CHAPTER SEVEN

THE FOTRESS OF SOLITUDE. THE ARCTIC.

Kara Zor-El, Tony Stark, Bruce Wayne, and Peter Parker cautiously entered the majestic crystal fortress. Light seemed to reflect of off every surface, creating a dazzling, almost ethereal effect.

"What is this place?" Peter asked in a reverent whisper.

"It looks just like the architecture on Krypton," Kara replied.

"How is that possible?" Tony asked.

"I don't know," Kara said. "I don't… Wait!" She threw out her arms, stopping the other three behind her.

"What is it?" Bruce asked, his eyes darting around the fortress as he dropped into a defensive stance.

Kara slowly lowered her hands as she took a few careful steps forward. She was staring upward and off into the distance of the fortress at something the others could not yet see.

"Kal-El?" she asked.

From somewhere high above them, a figure descended from the high ceiling of the crystalline fortress. This strange visitor wore a suit much like the Superman suit they had seen in the holograms, but instead of red and blue it was all white. The cape, the boots, the belt, the "S" logo, were all a pure and vibrant white. His hair was shaggy and he sported some stubble on his face. But as he floated closer and closer into view, it became readily apparent that he was, somehow, the same man that they knew to be Kal-El.

"Kara?" Superman asked, confused. "Is that really you?"

She did not hesitate. She flew up off the ground and darted straight into her cousin's embrace, throwing her arms tightly around him in a big hug.

"Kal!" she said, her voice cracking a little bit. "How are you here? How? We just saw you die!"

"You did?" Superman replied, even more confused now. "I don't…? Where did you come from? When did you come from? Did you travel through time, or?"

"I think I can explain," Tony called out. "Well, sort of. I can explain some of it. I think. Maybe."

Superman and Kara slowly floated down to the ground.

"Tony?" Superman asked. "And Pete?! Peter Parker?" He threw his arms around Peter. "You're okay! I thought for sure that Darkseid must've…" He trailed off as he noticed that Peter was not hugging back. In fact, he was just standing perfectly still, arms at his sides, clearly freaked out. Superman released him and backed away.

"I'm not… uh… I'm not who you think I am," Peter said, straightening his glasses. "I think you think I'm the Peter Parker who was Spider-Man."

"You're… not?" Superman asked. He shook his head. "I think I need an explanation here. How did you find this fortress?"

Kara held up the crystal crest, which was glowing quite brightly now that they were in Kal-El's presence. "With this," she said.

As Superman looked at the small shield, something clicked in his mind.

"You're this timeline's Kara," he said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "And you're this timeline's Peter Parker, Tony Stark, and…" He trailed off again as he looked at Bruce Wayne.

"He's Batman," Tony said, titling his head toward Bruce.

"Ohhh," Superman replied. "I never knew your real identity. You always lined your cowl with lead."

Everyone looked at Bruce as if they required an explanation for this, but he looked as confused as the rest of them.

Finally, Tony Stark brought them back to the matter at hand. "I'm not sure if this will answer your questions, or if it will just prompt a lot more of them." He reached into his parka and pulled out the JLA armband. "But we're here because of this."

Superman delicately took the armband from Tony. He looked at it as if it were a long-lost friend.

"I take it you know what that is?" Bruce asked.

"It's a Justice League Avengers armband," Superman replied. "What I don't know is how you could possibly have this?"

"Spider-Man. The Spider-Man that I assume was 'your' Spider-Man. He traveled back in time and gave it to our young Mr. Parker here," Tony explained.

"Of course," Superman replied, as things continued to make more sense to him.

"Of course? 'Your' Spider-Man?" Kara asked. "I'm still lost. Kal, how are you here? We just saw you die back in Smallville. And you were skinny and sickly there. But now you're…" She looked him up and down. She did not know how to express the fact that he was extremely fit and muscular without it sounding creepy that she was talking about her cousin in this way. "Well, you're looking healthy," she said at last.

