June, 3009
Christopher Kent considered himself to be, for the most part, an easygoing guy. Yeah, being Superman had meant he had his share of fans, and he was slowly becoming used to people coming up out of the blue and demanding photos and autographs. But, crowds of people that followed him down the street, whispering and pointing from a distance?
That took a lot of getting used to.
Chris heard whispering behind him, and he resisted the urge to turn around and look at the huddle of children that was staring at him, nearby. A few seconds later, rapid footsteps came up from behind him and he felt something tug at his cape, quickly followed by the sound of the children bursting into laughter that was hastily-muffled as his best friend finally turned around and glared at them. Chris heaved a deep sigh and kept staring straight ahead as they kept walking.
"Just ignore them," Garth advised, as the children finally scattered.
"What do you think I've been trying to do?" Chris asked. "It's not like they're making this easy on me."
"People are excited to see you," Garth told him. "You're Superman, for crying out loud."
"Yeah, but I'm not the Superman they want to see," Chris reminded him. "Do they even realize that I'm not my dad?"
"It's the suit they're excited to see," Garth corrected him. "It could be a Jhindoran wearing the suit, and they'd be excited."
Chris took a moment to imagine one of the raccoon-faced Jhindorii wearing the suit, and shuddered at the image.
"I'm never getting that picture out of my head," he grumbled at Garth, who grinned at him.
"And that," he continued, a few seconds later. "That's just weird."
He gestured emphatically at the enormous statues of Clark Kent and Lois Lane-Kent that graced the plaza in front of the Daily Planet.
"I mean, it doesn't even look like my parents," he said.
"It's close enough," Garth said, as he looked the statues over.
"It's just-" Chris started to protest, and then he trailed off with a sigh.
"Your parents founded this utopia," Garth said. "Everything we have is due to them and people want to honor them for it. They teach your parents' origins in school, stores sell Superman dolls, there's even a Lois Lane breakfast cereal."
"You're kidding," Chris said, flatly, giving Garth an incredulous look.
"It's part of a nutritionally-balanced breakfast," Garth quoted the commercial, and Chris rolled his eyes.
"My mother has been turned into a breakfast cereal," he grumbled. "Now I really have seen everything."
"It's not a bad cereal," Garth told him.
"You are such a geek," Chris said, in exasperation. Then, "So, why did you come back to twenty-thirty-three and get me, anyway? I doubt it was just for a visit."
"It's the Time Trapper," Garth told him, and Chris turned to his friend, his eyes widening in panic.
"Is he loose?" he demanded, furiously.
"No," Garth reassured him, quickly, and Chris let out a sigh of relief.
If he never had to deal with the Time Trapper again, it would be too soon. Shortly after he'd taken on the mantle of Superman, the Time Trapper had shown up and tried to kill both him and his father. With his father incapacitated by a nearly fatal Kryptonite infection (the whole reason Chris had taken up the suit in the first place) it had been up to Chris to try and stop the Time Trapper.
He'd almost lost his first major battle, had come uncomfortably close to losing his life, had it not been for the Legion. The time-travelers had stepped in at the eleventh hour and their arrival had distracted the Time Trapper long enough for Chris to get the upper hand. But their victory hadn't come without its costs, and after turning the Time Trapper over to the thirty-first century authorities, Chris had joined the Legion in mourning their fallen members.
"He's being extradited," Garth was saying, drawing Chris out of his thoughts and back to the present.
"Extradited where?" Chris asked, figuring Garth was still talking about the Time Trapper.
"The prison colony on Mars," Garth told him. "The Manhunters have sent out a team to collect him."
"Wouldn't the Phantom Zone be a better choice for holding the Time Trapper?" Chris asked, skeptically. "There have been some escapes from the Mars prison colony in the past."
"Not for over three hundred years," Garth informed him, and Chris was reminded just how different this time was from the one he'd left. "And, besides, the Manhunters were awarded custody of the Time Trapper by the Intergalactic Council, and they chose the prison colony."
Chris shrugged, admitting defeat. "So, where's he being held?" he asked.
"The Time Institute," Garth said, "on the other side of the city."
Chris grinned, floating upward until he was about twenty feet in the air.
"Race ya," he said, challengingly.
Grinning, Garth activated his flight ring and rocketed up into the air, zipping away quickly.
"Hey!" Chris yelped, flying after him. "That's cheating!"
He raced his friend to the Time Institute, and when they landed together on the roof, they declared it a draw. Garth led him through the maze of hallways until they reached the holding cells in the basement, where the Time Trapper was being led out of his cell. Rokk and Imra, the other Legionnaires who had as much stake in seeing the Time Trapper put away for good, were waiting for them.
Chris watched as the Time Trapper, his arms and legs still secured by heavy manacles, was loaded into the waiting transport pod by several burly prison guards. One of the guards sealed the pod as it closed with a soft hiss and then turned control of the pod over to the team of Manhunters waiting to escort the Time Trapper to his new prison.
Chris and the Legion had just turned to leave when the Time Trapper spoke up from behind them, "Don't I get any last words?"
"You don't deserve them," one of the Manhunters snapped, but Chris had already turned around to face the monster that had ended so many lives.
"What do you have to say?" he demanded, and the Time Trapper smiled, coldly.
"You will rue this day, Superman," he vowed. "These chains will not hold me forever, and when I escape, I will destroy everything you love and hold dear."
Chris glared at the Time Trapper, who simply smirked at him, and then he turned to the Captain of the Manhunter Squad.
"You know, I think we'll go with you," he remarked, ignoring the Time Trapper's threats. "Just to make sure you don't have any trouble with him." He gestured dismissively at the Time Trapper, and the prisoner's eyes blazed with hate.
"The assistance of the Legion is always welcome," the Captain told them. "Even on as menial a job as escort duty."
At the Captain's words, the Time Trapper let out a low, inarticulate growl, struggling futilely against his bonds.
"Don't underestimate him, Captain," Garth spoke up, nodding his head at the Time Trapper. "We lost a lot of good people that way."
"He's been completely restrained," the Captain said, not even bothering to lower his voice as he shot the Time Trapper a contemptuous glare. "What's the worst that could happen?"
