In the operations-control-center, thousands of miles away from Ketchikan, everyone was busy to analyze the pictures and the data they collected…
"Any progress?"
"The quality of the pictures is too bad! I doubt that we can get a better view on them."
"How is that possible? The scanners were developed by John-Henry Irons! The whole technology is state-of-the-art!"
"The polar-lights and the weather in that region were impairing the signals! This is the best we can get!"
On the big screen was a blurred picture of two persons, one already identified by the scanners as Jonathan Kent, and the other one was a 'humanoid' smaller person with long hair that was 'most likely' a woman.
"Any chance to get a clear picture of their faces?"
"Not really! Jonathan Kent hid his face under a wool-hat and a thick collar of his winter jacket, the other person's face has been covered by him. Jonathan Kent kept sure that the face of the other person was always covered. It seems to be someone he really cares about."
"Maybe the same person because he saved the plane?"
"Maybe? His face has changed after his staged suicide."
"The suicide was not staged! He just got saved on time by that A.I!"
"The technicians are on it. But the scanners have clearly confirmed that the other person was definitely a human!"
"I have to make some calls…"
Hours passed in which technicians and experts tried everything to improve the quality of the pictures. Soldiers from a nearby military base were sent to the crash-sites of the drones to retrieve them to see if anything survived. But there was not much left of them. One drone was on the bottom of the sea completely and some burned leftovers were spread over the south of Etolin Island. But a witness claimed he saw something bigger crash in the area of Eaton Point…
After hours of searching, the soldiers indeed found two damaged trees and a place in the ground that looked as if someone was laying there…
"Out of all places on this planet, that guy chooses Alaska as his excile?" one of the men asked confused.
"I would choose Hawaii!" the other one said, while searching the ground with his flashlight. "And you?"
"Bora Bora!"
"What are we doing here anyway? I thought that the government prohibited searching him? And those solar-panel he invented is so cool! My parents have ordered one, too!"
"Who knows… I learned early in this job to don't ask questions that could get you in trouble! Woah… wait…"
"What?"
"Get the light back there! There was something!"
The other guy went with the light of the flashlight back and they found a small package on the ground.
"What is that?" the man said and took a plastic bag to carefully put the package with pills into it. "That definitely does not belong here!"
"What kind of pills are that?" the other one asked while his comrade turned around the package to read the description or to find a sticker from a pharmacy.
"Something for woman… for pregnant women!"
The two soldiers looked on each other with big eyes…
In his cell-apartment, Clark walked up and down the whole night…
He didn't need much sleep. Indeed he could stay awake for months if he needed to. But the worry for his son didn't get out of his head. Then there were Lois and Jordan, too!
What the hell Lois is doing in Ketchikan! She knows that she is observed! She knows it is too dangerous for them to get even close to Jonathan! And then there was Jordan? He couldn't imagine what will happen when they meet each other there. Jordan hates him and Lois! It won't be a happy reunion. And to make it worse, he couldn't turn of the TV where they continued to report it the whole night. It seemed as if the whole world has stopped and that everyone else in the world had vanished! It seemed as if the only thing that seemed to matter was Jonathan's 'hero-debut'…
"You look as if you wait for something!" Anderson said mockingly.
Clark turned around to see Anderson again. Smiling and with an even thicker folder in his hands.
"And you look like someone who is way too confident to believe that I tell him something!" Clark moaned. "Don't you have a private-life, or do you really spend your life at work 24/7? I am not talking about it to you!"
"You don't need to!" Anderson said and opened his folder to show Clark a map of the Alaskan Panhandle. "I've received some calls! Do you know what that is?"
"The Alaskan Panhandle!" Clark shrugged. That was the place his son was having a good life. Where his grandchildren were supposed to grow up in freedom and peacefully.
Anderson then showed him a photo of a drone. "And do you know what this is?"
"Yes… drones your team made of the technology you stole from John-Henry Irons! Drones you had no permission for from the government and the United Nations. And that were financed with money that was supposed for other things. You want to show me more reasons for other states to put sanctions on the United States? Or what is this about!"
