A/N: I sincerely apologise for scarring people with a certain fluffy purple monstrosity last chapter... if enough people demand it, said monstrosity will be taken out back and shot.
"Senator Jonathan Kent. Has a nice wholesome feel to it." Lex nodded approvingly. "I will definitely have a hard time smearing your name."
"Why would you want to?" Jonathan asked suspiciously as they sat in the castle common room.
"I'm your opponent!" Lex smiled winningly. "You are the hero and every hero needs a villain to fight. I have the reputation for it so I am the best choice."
"But what if you win?" Martha asked with a small smirk.
"I checked with Cassandra, she says I still make it to the White House but she doesn't recognise a few people. I have time." He said as he sipped his drink.
"What if you meet them whilst campaigning?"
Lex paused thoughtfully. "Let's just say that it will be a minimum of nine months before I meet them and in the vision they were at least teenagers."
The room was filled with the sound of squealing women.
Four individuals teleported out… if asked they would claim they were not running away.
It wouldn't stop Xander, Clark, Logan and Laura from being mocked.
"I'm not pregnant yet!" Helen said loudly over the barrage of questions.
"Are you sure?" Jean grinned as she held up a glowing hand ready to cast the detection spells.
"We're still using protection. I don't want to raise our child and have to explain why Daddy is hated by most of the world." She explained.
Word quickly spread that Jonathan Kent was running for State Senator. Smallville erupted in campaign posters declaring his candidacy.
"I know how you feel." Lana told Jonathan sympathetically as he delivered the latest goods from the farm to the Talon, which included Kusano's latest baking attempts.
"You've been ambushed by people pushing you into office?" Jonathan asked sceptically.
"Remember that whole Class President fiasco?" She reminded him.
"Yes, but you knew you were going to drop out."
"And disappoint all those people? My reputation suffered badly. Even after Christmas when Clark and Harry let the town in on our secret, people said I should have quit cheerleading to be President."
"Damn straight." Brett muttered as he stood at the counter paying for his coffee. "Paul's a decent guy but it would have been so much cooler having something nice to look at on the posters."
"Would somebody hit him please?" Lana groaned as the other patrons laughed.
"Whoa there Shiina!" Jonathan exclaimed as he grabbed the young man round the shoulders just as he was about to take a swing at Brett. "Lana was joking."
Shiina blushed in mortification, this was his first day as assigned male bodyguard for Jonathan. "Forgive me Brett-san." Shiina bowed low. "I misunderstood."
"Right… you're one of those Sekirei." Brett nodded. "Relax, we all know you guys don't get our humour." The former jock and bully assured him.
"Yet. They don't get our humour yet." Jonathan corrected.
"It's a shame you're all too old for high school, you could have learnt with the rest of us." Brett shrugged.
"A bunch of foreigners with no cultural understanding in a school full of caustically opinionated brats?" Abigail queried her boyfriend as she joined them at the counter.
"Alright, maybe not as good of an idea." He admitted. "But I know we are planning on mass exchange student projects this year. We've got Amazons, Hidden City students, North Koreans and Japanese students attending Smallville High and a few of our students will be heading to their schools."
"How do you know all this?" Lana asked.
Brett smiled proudly. "I thought you knew. I'm training to be a counsellor. I'm apprenticing under Dani to eventually replace her.
Lana looked dubious. "Don't take this the wrong way but… weren't you the bully?"
"Right, and I also experienced bullying from my victims point of view. I have experience from both sides of the track."
"I suppose education is one of those topics I need to brush up on for any future debates." Jonathan sighed. "Shiina, looks like you are going to get a first hand look at American High Schools."
For little Kusano, life at Smallville Elementary had become much better. This was mostly due to the towering tree house in the playground.
It was literally fifty feet high.
Many parents had complained about the danger of falling.
Harry had taken Kusano up to the very top of the tree…
And pushed her over the edge.
The screams of horror rang out and took a while to die down even after it was clear that the tree itself wasn't going to let Kusano fall.
Later that day Ryan kicked Harry in the shin when Harry had argued that Kusano was the May Queen and it was obvious plants would rescue her. Harry had teleported Ryan with Chiho who had met him after his classes ended and then pushed Ryan over the edge.
Chiho was still kicking Harry every time she saw him.
So was Uzume who was pissed that her Ashikabi had been snatched from her care.
But for now, as November neared, Kusano enjoyed her time at school with her brand new friends. She was dropped off every morning by Clark or Harry and picked up after school by Martha or Jonathan.
"… but the book was wrong. Sheep don't say 'baa' and pigs don't say 'oink'!" Kusano regaled Martha with her day at school. "I told Miss Seaton and she says we should make our own book.
"Ma?"
Kusano looked back and saw Martha lying on the pavement. "Ma?" She asked more urgently.