Chris didn't consider himself a superstitious man, but looking back later, he felt certain that the Captain's dismissive words had jinxed them from the start. They hadn't even made it halfway to their destination when the Time Trapper broke out of his containment, killing three of the Manhunter guards in the process. And by the time Chris and the other Legionnaires had reached the guards' bodies, too late to do anything to help them, the Time Trapper had already made his escape.
"Damn it!" Chris swore, furiously, as they searched futilely for any minute trace the Time Trapper might have left behind. "I should have been here watching him, myself."
"You couldn't have known this was going to happen," Imra pointed out, sensibly, but Chris just shook his head. He was still too angry with himself for letting his guard down to even consider thinking rationally about the situation.
"I've got him!" Rokk spoke up, suddenly, startling everyone. "Or, a trace of him, anyway."
"Can we use it to track the Time Trapper?" Chris demanded of his teammate.
"Well, sort of," came Rokk's answer, as he looked up from the scanner. "It's not going to be one hundred percent accurate, but-"
"But it's the best we've got, and it'll have to do," Chris finished for him, grimly. "Let's get going, before we lose him, again."
"He might not act right away," Garth said. "He could be biding his time, trying to come up with a plan."
"He's already got a plan," Chris reminded him. "He's going to 'destroy everything I love and hold dear.' That means going after my family."
"We'll stop him before he gets that chance," Imra promised.
"We're locked onto his signal," Rokk announced, breaking into their conversation. "We need to move now, folks."
Chris, Imra, and Garth activated their flight rings and set the tracking devices to the temporal coordinates that Rokk gave them, and a few seconds later, Chris felt the strange tugging sensation that he'd come to associate with traveling through time. It almost felt like flying, only he wasn't the one doing the moving.
November, 2008
Chris could never tell how long they were in transit; time travel tended to distort his internal clock, and he hadn't yet found a watch that could survive the trip through time without breaking. And, as was usual when they landed, Chris felt sick to his stomach, and had to take several deep breaths of the cool, evening air to banish the queasy sensation he felt.
"When are we?" Garth asked, looking around.
"November, of the year two thousand and eight," Imra replied, promptly.
"Where did you find a mind to read?" Rokk asked, looking around. "There are no people here."
"There are cars, so there have to be people," Chris pointed out.
"I read this," Imra told her teammates, passing over a piece of paper she'd grabbed off the ground.
"We celebrate the wedding of Chloe Sullivan and Jimmy Olsen on this sixteenth day of November, two thousand and eight," Rokk read off the wedding announcement. "The Time Trapper showed up to screw with your aunt's wedding?" he asked Chris.
"What better time to get all of my family together in one place?" Chris asked, darkly.
"So, we must be at the Kent farm," Garth spoke up, suddenly, as he looked around at their surroundings. "Imagine; we're in the spot where Superman grew up!"
"And Chris," Imra pointed out, and Garth grinned sheepishly at the pointed reminder that the man he was currently gushing over was also the father of his best friend.
"Well, technically, I grew up in Metropolis," Chris replied, absently, taking his own look around the farm. "If this is Chloe and Jimmy's wedding, where are all the people?"
"Inside, maybe," Rokk suggested, gesturing to the house, and Chris started toward it, rapidly, while his teammates hurried to catch up.
"You can't just walk in there!" Imra insisted, when Chris slowly opened the door off the kitchen and stepped inside.
"This is my house," Chris pointed out, and Imra glared at him.
"Not for another few years," she protested.
"I think stopping the Time Trapper is more important than a little breaking and entering," Chris retorted.
"And, really, the door wasn't locked, so it's only entering," Garth spoke up, and Imra turned her withering glare on him.
"You're not helping," she hissed, and Garth just shrugged, nonchalantly.
"I'm with Chris on this one," he told her. "Besides, we might get to meet Clark Kent and Lois Lane!"
"You've met my parents," Chris said, frowning at him, puzzled.
"Yeah, but not before they were famous," Garth insisted, as if that made all the difference. "I mean, your dad isn't even Superman, yet."
Chris just shook his head in exasperation as he continued his prowl through the house.
"Da – Clark?" he called out, catching himself at the last second. "Clark? Lois?"
"I don't think there's anyone in here," Rokk said, as he came down the stairs where he and Imra had finished searching the second story.
"Then, where are they?" Chris asked, puzzled.
As if in answer, they heard a faint scream from outside the house. Chris bolted out of the house before his teammates could even begin to react to the noise, and headed for the barn where the screams had come from. He was moving at super speed, but it didn't feel fast enough, and he was afraid he wasn't going to get to the barn in time. Then, right as he went through the double doors, he slammed into something coming out of the barn.
He caught a brief impression of something huge and black towering over him, and then it felt like a runaway bullet train had hit him in the chest.
Chris went flying backward and hit the ground, hard, digging a long trench in the driveway before he finally managed to stop his headlong flight. He staggered to his feet in time to see some sort of monster headed toward him, and he braced himself for another attack, even as he recognized the monster and realized that his chances of survival were slim at best.
'My father wasn't afraid to face you,' Chris thought, determinedly, 'and neither am I.'
Doomsday ambled toward him at an almost agonizingly-slow pace, and Chris took the time to further settle himself where he was standing. He took several deep breaths, centering himself and focusing everything he had on the singular threat that loomed before him. Chris knew that he was only likely to get one shot in, and he needed to make it count.
Then, as Doomsday got even closer, Chris took off from where he was standing, and now he was the one who hit Doomsday with the force of a runaway train. Doomsday staggered backward when Chris struck him, and while the monster still seemed disoriented, Chris drew his arm back and slammed his fist into Doomsday's face.
Doomsday's head snapped back from the force of the blow, which would likely have decapitated any other being. Then, Doomsday let out an inhuman snarl of rage, grabbing Chris and hurling him through the air.
Chris landed in the same trench that he'd created the first time, and when he tried to get back on his feet, his legs buckled as a blinding pain shot through his body. He instinctively clutched at his ribs as he fell, and when he pulled his hands away, he was shocked to see blood covering his fingers.
He heard footsteps, and when he jerked his head up he saw Doomsday coming toward him again, but the monster stopped when a voice came from behind it.
"Either finish him or leave him, Doomsday," a woman snapped, irritably, and Chris watched in numb disbelief as Chloe walked over to the monster. "You're as bad as a cat playing with a mouse before he kills it."
"This one's a Kryptonian, too," Doomsday growled.
