That night, Gen. Lane, in uniform, came to the Smallville house. Mon and Kara greeted him as he came by. "I've come to pay my respects, Clark. Sorry about your mother," he said gruffly.
"I'm sure that's not the entire reason you're here," Kara assumed. As Supergirl, she didn't get along with Gen Lane. He had legally forced her to fight his silly Red Tornado robot, had tortured her aunt, sacked the DEO a couple of times, imprisoned and exiled both J'onn and Alex and concealed the location of Fort Rozz even with the world's population at stake all in one season, no less.
"Can we talk? Somewhere private?" he asked.
The three went inside the house and sat down at the table. Gen. Lane opened a military laptop showing details of what had happened at the nuclear power plant. "The cameras at the nuclear plants were updated per S.T.A.R. Labs specifications to a trillion frames per second. We cross analyzed the footage from both facilities where the ruptures occurred and this is the only commonality," he began.
A black blurry image appeared in one frame and disappeared the next. "The speed of light is nearly 300 million meters per second, so even if he could reach that speed we should still see at least 3000 frames of him, so I call bullshit," Kara said smartly.
Gen. Lane gave her an annoyed look. "Another speedster? This isn't my area," Mon said dismissively.
"That's not all. In doing repairs, the engineers noticed a submicroscopic etching at both sites. They thought maybe it was a fingerprint at first. It wasn't. It's a message in a language only two known beings on Earth can read or write. And I don't think this is a post-it note from Supergirl," Gen. Lane said.
"I don't know about that general. Even if there is a one percent chance Supergirl caused this, we should treat it as an absolute certainty. I'm afraid, we have to take her down," Kara said passionately.
"I'm going to have to agree with her assessment, general," Mon said playing along.
"Perhaps another time," Gen. Lane allowed.
"It's Kryptonian. 'I will not be erased. Kal-El.' Whoever wrote this, speaks Kryptonian, and knows who I am," Mon said already fluent in Kryptonian.
"We're going to need you to suit up," Gen. Lane said super serious.
"Absolutely," Mon agreed.
"Yeah, knock yourself out," Kara shrugged.
Mon and Kara came by the nuclear plant in costume. "The etching is here," the chief scientist said to them. Kara eyed the Kryptonian marking. "The period is actually a comma," Kara corrected Mon.
"Okay, grammar Nazi," Mon rolled his eyes.
"It means it's addressed to you. He won't be erased by you," Kara clarified.
"Words I have heard many times before," Mon said dismissively.
"How do you think he did it that fast? Not even I can go faster than the speed of light," Kara said.
"Instant transmission," Mon replied.
"Well...shit," Kara realized.
The next morning, the two walked to the bank seeing the town in shambles. The two walked into the bank and were greeted by Lana. "How are the kids?" Lane asked.
"Fine...probably, maybe," Kara said unconcernedly.
"It must be hard being a single mom," Lana said.
"Well, I have my very dependable faithful cousin to help me out. Wait...that came out wrong," Kara realized.
"Looks like good luck runs in the Kent family. Clark ever tell you about the time all of us were in a car accident coming back from a Soul Asylum concert?" Lana asked.
Mon froze wondering if he was being tested. "I try to not talk about my Soul Asylum days," he said vaguely.
"Pete was driving. He fell asleep, drove off the road. When we came to, the car was a pretzel around us. But none of us were harmed. It was the strangest thing. A lot of strange things happened around here back then. Now, I'd pray for something strange... For anything that reminded me this town was still thriving," Lana said.
"Fingers crossed," Mon smiled.
The three sat down. "So, Martha paid off her mortgage years ago so what is this nonsense?" Kara asked getting to business.
"Her first. About five years ago, when the farming crisis in this town hit its peak, the bank owners were trying to figure out a way to keep many of the older farmers from losing their farms. They offered a reverse mortgage to seniors. Cash today for an opportunity for the bank to purchase the remainder of the farm upon their death if the landowner's heirs couldn't repay the balance of the loan," Lana explained.
"Why did she need the money?" Kara asked confused.
