Previous discussion on Zerayah taking on an identity of Clara Kent eventually metastasised into an idea of Clark Kent being in the same school as Zerayah Cain...

Zerayah's Adventures with Superman

16 years ago

Slawkenberg, like many worlds, had occasional meteor showers. Lighting up the night sky with trails of falling debris, much to the delight of wealthy viewing parties of tourists that often really could not care less about the rocks actually falling onto the world. One particular night however something else fell to the planet along with the meteors, something that would have been picked up rather easily by any other Imperial world of a similar level of development but was rather easily ignored considering nobody who had the power or means to actually investigate the contents of the pretty lights in the skies were busy doing anything but look up. Meanwhile Jonathan Kent, a farmer who like every forefather before him in living memory produced the vast quantities of luxury grains which could have fed entire slums but instead were used to fatten exotic beasts that would likely be thrown away barely half-eaten, and his wife actually were looking at the sky. Basking in each other's presence in a comfortable silence, enjoying the few hours a week they didn't have to spend toiling for pittances knowing the food that they worked so tirelessly to produce was being wasted in the upper spires distant cities. In this moment they didn't have to worry about the Giorba's new arbitrary tax of the month, they didn't have to fret about the already overworked farmhands having their numbers thinned year after year despite their best efforts to keep them fed, they didn't have to think about how the doctors said that Martha would not be able to produce a child after that terrible night when the local enforcers took her in for 'questioning' and stole the child they never got to meet from them. It was just them in silence beneath a sky full of stars, just like when they first met so long ago.

"Say Jon, that falling star looks pretty close. Why don't you make a wish?" Martha blearily whispered, snuggling closer to her husband.

"You know I don't believe in that stuff honey..." Jonathan answered, but of course he knew what he wished for. He knew despite how it made his heart feel like it was one of those crippled beasts that the rich idiots used for their 'hunting' games. He had prayed to the God Emperor for it for years and had cried so much when the chance was stolen from them that he felt as though he had no more tears left to cry for the rest of his life. So instead of letting that old scar turn him into a sobbing wreck again he instead smiled and faced his wife, lovely as ever in spite of half-healed bruises and vicious scars. "What about you?"

"I wish for..." Martha began before jerking awake. "Say... Jon dearie... is that thing getting a bit too-"

An explosion rocked the entire farm as a pod of alien metal slammed into the ground. Jonathan held onto Martha tightly until the shaking subsided, and then with a heart full of dread decided to investigate. "Stay back Martha! I will be right back!"

He felt his wife's hand grab the back of his shirt, and looked into her shaken but still steely determined eyes. "No... I am not letting you go alone! Whatever is out there we face it together, we promised remember?"

Weakly Jonathan looked into his wife's eyes, still so strong despite it all even when he himself found it hard to keep together some nights, those same eyes he fell in love with. He wanted to insist she stay back, but he knew what Martha was like, that was why he married her after all. So instead with a resigned smile he said. "Yeah... a promise is a promise..."

Grabbing a pitchfork each they ran through the singed Blu-Corn field and found a crater around what looked like a piece from a spacecraft. Except of course there hadn't been any tourist craft scheduled to arrive today due to the meteors, and none of Slawkenberg's own fleet (if you can even call it that) could look so... pristine...

Cautiously Jonathan approached and poked it with the pointy end of his pitchfork, gasping in shock as the front panel slid open to reveal...

A crying baby boy. Naked, clearly disoriented, but otherwise completely healthy and seemingly unremarkable.

Before he could question this turn of events he heard his wife's excited squee behind him.

"Jonathan! Look! The God Emperor has heard our prayers! We are about to be parents!"

He couldn't stop his own giddy smile from crawling up his face at the thought. "I- I knew he was listening!" Before he started to consider the implications. "I- the Giorbas can't know about this! They will take him away... probably find an excuse to silence us as well. He clearly aint normal, no normal baby falls from the sky! What if he is some abandoned noble or something?"

"We'll hide the pod and claim him as our own... I can use the last of my inheritance to buy off a beureucrat and after that officially he will have always been our very own flesh and blood. Knowing the Giorbas they won't even bother to double check."

Nodding Jonathan then slowly approached the crying child, cradling him in his arms delicately as he sung away his tears with a familiar lullaby. "What do we name him Martha?"

"Clark. Clark Kent."