"Oh, really," Chloe said, and now there was a speculative tone in her voice. "I wonder-"
Whatever she'd been about to say was lost in a high-pitched whining sound that nearly deafened Chris. Doomsday and Chloe reacted as well, both cringing away from the sound, hands over their ears. An instant later, something struck both of them, sending them flying backward, and the resultant flare of light blinded Chris for a few seconds. When his vision had cleared, Doomsday and Chloe were nowhere in sight and his teammates had surrounded him, pulling him quickly to his feet.
"Geez, Chris," Garth burst out, frantically, as Chris leaned heavily on him and Rokk for support in staying upright. "You're hurt!"
"How do you get hurt?" Rokk demanded, incredulously. "What was that thing?"
"That was Doomsday," Chris told them, still trying to wrap his mind around the idea of his aunt working with that monster.
When his teammates loudly expressed their disbelief, Chris shook his head, silencing their protests.
"That was Doomsday," he repeated, firmly.
"Then, if there was anyone in that barn-" Imra said, her voice trailing off, quietly, and Chris stared at her in horror as he remembered where he'd originally been headed.
He started for the barn, but almost immediately his legs tried to buckle underneath him. He caught himself before he hit the ground, and forced himself to take several more steps on shaky legs, not willing to let himself fall. Determinedly, he continued to the barn, his teammates right in step with him, and Chris steeled himself for what they were likely to find.
Then, he found himself almost laughing when they weren't confronted by the massacre he'd been expecting. He'd been expecting nothing less than a bloodbath where Doomsday was concerned, people scattered around the barn like broken dolls. Instead, he found himself facing wailing, screaming people, and the rush of relief nearly knocked him off his feet.
Chris took a quick look around the barn, automatically assessing the damage, and he took in glimpses of the scene: a woman with a makeshift bandage around her leg, a man slumped over against a cracked support beam, seemingly unconscious, and an older man holding his bloodstained hands over the stomach wound of a younger man.
Chris went immediately over to the last pair, knowing that was where he could be the most useful, even as his teammates moved to help the other people in the barn. The older man looked up, briefly, as Chris approached, growling out, "Where's that damn ambulance?"
Then, he really looked at Chris, and his jaw dropped open in shock. Chris knew the man didn't really see him, just the suit, and even covered in blood and dust (or maybe because of it) it was an impressive sight.
"I can get him to the hospital faster than any ambulance," Chris told the man, trying to hide his shock at seeing Jimmy Olsen lying half-dead on the floor of the barn. "I'm not going to hurt him; you have to trust me."
"You're that Red and Blue Blur," the man (his grandfather, Chris realized in amazement) said, his eyes narrowing in recognition. "Why the hell didn't you stop this?"
"I couldn't," Chris answered quietly, and even if it was the truth, it was the hardest thing he'd ever had to say. "But I can still help him."
He nodded at Jimmy, waiting anxiously for Sam Lane's answer, and then the older man grunted out an affirmative as he eased back from Jimmy.
"Take care of him," he growled out. "That boy's family."
Chris only nodded as he scooped the unconscious man into his arms, nearly collapsing as the extra weight added more strain to his injured leg. He forced himself to ignore the pain, and floated straight up into the air though a hole in the roof, likely the spot where Doomsday had entered.
Once his weight was off his leg, Chris felt immediately better, and he soared through the sky to Metropolis General Hospital, which he knew was going to be better equipped to deal with Jimmy's injuries than the Smallville Medical Center. A few short seconds later, he landed in front of the emergency room doors, and when the doors slid open, he strode though, to the utter amazement of the staff and patients inside.
"Sir, can I help you?" one of the nurses asked, staring at him in shock.
"This man needs help," Chris told her, laying Jimmy gently down on an empty gurney, and the woman's shock turned to horror when she saw Jimmy's wounds.
"I need a surgeon here, now!" the nurse yelled, down the hallway, as people jumped to help her. "Sir-"
But Chris had already flown through the doors, and her voice was faint behind him. He headed back to the farm, quickly, stopping when Imra's voice sounded in his head. He knew from recent experience that he wasn't very good at flying while conversing telepathically; flocks of birds had a lot to fear from him when he was distracted.
'Imra, what's up?' he asked, as he hovered.
'You need to get back here,' she told him, her mental voice tight with anxiety.
'I'm on my way,' he reassured her. 'Does someone else need to get to the hospital?'
'Just – just get here,' Imra said. 'Chris, hurry.'
Chris zipped through the sky, back to the farm, and landed in the middle of the barn fast enough that he sunk half a foot into the floor. At first, he didn't see what had Imra so upset, but then his gaze fell on the unconscious man leaning against the support beam. Only, the man wasn't unconscious, and he wasn't some random wedding guest, like Chris had first assumed.
He stared in shock at his father, slumped on the floor of the barn, and then almost reluctantly looked down at the woman he was cradling in his arms. For a few seconds, Chris almost couldn't comprehend what he was staring at.
His mother's sightless eyes stared up at him, her broken, bleeding body looking more like a discarded doll than anything once living. As the reality of the situation slowly sunk in, Chris had to literally suppress the animalistic scream that threatened to tear from his throat. He heard a faint whimper coming from somewhere, and when Imra laid a hand on his arm, he realized that the sound had to be coming from him.
Tearing himself away from the gruesome scene, he stumbled to the entrance of the barn, gulping in deep breaths of fresh air as he desperately tried to control the urge to be violently sick.
'Chris-' Imra started, hesitantly, but Chris cut her off, abruptly.
'Just leave me alone for a second, okay?' he asked. 'I – I can't deal with this.'
'You are not the only one in pain,' Imra told him. 'Kal-el's grief runs deep.'
'I know,' Chris replied. 'But, how could he let this happen? Why didn't he stop this? Why didn't I stop this?'
'Chris, you weren't here,' Imra reminded him. 'We didn't get here in time.'
Chris whipped his head around at her words, staring at her in dumbfounded shock. Why hadn't he thought of that? If all they needed was time…
Chris slowly closed his hand around his flight ring, turning the ring over and over around his finger as he focused on the exact time he needed to go back to. He'd almost gotten it remembered down to the second when Rokk startled him by grabbing his arm. Even as he turned to demand what Rokk thought he was doing, a slight electrical charge jolted through him, and he whirled around to stare at Garth in disbelief.
