73THE LAST CHILDREN OF KRYPTON
SMALLVILLE : PART 1
BY PHOENIX FURY.
DISCLAIMER: I SAY THIS ONLY ONCE SO LISTEN UP! I do not own any of the characters, they belong TPTB. I'm merely borrowing them.
Summary: Clark and his twin sister are the last children of Krypton, sent to earth by their parents and raised by the Kent's. The twins learn their heritage and start walking towards their destiny.
PROLOGUE :
16th October, 1986
A cluster of meteors, all that remained of a once great planet, streaked through the silent void of space like a pack of hungry predators seeking prey. Billions of bright stars sprayed across a rich black tapestry, silent witnesses to the unspeakable force of approaching onslaught.
Upon reaching the edge of the Milky Way galaxy, the meteor shower picked up speed, its sickly green glow flashing past stars and planets. Entering the edge of a tiny solar system in a remote arm of the spiralling galaxy, the swarm of jagged rocks – some as big as small moons, others no bigger than basketballs – rushed past the systems outer planets, then hurtled at great speed, sweeping past a moon towards a ball made of blue and green with white swirls.
This was Earth, one of nine planets surrounding a yellow sun.
At the heart of the swarm – as if it was the meteors purpose to protect it – was a tiny metallic spacecraft.
Disguised by its grim guardians and the spacecraft's technology, no satellite would track the craft. No radio telescope would detect its presence. No astronomer would ever see it.
Upon entering the first layer of Earth's atmosphere, above the Northern Hemisphere, the objects blazed fiery red as they began burning up, crumbling to smaller pieces.
The meteors began to spread out, the gravity of the small planet, the angle of entry, pulling them in different directions, … apart from one large group that stuck together containing the largest sized chunks. That hurtled down towards the North American continent, toward America's Heartland.
Falling, crashing to the earth…
The first meteor aimed right into the heart of a town below, leaving a fiery trail through the sky.
A sign on the border said,
'Welcome to Smallville, Kansas.
"Creamed Corn Capital of the World."
Population 25,001.'
Only a three-hour drive from Metropolis, the major city in the state of Kansas, in fact one of the nation's largest cities, Smallville, a small rural town in Lowell County, might as well have been on a different planet, frozen in time.
Life still centered around Main Street, as it had for two hundred years. Generation after Generation still used the same bank, gas station and library.
Looking like it was straight out of Norman Rockwell illustration, the quaint close-knit community was a typical American town where very little happened and things rarely changed.
Until now.
"It looks like it is going to be the worst winter in decade's folks. A heavy blizzard is blowing from the north that might block us in our houses for the winter. Weather watch asks you to stay inside and batter down the hatches." The news reporter said over the radio as Jonathan Kent drove into town.
"Think it's gonna be as bad as they think, Jonathan?" His wife, Martha asked, tucking a strand of fiery bright red behind her ear. Her accent clearer, more sophisticated, speaking of her city upbringing, when compared to her country born husband. She had pale blue eyes with a touch of grey, the light tan from working outside almost hid the pale dusting of freckles across her cheeks.
He glanced up at the sky, the clouds were dark and it was pretty windy and getting colder. "Yeah, looks like." He was a ruggedly handsome man, with thick blonde hair and blue eyes, over a head taller than his wife, his tanned weathered features, the lean but strong body and the dirt on his jeans and boots bespoke a life spent working outdoors.
They parked on Main Street, Martha grinned at Jonathan as he led her into the flower shop.
Inside the flower shop, a woman busily added a small handful of baby's breath to a bouquet she was completing. Her attention was distracted by the tinkling of the tiny bell on the front door to the shop, indicating the arrival of customers.
"Jonathan." Nell Potter, the owner of 'Nell's Bouquet', beamed pleased to see him but the smile dimmed as she caught sight of his redheaded wife. "Martha. What a surprise. What brings the reclusive Kent's to town?"
She smiled, "Tulips. Red ones, if you have them."
