Announcement/response to feedback:

Some people don't like that I am incorporating elements of DC into marvel. They don't like Lexi, they don't like Krypton, they don't like that Superman's presence causes butterflies beyond just him, and they want me to be more of a purist when it comes to marvel. Hell, some of them even hate that I'm adding X men to the MCU.

Well tough shit. Bringing Superman into marvel imo means bringing krypton into marvel. I HATE script rehash fics and I LOVE the 90s animated Tim verse, so if I can incorporate certain DC elements or Superman Villains than. I. WILL.

Let me be clear. Lois Lane will NOT be in this fic, nor will any of the Justice league members other than Superman. I also will not be changing any of the Avengers too much, especially when it comes to their origins, as I want them to be recognizable as themselves when we first meet them, and only then will I start shaking things up.

However! You might see some versions/nods to Superman villains, just made with marvel characters, one of which will show up soon. I will not be budged on this. The entire reason I am doing this is to be creative and that's exactly what I'll do. In the MCU characters have solo films outside of the main team up stories, and I want some of those for MC as well.

We will also be getting into Iron man soon and will be really ramping up the MCU shit soon, as well as supes breaking the status quo and showing that while he sorta idolizes what Superman stands for, our MC still isn't 100% the man of steel we know, but a fan of the original who is trying to uphold his legacy, who has his own ideas about what he should do.

One last item of business for all the Lexi haters. She is here to stay. Yes she will be a major part of Clark's life and thus the story. There will be sections where I will focus on her while Clark isn't there, or isn't the center of attention. There will be scenes with her POV. Clark is still the main character, but Lexi is her own character too. I am not budging on this.

Another major complaint I heard was that the conflict with the X men was "manufactured by the author" or "unnecessary for the plot at large".

And you know what? Fair. It absolutely was. But you know what else?

In the author note in the very first chapter, I said that this story will primarily be the writing equivalent of me smashing action figures together and making noises with my mouth. I stated very clearly that a major motivation for me to write this fic was the fights.

I am writing this to have fun and to make a warm atmosphere, while also writing fights that I would really like to see. I'm doing this for fun and enjoyment if you didn't realize.

So for everyone who hates the trunks, hates the spit curl, hates that the MC isn't a hyper type A go getter personality with a supernatural genre awareness and photographic memory of marvel, who isn't a grimdark edgy try hard trying to munchkin his way through a completely unaltered pure MCU Marvel and leave nothing but ruins behind as he effortlessly stomps all the men and lays all the women and perfectly predicts every unchanged event while manipulating everyone around him to do his bidding like a bunch of unintelligent fanatical minions/slaves, all while getting the last word in every verbal interaction he ever has with anyone ever, I say this: that's boring. You're boring. Don't let the door hit you on the way out. Go re read the hundreds of other Marvel SIs out there like that, there are plenty to choose from.

Better yet, write your own story that contains your own preferences so you can stop harassing authors to include everything exactly how you want with no deviations! Maybe then other sweaty discontent middle school syndrome edgelords will harass you on your story instead of bitching at me on mine, and I can have a wonderful joyous time with the remaining majority of my community that is positive and non toxic and knows the difference between constructive criticism and personal preference! (Thank you so much you guys, nearly everyone has been so awesome! Love y'all!)

Whew. Sorry! Kinda lost my cool there. I just don't get why people will leave a review saying they hate everything about my story and then keep reading and then follow my story so they can read and bitch about the new updates when they come out.

Like dude! If you hate my story, then that's fine! Your perfectly allowed to hate it, just stop reading, move on with your life, and shut the fuck up! No one is forcing you to turn the page! I feel I've been very up front with the kind of story I want this to be, and it isn't my fault if these yahoos don't bother reading the A/Ns and then ask questions that were covered in those same A/Ns that they didn't read!

Sorry for being a downer lol, I'll be done now. I don't want to get too negative. Rant over.

Also, I should clarify something. The Christmas Magneto 'omake' is canon to the story. I probably shouldn't have called it an 'omake' but I just didn't have a great place to put it firmly into the timeline, and didn't want to make it seem like it was happening right away. I just wanted to include it on Christmas lol. It's canon to this story.

So without further Ado, let's have some fun!

(Trigger warning: Descriptions of Thalassophobia)

You know? There was a time I didn't think I'd ever get tired of flying. The sheer freedom it gives me isn't something I can easily describe, but being able to move through space freely without needing to push off of anything is almost always pure bliss. To rocket up and away with the slightest effort, to see something and know I can go there, is just…

Here. Like this. Just now, I looked up into the sky, and I saw a cloud. So I flew up into it and felt it's mist. Just like that.

When I fly at night and see the moon, I can go there. I've been there, I still have the family photos with everyone in their space suits.