"What are you doing?" he demanded, his voice hard with anger.
"Stopping you," Rokk said, firmly. "You know the flight rings aren't supposed to be used like that."
"Do you really think I care about that right now?" Chris growled. "Do you really think that I have any concern for what we're supposed to do?"
"I know you don't," Rokk snapped back. "That's why we're stopping you. You're not thinking straight."
"I'm trying to save her life," Chris told him, determinedly, stabbing a finger back toward where Lois lay. "I'm not going to let her die."
"It's out of our hands, Chris," Garth protested. "You know the rules."
"Screw the rules!" Chris practically yelled, taking a step towards his teammates only to find himself being forced back by Rokk.
Unthinkingly, he raised a fist as he forced himself through the magnetic field, but then he stopped when someone stepped directly in front of him. Clark put a hand on his chest, and Chris instantly obeyed the unspoken command in his father's eyes.
"Knock it off, all of you," Clark snapped, his voice hoarse from crying. "What did you mean, you could save Lois?"
"Time travel," Chris answered, instantly, but Clark was already shaking his head.
"I already used that option," he said, anger and regret in his voice. "I never should have-"
"Not the Fortress," Chris interrupted him, quickly. "Through these."
Even as his teammates glared at him, Chris dropped his flight ring into Clark's outstretched hand, and Clark turned it over in his hand, slowly.
"How does it work?" Clark asked, ignoring the seething going on behind him, and focusing on Chris as the one who would answer his questions.
"You just put it on and think of when you want to go," Chris told him. "It helps if you know the exact time you want to appear in."
"I know it," Clark replied, looking down at the ring, as though transfixed. "I just put it on?"
"We're not allowed to do this!" Rokk burst out, angrily, clearly no longer able to contain himself.
"Maybe we are," Imra spoke up, before Chris could turn on his friend in a fury. When everyone looked at her in surprise, she added, "Clearly, this is due to the Time Trapper's interference. We're allowed to fix whatever problems he causes."
"Then we go back," Chris stated, now that the issue had been settled.
"We still can't do it," Garth said, and when Chris whirled on him, he hastened to add, "We'll never make it in time. We were still traveling when Doomsday attacked."
"Then I'll come with you," Clark spoke up, startling them. "I was here in the barn. I can get to that monster before he hurts anyone, now that I know what's going to happen."
"Then one of us has to stay here," Imra realized. "We only have four flight rings."
"Five," Garth spoke up, sheepishly, digging a ring out of his pocket. "I brought an extra, since I always keep losing the darn things."
"I've never been more grateful for your inability to keep things around," Chris told him, happily, as he accepted the ring Garth held out.
Clark had already slipped Chris's flight ring onto his finger, and he disappeared a second later in a flash of light. Shoving the spare ring onto his own finger, Chris focused on the time before they'd landed, before Doomsday had attacked. The tugging sensation of traveling increased until he felt like he was being pulled apart, and then he landed in the driveway in front of the house, almost overwhelmed by the nausea of time travel.
A crashing sound from around the corner had him sprinting around to the barn, and he saw Clark knock Doomsday halfway across the yard with one blow. The monster roared in fury, and Chris flew towards him as he charged at Clark, hitting Doomsday in the chest and driving him backward, through the fence.
He hit Doomsday hard while the monster was still down, and then in an unsettling sense of déjà vu, he found himself being hurled backward through the air. He hit something as he landed, and rolled over to find that he'd landed on Clark, who'd placed himself in the way to stop his flight.
He and Clark sprang to their feet at the same time, both speeding towards Doomsday to hit the monster as one. They hit Doomsday hard enough to create a crater in the middle of the driveway where they'd landed, and, from the way the monster was lying there, it didn't look like Doomsday was going to get up, again.
Chris stepped back, breathing a sigh of relief. He couldn't believe he'd gone up against Doomsday and survived. Twice, no less. Then again, nothing else had seemed to go right since they'd started out on their escort duty…
Chris almost didn't see the hand that slammed into the side of his face, sending him flying backward. He did, however, have plenty of time to see Doomsday looming over him, speeding toward him. He struggled to get out of the trench he'd created when he landed, when Doomsday suddenly disappeared from his field of view.
Looking up, he saw to his amazement that Clark had grabbed Doomsday and lifted him into the air, flying at least one hundred feet up. The monster was struggling in Clark's grip, but Clark was relentless as he held onto Doomsday, taking them higher and higher into the sky.
Then, just as Chris was wondering what his father was up to, Clark stopped flying and simply dropped like a stone. With Doomsday directly beneath him, he hit the middle of an empty field hard enough to shake the ground all the way over to the house. Chris bolted out to where he had landed, and saw something streak away from the spot at an incredibly high speed.
He reached the middle of the field, and looked down into the deep crater to see Clark climbing to his feet, a slightly dazed look on his face.
"Are you okay?" Chris called down, anxiously.
"Where did that monster go?" Clark asked, as he jumped out of the hole to land beside Chris.
"He took off," Chris told him, and Clark swore, softly.
"He's still out there," he growled, under his breath.
"Not for long," Chris told him, even as he struggled against telling Clark everything about his future battle against Doomsday.
Clark shot him a suspicious look. "Who are you people?" he demanded. "That whole time travel thing worked, so I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt, but I want some answers, now."
Chris jerked his head back toward the barn, taking off into the air a second later with Clark hot on his heels. Clark skidded on the gravel of the driveway for about twenty feet when he landed and then walked back to join them, the soles of his dress shoes smoking slightly.
"Answers," he repeated, insistently. "Who are you people?"
"We are the Legion," Rokk told him, a proud smile gracing his features. "We come from the thirty-first century."
"The thirty-first century," Clark echoed, skeptically, but Garth interrupted him.
"This is such an honor," he gushed, grabbing Clark's hand and pumping it enthusiastically. "You are my biggest hero, seriously."
Clark's eyebrows shot up in disbelief, but he didn't have time to say anything before they were interrupted.
"You're ruining my plans."
Chris turned at the sound of Chloe's voice and saw her strolling out of the barn. Lois was walking in front of her, and Chris couldn't figure out why she was moving so stiffly until he x-rayed her and saw, to his horror, Chloe pressing a knife sharply into Lois's back. Lois had a furious look on her face, and when Clark focused his hearing, he could hear her growling threats to Chloe under her breath.