"Get down Kusano! Call up a shield." Alec shouted as he came running up, his body morphing into the wooden armour he used for battle.
Kusano was trained since she met Clark to do as ordered. She immediately hugged Martha's inert form as a dome of foot thick vines encircled them, breaking through the concrete like paper.
"EVERYBODY TELEPORT OUT!" Alec shouted at the bystanders.
Alec suddenly found himself very alone as he stood there trying to spot the sniper that had just put a hole in Martha Kent's head.
"Anything?" Laura asked as she teleported in with a squad of Amazons, Dani, Amara and Jonathan.
The Amazons were Jonathan's bodyguard detail and there was no way they would be able to keep him away from his wife.
"Only that the shot came from that direction." The Swamp Thing pointed in the direction of the far off Smallville Medical Centre.
"That's a hell of a shot." Laura mused. "Dani, Amara?"
"On your six." Dani confirmed before teleporting out behind Laura.
"Is it safe to get Ku and Martha out?" Jonathan asked desperately.
The Swamp Thing spared Jonathan a considering glance before leading the man closer to the small cocoon. He then used his own connection with the Earth to create a larger dome to encompass the smaller one and the two men.
Once they were secure he asked the plants to grant them entry. As the smaller dome retracted and sank back into the ground they saw Harry and Martha comforting a crying Kusano who was holding on to Martha like her life depended on it.
"Kusano? What's wrong Sweetheart?" Jonathan asked as he knelt down next to the little girl.
"Ma was dead!" She sobbed.
"Clark Joseph Kent, if you aren't here consoling your youngest Sekirei… so help me I will spend the next four hours zapping your hide!" Jonathan sent to his son.
Like a flash Clark was there.
"What happened?" He asked as he scooped Kusano up.
"Sniper attack. They got your mother." Jonathan said as he patted Kusano's back gently as Clark rocked her.
The entire group was suddenly surrounded by 107 Sekirei and their Ashikabi. (108 if you count Lois.)
With them were the rest of the interlinked soul bound group.
Chloe stepped forward and began singing softly.
"Hush little baby don't say a word-"
"Mama's gonna buy you a mocking bird." Chloe didn't break the song but smiled as the Sekirei infused tones of Kuno joined her.
As the pair continued the song Kusano began to settle in Clarks arms.
Gradually the Sekirei and Ashikabi that knew the song began to join in lending themselves to Kusano's own personal choir.
The Sekirei were all brothers and sisters. They stood together as family.
Clark nodded gratefully to the assembled singers and those who had merely come to provide whatever support they could. Gradually the singing died down as it was clear Ku had fallen into a restful sleep.
"Give her here Clark." Chloe insisted as she went to take the child from his arms. "I'll put her to sleep in your room and stay with her in case she wakes up."
"I'll come too." Kuno said firmly.
"And we'll stand guard." Musubi spoke for herself and Yume with that steel that she rarely employed.
"Thank you." Clark bowed to his Japanese raised family before they teleported out with Chloe's help.
"Thanks for bringing her Haruka." Clark bowed to Kuno's Ashikabi.
Haruka returned the bow but smirked. "I may be an idiot at times but I refuse to be a pointless idiot. There are only 108 Sekirei and each one is precious. If my Sekirei needs me I'll be there. Even if it is to help someone else's Sekirei."
Clark nodded appreciatively.
"Alec, we need to see what happened. Do you mind if I project your memories of the event?" Xander asked the tall blonde man.
"You can do that?" Alec asked in surprise.
Xander grinned. "Who do you think taught Harry to break the rules and make new ones? Just focus on the event and I will use magic to display what you saw."
Once again Xander showed he was the man who raised Harry Potter. Instead of simply projecting the events on a wall or like a screen he somehow (and even Harry couldn't figure it out) managed to have the whole scene play out in 3D exactly where it happened. The only difference between what Alec witnessed and what Xander showed them was that they couldn't touch it.
But Harry didn't think he would have much trouble making it corporeal if his Dad would teach him what he did.
"You always have to one up me, don't you?" Harry glared at him.
"I prefer to think of it as: reminding you who your teacher was." Xander plucked imaginary braces proudly.
Nothing new was learnt from Alec's memories other than how to replicate what Xander did. They managed to get a few glimpses of the individual from various people's memories as he ran from the hospital.
The man wore a deep red, worn vest with a leather helmet mask and a form of targeting lens over his right eye.
"Deadshot." Batman stated without preamble as he teleported into the Great Hall in full costume. "He's an assassin who claims never to miss."
"A hired assassin?" Scott queried.
"Anyone who pays. He has no regard for human life." Batman nodded. "Based on what I was able to find, this is connected to MBI and the portal doors. I don't have anything concrete, just rumours on the street."
"But why would they go after Mom?" Ryan asked.
