Fantasy World

Krypton is dead.

It's dead, and yet I can still see it there, hanging in the sky, like a pearl on a string.

The star-chart my birth father, Jor-El, showed me provided all the clues I needed to find Krypton's position in the sky.

It was tricky at first. To start with, I could only work at night when the stars were out. But after finally locating the proper cluster, I began to focus my telescopic vision on that spot day and night, searching for that ancient red sun.

It was there, alright. But Krypton wasn't

At first, I thought I must just have the wrong star. But no others matched the coordinates. I panicked, and did something kind of stupid.

I flew into space to get a better look.

Now, just so you know, that's not something I normally do. And even though I have the power to go anywhere on the planet, I can count the number of times I've left the state on one hand. And half of those were with my parents. So when I say that I flew into space without telling my Ma and Pa, I want you to know that it was a big deal, even for me. I suppose the closest analogy would be if, at 13, you borrowed the family car and drove to Las Vegas.

But I didn't even think about it. I just knew I needed a better view. So I kept flying higher and higher. I can see now that I might have been a little obsessive. That might also explain why I kept all this from my parents.

Let me tell you something, Space is Cold. Capital "Space," capital "Cold."

Plus, I had to hold my breath the whole time. So I was under a bit of a time limit. If the cold didn't get me, the lack of air would.

I quickly found my Red Star and looked as hard as I could. I looked every way I knew how to look.

Telescopic vision. X-Ray vision. Infrared vision. Radio wave vision. I think I even hit 4-D vision for a minute there.

I didn't care. I opened my eyes to everything, never blinking. I searched the entire electromagnetic spectrum and a few more they don't have names for yet.

Space isn't black. It's just that people can't see well enough or far enough on their own to make any sense of it.

Well, I can.

I saw the entire universe that day. I saw the music of the spheres and opened my ears to listen. I heard planets sing and star-winds howl.

It was Beauty in a way I can never describe.

And there, among the cacophony of light and sound and time itself, it was, a little silver and green dot, hidden in the gravity "shadow" of a massive and most ancient red star.

Krypton. My birthplace.

I could have stared at it for hours.

Unfortunately, the combination of sensory overload, oxygen deprivation, and pure Cold caused me to pass out.

And so I fell to Earth for the second time in my life.

I woke up before I landed in the ocean and caused a tsunami or something. There was some stuff on the news later about a mysterious shooting star, even a few pictures from satellites. Luckily, I was too engulfed in flames to be seen. Especially since, thanks to the harsh effects of the trip on my clothes, I was naked.

I'm going to need to find some sturdier clothing if I plan to keep up this type of activity.

But there it was, and still is, in a way. Krypton. I could see it any time I wanted. But it was strange; the light itself was off somehow, it was "rootless." It wavered, almost like a mirage.

I know it takes time for even light to travel through space, and so what I'm actually looking at is Krypton from many decades ago, maybe even centuries. I knew all this then, too. But still…

I didn't tell my parents. Not then, anyway. I guess I was just afraid that they would be upset if I was looking into my real heritage. Like I was saying they weren't good enough, or something. I've heard that a lot of orphans have this same fear.

And also, I wasn't ready to talk about it yet. Talking about it would make it real, would make it "not mine," anymore. I just wasn't ready for other people's opinions on the subject, even if they were my two favorite people in the universe.

So I stayed quiet.

I played with the Egg a few more times, watching my real mother and father. I mean my birth mother and father. But after a while, I stopped. I was afraid that I would wear out the power source if I kept using it. And it's not like I could go out and buy new batteries.

And again, super memory. I was able to practically replay the message any time I wanted in my own head. And after the novelty wore off, I began dissecting the message. Specifically the language.

When my father spoke, the subtitles at the bottom of the image lit up each word. That's how I learned the name of the planet was Krypton. My father literally pointed to a picture of our world and said "Krypton."

It was in this same manner that I learned his name was Jor-El, and that my mother's was Lara. Those are just the transliteration of the sound they made. Say it out loud and that's what it sounded like.

My name is Kal-El.

I began to wonder what else would "light up" given the proper voice commands.

Turning my attention to the flat-screen tablet that was sent along with the Egg, I started to consider the possibility that, since there were no buttons to work, it might be voice-activated.

Not sure what would happen, I carried it into an empty field, far away from our house. Holding it at arms length, I took a deep breath and spoke one word.

"Krypton."