"Your… unwanted and supposedly powerless son… has blown up two of these drones in that area while he was on a romantic date with an unidentified woman!"
"What?" Clark said shocked. "You attacked him?"
"We didn't attack him! Indeed we only tried to contact him! He attacked us!" Anderson told, presenting Clark the last pictures of the drones that showed how beams of heat-vision approached them. "38 million dollar damage!"
"What do you want from him? Pay it?" Clark moaned. "Shouldn't you look for the person who is responsible for the explosion aboard the plane?"
For a very brief moment, Clark could swear that he saw a twitch in Anderson's face. Almost as if he tries to hide something.
"The NTSB, the FBI and the local police can handle it! I have interests in other things!" Anderson said dismissively.
"Yes… things that should not concern you!" Clark moaned.
Anderson ignored that and looked on his wristwatch. "It is... 5:49 a.m. now!"
"And?"
"At 6 a.m. most morning shows start on the different channels! You should watch it… you will be interested!" Anderson said and turned around to leave. "As useless as your son believes it is to talk to you, I know that it is useless to try to get information about him from you! So I get for other sources. Out there are enough idiots who would love to know your son's current state. I am sure many Smallville-residents will love to see it!"
A cold shiver ran down Clark's back. He has given up on Smallville long ago. But the Smallvillians have never given up on being mean, hostile, and biased regarding his son…
Indeed, Clark could imagine that a lot of Smallvillians have already shattered their TVs in fury or try to leave the town to get to Alaska, too just to spread their nastiness again. It let him shiver again, when he thought about Coach Gaines, who was out there in the world, on the run, living a luxurious life with the money he got from Lex Luthor as a 'donation' for his 'good job' and who would already start to troll around online…
In Alaska…
Connor needed hours to calm down halfway. Keeping sure that his son was sleeping peacefully and that his also totally upset wife was sleeping too before he allowed himself to relax and to calm down, too.
Maybe he was just upset? Exaggerating? Of course there were drones, since everyone knew that Jonathan Kent 'was' in Ketchikan today! But the government said he is free! He is paroled! Everything that happened to Smallville due to the X-K was not his fault! The judges confirmed it! The experts confirmed it! Even some Smallvillers confirmed it, before they got beaten to death by the evil ones! But there were still the so called Smallvillians! Those who were unteachable!
At some point, Connor seemed to finally fall asleep…
Connor opened his eyes to find himself in a wide void of fog and emptiness. He was alone and lonely. Nobody seemed nearby…
"Hello!" he yelled, but there was no response.
"Honey!" suddenly Janet's voice said.
Connor turned around and was surprised to see his wife being the 17 year old teenager again, wearing the same clothes the day they first met. She was not pregnant. She was smiling and holding something in her arms that looked like a folded suit…
"Jan?"
"We have something for you!" she said and presented him the 'Alaskaman-suit' that they saw trending online. "Alaskaman needs a proper outfit for his heroics!"
She unfolded it to present the suit in its full glory. And it looked seriously heroic, and not comic-like like online and in TV. Connor walked closer slowly while he realized that he was wearing a Superman-outfit with the house-of-El crest on his chest.
"What the…"
"This will look much better than this one! And we all know you will like it more!" Janet smiled.
"Wow… I have to say… I really like it…"
"HOW DARE YOU?" suddenly an angry Clark yelled.
Connor got grabbed by his arm to face and taller, furious Clark in full Superman attire. Suddenly the fog around them vanished and revealed that he was in Smallville on the main-street. Surrounded by angry people, holding up X-K inhalers, pitchforks, burning torches and rifles. Clark grabbed him tightly and used one hand to grab into his collar and tear off the suit from his body to reveal his naked, emaciated, bruised, and bleeding body to the nasty laughing Smallvillians…
"How dare you to walk around in this crest! You know exactly that this crests means Superpowers and not worthless-human!" Clark ranted angrily before throwing him backwards on the ground and into a puddle of broken dirty dishes, cutlery and cooking pots. "You seem to have forgotten that your only purpose in life is to obey and to be our housemaid and farm-worker…"
"Aghh… you hurt me…" Connor wailed, while the sea of broken dishes around him seemed to grow.