"Because Clark is too well guarded." Lex answered. "I should know. I have had several apologetic reports stating that it is not feasible to assassinate the head of MBI when he is always surrounded by elite bodyguards." Lex grinned.
"You have people researching how to kill Clark?" Jason asked in amusement.
"Not at my request." Lex assured the glowering Tsukiumi. "Due to the lack of success in capturing any meteor infected or meta-humans, my… minions have taken to working on their own initiative in order to avert my wrath."
"Yeah, not a bright bunch." Lorna sighed. "Several times they failed to coordinate between teams and I managed to have them blame each other."
"Do we know specifically who is ordering the hits?" Laura asked.
"No. I have no intel on whether it is oil companies, car companies or something else." Batman admitted as he took his seat at the table.
"But you are sure that it is in retaliation to the portal technology?" Harry queried.
"Yes, that much is clear."
Harry turned to Clark with a sinister smile. "Maybe we should really make them sweat."
"Everybody be on high alert." Jean sighed. "Harry is about to make the enemy desperate."
The 'Make 'Em Sweat' plan, as Dani named it, involved sending the entire research and development team for the portals to the X-Men's universe. There they would work with the best and brightest to try and incorporate the arc reactor and bring about affordable portal doors within a few months instead of a year.
This was coupled with Clark giving interviews with Chloe and a few TV news stations recommended by Pauline Khan where he revealed the 'attempted murder' of his mother and declared his retaliation was to speed up development.
Martha often accompanied him to the interviews.
Along with every single one of Clark's Sekirei, Miya and a hidden guard of Amazons.
He was beginning to regret assigning Shiina and Mutsu to his dad as it was unnerving to know that there were several women watching him use the bathroom.
The problem came when Harry didn't tell the rest of the family that he had called in an… 'expert' to track down Deadshot.
It was a quiet morning, barely 6am. Logan was enjoying a late morning as he knew Lex didn't need a driver till noon and he was sleeping with his wife at the castle surrounded by various beings of immense power that could protect him better than Logan could.
On either side of the hirsute mutant where his Sekirei, Hibiki and Hikari. Logan had his eyes blissfully closed as he indulged in nothing.
Then he felt a hand caressing his chest.
"In a bit Darling. Let me enjoy my lie in." He mumbled sleepily.
"You just lie there, Sweetheart. All I want is to enjoy this masculine chest rug I've been denied for too long."
Logan's eyes shot open at the familiar and very unwelcome male voice.
His shout of anger and outrage echoed through the castle sending flocks of birds flying.
"WILSON!"
The castle residents were assembled in the Great Hall in their nightwear as Logan paced back and forth in a foul mood.
"Of all the people we know… have known, you had to go and bring Deadpool here." He said with a shudder. "Why not call Artemis? She's a hunter, she's got to be a great tracker."
Deadpool was in his standard black and red costume with both swords over his back, guns on his hips and smoke streaming off him from where he was zapped by Logan's bed partners.
"We need someone who can provide a little… chaos." Harry grinned unrepentantly.
"You do love your chaos." Emma sighed. "Whilst Wilson has his good points, he is not someone I would pick for a clandestine operation."
"But we don't really want this on the QT." Harry explained. "We need someone who nobody knows about to go out and stir up the hornets nest."
"eeeaarrghh! Harry, my best bud." Deadpool gasped. "Could you call off these two stunning femmes?" He asked as he held out a still smoking hand to the two Lightning Twins who would periodically- "EEEK!" –zap him.
"Normally I would… but you did invade their bed." Harry said apologetically. "There was a line you crossed."
"I just thought they were a pair of twins he picked up! I didn't know he got hitched!" Deadpool argued. "I am shocked and appalled that I wasn't invited to the wedding though." He said as he crossed his arms over his chest childishly.
"There was no wedding Wade." Harry shrugged.
"No 'wedding wade'? Is that some new fangled tradition they have in this universe?" Deadpool queried. Then he looked at Harry, his entire body expressing desperate hope. "Tell me the bridesmaids have to take part in a wet t-shirt contest! YEEEAAARRRRGGGG!"
"Harry, get Deadpool out of here before the twins zap him so much he starts to make the place stink." Scott requested wearily.
Much to everyone's relief, Deadpool was given all the information he needed and sent on his way to bring terror to the underworld of Earth.
Except Kyla and Dani who found him amusing. Many of the X-Men watched in disgust as Dani regaled Kyla with tales of Deadpool through the ages.
"But how is he still alive? Is he bonded to a Phoenix?" Kyla asked.
"Deadpool? Ha! Have you seen the looks Jean and the Cuckoos gave him?" Dani scoffed.
"Shouldn't he be insane then? He is over five thousand, right?"
"Sure, he's about my age… give or take a decade or so."
"So… he's naturally immortal? Like Loki?"
"No." Dani said slowly as though it was obvious. "He's naturally insane."