"What about Tiger Orchids?" Nell said, fingering flowers behind her and looking at Jonathan with interest. She had never gotten over her high school boyfriend, they'd been homecoming king and queen in their senior year, she'd thought it was a sign and dreamed of forever, still did if she was honest.
Jonathan put his arm around Martha. "No, thanks. Martha has her heart set on tulips."
"Yes, well, they are a very... uncomplicated flower," Nell said as she went to get the flowers.
Martha hid her amusement over Nell's interest in her husband, and went to coo over baby Lana who was sitting in her stroller. The little filly dress Lana wore was made to look like a fairy even with fake wings on the back and she had a small magic wand in her hand. "Hello little fairy princess, what do you have there?"
Jonathan watched silently as Martha played with Lana. The look of longing in his wife's eyes not lost on him. "Hey, where are her parents?"
"They're at the game like everyone else. I'm being the 'good aunt'." Nell smiled as she handed the flowers over. "So what else brought you to town?"
"Stocking up for winter and doctor's appointment," Martha said softly.
"Anything serious?" Nell asked watching Martha with Lana. She may be jealous of the redhead for marrying her high school sweetheart but even she felt sympathy for a woman who obviously wanted children but didn't seem to be able to carry them.
"Healthy as a horse apparently. Come on Jonathan, we've got to get the feed from Emmett's." Martha cooed once more to Lana and waved to Nell. "Thanks Nell, see you in the spring."
She waved and picked up her niece, cradling her against her chest. (I could have given Jonathan children.)
Outside on Main Street, Jonathan finished loading up the four-by-four with supplies for the winter, and got in the truck. He saw Martha leaning out the window in thought. "I know what you're thinking," Jonathan said softly.
Theirs was a strong marriage, moulded from mutual respect and the hard work and long hours of a farm. Jonathan loved her with his whole heart, and Martha knew it. Only one thing was lacking, only one prayer remained to be answered.
They both desperately wanted a child, but seemingly that desire was denied them.
"I see a little face. It's all I ever wanted," Martha said, with small shrug.
Jonathan leaned over more and turned her around to kiss her warmly.
They were interrupted by the blaring of car horns and cheering crowds all around the truck. A car full of cheerleaders went past, waving pom-poms and banners that read 'Smallville High' 'Let's Go Crows! Caw! Caw!' and 'Welcome to Crow Country!'.
"Hey, looks like Smallville won again," Jonathan smiled pleased.
Martha slid over to sit beside Jonathan in the truck, leaning against him. He started the truck and they drove off through the street full of cheering Smallville residents.
Lex, had been brought to Smallville by his father Lionel Luthor, who had come to make a business deal with the Ross Creamed Corn Factory.
He had curls of bright orange red hair that his mother swore would darken to a deep red like hers had when he got older, he also had her green eyes and Irish cream skin. He didn't think he had inherited anything from his father, neither did his father.
He knew he was supposed to be interested in business of LuthorCorp, but he was tired of his 'destiny' his father went on about, he just wanted to be a regular kid.
Instead of watching his father nail down a deal, Lex completely bored had wandered off into one of the surrounding cornfields. Hidden by the tall stalks that towered over his six-year-old body he trudged along the furrow between the two rows of stalks, his head bent low.
A weak voice cried out nearby, "Help me."
The young boy looked around a little nervously, but saw no one.
Again the faint voice called weakly, "Help me please!"
Lex took off, dashing through the field, fear gripping his mind. Within twenty yards Lex began to wheeze and gasp for breath, his chest tightened in terrible, familiar signal that another asthma attack was about to strike. Reaching into his jacket pocket, he grabbed his inhaler. As he lifted it to his mouth, he tripped over a broken cornstalk and tumbled to the dirt, the inhaler flying into the tangled mass of corn.
He quickly grabbed it and sat back against a wooden pole in the ground trying to calm his frantic breathing.
"Help me." A strained voice begged.
Looking up Lex found himself staring into the face of what appeared to be an odd-looking scarecrow. Lex fell back in surprise with a yelp, and squinting through the sun, he saw that this was not a scarecrow at all, but a teenage boy. Dressed in only his boxer shorts, the boy had a red letter 'S' painted on his chest. He was tied to a post by thick rope, his feet bound together, his arms tied to a crosspiece near the top of the post.