"I have your friends, Kal-el," Chloe called out, and Chris looked quickly around to see if Chloe was holding anyone else captive. "If you try anything, they both die."
"We destroyed you," Clark snapped, and the look of rage on his face was a match for Lois's. "Jor-el-"
"Jor-el," Chloe echoed, mockingly. "I'm a more advanced computer than that little AI could ever hope to become."
"Brainiac," Chris said, flatly, as the last piece of the puzzle fell into place.
Brainiac looked over at the sound of his voice and stretched Chloe's mouth into a sneer.
"What are you and your little friends supposed to be?" he demanded. "Aren't you a little late for Halloween?"
At his words, Rokk got a grimly determined look on his face and Garth did an almost hilarious double take as he looked automatically down at his dark blue costume. Chris snuck a look at Imra to see her reaction, but the telepath stood as if frozen, her gaze locked on Brainiac and Lois. For a moment, Chris was afraid that Brainiac had done something to her, but then he was startled by the sound of her voice in his head.
'When she drops, hit Brainiac with everything you've got.'
'You can't mean that!' Chris protested, immediately, knowing that using all of his strength would likely kill Chloe, but then he realized that Imra hadn't just been talking to him.
'One electromagnetic pulse coming right up,' Rokk told her, and Garth echoed his determination a heartbeat later.
Chris looked over at Clark, but from the way his father's gaze had never left Brainiac and Lois, it was clear that he hadn't caught any of the last few seconds' conversation. Briefly, Chris wondered how Clark would react to their attack on his best friend.
But, there was no more time to think about it because Imra suddenly shouted, 'Lois, down!' and his mother threw herself forward and to the ground with an almost remarkable speed. Even as Chris raced forward to get her out of the line of fire, something shot past him at an even faster speed, and Chris had to suddenly swerve to keep from getting in the way. A millisecond later, Rokk and Garth's electromagnetic pulse streaked past him to slam into Brainiac, slamming him into the ground, and Chris changed his direction to pin Brainiac down, in case the supercomputer wasn't as disabled as they thought.
Having Brainiac secured, he looked around for Lois, and found her hovering with Clark about twenty feet off the ground, safely in his arms. Chris took a moment to appreciate the sight of his parents safe and unharmed, and then he had to turn his attention back to Brainiac, who'd started to struggle on the ground. Chris levered more of his weight onto his hands, pushing Brainiac more firmly into the ground, but he knew the supercomputer had endowed Chloe's body with his Kryptonian abilities, and he wouldn't be able to hold him for long.
"Whatever you've got planned," Chris snapped, as his teammates came up from behind him, "you better do it now."
"I actually hadn't thought that far," Imra admitted, in a small voice, and Brainiac laughed harshly at her.
"Some heroes you turned out to be," he said, mockingly.
"The only way to destroy Brainiac is to destroy the host," Rokk said, ignoring Brainiac's comment.
"No one's killing anyone," Clark spoke up, startling them.
"Then what do you suggest?" Rokk snapped, glaring up at Clark.
"Can you generate a pulse to fry Brainiac without harming Chloe?" Clark asked, looking over at Garth.
"I – I think," Garth said, hesitantly.
"Seriously, hurry it up!" Chris snapped, as he struggled to keep Brainiac from throwing him off.
Brainiac managed to force him up long enough to get almost halfway off the ground, and then Chloe's head snapped back and her body slumped to the ground. Chris whipped his head around to stare at Lois, who stepped back from them, her hand still clenched in a fist.
"Thanks," he said, quietly.
"That's still not going to last very long," Lois said, "so you still need to hurry."
Whatever she was going to say next was lost in a loud roar, and Chris looked over Lois's shoulder to see an all-too-familiar figure stalking toward them.
"Hold Brainiac!" Chris snapped, grabbing Clark's arm and yanking him forward even as he shot up and bolted past the small group to meet the Time Trapper.
A part of him worried about what he was leaving behind him, but he pushed it away. He had to trust that his teammates and his parents could handle Brainiac; he had another problem to deal with.
Halfway to the Time Trapper, Chris was hit with a burst of energy that sent him spiraling through the air, wildly, and it took him too long to stop his headlong rush through the sky. By the time he'd righted himself, the Time Trapper had almost reached the small group dealing with Brainiac, and with a wordless snarl of rage, Chris streaked down and grabbed him by the shoulders, physically hauling him into the air, away from the group.
The Time Trapper somehow twisted in his grip and Chris felt another burst of energy strike him in the stomach, hard enough to make him drop the Time Trapper. He landed on the ground, breathing hard and holding an arm protectively over his injured stomach, glaring at the Time Trapper, who'd landed several yards away.
"What the hell are you?" he growled, furiously.
"You didn't think I was just sitting back while the Brain Interactive Construct was enacting one part of my plan, did you?" the Time Trapper asked, in a mocking tone. "I was improving myself."
"What does that mean?" Chris demanded, impatiently.
"I am all of me, now," the Time Trapper told him, and Chris felt his blood run cold at the words.
The Time Trapper was probably the only being in the universe capable of crossing parallel dimensions freely, and if he'd done what Chris was afraid of, if he'd merged with even one of his parallel counterparts…
"All of them, actually," the Time Trapper said, as if he'd read Chris's mind. "As many as I could summon to me. I possess their knowledge, their experience, and their power. I am unstoppable."
"No one's unstoppable," Chris snapped back, automatically.
He charged the Time Trapper, again, but was stopped by crackling energy field that formed a ring around the villain several feet wide. The more he pushed at it to force his way through, the more the field resisted. The energy ate at his skin where he touched the field, increasing in intensity until his hands, his arms, and finally his whole body felt like it was on fire. And inside the force field, the Time Trapper just stood there, smirking smugly at him.
Chris redoubled his efforts to get through, even though he was doing little more than exhausting himself fighting against it, but he couldn't just sit back and do nothing. Chris fired off a burst of his heat vision, cursing when it simply slid off the energy field to burn a hole in the ground.
Then, he watched in horror as the Time Trapper flicked out a hand, and the bolt of energy he released went through the energy field to strike Chris in the stomach, driving him back a few feet. Chris's hands immediately went to his stomach and when he pulled them away, they were covered in bright red blood. Just like when he'd fought Doomsday. The disturbing comparison made Chris's blood run cold.
