in surprise. "She finally actually gave into her biological instincts, and finally allowed herself to be taken by you."
One look at Kara's face made Clark almost chuckle in response.
"You don't seem surprised it happened," Clark said. "And I understand you were the one who got in touch with Lucy and arranged for her to come by for a visit."
Kara couldn't keep the wicked little smile off of her face when Clark answered the question. It was true, she played not so much of a little part in this entire scheme, but honestly who could blame her? She just wanted to get the ball rolling on a couple of important things. What the people did with said ball when it flew out into the field, Kara could not even begin to guess.
"Well, I wouldn't have been surprised if she would have taken a piece of you as well," Kara said. "I'm sure there's going to be a few girls lining up now that…word have spread."
Clark looked at Kara. She folded her arms underneath her chest in mid-air and gave him one of those smiles in response.
"Kara?" Clark asked.
Kara kept a very obvious straight face, directed towards Clark. The straight face only made her look slightly less guilty, especially when Clark saw the look of mirth dancing through her eyes. Clark put a pair of hands on his hips, but Kara just looked back in obvious amusement.
"Not that I've been spreading the word, but you know, people are going to talk, and they're going to say things," Kara responded to him. "They're going to talk about what you are able to do, and how many women you'll able to have. And you know Tess may be taking a look at some people if she gets her way."
Clark could hardly believe what Kara implied, but at the same time, he could really believe what she implied.
"And here are three young women who would also want to meet you," Kara said, almost as an afterthought. "The point is, I'm sure Lucy is going to have another chance. And she might be a handful, but you're one of the people who might be able to put her in line….and maybe you can force some kind of peace between her and Lois."
Clark raised an eyebrow and drew in a deep breath.
"Do you think I'm some kind of a miracle worker?" Clark asked her.
Kara leaned in and kissed Clark on the cheek before pulling back from him. "No, I don't think you're some kind of miracle worker. I do think you're pretty good, though. Very good in fact. You'll inspire, and that's the most important thing."
The two of them dropped down in front of the Danvers Residence. It was a nice house, nothing too out of the ordinary, very quaint. The type of house you wanted someone to live up in if you wanted them to have a pretty good life. To say the younger Kara lived here made the older one feel rather well. She grew up well, and Kara could not help, but be pleased about that fact.
"So, Kal, do you want to do the honors?" Kara said.
Clark leaned forward and knocked on the door. He could hear someone rushing to get the door and the door swung open.
A tall girl of about fifteen or so years of age looked up at Clark. She had dirty blonde hair, which she tied back, and wore a pair of glasses. Her lips pursed into a surprised expression when looking at him. She dressed in a white blouse, and a pair of jeans. Her mouth hung open when she saw the young man in the seat.
"Kal-El?" she asked. "Is that really you?"
Clark smiled. "Yes, Kara, it's really me….."
Kara the younger rushed to him and threw herself into him with a nice and solid hug. She blushed very slightly when feeling herself brushing up against his muscular body. With good grace, Kara pulled away from him, with a smile.
"It's really nice to meet you, finally, at last," Kara said. "Well, I met you when you were born…but you know what I mean."
Kara turned around and saw the other blonde. Her eyes widened in response.
"Karen, that's…you're here too?" Kara asked.
"Wait, you remember me?" Karen asked, raising an eyebrow in surprise.
The older version of Kara looked at the younger version of Kara, with a smile on her face. The younger version threw herself at the older version with a hug, and the younger girl's face inadvertently buried into the chest of the older version of Kara.
Karen smiled, when Kara pulled away from her, going slightly red around the cheeks when she pulled away. The two of them looked at each other.
"I guess the three of us got separated," Kara said. "But, we've found our way to Earth….where did you land anyway?"
"About a thousand years in the future," Karen said. "But, I had to come back….for reasons I'm not still clear on….my memories are kind of messed up."
Kara answered with a nod.
"So, how did you end up here?" Karen asked.
"I landed in a garden….pretty close to a wooded area right around this house….thankfully my oldest sister found me."
The younger girl smiled. She decided to neglect the fact of the time her pod spent in the Phantom Zone, before getting jarred out. Thankfully she was in stasis, so nothing in the Phantom Zone really did hurt her, even though it was very jarring when she realized where she spent a good ten years of her life.
"Karen, Clark, it's good to see both of you," Eliza said. "Kara, why don't you let the two of them inside, so they can sit down. I'm sure they had a long journey to get here."
The younger girl stepped aside. Karen walked inside, closing her eyes. She felt a bit dizzy going in, and the flashes of some great battle on Infinite Earths happening, leading to them merging together flashed through their head.