Jeremy Creek. That year's scarecrow.
Before Lex could react a huge orange-red fireball streaked through the sky passing overhead with a deafening roar.
Lex leapt to his feet as the first enormous meteor slammed into the center of the cornfield and sent shockwaves radiating in all directions. Running as hard as he could, the young boy ignored the burning in his chest.
He glanced back and saw a huge shockwave flattening everything in its path. The air around him rippled, charged with vast energy, and then a wall of debris moved towards him with incomprehensible speed.
Dirt, smoke and debris struck the post and its prisoner first, snapping the wooden stake like a toothpick, slamming the teen into the earth, still a captive of ropes.
Within a few seconds the shockwave caught up with the boy and lifted him off his feet, tossing him high into the air amidst a swirl of grey dust, buffeting winds, and finally only blackness.
The first meteor crash and the resulting shockwave had been only the first taste of the immeasurable destruction that was about to change Smallville forever.
On Main Street, the victory celebration had suddenly stopped, a crowd gathered, drawn from their shops and homes by the unearthly sound and violent shaking. The cheering crowd who had only minutes earlier been waving pom-poms and shouting with joy, now stood confused as they looked up at the long black smoke that streaked across the sky.
Clutching Lana in her arms tightly, Nell rushed out of the flower shop and stared up at the thick plume above. "What on God's earth...?" She thought a plane must have gone down or something.
At that moment Lewis and Laura Lang, Lana's parents got out of their car parked across from the flower shop. Laura called out to her daughter as her husband looked up at the sky. "Hi, Lana!"
Lana at seeing her parents, waved her small arms, the wand clutched tightly in her fist.
With all eyes turned skyward, the entire town looked on in horror as another meteor came streaking out of the sky. It crashed directly where Lana's parents were standing, and their car exploded in a flaming fireball vaporizing the Lang's instantly.
The force of the explosion threw Nell and Lana into a rack of flowers displayed outside the shop. Windows along Main Street shattered, and terrified townspeople fled for their lives.
Nell clutched the little girl to her chest and crouched to the ground protecting her from debris, hiding amidst the rubble. Lana's hand dropped her wand, her tears mixed with black soot from the explosion; her terrified screams were unheard in the confusion.
High above, lines of fire and trailing smoke had appeared in the sky as more meteors hurtled out of the sky toward Smallville.
The water tower high above Main Street was demolished as a meteor went straight through it, showering thousands of gallons of water onto people below. One searing chunk tore through Town Hall, entering the landmarked building on one side and emerging from the other. The Smallville Savings and Loan building took a direct hit to its second floor.
Meteors ripped through buildings, destroyed more cars while people ran frantically about, trying to get away, to escape. The air hot and filled with thick black smoke, the ground shaking with each meteor impact, sounds of smashing and shattering and screaming.
It seemed the assault would never end.
From high above to those down upon the ground, the meteors looked like small and distance dots that were growing closer. Seeing these objects in the sky would have one thinking it was a rain of falling stars just passing by outside of the atmosphere, however, the realization that this was in fact a meteor shower and not just a cluster of falling stars hit…literally.
All across the Northern Hemisphere meteor rocks struck down into the earth, biting holes and puncturing craters into the surface.
Random stray meteors hit Russia, China, Europe, Africa, Canada and Greenland …
But most of meteors hit the United States.
Carolina, Florida, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Wyoming, Iowa, Chicago, Nebraska, Missouri…
… but none hit as hard as Kansas, and no town hit as hard as Smallville.
Destruction rained like biblical Armageddon on the small town as meteors crashed everywhere varying in size, but the damage was all the same.
The meteors smashing through buildings and slamming down upon cars of the small downtown area creating havoc and panic amongst the citizens of the small Midwestern town. Even out upon the farmlands of Smallville, the meteors hit destroying crops and homes, tearing apart the roads and fields with as much ease as a tractor would have had.
Landing in woods and ponds.