"You are nothing special! Your brother is supposed to be the glory champion of Earth! The star of the football-team and the most popular boy in school!" Clark ranted, stepping aside to show that Jordan was standing behind him.
Jordan was a teenager again. He was wearing a black full bodysuit that let him more look like a Power Ranger than a Superboy. The house of El crest was red and looked like it was bleeding. His arms were crossed self-confidentially and he was smiling sheepishly while his curly hair seemed to get longer and longer with every praise his father spoke out…
"You seem to have forgotten where your place is!" Clark ranted, grabbing Connor by his throat to lift him up to present him to the crowd of Smallvillians who all breathed in X-K sheepishly.
"They… they take X-K…" Connor wailed.
"And that is all your fault, Jonathan! All your fault…" Clark ranted, before smashing Connor on the ground again to find himself in a muddy acre now, surrounded by dying corn-plants. The nasty crowd came closer and everyone laughed while taking phones to film the town-loser and genetic failure to get beaten up. "You are a shame for the name Kent and for the house of El…"
"STOP!"
The cry from his wife let Connor look over to Janet, who was a pregnant adult again. Holding a floating Connor in a Alaskaman-suit by his hand…
"DON'T LISTEN TO HIM, CONNOR! DON'T LISTEN TO ANY OF THOSE MONSTERS! THEY ARE THE SHAME! NOT YOU!" she yelled desperately.
"Janet, run…" Connor yelled before he got grabbed by his throat again to lift up.
"You dare to test me! And you dare to allow that someone says something bad about Smallville!" Clark ranted and his eyes start to glow before he was about to laser Connor's family.
"Nooo…" Connor yelled before he witnessed a bright blast of heat-vision letting his pregnant wife and his son explode…
Connor opened his eyes and sat upright in his bed while screaming so loud that he woke up Janet, too.
Tears ran down his face and he was bathed in sweat… but he calmed down quickly when he realized that it was just a nightmare…
"Connor, what happened?" his wife asked worried.
"I… I…" Connor stuttered and laid down again to hug his sleeping son, while crying waterfalls…
A few minutes later, Connor and Janet were in the kitchen where she served her husband some tea after he told her detailed about his nightmare and what he saw…
"I know I should be over it now! I know he apologized at least thousands of times. In TV, in interviews, over his hatch in his cell… but…"
"But what?" Janet asked worried and sat down next to him to look into his eyes.
"But… something is going on! I don't know what?"
"You are just upset because of the current situation. Tim's plane, these drones…"
"Oh, my gosh… You could have been hurt!" Connor wailed. "Martha could have been hurt… these darn bastards…"
"Connor… I am okay!" Janet reassured him.
"You lie! I see it in your face!"
"Fine… I am mad! I am mad because they ruined our special moment! The polar light flights are our special thing! But mostly I am worried about you! Not about any secrets or powers, or drones… about you! Because I know how much you struggle and how much you always keep your emotions shut inside you until they hurt you! You put the weight of the whole world on your shoulders but don't ask for help when it is too much for you. I love you and I want to help you, Connor! But for that you have to allow me to help you, too!"
"I try to protect you! I don't know what is going on here but it is not good!"
"And now you are the one who needs to be protected!" Janet said. "Just allow me that for once…"
Connor had no time to respond since there was suddenly a loud knock on the front-door that let Connor crush his cup in fear…
In her hotel…
Lois could barely sleep and had nightmares, too. Of Jonathan! Of Smallville! Of its people! Of all the cruel things they did and planned to do if they had forced Jonathan to live there longer! Her night was over when her father stumbled into the room totally confused…
"Ughh… how long did I sleep?"
"A few hours!" Lois lied, hoping to convince her father that it was still evening and not morning.
"I feel so odd!"
"That's the weather! And these pills you take!" Lois continued and lift to get to the water kettle to make her father some 'coffee'.
"And you? You are wearing pajamas!"