"Are you alright?"
Eliza placed a hand on Karen's shoulder and got her to turn back around. Karen spent a moment trying to clear her thoughts.
"Yeah, I'm fine, it's just….I've been working on helping Raya and Lara and study these dimensional anomalies," Karen said.
"We've been working on studying them around the clock at STAR Labs," Eliza said. "I think we should get together, and put our heads together….see what we can find out."
The door opens, and Clark turned around in time to see an older blonde, in about her mid-twenties, enter the room. She stopped short, almost bumping into Clark. The older blonde, who had an amazing figure Clark noted, looked at Clark for a few seconds.
"Hi," she responded. "You're...Kara's cousin, aren't you, Clark?"
"Yeah, that's right," Clark said.
"Carol Danvers," she answered with a smile.
"You're the one who found Kara when her pod crashed?" Clark responded.
"Yes," Carol answered. "And it's a good thing I found her otherwise….well some other people might have found her, and I don't even know what happened."
Clark didn't really want to know what happened. He was just glad his younger cousin found a place in a very stable household.
"Carol, have you hear from your sister?" Eliza asked.
"Alex?" Carol asked. "I'm pretty sure she'll get off of work when she can…..I think she mentioned she'll be running a bit late."
Eliza frowned but said nothing. It was just her second oldest daughter promised she would be here soon, and she wasn't here. Eliza didn't want to worry her guests.
"I'm sorry about my daughter being late," Eliza said.
No sooner did she say this, the phone rang. Eliza went into the next room to pick up the phone. She frowned when answering it.
"Alex?" Eliza asked. "Something came up…..okay, come home as soon as you can."
Eliza tried not to look really worried, but as a mother, she could not help herself.
Alex Danvers hated to do this to her mother and sisters, and she also hated to miss out on a chance to meet Kara's cousin. Especially given the organization she worked for studied him for some time, and Alex found herself studying the images they had on file, quite intently. Each and every one of them showed something nasty, the worst of which aliens were capable of, and it scared Alex.
Something really dangerous came up. Months ago, some breaches opened, and it led to Lex Luthor being possessed by the Phantom Wraith of the Kryptonian outlaw known as General Zod. Lex had been defeated, by Smallville's protector, or rather Zod happened. The entire mess was a fiasco, and with Zod being sent back to the Phantom Zone, and Lex being taken to a secure location, it wasn't like they were going to find any crystal clear answers anytime soon, at least none to the best of abilities.
Now, there was most certainly someone else who came out of the Phantom Zone and was on Earth. Alex and her partner tracked the person and their movements. The most baffling thing ended up as being the lack of aggression. The dark haired DEO agent frowned when she looked off into the distance, studying the map with all of the locations marked.
There had also been the alien bounty hunter which had been picking up meteor mutants.
'And Clark sends him off,' Alex thought. 'Before we had a chance to figure out what his game was…..oh well, at least he's out of the way.'
"You're not going to believe this."
Already, Alex hated this particular statement. She had been capable of believing a whole lot in her time. She turned around to face the young woman who walked up next to her. The woman wore a skin tight uniform, as custom for many government agents. She did wear it pretty well, Alex wasn't going to deny this particular fact if she was perfectly honest. Her fit figure poured into the body suit, in particular, her ass which caught the eye of many DEO agents. She was beautiful, owing up to her mixed heritage of Chinese and Caucasian.
"I've been working in this job for a year, I believe a lot," Alex said. "What is it this time?"
"Another miniature breach is opening," she said. "The third one in twenty-four hours."
Alex frowned when looking on. She thought the breaches would stop. Why would so many of them open?
"Agent Johnson, Agent Danvers, report to Director Henshaw's office," a man said walking up.
"So, I wonder what we did this time."
Alex smiled. "Daisy, why do you think we did something?"
"That last mission could have gone better, and had a lot less property damage," Daisy said. "Most of it was on the account of the alien…and we brought him in, in one piece."
Alex blinked and looked at Daisy who shifted her lips back into a smile.
"Well, mostly one piece."
The two agents made the long walk into the office, and Alex was getting flashbacks to all of those times where she had been called to the Principal's office in high school. Most of the time, Alex had a very good reason of being sent there.
The tall, dark skinned director of the DEO stared over the desk. Daisy appreciated the neutral look on his face, and she was sure Alex did as well.
"Agent Danvers, Agent Johnson, thank you for coming."
Daisy smiled, did they really have a choice when their boss said jump?
"We have a person of interest who is trying to open up a breach, and we have reason to believe that person of interest is not an alien," Henshaw said. "That person of interest is Lex Luthor."