Smaller fragments of the meteors entered the soil, the groundwater…
The Kent's red truck was headed down a lonely, two-lane rural road out of town. A fireball streaked out of the sky to crash in the field next to them destroying the Smallville sign just seconds after they passed it, leaving only a smoking stump behind.
"What's happening, Jonathan?" Martha cried out staring behind her, her eyes widening in fear, and gasped in horror as she watched the truck belonging to Teddy engulfed in flames.
Before he could respond, Jonathan looked back in front of them to see a fireball streak across in front of them, and he stomped on the brake. They skidded through the black smoke that billowed through the air, so thick they couldn't see, and felt the truck go through a fence as they swerved.
They managed to stop, being slammed forward and only held in their seats by their seatbelts. They couldn't see anything in front of them through the black smoke. Jonathan guessed they were in Miller's field.
"Are you alright, Martha?" He asked looking at his wife searching for injury.
"I think so."
A brilliant, dazzling light shot across the sky, passing so low over the truck that Martha cried out in alarm. The light disappeared into the field, and there followed a low, echoing thud.
"Let's go look. It's dangerous to drive while everything's flying down anyway." Jonathan turned off the engine and together he and Martha got out the car and started walking.
They soon found the source of the mysterious light. In the midst of a surprising shallow crater, sat what appeared to be a strange metallic object; a rough pentagon shape with glistening egg-shaped dome set in the middle.
"What in the world is it?" Martha asked.
Jonathan looked at it in amazement. It didn't look like a satellite. It bore no familiar markings; there were no flags or insignia of any nation of earth, no logos from any military force or space agency. Nothing recognizable beyond the tell-tale scorch marks left by its fiery descent through the atmosphere. "I don't know." His mind had some ideas but he wasn't going to say them out loud. It was just too crazy.
There was a hiss and then several clicks and a hatch lifted up, the egg shaped dome seemed to slid back layer by layer.
Jonathan dragged Martha back, away from the strange object.
They could hear … crying.
Martha didn't even think just acted on instinct as she pushed past her amazed husband and went to look inside.
"They're babies." Martha whispered in awe. They looked like newborns to her, they were tiny, both crying and waving their arms. One wrapped in a ruby red blanket and the other in a sapphire blue one, lying on padded yellow bedding.
"They're so small, Jonathan." She gently picked one up and cradled it in her arms, making soothing noises as it cried. "Hush, little one, it's all right." She gently stroked it's cheek. It's skin was ice cold to touch so she wrapped the blankets more firmly around it. "We better take them home."
"Sweetheart, we can't," Jonathan protested softly.
Martha merely looked at him.
"This fell from the sky. This is a spaceship. They are aliens Martha! We can't keep them." Jonathan said trying to sound stern, though he wasn't sure he could just leave them or hand them over to someone else.
"I'm not leaving them here." She raised an eyebrow at him, fixing him with a look that meant she would get her way. She didn't care one bit where the baby came from, not really. "They shouldn't be locked underground in a lab treated like lab rats. They're babies and they're alone. And we are taking them home with us." She informed him firmly.
"What are we gonna tell people? We found them out in a field?"
She smiled softly at him and passed him the baby she held. "We didn't find them. They found us."
Jonathan didn't know how to hold the baby but with a little help from his wife had it cuddled up against his chest. The baby seemed to smile up at him and innocent blue eyes stared up at him trustingly. It was so tiny and so light, as if a breeze could take it from his arms. A fierce protectiveness came over him as the little baby looked at him.
"Still think we should hand them over to scientists?" She smirked as she picked up the other baby knowing the answer. They had wanted children for so long and now sent from up above they had two.
Martha was putting the babies in the truck to keep warm while Jonathan was trying to figure out how to take the ship home with them. Martha didn't want to leave it there in case it led people to the two babies and they were taken away from the Kents, whereas Jonathan thought it might hold also some answers.
The ship looked far too fragile to carry two babies across the vast distances of space, even the truck was bigger and all that did was drive across land not go out into space. The ship had to have some sort of autopilot since the babies couldn't pilot it, as well the engine itself, maybe some sort of life support or something like in Star Trek, and that wasn't to mention what the ship itself had to be made of to withstand travelling through space and re-entry into earth's atmosphere.
