Chapter 50: City in a Bottle

Disclaimer: All things Supergirl/Superman and Justice League belong to DC. No infringement is intended.


Planet Krypton, 26 years ago

"Little Kara is already walking," Zor-El said with pride in his voice. "Alura is telling everyone that she will be designing her first Omegahedron before she even turns 10."

Jor-El, sitting next to his older brother, chuckled. Ever since Kara had come into the world, his brother knew almost no other topic to speak of.

"I am sure she will," Jor replied indulgently. "But for now we still have to go and get one from Kandor, won't we?

Zor nodded, his eyes focused on the road ahead of them. The two El brothers were driving their speeder towards Kandor City, due to meet with several of their engineers. The scientists and engineers of Kandor were among the finest on all of Krypton and the El brothers hoped to gain their support in their nascent project of determining the source of the recent tremors that plagued the planet.

"You and Lara ever going to get serious about each other?" Zor asked his brother, having finally run out of 'Kara-did-something' stories (for now). "Kara could certainly use a little cousin or two to boss around."

Jor laughed. "A bit soon for that, don't you think? But... maybe. I can certainly see it. Lara is a wonderful woman and I'm sure she'd be a great mother, too."

"We're almost there," Zor said. The speeder rounded the last of the hills and the city of Kandor finally came into view. Its crystal towers reflected the red light of Rao, almost blinding the two brothers. Many regarded Kandor as the jewel of Krypton, its finest city, and even from a distance it was easy to see why. It certainly was the most beautiful, putting even Argo City to shame.

"Think we'll have time for a visit to the crystal gardens?" Jor asked. "I was hoping to get something for Lara and..."

His voice trailed off suddenly as a blinding light erupted in front of them. Out of reflex Zor hit the brakes and the speeder came to a screeching halt, leaving the El brothers in a perfect position to see what was happening.

"Merciful Rao," Zor muttered.

A giant beam of energy, its source somewhere out of sight high up in the sky, enveloped the entire city. Red earth exploded outward in a circle around the city boundaries as the energy violently dug into the ground. For a moment it almost looked like Kandor was entirely surrounded by a dazzling field of energy, the entire city trapped like in a bottle.

The light flared into brilliance once more, forcing the El brothers to close their eyes or risk going blind. A tremendous boom rang out over the surface of the planet, gale force winds kicking up as the air rushed to fill a sudden vacuum. And when the sound of cosmic thunder finally faded, there was nothing but silence.

The El brothers climbed out of their vehicle, both of them not quite believing what they were seeing. Kandor, Krypton's greatest city, was simply... gone. No debris, no wreckage, no flames. Nothing but a perfectly circular hole in the ground, looking as if the hand of Rao itself had come down from the sky, scooped the city out of the planet, and carried it away.

"What happened here, Zor?" Jor asked his older brother, his voice involuntarily dropping to a whisper.

"I have no idea, Jor," Zor replied, refusing to believe his eyes.

Emergency response forces would arrive shortly afterwards, going over the entire area with a fine-toothed comb. Brainiac would devote huge amounts of processing power to the matter. Nothing would come of it. The disappearance of Kandor would remain the greatest unsolved mystery in the history of Krypton. Eleven years later, the planet would die, the mystery still unsolved.


Planet Earth, the present

Alarm bells were blaring through the Justice League Watchtower, calling all members present to the main command room. J'Onn J'Onnz was the first to arrive, curtesy of his powers allowing him to simply phase through the walls, quickly followed by Superwoman zipping in at super speed.

"What's going on?" she asked.

"The computer has picked up something," J'Onn replied, nimble fingers moving over the control surface of the computer. "Some kind of disturbance in the Sol system's gravity field. It's rather similar to one we have picked up before."

Kara looked at the screen, quickly coming to recognize the pattern. "That's the same gravimetric interference pattern we picked up on the day the Flash took me on that voyage through time."

She had made sure to log it into the computer after her return, writing an algorithm to ensure that the Watchtower's scanners would always be on the lookout for similar patterns. After all, a friend from the future had told her that "Superwoman had experience with time travel", so she figured it was only prudent to remain on the lookout.

"Yes," J'oon agreed. "Not one hundred percent the same pattern, but very close. Just... a whole lot bigger."

Kara's own fingers flew over the computer keys. "Whatever it is, it's happening about 80 million kilometers from here."

"Near Mars," J'Onn added, his eyes fixated on the map of the solar system in front of them.