"Luthor, sir?" Alex asked. "I thought he had been locked up well…"
"In the Loony Bin," Daisy said.
Not exactly the term Alex would have used, but she would be willing to let it slide, at least for right now. She could see the eyes of the Director maneuvered onto them, not once backing off.
"As you know, a couple of months ago, a breach opened in Smallville and resulted in Lex's possession, but it was resolved before the DEO had a chance to maneuver," Henshaw said. "There may be lingering traces of Zod inside Lex."
Daisy snickered at what Henshaw said, which earned her a stern look.
"Not remotely what I meant, Agent Johnson," Henshaw said. "Regardless, he may have had his orders, and we need to track down where he is."
"What if he causes trouble when we try and take him down?" Alex asked.
"Then, you should take any measure necessary to make sure the trouble ends," Henshaw said.
There was no question about what the DEO Director said. Lethal force might have been required. They hated to do it, but there were a few circumstances where it had to be done.
The agents took it as their cue to leave. Both of them walked from the room, keeping up a pretty good pace.
"Well, it looks like I'm going to be a little late for dinner," Alex said.
"Just a little bit?" Daisy asked.
"I better call my mother, she won't be pleased," Alex said. "Kara was looking forward to meeting her cousins….and I really did too, to be honest."
"Hey, duty calls," Daisy said. "Are you ever going to tell your mother what you're doing?"
Alex shuddered for a moment. The longer she waited, the more difficult it would be to cross that mind field. The less her mother knew what she was doing, the better off they were going to be.
The DEO Agent moved over to make a quick phone call and then they would be off, to track down Lex. Given the information at hand, there was one place where he might have gone straight away.
Lex pulled up the car he stole from Hugo Strange to the edge of the parking lot. His hands shook in excitement which could barely restrained. The young man stepped out of the car. He walked, something leading him there. His eyes still glazed over in a trance when walking forward. The man's heart skipped a couple of beats when walking with a swift step of excitement.
"I was so close, I was so close!" Lex yelled, almost chanting in an insane way. "Oh, I was so close, but now…"
Lex made his way to the front door of the lab once belonging to Milton Fine. This door had been shut, and Lex tried to push it open. The door would not budge.
"No, no, not today."
He picked up a huge rock and hurled it through the window. The glass shattered and allowed him to climb in through the window. Lex dropped down onto the ground and looked towards the main lab. It had been cleared out, everything had been confiscated.
Not everything, though, as Lex picked up a large piece of glass and raked it across his wrist. The blood splashed through the ground and resulted in the lab illuminating around them. A flash of energy surrounded the young man when he stepped over. Lex dropped to his knees with arms extended out in a crucifix pose.
The ground shifted down and made a modified elevator. Lex made his way into a secondary lab deep underneath the ground. The dust surrounded the young man. He took a half of a step inside and looked for everything around him.
"It has to be here," Lex muttered. "It just has to be here."
Lex grabbed the top of his head. Had there been one strand of hair, he would have ripped it out. Lex murmured underneath his breath.
"It has to be here!"
Lex's shouts increased in frequency and frustration hit in response. He overturned a table on the lab and walked over. The boxes were containing nothing other than notes. He pounded on the wall and caused it to crack.
"Ah, ha, I knew you hadn't been holding out on me."
The young man's groping of the wall allowed him to locate a switch which gave him access to a secret room. Another one, and at the back of the wall, there was a table. Lying on the table were several crystals.
"It had to be here, and I was right, you are here!" Lex cried.
Lex bent over and picked up a black box on the floor. He could hear it.
"And you're here too…everything I need to unlock the secrets of the universe, it's all here," Lex said. "And it's all mind."
Lex clutched the black box tightly and picked up one of the crystals. He slid the crystal inside, shrugging off the blood dripping from his arm. He entered a zone and would not be pulled out of it by any means.
"Yes, mine," Lex said.
The sounds of footsteps coming from above did not deter the crazed gentleman. He just fashioned the portal focus together, he was nearly ready. The time for reckoning was at hand. Lex breathed in and just took in everything around him.
"Almost there….."
Two figures dropped down to the ground in front of them. The government agents both trained their guns on Lex who turned around to face them.
"Freeze, you're under arrest!" Alex yelled.
The women trained their guns on Lex. Lex didn't really acknowledge them. He just simply fired a smile towards them, looking about as calm and tranquil as humanly possible. Alex held her gun on point, and hesitated, close to fire, but she didn't really pull the trigger.
"I knew you were coming," Lex said. "And I'm glad you are here. You're here in time to see something beautiful."