There was a slight hum as I felt the device power-up in my hands. Though it must have taken only a second for it to boot up, it felt like my heart stopped beating for a hundred years.

On the screen appeared, what else, but an image of the planet Krypton itself. Exactly how it looked in my father's diagram.

I reached down and touched the surface of the screen. Suddenly, the picture zoomed in on the area of land I had apparently "specified."

I was a mountain range comprised of what appeared to be crystal or jewel. Jewel Mountains. My finger moved along the screen and another area came into focus, depicting a jungle populated entirely with scarlet foliage. And even further up, there was a volcano spewing a substance that resembled molten gold.

Krypton.

It was strange. This world was so like my own. Earth, I mean. But it was like someone had given a child a coloring book of nature and let them use the wrong crayons. Even the sky, with its red sun, was unique. Instead of blue, it was a soft orange color.

I was like a world locked in an eternal sunset.

The ground itself looked fairly sparse. And not just in one place, but everywhere. Like a desert or something. It must have been a harsh landscape. But I guess that makes sense. My people and I must be so strong because the environment is so unforgiving. Evolution and survival of the fittest and all that.

But still, heat vision? I don't remember reading about that in Darwin's book.

Growing anxious, I moved the cursor around in a wide arc, trying to land on a city or habitation of any kind.

I found several. All clustered together in one corner of the main continent. I counted at least six. One seemed to be built on a city-plan resembling a star shape. Another was underwater. One had a strange feature where if you double tapped on the city, and the image was replaced with a giant crater with smooth edges. Like someone or something had just scooped the whole city up out of the ground.

But there was this one. One truly magnificent city, that seemed to combine aspects of all the others I saw. It was like ancient Rome mixed with Buck Rogers. Nothing but spires and turrets and skyscrapers, it was detailed throughout with the most remarkable crystalline structures that seemed draw power from the sun itself.

The closest thing I can compare it to in scope would be pictures I've seen of Metropolis from the 1920's. Back when they still called it the City of Tomorrow. I didn't know the name of this great city, but I couldn't help myself but call it Kryptonopolis.

Does that sound silly?

I spent days exploring Krypton and its wonders. Islands and canyons and lakes. There were even times when I could call up images of the life forms indigenous to the area. Some looked like dinosaurs, while others looked like monsters from Greek mythology. I couldn't imagine living in such a world.

Of course, I'm sure if I had, these things would seem commonplace to me. And in that instance, Earth would be the bizarre alien world. It was an interesting revelation. Like when you see a British actor doing an American accent for the first time and you think "How can you do an American accent? We don't have one, we talk normal." And then you realize that everyone thinks they talk normal and that everyone else talks funny.

It was days before I considered saying the name "Jor-El" at the book.

Jor-El, my father. It appears he was quite a man.

While I couldn't read any of the accompanying text, there was a multitude of images about him. Going back to even when he was a child, he was accepting awards, giving speeches, and working in a laboratory. I figure he must have been a scientist, and a good one at that.

A prodigy on a planet of geniuses. I was pretty proud.

My mother was in some of the pictures as well, standing by his side. They must have married young. I touched an image of her once and was shown many others of her. Not as many as my father, but still.

Lara must have been smart as well. She was usually depicted around machines that resembled my space ship. I wonder if Kryptonians had astronauts. They must have, given how advanced they were.

But, I then wondered, why didn't they just fly into space on their own, like I had done? The thought bothered me for a while, until I remember how long my trip into space had lasted, so maybe it just made more sense for even us Kryptonians to fly around in space ships.

I must say, I was having a pretty good time in my new fantasy world. I still hadn't told Ma and Pa. And I was spending more and more time thinking about Krypton.

Why had my parents sent me away? This was my main concern.

I mean, given my parent's love of science and rocket ships, I thought for a minute I might have been an experiment gone wrong. Like they sent me up to be the first baby in space, and I just kept going. But then, why the sorrowful goodbye message? Why place a text book of Kryptonian history in my ship?

That sounded more like those probes they send into space with music, pictures of humans and maps of our solar system. Was I some ambassador?

But given the mood of both my parents in the video, I had to assume they were sending me away for my own good. Like they didn't want to, but circumstances didn't leave them with too many options.

But what could be so bad that they would send me to another freaking planet?

In the end, just like in the beginning, it would be left up to my father to tell me the truth about Krypton.

One day, while looking through data about Jor-El, I found this video of him addressing a large group of older men. Like a council of elders or something.

