28: Better than yesterday.
Helping clean up the Baxter building was easy enough for Daniel, the damage seemed greater than it really was.
Susan had actually cushioned most of the damage with her shields, without it things would have escalated more than just a single floor.
Susan's energy fields were strong enough to prevent the worst scenario, Baxter Building would have suffered irreparable damage if not.
All staff had to be evacuated, and due to the death of Dr. Storm, the fate of the foundation was uncertain.
Now everything was in the hands of Susan and Johnny.
He didn't know what exactly they would do or what plans they had but he had reached a compromise with both of them.
Helping Ben and rescuing Richards was the long and medium term goal.
Now that they were the ones making the decisions at the foundation he couldn't reject their intentions to support him in his self-imposed mission.
So the Baxter Building would be a place he would be visiting more often than he expected.
He supposed it wasn't all bad, plus both brothers possessed incredible abilities, maybe he could convince them to be part of his team.
They would certainly be valuable allies.
On the other hand he would have to talk to Tony and Shield.
Talking to Tony wasn't a problem but Shield certainly would be.
They would want to know what happened and would probably try to stick their nose into it.
Daniel did not forget Fury's Avengers initiative, he really did not doubt that if he found out about the Storm brothers he would seek to recruit them.
That wasn't all bad but it wasn't all good either.
Getting on the radar of an organization like that wasn't good, but Daniel couldn't do much for them in that regard other than watch his back.
Whether Susan or Johny were both adults and the choices they would make were theirs, Daniel could only offer his help if necessary but beyond that they would have to navigate this changing world on their own.
Of course Daniel would give them all the help he could, it was better to have two allies than not have them.
On the other hand was Ben, the giant covered in rocks was a different matter.
His situation was a little more complicated, because of this he now depended on Daniel and the Storm brothers completely.
Him returning to his family was not an option for now, perhaps he could continue studying from the laboratory but apart from that he couldn't do anything else.
Daniel saw these difficulties before him but he did not feel bothered by them.
Of course I was a little irritated, very irritated, but not upset.
Well if he was honest with himself and he was always honest with himself he was actually angry.
Being angry and upset were different concepts, he didn't think this was something annoying.
When he chose to be a hero he knew that he chose the most difficult path. Being a hero required that you be willing to do or sacrifice things, many more things than most people would be willing to do.
You had to have a certain kind of will, courage and willingness to do it and even then it wouldn't be enough.
That's why he didn't see this as a nuisance,
That's why he never regretted it.
Even if he was angry.
In his previous life he had chosen the easy path and all it gave him was a life full of lies and loneliness.
Where many people ended up hating him and despising his existence.
The easy walk was a lie that those who took it realized sooner or later.
Probably only those people with psychological disorders or mental illnesses could navigate through it without complications or regrets.
Unfortunately for Daniel he had not had either and for that reason he decided to change.
You can only hurt others so much before regrets set in.
That's why even if he was angry he wasn't upset, of course this gave him problems but he would fix it, he would work on it, he could do it, he chose to do it.
He chose to be better.
Even if being better seemed more difficult.
He wasn't perfect, his choices weren't the best, and his actions left a lot to be desired in some ways.
But he would try to do it, he would try to carry this burden because if he didn't try, if he didn't give everything of himself to try, then why was he still alive?
The silence of the environment cleared Daniel's mind of deep thoughts, he looked at the earth, seeing it from space gave him a warm feeling.
Seeing it so bright and colorful put things into perspective a little.
He had taken a moment, a few minutes to go up and think, he put aside all problems or worries and simply went up to the space to think.
Even having a perfect memory does not mean that you are constantly remembering or living every moment in his life.
He just means that when he wants to remember something or feels like he should remember he does it.
Things can still be "forgotten" although ignore is the most appropriate word.
If he doesn't want to remember it it won't come to his mind until he wants to.
It was very different from how a normal person's mind and memory worked.
It was somewhat disconcerting.
And that is why he had ignored an important aspect that he had considered when he started, a hero must not only save others but also be able to save himself.
He had been told that he should have time for himself, even if he was small, that he should take care of his physical and mental health.
But he had ignored it almost as soon as events began to arrive at his doorstep.
He didn't forget it but he ignored it.