Jonathan found a rectangle shaped piece of metal inside the ship about the size of a paperback novel. He figured it was part of the ship or from the babies parents considering the strange markings that were on it which matched the ones engraved on the ship. He slipped it into his pocket for safe keeping.
Together the couple got the ship onto the back of the truck, it stuck out and didn't quite fit but Jonathan tied it down securely, covering it with a tarp he used when transporting hay. He figured everyone would be too busy to notice what they were doing.
All during the bumpy ride back to the farm, Martha held the babies protectively to her chest, smiling at them in wonder, while Jonathan watched carefully for anyone who might see them while being careful of the still falling meteors.
Once they'd got to 'Kent Farm' Jonathan put the truck in the barn out of sight covering it with a larger sheet and put away the supplies they'd bought in town. The power was out so he turned on the backup emergency generator, with being far out from town you had to be prepared for such things to happen, storms often taking out the power.
He looked up at the sky at the light dusting of snow that was starting to fall along with the still falling fireballs. He called to his wife, "Martha, I'm gotta get the herd in before the blizzard hits or they get hit by something."
"Be careful honey." Martha called from where she was building a fire in the sitting room and watching over their new guests. Rusty, their retriever was curiously sniffing them.
Jonathan quickly got all the animals inside and bedded down, just as he was about to go in he noticed the balls of fire that continued to fall from above though there seemed to be less now. (Are there other ships coming? Maybe the babies' parents?)
He looked at the house and then saddled a horse and rode through the fields to get a closer look. Basil a large bay, was the steadiest of the farm's horses, nothing fazed him, and he was pretty nimble so if Jonathan saw another fireball heading towards him he would be able to get out the way faster on horseback.
He found several craters but no signs of other ships just burning rocks. (Meteors…)
The damage done was immense. He could see fires burning in town and at his neighbours, hear the sirens as fire trucks and ambulances tried to help. He couldn't even imagine how many had suffered.
He decided to go home when he felt the temperature drop and the wind pick up, and he realized he was pretty far from the farm, all the way out by Riley Field near Ross's Creamed Corn Factory. He noticed all the corn was flattened to the ground.
Then he saw something out the corner of his eye. At first he thought it was a lump of corn stalks, but as he looked he could see it was actually a person.
Jonathan slid down from Basil and went over. He pushed the stalks off to reveal a young boy lying on his side; he looked to be about six. (Where did you come from?)
He saw that the boy was breathing and didn't seem to be outwardly hurt despite the loss of hair. There were tufts of ginger curls still there but the rest was gone. He had streaks of soot and dirt across his skin.
He picked up the small boy looping Basil's reins through his arm, and cradled him against his chest. The boy moaned but didn't regain consciousness. Jonathan took him to the edge of the field overlooking the road.
"Oh, thank god."
Jonathan looked up to see a middle-aged man a few years older than him, running towards him. He had shoulder length wavy brown hair with a trimmed beard and wore an expensive suit and coat. "Lex!"
He recognized the man from the newspapers. Lionel Luthor was a big-time businessman in Metropolis and the owner of a castle a few miles away that he'd just finished rebuilding after having it shipped to Smallville stone by stone.
"This your son? I'm Jonathan Kent."
Jonathan watched as the man stare in horror at his shivering son not even reaching out to touch him let alone hold him. "He's in shock, I suggest you take him to the hospital."
Lionel Luthor swallowed, "It is a good thing you were doing your farming."
It wasn't exactly a 'thank you' or really any form of sincere gratitude Jonathan knew. He fought to not snap or say something and settled for, "I have to get home, excuse me." He carefully pressed Lex against him giving Luthor no choice but to take his son.
He mounted Basil and glanced at the boy. (Poor kid. Because with a father like him you'd be better off alone.)
