Chapter 6: A Visit with Virgil

Alicia and Clark reappear in the bustles of New York City. The green flash dissappates, and a homeless person watches as they appear out of nowhere. Clark picks up Alicia, and superspeeds out of the slums. As he runs, he jumps, allowing for flight to take action, effortlessly holding Alicia.

The homeless person takes another drink from his brown bottle, and burps.

"Damn this sh!t is kicking my as."

Clark and Alicia speed up, the wind whipping through Alicia's hair. She smiles at the scenery around them. Several hundred buildings pass by them, and Clark lowers down in front of an observatory. He sets Alicia down, and she puts her hand around Clark's waist. They walk up the stairs, and Alicia rings the buzzer.

"Hello, Kal-El. You may come inside."

The door unlocks, and Clark opens it. They walk into the large main hall. Several star charts line the walls, along with pictures of the nine planets.

"Why'd Dr. Swann call you Kal-El? Is that your Kryptonian name?" Alicia asks, intrigued with the answer.

"You are quite right, Alicia Baker." Says a familiar voice from the shadows.

The man's electric wheelchair slowly rolls out, and Virgil Swann makes his appearance, along with his fellow scientist, Dr. Crosby.

"You guys know about me?" Alicia asks.

"Well, not officially, only about that special power of yours." Crosby says.

"How?" Alicia asks.

"We had a scientist follow you and Clark, on that Luthor-Corp field trip. We just wanted to make sure Clark knew what he was doing, to tell you that he is the last of the Kryptonians, and of his amazing powers," Swann states. "We now know that he made the right choice. Speaking of your powers, we heard you started to fly while in control of yourself?" Swann asks.

"Yeah, it was exhilerating."

"Very glad to here that, Kal-El. Now, what brings you two here?"

"Lionel Luthor found out about Clark, and sent two men after my family." Alicia states.

Swann's face remains unchanged.

"What happened to the men, Kal-El?" He asks.

"I...killed them...they threatened Alicia and her family, and I couldn't allow that."

"Dear lord..." Crosby states, taking notes, voraciously scribbling on her clipboard.

"What are you doing?" Alicia asks.

Crosby looks up, and stops writing.

"I'm just taking notes...for scientific purposes."

"Let's go have supper. We'll talk about what happened later."

Clark, Alicia, and Dr. Crosby follow Virgil into the dining room. Food is already on the table, and four plates sit at the table. Clark and Alicia sit next to each other, while Dr. Swann rolls his wheelchair next to Clark. Dr. Crosby Sits next to Alicia, and a waiter moves a porkchop over to Virgil's plate, and starts cutting it into small pieces. Alicia and Clark each grab a porkchop, and the share a bowl of potato salad.

Dr. Crosby just continues to scribble down notes. Virgil looks at his waiter, who leaves the room, and Crosby stands up, and starts to serve Virgil the pieces of porkchop. Ater swallowing he stops.

"So, Kal-El...I hear you have several questions for me."

Clark stops eating, and sets his fork down.

"I need to know if you found anything else, any more evidence, or theories of why Krypton is gone."

"And I have a few questions, also." Alicia quips, much to the surprise of Dr. Crosby.

"Well, I do have something I found last night... activate Screen 3"

Slowly, a liquid plasma computer screen rises from the center of the table, and the screen fills with the Kryptonian language. Alicia stares, amazed at the intrique design of the symbols.

"How did you find this?" Alicia asks.

"One of my sattellites picked it up. Luckily, this message was set to a deeper tone, so no other sattellites could pick it up." Virgil answers.

Clark stares at the language, reading it silently to himself. Alicia watches him, and holds his hand.

"What does it say, hunny?"

"To our dear Kal-El. The future of our race depends on you. The meteor rocks that came with you were originally from our planet. They were created from the core of Krypton and, under drastic changes, they were melded together to create the ore of Kryptonium, Kryptonite. This change immedietly began to kill off our species. In a drastic attept to save our planet, I, Jor-El, created a life pod, and put you inside. The future of our race depends upon you, Kal-El. Rule them with strength."

Clark sits, stunned at what he just read. Alicia continues to hold his hand, and Virgil notices that Clark lightly squeezes back, careful not to break her hand.

"So...it was nuclear fission that destroyed Krypton. But how?" Clark asks.

"Could have been any number of posibilities, time, space radiation, a terrorist bombing...anything's possible." Alicia states.

"You're quite right, Alicia," Virgil states. " Now, what were some of your questions?"

"Oh...uh...I was wondering...how different is Clark's DNA from a human's?"