He was making an impassioned speech. Clearly, my father was upset about something. Then he motioned to the large viewing screen behind him. On it appeared reams of numbers and hard data. It was all meaningless to me, until the Jor-El's presentation switched to a computer model of the planet Krypton literally cracking at the seams, blowing up like some great big bomb.

I could tell the people in the audience were having the exact same reaction I was. Stunned disbelief. A few stood up and began yelling at my father, shouting accusations.

Jor-El ignored them and continued with his address. On the screen came an image of my rocket ship. Only this one made mine look like a child's toy. Jor-El seemed to be telling the people that they needed to escape whatever was coming by building giant space Arks and fleeing the planet.

From there, things got ugly. A very wise and distinguished looking gentleman took the podium from my father and began to address the crowd. From the look on my father's face and the way everyone settled down, it was clear that this man was calling my father's theories into question, at best. At worst, he was calling Jor-El a fool.

There was more after that, much more. And I would view it all in the coming weeks. But right then, my stomach just couldn't take it. I left the book where I was and lifted myself into the cool air.

I flew higher and high, but even in my grief I was careful not to leave Earth's atmosphere. I gazed up at the universe, searching first for the ancient red star, and then for my silver and green pearl beside it.

I knew now why the image had been so hard to find, and why it wavered so, like a mirage on the wind. Krypton was no more.

Krypton was dead.

Well, it was official. I was alone in the universe. The last son of Krypton. I wanted to cry and laugh at the same time. Even though this was the most unreal situation I had ever heard of, I could help but think "Typical."

I stayed up there for a while, gazing at the stars. But then, after a while, something changed. After a while, I didn't feel so alone anymore. The universe was teeming with life, I'd seen it. Not just Earth, but everywhere. We're all here, together, in this universe.

And maybe, just maybe, I wasn't so different. I mean, sure I was from another planet, but aren't we all? Was being born on the planet Krypton really so different than being born in Germany or Brazil? From being born in Florida or Texas? Every place on Earth is different, and yet the same. I had the strangest feeling just then that that might hold true wherever you go in the universe.

So maybe I wasn't alone after all.

I told Ma and Pa.

Everything. Even the stuff I knew they'd be mad about. I showed them the book. I didn't show them the Egg, because I'm not sure it would even work for them. But really, I just wanted to keep that for myself. Besides, there were plenty of picture of Jor-El and Lara in the book for them to see.

I was so afraid that they would be sad or angry about everything. I guess I forgot that they are the two best people in the universe. They were so happy for me. They spent hours asking to see more and more of Krypton and my family. They asked questions that I hadn't even thought of, like if I was Kal-El, and my father was Jor-El, did that mean that El was our family name?

I tried it, and besides this strange and beautiful crest that looked like an infinity symbol trapped inside a red diamond, there was a whole section on the House of El, my distinguished ancestors.

But now I only spend the weekends looking at the book. I try to stay as grounded as can. I'll take it out to the field, under that old tree that was struck by lightning that time and look through the images and try to make up names for what I see, like Atomic City, Meteor Valley and the Arctic Fortress.

I may not have known my parents, and my home world might be long gone. But Jor-El and Lara loved me enough to let me go, to send me out into the world or the universe to find my own way. To have my own chance at life.

A life that I can use to help others. That's what I'm here for, I'm sure of it now. If it wasn't their plan, I think it was somebody's. To use my powers and abilities to help anyone who needs it.

I gazed into the universe and saw a world that died long ago. Much more than that, I saw worlds that still live. And I just can't let that go.

I touched infinity and infinity touched me back. I was filled with a sense of love and appreciation for all living things. Especially for the little blue-green world that has provided me safe harbor for all these years. And for the kindly couple that did the same.

No, I'm not alone. The universe has protected me all these years, and I think it's about time I did the same for it.

Now I just need to find some sturdier clothes.

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S-Shield's notes

Thanks for reading. I've always wanted to finish this story up. For anyone interested, the main thing I wanted to write about was my idea that those "silly" names for the places and cities of Krypton in the Silver Age were actually what Clark called them as a kid, before he could speak Kryptonese. As you can see, things kind of got away from me on that front.

I hope you enjoyed this. I've got a few ideas for similar stories set later in the life of this Clark Kent, so I hope to get around to those some day as well.

I just love Superman and Clark. And I wanted to share my view of them, one that was informed by every era and version of the characters.

Please, let me know what you think with a review.