Superman: The Ark of Krypton

Chapter 11

By

Jason Richard

Back at his parents barn, in the basement where his pod was hidden, Clark stood in a white shirt and jeans, readjusted his glasses, and lay out the five artifacts he had collected on a nearby table. The objects varied in size from a golf ball to a volleyball, and varied in shape from a perfect sphere to a white crystal.

What they did he had no idea, but he had to try something. Unfortunately the particular artifact he needed didn't appear to be there. Nothing matched the slot that currently glowed with a red light, so he decided to take each artifact to the pod and see what happened.

One was a perfect black sphere the size of a golf ball with a few symbols etched into it. He held it next to the pod, but nothing happened. He tried the next object, a volleyball sized device shaped vaguely like a part in a car, but sleeker and shiner. That did nothing as well.

Next he tried a hand sized disk with bumps all over it, and a forearm length pole with lights on the inside, but both failed to get any results either. Finally he took the white crystal as large as a human heart and held it over the pod. At first it didn't do anything, and Clark began to get discouraged…

And then the pod hummed to life.

Clark got excited. The original port that lit up didn't change, but another slot opened, just big enough for the crystal. he slid it in, and the slot closed, seemingly leaving no sign that there was a slot there. The pod then hummed to life, and Clark waited eagerly for it to do something.

It projected a light onto the wall, in the shape of words. At first they were symbols Clark Didn't recognize, but then they reorganized into english.

"Adjusting language, english absorbed. Power levels recharged to 1%. Time for short message. More artifacts needed to restart pod. Second Power crystal and navigation coil can be found at the following locations."

Clark quickly scanned the information, which was two sets of longitude and latitude coordinates. Apparently the pod also had another message.

"Identity compromised. Anonymity critical. Physiology not entirely indestructible. Vulnerable to various forms of radiation. To protect identity, place commonly worn object in receptacle."

A slot opened, just large enough for a small piece of clothing. Clark had been worried about his identity, so he figured he'd use his glasses. He wore them everyday after all. However, he realized he was about to go on another item hunt instead of getting answers. He had to know, before this thing ran out of power.

"Who am I?" asked Clark. "Answer that first."

For a moment the pod did nothing. Clark waited with baited breath, and then the pod gave one final message.

"Born name...Kal-El...species...kryptonian...planet of origin...Krypton." and then it gave space coordinates. "No more time. Power draining."

Clark quickly put the glasses in the receptacle. It closed, the pod hummed for a moment, and then the receptacle opened, revealing his glasses. Then the pod went dark, apart from that one glowing slot.

Clark took his glasses, but noticed nothing out of the ordinary at first. He then used his X-Ray vision. The glasses were laced with tiny grooves in the shape of various symbols, invisible to the naked eye, but obvious to Clark's eyes. Within those grooves were small devices, smaller even than grains of dust, but Clark had no idea what they were for.

He also felt confused. He finally had an answer to where he came from. But the nature of it confused him. He was an alien from another planet? How did he end up here? Why did he end up here? What did this mean for him?

…

Clark told his Ma and Pa the entire story of what had happened, and the message at the end. When he was done the Kents looked at each other, and then back at Clark, a little overwhelmed by one point in particular.

"Did it say what kind of radiation you're vulnerable to?" asked Pa. "I kind of felt I didn't have to worry so much when I found you were bulletproof, and now I'm all worried again.

Clark sighed, giving a small smile. Leave it to his Pa to make him feel better without really trying. "Not really...no. I'm a little more disturbed to find I'm an alien myself. I mean...what do I make of that?"

"There's nothing you need make of it dear," said Ma Kent sweetly. "It's not like you just became an alien. This was true before, even if we didn't know it, so since you haven't changed, why should we change how we look at you?"

"Besides," said Pa Kent. "You being an alien was one of our first guesses when we found that pod. Kind of a relief when the powers came in actually. If I'm going to be frank with you, I was afraid you'd turn green or grow tentacles or something."

"Pa!" said Ma Kent, alarmed.

"Sorry," said Pa Kent, looking down.

Clark just laughed, "Don't worry it's fine. And...thank you."

"Our pleasure dear," said Ma Kent. "Now, let's see how those glasses work."

Clark got out the glasses that the pod had altered at put them on. Ma and Pa Kent looked at him for a moment before squinting. Clark waited for them to say something, but got a little impatient after the first thirty seconds.

"Well?" said Clark.

"It's strange," said Pa Kent. "You look different...but I can't say how."

"It…" said Ma Kent uncertainly. "It's like...I don't know. I'm not sure 'look' is the right word for it...but you do seem different."

"Yeah," said Pa Kent. "I don't know how it works, but it should keep people from knowing you're Superman. Hey...wait...aren't they going to take your picture for the Daily Planet website? Will this thing work with pictures?"

"A good question," said Ma, reaching for a nearby camera. She held it up, and Clark smiled for it twice, once with the glasses on, and once with the glasses off.

The three of them then hovered over the camera as Ma Kent put the screen back and forth between the two pictures.

"Wow," she said.

"I know," said Pa. "He looks exactly the same in both of them...and yet…"

"He somehow...feels different in each," said Ma.

"Yeah," said Pa.

"Well," said Clark, looking at the glasses in his hand. "They work. I don't know how but they work." he didn't mention that the glasses didn't seem to work on him as he looked at the pictures, but that wasn't important anyway. "And tomorrow, a real test." he continued. "How will my coworkers see me?"

And after he found that out he'd figure out where those Longitude and Latitude coordinates he recieved were.