- Prologue -

The small, blue and red rocketcraft arced through the cold, lifeless void between the stars, its tiny infant passenger the last survivor of his world. Not that he was aware of his unique status or even of the fantastic voyage that was carrying him to a new life on a world far distant from his own. Nor could he have known of the cold, calculating intelligences that followed his flight every inch of the way, watching and waiting. They observed as the rocketcraft entered our solar system, saw its glancing collision with another craft between Pluto and Neptune, watched as it vectored into a landing on our planet in the US state of Kansas, and gazed on impassively as a childless couple found the rocket and took the baby it contained as their own.

"The child has reached his new home," said one. "Should we continue to monitor him?"

"No," said another, physically identical to the first, "we have more pressing concerns. But when the child is older, on the cusp of adulthood, we will send one of our operatives to study him. Only then can we judge him. Only then will we know what action to take."

- 1 -

Ma Kent examined the cover of the newly arrived copy of 'Teen Celebrity USA' and chuckled.

"'Super-Sister reveals her make-up secrets for you'," she read.

"I have 'make-up secrets'?" said Claire Kent, alias Super-Sister.

"Well, yes, actually you do," said Ma, smiling at her newly-blonde daughter who was currently toiling over some incomprehensible device in her secret workshop off their basement. "It also says here that you reveal who you think are 'the hottest boys around'."

"Shoot me," groaned Claire, "shoot me now. I never 'revealed' any of that stuff. I only agreed to do that photo-spread because maintaining cordial relations with the media and making myself available to them keeps the paparazzi out of Smallville. They never made stuff up about me like that when I was Superboy."

"Yes, well, you're a girl now," said Ma, "and the rules are different for you. Still, there are some very nice pictures of you in here for my scrapbook. It's amazing what a difference professional hair styling, make-up, and lighting can make."

Chuckling to herself, Ma Kent went back upstairs while Claire turned her attention back to the device she was making the final adjustments to. It looked like a fairly conventional television, but it was something far more exotic, something she thought of as a 'time telescope'. Having applied her super intelligence to the problem, and incorporated knowledge she had picked up on a dozen alien worlds, she was fairly certain it would work. Tuning it to her own timeline, she set the dials for a dozen years into the future. At first, the screen showed only static, but the static slowly resolved itself into the image of a woman in her mid-twenties walking with great poise down an office corridor. Claire recognized the woman immediately.

It was herself as an adult.

Claire studied her future self in fascination. She took in the professionally styled hair, immaculately applied make-up, designer dress, tasteful jewellery and four-inch heels and let out a whistle. She was a knockout who dressed and carried herself like a catwalk model. Teen-Claire watched as adult-Claire stopped and exchanged words with a young guy who looked to be about sixteen or seventeen, words she could not hear since the time telescope was not yet capable of collecting sounds. Red-haired and freckled, the young man was clearly attracted to and intimidated by adult-Claire. Flustered, he stumbled over whatever it was he was saying. She chuckled kindly, patted his shoulder, then entered the female restroom. Once inside, she took up position in front of one of the mirrors and began freshening her make-up. Standing in front of the mirror next to hers, reapplying her own lipstick, was another woman who cast a faintly disapproving glance at her. Dark-haired and pretty, this woman wore less make-up and was dressed in a tailored pant suit that was much more 'no-nonsense' and less overtly feminine than adult-Claire's dress. The two exchanged what appeared to be a few friendly words, then the other woman turned and left. Who was she, teen-Claire wondered? The woman was certainly attractive, and her eyes revealed a keen intelligence. Had she still been male, Claire suspected her adult self would have been seriously attracted to her.

As soon as she was alone, adult-Claire began to spin at high speed. Seconds later she was dressed in the familiar blue and red costume of Super-Sister - now Superwoman - the blonde dye having evaporated from her hair. In her hands were her civilian shoes, clothing, and purse. Quickly lifting a ceiling panel and concealing these in the space above, she flew out through the restroom's small window and headed for the roof. Teen-Claire was impressed. Superwoman radiated strength and confidence. Waiting for her on the roof was a man dressed in some sort of bat-costume. He looked imposing and not a little disturbing to teen-Claire, but her adult self obviously knew him and was clearly pleased to see him. The two exchanged a few words, then Superwoman picked him up and they flew off to an encounter with a bizarre looking individual, the right half of whose body was identical to Superwoman's - except for the green skin - and the left half of which was identical to the bat-man's. No sooner had this figure appeared than there was a blue flash, the screen went blank, and smoke started pouring from the back of the time telescope.

"Oops!" said Claire, quickly blowing out the small fire with her super-breath.

Unfortunately, it looked as if standard electrical components from Earth could not operate in the device for too long before burning out.

"Lana's here!" shouted Ma Kent from the top of the stairs, "Time for school, Claire!"