But the thing is… there are things beyond the moon. And like… I know logically I can go there too, I've calculated the trip, and because of how kryptonians subtly warp space in order to fly I can accelerate as long as I want and I don't even have to worry about temporal displacement due to relativity or being limited by the speed of light the way vehicles with conventional thrust are, I can visit other parts of our solar system, hell, with the fabricators back at the fortress I can make a ship that easily goes beyond that but…

It's like… it's extremely fucking scary? I'm sorry, I'm just not… exactly sure how to explain it.

How about this. Imagine you live on a beach, and you have a pair of flippers that let you swim quite fast with little effort, and there is a big ol sand bar out about 100 yards in the ocean. It's pretty far, but you can see it clearly, can measure the distance, and when you use your flippers to get out there, you can easily look back and see the shore. You know where both the sand bar and the shore are at all times, and with your flippers and the practically nonexistent waves it barely takes much effort. In this way, the moon hasn't even really counted in my head as space, just as going out onto the sand bar doesn't feel like it 'counts' as traveling the ocean.

Now imagine being on the sand bar, turning away from the shore you've known all your life, and diving toward the empty horizon, swimming away over a massive drop off into nothingness, into water so deep and black you can't even see the bottom, and just keep on swimming. And then, you can't even tell up from down, because there is no up or down, and you can't breathe even though you don't technically need to (maybe you have a scuba tank or something I don't know) and you want to breathe your home air but you can't and the more you swim the faster you go and the more disorienting it becomes because UH OH! IN THIS WATER THERE'S NO FEELABLE WAVES OR CURRANTS OR AIR OR FRICTION, ONLY MENTAL CALCULATIONS OF ACCELERATION AND INERTIA. THERE IS NO UP. THERE IS NO DOWN. THERE IS NO TACTILE OR AUDITORY INTERACTION OF ANY KIND WITH ANY OF YOUR SURROUNDINGS BECASE YOU NO LONGER HAVE ANY SURROUNDINGS.

Ok, ok, the metaphor breaks down a little bit at the end there, but is hard to explain just how revoltingly, pants shittingly VAST space is. You could easily pick a direction, accelerate, traveling in that direction for the rest of ETERNITY and never ever again meet so much as a single particle of matter other than yourself ever again for the rest of all time, even beyond the heat death of the universe.

And yet, in the back of your head you hear the whispering call of the void telling you, why not? We can fly! (Or swim or whatever the metaphor is pretty much dead at this point) and that little intrusive thought wonders just how fast you could really get going if you just go and keep going and going and going and going and going and going. And the other 97% of your brain is gibbering and screeching like a monkey in a thunderstorm and wanting to vomit or run or die or curl up into a ball so small you disappear and don't have to deal with this fucking shit anymore.

Did I mention I have a slight bit of Thalassophobia? No? Well now you know.

The reason why I bring this up?

I was currently on the dark side of that light gray sand bar that glowed in the night sky.

The cloud I had flown through a few minutes ago back on earth? It was on my way to the moon. I was currently looking up into the inky starry blackness of the final frontier. The void.

I averted my eyes.

After a few minutes of just staring at the lunar soil, avoiding looking up for fear that space would stop being the sky to my perception, and instead of looking like up, it would start looking like down, Jor El's voice sounded in my earpiece, the vibrations traveling directly through my ear tissue to my eardrum, "Kal El. This was your plan. We've set up the proper… 'laundering' scheme so long as your Jonathan and Martha agree, we have a perfect property fitting your specifications located for sale in Texas with accompanying mineral rights and undiscovered oil reserves, which you found by personally surveying the land with your 'X ray vision'. All you need now is the initial funds to get off the ground and fuel a down payment."

"I know." I subvocalized, the vibrations traveling through my jawbone and into the earpiece.

Jor El continued, irritated, "Preliminary scans show roughly 700 quintillion US dollars of total material wealth within that asteroid belt. Once properly laundered, this material will fuel that down payment, along with any further earthly expenses you may have."

"I know."

"Then why do you freeze? Why do you shrink from opportunity? Why do you turn from wealth and power when your only motive for obtaining such is to protect and provide for yourself and your humans?"

"It's not about that! Not this time at least! Just—Just—Just look at that!" I pointed up and away from the moon, lying down upon its surface, it's light gravity and my strength making it feel more like my back was against a wall than I was lying down on the floor, the endless void in front of me. "Look at that! That! Loosing myself in that is—urp—is literally one of my worst nightmares!" I looked away.

"Losing yourself is your worst nightmare, no matter physically or morally. You fear change. You fear loss"

I gritted my teeth beneath my lips in anger, standing up and preparing to return to what was safe. "I need to go back down to earth. I just need to take one more breath."

"Clark." The word felt foreign and strange coming from Jor El's lips, and I froze in shock.

"You will not lose yourself morally, because you have your… Parents on earth."

I floated in place, speechless, not only at Jor El finally admitting that I didn't have an inherent moral superiority just for being Kryptonian, but also because he actually called Ma and Pa my Parents, which he had never done before.

He continued, "And just like they can help you down there, I can help you up here. That earpiece utilizes extradimensional Phantom Zone rippling to bypass spacial distance entirely. We can instantaneously communicate anywhere in the universe, no matter how far. So long as I am here, you will not be lost. This is my promise, My son."