Daisy caught sight of the crystal array in Lex's hand. She wasn't sure what he had. All she could do was fire at him.
The bullets had been caught up in an energy field before being sucked into it. Whatever was happening, the Vortex opened up. It rattled in Lex when he dropped to his knees.
"I have changed the world!" Lex yelled.
"You're going to rip us apart if you don't stop this thing!" Alex yelled.
Lex looked completely beyond all comprehension. He drank in the power, the power to change the world. The same power he had when Zod entered him nearly came forward. He reared back and continued the chanting, breathing in, breathing out, shaking his hands.
"You're just in time to see something beautiful," he repeated.
Alex and Daisy took a step back, in time to see some skeletal hands and a flowing black robe. A pair of soulless glowing eyes flashed in front of them. It was the unmistakable look of a Phantom Zone wraith, growling and hissing when it dove towards them.
The wraith hovered over them, with the crystals shorting out. Lex dropped to the ground, and Alex blasted Lex, catching him in the shoulder before he could cause any problems.
"Maybe it's trapped between dimensions," Daisy said.
This particular hope had become dashed when the Phantom Wraith charged towards them. Alex and Daisy stepped off to the side and prepared to fight.
The wraith flew up, out of the lab, and out in the wild.
"I'll secure him, and then I'll be right behind you," Alex said.
Daisy nodded, she had powers, and thus a better chance to deal with whatever this thing was than Alex did. She moved as quickly as possible out the door, and after the wraith when it escaped out somewhere into Kansas.
Dinner at the Danvers Household went on pretty good, and then there was dessert which went on well as well. After dinner, Kara and Karen were talking. Clark tried to help Eliza with the dishes, but she shooed him off.
"It would be rude of me to ask you to do any chores when you're here, you are my guest," Eliza said.
"But, wouldn't it be just as rude of me to not help out, after the wonderful meal you've cooked?" Clark asked.
"Your satisfaction is its own reward," Eliza said.
Kara and Karen spoke, with Carol just hanging out off to the room, just soaking in on the conversation.
"So, you're a test pilot at Ferris Aircraft?" Clark asked her.
"Among other things," Carol replied with a smile. "I've kept myself busy, but I'm used to keeping busy, I have two younger sisters, and….they can be challenging sometimes."
Clark understood perfectly.
"I just wish I would have remembered more sooner," Karen said. "Then again, there's the potential there are conflicting timelines here, so that could be the problem."
"That's why time travel is outlawed on Krypton," Kara said. "Speaking of which did you ever….."
"Did I ever think about going back all the way to Krypton, and trying to save it?" Karen asked. "Oh, I thought about it, but the consequences outweighed the benefits. I won't say much, but Krypton's destruction was a pivotal point in history, and there were far more deaths if it survived then there was."
Kara privately wondered if Karen went back, and tried made an attempt to save Krypton, but made a really bad future, so she had to stop herself from correcting the mistake. Time travel made Kara feel really loopy, so she didn't really spend all that much time.
"At least some of it's coming back to you," Kara said. "After all of those family get-togethers, all of the Festival of Rao celebrations, it would be a shame if you forgot about it."
"Yeah, it would," Karen said.
Eliza moved over to answer a phone call, while they all continued to talk in the background.
"So, you really do have multiple girlfriends, right now?" Carol asked.
"Yes, you….." Clark said. "I admit it's weird...I find it weird sometimes as well, but that's just the nature of my biology."
"No, not weird, just interesting," Carol said. "I have to say, you're a pretty brave man."
Carol would be lying if she wasn't intrigued. Granted, she and her friend, Jessica, they scratched each other's itches quite nicely. Both of them joked about potentially finding someone to spice things up, though, but while there was no shortage of men who would go along with it, there was a shortage of men who might be able to keep up the pace they liked.
"I…think I'll be able to graduate high school this year," Kara said. "I had to relearn everything from the ground up, Earth education is far different from Kryptonian."
"What are you going to do when you go to college?" Clark asked.
"Oh, I'm interested in journalism," Kara said.
"I should introduce you to Chloe, the two of you might get along pretty well," Clark said. "She might be able to give you a few pointers."
Speaking of which, Clark's cell phone rang. He picked it up and answered it. "Yeah, Chloe, what is it?"
"There's some Dementor Like Thing which is terrorizing Smallville," Chloe said.
Eliza just got off the phone. She could tell by the look on Clark's face that he got the same message.
"Phantom Zone Wraith," the older Kara said.
"Yes, I was thinking the same thing," Clark said.
It was time for them to get to work.
To Be Continued on March 5th, 2017.