That had to be rectified, he shouldn't let his mind become overloaded, how could he be a good hero if at the first sign of trouble he collapsed?
And that's what had happened with Carol, she had started to become a big problem. But instead of facing it he tried to run away from it, to get rid of responsibility.
That hadn't gone well at all.
He had failed but that was okay, he wasn't perfect and he wasn't looking to be perfect, he just had to be better, better than yesterday, better than last week, last month or last year.
There would be mistakes, there would be successes and failures but it was okay.
He just had to keep trying.
Better than yesterday, better than today.
He just had to remain defiant.
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"We will have some transfers in the next month" Dr. Harleen Quinzel broke out of her concentration at the words of her coworker.
They were at lunch, both of them had gone out to eat, the older woman in front of her named Isabella had been one of the oldest psychologists and therapists at Rikers.
She had her ways of knowing things that others couldn't know and she had been a great help to Harleen in the days since she arrived at Rikers.
Without further ado, a lot of information had come to her thanks to Isabella.
"Transfers? Like many of them?"
Isabella smiled and nodded, her hand brushed one of the white strands of her hair and spoke.
"An old asylum in Gotham has some structural damage and needs to be demolished and rebuilt so all the criminals in it are going to be brought here."
Harleen was surprised, she thought about it quickly, she didn't know much about Gotham so she couldn't guess what kind of criminals could be brought in.
"Are important? I remember it is one of the safest cities in America, do you really have criminals there that need to be brought here?" Isabella snorted at her words.
"You young people really forget about the old days," the older woman thought for a few moments before continuing.
"Many years ago Gotham was the worst of the worst, even more horrible than Hell's Kitchen, an entire city more horrible" the woman smiled at the incredulous look that the young doctor gave her.
"It may seem impossible considering how well things are going there these days but believe me, it was the worst place to live in the seventies and eighties"
The woman looked at the sky thinking about the distant past. Harleen couldn't imagine something like that, these last few days, scratch that this last decade Gotham had been pretty good, it was safe and a good place to live, she had considered moving there before she knew that she had qualified for Rikers.
"What changed?" so I ask.
Isabella seemed to be thinking deeply about it.
"I don't know very well, I wasn't that aware of the news at that time and the media wasn't that reliable. There were a lot of stories about what happened but something changed and it ended with a large-scale gang war and the Wayne Enterprise. taking the reins of what was left, in fact it is probably thanks to Wayne Industries that the city is still standing and in better condition" Harleen had heard of Wayne Enterprise.
It was one of the most famous companies in the country, it had been much more active when she was a child, there were many advertisements for its different types of products, these days her name did not sound as much but it was not because it was less important.
The last time she heard from that company, it was still at the top of the most valued companies in the country, the company simply stopped being as loud as before.
"Getting back to the topic, yes, the criminals they will bring are the worst type, they have been locked up for a long time but at the time they were the worst scum on earth, if the death penalty were an option at that time all of them would be dead, In fact, it was considered doing it with some of the worst but you know how it is" No Harleen didn't know but she still nodded.
"Because here? I say if they are that bad they should go somewhere worse" although Rikers was good it was not that good, the worst of the worst had certain specific places created especially for them.
The asylum where they were before seemed like one of those places if Isabella's words were anything to go by.
"They will do renovations," Isabella lowered her voice.
"I heard that Stark Industries has teamed up with some important people in the government to make Rikers something bigger." She moved closer as if she was afraid that someone else would hear her words.
"You know about those monsters that have been appearing? It seems like they want a place to lock them up and Rikers could be that place, I guess the monsters will be next to the real monsters from now on" the older woman gave a crooked smile.
Harleen's eyes widened at the information, her mouth opening and her mouth closing with an audible click.
That could be bad, dealing with criminals was one thing, dealing with literal monsters? It seemed like her dream of getting to Rikers now wasn't as sweet as before.
Seeing her concern the older woman waved her hand.
"Don't worry, if it happens we probably won't have much to do with it, those things will need so much security to keep them at bay that I doubt they'll let anyone other than a special guard near them" Harleen wasn't feeling so relieved. but he still nodded.
"besides! this is an opportunity for you to bring out that genius of yours, everyone who comes needs psychological help in one way or another, who knows, maybe you will be able to help one of them."
