- 9 -
Beaver Creek was fairly isolated being a two hour drive from Smallville and almost an hour away from the nearest farmhouse. Arriving Saturday mid-afternoon, the Waynes and their teenage charges set up camp in the small clearing in the middle of the woods. When the tents had been erected, the teenagers set off in search of suitable kindling for the campfire. No sooner were they out of sight of the tents than Lana spun Pete Ross around, put her arms around his waist, and they began to kiss. Bruce looked surprised by this.
"Pete asked Lana out on a date last night," explained Claire. "Looks like it went well."
Bruce slid an arm around her waist and smiled at Claire. She returned the smile. With no words necessary, they too began to kiss. After about ten minutes, both couples came up for air. "Whoa," said Claire. "If we don't return with kindling soon, Bruce's foster parents are going to start wondering where we've got to."
"Claire's right," said Pete. "That was fun, and I hope we get to do more of it, but we need to make sure we get our chores done, too."
As they were collecting kindling, Claire smiled at the memory of that kiss. Just thinking about it made her tingle. It surprised her how quickly and how willingly she had fallen into the role of Bruce's girlfriend, how thrilled she had been when he had asked her to the prom yesterday, and she wondered if as well as changing her physically the strange ring that had turned her into a girl was also having a delayed effect on her mentally. Whatever the reason, she didn't care. All that mattered was how happy Bruce made her feel.
Much later, after their evening meal and as night was falling, the three couples sat around the campfire and exchanged stories. Not long after this they turned in for the night. They would be making an early start tomorrow.
The attack came without warning. It was early Sunday morning and Claire was, she thought, the only one awake. She was sitting in her tent, in her pyjamas, when it happened. Four small disks dropped from the sky, one landing in front of each of the tents in which the teenagers had been sleeping. No sooner had they landed than each emitted a pulse of energy into its adjacent tent. Whatever it was supposed to do, the pulse had no effect on Claire, but in the second or so the disks took to land and activate, Claire had switched into her Super-Sister costume at super-speed and was flying out of her tent. She was just in time to see Vandar Koll descend from the skies on his mighty wings and land in the middle of camp.
"Ah, Super-Sister!" he said. "Good. You're just in time to see me apprehend the fugitive."
"He's here?" said Claire, caught off-guard.
"Yes. Those somnula disks I dropped in front of the other tents will ensure their occupants remain asleep during the arrest. No point in causing more cultural contamination than we need to, after all."
He turned to face the large tent housing the Waynes.
"I know you're in there, Kallon Phon," he shouted. "Time to come on out and surrender yourself into my custody."
In response, the tent suddenly blew up into the air leaving two figures standing there, both wearing wings identical to Vandar Koll and both poised and ready for combat. So Bruce's foster parents were aliens!
"Wait!" said Claire. "I thought you said you were only looking for one Thanagarian criminal..."
"We are," said the voice of Thallis Shay from overhead as she simultaneously fired some sort of beam from that instantly dropped the Waynes in their tracks.
"Nicely done, my love!" said Vandar Koll as his partner touched down beside him. "They had no idea you were there."
- 10 -
Claire looked over at the fallen Waynes, and was astonished to see that Sarah Wayne no longer looked like a female Thanagarian, that her wings had actually been a part of her. Unconscious, she had reverted to what must be her true, alien form, her wings absorbed into her body. She had the same golden skin, pointed ears, and antennae as Chameleon Boy, Clare's colleague in the Legion of Super-Heroes, which meant they were the same species. And that wasn't the only thing they shared in common.
"She's a Durlan!" said Claire. "And she's a man!"
"Yes," said Thallis Shay, distaste in her voice. "Their perverted relationship is why Kallon Phon is under arrest."
"So same-sex relationships are illegal on Thanagar," asked Claire, "or is it the Durlan choosing to be a woman?"
"Gods, no!" snorted Vandar Koll. "We're not barbarians."
"I myself was born male," said Thallis Shay, "but it was obvious to me from a very early age I should have been born a girl. There is no stigma attached to such matters on our world so shortly before puberty, and with the blessing of my parents, I underwent our gender realignment procedure. Now I am in all respects a woman."
"A very beautiful woman," said Vandar Koll, smiling at his partner affectionately, "and the mother of our two children."
"Then why...?"