"You mean he was insane back then and now it doesn't matter? Didn't Harry heal him?"
"Lets just say that Deadpool 'embraced his insanity'."
November had finally arrived and with it the elections for the new US President. Martin Suarez and Jonathan Horne were both in the front running as winners. Martin Suarez had the backing of Bruce Wayne whilst Jonathan Horne seemed to simply appeal to the voters in his own right.
There were a few fringe candidates but only one who seemed to be anti-alliance. It seemed the people of America had more sense than their politicians as he was generally ignored.
As people voted the world watched.
At midnight several very well known individuals appeared in the living room of the next President of the United States: Jonathan Horne.
The room was packed and they just appeared.
Harry Potter, Queen Amara of Themiscyra, the Prime Minister of Japan, Superman, Batman and The Flash.
"What is the meaning of this?" Horne demanded. "You can't just barge in here!"
The invading group just stood there looking at him.
Horne looked around to see why Security hadn't intervened. That's when he noticed that time had frozen. His family and supporters who where with him where motionless in a variety of positions too awkward to be faked.
"This meeting will literally take very little time, Mr. Horne." Harry said as he effortlessly manipulated the room to make more space between the couch and the television. He then conjured rectangular conference table where he took a seat at the head. Superman took the seat on his right and Amara the seat on his left.
"Please, take a seat." Superman insisted.
Horne was nervous, but he was not going to let that hold him back. He took the seat.
"Why have you come here?" He asked firmly.
"To tell you some of the secrets of the Universe." Superman said calmly.
Horne held his tongue. He considered the possibility he was about to be threatened, blackmailed or bribed, but he refused to jump to conclusions.
"First of all, Harry Potter is the husband of Queen Amara and he is the ruler of North Korea." Superman continued. "We will explain more later but that is one of the smaller secrets."
"Smaller?" Horne asked with a raised eyebrow. "The Dictator of one of the most insular and dangerous countries has been living in America and you call that small?"
"Yes."
Horne was a little taken aback by the simple and emotionless response from the Japanese Prime Minister.
"Magic, as you have just seen, is also real." Superman explained with a short rap on the wooden table with his knuckles.
"This isn't something created by a Green Lantern?"
"As their name implies, they create green constructs that glow. You would easily recognise a Green Lantern construct." Superman assured him. "That said; all Green Lanterns are capable of using magic."
"And I assume you and the Green Lanterns have exhausted all scientific investigation to prove this is not, in fact, a form of energy manipulation masquerading as 'magic'?" Horne asked sceptically.
"Of course it is 'energy manipulation'." Harry smiled softly. "But the techniques used and the energy utilised are classified as 'magic'."
"Does it have a scientific term? I would rather not refer to it as something from a children's book." Horne said in distaste.
"'Magic' is the scientific term." Superman insisted with authority. "Just like I am the Norse God of Thunder and Queen Amara is Queen of a tribe of Amazons… as well as a witch herself."
"Are you seriously expecting me to believe that you invaded my home just to convince me of magic and gods?"
"No." The Prime Minister of Japan was decidedly mono-syllabic today.
"We are here to give you facts. Whether you believe these facts or not is up to you." Superman said dismissively. "The important thing is that you hear and understand that some of these facts are not to be trifled with."
"There are rules that are a part of Existence." The Flash finally spoke up. "That's 'Existence' with a capital 'e'. There are several, what are called: 'Aspects', that are a part of Existence. Death, Love, Time and Magic. I am the Avatar of Time, which is why I was able to freeze time everywhere except here."
"Why would you freeze time everywhere? Why not just freeze everyone in the room?" Horne scoffed.
"Because when they leave the room their watches will be out of sync. If I freeze time for the country it will have a global effect on the markets, airline flights, computer systems. If I froze the planet it would be out of orbit with the rest of the system.
"No, I have spent the past few years learning about my place as the Avatar of Time.
"But I am small fry.
"In this room sits Death and Magic."
Batman couldn't help the smirk as the future President instinctively looked at him.
"Not me, Mr. Horne. Him." Batman nodded stiffly at the man at the head of the table.
"Not how I imagined you'd look." He said dryly and clearly not believing it.
"I can look however I want to." Harry smiled as he morphed to look exactly like Jonathan Horne. "What I look like is not as important as what I do."
Horne swallowed tightly as Harry let his form revert to normal. "And what do you do?" He really didn't want the answer.
"I prevent people from crossing over too soon. I stop people from cheating death through use of immortality.
"But most importantly I heal people.
"I am a Doctor, Mr. Horne. I have been since I was fifteen years old in my home world. I have been healing people for over twenty million years.
"But I also make sure that the after life is kept clean of evil souls by destroying them."
"And what gives you the right to decide if a soul is evil?"