"How does it feel, Superman?" the Time Trapper called out, mockingly. "Knowing that you're going to die without even getting near me?"
"Seems to me like you're too much of a coward to face me on your own," Chris taunted back, refusing to rise to the bait.
The Time Trapper glared at him, letting off another burst of energy. Chris took the hard blow with a soft grunt of pain, forcing himself to keep moving forward. In the distance, he heard the faint scream of a siren.
'Great,' he thought, annoyed. 'Someone called the police, and they're going to blunder straight into this without having any idea what's going on.'
Chris hit the field a third time, refusing to give any ground even with the Time Trapper firing a continuous volley of energy blasts at him. Muttering curses at the Time Trapper under his breath, he dug his heels into the ground and shoved at the field with his shoulder, slowly forcing his way through. He felt the shield grow stronger, suddenly, and looked up to see that the Time Trapper had shifted the energy around in front of him to keep Chris from getting through.
Chris kept moving, determinedly, and had actually gotten part of the way through when he felt the energy field falter, and the Time Trapper stumbled forward suddenly, propelled off-balance by something from behind him.
He whirled around to confront this new threat, and Lois hit him again with the lead pipe she held in her hands, watching dispassionately as he crumpled to the ground from the force of the second blow.
"Why is it the really powerful ones always have glass jaws?" Lois asked rhetorically.
Chris took a step toward her, opening his mouth to say something, but he couldn't force any words out. Black spots danced in his vision, and he felt himself swaying dangerously as his legs threatened to buckle beneath him. He stumbled forward when he couldn't hold himself upright any longer, and collapsed into Lois's arms.
They fell hard to the ground, Lois shoving herself underneath Chris so that his head and shoulders hit her legs instead of the gravel of the driveway.
"Smallville!" Lois shouted, and her voice sounded far away to Chris's ears. "Smallville, get over here!"
Footsteps got louder, and then there were more people bending over them. Chris could hear them, faintly, but he couldn't force his eyes open far enough to see the anxious looks he knew had to be on their faces.
"Give him here," Clark said, quietly.
Chris felt Clark wrap his arms around his shoulders, hauling him up to slump against the other man's chest. He tried to stand on his own feet, but his legs wouldn't cooperate, and Clark was the only reason he didn't fall back to the ground.
He felt Clark's legs bend, and then his father pushed them off the ground, soaring quickly through the air. The air thinned and Chris's head was soon spinning from the lack of oxygen.
"Hold on," Clark told him, quietly. "We're almost there."
True to his word, a few seconds later, Chris felt the heat of the sun hitting him. Chris felt his pain recede as the sun hit him, and he found it easier to move. Clark drifted them both closer until the heat was almost unbearable for even them, until neither of them could hold their breath against the complete lack of atmosphere.
He then flew them back down to Earth, and once back in the atmosphere, he let go of Chris who fell nearly half a mile before catching himself and hovering in the sky.
"You okay?" Clark asked, flying down to join him.
Chris nodded. "I did not like that," he decided, after a few seconds of silence.
"What, falling?" Clark asked, confused.
"No, getting hurt," Chris answered, sheepishly. "I like my invulnerability. Really like it," he stressed, emphatically.
Clark let out a soft chuckle, nodding in agreement. Then, he sobered up as he looked pointedly at Chris's suit.
"You're wearing the El symbol," he stated flatly. "You're not just some random Kryptonian from the future, are you?"
"It's my family's symbol," Chris hedged, as their conversation quickly veered into dangerous territory.
"Who are you?" Clark asked, insistently, an echo of his earlier demand.
There was no anger in his voice, only curiosity, and Chris sighed in defeat. Imra was going to kill him.
"My name is Christopher Kent," he admitted, quietly. "I'm your son."
Clark's eyes bugged out, comically, and Chris smiled weakly.
"Hi, Dad," he said, and Clark's mouth dropped open in shock.
He looked like he was about to say something, but then he looked suddenly down, his gaze sharpening.
"Lois is calling me," he said, absently.
"Wow," Chris remarked. "You really are attuned to Mom's voice."
He darted away, flying back down to Earth. It took Clark a few seconds to realize that he'd thrown that last bit in there to shock him, and then he yelled an indignant, "Get back here!" after Chris, who laughed as he slowed down to wait for Clark.
They landed in the same field as before, Clark stumbling when his feet hit the ground. He wound up tumbling end over end before he popped back up to his feet, and he shot a suspicious look at Chris, who had pasted his most innocent look on his face to hide his smirk.
"I didn't say anything," he protested, before Clark could accuse him of laughing.
Clark just shook his head in exasperation as he started across the field to the barn. Grinning, Chris hurried to catch up.
"My son," Clark said, after they walked in silence for a few seconds. "You don't look like me. Or Lois," he added, doubtfully, eyeing Chris's blond hair.
Chris just shrugged, knowing any sort of detailed explanation was going to be rendered moot anyway, as soon as Imra found out and erased it from Clark's mind. Catching sight of the police car parked in the driveway, he spun out of the suit and into the jeans and t-shirt he'd been wearing when Garth came to pick him up.
"You're not dressed very convincingly as a wedding guest," Clark told him. "But," he added a second later, "I don't think that'll be a problem."
Chris looked where he indicated and saw John Jones talking quietly to his teammates. A small group of people was huddled nearby, whispering in hushed voices as they stared at John, and as they got closer, Chris recognized the Manhunter Captain and his team.
"Captain," Chris greeted, coolly. "I see the cavalry finally decided to show up."
The Captain gave him a hard look before recognition dawned, as he wasn't used to seeing Chris without the suit. He returned Chris's greeting with a short nod.
"Superman," he returned, his voice clipped. "We had to return to the Time Institute to obtain their help, and now we're here to escort the prisoner-"
"To the Phantom Zone," Chris finished, cutting him off. "I don't care what your extradition order says," he continued, over the Captain's incredulous sputtering. "He goes to the Phantom Zone. He's too dangerous to be held anywhere else."
"The Council will hear of this insolence," the Captain threatened, unwilling to back down in front of his men. Chris just shrugged; he knew he was in the right on this one.