Harleen thought about it and felt emotion for the first time since she started this talk.
That was true, maybe there would be some patient among the transfers that she could really help.
Make a difference.
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Back on earth, flying towards Smallville.
Daniel looked at his torn suit, the fight had ruined some parts, Spencer's explosions didn't work like regular explosions at all, whatever his powers were actually creating molecular instability when the explosions occurred.
For an ordinary person that was completely deadly, a single touch and his entire atomic structure would be destroyed, just like Dr. Storm did.
Fortunately for him, he and the other three who were in the Fight were able to endure it.
Johny because his burning state allowed him to alter his own molecules making them malleable even if the explosion affected him it would not destroy his atomic structure as he would reform from the flames.
Wherever they came from.
Ben being the complete opposite, his atomic structure was so solid and not very malleable that explosions would only feel like pushes to him.
Susan probably would have been the most exposed of them all if it weren't for her energy fields making her the safest of them.
At least as long as she could react and use them.
How they were generated was still a mystery but the fact was that they were durable enough to withstand explosions capable of directly attacking the molecular state of things.
The three of them seemed to be the perfect counterattack for Spencer, he assumed that the source of his powers had something to do with it, whether it was a coincidence, fate or something else was beyond Daniel.
Going back to his outfit, maybe it was time to change his appearance once again.
Maybe he needed to start being more heroic now that his existence was common knowledge to the entire world.
He could make mistakes along the way, do things the wrong way, ignore some things but that didn't make him forget for a moment what the goal was that he set out when he started.
If he wanted to be a symbol he should start acting like one.
And put on a cape.
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Returned to Daniel's farm.
Carol looked nervously at the hero's blank face, his expressionless gaze making her feel nervous.
He had been like this ever since he came in and looked at her.
Swallowing some of her saliva she played with her now blonde hair and spoke.
"How about? Is the tone okay? I didn't know if you'd like it too light, or too dark" Daniel didn't speak giving him that flat, expressionless look.
Carol began to feel more nervous.
"If you don't like it, I can change it! I have other dyes, we can choose a different color," she spoke hurriedly.
"If you want it can be red or brown, it can even be an exotic color like blue or pink!" The smile on Carol's face faded at the lack of response.
Daniel sighed and her shoulders drooped a little. He approached her and took her hair between his fingers. He looked carefully and noticed that the dye had actually penetrated her hair fibers.
Carol's hair had grown since he met her, before she had told him that she cut her hair using some industrial cutting machines that her father had gotten.
These days those machines were no longer useful, she had gotten stronger and her hair along with her.
Although her hair still wasn't as long as other women's.
It was just a little bit below the shoulders.
Still it was long enough for him to take it without having to pull it.
"How did you dye your hair?" At the first words Daniel gave her since he saw her with her new hair color, Carol responded enthusiastically.
"My mother helped me, normal dye doesn't work on me so she helped me create a chemical compound that allows certain dyes to adhere to my hair as they normally would with human hair" Daniel nodded and looked at Carol deeply before speaking. .
"Take off the dye, go back to your natural color" Carol wrinkled her eyebrows at her words.
"you do not like?" At her question Daniel closed his eyes tightly.
"You keep asking that question, why do you keep asking if I like it?!" He couldn't help but speak with some force, this had not been a pleasant day and Carol was not helping him with his actions.
Carol shrank in her seat, Daniel's angry voice making her nervous.
"I… I made it for you" Carol's words were somewhat low.
Daniel felt bad immediately.
"I'm sorry, Carol, I… I shouldn't have spoken to you like that." The frustration in his body disappeared and he felt like a deflated balloon.
Carol quickly shook her head and moved closer to her, placing her hand on her chest, where the D on her suit was.
"Okay i do not care"
Daniel's eye twitched.
I don't care, that word was starting to irritate him, Carol had been using it a lot these days.
Since they spoke that day she seemed to have adopted those words as if saying them were what he wanted to hear.
Every time he apologized for something bad he did she repeated those words.
Damn chaos handicap! It was all her fault!
"This hair color, do you like it?" Now it was Daniel who asked Carol.
Carol hesitated for a moment but she was honest with him.