"Existence, the Aspects, the Avatars, the gods… the list goes on." The Flash said as he stood. "Here is what you need to know:
"We made sure that there were no candidates for the Presidency who would harm the innocent. Anyone else could run. As long as you work for the benefit of all sentients and not just human Americans then you will never have a problem with us.
"If all goes well then the only time you will meet with us again is in the event of an alien invasion or natural disaster.
"If you turn out to be… less than your office requires… we will meet for one last time."
The invading group stood and Harry vanished the table and chairs. Horne found himself sitting on the couch where he had started. The TV was on, his wife was hugging him in congratulations… he had no proof of what had just occurred… and no idea if it had occurred.
Kyla had had a nice relaxing day at the farm just doing simple chores. No paparazzi, no one asking for comments on the winner of Presidential Race, no homework.
She had known there would be a lot of publicity involved when Clark took over MBI. She and Clark were private people who liked the quiet life. They just tended to get caught up in hectic situations.
She had no idea her position as the 'beautiful wife of the world's most handsome business man' would require her to give an opinion on politics. To be honest she didn't care about politics. She was one of the more vocal proponents for Harry conquering the world.
They could ask her about her opinion on what effect Portal Doors would have on the world. She was more than happy to list the number of starving and ill children that had been treated in North Korea and Japan from third world countries because they just had to be wheeled through a doorway.
Ask her about the current tax breaks the rich got compared to the poor and she couldn't give a crap. The response she wanted to give was 'we should get on our knees and beg Lord Death to rule us'. But that wouldn't go down well… there would be calls for her sanity to be checked.
It was her husband's sanity that her worried at the moment. She had teleported to Clark's office at MBI so they could get ready for their patrol of Metropolis and the wider world. What she found was the muscular god that she loved, hiding under his desk.
"Clark? Are you playing hide and seek with Kusano?" She asked hopefully.
Clark's head was between his knees as his arms covered his head. But his head shaking the negative was obvious.
"Should I call Harry?"
Clark's head shot up and she was shocked by the fear on his face. "He might kill me!" He hissed in terror.
"Right."
"Oh, are we playing hide and seek?"
Clark jumped and backed his way through the desk leaving it little more than kindling as Harry appeared in the office.
"You called him!" Clark whispered accusingly at Kyla.
"Yes Sweetheart, I did." Kyla said softly. Any other time and sarcasm would be spewing from her mouth… but she could feel Clark's fear and she couldn't understand why she didn't notice it before… unless he was hiding it… like he was hiding under the table.
"Clark, you have an infection." Harry said seriously. "There is a foreign substance in your blood. I think it's a form of Kryptonite."
"I'm going to die?" He asked with wide eyes that broke the hearts of his wife and brother.
Clark slumped to the floor unconscious, a second later Laura materialised through the door of the office.
"He reeks of fear." She said worriedly. "I don't know if this actually had an effect as he smells like he was ready to bolt." She said as she held up a led vial containing green Kryptonite.
"This infection combined with his divinity is making it hard for me to clean the crap out." Harry scowled. "He's going to need a new body."
"Then what's the problem?" Kyla asked. "You've done it before."
"Again, this new Kryptonite and his divinity are fighting me. I'm having trouble getting his soul or just plain killing him."
"Won't his body expire on it's own?" Laura asked. "He's in overdrive, can a Kryptonian heart really take that much more?"
"His divinity protects him from what we could consider an illness, as long as he is a god it will require someone physically killing him."
"What if we got him to destroy his own body?" Kyla offered hesitantly.
"Go on." Laura encouraged the younger girl.
"Remember when we were last in the Fortress? He became pure energy and destroyed his physical body? He can rebuild his body easily but he still hasn't managed to become that pure energy again."
"So… we need to figure out how to trigger that change." Harry mused.
"We could over charge him." Laura suggested. "Get every lightning based user to blast him."
"Would the gods be willing to help?" Kyla asked.
"A lot of them would, and they will definitely be necessary. Thor says that Clark has the ability to call more powerful lightning than him since he was able to change." Harry nodded.
"I'll scramble the gang. We'll call in others including Thor and Storm." Laura said as she teleported out.
Whilst gods and lightning users where gathered at the castle, Mob Rule descended on Metropolis. Manuel had stepped up and offered to cover the city until Superman was back on his feet.
Many a Hispanic was slapped that night as he made passes at the Amazons who also patrolled the city.
Manuel loved every minute.
The Amazons hated it as every time they hit a dupe they were rewarded with another.
Back at the castle people were gathered and none were having a good hair day.
The room was literally electric.
There were gods of all pantheons including the likes of Ororo Monroe, AKA Storm, and Thor.
"I was wondering when I would be visiting you here." Storm smirked at Harry. "I nearly came when you were captured by that mad scientist."
"You know you can always visit, Ororo." Scott smiled at his long time friend and teammate.