Kara directed her super-vision to the planet below, quickly zeroing in on Keystone City. A moment later she found the Flash, happily running through the streets. That meant little, of course. Given his time travel abilities, an older version of him might well be involved.

"We're picking up something else, too," J'Onn said, adjusting the sensors. A moment later the speakers crackled to life and a garbled message was heard throughout the control room.

"... require assistance... please, if anyone can... energy phenomenon, unknown origin, we… can anyone hear us? ... urgently require assistance…"

"I don't recognize the language," Adam said, having entered the control room behind them. "What are they saying?"

Kara stared at him for a moment, wondering why he couldn't understand the words that were perfectly clear to her, when it hit her. The words weren't in English.

"It's Kryptonian," she whispered, not quite believing it. "They're speaking Kryptonian!"

"The disturbance is growing," J'Onn said, still working the controls. "The scanners are also picking up a physical object in Mars' orbit now. It's pretty large, surrounded by an exotic mix of energy patterns. I can't get a proper reading on it from here."

"... please, help us!" the emergency message came over the speakers again.

"Alert everyone," Kara ordered, balling her fists. "We're going to Mars!"


Less than half an hour later two Javelin spacecraft were speeding towards the planet Mars, with two Green Lanterns and two Kryptonians flying beside them. Adam Strange was piloting Javelin 1 and had Wonder Woman and Green Arrow along. Javeline 2 had Batman in the pilot seat, with the Martian Manhunter and the two newest members of the Justice League, Hawkman and Hawkwoman, along for the ride.

"I must confess that I am intrigued, Kara-El," Sinestro said over the coms. "I have encountered temporal disturbances before, but this is indeed a most exotic mix of energies. My ring can't even identify half of it."

"Just be on your guard," Kara advised them. "The distress call was in Kryptonian and right now, to the best of my knowledge, the only one apart from my son and me who is familiar with the language is Brainiac. This might well be a trap."

"I wouldn't mind another round with the Brainy-Thing," Gardner said, grinning. "Didn't get to kick his ass properly last time."

"We are approaching the target zone," Adam Strange said. "Sensors indicate that the entire area is saturated with temporal energy and God alone knows what else. Be careful. Everyone who is not invulnerable or power-ringed should double-check the rad shields on their space suits!"

Coming around the curvature of planet Mars, Kara finally had a clear line of sight towards the source of the energies and the distress call. Even as her eyes focused on it, though, her brain refused to believe it. It was simply not possible.

"It can't be," she muttered.

"Kara, what is it?" Batman asked over the com.

"Mom, is that…?" Clark began, his own super-vision having found their target as well and recognizing it from the various Kryptonian data tracks his mother had showed him.

"Wow, is that an entire city?" Adam asked, now seeing the image on the Javelin's view screen as well.

It was indeed an entire city, along with a large piece of rocky ground, all of which was suspended in some kind of energy field and floating in orbit above the planet Mars. Even as they watched, the energy field around the floating city churned and flickered, power readings fluctuating wildly. For a moment, the entire city seemed to wink out of existence, only to be back a heartbeat later.

"It's a city, yes," Kara finally said, her brain finally, though reluctantly, acknowledging what her eyes were showing her. "It's Kandor!"

She had never seen the city with her own eyes, of course. She had been far too young back then. Like pretty much everyone else on Krypton, though, she had seen images of the city on news programs and documentaries all throughout her childhood. The disappearance of Kandor had been THE story on Krypton for many, many years. The silhouette of the city, its buildings, the shimmering of the crystal structures, all that had been imprinted on her so many times that she would never forget it. And here it was.

"That's impossible," Clark said. "How can a Kryptonian city be here? In space, no less?"

"A Kryptonian city?" Diana asked. "Are you sure?"

Kara's super-vision zoomed in on the city. Though the energy field around it distorted her view somewhat, she could still make out individual buildings, look into the streets... and see people. Thousands upon thousands of people. Kryptonians. Living Kryptonians.

"I am sure, Diana," she replied, though some part of her still refused to believe it. "That's the Kryptonian city of Kandor, which disappeared without a trace more than a decade before Krypton's destruction. A city home to nearly half a million Kryptonian citizens. We never did find out what happened to them."

"Well, looks like we're about to," Batman said.

The small flotilla came to a halt just outside the churning energy field that surrounded the city. The two Green Lanterns kept scanning with their rings, but it seemed even the wondrous power rings created by the Guardians of the Universe were stumped by what was going on.