"I totally hate him," her honest response surprised Daniel a little.
He looked at her beautiful face, those light blue eyes, anyone who looked at them wouldn't notice anything strange about them but Daniel could see how they shined with sick madness deep inside.
"Why, then you dyed your hair the color you hate?" This time Carol hesitated a little more to respond.
There was some bitterness in her eyes.
"That night… I saw you with that woman… the blonde, that's when I activated my x-ray vision," remembering quickly, Daniel put her face in her hands.
That wasn't right.
He didn't know whether to feel bad for her or angry that she had been spying on him.
How many times had she been watching him without him knowing?
Did she see what he did with those two men? Did she see how he killed them? With some nervousness he looked at her trying to find the answer in her face.
He didn't find anything.
"So you dyed your hair blonde, like that woman's, just because you thought I liked her blondes since I slept with her?" Carol nodded slowly.
Looking at her longer hair than before another bad feeling came to his heart.
"You grew your hair because of what you saw, didn't you?" This time Carol blushed deeply but she nodded again.
Damn, Daniel buried his face in her palms again.
He couldn't let her continue like this, this stupid girl, if he left her alone what other strange things could she do?
Thinking about all the things that a crazy woman could be capable of doing, Daniel felt a shiver go down her spine.
No! He couldn't let her continue acting this way.
Daniel's burning gaze fell on Carol and she felt a pang of nervousness and excitement, much more excitement than nervousness.
Why was he looking at her like that? Did he really like the dye?
"I want you to remove the dye" her words were strong and clear.
She blinked but nodded, if he didn't like it then there was no point in having it.
"Do you want me to paint it a different color?"
"No, no more changes to your hair color, I want you to leave it as it is" Carol nodded but she still wanted to tell him that she could change it whenever he wanted.
Daniel knew the question she was going to ask and quickly denied.
"I don't want you to paint it Carol, I don't want you to change your appearance nor do I want you to change your way of being, I just want you to be you and no one else" his voice was firm and determined, there was no room for discussion, despite it. Carol was still Carol.
"What about the makeup?" she was stubborn.
Daniel thought about it for a second.
"Do you like makeup?" Carol nodded, although she was just learning about it it wasn't that bad.
"Then it's okay, as long as you like it you can do it, in fact I will correct my previous words, as long as you like something you can do it" She hoped that her words were clear enough.
Carol nodded, she wasn't stupid she knew why Daniel was saying all this but even though she agreed with him on the surface she didn't mean that she would do everything to the letter of what he said.
If she did, how could she approach him?
Of course Carol would obey for the most part.
Of course Daniel knew that Carol wouldn't follow her words to the letter.
He didn't expect her to do it, Carol wasn't a dog that would follow all of her orders without blinking, she was very intelligent, stubborn, stubborn and proud.
Of course when he was with him, these things were hardly shown but Daniel knew they were part of who Carol was.
She might be crazy about him but she was still her.
Of course if Daniel really asked her seriously Carol would do it.
The reason why he wasn't quite willing to do what he asked of her now was because he had to do with her, everything he asked her to do now was a way of asking him to stop trying to accommodate her tastes. her.
But how could Carol allow that? If he didn't like her as she was originally, what was the point of staying the same?
Why shouldn't she change?
Daniel still underestimated Carol's level of madness.
Carol smiled mischievously and approached him.
"You keep telling me to do the things I like so I can do this?" Daniel knew his intentions immediately.
This girl, she was also cunning.
Looking at her figure that was so close to him, Daniel couldn't help but feel angry.
Here he was worrying about her and her mental well-being and what was this girl doing? Looking for ways to take advantage of him.
Carol felt Daniel's hand caress her head, had she really gotten some affection from him? Aside from the day they talked he hadn't been receptive to her at all.
Carol's excitement was cut short when she felt her hair being pulled roughly.
A slight burning came and Carol grimaced.
"You're still too naive if you think I'll fall so easily" Daniel laughed and stood up, he had to try some things, see what changes her body had undergone.
Do some analysis.
Carol pouted.
"You really like pulling it."
Daniel almost tripped, huffed and walked away without wanting to look at her.
Carol laughed but went after him. Quickly she had serious things to talk about.
Watching her approach, Carol saw the unspoken question and spoke.