"Mating with a non-Thanagarian, of course. Inter-species miscegenation is a very serious crime."
"So you're not homophobic or transphobic, just racist," came a new voice.
Claire turned to see Bruce, drop down from the tree at the edge of the clearing from where he'd been listening to their exchange. He was wearing his Flying Fox cape and cowl. Obviously, he had not been in his tent when the somnula disks went off.
"And who might you be, youngling?" asked Vander Koll, in an amused voice. He clearly saw no threat in this strangely-attired teenager.
"A friend of Super-Sister's," said Bruce, "and someone who isn't going to let you take the Waynes. They may have broken your laws but those laws are unjust. And justice trumps law in my book. Every time."
"And how exactly do you propose to stop us by yourself?"
"He's not by himself," said Claire, walking over to stand by Bruce, "because he's right. Your law is wrong and I'm not letting you take them."
"That's unfortunate," said Vandar Koll, and in a single swift motion he pulled the kryptonite laser pistol from his holster and fired at Claire.
- 11 -
The green beam creased her skull and she collapsed to the ground, dazed. At the same time, Thallis Shay brought her stun ray to bear on Bruce, but he was too fast for her. Even as she was drawing a bead on him he was already pulling a pair of bolas from the back of his belt and hurling them at the Thanagarian. The rope wrapped itself around Thallis Shay and the metal balls on the end slammed into her skull, knocking her out.
Bruce turned back to face Vandar Koll, who had taken a prisoner. Holding the still dazed Claire, he pressed the laser against her temple.
"Either you surrender or I execute Super-Sister!" he said.
"Oh, I don't think so," said a new voice, calmly, a beam of green light lancing down from overhead and vaporizing the laser pistol.
"No, not you!" shrieked Vander Kol, as a powerfully built, scarlet-skinned man floated down from above, to land gently on the ground. He was dressed in a green and black costume with white gloves, a stylised picture of a lantern on his chest and a glowing green ring on the middle finger of his right hand.
"A Green Lantern!" sneered Vander Koll, spitting the name out like a curse. "I'm an authorised officer of the Thanagarian police force, in pursuit of a wanted fugitive. You have no right to interfere in this."
"Ah, but I do!" said the Green Lantern. "Earth is not a signatory to any galactic treaties. I know Thanagarians like to believe their laws apply everywhere, but you have no jurisdiction here."
"Oh, and I suppose you do?"
"When it comes to extra-planetary threats, yes, I do. I won't interfere with Earth's internal affairs and I won't allow others to either."
"What about cultural contamination?" said Vander Koll. "These fugitives are guilty of that by their very presence."
"No, I don't believe so," said the Green Lantern. "They were living quiet lives as Earthlings and would have continued to do so had you not decided to flush them out. If anyone in this affair is guilty of risking cultural contamination, it would be you and your partner."
"So you just want us to leave them here?" he shouted, glancing over to where Bruce had revived his foster parents and was helping them to their feet.
"That's exactly what I want. They will go back to being Robert and Sarah Wayne and you will go back to your homeworld. Earth is now off-limits to Thanagarians and will remain so until the Guardians decide otherwise. Your people only respect power. Do you think you have enough to challenge the Green Lantern Corps?"
Vander Koll's silence was all the answer that was needed.
Claire had revived and was now standing beside the Green Lantern, along with Bruce and the Waynes. Glancing at them, seeing a Green Lantern, a Thanagarian hawk-man, a shape-changing alien, Bruce in his Flying Fox garb, and her in her Super-Sister costume she had an odd, almost precognitive flash. For a split second she thought she saw a vision of herself as an adult and part of just such a team of champions of justice, but only for a split-second. She shook her head, annoyed at herself for this flight of fancy.
"Leave now and do not return!" said the Green Lantern.
Knowing he was defeated, Vandar Koll revived his unconscious partner and as soon as he was sure she was up to it, they both spread their wings and leapt into the skies. Within a few minutes they were just dots on the horizon, then they were gone.
- 12-
"It was you in the impound yard, wasn't it?" said Claire to the Green Lantern. "That wasn't Vandar Koll's laser pistol but the beam from your ring, but why?"
"I didn't want you to capture the Waynes," he said, "not until I'd conferred with my masters, the Guardians of Oa, and asked what action they wanted me to take regarding them."