Present day

Zerayah didn't really know what to expect from this whole "school" thing, but she didn't expect it to be so boring! Every class was so easy, she had to get some questions wrong on purpose in order to reduce suspicion! Not to mention how she had to always hold back her physical abilities, you bend a locker door in half by accident ONE TIME and it is all the other students talk about? They think she can't hear their whispers, but she does. 'Lara Lane the Teacher's Pet', 'Lara Lane the Ork-Muscle', 'Lara Lane the Freak'... her name isn't even Lara Lane! It was Zerayah Cain! That was the stupid fake name her dad and uncle Jurgen made her wear just like this stupid fake face to 'avoid attracting unwanted attention' and 'give you a chance to be a normal girl'.

But it wasn't all bad. Those same incredibly uncreative hallway whispers informed her of someone potentially very interesting, a certain Clark Kent who was described in the gossip much in the same way she was. She had seen him before on the way to class, beneath his baggy clothing her enhanced eyes could see chiselled musculature that was distinctly abnormal for an ordinary teenage human, she could tell by the way he squinted sometimes that he very much did not need those glasses and was wearing them anyway, she could see the delicacy in how he handled everything from pencils to heavy metal pipes he helped the old janitor carry around when nobody else would and even people. As though he was living in a world made out of cardboard... To say he intrigued her was an understatement. So one day during lunch she naturally decided the best path to take was to do something about it.

Grabbing his arm in the middle of the hallway, uncaring of the eyes suddenly on them both and the redness that was spreading on the boy's cheeks, she noted the abnormal solidity of the limb as well as the fact he didn't so much as flinch even when she used her real grip strength and found her course of action affirmed to be the correct path to take. She got on her tip-toes (because the stupid boy was so tall and simply making yourself taller was apparently something she was not allowed to do) and whispered in his ear, perhaps a bit too loudly, "You, me, supply closet now!"

Before he could protest she dragged him along past the crowds of dumbfounded onlookers, up two flights of stairs and shoved him into the old dusty closet. Locking the door behind them, she turned around to see the boy continue his nervous act, though he could not hide the fact that he did not actually stink of fear from her. Strangely though his heartbeat was elevated and he did seem to be sweating more than usual, if not fear then what? Ah well, that was what interrogations are for.

"So uh... why did you drag me here miss Lane?" He asked cautiously, running a finger between his neck and collar. She did not think about how broad his shoulders looked at that moment how dare you accu-

"I needed some privacy for what I am about to say." She sighed, staring into his impossibly deep blue eyes. She suddenly realised her own heartbeat was elevated, which made sense. This was the first time she met someone at this school that her instincts didn't say was... prey. In fact her instincts was telling her something completely different, she just couldn't be sure what. "You can drop the act Clark Kent, if that is your real name..."

"What do you mean? You are so silly, I mean me? Good old normal Clark Kent! Normallest man on the planet haha... yep that's me!" He laughed nervously, some actual fear slipping into his voice. When he noticed she wasn't buying it he winced and his posture entirely changed, immediately she could feel the coiled power within the boy unwind, and had a flash of cold realisation that he might have even been stronger than her. "Look, I really am Clark Kent... I don't know what's going on with me either I swear! I just- how did you know?"

She could taste the honesty in those words, and besides that she had the feeling if he actually wanted to fight he could easily trounce her and likely demolish the whole school before her father could find some superweapon in his back pocket that could stop him. Calming herself, she decided she would reward honesty with honesty. "I think Clark, that you are like me."

"What do you me-" Clark began before she allowed her disguise to shimmer away, transforming into her normal self with lightly glowing purple eyes piercing into Clark's own deep blue. With a more fanged than usual grin she smiled at him.

"I think you are like me!"

Clark was silent for a moment, then his hands began to tremble as they raised. For a second she was terrified that now he was going to kill him, that he was going to break her neck for being a monster foolish enough to think otherwise. But instead in a flash of speed even her eyes could not follow, the giant idiot rushed towards her and wrapped her in a great big hug, and a warm comforting feeling she did not expect to feel so far from home blossomed in her chest at the action despite the fact she knew those same arms could very easily break her bones and give her regeneration a real challenge.

"It must have been so lonely... I know I was..." He whispered, empathy unrivalled by any other student in this school dripping from every word.

"It's not that bad! At the very least my family understands!" She explained hastily.

"Of course they do..." He said with a small smile. "But you are afraid sometimes too right? That you might hurt the ones you love without meaning to, that you will never truly belong in this world. That the secrets behind whatever you are, which even you don't know, might one day rear their ugly head?"

"I- I do..." She admitted. "Papa told me what I am, He's in a... position to know things like this, and I know I can do very bad things very easily. What do- what do you do about it?"

"Well, I don't really know myself, but there is one thing I am certain about." He answered, smiling so brightly it seemed to put the sun outside to shame. "Powers or not I want to help people! And if this strength of mine can save lives, it doesn't matter where it comes from does it?"