"There is something important that I must show you, something from Krypton" Daniel paused for a second before feeling.
"show me"
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Daniel looked at the white glass on the table with some amazement.
"So this will create what? Some kind of Kryptonian meta structure?"
"fortress" ran the projection into the room.
"When we started expanding across the universe we needed outposts where our people could reside, so we created this, it's an easy and simple way to create a safe place for Kryptonians to inhabit"
The projection displayed a hand and a project image in front of Carol and Daniel.
On it there was a strange and arid planet, a Kryptonian ship descended and two Kryptonians descended and began to wander the terrain.
Then one of the two took out a white crystal similar to the one that was on the table and placed it on the floor.
In a few seconds a large crystalline structure began to form, its size was enormous and its shape different from any human architecture.
Daniel looked in amazement, it was incredible how something so small could expand to such an extent and create something like that out of nothing.
"each fortress has basic technology and kryptonian resources, it's not much but it should be enough for anything you want to do in this world." Lara said looking at her daughter.
Of course as outposts, each fortress had enough resources and technology for the Kryptonians to begin their exploration of a new system or planet they found themselves on.
"I don't think we can put this anywhere nearby, if it expands like that it will be too visible and obvious, it will attract too much attention" although it was incredible it was also too flashy.
"I thought maybe the arctic might be the best option, its crystalline structure could be camouflaged, more or less" Carol said what she had been thinking.
"If that's a good idea, maybe putting some snow on it can disguise it as a mountain." Daniel imagined it and nodded.
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Lara lor van looked at her daughter and her "friend?" discussing the best position for the creation of what she assumed would be her new base of operations.
Her daughter had grown too big even if she wasn't the real Lara lor van, even if she was just a copy of her consciousness.
Being able to see her daughter made many positive feelings arise in her.
That she managed to grow so much was an unexpected blessing, everything had happened too quickly so making adequate preparations was difficult.
They had not been able to investigate the land properly so they did not know exactly what her daughter would face when she arrived.
Luckily she arrived and was kept safe, now she was the last thing left of Krypton, her last hope.
Well maybe not, remembering her husband's brother and her actions before dying along with them she couldn't help but think about what he did.
Maybe her daughter wasn't so alone but telling her that now was of no use.
If she still didn't know it was because probably the third ship that left Krypton that day had not yet reached Earth.
And if that ship had not reached Earth in all these years, the chances of there being an accident increased too much.
Telling him about it wouldn't do any good.
Not now, at least.
She would have to wait, improve the technology she had access to and then search, see if there was any other hope out there.
But for now she had to continue helping her daughter.
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reply to: kolynchik02
There is no space suit capable of withstanding a Kryptonian's collision with a cosmic force. It is like telling me that a human only needs to wear armor to withstand a train crash...
Note: I've had some tough days due to a series of bad economic decisions hahaha, guys don't take out credit cards if you don't have a steady paycheck.
I got too confident and now I limit myself to one meal a day because I'm out of money u.u
I almost had my electricity and internet cut off but I managed to scrape together enough money to pay for them at the last day.
So for now I can keep working but the updates will probably suffer a bit due to the situation.
This chapter and one more should have been uploaded the week before but due to the situation I don't have time to correct and translate things.
Besides posting each new chapter in each of the places where I post this story... I think there are more than 6 ... I shouldn't have done that hahaha I got too excited and posted in all the places where I usually read stories and that makes that updating this takes more than half an hour just to post it without counting everything else...
This doesn't mean that this story is abandoned or anything like that, I'm just having some bad days that I hope will soon be fixed.
But until that happens the update schedule will become irregular, I plan to keep writing in my spare time as it's what takes the stress away but editing and translating is different.
I have three other chapters besides this one already written but I don't have time to edit them and then translate and edit them again once they are translated.
So I plan to accumulate a few chapters and edit them before uploading them in a row.
Once everything is fixed I hope to go back to the normal schedule of one or two chapters per week.
On the other hand I uploaded the prologue of another story I've been thinking about doing! It helped me to relax, that story is completely in diapers and I just started writing it to get rid of all the stress of these days.
I only posted it on spacebattles and QQ since posting it everywhere else is horribly laborious and I won't make that mistake again anytime soon.