"I'm sure they will also hear of this young man's heroic efforts to subdue such a dangerous criminal, will they not?" a new voice spoke up, and Chris smirked when John's arrival had the Captain and the other Manhunters snapping to rigid attention.
"J'onn J'onnz!" one of the Manhunters whispered excitedly, at the back of the group, but John ignored him in favor of waiting for the Captain's answer.
"They will," the Captain admitted, grudgingly, after nearly a minute of sullen silence.
"I assume you brought a new containment pod?" Chris asked, as his teammates brought the still-unconscious Time Trapper over to the group.
"It's much stronger than the old one," one of the Manhunters spoke up, quickly. "He won't escape from this one."
He showed Chris a small golden crystal, and Chris nodded in approval at the sight of one of the Fortress's crystals.
"Good," Chris said. "Take him straight to the Phantom Zone."
The Captain glared at him, and Chris stared back, unperturbed.
"You won't win in a fight against me, Captain," he said, softly. "Not even against the Council."
One more glare, and the man stepped aside so that Chris could take the crystal. Turning to face the Time Trapper, he ran a finger down the side, activating it and watching as the Time Trapper was sucked inside. He handed the crystal off to the Captain, who took the crystal and disappeared without another word. A second later, his men followed behind.
"So," John said to Clark, into the silence that followed, "who is this young man? These people," he nodded at Chris's teammates, "were mysteriously vague on that issue."
"He's-" Clark began, but that was as far as he got before Imra's eyes widened in surprise and she glared at Chris in annoyance.
She shifted that glare to Clark, who's eyes went out of focus for a second, and then he shook his head in confusion. John had the same look on his face.
"I don't remember what I was talking about," Clark remarked, not seemingly concerned about it.
"Those were Manhunters," John said, staring at the spot where the group had been. "They knew my name. I thought I was the last of my people."
"Join the club," Clark muttered, sarcastically.
Then, he turned at the sound of footsteps, and they watched as Lois walked out of the barn and came over to join them. Clark grabbed her in a hug when she reached them, and she squeaked in surprise as he lifted her off the ground.
"Smallville, what's up?" she asked, even as she returned the hug.
"I'm just glad you're okay," Clark told her, earnestly.
"That monster thing?" Lois asked, knowingly. "I told you I wasn't leaving you. I meant it."
Clark nodded, resting his forehead against Lois's, and Chris smiled at the sight of his parents sharing an intimate moment.
"I made our excuses to everyone inside," Lois explained, when they separated. "I said that Detective Jones had a tip on a story we were investigating, and that's why we had to run out in a hurry."
"Are Chloe and Jimmy mad?" Clark asked.
"It was the reception, not the wedding," Lois told him. "And they understand the lure of a good story. Oddly enough," she continued, giving the Legionnaires a suspicious look, "no one remembers anything that happened. Nothing at all about the huge monster that crashed through the barn."
"This is supposed to be a happy day," Imra replied, when her teammates shot her a questioning look. "It shouldn't be ruined by the memory of something that never even touched them."
"Well, thank you," Lois said, to their surprise. At Clark's confused look, she added, "Chloe and Jimmy deserve to not have to worry about anything, today."
Looking over at Chris, she cocked a finger at him. "I want to talk to you."
"Uh," Chris stammered, but Lois didn't give him a chance to continue.
"Come on," she said, firmly. "We'll be right back," she told Clark, when he looked curiously at her.
She marched over to the house, away from the group, and Chris had no choice but to follow her. When they stopped, she pinned him with a look that had him fidgeting nervously, looking anywhere but her face. He felt like he was ten years old again, and trying to explain how his handprints got on the ceiling.
"Who are you?" Lois asked, when the silence between them had stretched to an uncomfortable level.
"Um," Chris said, again, floored by having to answer the same question from both her and Clark. Especially since he'd never been able to lie to his mother.
"That bright red 'S' on your chest," Lois continued, "it's the same symbol that's on the altar in the Phantom Zone. The one that only Clark or Kara can open. So, who are you?"
"I can't tell you," Chris told her, regretfully, knowing Imra really would kill him for having to erase the same thing twice.
Lois glared at him, but after a minute, she changed her mind to focus on the more important things.
"Are you a danger to Clark?" she demanded.
"No," Chris said, honestly. "No, I have nothing but the greatest respect for both you and Clark. You have to believe that."
"Are you related to Clark?" Lois pressed. The deer-in-the-headlights look must have given him away because she continued, "You must be; you lie just as badly as he does."
A few seconds later, she asked quietly, "Clark and I – do we make it? Are we happy?"
"Yes," Chris told her, emphatically. "Oh, yes. You – you are going to be very happy together. A love that transcends time."
Lois rolled her eyes at his words, even as an embarrassed flush colored her cheeks. She shot a look over at Clark, who turned and smiled at her when he sensed her gaze on him.
"There are even songs about you two," Chris teased, lightly, and Lois punched him in the arm.
"Come on, Future Boy," she ordered. "They're going to wonder what's keeping us."
She spun on her heel and strode briskly back to the group, and Chris hurried to catch up. Clark and John were talking with the Legionnaires, and Garth had to have been telling some sort of story, by the way he was wildly gesturing.
"Hey!" Chris interrupted, suddenly, looking around. "What happened with Brainiac?"
"Right here," Garth told him, and Chris saw that he was balancing a large black orb in his hands, constant currents of energy keeping it aloft in front of him. "Hey, you think I could juggle this?"
"No!" Chris, Rokk, and Imra cried at the same time.
"I'll take that," Rokk continued, gesturing so that the orb floated over to him. "We pulled him out of Chloe with no problem," he told Chris. "She's completely fine."
"What are you going to do with that?" Clark asked, nodding at the orb.
"I think we can put Brainiac to good use," Chris said.
"We need to be going, anyway," Rokk spoke up. "We need to make sure the Time Trapper was transported safely to the Phantom Zone."
"It was an honor meeting you all," Imra said, speaking for them all. Rokk and Garth echoed her sentiment, and Chris just nodded, finding it harder than he thought to say goodbye to his parents.
"Good luck," Clark wished them, and Lois and John echoed it. Nodding goodbye to the group, John went back to his car and drove off.
Clark pulled the flight ring off of his finger and he held it out, but Rokk shook his head.
"Keep it," he said. "You could use it to come visit us in the future, sometime."