Jonathan headed home, stopping when Deputy Sheriff Ethan, a friend of Jonathan's, pulled up beside him on the road to check if he and Martha were alright. With the devastation caused by meteor shower, the Sheriff's department wanted to check on as many Smallville's residents as they could before the storm hit, especially the most isolated ones where help would find it harder to get to them. Jonathan reassured him they were fine, and told him they were prepared for the winter and would see him in the spring so Ethan radioed in that so the Kent's were checked off so the Sheriff's department could focus on people who hadn't been located yet.
Ethan told him that Smallville Urgent Care Unit was being overrun with wounded, but they were hoping that as soon as the blizzard died down they could get the wounded airlifted out. Smallville's elementary and high schools were being set up as emergency shelters as several homes had been hit, usually the Town Hall would be as well but that had been hit by a meteor.
Smallville wasn't a stranger to disasters though usually it was a tornado or a heavy winter blizzard instead of meteor shower, but people had some idea of what to do.
After saying goodbye to his friend, Jonathan got back home cutting through his fields and put Basil back in his stable just in time as the wind got stronger and the falling snow became heavier. He gave the horse an extra-large feed as a reward.
"Jonathan! The blizzard's coming in fast!" Martha yelled from the house.
Since the babies were fast asleep in front of the fire Martha helped Jonathan lock down the farm. After everything was secure, they went back inside just in time as the storm came in. Jonathan leaned against the kitchen island drinking hot chocolate, Martha's cure for the cold, as he explained about the Luthor's and the damage he'd seen done by the meteors.
"Let's sit by the fire and warm up," Martha said, looking at him with such a happy expression he couldn't resist.
He followed her into the lounge and joined her on the rug in front of the roaring fire. Martha had used the throws that were usually thrown over the back of the sofa to make the wrapped bundles comfortable on the floor; the babies were waking up from their short nap but didn't start crying like other babies always did. They just looked around, almost curiously.
Martha picked one up and cuddled them close, holding her enthralled as a tiny hand grabbed her finger. Jonathan couldn't help but see how right it was to watch her holding the baby. But what did they do now?
She gently passed him the baby wrapped in the blue blanket, "Here you take him?"
"Him?" They hadn't really looked them over before bringing them home; too busy trying to make sure they wouldn't get caught, then he'd gone for a ride around, actually taking a close look at them hadn't occurred to him.
"Yes, a boy and girl, I think they're twins," She said as looked down at sleepy baby face.
"You think so?" He thought all babies looked alike when they were born.
"Well they both have dark hair, blue eyes and they did come together."
Jonathan wasn't holding the baby in his arms as confidently as Martha. He wasn't sure what to make of everything. A part of his mind was panicking and screaming 'Alien!' But as he held that baby in his arms the panicking voice got quieter and quieter.
They suddenly had these new little people in their home. They didn't have any clothes and what were they gonna feed the babies? They didn't know what to do with them. They were completely overwhelmed.
While Jonathan had ridden out to take a look around Martha had spent the time torn between being captivated by the babies and frantically thinking of what to do, maybe it was a natural mothering instinct but she had found some solutions.
"Thank goodness your mother was a pack rat." Martha said happily, as she showed him a suitcase that had been put on top of the guest room wardrobe filled with baby things; clothes, blankets, even a box of bottles, which were still in pretty good condition.
She could envision dressing them in baby clothes, watching them take their first steps, say their first word, watching them grow, loving them. They could finally have the family they had always dreamed of.
Jonathan knew exactly what she was thinking, gently he said, "Sweetheart, they're not ours to keep." He'd let Martha bring them home but he wasn't sure what to do next. He hadn't really known what else to do with them. But surely they couldn't just keep them. 'Couldn't they?' A voice whispered.
She stroked the soft cheek of the baby in her arms and looked over at the one he held, "I just keep feeling there's a reason they're here." She looked at him. "They're alone Jonathan, they have no one to look after them. We have always wanted children. Maybe they're meant to be ours."
From the moment she had laid eyes on the two babies, Martha had wanted them to be hers. She and Jonathan had been trying for years to have a child of their own, but after two miscarriages and a stillbirth they had just about given up. Neither of them were regular church goers, but Martha believed in destiny, and she believed these children were meant to be theirs. She was determined to keep them, and Jonathan was hard-pressed to counter her arguments.