The silence stretched on for a few minutes, and while I couldn't breath, I did feel the solar energy rushing through me. Energizing me. Strengthening me. I felt and heard my heartbeat thundering in my ears, and the white noise rush of my own blood flowing. I felt the lunar surface under my feet, and felt it's minute gravity pulling me down.

The fear didn't go away. Didn't lessen one single bit.

But it didn't have control over me. Didn't feel like a knife to the throat.

"Ok… Father." I finally responded, the word feeling natural on my tongue for the first time.

I gathered myself, opened my eyes, and blasted up and off into the unknown, refusing to clench them shut again. I trusted Jor El to guide me true. I'd go out into the void to get that sweet sweet asteroid gold, even if it made my stomach rebel and my skin fucking crawl to do so. I didn't need to be fearless. All I needed was courage.

Huh. Courage. If I really wanted to be Superman, courage was something I couldn't do without. I didn't fear bullets, but this? This I feared.

And at that moment, I realized something. I needed this fear, if only so I could develop the mental ability to overcome it.

And so, despite everything in my body and subconscious mind clenching and sobbing and begging me not to…

I pushed forward even harder.

The asteroid belt was well over 100 million miles away. Even with my full speed letting me travel the circumference of the earth in less than a minute under full air resistance, I'd need to keep accelerating for a while if I wanted to get there and back in any reasonable amount of time.

Lexi sighed as she swayed back and forth on the tire swing that hung from the big tree by the barn.

Clark was gone. He had been for the last couple days.

Honestly, the last few months had been like a living dream. Ma, Pa, and Clark had taken her to visit the Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngsters, and it still made her laugh that Clark had made a hyper advanced alien spaceship thing for them to ride in, only to reveal that it couldn't fly by itself, but had to be carried. It honestly reminded her of a Flintstones caveman car gag.

The school had been awesome, and despite her reluctance to give the people that had attacked their house a chance, the knowledge and opportunities for higher learning were too good to pass up. All the staff she met had been both genuinely apologetic and quite nice, and she could appreciate that, but her mind hadn't fully changed until the moment she had seen the library. A vast room with soaring ceilings with floor to ceiling shelves, with long ladders that slid on tracks around each shelf, packed with leather bound books on every subject imaginable. It was at least six times bigger than the Smallville public library, with the quality of books way higher. Not only that, but they had state of the art computers in order to remain up to date on new research.

"How? How do you pay for all this?" She remembered Pa asking.

"While I did inherit quite the fortune from my parents, I have made quite a number of wise investments which continue to contribute greatly to our operating funds. I am able to personally fund this institution, because it is literally my life's work. It is my dream. There is no purpose in having this money, Mr. Kent, if I do not use it for the betterment of others. I do have great wealth, I will not mince words about that, but I use it to fuel my… ministry if you will, rather than obsessively chasing after more and more wealth without end or purpose."

Clark, who had been there at the time, had confirmed his honesty. At that, Pa had shaken Charles' hand with respect, and that more than anything else convinced her that this was a good place. Well, that, and all the books. Science, Literature, Mathematics, History, and everything else under the sun seemed to be in that library.

And so, she had joined the Xavier School of gifted youngsters, which turned out to be the closest thing to Hogwarts she had ever experienced in her life! The education, the students with powers, the small group sizes and near individual mentoring from people like forge, it was all everything she wanted out of a school! For the first time in life, she actually felt both challenged and at the same time understood, and she loved it so so soooooo much! She really did, even if some subjects were a bit more tedious to master than others.

However, even with all this, there was one thing about her old school that she apparently couldn't escape.

Drama among teenagers. There were many meta human students at the institute, but the main 'X men' students that had combat training had apologized for their part in the conflict, and from there she had sort of been adopted into their friend group.

Bobby, the guy with Ice powers, had apparently been dating Rogue. Rogue apparently couldn't touch people, and Bobby eventually realized the implications of that, Lexi didn't really care about that stuff, and decided to start dating Kitty instead, and told her that he and Rogue had broken up, which apparently hadn't actually happened, so when Rogue had found out, she was furious at Bobby and Kitty, and Kitty was furious at Bobby for making her a part of everything and mad at Rogue for being mad at her because it was pretty much just Bobby's fault but Rogue didn't care and was mad at both of them and it just went back and forth and back and forth and back and forth! Fuck!

Lexi will never act like that, even as a teenager, mark her words. Weirdo sex obsessed drama sponges who cared more about romance or sports or the latest fashion than literally unraveling the secrets of the universe through science and mathematics. Ugh! Talk about mixed priorities.

Although… there had been one thing about the whole experience that had been interesting. Rogue had apparently been having headaches ever since the battle at the farm, and when she first found out about Bobby and Kitty, she had stomped on the ground so hard she smashed a footprint in the wooden floor.

That hadn't been one of her powers! Lexi had immediately asked Rogue about it, but Rogue didn't know, even looking freaked out about it.

