The Last Daughter of Krypton
Chapter 6 – Night Stalkers
Clark was awakened in the middle of the night by some noise on the roof. He left Lois's side and quietly slipped away, checking the empty guest room across the hall from his parents' bedroom. A whistling, flaming ball sped past the outskirts of their property, crashing and exploding into a fiery mass.
"That can't be good." Clark muttered. He checked on Lois once more. After seeing that she was sound asleep, he super sped out to the crash site. Sure enough, a huge smoldering crater sat in the middle of Hobb's Field. The meteor had blasted itself to pieces, and thankfully, Clark felt no ill effects. It wasn't a Kryptonian meteor, he mused, silently releasing a breath that he'd been holding.
Two more meteors suddenly streaked across the field and landed nearby, blasting similar flaming craters into the mostly deserted farmland. Hobb's Field hadn't been replanted for many years. Due to the lousy recent dry, hot, weather, most farmers had just let their fields go, irrigating only the closest fields to their homes. A third and fourth meteors hit just outside of the last two.
Clark hadn't recalled any mention of meteor showers on the TV's weather, or science channels. This made him doubly suspicious. He weighed the idea of zipping over to Metropolis International Airport, to try and overhear any conversations that the Air Traffic Controllers might have about radar images, or other reported meteor strikes in the area. Yet, he didn't want to leave Lois unattended.
Something was beeping nearby. Clark focused his hearing on the still sizzling craters. He hyper sped across the field to peer into the newer meteoric crash sites. A small, square, metallic object, about a half meter across, sat in the center of the impact crater. It was definitely not man made, at least not humanly made. It also wasn't a simple meteor strike.
Could someone be starting an invasion? Clark wondered, horrified. Just then, the object he'd been studying vaulted straight upwards, sprouted a tripod of meter long legs, and began beeping incessantly. It had a single glowing red circle at the box's center. Inside the circle, a diamond shaped orange light began to sway from side to side. It reminded Clark of an electric eye.
The last four craters also sprouted similar devices, and only the preliminary crater remained empty. The four strange objects arose out of the landing ditches, completely ignoring Clark. They seemed to be considering something. Clark guessed that the devices were communicating or acclimating to their new surroundings. Were they actual beings from another planet, or extraterrestrial probes? He mused.
The four devices scurried away, galloping across the meadow like three legged horses. They all stopped and joined together, at the edge of Hobb's Field, extending cable like wires to one another. Clark didn't like this at all. A new streak arced across the pitch black sky, and it landed near Clark, but didn't explode into a fireball. "Kal! What are these things?" Kara Zor El Kent asked frantically.
Clark shrugged. "I have no idea." Kara positioned herself just above the devices, hovering in place. "Don't get too close to them, Kara." Clark warned. "Should we kill them?" Kara offered. "No!" Clark snapped. "We have no idea if they're even alive." She argued. "What if they are? We know from John Jonz explanations, and the information from the Ice Fortress that other species inhabit the galaxy."
"What do we do?" Kara asked impatiently. "We'll just have to observe them." Clark motioned for her to retreat to the original crater, where Clark was now standing. A tall shadow emerged from the first meteor crater behind them. It glided silently towards Kara. Several tentacles whipped out from the shadow's midsection, and grabbed Kara by the throat. "Kal!" She managed to shriek.
Clark spun around, and gawked for a second. The shadow creature was attempting to strangle his cousin, and what's worse, she was having a hard time resisting the assault. This told him two things: the invaders were not friendly, and they had immense strength, to hold Kara in place like that.
Kara, over the initial shock, elbowed the seven foot tall creature in its midsection. Some of the tentacles lost their grip, but many others didn't. Grunting loudly, Kara attempted to flip the creature over her head. She was able to lift it off the ground a bit, but not enough for the toss.
Clark used his super speed to shove the shadow creature away, finally breaking its grip on Kara. The thing flew backwards into a tree, its trunk snapping in half. The creature lie atop the lower half of the trunk, either stunned or dead, at least that's what Clark and Kara had hoped.
Instantly, the four metallic things turned their attention on the melee. The devices separated from each other, retracting their cable like wires into their bodies. The red circles with the orange diamonds within all seemed to aim at Clark and Kara. They fired bright red laser like bolts at them. One impacted Clark in the side, and he felt a slight tingling in his ribcage. A hole in his shirt was blackened and smoldering.