Jonathan sighed, he felt drawn to the children too but a more down to earth question gnawed at him. "Martha, it's not that simple. How do we explain this to the town? And what about their ship, what are we going to do with it?"
She chewed her lip in thought before smiling as she had an idea. "Adoption. We could say that we went to the city to pick them up. We didn't want to tell anyone in case it fell through. And we can hide the ship out of sight, in the storm cellar maybe."
Jonathan thought over her plan and agreed it could work. (We're really gonna keep them.) "What shall we name them?" He asked in defeat, though after looking at them he couldn't just hand them off to the government. At first all he thought were aliens but after holding them he saw what Martha did. Innocent babies who were alone. Who needed them.
And he wanted to have a family, children, as badly as his wife did.
She looked at her husband lovingly and leaned over to kiss him. Leaning against him she looked down at the boy in his arms, "Mm… well your middle name is Joseph."
"Joseph Kent … I know, Clark Joseph Kent, that way he's named after us both." Jonathan said, suggesting her maiden name.
She kissed her husband again. "That's a great idea."
The little girl waved her arm.
"I think she wants a name too." Martha touched the little hand and felt it close around her finger. "What about Jessica after your mother and Katherine after your grandmother?" She had adored Jonathan's family; they'd accepted her, a city girl, into their family straight away where as her own had practically disowned her for loving a country farm boy.
"Jessica Katherine Kent." Jonathan sounded it out. "I like it."
"Well Clark and Jessica, welcome to the Kent family." She smiled down at the two babies.
CHAPTER 1 :
Jonathan looked outside his bedroom window, the snow was two or three feet deep he was sure, and he didn't think it was finished.
He heard a gurgling sound and looked at the foot of the bed. Martha had cleaned out two drawers and made them into temporary cots. A pair of blue eyes were wide open and looking up at him.
"Hello there." He gently picked the baby, the little girl up.
Jessica.
"You're kinda cute."
Jessica waved her arms and cooed at him.
Martha woke up and smirked at him, "She's gonna be Daddy's girl."
Jonathan rolled his eyes at her. "I'm gonna check on the animals." He quickly handed her to Martha and put several layers on. He went downstairs and cleaned out the fire and set it up to be lit. He let Rusty out and brought in some more wood before making his way into the barn.
He fed the animals; the herd of dairy cows, the two goats that Martha adored, the six horses and the dozen chickens. He kicked hay down from the loft above and started mucking out the animals quickly as they ate and put fresh bedding down to keep them warm.
He finally tacked up Basil again and put a thick rug on to protect him from the snow as he went to inspect the roads.
Several trees were down and Jonathan spent the morning towing back the smaller ones to the farm to cut up for firewood for the winter. He un-tacked Basil and rugged him up to keep him warm.
Jonathan was about to grab his power saw and start chopping up one of the fallen trees so he could start filling bags up with firewood when he paused in his work as he looked at the covered up ship. He had to get that moved before anyone saw it. With the snow coming down it wasn't easy to see and it would cover up his tracks if he got it done quickly. Martha had suggested the storm cellar, no one but them went down there, so it was probably safest.
The ship was sort of pentagon shape, the front was longer than the back, and the back point had been rounded off, curved over the top and underneath. The medal was dark grey black with tiny sparkling silver bits when the light hit it and you looked close. It was lighter than he expected, especially for its size and purpose.
The part that had lifted up to show them the twins had been shut as they put the ship onto the truck to get it back to the farm, he wasn't sure how to open it again, there was no latch or button. Markings, symbols, went around the egg shape where the babies had been held; Jonathan traced them with his fingers. He had never seen anything like it. They were shapes like circles, squares, diamonds and pentagons with dots and lines.
It had to mean something, maybe their language.
He shook his head; standing around staring wasn't going to get it hidden.