"So now what?" Gardner asked. "We didn't fly all this way just to float here, did we?"

"I doubt we will find out much more from out here," Kara agreed, too preoccupied to balk at the notion of agreeing with Guy Gardner. "We need to find a way inside."

As if on cue, the city briefly flickered out of existence once again, only to return a second later.

"The readings are fluctuating wildly," J'Onn said. "I am unable to say whether passing through the energy field is even possible, never mind how harmful it might be. Also, given that the city simply appeared from nowhere..."

"... it might disappear again any moment to Rao knows where, I know." Kara agreed. "Still, I have to go in there. Those are our people in there and if we can save them... I have to try."

"We're still picking up the distress call," Batman chimed in, "but all our attempts to answer are going unheard. Whatever this energy field is, it's blocking anything from getting in there."

Kara looked around, taking in her teammates, quickly going through their abilities. "Okay, we're going to have to split up. Sinestro, J'Onn, Hawkman, Batman, we're going to try and go through the field into the city. You know how dangerous that might be, so if anyone doesn't want to go..."

"We are wasting time, Kara-El," Sinestro interrupted her.

"He is right, Kara," Batman agreed, having already suited up.

There was no dissent from J'Onn or Carter, either. "Thank you," she said. "The rest of you will stay out here and keep an eye on things. If anything happens, you need to find a way to warn us."

"Be careful, mom," Clark simply said, floating close to her.

"Always," she replied, smiling.

A moment later Sinestro surrounded the entire group in a powerful green shield and they flew into the energy curtain.


Until roughly two hours ago, Maj-Ar had had one of the most boring jobs in the entire world. He was a police officer on a planet that had largely left such things as crime behind. What few police duties remained were fulfilled by drone robots, who needed little in the way of supervision. The only reason, really, that there were still flesh-and-blood Kryptonians performing police duties was tradition. There had been times in the past when Maj-Ar had complained about how boring his job was, but overall he had been content.

Everything had changed two hours ago.

From one moment to the next, without any warning, the entire city had been surrounded by a bright light and then everything had gone crazy. All connections to the rest of Krypton had been cut off. The local Brainiac node had crashed. A strange energy field had formed around the city. And to top it all off, those few daring souls who had gone close enough to the energy curtain to take a peek outside had seen the impossible: Kandor was no longer on Krypton. It seemed the city was floating freely in space. Which was impossible, of course. Insane, totally preposterous. So Maj-Ar, who had somehow found himself nominally in charge of this disaster as Kandor's longest-serving police officer, had gone to take a look himself.

Okay, he took stock, what did he have to work with? With the crashing of the Brainiac node, the law enforcement drones were down, no help from them. Most of the city's automated systems were still working, power supply was steady thanks to the Omegahedrons, and the energy field somehow retained Kandor's atmosphere and gravity, so they weren't floating or suffocating in space. They seemed to be in orbit around a strange planet, but weren't falling down towards the surface. The population was scared, sure, but all of them seemed smart enough to realize that there was nothing to be gained from full-blown panic. That certainly wouldn't last, though. Something needed to be done and soon. The problem was, he had no idea what.

Evacuating the city was impossible. They had plenty of vehicles, sure, but none of them space-worthy. They didn't even know where they were, as the planet below was unfamiliar and certainly not Krypton, so even if they could evacuate, where would they go? Kandor's famous Science Council were in the process of analyzing the energy barrier surrounding them, trying to figure out what it was and how it worked, but that was of little immediate value. They had plenty of food and water, but there was no telling how long the air would last. Some of the automated manufacturing plants had begun to churn out space suits, but even Krypton's most advanced factories couldn't create half a million space suits in a matter of hours.

"Rao, we could really use a miracle right about now," he muttered.

"Sir, we have a disturbance in the energy field," one of his officers called over the com. "Sector 17!"

"On my way," he replied, running to his speeder and wondering whether Rao was about to answer his prayers after all or just give him yet another problem on top of everything else.

Three minutes later, he was in the aforementioned sector, just in time to see a glowing green orb emerge from the energy curtain surrounding the city. The orb sat down before the small group of police officers and nearby civilians, quickly fading into nothingness. This allowed Maj-Ar an unobstructed view of the strangest group of individuals he had ever seen.

"We have picked up your distress call," the apparent leader of the group said, obviously a Kryptonian, her dialect placing her as a native of Argo City. She wore a house crest on the chest of her suit, but it wasn't one Maj was familiar with.