"I needed to rest a bit, too before I leave to meet him!" Lois told while discreetly putting some more pills into her father's cup. Hoping he does not notice that he slept almost 12 hours…
Lois had plans… After breakfast she wanted to go the community center, Jonathan runs, to talk to him. Hoping that he will accept it, even if she has to surprise him…
What she didn't know was that Jonathan was not going to come to his office today. And that right in this moment a desperate airport-employee hammered against his door…
With his hearing and his vision, Connor saw that it was one of his old proteges that was standing totally wet and drunk in front of his house and cried as if his life depends on the mass of tears he was crying…
"Jeff? What are you doing here?" Connor, who was very upset by himself already, said shocked.
The man, who was still wearing his working clothes and his airport-badge, was smelling like alcohol. He was soaking wet and it was obvious that he was extremely upset. He didn't respond to Connor's question and just burst out in tears again. Falling into the arms of the man who once helped him so much and whom he will always be so grateful to.
"I am sorry… I am so sorry…" the man wailed.
"Come inside! It's cold out here!" Connor said.
Janet witnessed once again what she just meant while talking to her husband: as soon as he sees someone who is in trouble, he pushes his own feelings aside to help. Oh, Connor was so much Superman's son! Nobody else on this world has a hero complex that is so big. But Janet pushed her own worries aside, too to make their guest some coffee, too. Hoping he does not wake up Joel…
"Jeff, what happened! It's 5 a.m.! Did you drink?"
The man just cried again. Connor was shocked, since he knew Jeff as someone who despises alcohol deeply after growing up with an alcoholic father who let him always on his own. As someone who knows what it means to grow up with a father who cares more about other things, Jeff's fate really touched him. The man took his airport-badge to look on it under tears.
"It was always my biggest dream to work with planes! But because of my records I almost wasn't allowed… but you helped me! You supported me and you believed in me to get that job… And I failed you… you and everyone else who believed in me…"
"Hey… shhh… calm down! Drink this…" Connor said and handed the black coffee over to Jeff so he could drink it. The man drunk the coffee with shaking hands but didn't stop crying. "Okay, Jeff… you know you can tell us everything! Just say it, what happened?"
"Aww… You… you know that my… deadbeat father before he went to prison… that he… had a lot of gambling debts that I suddenly had to pay… so… I because I feared to get beaten up by some mafia thugs… I used my credit-cards and borrowed some money from friends… but it was tight… I needed the money…"
"Jeff… stay calm… nobody is going to judge you!" Connor said. Despite his own problems he never endured when someone he knew was in trouble.
"Three months ago… that woman approached me… she said… she is a scientist and… needs someone to help her… getting… cargo transported to her colleagues…"
"What cargo?" suddenly Connor had to think about the explosion aboard the cargo-compartment of Tim's plane.
"Samples… Samples of… odd looking stones! Liquids in vials… the woman said… that stuff is too important to get it to its destination the standard way and… that someone in… Anchorage or wherever would pick it up directly at the plane…"
Jeff cried again. A terrible suspicion came up in Connor…
"Jeff… did you load something into the plane that exploded?" Connor asked while Janet sat down in shock about her brother and his almost death.
Jeff nodded. "Yes…"
"What, Jeff?" Connor asked.
"It was… small! Like a… book… yes… it was as big as a book… it… was a little package with… stones again, I think!"
"Stones?"
"Yes…" Jeff nodded before drinking the rest of the coffee. "…I… I was… able to get a glimpse on it… that were… odd looking stones… the woman… said that are geological samples… here from the island… they… they were wrapped in plastic and Styrofoam… the woman said… that stuff is not dangerous… but… I loaded it in the rear cargo-compartment… and there the explosion happened… what if it were not stones?"
Jeff burst out in tears again… Connor, who felt the urge to scream that it was his fault that he showed his powers in public, just comforted the young man, who was a lot like him: a young man who grew up troubled and who just wanted a chance to prove himself… he knew, sooner or later it will come out and Jeff will have to deal with the consequences. He is definitely going to lose his job… but if it were really just 'stones' or 'water-samples', how could they cause such a big explosion?