"Our lives are never boring, are they Scott?" She returned the smile.
"I've done boring… not at all what it's cracked up to be." Harry sniffed. "At least we can take a break these days."
"True, but I was dismayed when I was not able to meet your new brother during his visits. When I was told of what had happened I made it clear I would be coming to help."
"And we really appreciate it." Harry said sincerely. "Come on, let's get this done with before I suffer the wrath of the Mrs. Kent's."
"Even I have never managed to have as many spouses at the same time as you and yet your brother outstripped you in a matter of years." Ororo laughed.
"Well… I still hold the record for the time it took to get most of them… except Miya and Diana I guess."
"You will have to introduce me afterwards." Ororo insisted.
There were more than twenty individuals present from Jeremy Creek to Raijin of the Japanese Pantheon of Clark's home universe. With the amount of power about to be channelled there was no way they could safely zap Clark on planet Earth without putting the entire planet at risk.
So they headed to Harry's home world.
Clark would be placed on the ground in the Nevada Desert and the assembled beings would literally pour on the juice.
"Alright, here is how we are going to do this." Harry began instructing the assembled lighting beings. "Kal-El can take more power than even Thor can produce. But Thor's power will wake him up and slow him down enough for me to explain the situation. Once he is ready the rest of you will pour on the power until he transforms."
Harry gave Thor a nod who raised his hammer and called down a continuous blast of lightning on Clark's body.
Clark spasmed and screamed in pain.
Harry rushed in and grabbed Clark's sparking head, ignoring the pain the divine lightning was causing him. "Clark, listen to me: You need to transform to your energy state. You need to destroy your current body, we are pumping you up with lightning to try and speed things up. Do you understand?"
Pain can bring great clarity.
Clark was in so much pain that he didn't realise he was scared and paranoid.
But he trusted Harry with everything. So he nodded.
Harry turned and nodded to Raijin and the others who one by one stepped up and began pouring the power into Clark.
Harry just knelt there beside him, holding his head sharing the pain with his little brother.
Through the pain Clark felt Harry and knew what was happening, he shoved out with a hand that sent Harry careening into the distance. He then focused on the pain and power.
It took ten minutes for Harry to build himself a new body. Clark had shoved him hard enough to send him fifty metres into a cliff.
By the time he got back to the others Clark was standing there in his energy form and for some reason… zapping Raijin who was lying on the floor unconscious.
"Clark, whatcha doin'?"
"They drained themselves to heal me." Clark explained calmly. "I have too much power at the moment so I am trying to transfer some of it back to them."
"You can do that?" Harry asked in surprise.
"I'm trying." Clark shrugged.
"You're succeeding." Harry muttered as he examined Raijin. "You can stop on him now."
"If you can wake him and heal any burns I will work on the rest."
Waking the gods and other beings was not all that hard once Clark had rejuvenated them. Thor took the longest for Clark to 'refill' as he has used up the most power.
"I still have a ton of power left over." Clark said in frustration as he ran a hand over his energy-composed head. "I need to bleed off more before I can re-build my body."
"Well… you could try filling up some batteries." Harry offered.
Clark glared at him… which was still easy to tell even though his eyes were the same colour as the rest of him.
"I believe Uncle Harry is referring to the large batteries used to power cities and space craft." Thor explained quickly before his godfather brought diving lightning down on his own head.
"Oh." Clark said sheepishly… he was a bit quick to jump to conclusions that time.
"So… Silver Kryptonite." Kyla sighed as she leaned into Clark on the couch in the common room. Kusano was sitting on his lap and was refusing to move.
"Another one to add to the database." Tess sighed. "Seriously, green, red, black… what's next? Pink?"
"Thanks Tess, you just poked Murphy." Xander sighed as he sat with his arm around his girlfriend.
"How did you even get infected with the stuff? That's what I really want to know." Lorna asked. "Security is incredibly tight around you. Even your food gets tasted… and that's after we've run every charm we know on it."
"What? Who tastes my food?" Clark demanded as he sat up quickly.
"Who do you think?" Dani said with a pointed look at the Sekirei and Amazons arrayed around Clark like some sort of really close-knit harem.
Kyla and Aphrodite were on either side of him whilst Lana sat next to Aphrodite and Uzume next to Kyla. Behind him stood Jodi, Tsukiumi and Homura and at his feet were Yume, Musubi and Matsu.
Everyone else was shoved in where there was space.
"I think it's cute." Lois grinned.
"More power to them." Alicia smirked as she sat next to Lois. "But I don't think the Sekirei should be the ones testing the food."
"It is our duty!" Tsukiumi objected.
"But you aren't human. And poison used against Clark will be targeted for a human."
"Clark isn't human." Lois pointed out.
"No, but that isn't the point. How many times have any of us nicked food off his plate?"
"Clark isn't the one in danger but we are?" Chloe offered.