"She didn't. But the Gordons were going to be evicted from a farm that had been in their family for generations. And the Keltons were so in debt from Margie's lung surgery, they couldn't put food on their table. The grade school couldn't afford new children's books. I could give you a dozen other stories. Anyone in Smallville knew, if you needed help, Martha Kent would be there. Like your friend you always write about, Lois, she was this town's very own Superman," Lana said adoringly.
"It just goes to prove that you don't need the government to provide assistance to people," Kara concluded.
"That's...what you got from that story," Lana said amazed.
"I'm sorry. It was a beautiful story of someone going fantastically into debt in order to help others also in debt. I was moved, touched even," Kara backtracked.
"She still protected half the value of the farm. She wanted to ensure you had enough money to send the kids to college if the time ever came. So those are your options, you can repay the loan or you can accept a healthy buyout for the remaining value of the property," Lana said.
"How much time are you giving us?" Kara asked ready to procrastinate to new levels.
"I'll need to know soon. I'm sorry," Lana said vaguely.
"Like...how soon?" Kara pressed.
"Kara...," Mon said annoyed.
"Fine. I'll pay off the loan immediately...and then I'm going to buy this bank," Kara said nonchalantly.
"On a reporter's salary? You must be joking," Lana smiled.
"Do I look like I'm joking?" Kara smiled back at her.
Meanwhile, Mara and Kon were in the barn snooping around. With their X-ray vision, they immediately spotted a hidden door on the floor. Kon uncovered the door and then snapped off the lock. Opening the trap door, there were stairs that led to the basement level.
"Shall we?" Kon asked Mara.
The two walked down the stairs and found a tool bench and other equipment. The two glowed their hands to give them visible light as they found the Kryptonian craft. "Spank me," Kon grinned.
"It's the pod he came to Earth in," Mara assumed.
"Wait, I thought the Kryptonian pod was at the Superman museum and then stolen by Malefic. How the fuck did it get here?" Kon wondered.
"It's a mystery," Mara agreed.
Kara and Mon came back to the farm unaware that their kids were messing around with a Kryptonian pod with an anti-matter reactor capable of sterilizing three solar systems. "This whole thing seems fishy. Martha wasn't the only one with a reverse mortgage. Why are the banks being so generous to this shit-town?" Kara wondered.
"When I think of a Superman story, the first thing that comes to mind are reverse mortgages," Mon joked.
Kara couldn't help but smile. "Look at us, two people that don't give a shit about any of this saving the day in the end."
Kon and Mara then casually exited the barn. "Shit, they found it," Kara realized.
"So, how come there is a Kryptonian ship in the barn?" Kon asked confused.
"Kal moved it after Crisis but before going back to Argo," Kara explained.
"Oh, okay," Kon shrugged.
"Stop looking for weird-ass shit around here or we'll be forced to live here to clean up the mess," Kara lectured them.
"I am hurt and offended you didn't tell me about this ship being in the barn. Very hurt...and very offended," Kon said dramatically.
"Shut the fuck up, Kon. God damn," Kara said shaking her head impatiently.
"Distress call at a decommissioned nuclear power plant," Brainiac 5 radioed Mon and Kara.
"Go, I got the brats," Kara said to Mon.
Mon put two fingers to his forehead and disappeared.
Mon reappeared at the abandoned nuclear power plant dressed as Superman. "I got your message. You ready to get erased?" Mon taunted.
"Lead encasements," Stranger said from the shadows.
"So, that's why you choose nuclear facilities," Mon guessed.
"Yes, you can't see in here. One of your weaknesses, Kal-El," Stranger said.
Mon declined to inform him that he never had X-ray vision, to begin with, and could sense opponents' ki signatures. "You got me. I am so fucked, right now," Mon mocked. "How do you know my name?"
"I know everything there is to know about the Last Son of Krypton. Where I come from... let's just say you and me, we have, history," Stranger said cryptically.
"I know that wasn't supposed to sound sexual, but...," Mon mocked. "Where are you from?"
"A place far away from here. My world was destroyed in what you call... Crisis. Lucky for me, I wasn't there at the time. I survived. Left to wander the multiverse searching for a place to call home. I think I've found it," Stranger said.
"Oh really?" Mon mocked. "You should have done your research. If you had, you would know this planet is under the protection of a badass."
