"I believe," Walter began in a solemn tone, "that this mini dome is a probe sent by the alien species to find a new world to inhabit once theirs is destroyed by the super nova."

There was a stunned silence. Only Peter didn't seem impressed. "Would you care to share with us how you came to this conclusion based on the last two pictures?"

"If you consider the topic of those two images," Walter explained, "you will notice that one - namely the skull in the sand - symbolizes death, while the other - the car wreck overgrown by plants - stands for rebirth from ruins." He looked around expectantly.

"Sorry," Joe said, "but I don't follow."

"Don't you see? They have to re-settle in order to survive, but they have to find the right planet. The right choice for them will mean the difference between annihilation or a continued existence."

Peter nodded thoughtfully. "I thnk you're on to something here, Walter. But you said two possibilities. What's the other?"

"As a matter of fact, the two possibilities I mentioned deal with the objective of the probe. Either its mission is to map this planet to find out if it is inhabitable for this species and to report back, or it already contains life in some form or other to perpetuate the species here on Earth."

"Oh my God," Norrie whispered, 'just like Jor-El who sent his unborn son to Earth to save him from the destruction of Krypton." All eyes turned to her. "Sorry," Norrie muttered, blushing a pretty shade of pink. "Die hard comic book fan here."

"As a matter of fact," Peter said, "you may have hit the nail on the head. What are these aliens after? Peaceful coexistance like Superman, or taking our habitat from us like... " He winked at Norrie. "... Ming the Merciless?"

"Don't be ridiculous, son, Ming the Merciless is into enslavement and torture, not genocide," Walter declared indignantly

"Be that as it may," Peter replied, unable to suppress a grin at Walter's outburst, "we better find out precisely which of these scenarios we face here. Our decision how to deal with the mini dome depends on it."

"You remember that Junior said his mother kept repeating to hurry?" Joe asked. "Maybe the probe is getting close to completing its mission."

"But that could be anything," Angie said. "Send a message back home, start spreading spores to seed this earth with their offspring..."

"They could even start to terraform the planet for their arrival," Junior added. "They did that on 'Defiance'."

"They did that on Stargate SG-1 as well," Peter added. "But let's not rely too heavily on comics or TV shows. This is reality after all - even if it seems like a science fiction movie."

"Whatever it is that's going to happen," Joe pointed out, "at least it will only affect the area under the larger dome. We're still cut off."

"Congratulations," Peter said, clapping Joe on the shoulder. "You just solved the mystery of The Dome."

"I did?" Joe looked quite bewildered.

"You did," Peter confirmed. "The aliens created a contained environment for their investigation. And we are the lab rats."

AN: Sorry for the long wait. Tis the season where everything but holiday stuff gets pushed to the back burner. I hope everybody had a lovely Christmas or other festival they celebrate this time of year.

The prompt for this chapter was 'Superheroes'.