Much stranger than the Kryptonian woman, though, were her companions. One was easily identified as a Green Lantern thanks to the uniform and glowing green ring. Maj-Ar was reasonably certain that it was not Abin Sur, but there were supposed to be thousands of them spread out across space. Next to the Lantern stood a man with wings and a bird-like helmet, which Maj believed to be Thanagarian in origin. The man dressed in black with a mask covering most of his face might have been Kryptonian or Thanagarian as well, it was hard to tell. The symbol on his chest didn't really look like a Kryptonian house crest, though.

It was the final member of this eclectic group, though, that really pressed home the strangeness of this gathering. It was an alien with green skin, one Maj had absolutely no idea about. It was weird enough for a Kryptonian (or two) to be in the company of a Thanagarian and a Green Lantern, but an entirely unknown alien species? What was going on here?

"We are glad that someone picked us up," Maj addressed the leader. "We were starting to think that we were completely lost somewhere. I am Maj-Ar, senior police officer of Kandor."

"I am Kara-El of Argo," the Kryptonian introduced herself. "And this may sound like a really strange question, Maj-Ar, but how long has it been since you vanished from Krypton?"

He frowned. "What do you mean? The phenomenon started roughly two hours ago."

The woman's eyes widened and she quickly shared glances with some of her companions.

"Fascinating," the Green Lantern simply said.

"Why are you asking that question?" Maj-Ar asked. "And pardon my asking, but... where are we? How did you find us? And why are you... eh... in this company?"

The woman, Kara-El, gave him the kind of gaze that told him she was internally debating on how much to tell him.

"This is going to sound hard to believe, Maj-Ar," she finally said, "but what has been but two hours for you, has been no less than 26 solar cycles for the rest of the universe. Kandor vanished from Krypton when I was but a small child and has not been seen since."

Maj-Ar's mouth fell open.


It was all Kara could do to keep her face neutral. She was actually standing in Kandor, greatest and most beautiful of all Kryptonian cities. Half a million of her fellow Kryptonians were here, alive and well (if a bit panicked at the moment). Kal and she were not the sole survivors of their kind. Their race lived on.

"How is this possible?" Maj-Ar finally asked. "How... surely you are jesting, Kara-El?"

"I am afraid not, Maj-Ar," she replied. "Kandor's disappearance became the greatest mystery of Krypton. Unsolved, until today."

Under no circumstances would she tell these people that their home world was gone. Not until the current crisis was past. They had more than enough on their plate right now, they didn't need to know that their abduction had saved them from certain doom.

"And… you have been looking for us all these years?" he asked. "Is that why you are with... these aliens?"

Kara frowned, remembering the rather stand-off approach most Kryptonians had had to alien species. Not outright xenophobia as such, but aliens had been regarded wearily and with suspicion.

"Part of the reason," she replied. "We can discuss all that you missed at a later date, Maj-Ar, but for now we should focus on the present. Have you learned anything about this energy phenomenon surrounding Kandor so far?"

"Not much," the Kryptonian admitted. "It does seem to protect us from empty space, but according to the Science Council, the field is unstable. It could go at any second and leave us all to suffocate. We need to evacuate the city as quickly as possible."

Kara mused that over. "That's going to be tricky, I fear. We only have two space ships with us, which can load no more than 30 people each." She turned towards Sinestro. "Can two Green Lantern rings keep half a million people safe from space?"

Sinestro considered this. "Under ideal circumstances, yes. The field surrounding the city disrupts our rings, though. We barely made it through with just five people inside a force bubble. We'd have to get the people outside the field first, which, considering there is nothing but vacuum outside..."

"Yeah, I see the problem."

"What about the planet below?" Maj-Ar asked. "Is there any way to set the city down?"

"Even if we could, it wouldn't help much," Kara replied. "Mars has no breathable atmosphere anymore."

"Mars?" Maj-Ar clearly recognized the name. "Then, you are a Martian?" he asked J'Onn.

"Indeed," J'Onn replied. "Sadly my home world is not as hospitable as it once was."

Bruce took Kara aside for a moment, as Maj-Ar was distracted by the novelty of meeting a living Martian. "Shouldn't the Kandorians develop super powers once exposed to the light of our sun?"

"Only those in their teens and older," Kara replied, "and not instantaneously, either. Certainly not quickly enough to survive a sudden exposure to vacuum. And clearly the energy curtain is filtering out the sunlight, too, otherwise most of them should be experiencing enhanced senses by now at the very least."

