Chapter 8:
After taking another fork full of spaghetti, Lois looked at Clark as if she were trying to figure him out. She had been acting very peculiar ever since that morning. Clark could not figure out what she was thinking, but she definitely had something on her mind. "I don't see it."
"You don't see what?"
"You and that woman. I mean, you're nice and everything, but she's way out of your league."
"You mean Lana? It's good to know that you have my best interest at heart," Clark said dryly, and then took a bite from his slice of pizza. She had a knack for being brutally honest. It was hard to get used to at first, but over the months, he had grown accustomed to it.
"Now don't get all sensitive on me, Smallville. She seems to be a business woman and you—well, you come from somewhere where cow tipping is considered hip."
"Lois, we both grew up in Smallville."
"You grew up milking cows and feeding chickens. Somehow I get the feeling that the same can't be said about Miss CEO."
Clark took another bite of his pizza, determined not to let Lois to get to him. "Why, Lois Lane, you're not jealous, are you?"
That playful accusation caused her to become defensive. "Jealous? Don't make me laugh. I'm just looking out for you. Without me, who knows what kind of trouble you'd find yourself in."
Clark was about to respond when he felt his Blackberry vibrate in his chest pocket. He reached for the phone and saw that his mother's name was displayed on the screen. "Hold that thought." He pressed the button with the image of a green phone. "Hello, mother."
"I'm always impressed when you know that it's me, even before I say a word."
"I've told you before, cell phones have caller ID as standard technology." His parents had never been very big on modern technology. Clark was only recently able to finally convince his mother to give up her rotary phone and upgrade to a standard dial-up phone.
"I just find it amazing what technology can do, that's all."
"Is there something I can help you with, Mom?"
His mother's tone quickly became more serious. "I think it's important for you to know that Smallville was just hit with a meteorite shower."
"Really? Was anyone hurt?"
"I don't think so, but there is a lot of damage. Clark, I can't help but feel a similarity between this incident and the one that brought you here."
Clark was thinking the same thing. The fact that it happened once again in Smallville could not be a coincidence. The first thing that came to his mind, when he heard the word "meteorite", was "Brainiac". Jor-El had warned him that Brainiac was likely on his way to Earth to find him. His mother did not know any of this, and he was not about to tell her, either. He may be the man of steel, but she was still a typical mother, who was always concerned about his safety. "I think you're right; I'd better come over and check things out for myself."
"If you do, you better make some time to visit me. It's been months since your last visit."
"I'll do what I can, Mom. Bye, now." Clark hung up the phone to find Lois grinning at him.
"I see that you still have the Blackberry that I gave you." Like his mother, Lois was not too fond of new technology; she typed up all her stories using an electric typewriter. When they first met, she refused to carry any cell phone, so she gave him her unopened business Blackberry. Recently, she decided to buy the most basic of cell phones for emergency uses. The few times she used her phone, she quickly became impatient with the small number-buttons. Clark had tried to get her into using a Bluetooth earpiece; with that she could use vocal commands to use her cell phone, but she refused to consider it.
"I'm afraid that I'm going to have to cut our lunch short," Clark said, standing up from the table. "Smallville was hit with a freak meteorite shower. I have to see if everything is alright at home."
"Oh, ok! You better go, then. I'll pick up the tab this time, but you owe me, Smallville."
Clark smiled as he turned and made for the door. Lois remained seated until Clark was out of the restaurant when she called the waitress over for the check. If he thought she was just going to stay here at Metropolis while a major story like this passed her by, he had another thing coming. He was going to Smallville for personal reasons, and that was understandable, but someone needed to cover the story for the Daily Planet, and why not her?
The first stop for Superman was his fortress. He did not want to go to into Smallville and be taken by surprise. If Brainiac had finally set foot on Earth, his fortress would know about it. With the funding and help of a wealthy friend in Gotham, he was able to create a super computer unlike anything this planet had ever seen. He had intertwined his Kryptonian technology with this computer to further enhance its capabilities.
One of the many uses of this super computer was to locate alien materials. He used it to help find every last trace of Kryptonite left on the planet. It took him about a month to collect it all and properly dispose of it, but it was worth the hard work; he did not have to worry about any of it falling into the wrong hands.