"I don't know," Clark hesitated. "I think I might just stick to this time, for now."
"Well, if you change your mind, you can find us in three thousand and nine," Imra told him.
They watched Lois and Clark walk back to the barn, arm in arm, with their heads bent toward each other as they spoke, and Garth grinned.
"Your parents are really cool," he said. "And, look what your dad gave me."
He held out a baseball with the initials CK burned into them, and beamed happily.
"It's going to go in my collection," he said.
"You are such a geek," Chris informed him. Then, as something occurred to him, he turned to Rokk.
"You didn't disable the flight mechanism on that ring, did you?" he asked.
"I thought Lois might want to go flying with Clark," Rokk told him, sheepishly.
"Now who's the geek?" Imra asked, affectionately.
"All right," Chris said, looking around. "I think we can take off, now. No one's watching."
"Think anyone can hear us?" Garth asked.
"Probably not," Chris answered. "Why?"
"Long live the Legion!" Garth cried, and after a moment, his teammates took up the cry. Activating their flight rings, they disappeared in a burst of light.
August, 2013
Lois's brow wrinkled as she sniffed the air inside the car, experimentally.
"What is that smell?" she muttered, looking around before her gaze landed on the abashed expression on her husband's face. "You still smell like mud," she informed him, bluntly.
"I was in Paraguay for six hours, dealing with the mudslide caused by that earthquake," Clark said, defensively.
"Yeah, I can tell," Lois told him.
"I took a shower as soon as I got back to the Planet!" Clark protested.
"It didn't work," Lois replied, and Clark sighed in exasperation.
"Would you like me to take another shower when we get to the farm?" he asked.
"If you expect to eat at the same table as Martha and me," Lois told him. "We're not going to have dinner with your mother with you smelling like you've been slogging through a sewer."
"Hey, look," Clark said, suddenly, pointing out of the windshield. "A shooting star."
"Make a wish," Lois told him, reaching over and squeezing his hand.
"Does that angle of descent look wrong to you?" Clark asked, still staring out the window at the speeding comet.
"Angle of descent?" Lois echoed, in disbelief. "I'm not a rocket scientist – hey, I think you're right."
She stopped the Jeep and joined Clark in watching the comet streak through the sky.
"I think it's coming closer," she said, quietly. "It looks like it's going to hit the middle of the field."
"That's Schuster's Field," Clark told her, and Lois raised an eyebrow.
"The same Schuster's Field where your parents found you?" she asked, and Clark nodded, slowly, as her meaning sunk in. They scrambled out of the Jeep and jumped over the fence around the field, walking rapidly through the tall grass.
"It might be absolutely nothing," Clark said, as they were walking.
"A comet hits the same field that you landed in as a baby, that's more than a coincidence," Lois replied. "And it's certainly not absolutely nothing."
"I'm just saying," Clark protested.
When the comet struck the field, tremors shook the earth, and Clark grabbed Lois around the waist to keep her from falling over. And when the comet dug a furrow in the field headed straight for them, he swept them both straight into the air, watching as the blazing object passed directly where they had been standing.
Clark set them down and they ran over to the object where it had finally stopped, and he blew on it, hard, to extinguish the flames covering it. He also turned to do the same to the flames that followed the object's path through the field, and when he turned back, Lois had left his side and was prowling around the object, poking carefully at it.
"Lois, what are you doing?" Clark demanded, hurrying to her side.
"That's no shooting star," Lois told him, a smug note in her voice. "That's a space ship. At least, I think it is."
"Lois, that could be some sort of bomb," Clark protested, but it was futile because Lois was ignoring him and prodding at the sides of the ship.
"Ha!" she declared, triumphantly, when something she did made Kryptonian symbols light up all over the sides of the ship. "What does it say?" she asked, a moment later, frowning at the symbols.
"We send our legacy to the third planet of Sol," Clark read. "May he find a home among the people of Earth."
A sudden hiss cut off the rest of his words, and Clark frowned at Lois, who'd triggered the opening mechanism of the ship.
"Oh, Clark," she gasped, when the lid had opened, and when he walked around to the front, she was just lifting a young child out of the confines of the ship.
As Lois lifted the boy out of the ship, he snuggled trustingly into her embrace and she could practically feel her heart melting at the gesture. She started to shrug out of her coat to cover the boy, but Clark stopped her with a hand on her arm. Her spun into his suit and detached the cape, handing it to her. She bundled the boy in the bright red fabric and he blinked up at her before lying back down against her chest and promptly falling asleep.
"What do we do now?" Lois asked, quietly, trying not to wake the boy up.
"Well," Clark said, spinning back into his work clothes and slipping his glasses back on his face, "I think the first thing we should do is to take him to Metropolis General and have Dr. Hamilton look him over. Make sure he's not sick."
"And then what?" Lois asked. "We can't turn him over to any authorities; they'd lock him up and study him for the rest of his natural life."
"So we won't," Clark told her, and when she raised an eyebrow at him, he added, "We have been talking about starting a family."
"Yeah, but not like this!" Lois protested, after she had sputtered in shock for several seconds. "We don't even know that we'd make good parents."
"No one does, when they first start out," Clark pointed out, reasonably. "Come on, Lois. You're going to tell me that you could just give him to someone else and walk away?"
Lois looked down at the little boy who'd already wormed his way into hear heart in the space of a few minutes, and she shook her head slowly even as she tightened her arms protectively around the child.
"No," she admitted quietly after a minute. "No, I couldn't give him up."
Clark grinned at her, lifting the small ship into his arms as they headed back to the car. He stowed the ship in the back of the Jeep, covering it with a blanket to hide it from prying eyes, and then he went around to the front, where Lois had tossed the car keys on the driver's seat while she got herself and the boy settled in the passenger's seat.
"We need to pick up a car seat on the way home," Lois told him, as he reached over to help her wrestle her seatbelt into place.
"What are we going to tell everyone?" she asked, a few minutes later as they drove down the road. "What are we going to tell Martha?"
"Mom's going to love it," Clark assured her confidently. "She's going to think he's great. As for everyone else, we'll figure something out. Maybe Oliver can fake some adoption papers for us."
"What about his name?" Lois asked. "We can't just call him Lost Little Boy."
"I've been thinking about that," Clark told her, smiling. "What do you think about Chris?"