They were currently studying this change in Rogue's mutation, but since it was a three day weekend, and since Clark apparently had some secret business to take care of all weekend he couldn't even fly her over! Couldn't Martin Luther King have had his Holiday on a different Monday? The first three day weekend of 2008 and she was stuck at the farm while one of her new friends, (who she actually quite enjoyed studying and hanging out with) was going through something majorly life changing!

She clambered off the tire swing and went inside. Ma and Pa were taking her out for a parent daughter day just for the three of them, which she was looking forward to, but it just felt like all the action was happening around her, and no one was letting her be a part of it. Once again, she was being left out.

Sometimes, she dreaded growing up, not wanting to become a teenager, not wanting to change who she was and develop into someone completely different to who she was now.

But other times? Times like now, where she felt like everyone and everything seemed hellbent on excluding her from anything interesting or scary simply because she was 'too young' to handle it?

It made her want to grow up as fast as she possibly could.

Finally, I had returned. As I passed the moon I smiled, speeding towards earth with the unique relief someone can only have when returning home from a long journey.

I nearly cried as I finally felt my lungs refill with atmosphere, the condensed breath I had initially been holding on the moon having long since been let out, the sun sufficient to fuel my body and mind. I breathed in an out deeply as I savored the sensation of the wind on my face, the micro droplets of water from the slight humidity in the air felt like the gentle caressing of ethereal fairies welcoming me home. My senses seemed far sharper than they ever had before, but whether that was a side effect of sensory deprivation or an increase in strength from being exposed to the unfiltered radiation of the sun for so long, I couldn't tell you. I cackled with glee, flying loop de loops and sometimes turning off my flight aura completely, just letting myself be pulled by the earths gravity, the wind of air resistance roaring past. I wanted to go straight home, but I needed to make sure I didn't have any space rads or lunar/asteroid regolith left on my suit before I could safely hug my family.

I traveled to the fortress, and untied my cape, which I had been using as a sack to carry the precious metals I had mined from the asteroid belt. Many of the asteroids were once part of the cores of much larger planetoids, and so had high concentrations of relatively pure heavy metals. The ore still had to be chemically separated and purified before being smelted into ingots, but due to the fact that my cape turned rock carrier was so full that it resembled Santa's sack, I wasn't worried about not having enough.

The space rocks clattered as I dumped them into the empty chemical separation vat, and I began selecting various acids and washes to effectively break down the material with extreme efficiency. Once the pure metals were reconstituted, I would be able to measure how much wealth I had actually returned with.

I stripped out of my suit and set it into the deep washer, then I entered the decontamination chamber, floating slightly and holding my arms out so the cleansing foam didn't miss anything dangerous that might be clinging to my body. While I was waiting for the decontamination to finish, I contemplated the trip I had just been on.

The entire journey had been various levels of terrifying, but there was nothing worse than the first few hours of nothingness. I had tried to distract myself, to look at the stars and the constellations, to think of what I was aiming for, and cursing all the way that we couldn't just use the same fusion fabricator back at the fortress we used to make the Kryptonium out of lesser elements to make an endless supply of gold.

We could in theory do that, but there would be traces of kryptonian crystals in the resulting metal, and even the crystal structure of the metal itself would be completely unique, making its alien origin stick out like a sore thumb. It would essentially be 'kryptonian gold' rather than earth gold, and I didn't want to link my earth family with anything provably alien.

In contrast, asteroids in our solar system were made up of pretty much the exact same materials as earth, so as long as they were smelted properly no one would be able to connect them back to me.

Hence, the asteroid mining.

Once I finally got flew close enough that the asteroids looked like more than glowing dots to my telescopic vision, I was able to focus on them as a grounding sight, and the roiling fear in the background eased significantly.

The fact that I could explore and experience the gigantic asteroids for myself relit the warm candle of nerdyness in my soul, and I actually found myself forgetting my fear for the most part, as the part of my kid brain that always wanted to be an astronaut was having a field day. I had gone slightly off track, and it took a bit of traveling to get to the M type asteroid Jor El and I had selected before the trip even started. Once I made my way to it, I used my X ray vision to find the purest veins of valuable metal I could, and filled my cape with the best ore I could find, tunneling through the asteroid by rapidly spinning my body.

Once I had collected my fill of ore, it was time for the long journey back. It was honestly way easier, as I could keep my eyes on the bright earth, and it was a journey I had already completed once before.

Even alongside the fear, there was a certain giddiness that came with great accomplishment, and the fact that I had gotten exactly what I came for had lifted my spirits. My chest had stopped feeling tight, and the extra level of sunlight I felt from space stopped feeling overwhelming and began to feel natural. Like my body had calmed down and adapted to the new conditions and excess of energy.

Even now, as I re dressed myself into my newly cleansed suit, I felt… stronger. I didn't look any different, but I felt calmer, more serene, like a weight was off my shoulders. I had faced my fear, and successfully completed my mission.