Jeff collapsed and Connor had to carry him over to the couch where he would sleep out his intoxication, knowing that he will have a hangover as soon he wakes up, they also prepared some water and aspirin. After that they sneaked back to the basement where it was far away enough from Joel to freak out loudly…
"TIM ALMOST DIED!"
"JAN, CALM DOWN!"
"CALM DOWN? SAYS THE ONE WHO IS MR. UPSET IN PERSON!" Janet yelled, before realizing that it went too far. She took a deep breath before she continued. "How could he do that?"
"He is desperate! And I know from experience that desperate people are doing things that are not okay, but not out of evil!" Connor said and took a deep breath, too. "Stones can't cause an explosion!"
"Or these stones were actually C4, Anfo, or TNT?" Janet murmured.
"In that case, the explosives detectors at the airport would have set alarm. Janet, remember that I used to work there for a summer?" Connor told, remembering that every employee had to let himself check for explosives, too. "No… maybe there was something in another cargo box… or… that makes no sense!"
"What?"
"That woman, Jeff told about! The supposed scientist?" Connor said. "Why she risks so much to smuggle geological-samples aboard a passenger-plane, when there are hundreds of boats and private pilots in this town who could get her stuff to other places? The only possibility… is that nobody is supposed to know!"
"You mean… the aviation-authority, the pilots…"
"Or especially people from this town! Keeping it a secret because someone wants to prevent that stuff from reaching its destination?" Connor said.
"You mean… someone figured out that a new package is delivered and placed a bomb aboard the plane to prevent it reaching its destination?" Janet said. "This is pure speculation!"
"I know… for that we don't know enough! And I fear all evidence is burned or on the bottom of the sea. And I can't get there to look for it on my own, since the Tongass is full of boats now…"
Connor used his supervision to look through the walls of their house and zoom on the ferry-terminal where the two cranes prepared to recover the sunken plane from the water…
"I feel as if something is in the air… a presence!" Connor said.
"What presence?"
"Call me crazy… but my intense nightmare, the plane, Jeff, a mysterious woman, my public exposure… I have the feeling as if something is going on and that someone or something is watching me from the distance. Maybe it has to do with that weird event last month? And that it is getting worse…"
Indeed, Connor had no clue that his brother Jordan was sitting aboard a plane now that was on approach to Ketchikan, that his mother Lois, just drugged her father again to prevent him from following her out of the hotel, John-Henry and Natalie Irons being in town and his father Clark being trapped in his cell, watching the morning-shows in TV with a lot more things, the people shouldn't know.
Like the official-statement of the military that Jonathan Kent is living in or near Ketchikan…
Jordan sat in his seat aboard the flight from Seattle to Ketchikan and was close from throwing up. The turbulences were heavy and the flight full up to the last seat. It was still dark outside and raining hardly. The water was running down the window and it was windy.
Jordan wondered again, why in the world his brother moved to this town in Alaska? Even if he read some really nice things in the on-board magazine, where a big and interesting article about Ketchikan was printed. That place had millions of things more to offer than Smallville…
"Sir, are you okay?" the man next to him asked.
"Ugh… I don't fly that often!" Jordan moaned. He was not in mood to start a conversation.
Indeed, ever since he lost his powers, he had something against flying. He used to love to fly with his dad and even learned it by himself shortly before his brother's second suicide-attempt. But when he thought about flying now, he could only think about how much Jon suffered during his flying-lesson when he got kidnapped and later punished for it. Also flying with a plane was a constant reminder that everyone else in the world needed a plane to fly. Including his own brother, if he ever survived Smallville and hadn't been brought to Lara…
"I fly this route regularly, and that weather is normal at this time of the year. That's why the cruise-season ends!" the man next to him continued talking. But Jordan was still not interested in a conversation. "And this flight has never been so full!"
"Well…" Jordan moaned, hoping to get rid of that man by just responding. "…I guess everyone wants to see the plane Jonathan Kent saved?"
"Yeah… Are you a journalist, too? I guess the most people on board here are journalists, YouTubers, bloggers and other sensation-hunters."
"No… my… my cousin was aboard the plane… he is in Ketchikan in hospital!" Jordan lied.