Mon eyed a shadow and then sped towards it hitting nothing. "Nice try. You'll have to move faster than that if you're going to catch me, Kal-El," Stranger mocked.
"Or...I could just go home. I'm bored. You're boring me," Mon said to him.
Meanwhile, Kon was with Sara at the bonfire. A number of teens were firing off small fireworks. Kon grabbed a handful of pills from a bowl in a classic teenage skittles party and then opened a beer. "Maybe you shouldn't. Pills and beer don't mix well," Sarah warned.
"I don't know how to put this...but I'm kind of a big deal," Kon said dismissively and then gave a loud obnoxious burp.
"Well, I can't. I take pills, too," Sarah said looking down.
Kon gave her a concerned look. "Up until I was eleven or twelve, I had this awesome life. It wasn't perfect but it was... nice. Dolls and dance classes. The people around here call it the Sadness. Like something, you can catch, like the flu. I never thought it would get our house. But it did. Now half the nights my father sleeps on the couch and he says it's 'cause he's too tired to go into the bedroom but really I know it's because my mom won't let him when he's drunk," Sara said bitterly.
Kon simply listened to her. "And my mom's always yelling at him about it but maybe he's drunk all the time because as a fireman in this town he sees all the really bad crap, I mean the stuff none of us want to even think about like the parents cooking meth in their kitchen and the house catching on fire with little kids inside. Anyway, about a year ago I took a bunch of my mom's pills. I still don't really understand why I did it. I'd never done anything like that before. My mom made like this big drama out of it, lots of therapy and whatnot," Sarah said.
"So, when I see you nonchalantly swallow two dozen pills...it got me thinking about that," Sarah admitted.
Kon frowned. "Sometimes, I don't realize how weaker beings feel when I rush into danger. I never thought of myself as an example to be followed but my status is kind of like a prince in a way. It's because others can't follow after me that I have become a loner. Your father drinks to dull the pain, the guilt, the sorrow he feels for all those he couldn't save. He's a drunk because he gives a shit about his town and profession. If he would just let go of that heavy responsibility and just treat his job as a game, he would feel so much better."
Kon then went in and gave Sarah a kiss. "What was that for?" Sarah asked stunned.
"I don't know. I thought it would be fun," Kon smiled.
"Yo!" a male teen said coming over to them.
"Damn it," Sarah realized.
"The hell you doing there, Romeo. That's my girlfriend," Sean said to him.
"I didn't see your symbol branded on her," Kon mocked.
"Sean, why don't you leave us alone and go back to Fortnite dancing with your homies," Sarah said disdainfully.
"Fortnite? Really?" Sean mocked. "This punk needs to...apologize."
"Sean, it's fine," Sarah downplayed. "You should go," she said to Kon.
"How about...no?" Kon refused.
Sean got his whole crew to his side. "This mother-fucker owes me an apology."
"You really don't want to get in my face, bro," Kon warned him.
"Get'em," Sean ordered his crew.
Kon beat them all down with a second. He eyed them all to make sure he didn't kill any of them. "Holy shit," Sarah realized.
"Let's go back to why you didn't tell me about your boyfriend," Kon advanced on her.
The boys groaned as they got back up. "You want more?" Kon challenged. He raised his hand at the bonfire and fired. The beam hit the fire exploding the fuel. The boys were thrown to the ground unconscious.
Mon and Stranger raced across the planet entering daytime as they arrive in China. Stranger had dark armor and was wearing a helmet. He looked as if he was in a black Halo uniform with rocket engines on his feet and back. The two clashed in the city of Wuhan repeatedly. Stranger then impacted Mon sending him to the streets creating an explosion of dust and rock. The Chinese onlookers screamed in terror except for a nearby food vendor.
"You want bat?" she asked him.
"No, no, no, fuck no," Mon said to her and got back up.
Mon flew up and chased Stranger into the dark thermosphere. The two clashed repeatedly creating shockwaves in the air. Mon felt himself strained as he could only use his base form and could not last long in space. "You get your power from the sun," Stranger said as he punched Mon hard to the head and withdrew.