She huffed in frustration. "There must be something we can do! I haven't found the lost city of Kandor simply to see all its citizens perish!"

Suddenly the entire city was rocked by what was clearly an explosion, everything tilting sideways for a precarious moment. The ever-visible energy field around the city flickered and churned.

"We experienced something like this before," Maj-Ar yelled. "Brace for..."

Everything around Kara went white.


Thaal Sinestro found himself in unfamiliar surroundings. He was hovering somewhere high above a planet and all around him there were flashes of light. There were Green Lanterns there, dozens of them, which was a strange sight all in itself. Outside of meeting on Oa, usually no more than two or three Green Lanterns were gathered at any one time. Even more unusual, there were others there as well. A diverse group of aliens, all of them flying through space surrounded by light. Not green light, though. Yellow light. And they were fighting against the Lanterns.

Looking down at his hand, Sinestro found himself wearing a yellow uniform and with a yellow ring on his finger.

"Traitor," someone yelled, and Sinestro turned around to find himself facing Guy Gardner. Gardner looked older, grimmer, but was still wearing the green and the look on his face as he was approaching Sinestro was one of pure hatred. His ring pulsed, building up a tremendous charge.

Then everything faded to white once again.


Carter Hall, Hawkman, found himself standing in his apartment back in Midway City. He was in civilian clothes, no trace of his Hawkman garb, and someone was tugging at his pant legs.

"Daddy?" someone said, a blonde boy of no more than ten, looking up at him with the most adorable pleading eyes. "Just one time, I promise I'll be careful!"

Before Carter could think of anything to say, the boy was suddenly hoisted into the air by a pair of arms. The arms were attached to a woman that was clearly Shiera, though she looked quite a few years older than she had been when he had seen her last about ten minutes ago.

"No way, Hector," Shiera told the boy, smiling all the while. "You are still too young to use the Nth metal. Your father and I explained this to you before."

"But it sings to me, mommy," the boy, Hector, replied. "I can hear it even in my sleep."

The boy could hear the Nth metal sing to him? The boy who was clearly his son? What did that mean?

Before he could figure out what was going on here, everything faded to white once again.


Batman found himself standing in the middle of his Batcave, but immediately noticed that it was not as he had left it. Some things were different. The computers looked more modern, the area he had put aside for trophies had grown considerably, and the car standing on the raised platform was a different one as well.

"A space/time disturbance," he muttered. "Is this the future then?"

"Master Bruce," a voice almost managed to start him. "Is everything all right?"

He looked over at Alfred and was not surprised to see his old friend looking considerably older. He wasn't sure how much, but he estimated at least ten years, if not more.

"Not really, Alfred," he replied. "I seem to be misplaced in time and..."

"Ah, yes," Alfred said. "This is the time then, you told me about this years ago. I am supposed to give you a message."

Batman raised an eyebrow under his cowl. Apparently he would go back and then tell Alfred about this. Good to know. But what essential information could his own future self want to send to the past?

"What message?" he asked.

"Don't let them take Clark! Whatever happens, don't let them take Clark!"

Batman opened his mouth to ask for further details, but everything faded to white once again.


J'Onn J'Onnz found himself on the surface of Mars with no idea how he had gotten here. Had the energy phenomenon somehow displaced him? He looked up, but could see no trace of Kandor anywhere above.

He was about to activate his com when a tremendous boom, audible even in Mars's thin atmosphere, shook the entire landscape. Turning around, J'Onn saw a tunnel of light opening up in the sky. It looked like those boom tubes Kara could open by using the Mother Box, only much, much larger.

A horde of creatures came flying through, insect-like aliens wearing high-tech armor and flying on semi-organic wings. There were hundreds of them, thousands, and they were carrying strange-looking machinery with them. Machinery of a design that was familiar to him. Machinery that looked somewhat like Kara's Mother Box, only... sinister, somehow.

"An invasion force," he muttered, watching as the aliens set down on the surface of his world and began setting up equipment. Once again he reached for his com, wanting to warn his friends and family of the impending threat.

Then everything faded to white once again.


Kara found herself standing on the surface of an alien world, purple skies above her, and people all around. Most of them looked human, or near-human at least (there were some really strange skin-colors, among other things) and looked as if they'd been through one heck of a battle. They were dirty, sweaty, looked banged up. Most of them carried weapons of some kind. All of them were smiling and cheering.