"And what were you doing in the impound, anyway?" Claire asked the Waynes, noticing that Sarah had reverted to her human form and her husband had a protective arm around her.
"We'd never heard of anything on this planet like that mini-tank," said Kallon Phon aka Robert Wayne, as he started unfastening the harness that secured his wings, "and fearing it might be alien technology that had fallen into the hands of local criminals, we decided we needed to check it out. If it was Thanagarian then that meant our pursuers were closing in. Of course, it turned out to be nothing of the sort and we almost got ourselves caught for our troubles."
"Very good," said the Green Lantern. "Now, if you don't mind, I'd like a private word with Super-Sister."
When they had moved out of earshot of the others, he turned to Claire.
"After I use my power ring to restore the Waynes' tent I'll remove the somula disks and myself. Before I do so, you need to fly away with the Flying Fox so that Bruce Wayne and Claire Kent are in their tents when the Waynes come to wake them."
"So you now know I'm Claire Kent."
His face broke into an enormous grin.
"Miss Kent, I've always known."
"And I know who you are, sir," said Claire, smiling at him. "You may have changed the color of your skin, but I'd recognise my history teacher Abe Surn anywhere."
"I suppose you would," he chuckled. "My true name is Abin Sur, and I am the Green Lantern of space sector 2814, which includes both the Earth and my home planet, Ungara. The planet of your birth, Krypton, was in the neighbouring sector, whose Green Lantern is my friend and colleague Tomar Re, of the planet Xudar. He was charged by the Guardians with saving your people. Tragically, he failed. The Guardians observed as your rocket craft escaped the destruction of Krypton, and tasked me with watching over you as part of my duties. This I have done from time to time over the years and, in the wake of you becoming Super-Sister, I was recently instructed to assume a human identity and watch you much more closely."
"Why?" asked Claire.
"Because of the increasing number of events around you involving time travel," he said. "Though the Guardians don't like it, done responsibly it need not present any difficulty. Done carelessly, however, it can cause immense problems. Causality itself can become unravelled around time-travellers with potentially catastrophic results. Saturn Girl of the Legion of Super-Heroes has sensibly arranged things so that you forget any details concerning your own future when you return to the present from their time, thus preserving continuity. However, your transformation from Superboy to Super-Sister has already caused some local disruptions."
"How so?" asked Claire. "As it was explained to me, that just created a branch in time. In one branch I continued on as Superboy and in the other - in this one - I became Super-Sister."
"Yes, ordinarily that's what you would expect, but the temporal mechanics were disrupted by Robin the Boy Wonder."
"I'm sorry but, who?" asked Claire.
- 13 -
"In the future he will be the partner of the Batman you saw when you first turned on your time telescope - and, yes, I know about that," said Abin Sur. "Before you became Super-Sister he travelled back in time to enlist the aid of Superboy in defusing a booby trap that would kill Superman in his time."
"That never happened," said Claire. "I'm sure I'd remember if it had."
"Oh, it happened," said Abin Sur, "but when you became Super-Sister it couldn't have on this branch in time because you will never become Superman. Do you see the problem?"
"It created a time paradox," said Claire, quietly.
"Exactly. So instead of an orderly alternate timeline being created by your transformation, we got one where a past event was also altered so that it never happened for you. However, these things are never quite that simple. Like a stone being thrown in a pond it creates ripples and those ripples cause further minor changes of their own, unpredictable 'collateral damage'. I think I've mapped them all now, and I don't expect there will be any more."
"What were they?" asked Claire.
"Well in your original timeline you invented the time telescope before you learned about the Phantom Zone," he said. "Here the opposite happened. The other thing is that Pete Ross wasn't supposed to arrive in Smallville this early."
"Whew, I'm glad he did," said Claire. "I'd be feeling terribly guilty about Lana if he hadn't."
"That's as may be," said Abin Sur, "but given the temporal disruption there's already been around you, I'm afraid I can't let you keep your time telescope, and you have to promise never to build another."
"I understand," said Claire, "and I give you my word."
"Good," said Abin Sur, smiling. "And now Miss Kent, I think you and the Flying Fox need to vacate the scene."
"Yes, sir," said Claire, "but before I do there's one thing I want to ask you. On your homeworld, Ungara, what do you do when you're not being a Green Lantern."
"Why Miss Kent," he grinned, "I'm a history teacher."