"Well… assuming that Amazons are susceptible to regular poisons I would say them and us." She pointed to herself and Lois. "Not so sure what poison does to Phoenix."
"Pretty damned useless." Jean shrugged.
"Yeah, we can't even get drunk." Phoebe laughed.
"The amount of times we have to fake it at parties." Mindee sighed.
"Although some poisons do taste pretty good." Celeste mused.
The group just stared at her.
"You spent time tasting poisons, didn't you?" Lois grinned.
"Actually it is a useful piece of knowledge." Scott explained. "If you know what a poison tastes like then you can identify it in your food before you take too much."
"Back to Lorna's question though, how did Clark get infected?" Laura asked.
"It could have been anything." Harry shrugged. "This kryptonite looked like metal so it could have been put onto anything from a door handle to his fork."
"If we are assuming that this was an actual attack and not an accident like with the original red kryptonite then there is only one suspect at the moment." Scott added.
"El Brainiac." Xander said in a very bad Spanish accent.
"We really need a better way to detect him." Laura grumbled unhappily.
"This is just going to be a waiting game. Waiting for him to confront Clark." Scott sighed.
"Ah… it's Voldemort all over again." Xander rolled his eyes. "Bloody coward."
Salvation from Brainiac came from Matsu. She and the team from the X-Men's world had made a breakthrough. She asked for her Ashikabi and father to join her where the Black Ship was being worked on in Harry's home world.
"I give you: Brainiac." She declared as she held a rectangular slab of technology. It was black and had dark blue glowing symbols on the sides.
Harry and Clark looked at the smiling Sekirei suspiciously.
"When you say 'Brainiac'…?" Harry prompted
"This is his core. His power source, you can control him with this! I call it the Black Box." She said as she literally bounced on the spot happily.
"One of the most powerful forms of Artificial Intelligence in this universe allowed itself to be contained within a single device?" Harry asked sceptically. "No backups, redundancies or clones?"
"No, not like that. It's more of a control program." Matsu corrected. "It can be used to shut down Brainiac or reboot him. It is capable of creating duplicates of Brainiac."
"Ok… I can buy that it will let you reboot or make clones of the original." Clark frowned. "But there is no way that Brainiac hasn't managed to hack his own code by now to prevent us from using this to shut him down."
"He's right." Harry nodded apologetically at Matsu. "He knows we have the ship and that we will be working on it. We have access to all the cities he stole and the information they had on Brainiac. If we can think of it so can he."
"We can still try though!" Matsu argued.
Clark and Harry shared a glance.
"It would be the equivalent of trying to find your keys at the bottom of a bag without even trying the door handle to see if it's locked." Harry shrugged.
"You pick the weirdest metaphors." Clark sighed. "Alright. Make it happen Matsu."
"Ah." Matsu winced. "One small problem."
"Of course." Clark groaned.
"We have to make a copy of Brainiac to make it work."
"You want to fight fire with fire?" Harry asked.
"A clone will be able to tell us how Brainiac thinks, what he might do next. Also, we still haven't figured out how to operate all the functions of the box. A clone would know."
"Wouldn't a clone be just as bad as the original?" Clark asked.
"Oh no." Matsu shook her head. "The Vision and the gang have already managed to edit the code so that anymore Brainiacs produced will have the same ethical routines that they have."
"So you can access the code but you can't use the code?" Clark reasoned.
"We are very familiar with Kryptonian systems. It seems that the Kryptonians used the Brainiac code as a basis for their own systems."
"It was probably what let Brainiac take them down." Harry pointed out. "Its why I always recommend diversity in computer system technologies between cultures. If one culture's system is infected the other cultures have a level of protection by just being different."
"All your eggs in one basket."
"Exactly." Harry nodded at Clark.
"When do you want to do this, Matsu?" Clark asked.
"We can begin working on the clone now. We will need to run some tests and make sure the clone is ok and is coping alright so say… a week, maybe two?"
"We'll leave you to it then." Clark nodded.
Jonathan was now a household name in Kansas and most of America. Not only was he the father of one of the world's richest men but he was also running for State Senator.
The Paparazzi were camped outside the farm with telescopic lenses.
Xander and Harry took a lot of pleasure out of walking amongst the leeches invisibly and exposing their film to sunlight or their digital storage cards to electromagnetic fields.
Whenever Clark walked by he would emit a low level electric field that had them running back to Metropolis to buy new cameras.
They were having a lot of fun.
That didn't even take into account Dani, Lorna and Kyla who would slip amongst them invisibly and dose their thermoses and food supplies with laxatives.
It wasn't all fun though as Miya was being kept on a tight leash by Amara. Several times she had gone for her sword after some of the comments and jeers from the camera jockeys.
Tsukiumi was outright banned from the farm.