"We did it," someone yelled to another round of cheers. "The bastards are running!"

A woman stood next to Kara, hair white as snow and with ice crystals constantly forming and re-forming on her arms and hands.

"We really did it, Kara," the woman said, smiling. "And it's all because of you!"

"What?" Kara asked, confused. What was going on here?

"Now don't be humble, darling," the woman said, draping her arms around Kara's neck. Where their skin touched there was a feeling of intense cold that made Kara's nerves tingle. "You saved us all!"

The woman gave her a kiss that was freezing and scorching at the same time, even as everything around her faded to white once again.


Clark was bored out of his mind, which was quite a feat considering that he was off in space with the Justice League and right in front of him was a Kryptonian city that had disappeared from the world of his birth before its destruction. Since his mother and the others had gone in, though, nothing had happened. They were just hanging here in space in orbit above Mars, spinning their thumbs.

"Boooooooring!"

The fact that Jerk Gardner (who was not a member of the Justice League, his mom had assured him) seemed just as bored was just the icing on the cake.

"I can't get any of them on the coms," Adam told them. "The field seems to be blocking practically anything. It was probably just luck that the distress call made it through to be picked up by us."

"Great, and how do we know whether they need our help or not?" Green Arrow asked.

"Gardner, can your ring contact Sinestro's ring?" Diana interjected.

Gardner grumbled in annoyance, but sent a green beam of energy towards the energy field surrounding the city. For a long moment nothing happened, then the beam fizzled away into nothingness.

"I can pick up that Sin's ring is in there," Gardner said. "But little else. Maybe Marvin can do his little mind-speak trick to let us know what's going on."

"J'Onn's telepathy has limited range," Clark reminded him, ignoring the nickname. "I doubt he can project this far."

"Okay, so how long do we wait before we go after them?" Hawkwoman asked. It was a strange sight for Clark to see her flying through space with wings that seemed to be made of feathers. It was all about that weird Nth metal, mom had explained to him. He didn't really understand how it worked, though.

Before anyone could answer Hawkwoman's question, though, a huge explosion bloomed somewhere near the base of the floating city. There was no sound in space, of course, but the flash of light was sufficient to get all of their attention. The entire city seemed to shudder and tilted sideways a bit. Without anyone needing to issue a command, the small flotilla of space ships and flying people sped towards the source of the light, which seemed to be directly underneath the city.

"The explosion has shifted the city's orbit around Mars," Adam said over the coms. "It's entering the planet's gravity well."

"Can you estimate how long we have?" Diana asked.

"Depends on how well the energy field protects them from re-entry heat. Mars' doesn't have much in the way of an atmosphere left, but still quite enough to burn up an object on re-entry. I'd say we have an hour, two hours max."

Whatever had taken the city from Krpyton had apparently taken a huge chunk of rock and soil with it. When they finally cleared the rock and could see the source of the explosion, Clark could feel his mouth drop open.

The energy curtain around the city flickered, which was the only reason he could catch a clear glimpse now and then of what was going on. Someone or something had attached a huge machine to the underside of the city, the technology looking entirely alien to Clark's eyes. Tremendous amounts of energy were pulsing through cables as wide as cars and Clark was fairly certain that this was the source of the energy field around the city. It seemed, though, that one part of the machine had given out and blown. The metal casing was torn open and smoke was billowing out.

"Anyone recognize the tech?" Adam asked over the coms. "I've never seen anything like it before."

It figured, Clark mused, that all of their tech geniuses (except possibly Adam) were currently inside the city.

"It doesn't look like anything from Earth or Krypton," Clark said, his supervision roaming across the gigantic apparatus. He wasn't exactly a slouch when it came to science and technology, either, but he recognized none of what he was seeing right now.

"If that machine generates the field and keeps the city aloft, we might be in big trouble," Arrow said. "If that thing goes, all the people in the city will suffocate before they have a chance to fall down to Mars."

"We're not going to let them die," Clark insisted. "No one dies on our watch!"

"Well said, kid," Adam replied. "Gardner, can your ring lift the city back into orbit?"

"I could lift a continent into orbit if not for that friggin' energy shield. It disrupts my ring beam somehow."

Clark spent but another few seconds musing things over, then acted. The Teen of Steel shot forward at super speed, aiming for one of the flickering openings in the energy field, and was through before his comrades could even begin to raise their voices in protest. A moment later, he was directly underneath the city, braced his shoulders against the rock, and PUSHED!