"Good question. Clark, would you like to know what the basis of Kryptonian DNA looks like?" Virgil asks.

Clark looks at Alicia, and then at Virgil and Dr. Crosby. He nods his head, and pushes his plate back.

"I'm not very hungary anyway."

"Activate screen Four: DNA sequence."

The plasma screen changes, and a 3-D model of a DNA sequence appears, and starts to spin slowly.

"This is a normal, human DNA sequence. As you can see, this DNA has no external remedies. Clark, if you hold out your hand, this will only sting for a second."

Clark hold his hand out, and a familiar sickening sense overcomes him. He looks over at Dr. Crosby, and she pulls out a syringe. needle glows an eerie green, the color of Kryptonite. As the needle get closer to Clark's hand, his blood vessels enlarge, and darken to a greenish black color. Quickly, Crosby pricks the needle into Clark's hand. His blood inches into the syringe. Quickly, Dr. Crosby pulls the needle out of Clark, and takes off the kryptonite needle, throwing it into a small lead bag. Immedietly Clark's hand heals, and his blood vessels shrink, the effect of the kryptonite wearing off.

"Thank god that's over. That sh!t makes me feel like crap..."

The blood in the syringe turns red again, and Dr. Crosby pours Clark's blood into a cylinder that feeds into the Plasma screen computer. Suddenly, the creen fills up with the DNA complex, but it looks completely different. Several hundred spokes stick out of the normal DNA sequence, and are igniting sparks, hitting other spokes. Clark watches the screen, and swallows his spit.

"Is that...my DNA?"

"Yes, it is. Quite awesome, right?" Virgil asks, Clark still amazed that his DNA looks so different.

Alicia sits, wide-eyed at the picture in front of her. The DNA looks so different, but, it looks so cool.

"Take a sample of my blood. I want to see what my DNA looks like to Clark's." Alicia says, smiling at Clark.

"If you want, Alicia, but it will look exactly like human DNA, but if you want to, we'll try it."

Dr. Crosby pulls out a clean, new syringe, and Alicia holds out her arm. Quickly, Dr. Crosby gathers some of Alicia's blood, and Clar rips of the arm of his t-shirt, and wraps it around Alicia's poke. Very little blood escapes throught the shirt, and Alicia smiles, grateful that Clark loves her so much. Dr. Crosby takes out Clark's blood, and inserts a new cylinder. She pours in Alicia's blood, and the screen turns to the 3-D representation of her DNA.

"Good Lord... this is outstanding." Virgil states.

Alicia's blood almost looks like Clarks, except that their are fewer spokes, and the electricity flowing through her DNA complex is green.

"It seems that the meteor rocks have changed Alicia's DNA to almost replicate Kryptonian DNA. The only differences are that she doen't have more of these protrusions, which I think are the reactors to various powers that Clark has." Virgil states.

"So, if we wanted to...Clark and I could have..." Alicia states.

"A baby? Yes, I think so. The only difference is that the baby could have either all of Clark's powers, all of yours, a combination, or none at all, but it would be half Kryptonian, which can help Clark and you."

"How can it help us?" Clark states.

"Well, along with being half kryptonian, it would also be half human, which means that the baby, when grown up, could have a human mate, and could then produce offspring, essentially." Dr. Swann states.

Clark smiles at the thought of Alicia and Clark having a baby, living on the Kent farm, after Johnathon and Martha pass away, raising their son. Teaching him how to use his emerging superpowers, and the thought raises through Clark's mind.

Alicia is also thinking of raising their son, helping to comb her daughter's hair, or getting her son ready for his first day of school. The thought makes her hold onto Clark's hand even harder than before, even though to Clark, it isn't very hard.

The screen lowers, and waiters walk in, taking away their plates.

"Well, you two can stay here as long as you need to. I'll call your parents, and ask if they are okay. Good night, Alicia, Kal-El."

"Goodnight." Alicia and Clark state at the same time, and leave the room, heading another direction than Dr. Swann and Dr. Crosby. Alicia and Clark start up the stairs, and enter the first room they come to. It is a guest bedroom, and one large bed sits next to the wall.

"Well, I guess this is where you sleep." Clarks states.

Alicia and Clark kiss again, their hands move down each other's backs. Their tongues intertwine, until Clark stops. Alicia smiles, and he holds up his right hand, his fingers pointing upwards. Alicia sets her left hand on his right, and their fingers close around each other. Clark smiles, and they kiss again, this time short. Clark backs away, heading for the door.

"Goodnight, Alicia."

"Goodnight, Clark."