"Oh, I am sorry…" the man said and seemed to realize that Jordan wanted to be alone.
The plane made a turn and the turbulences got worse. Jordan's head felt more and more as if it was blowing up while he felt more and more the urge to puke out everything he ate and drunk. One more prove that he was not suited to fly anymore.
"Awww… I can't watch this! I have pills against motion sickness…" the man next to him offered.
"No… No need!" Jordan wailed.
"They are good and work fast! Better than if you vomit!" the man offered reaching out his hand with a small pill he pulled out of a blister.
Jordan, who felt really sick, looked on the pill and thought 'why not?' Better than humiliating himself by vomiting in public. He still had some water left in the bottle he bought at the airport and drunk it with the pill.
"Ughh… tastes bitter!" Jordan murmured and leaned back again to look on the overhead screen on the ceiling. Landing was supposed to be in 10 minutes…
That was the last Jordan knew before he closed his eyes and fell asleep. The man next to him smiled sheepishly.
"Medicine is bitter… Mister Kent!"
Lois could see the plane landing when it was flying through the darkness to land on the airport on the other island. She didn't knew why, but something interested her on the blinking lights of the plane. Almost as if someone was aboard, she should be wary of. The sun would rise, soon. And soon the first cruise-ships will arrive. Lois knew she should go before the town is full of tourists.
Sam was sleeping again. This time she gave him one more pill to keep sure he really sleeps through. It was hard enough to hide the fact that Sam was even here. If John-Henry or Natalie would figure it out, they would lock her up in their own room. For now she closed the curtains, locked the door, and sneaked out of the hotel to get to the community-center her son was running. But before she wanted to get to the place he lives. Only to see it…
At the reception, she carefully asked the man there for a map of the town before pulling out the note with Connor's address to search it.
"Excuse me, can you show me on the map, where to find this address?"
"That's Connor's house…" the man suddenly realized.
Lois became pale. Is there anyone in this town who does not know her son?
"…ehm… you know Connor Johnson?"
"Yes… we went to high school together! Thanks to him I didn't became a pariah when nobody wanted to believe me! Do you want to write an article about him, Ms. Ellis?" the man asked excited. Lois just nodded. "Wow… he definitely deserves it! Not just an article, you should write a whole book about him! When I met for the first time, it was obvious that he went through a lot of shit in his life. He was a wreck… but no matter how bad he was, he was always there for others. He saved my life…"
Lois smiled… one more great story about her son. Full of pride, the man offered to get her to Connor's house on her own in his car as soon as his colleague arrives to take over…
Unaware of the drama that was unfolding thanks to the information that was spread by the Department of Kryptonians in all morning-shows, Connor left the house earlier than usual to get Jeff, who was half-asleep into his car to get him to the police…
As hard as it was for him to deliver Jeff to the authorities, it had to be! It was better when Jeff tells them on is own about these stones, before someone else figures out and accuses him of placing a bomb. And when it was really just geological-samples, Jeff is not going to prison for it. He might lose his job, but that was a consequence he had to live with. And after everything he experienced with the X-K, Jonathan knew it was better to face the consequences directly before things get worse. And nobody in Ketchikan would lynch Jeff just for trying to get rid of his debts, he inherited from his alcoholic-father…
"Stay home with Joel! And don't let him watch the news!" Connor said before leaving.
"Yes… I call if I need something!" Janet said before Connor drove backwards out of the garage and drove away…
Connor just turned his car around the corner before his old high-school-friend turned around another corner, preventing him or his friend seeing that Connor was already not at home anymore.
"We are there, soon!"
"Let me out here, please!" Lois said, planning to walk the rest.
"Seriously? It's cold outside! And I have no pro…"
"I said, let me out here!" Lois said louder, and the man stopped at a crossroad around 200 feet away from their destination. "I will walk the rest. I am bit early anyway and use the chance to walk around a bit and get some air before! Thank you!"
"It's the green house at the end of this road directly in the corner!" the man said friendly.
Lois nodded, opened her seatbelt, and left the car to look up the steep road up the hill to see the house her son was living in from the distance. The lights inside were on, which meant they were already up…
This was it…