For all that the city was practically weightless in space, it still had a mass measured in millions of tons with all the inertia that went with it. More than that, said mass was now caught in the gravity well of the planet Mars, which pulled at the comparatively tiny object. But none of that mattered to Clark right now. This was a city full of people and whether they were his own long-lost kin or just random alien strangers didn't matter, either. So the Teen of Steel called on every single bit of strength granted to him by the yellow star of his adopted home world and PUSHED!


"What was that?" Kara asked, finding herself inside Kandor once again, disoriented and dizzy.

"A space/time disturbance," Maj-Ar explained, getting back to his feet. "This is the fourth we've experienced. As the energy field around the city destabilizes, people experience apparently random shifts in time, seeing visions of their own future. This was the longest yet, though."

Kara looked at her companions. Sinestro seemed shaken, Batman contemplative, Hawkman and J'Onn confused. Much like she herself felt. She had no idea what planet that had been, nor who those people – especially that ice woman – had been.

The city shuddered once again, derailing her train of thoughts, and Kara's finely tuned senses picked up a noticeable increase in gravity. Visions of the future would have to wait, it seemed.

"I fear we're in big trouble," she told the others. "Kandor's orbit is destabilizing, I think."

"She is right," Maj-Ar said, checking a reading on the computer pad he carried with him. "The Science Council just confirmed it as well. Whatever that explosion was, it knocked us out of orbit."

"We need to get back out there," Sinestro said. "Together we might be able to stabilize the city's orbit again, buy ourselves some time at least."

"Right," Kara nodded. "We should..."

There was a white flash right in front of them and suddenly a figure appeared. It was a humanoid-looking shape, encased in some kind of night-black armor that completely obscured its identity and species. Energy churned around the figure, which quickly fell to its knees, obviously in some kind of pain. Kara took a step forward.

"Careful," Sinestro warned her. "My ring picks up extremely strong temporal anomalies around this stranger."

"You… must... leave!" the figure said, its voice distorted by the helmet it wore. "Quickly! While... while there is still… time!"

"Who are you?" Kara asked, noticing that the figure spoke flawless Kryptonian with an Argosian accent. "Did you kidnap Kandor? What are you doing with it? Why are you here now?"

"No… time," the figure said, staggering back to its feet. "Chrono field… unstable! Not in synch with... current time zone… City will... be destroyed unless… we can move it back... into the... timestream!"

"Who is 'we'?" Kara demanded. "Who are you?"

"Something seems to be slowing down the city's descent," Maj-Ar interjected, "but we are still falling. If there is anything you can do, you need to do it now!"

"Go!" the figure demanded, stumbling forward. For a moment Kara and the black-armored stranger were almost within touching distance and reality itself seemed to shiver in the space between them, screaming out as if in agony.

"You need to go," the figure said, voice dropping to a whisper. "Please!" And then the figure said a word in Kryptonian that Kara hadn't heard in over 15 years.

"Kri-timzeht!"

Her eyes widened. The black figure merely nodded.

"Let's go," Kara said, turning around. "We have a city to save!"

The black-armored figure disappeared in a crackle of energy.


Clark's entire world had narrowed down to the tremendous mass resting on his shoulders and the red planet below, which inexorably came closer and closer. He was slowing the city's descent, he could feel it, but the orbit was still collapsing and the city would still break apart once it entered Mars' atmosphere. He pushed with all his strength, but it wasn't quite enough.

"No one dies on our watch!" he repeated over and over, like a mantra. "No one dies on our watch!"

"Damn right, kid," someone else said, breaking into their com frequency, and suddenly the massive load lightened somewhat. Opening his eyes, Clark couldn't quite believe what he was seeing.

The entire Justice League was there, including his mother. Superwoman, Wonder Woman, the Martian Manhunter, and even the Hawks were lining up beside him and putting their shoulders against the rock, pushing. Twin beams of green energy were forming huge hands made of light and pushing against the rock as well. The two Javelin space craft were hovering just outside the energy curtain, which seemed more unstable than ever, which was probably the only reason everyone had made it inside.

"Great work, Superboy," his mom said, smiling at him. "Now let's really put our backs into it!"

Clark nodded and once again pushed with all his strength. The rock above him shuddered and for a moment he feared that it would all break apart, but then he could feel the city's descent slow and finally come to a stop.