Suddenly she realised how closely her body was pressed against his broad chest, how close to her face that impossibly bright smile framed by anatomically perfect cheekbones were, and felt a burning that she couldn't readily explain. Face burning red she whimpered slowly. "Uh... sorry about dragging you here by the way... it must have been very abrupt and uncomfortable. But do you maybe want to... stay in contact?"

"Of course!" He answered, looking very much like the human embodiment of a golden Canid with his big dumb smile on his face that she couldn't get enough of seeing.

"I- contact me ok!" She quickly demanded, grabbing a loose bit of paper from a nearby shelf and writing her dataslate contact details on it by secreting some black dye from an extended claw like some makeshift pen. She shoved it into his chest and hastily unlocked the door, apologising as she scrambled out desperate for breath.

Later on in biology class the girl next to her whispered.

"So... is Clark Kent a good kisser?"

She reminded herself that murder was bad and promptly ignored the question, as well as the strange feelings in her chest. When the class was over she immediately began checking her dataslate for messages, felt a rush of excitement as she found what she was looking for and added a new contact to her very short list, and quickly bombarded him with questions. So engrossed was she in the task she didn't even notice at first who was with her in the next class until she quite literally bumped into him.

"Oh hello Zerayah... I didn't know you took Imperial History as well?" Clark's deep voice chuckled as he made a show of adjusting his entirely unnecessary glasses. Suddenly she felt the burning come back and worse than ever.

Oh frak what was going on?

Cain never expected to welcome a daughter back home from school, he had never considered having a child at all between his original career path and his own lack of knowledge of what the frak a parent was even supposed to do. Then again he didn't expect to lead around a gaggle of heretics in charge of more than one frakking world in open defiance of the God Emperor... so to say the least plans change.

"So Zerayah, how was school?" He asked, sipping a nice cup of refreshing recaf made just the way he liked it. Ah, Jurgen never disappoints.

"Papa... how do you know if you... like someone?" His daughter cautiously asked, turning a shade of red that was simply impossible for normal humans.

Immediately Cain choked on his recaf spraying bitter scalding liquid everywhere. Behind him he could sense Malicia's killing intent intensify.

"Uh- tell me about him... or her..." He asked awkwardly, rubbing his chin with a napkin as he recomposed himself.

"Well his name is Clark Kent, he goes to class 1-B and I can tell he could be in the top class easily if he didn't hold back. He wants to be a journalist to spread the truth even beyond Slawkenberg and looks up to you, says he wants to be a hero just like you!" She answered.

Ok, normal so far, no major red flags. A smart kid it seems, smart enough to know mediocrity is sometimes wiser than excellence, that was something he could acknowledge. Sure the hero worship of him was a bit... weird... but certainly he held no illusions of the lofty image he had somehow managed to not only stumble into but miraculously maintain. But he couldn't shake the feeling there was just something else. "Go on..."

"He is so tall but walks around with a slouch to not show it, he doesn't gossip like the other kids, he has the most deepest blue eyes and when he smiles its so bright it makes my heart move weird... I think he is like me as well! I think he's stronger than me and after school he showed me how he could fly and shoot lasers out of his eyes, isn't that amazing papa!"

Immediately Cain felt his heart cease to beat as he rapidly paled. He felt his cup crack under the force of his grip, shards of reinforced porcelain stabbing through his thick leather gloves. "Ah... he sounds... lovely dear... well please keep me updated on how school goes for you and tell me how things go with... him... dear."

"Of course!" Zerayah said cheerfully, skipping out of the room with a giddy smile on her face.

Desperately trying to stay calm Cain called up Jafar once Zerayah was out of her (very very large) earshot and hissed. "You didn't tell me we had Psykers in the school!"

"What? That can't be right, there are none! And in fact, if there was a psyker all the wards would immediately go haywire! There is no way a mistake like that could be allowed to happen Liberator sir! Perhaps there has been a misunderstanding?" Jafar's voice replied. Despite the fact the man was a known Tzeentch cultist Cain had a feeling he wasn't lying, which only furthered the ice in his veins.

"Yes... must have been... good day Jafar..." He said tactfully, hiding his nerves as he hung up.

"So... do I need to kill someone?" Malicia whispered.

"If he's actually stronger than her, and I don't think Zera is one to misjudge strength, I think that would be a very bad idea." He answered simply, taking another sip of recaf with trembling hands. "Now if you excuse me... I need to take some time to arrange some matters before I start a proper investigation..."

Where did he put that amasec...