I looked at the time, and frowned when I realized it was 3 in the morning on Monday. Factoring in my max speed, I shouldn't have reached earth until around 1:30 pm today. I had thought that the return journey had seemed short, but I assumed it only seemed shorter because I had faced my fear and overcome it, but it looks like It was actually shorter. Just how much had my speed increased?

It was early January, so Ma and Pa would probably sleep in till 6:00 AM, which meant I had a few hours to recalibrate my control to remain at human levels. I entered the training room, a vast crystalline room with a flat floor that used a mix of crystal tech golems and hard light holograms to simulate different scenarios. It's main purpose was to teach Torquasm Rao, so it hadn't seen much use, but I had finally caved to Jor El's desires when he explained that the first steps of Torquasm Rao actually focused on control, and he showed me a layout he had come up with complete with dummy civilians that shone red when subjected to lethal forces and yellow for injury level forces, and simulated disaster conditions that mirrored the kind of work I would be doing.

I thought I had long since mastered the fine control this required, and for the most part I had, but the course was made to maintain my precision once I started seriously training the later stages of Rao and my power rapidly increased. Jor El wanted me to increase my training in Rao to take up as much time as my training in Vo for a 50/50 split, or even more to favor Rao until I caught up, but I was so close to finally achieving the mind palace level of torquasm Vo, and I didn't want to divide my focus too much. Once I achieved that, I'd start training Rao properly with full commitment. I had already achieved an inhuman level of control over my body, including near perfect vocal mimicry, and the ability to compress my joints and muscles to look a few inches shorter and significantly less muscular than I actually was.

And while those tricks were nifty, for now all I really needed out of Torquasm Rao was to make sure I didn't kill anyone while trying to save them.

The first few run throughs of the course (which changed layouts and conditions each time I ran it to avoid wrote repetition) I was overshooting obstacles and plowing quite lethally through the 'civilian' dummies, leaving trails of glowing red crystal shards in my wake.

After about a half hour of practice though, I had rediscovered the 'human level' of gentleness I needed to maintain, and did a brief Vo meditation to cement this new level of gentleness as the standard. The more I trained Torquasm Vo the deeper it went, and I hadn't yet found a reason to regret specializing in it.

Progression and specialization were a tricky gamble to get right. You only had so much time in every day, and trying to juggle too many things might mean you don't get to where you need to be in any of them. I needed to make absolutely fucking sure I couldn't be controlled by anyone before I really started ramping up in power. The fact that my power increased so dramatically just by tooling around in space meant that I was fine specializing in Vo for now. Besides, it's early MCU! It's not like there's gonna be anything that's going to be able to truly challenge me, at least not in the next few years.

Dr. Bruce Banner, in the middle of handling a vial of volatile chemicals, suddenly developed an awful itch inside his nose. Desperately maintaining control of himself, he carefully set the chemicals down, turned around, and then blasted a great whooping sneeze into his elbow.

"Bless you." Said Dr Ross reflexively as she looked through a microscope.

"Uh, yeah. Thanks." Said Bruce. How strange! It wasn't allergy season, at least not that he was aware of. Alongside that, he felt fine! Not sick at all. Checking his fume hood to make sure no gasses were leaking through, and finding it operational, he shrugged his shoulders and got back to work. They were almost ready to begin testing one of the greatest medical advancements of their time! He couldn't let something as minor as a sneeze keep him from discovery!

I suddenly got a chill down my spine, and I shook it off, ignoring it.

Yeah. I'm totally fine. Resisting mind control was too important to skimp on. Devoting 90% of my training time to Torquasm Vo was a gamble worth making.

After I practiced a little more, just to make sure I didn't hurt anyone accidentally, I headed home.

I could see that the lights weren't on yet, so I changed from my super suit to work clothes and took the opportunity to do the daily chores at super speed, as I felt like the family deserved a lie in. By the time they were up, pretty much all the work for the day that could be done at this early hour was completed, and I changed into pajamas in order to relax.

As I heard them walking down the stairs all geared up in their work clothes, Lexi grumbling the whole way, I decided to noisily pour myself a bowl of cereal right then and there. Between the super speed whoosh they had come to recognize, and the tinkling of Cocoa Puffs into a ceramic bowl, they knew I was back, and Pa started chuckling, which turned into full blown laughter when he saw me sitting smugly at the table in my PJs.

"Nice outfits! Oh by the way the work's all done." I said conversationally.

Ma rolled her eyes with a smile and started going right back up the stairs to their bedroom, and Lexi and Pa came down, Lexi grabbing a spoon and eating out of my bowl.

"Hey!" I said, not stopping her, "That's my bowl!"

"I got up early for nothing! Besides, it tastes better when someone else has it first."

I ate all the rest in an instant at super speed, causing her to squawk in surprise. "What was that I heard?" I cleared my throat, pitching my voice at an embarrassingly high falsetto that sounded nothing like her but had a remarkable similarity to elmo, "Thank you sooo much Cwaak for doing aw of my wowk fow me! You awe the bestest bwoder evew! Yyaaaayyy!" I changed back to my regular voice "Oh my goodness Lexi, that's soooo sweet of you! Thank you so much!"