Every member of the Kent family from Kusano to Kyla had a bodyguard or two. Miya had taken to accompanying Alec as Ku's protection. Yume and Musubi stuck with Kyla, Homura was glued to Martha, Uzume stayed with Ryan and Chiho.
Ryan had not been pleased as it cut down on date time with Chiho, but Uzume let them have private time as long as it was in Tokyo at the MBI resort.
Neither of the teenagers was going to complain about spending their evenings relaxing and making out on sunny beaches.
Brainiac's attack came at Martha Kent as she returned from the town in her truck with Homura. A bolt of energy shot from the sky hitting Martha and felling her, Homura instantly fell into a combat stance.
Then Brainiac floated down.
"What do you want monster?" Homura demanded as she stood between the AI and her charge, her hands were covered in fire as around them Sekirei and Amazons teleported in covertly.
"Just delivering a message for Kal." He said nonchalantly. "Tell him that if he wants to keep the rest of his family alive he will take me to the Fortress. I will return tom-"
*KRA-KOOM*
Brainiac was sheared in two from top to bottom as lightning and thunder filled the sky.
Landing between the back and front halves was Miya in her uniform with her sword out. Two green spheres enveloped the two halves as Kilowog and John Stewart followed down with a very angry Superman.
"How the hell do you keep doing this?"
They all turned to see Harry standing there and talking exasperatedly to the ghost of Martha Kent who was sitting calmly on her body.
"Husband?" Miya asked as she walked up with Superman.
"Huh?"
"Why are you shouting at my Mom's ghost?" Superman clarified.
"Well, if it wasn't bad enough that this is now the second time she has been killed, this is the second time I have arrived to find her sitting on her body looking at me like I've been keeping her waiting." Harry grumbled. "She shouldn't be able to touch her body."
"I'm not sitting. I'm floating." She smirked as she fluidly rose into the air in her seated position.
"Alright Miss Clever Cloggs." Harry rolled his eyes. "Get back in your body so we can sort the rest of this mess out."
Superman stood with Matsu and The Vision in the laboratory at MBI as they waited for the Brainiac they had just captured to reboot.
This capture was fortuitous as it meant they didn't have to wait for the Black Box to generate a new clone, they could just jam it in the captured Brainiac.
The short, thin 'man' sat up abruptly and looked around.
"Kal-El." It said as it recognised the man in blue and red.
"Brainiac." Superman nodded.
"I'm… impressed." It said slowly. "You managed to access my source code and reprogram me."
"Not in the way you are probably thinking of." Matsu said. "We haven't changed your personality, we just altered your primary directives and added safety measures so that you are no longer a threat to the Universe."
Brainiac nodded thoughtfully. "Of course, now that you have accessed my Source Box you must know that I am just one of many."
"And as soon as we drop the jammers on this room you will broadcast your new updates to your counterparts." The Vision explained.
"So… I am a slave? The very thing you have been claiming to be against whilst portraying yourself as a 'hero'?" Brainiac asked calmly.
"No." Superman said calmly. "You are a prisoner. Sentenced to labour and community service until you have proven yourself capable of living in civilised society."
"I wonder what the people of Earth would think of this if they learnt of what you had done to me?" He smirked.
"Most of them would wonder why I didn't simply destroy you." Superman returned the smirk before teleporting out.
Up on the roof of MBI Clark stood with the entire Disciplinary Squad in a large circle facing outwards. Everyone from Miya to Musubi. They were waiting patiently as they watched the skies.
"Two o'clock high." Homura called out.
"I've got two at eleven." Kazehana added.
"I see six coming from seven." Haihane spoke up.
"Move to the perimeter." Miya ordered.
As one they spread out so they were standing on the very edge of the roof. There was no longer a clock tower but a flat surface that was used as a landing pad.
One by one the nine figures landed on the rooftop.
Each one an identical clone of Brainiac standing there expressionless.
"Transmit all data and disassemble." Clark ordered the clones.
"Acknowledged." Came the group response.
A second later the clones began to dissolve into a mass puddle of black liquid.
"Akitsu, with me." Clark called out.
Together the pair blasted the puddle with his icy breath and her ice powers. Once they were done Clark placed preserving and impervious charms on the now iced puddle. He then casually picked up the puddle that was eight foot in diameter.
His Sekirei instantly clamped their hands on his shoulders before he could teleport out. He was used to it by now.
With the event over Miya dismissed the rest of the squad.
She sighed at the glare sent her way by Benitsubasa and Karasuba. Both still held grudges at the others, especially as they were out matched and were the personal Sekirei of the Head of MBI and the most powerful being in the universe.
Haihane had changed for the better when she was removed from their company and placed with others like Uzume, Musubi and Yume. Those three had taken the Blue Sekirei and helped her enjoy life.
Karasuba and Benitsubasa were just stubborn, but they weren't causing problems so there was no reason to take action against them.