Swooping through a secret entrance near the top of the fortress, he landed onto a crystal platform. His supercomputer came to life and a green light scanned over his body. Once the computer had recognized him, it finished its boot up cycle. A keyboard made of nothing but white light appeared in midair, directly in front of him, its keys made up of Kryptonian symbols.
He placed his fingers over the keys of light and began typing, and issued his computer to do a scan for alien technology in Smallville. The giant ninety inch screen began to flicker Kryptonian symbols. It did not take long until his computer reported to him that there were no signs of anything Kryptonian in Smallville.
Despite the results of the search, he still had a lingering doubt that he could not shake. He knew Brainiac was coming, or was already here. For his home town to be hit with meteorites twice, it had to be the unluckiest small town in the world. He knew full well that this was no coincidence; it was a sign of what could very be the coming of the apocalypse. It was a fate that he was determined to stop.
Even with only a brief overhead view of the town, Lois was taken aback. From how Clark described what happened, she did not imagine the damage to be so bad. The destruction could be closely compared to that done by a tornado.
"Wow, I thought you were joking when you told me about the meteorite shower," Jimmy said, itching to get out of the helicopter and take some photos.
"This is unreal!" Lucy exclaimed. She had no choice but to go with her older sister and Jimmy to Smallville. She was beginning to get agitated with these martial law restrictions that Metropolis was under; it felt like she was in prison. This unplanned trip to Smallville, however, was turning out to be a welcomed distraction. "It's like right out of a disaster movie."
Lois motioned to the pilot to get them down to the ground. "I want to get some interviews with a few of the locals. Jimmy, get some pictures and we'll be back in plenty of time for you two to go on your date." Lucy and Jimmy looked at each other for a brief second before Lucy had to look away to hide her blushing face.
Superman raced across the planet at maximum speed. He crossed oceans, mountains, forests, and planes before he finally arrived at Smallville, Kentucky. Once he reached Kentucky, he slowed down tremendously to allow himself the time to visually search for any space craft that might have fallen during the meteorite storm.
He expected to find something Kryptonian among all the chaos and destruction. There could be no doubt that this happened because of him. Either Brainiac had come or the dark lord himself was sending him a message. He was going to be prepared for the worst, whatever the case may be.
The damage was extensive, but not insurmountably disastrous. Some farms would have a bad season this year, but other than that, all this town would need was a half-year to rebuild. From the scorch marks, he could see no apparent patterns to the damage to suggest anything more than pure randomness. None of this even remotely implied that Brainiac was here on earth. He continued his thorough search of his home town, determined to find something that might give him an advance notice of Brainiac's arrival.
Lois had already gotten several interviews from eyewitnesses of the event. The shock was still very apparent in everyone she talked to. Lucy was wandering around the town, looking at the scorch marks left by the meteorites, and taking pictures with her cell phone camera. Jimmy was busy getting some professional pictures, which was sure to blow the chief away. As they kept busy, all of the other media outlets were arriving and camping out throughout Smallville to report on this catastrophe.
As she finished taking notes for her most recent interview, something in the corner of her eye grabbed her attention. She looked up to see Superman slowly flying over the town. "Hey look, it's Superman!" Jimmy exclaimed, pointing up at him in the sky. "He must have had a local emergency to take care of."
"I'm not so sure," Lois replied. "It looks like he's searching for something?"
"What do you suppose he's searching for?"
Lois had come to know Superman pretty well over the last six months, despite his constant refusal to tell her his secret identity. She was confident that she knew him well enough to know when something big was going on with him. From the look on his face, she knew that he was concerned about something. If Superman himself was concerned about a threat, then what should the rest of the world think? "I don't know, Jimmy, but something tells me that it's something big."
Brainiac's calculations once again proved to be perfect. There was no doubt that Superman had tried to search for him by searching for Kryptonian technology. Brainiac had to assume that son of Jor-El would have Kryptonian technology at his disposal, and in anticipation of this, he hid his shuttle by activating a new stealth system.
Knowing that Kal-El would personally come and search the devastation, Brainiac had taken his shuttle and hidden it well into the heart of a forest. This would provide him ample shelter until he was able to finish building the portal to the Phantom Zone. Looking up through the leaves of the trees, he caught a brief glimpse of Superman flying overhead, unaware of the dangers that this forest had in store for him. "Not yet, son of Jor-El. Your days are numbered."