"Aaaah! I do NOT sound like that!" She shouted, enraged, smacking my arm ineffectually.

"Pour your own cereal." I responded with a smirk on my face.

"Better wait Lexi." Pa said, rummaging in the cabinet. "I'm making eggs and pancakes, and you'll want to save some room."

"Yes!" She pumped her fist, her ire forgotten. "I'm getting back into pjs!" She said as rushed up the stairs, Passing Ma, who had already gotten changed back into pjs and bunny slippers, and had her book in her hand.

"Thank you Clark. I'm glad you got home early." She said with a smile, and went over to the kitchen only to see that pa was making breakfast, and smiled even brighter. She walked over and gave him a deep kiss on the lips that lasted long enough that I averted my eyes in embarrassment, before coming over to the table and sitting down.

"Woo! I should make breakfast more often!" Said Pa.

We sat in companionable silence for a bit, with Lexi returning in her PJ's, before I decided to bring up the news I had been sitting on. "So… you know how you said if I came up with the money we could go for that oil property in Texas I told you about?"

Pa sputtered. "I said no such thing!"

I quickly cut in before he could gain momentum, "you said, and I quote, 'Clark I would love to get that property, we just don't have the Money right now. Even if we mortgaged the farm we wouldn't cover the cost of that property, and the reason the Kent's have kept our farm all these generations is that we never spend money we don't have.' In other words, if we did have the money, it'd be ok."

Pa looked like a mix between shocked, irritated, and maybe even a little impressed. "That's one hel—heck of an interpretation! Clark we don't have that kind of money."

My signal watch beeped. I looked at the display. "I just spent the last two days mining in the asteroid belt, which is classified under maritime law as 'international waters', which is considered finders keepers so long as the treasure isn't a historical artifact. The ingots just got done purifying, and given the latest rates on gold and platinum, amounts to a little over…" due to my enhanced memory I didn't need to glance at the number on my watch again, but still did so for dramatic effect, "two and a half million dollars."

Ma, Pa, and Lexi all looked at me with wide eyes, stunned.

Pa tried to speak, but was interrupted by a shriek of excitement from Lexi. "We can get a computer! With internet! We can get cable tv!" She gushed.

"Now hold on a second!" Pa spoke up, not quite shouting but definitely stage projecting. "You can't just mine the asteroid belt for money Clark, no matter how technically legal it is! Where are we going to tell people it came from?!"

"Technically?! It was perfectly legal, I'm not a thief!" I said, a little offended. Pa glared at me, as I was splitting hairs, and I backed down.

"You know that's not what this is about! There's no way we can cash in on that gold without revealing your secret!" Pa said.

"Sure there is!" I retorted. "I go in disguise to Switzerland, cash it out for Swiss francs under a pseudonym, then fly to a bunch of other money changers in cities across America and exchange for a few thousand at each place. Then all we need is an excuse on paper to have the money—"

"Like mortgaging the farm?!" Pa said, a thunderous expression on his face.

"No Pa! Not necessarily that, we could start up a business or something and trickle the extra money through that—"

"You are talking about money laundering Clark which is very illegal!"

"Oh come on Pa—"

"No! No one in this family is going to prison, just for the sake of a little extra cash!" Pa stood up.

"It's a heck of lot more than a little!" I also stood up, matching him from across the table.

"Hold on everyone! Quiet please!" Ma spoke up. Pa let out a gusty sigh, calming down. Ma continued, looking at me. "Clark. Money laundering is a felony, no matter how much gold you found or how legal the way you initially got it is. That is not happening. Both of you sit down." Pa nodded mollified. we returned to our seats. Once we had both visibly calmed down, Ma turned to Pa, a sly smirk on her face. "Jonathan." She said, hinting something I wasn't aware of.

Pa blinked a few times. It seemed like he wasn't picking it up either. "Martha?" He answered.

She continued. "Money laundering may be illegal, but treasure hunting isn't, so long as you aren't trespassing."

Pa's eyes widened, then he gave an exasperated huff, "Oh Martha! You know that old tale is just a legend!"

Now it was Ma's turn to sigh in exasperation, "Yes. I do, dear, but you forget we already have the gold. We don't have to actually find the treasure."

Pa inhaled to speak, but paused. "Huh." He said, scratching his scruffy jaw. "That's… well…" a sort of hopeful grin worked its way onto his face, and Ma's eyes sparkled with mirth. It's not like Pa didn't want the money, he just wouldn't risk his family to get it. "Now there's an idea…"

I was about speak up, but Lexi beat me to it. "Wait, wait, wait. What legend? What treasure? What are you guys talking about?"