"Aren't you curious how I know so much about you?" Stranger mocked as he punched Mon again in the back.
"Not really," Mon admitted.
"Like me, your home was destroyed. You were sent here as an infant," Stranger said punching him to the chest and quickly withdrawing.
"To a world where you'd spend your entire life trying to prove your worth. But you're still that scared, lost child. Desperate for the love of people that will never accept you," Stranger said completely oblivious.
"And the only remnants of your home... make you sick. We'll meet again, Kal-El. That is... if you survive the fall," Stranger said menacingly as he placed a Kryptonite necklace around Mon's neck.
Mon merely smirked at him and then backhanded Stranger as hard as he could. Stranger plummeted to the Earth below threatening a city as he sped down like a meteor. "Well...shit," Mon realized the collateral damage.
Stranger fell towards the Chinese city unable to comprehend how he could have been hit so damn hard. Just before he was about to hit the city streets, he stopped himself just in time. Stranger looked up and saw Superman suddenly disappear from view.
In the house, Kara called Brainiac 5. "I need you to check on Smallville Merchant's Bank, see if there was any strange activity around five, six years back... investments, purchases, mergers..., all that capitalist crap," Kara said.
"What am I looking for?" Brainiac 5 asked.
"I don't know. Something to do with Morgan Edge. I'm thinking of buying this town, but I don't want to have done so because Edge manipulated me to do so," Kara said.
"You mean, the way you convinced Lena to buy Catco?" Brainiac 5 recalled.
"Yea, yea, yea," Kara agreed.
Kara then eyed the TV and saw a huge fire at the Shuster mines with several teenagers trapped in the fire. "I'll have to call you back. Some bullshit just came up."
"Mara, Kon, get down here!" Kara yelled.
Mara came down in her nightgown. "Kon's not in his room," she said groggily.
"Well...shit," Kara realized.
Kon watched the fire mesmerized until Supergirl dropped down near him. She immediately put the fire out with her frost breath and then advanced on him. "What the fuck, Kon? You could have killed these kids," Kara scolded.
"Like you did when you were a teen?" Kon pointed out.
Kara punched him to the gut dropping him and then lifted him off the ground by the neck. "Everyone I killed in Midvale deserved it because they were fucking murderers. You understand that?" she said angrily.
The fire department was on its way with Kyle in the lead. Mon suddenly appeared on the scene wearing civilian clothes. Kara slowly dropped Kon back to the ground. "Okay, let's...get our stories straight and shit," Kara sighed.
"Kent, you must have the luckiest family," Kyle said to Mon.
"Funny you should say that after a funeral," Mon mocked.
"Glad the boy is okay," Kyle said sincerely. "And thank you, Supergirl, for saving the day."
"Shucks," Kara smiled adorably. "Go home," she ordered Kon.
Kara and Mon walked away from the mine. "He's using nuclear power plants as a shield against your X-ray vision. He knows about Crisis, said his planet was destroyed, that he's the lone survivor," Mon told her.
"Sure he is," Kara scoffed.
"He knows a lot about Superman. He even used Kryptonite on me," Mon said.
"So, did you kill him?" Kara asked.
"He got away," Mon said vaguely.
"Really?" Kara rolled her eyes.
"He's as strong as Superman and I'm unable to use my full power," Mon said annoyed.
"That's the challenge," Kara reminded him.
At the house, Mon had a chat with Kon in the living room. "When I was your age, I thought my father knew it all. It wasn't until I became a father, myself, that I realized he was weak-as-fuck and had no idea what he was doing. By the time I was age five, I had surpassed my father. His power, his strength, it was all an illusion," Mon told him.
"So, I made sure that I would always be stronger than my own son. You have that Insane desire within you to hunt, kill, and conquer. In this regard, we are so much alike. And you will, my son. Just not this race, this planet," Mon said to him.
"Okay," Kon relented. "But it was total bullshit Sarah had a boyfriend and didn't tell me."
"A human female tricked you?" Mon asked disappointedly.
"No," Kon realized his mistake.
"Good, now go to bed," Mon ordered.
The next morning, Lane came by with some paperwork. "Been an eventful few days here for you," she said cheerfully.
"Hasn't it?" Kara gave a fake smile.