Oh well, it looked like the time telescope would have to wait. It was going to take her a while to find replacement components, anyway. She left at speed, flying up to her room and rapidly changing into her school clothes.

No sooner had Claire left the basement than a section of the wall began to glow. A man with bright red skin stepped out of the glow and walked over to the still smouldering time telescope. He played a scanning beam of light over the device, frowning at the information it sent back to him.

"This won't do," he said, "this won't do at all."

- 2 -

Claire and her next door neighbour and best friend, Lana Lang walked to school together every morning. There was only one thing Lana wanted to talk about this particular morning.

"So, Claire," said Lana excitedly as they strolled along, "did you see the latest 'Teen Celebrity USA'? I never knew SixStar were Super-Sister's favorite boy band, or that she had the hots for their lead singer, Justin."

"Neither did I," said Claire, truthfully, "neither did I."

She had a feeling it was going to take a while to live this down.

"Y'know, I'm not sure I'm ever going to get used to you being a blonde, Claire," said Lana, glancing sideways at her friend. "I still don't get why the big change."

"I heard that blondes have more fun," said Claire, dryly.

"Yeah, right, sure," said Lana, giving Claire's shoulder a playful thump as they passed through the gates of Smallville High.

"I hope I didn't just see you use violence against Miss Kent, Miss Lang," said a stern, deep voice. It belonged to their history teacher, Mr Surn, a powerfully built black man with a head as smooth and hairless as a billiard ball.

"Oh, stop ragging on them, Abe," chuckled the woman he had been talking to.

"But it's so much fun, Clarice," he laughed, as Claire and Lana continued on past them and entered the main building. Claire had liked Mr Surn since he came to their school three months ago - though she had still been Clark then - but she was not a big fan of his sense of humor.

At their lockers, the two girls dumped their school bags and grabbed the books they would need for their first class. Without even thinking about it, Claire examined her reflection in the mirror inside her locker door, brushing a few stray hairs back into place and nodding approvingly. She had fallen into the female behaviour of checking her appearance this way several times a day without even noticing (though Ma Kent had noticed, and she approved). Smoothing down her skirt, Claire glanced over at Lana, and frowned. Her friend had a photo in her hand and a sad expression on her face. Gently taking the photo from Lana's hand she placed it on the shelf and closed the locker door.

"I miss him, too, but it's time we were in class," she said. Lana gave a small smile and nodded, taking Claire's arm. As always, Claire felt enormously guilty at moments like this. It had been two months since she had faked the death of Clark Kent, and Lana was still hurting.

On the hallway wall was a poster for the end of year prom, four weeks from then. Now that they were 15 years old this was the first year they were eligible to attend. Not everyone their age did attend, and not attending would not mark you as a social outcast in the way it would someone who didn't attend in their final year, but it was still considered cool to go. They were friends rather than boyfriend and girlfriend but as Clark Kent, Claire had been planning to ask Lana. Now she was wondering if one of the boys in their class would ask her, and how she could turn him down gently.

The two girls took their usual seats in class - next to each other, of course - and assumed they were the last arrivals but when their teacher Mrs Marston came in, the same 'Clarice' who had been talking to Mr Surn, she had a boy with her they had never seen before.

"Wow, he's cute!" whispered Lana.

Claire had not yet become used to thinking of boys that way, but she could not deny the newcomer was handsome. Tall, dark-haired and athletic-looking, there was something about his eyes and the way he carried himself that suggested this boy had more hidden depths than the average teenager. Claire also had the vague feeling she had seen him somewhere before, but could not recall just where.

"Class, this is Bruce Wayne," said Mrs Marston. "He and his folks have just moved to Smallville and they'll be with us for the next few months. I hope you'll make him feel welcome."

"I'd love to make him feel welcome," said Lana, with a whispered giggle.

"If you'll take a seat, Bruce, we can get started," said Miss Marston.

Bruce Wayne scanned the room, as if weighing up all those in the class, then headed for the empty seat next to Claire.

"Mind if I sit here?" he smiled, his voice surprisingly deep for one so young.

"Uh no, not at all," said Claire, slightly flustered.

"You're blushing!" whispered Lana.

"Am not!" she whispered back, hotly, knowing this was a lie.

"If you and Miss Kent have quite finished, Miss Lang," said Mrs Marston, to laughter from the class, "we can get started!"

"Yes, Mrs Marston!" they said in unison, mortified by the attention.

The two girls kept their heads down for the lesson that followed, not wanting to draw any more attention to themselves, but despite herself, Claire could not resist stealing sideways glances at the handsome newcomer. Something about this Bruce Wayne gave her a strange feeling in the pit of her stomach. When he caught her glancing at him one time and gave her a smile, she felt herself blushing furiously and it felt like she was having palpitations. If not for the fact that, as a Kryptonian, she was immune to human ailments, she would have sworn she was coming down with something.