"As Mr. Stark has probably already figured out, I'm from the original timeline," Superman said. "Years from now Darkseid attacked Earth with the infinity gauntlet and the anti-life equation. He controlled dozens of the world's heroes and killed dozens more."

"That's what the files on the JLA armband refer to as the Final Conflict," Tony added.

"Darkseid used the time stone to open a portal back to the day my rocket ship arrived on Earth," Superman continued. "He killed Jonathan and Martha Kent so that they could never raise me. I came through the portal after him. When I saw the bodies of my parents… it devastated me. I felt like my very soul had been taken from me. I flew away from Smallville as fast and as far as I could. I never found out what happened to the younger version of myself that day. The 'me' that came out of the rocket. I guess I assumed that Darkseid had… well… that Darkseid had killed him too."

"Lionel Luthor found him," Bruce Wayne said. "He kept him as a lab rat all these years so that he could siphon his blood for some kind of serum that was keeping Lionel alive."

Superman's face turned grim as stone. "Where is Lionel now?"

"In the Phantom Zone," Kara stated matter-of-factly, without a hint of remorse. "But what I want to know is, what have you been doing all this time? And where did this fortress come from?"

"There were three Kryptonian crystals of power on Earth," Superman explained. "By combining them into one they formed a crystal capable of constructing this fortress. I knew how to do this because I'd already done it in my original timeline. It was much easier this time around, without having to deal with Countess Thoreaux and her coven of witches." Then, off the confused looks of the others, he added, "Long story."

"So what've you been doing all this time?" Peter asked.

"Something I should've done a long time ago. Completing my training. My biological father, Jor-El, programmed his consciousness into this fortress using an advanced form of artificial intelligence. I've spent years studying the accumulated knowledge of the 28 known galaxies. My powers are now advanced to a level far beyond what I ever imagined possible. My speed, my strength, my senses, are all at their absolute peak. And I'll need them all if I'm going to fight Darkseid again."

"Darkseid? He's still out there?" Kara asked.

"It stands to reason that after Darkseid tampered with time he would return to the 'present' to see the fruits of his labor," Superman replied. He turned away from the group and started walking to an array of crystal spires rising up from the fortress floor. "He'll return to the day of the Final Conflict to see how history has changed. Fortunately that day is still in our future at this point. We have time to prepare. We will be ready."

"Um… and what does being 'ready' for Darkseid look like?" Peter asked.

"Well for one thing, it looks like this," Superman said. He held his hand over some of the large crystals that were coming up from the floor like stalagmites. They parted, and a small podium-like platform rose up from somewhere down below. Standing upright on the platform was the infinity gauntlet. Four of its six recesses were filled with gems: red, green, purple, and blue. "I was able to track down the infinity stones the same way I found the Kryptonian crystals; I already knew where to look for them. The reality stone was in the Bermuda Triangle. The time stone was in the eye of a statue hidden inside a Mayan temple. The power stone was entombed in a sarcophagus in Egypt. And the space stone was in a scepter belonging to the League of Shadows. There are only two left. I know who has the soul stone. As for the mind stone… I have no idea where it is. In the original timeline, R'as Al Ghul appeared with it already in his possession on the day of the Final Conflict. We never knew where he'd gotten it."

"So since you have the infinity gauntlet now, doesn't that mean that Darkseid won't have it when he appears on the day of the Final Conflict?" Peter asked.

"Not necessarily," Superman replied. "Possessing the reality and time gems together protects the user from paradoxes. Both instances of the infinity gauntlet can exist in the same place at the same time. But having this one will at least put me on even footing with Darkseid."

"So what do we do now?" Kara asked.

"I'll go get the soul stone. I think the person who has it will give it to me. And, it's possible that he can help me find the mind stone. While I'm doing that, there is something the four of you can start working on for me as well. There are some people we need to round up."

"Who?" Tony asked.

Superman turned back to the group of four. There was something approaching a smile on his lips and a bit of a twinkle in his eye. "As Steve Rogers used to say… Avengers, assemble."