"Orbit is stable," Adam announced.

"Now what?" Green Arrow asked.

Before anyone could answer him, the vast machines Clark had spotted coming in flared to life again and the energy field around the city began to visibly strengthen and stabilize.

"Okay, is that good or bad?"

"It's good," a new voice broke in on their com frequency. It was distorted, unrecognizable, and clearly belonged to a black-armored figure that had appeared out of nowhere between them and the machines. "The damage has been fixed, now we can continue."

"Continue where?" his mom asked, facing the black figure. Clark floated to her side. "Where are you taking the city?"

"To a safe place, I promise," the stranger said. "Scout's honor, Karen, Clark!"

Clark's eyes widened. "How do you...?"

"You need to go now," the stranger continued. "The field will close in a few seconds and the city will vanish! You really shouldn't be here when that happens!"

Clark expected his mom to protest, to ask more question, but after staring at the black helmet of the figure facing them for a seemingly endless moment, she merely nodded.

"Okay, people! Let's move!"

Clark had about a hundred questions, but decided to postpone them for the moment. Clearly things were coming to a head, the machines were humming like crazy, the field glowed brighter with every moment. All League members except the Green Lanterns and the Kryptonians were heading back into the ships and a moment later they were outside the field. The gap they had flown through was rapidly closing behind them.

"The gravimetric fluctuations are increasing in strength," Adam said over the coms. "We should get out of here!"

"What about Kandor?" Clark asked, even as he was following the others in flying away from Kandor at best speed.

"It's in safe hands," his mom said. "I hope."

They were roughly 2,000 kilometers away when the entire city, the last remnant of Krypton, just winked out of existence, leaving no trace that it had ever been there. The Justice League flotilla came to a halt, everyone looking at the empty patch of space above the planet Mars.

"So...," Green Arrow finally said. "Do we have any idea what just happened here?"

"A few," Clark's mom said. "Let's head home, then we can talk!"


"The computers have finished their analysis of the energy field around Kandor, Kara," Batman said, sitting in front of the main monitor of the Watch Tower. "They couldn't identify everything, but some of the patterns were recognizable."

Kara stood with her back to him, watching the other League members as they were gathered around the control room. No one was going home yet, they had too much to talk about and figure out.

"Let me guess," she said, without even looking at the monitor. "Zeta radiation," her eyes flickered to Adam. "Nth Metal resonance," she looked at the Hawks. "Green Lantern energy," Gardner and Sinestro were bickering as usual. "The power signature of a Kryptonian Omegahedron," there was Clark, rolling his stiff shoulders. "And a temporal disturbance pattern similar to that of the Flash," she finished.

To his credit, Batman's only reaction was a slight increase in his heartbeat.

"You are thinking what I am thinking then?" he simply asked.

She nodded. "There is a lot of work still ahead of us."

Her eyes gazed out into empty space, but for the first time in years, the blackness was not a canvas on which she saw the destruction of her home world replayed over and over again. Now she saw the city of Kandor, safely in its energy bottle, carried off by someone who knew a Kryptonian word that Kara was very much familiar with.

It had been a tradition on Krypton that every newborn child should be given a motto, a mantra, a word that its parents thought exemplified their existence. Zor-El and Alura had chosen a very particular word for Kara. One chosen at a time when the future seemed infinite and full of hope. A word that had lost all meaning to her when her world had died. She hadn't thought of it in years. Now, though, it rang through her mind again and brought a smile to her face.

Kri-timzeht!

There was no direct translation of the word. The closest English equivalent would be: "Bright Future!"


End Chapter 50

Author's Note: You can't have a story paying homage to the glory days of Superman comic stories without having the bottle city of Kandor along for the ride. Keen readers might remember Kara mentioning the disappearance of Kandor during her Black Mercy episode. I think there are more than enough clues in this chapter for everyone to figure out WHO did the abducting of Kandor, but the WHY and WHERE TO? You'll have to wait and see. Hope you enjoyed the ride so far.

May I just say, though, that finding named canon characters who were citizens of Kandor isn't easy? It seems in the Silver Age Kandor was almost exclusively populated by criminals (who usually escaped the bottle to make trouble for Superman or Supergirl) or distant relatives of the El family. I briefly thought about introducing Nightwing and Flamebird (the Kandorian heroes) in this chapter, too, but eventually decided against it, this chapter ended up long enough as it was, even for a double-sized 50th issue (with larger font it might even be an 80-page giant).