Kara gasped. These creatures or devices could actually do some damage to the super powered young aliens. This meant that should the invaders choose to attack a human, it would most likely kill them. Another round of red laser blasts was fired, and this time Kara was ready for them. She easily evaded the blasts by taking to the air, like a fighter plane avoiding fire.
Clark wasn't that agile. Another bolt hit him square in the back, knocking him to his knees briefly, before he recovered. The downed shadow creature began to stir, and the four devices ceased their attack. This wasn't lost on Clark and Kara. Could the shadow creature be controlling the devices, like a soldier controlling automatic weapons or unmanned drones? Kara mused.
The shadow creature had righted itself, and was now standing in front of the shattered tree. Kara faced it and hovered about fifteen feet above the flattened roughage of the abandoned farm field. Clark was back on his feet and faced the metallic devices. They appeared to be confused as to what to do next.
"Kara! Remain still!" Clark barked. "Let's not antagonize it any further." He used his x-ray vision to survey the stunned shadow creature. Clark noted no familiar organs, though the creature seemed to be biological in nature. What's more, with x-ray vision, his sight seemed to go through the creature. Clark could pick out details of the farmland and the horizon in the distance.
"Kal? What's next?" Kara hovered as still as she could. "I just used my x-ray vision to determine the type of being it is. Kara, it's like nothing we've ever seen before. The closest analogy I can think of is that the thing is a type of wraith or phantom." Kara gulped. "Is it one of ours, meaning, Kandorian or Kryptonian?" She inquired. "I don't think so. I can't sense any intelligence or brain activity." He replied.
"You keep an eye on it, while I x-ray the four devices." Clark directed. As of yet, the shadow creature hadn't made another move. It seemed to be neither interested in a fight, nor making an attempt to flee. Clark quickly surveyed the devices. His initial impression had been correct. The four metallic items had things similar to cables, wires, and electronic pathways throughout its inners.
"Kara, I think that these metallic things are some type of probes, or communication devices." Clark assessed, turning once again towards the shadow creature. The nearly translucent being had no discernible face, ears, or eyes. Clark tried to match it to any Earth denizens that he could think of. The only thing that came into his mind was a dark, shadowy type of seven foot jellyfish.
Suddenly, the shadow creature zipped past them, seeming to use the landscape like a skating rink. The creature didn't appear to have any legs, at least not in any human or animal sense of the word. Kara was about to zap it with her heat vision. Clark yelled at her: "No! Let it go!" he ordered his cousin.
The creature headed for the metallic probes, and stopped beside them. Immediately, the devices unleashed their retractable cables, and joined together. They encircled the shadow creature, and somehow created a blinding green flash. Kara and Clark winced at the intense light, and when they regained their vision, the entire field was silent and dark.
"Okay, that was weird, even by Smallville standards." Kara remarked. The five charred craters remained, and a quick search of the area by the super beings, revealed no further clues. "This isn't over, Kara. I have a bad feeling about this…like we've just seen the start of something bad, really bad." He peered up into the night sky as Kara floated down by his side.
"What do you think that was all about, Kal?" Kara prodded. "I hope that I'm wrong, but I believe we were just probed by an alien race, possibly as a prelude to an invasion." Clark responded menacingly. "Further, I think that our secret will have to be revealed to the general public. We'd better get prepared, because if my instincts are right, these creatures were just foot soldiers for an alien warrior people."
"The shadow creature didn't expect to be seen, let alone get into a conflict with observers." Clark continued his analysis. "I think the creature and the drones are an advance scout team." Kara scowled. "Didn't Ol' Red Eyes, Jon Jonz, speak about an alien warrior race called the Daemonstrata?"
"Exactly, Kara." Clark confirmed. "You saw their weapons. Earth humans wouldn't stand a chance against an invasion force like that. That's where we come in." Kara nodded. "We have to contact Jon Jonz as well, and soon. Maybe he's got some new leads."
Meanwhile, Lois Lane slept peacefully in Clark's bed, blissfully unaware that she was being watched. Two shadowy creatures sat atop the Kent barn roof, and beeped softly to one another. Then they vanished in a quick blast of bright green light. The farm was once again bathed in darkness.