Ma looked pointedly at Pa, and he settled in for a tale, smiling despite himself as he put mode pancakes on the table. "Old Albert's treasure is an legend here in Smallville, and it comes all the way back from the early days of the gold rush. It starts with Henry Thomas Kent, your great great great great Grandfather, and his brother in law, Albert Walter Wilson, who was married to Mary Elizabeth Kent, or rather Mary Elizabeth Wilson, your great great great great great aunt.

"The Wilson's and the Kent's lived next door to each other near Philadelphia, and little Albert always talked everyone's ear off about how he was going to go west to seek his fortune. And after he and Mary Elisabeth got married, he did exactly that, just in time for the Gold rush.

"Now as it turned out, he and Mary were actually two of the ones who did find gold, and made it big, amassing a large fortune in a mining town in Colorado, becoming rich off of their success.

"And here is where the popular story, and what actually happened start diverging. What really happened, is that Albert lost their fortune on gambling and various debts that caught up with him. He spent money like he'd never run out, but eventually, he did, as all men like him do. Now Mary, his wife, had kept in contact with her brother by letter, and knew that he had started a farm at a settlement called Fort Smalls, later called Smallsville, and eventually Smallville. Anyway, Mary and her husband fled Colorado at the tail end of the gold rush, and travelled here, to stay with her brother Henry. Eventually some debt collectors came sniffing around, but got driven off by the people of the settlement, with Albert dying of typhoid fever a few years later. I have copies of Henry's journals in the attic. There is no treasure.

"But how the legend goes, and how darn near everyone in this town says it goes, is that Albert and Mary were actually wise with their fortune, but were driven out from Colorado by greedy bandits, and took all their vast fortune with them. They supposedly hid out here on the farm, and when the bandits arrived, Old man Albert said his famous words. 'You'll never find my treasure, I'd never be stupid enough to hide it here! It's buried in the hills, somewhere only I can find it! You can search the rest of your days and never see a single coin!' And from that day on, the legend was born. from then on, people have come far and wide to look for Old Man Albert's Treasure. From what we can tell, he actually did say something similar to those words, purely as a bluff of course, but the journals are clear that there is no treasure."

Lexi and I were both shocked. This sounded like something out of the Goonies! I recovered first. "It kinda sounds like there might be a real treasure."

Pa facepalmed. "Do you know how many Yahoos have come sniffing around this property, or around Smallville looking for that dumb treasure? Thinking that they'll be the one to find it when everyone else has failed? Every dozen years or so the legend picks up again, why, back when I was a kid we actually had to call the sheriff on some east coast 'adventurer' loon that was digging holes in one of our fields! It's brought this family nothing but troub— Clark! Are you looking for it with your X ray vision?!"

I jumped, caught. "What?! No…"

"Wow you suck at lying." Lexi commented helpfully.

Ma held her hands up. "Let's get back on track. Whether there actually is a treasure or not, this is an opportunity. You said you had gold and platinum?"

I nodded and she continued. "We can't explain away the platinum so we'll have to rule it out. How much is just the gold worth?"

I tapped my watch face a few times. "Around 55 kilos so… 1.7 mil."

Pa whistled. Ma continued. "So all we have to do is start a project to expand the cellar, let the word of the project spread around town, then accidentally 'dig up' the treasure. We go through proper channels, pay what ever taxes we need, and then get that oil property in Texas that Clark was talking about."

Pa jumped in. "Now hold on. Aren't we moving a little fast? And if we'll get a million dollars, do we even -need- that property? Living as we are we could -retire- with that kind of money!"

"Johnathan." Ma said, "I don't want to just sit on the money and do nothing. Aren't you always talking about helping the community? This is an opportunity to do that."

Pa melted. "Oh alright. What did I do to ever deserve you?" He said lovingly.

Ma smiled back just as warmly. "Nothing. You are yourself, that's what I love."

For only the second time in my life, I saw Pa blush red to his ears.

"Hey Lexi, I'm thinking we should leave."

"What? Why?"

"I'll fly you to school."

"Oh, ok! Let's go!"

Rogue dug through the back of the fridge, looking for anything she could use in a meal. Ever since she had awakened those new powers she had been hungrier than ever, sometimes even to the point that it hurt. Apparently contact with Lexi's Brother had effected her X gene similarly to Lexi's, only she had gotten something different out of the deal. The professor had called it Tactile Telekinesis, or TK for short.

Her body wasn't actually more durable or stronger, but the passive psychic field that now surrounded her blocked and absorbed damage, increased her speed and the potency of her attacks, and even allowed her to fly! Honestly, it was a pretty sweet deal, and testing it in the danger room had made her feel... (cut to title card as the invincible theme plays. Lol jk) incredible!

She piled the various ingredients into her arms as she started making an enormous amount of food. So far this was the only downside to her new abilities, her calorie needs had apparently increased dramatically, and she had found herself suffering a feeling of gnawing hunger all day today, and while eating until she was full had lessened the feeling, it hadn't ever truly gone away, even when her stomach had been stuffed uncomfortably full.

