Ch 2

It had been many years since Kal-El had crashed on Earth.

His new home was a farm in Smallville, Kansas, and he was taken in by Jonathan and Martha Kent who gave him a new name: Clark Kent.

In the present day, an adult Clark was working in a diner in Canada when he heard two soldiers talking some object that crashed in the ice to the north.

"Somebody found something strange on Ellesmere. Aircom's making runs out there all week."

"That rat hole? You gotta be kidding me."

"I know, it's crazy. The Americans are there, too, lots of them."

"Anything else?"

"They're calling it an anomalous object. Whatever that means."

Clark then flew over to the crashed Kryptonian scout ship and went in.

There was a panel that opened up and Clark entered Jor-El's command key, causing the ship's lights to turn on.

Unknown to him, the Daily Planet reporter Lois Lane had followed him into the ship but was found by a sentry bot which lashed out with its bladed tentacles in a flash of sharp silver.

Her scream rang out and Clark rushed over, then grabbed the sentry bot and crushed it with its bare hands.

Sparks flew and Clark flung the robot aside, then saw that Lois had a throbbing red gash on her lower abdomen.

"You're hemorrhaging internally." Clark told her. "And if I don't cauterize this bleed-"

"How can-"

"I can do things that other people can't. Now hold my hand."

Lois did and Clark felt a pang of regret.

"This is gonna hurt."

Then he fired his heat rays. Lois shuddered in pain as the heat rays hit her gash, then automatically resealed it.

Suddenly, the giant vessel shook as it slowly rose out of the icy crater with white fragments dripping off its shiny black hull.

Below, wide cracks erupted out of the crater and the ground rocked as the ship rose higher and higher.

The excavation team near it ran off but the ship only flew off with a misty blue flare from its engines shooting it away like a fast bullet.

After Clark piloted the ship to another remote spot in the Arctic, a shimmering blue hologram of Jor-El appeared. The hologram was actually Jor-El's consciousness, placed inside an AI to perfectly replicate him.

"Who are you?" Clark asked.

"I am your father, Kal." Jor-El's hologram said, his image flickering. "Or at least a shadow of him. His consciousness. My name was Jor-El."

"And Kal?" Clark asked. "That's my name."

Jor-El nodded. "It is."

"I have so many questions." Clark asked, his mind still reeling from the fact that he was an alien and not a human. "Where do I come from? Why did you send me here?"

"You came from Krypton." Jor-EL replied. "A world with a much harsher environment than Earth's. Long ago, in an era of expansion, our race spread through the stars, seeking out new worlds to settle upon. This scout ship was one of thousands launched into the void. We built outposts on other planets, using great machines to reshape environments to our needs. For 100,000 years, our civilization flourished, accomplishing wonders."

"What happened?"

Jor-El took on a grim expression before going on.

"Artificial population control was established. The outposts on space exploration were abandoned. We exhausted our natural resources. As a result, our planet's core became unstable. Eventually, our military leader, General Zod, attempted a coup. But by then it was too late. Your mother and I foresaw the coming calamity and we took certain steps to ensure your survival."

Then Jor-El's hologram took Clark into a deeper part of the ship and showed him a vast chamber with glowing green liquid and towering red branches of unborn Kryptonian gene seeds.

"Every child was designed to fulfill a pare-determined role in our society as a worker, a warrior, a leader and so on. Your mother and I believed Krypton lost something precious. The element of choice, of chance. What if a child dreamed of becoming something other than what society had intended for him or her. What if a child aspired to something greater? You were the embodiment of that belief, Kal. Krypton's first natural birth in centuries. That's why we risked so much to save you?"

"Why didn't you come with me?"

If Clark's parents were aliens, what happened to them?

"We couldn't, Kal. No matter how much we wanted to. No matter how much we loved you. our mother, Lara, and I were a product of the failures of our world as much as Zod was tied to its fate."

Clark felt a bolt of dread hit him and it was just as painful as any fist from a bully was. His parents were gone.

"So I'm alone."

"No. You're as much a child of Earth now as you are of Krypton. You can embody the best of both worlds. A dream your mother and I dedicated our lives to preserve. The people of Earth are different from us, it's true. But, ultimately, I believe that's a good thing. They won't necessarily make the same mistakes we did. Not if you guide them, Kal. Not if you give them hope. That's what this symbol means."

Jor-El nodded at Clark's suit. Clark looked down at the bright crimson and golden S symbol.

"The symbol of the house of El means hope. Embodied within that hope is the fundamental belief in the potential of every person to be a force for good. That's what you can bring them."

"Why am I so different than them?"

"Earth's sun is younger and brighter than Krypton's was. Your cells have drunken its radiation, strengthening your muscles, your skin, your senses Earth's gravity is weaker, yet its atmosphere is more nourishing. You've grown stronger here than I ever could have imagined. The only way to know how strong is to keep testing your limits. you will give the people of Earth an ideal to strive towards. They'll race behind you. They will stumble. They will fall. But in time, they will join you in the sun, Kal. In time... you will help them accomplish wonders."

That was Clark's new mission. To be the defender of the only home he had ever known and to be the figure of unbreakable courage.