"Well, hopefully, this doesn't add to it. I was able to pull some strings and got you $2100 an acre, $200 more than market value for land in Rice County," Lana said.
"That's very generous," Mon said pleased. Kara gave him a dirty look. "I mean, we're not selling."
"You're not?" Lana asked confused.
"We're going to buy the whole town and sack the city government," Kara said ambitiously. "It's what Martha would have wanted."
"I see," Lana said surprised.
"Yes, I'll be around here a lot more often," Mon said wide-eyed.
"Clark Kent back in Smallville. We'll be lucky to have you," Lana smiled. "So, let's go over these pre-negotiated terms."
"I'll negotiate my own terms. I'm buying your bank for real. Did you know that a few months before these reverse mortgages were offered to the elderly of Smallville, a company acquired your bank?" Kara revealed.
"No," Lana said awkwardly.
"Galaxy Holdings... whose majority shareholder, is Morgan Edge," Kara revealed.
"How dare Mr. Edge give senior-citizens the ability to have greater financial freedom in their later years. What an ass." Mon said with false outrage.
"Why would someone like Morgan Edge be interested in a bunch of family farms in Smallville, Kansas?" Lana wondered.
"I don't know but Edge industries are no match against Wayne Enterprises," Kara smirked.
At the barn, Sarah came over to meet with Kon and Mara. "How's everyone from last night?" Mara asked genuinely concerned.
"They're fine. Nobody got hurt, luckily," Sarah said brightly.
"Anyone figure out who caused the explosion?" Kon asked.
"I don't think so. My dad said it probably was coal dust or a methane pocket, something like that...," Sarah said. "Look... I, I just wanted to apologize for what happened. No texts, no stupid 'I'm sorry' memes. Just a real-life, in-person apology."
"Accepted," Kon allowed having no intention of apologizing, himself.
"I'm sorry I didn't tell you about Sean. I just really thought about you a lot after we first met. You were so sweet. And then when I saw you take that mouthful of pills at the bonfire...I thought if someone like you who I always thought was so happy and so nice had issues... maybe I wasn't so messed up," Sarah admitted.
"Sarah, we're all fucked up a little, split down the center, light, and darkness. It's okay to not be perfect," Kon said sincerely. "It's what makes us unique individuals."
"But it's not like I can talk to many people here about that kind of stuff. One person finds out, everyone knows. It's impossible to keep a secret in this town," Sarah said.
"Actually, it will be super-easy, barely an inconvenience," Kon said knowingly.
"Sarah?" Lana called over.
"So, can I text you?" Sarah asked awkwardly.
"Text away," Kon allowed.
"Okay," Sarah smiled and walked off.
"You used the memory kiss on her," Mara assumed.
"I used the memory kiss," Kon confirmed.
In the snowy mountains, Stranger landed on the ground and entered a spaceship. Machines went to work taking off his armor like Iron Man and then his helmet was taken off revealing a bald black man. "We'll need to improve tactile function and speed...and I need to be able to fly for longer periods of time...much longer. Understood?" he said to his AI.
"Understood. I'll begin working on upgrading your suit right away...Captain Luthor," the AI replied.
Author's Notes: The episode was nearly identical to the script that was leaked and then posted here several months ago. I had deep reservations about Jordan but he was decent here. There was more fighting in this episode than in all of Superman Returns. This was leagues above Supergirl 1x01. I hope CW can keep this up because this was not bad. Going forward, I'm positive I can adapt the entire season. I don't think it was perfect. I feel you need an entire season to turn Jordan around. You can't just flip a character that quickly. I hope whatever issues he has are not suddenly gone in just this one episode. With his counterpart, Kon, I wanted to show how difficult it is to manage a mentally disturbed teenager that also has powers but is not truly psychotically evil like Brightburn. An issue that is probably going to get me into trouble is the use of Kryptonite in this show. Writers need to find creative ways to foil Superman without needing Kryptonite. Just an aside, it amuses me to no end that CW Superman and Gen. Lane are best buds after everything he did to SG in Season 1. I guess "Crisis" fixed everything. Feel free to praise or criticize the direction of the show and how I should take it going forward.