Mr. McCoy had said it was because her stomach size didn't match her calorie needs yet, and everything would even out soon, but rogue wasn't so sure. Using her new TK power felt like it drained a deeper kind of energy, and sometimes it felt like her huger was for more than just food.

She had started feeling a tingling around her more powerful classmates, like they had some kind of static that stood her hair on end. It was a new sensation that both horrified and entranced her, and on some level, she thought that if she could just reach out and drain them just a little, this awful hunger would finally go away.

She had of course not told a single fucking soul about something so disgusting and creepy, not even the Professor. What would they think if the found out? No way. She'd handle it on her own, she had seen the horrified face her mother and father had made when her powers first kicked in and she drained that boy, and she couldn't handle seeing that face on any of her new family.

"Rogue?" Her thoughts were interrupted by Kitty, who she was still mad at right now.

"Yeah?" She said coldly.

Kitty eyed all the food rogue had assembled, but soldiered on, not letting herself be distracted. "Look. I'm sorry for making out with Bobby ok? I already like, told you that I didn't know ok? Bobby like, told me you two had already broken up. He and I are done ok?"

Rogue huffed in exasperation. She knew most of this already, and she realized that logically she shouldn't be angry with Kitty as Bobby had been the jerk in the situation, but the fact that Kitty had actually cut Bobby off was new information, and it let all her anger towards Kitty to finally drain away, and now she felt kinda bad. "We're fine Kitty. I'm sorry I've been being—" Rogues eyes widened in horror as when her gloved hand had brushed Kitty's blouse covered shoulder, a bolt of hot fuchsia lightning leaped through the layers of clothes between them as she drained Kitty's life force.

Kitty jerked back, her skin sallow and sweaty, sickly veins visibly snaking up her neck from where Rogue had drained her. Her legs were weak, and she fell down onto her ass. "What the fuck Rogue?! I said I was sorry!"

Rogue, horrified yet enthralled at how good that had felt, took a step forward.

A look of horror twisted onto Kitty's face, and the sight of it it snapped Rogue out of her stupor like a knife to the heart. "Back away!" Kitty said, scooting away weakly, "Back away from me you… you… parasite!"

Tears streamed down Rogue's face as she turned and sprinted away, fazing through the walls using Kitty's power. She continued until she was out onto the grounds, avoiding everyone that she managed to detect with her new life force senses, fighting the urge to vomit at what she had done, at what she had almost kept doing.

Because she wasn't hungry anymore. She and Kitty had only touched for a second, but Kitty had looked like Rogue had held on for ten seconds at least, and for that split second she had felt absolute euphoria as the hunger that had been plaguing her had finally vanished.

She couldn't deny anymore what she was hungry for. And as Kitty's powers faded from her, she felt it once again.

Hunger. Slight, and not nearly as bad as earlier, but present. Gnawing. And getting worse.

Tears streamed down her cheeks as she hugged her legs in the fetal position, hidden away in her secret spot on the grounds in a hollow between two bushes, shivering with the late January cold. She rocked back and forth as she realized that this was her life now. A strange pink Crystal dust, almost like glitter, was sticking to her skin, but as Kitty's powers left her, the strange dust retreated, fading back into her skin. A distant part of her mind hated that it was pink of all colors, but was swept up in the horror of her other concerns.

Clothes no longer mattered to her power. Her skin was changing color. Her hunger wasn't going away.

Her hunger wasn't going away.

Her hunger -wouldn't- go away.

She rocked back and forth in her hiding place.

Kitty's word echoed in her head. Parasite. An organism that couldn't live without a host, who drained the lifeblood of a victim without offering anything beneficial in return.

Was that what she was now?

A parasite?

There was no response.

Her stomach growled.

A/N: Aaaaaand that's a wrap!

Sorry it took a little more than a month to get this out.

I was reading some reviews about how people thought that I was transforming Rogue into a full kryptonian, and that due to this, she was going to be a main romance option.

Lol.

I can honestly say I have no plans for a romance between her and Clark. I kinda love her and Gambit, plus she's a lot more fucked up from what happened to her than anyone realizes right now. If some of the scenes coming up between her and Clark end up having more romantic chemistry than I'm expecting I guess I can consider it, but probably not.

I promise I don't hate Rogue, I love her character, in fact she's one of my favorites, but I couldn't resist when I realized the parallels between her and Parasite from DC. Butterflies don't make everything better all the time after all. At least she has her flying and strength she got from captain marvel in the comics now right?

Anyway, in other news, the Kent's are getting Money! Isn't that cool? I wanted Clark to start really setting up for success and the future as the events of Iron man will happen soon, and I'm hoping to get into those next chapter. I'm exited for Tony and Clark to finally meet, as Tony has already begun to respond to the presence of Superman in an interesting way, but I wont say more on the subject. Sorry it seems like it was mostly filler this time but I'm setting up some shit lol.

The events of Iron Man are next! As well as the gathering storm at the Xavier mansion! The MCU kicks off, but will Superman be able to take advantage of it when dealing with a crisis close to home? Find out next time!

Ciao!