He drove the truck to the storm cellar his father had built during the 1950s to protect his family from the many tornadoes that plagued the state and some say to provide shelter from the threat of nuclear war. He managed to get the craft down the steps by putting it on the tarp and pulling. He dragged it to the back and threw a sheet over the top to cover it and placed boxes in front of it to hide the whole thing from view in case anyone did come looking. He then locked the storm cellar with a combination lock so he didn't have to worry about a key, setting it as the day of the meteor shower 16th October, 16-10.
He went back to the truck, pausing to look back at the storm cellar. Were there any more ships out there? Where did the babies come from, how far had they travelled? Why had they been sent to earth?
He shook his head and got in the truck and drove back to the house.
Martha put the babies back in their beds and got dressed. "I'll be just a minute." She told them as she got two drawers from the guest bedroom chest of drawers along with two pillows to set up as cribs downstairs so she had somewhere safe to set them down. She then carried each baby down and put them in their drawers. "There you go. Now let's see if we can find you something to eat shall we? Milk should be good for you; it's what babies drink when they're little. I know it isn't your mothers but it's the best we've got." She hoped the milk wouldn't harm them but there was nothing else, they didn't have any baby formula and it wasn't like she could produce some. But first she needed to wash those bottles before giving it a try because they couldn't drink from cups.
She boiled some water, knowing from experience after disasters that the water might not be safe, then washed the bottles with the rest of the dishes to get them clean before putting them in boiling water to sterilize them. All the while she talked to the babies who thankfully hadn't started crying because they were hungry.
She washed the old baby clothes and blankets she'd found twice, she wanted to be sure everything was clean before giving them to the babies. She didn't know if alien babies were different then human babies but she knew with human babies you had to be careful with germs.
She dried off the bottles and filled two of them with warm milk, testing it on her skin to check it wasn't too warm. She picked up the little girl who was awake while her brother had fallen back asleep. She wasn't too keen on the bottle but once she got the hang of it she drank the bottle down quickly.
Martha then held her over her shoulder and rubbed her back until she burped. "Is that better little girl?"
The baby boy as if sensing there was food woke up and started crying. She put the little girl down and picked him up. "There, there, I have some for you too."
Once they were both fed and burped they fell back asleep. Martha kept a close eye on them as she put some bread in the oven and made some soup and sandwiches and prepared a slow cooking stew for dinner. She put the wet baby clothes and blankets on a rack in front of the fire to dry quicker, she then cleaned the pram, washing the bedding and padding inside it.
Martha cleaned the kitchen and floors all the while glancing at the babies checking if they were ok, that they were real. She put the bottles of milk in the fridge and cut up some old towels to use as nappies. Then got Jonathan's mother's knitting bucket with her knitting needles and wool and got to work.
Jonathan's grandmother and mother had been known as the best knitters and sewers around and taught Martha how to when she came to live on Kent farm, the men would farm the land and the women would knit sweaters and cardigans, make quilts and sell them at fairs. Not only did it help Martha relax but it was productive, she could knit the babies a blanket.
She wished she could ring her mother for help. She needed advice; the things you should and shouldn't do with babies. She'd always wanted children and now she had them she found she was unprepared. But she knew she couldn't call her mother, even if she could get through on the phone. Her family was complicated at the best of times. And considering the twins weren't hers she just couldn't run the risk.
All the natural mothering instincts inside her said to keep them safe, to protect them at any and all cost. And she would.
She heard one of the babies moving and looked over. The little boy, Clark was squirming around before he started crying.
"Hey little guy. What's wrong with you?" She kneeled down in front of the fire and picked him up. Then she felt the wet patch. "Oh. Right, ok."
She put him back down and grabbed some of the nappies she had made and got the talc n' powder from the bathroom and a wet cloth to wash him with. "You need to bear with me; I've never done this before."
She put him on the rug and set aside the wet blanket. First she wiped him down and then put some talc n' powder on him and then put on his nappy. "I really hope this stays on," she muttered doing up the pin as Clark waved his arms about.
Martha checked the baby clothes she had put by the fire to dry and found they weren't quite dry so she wrapped him in a towel.
She picked up the blanket he'd come wrapped in. She wasn't sure what they were made off, softer than wool, they were thick and warm with a silk-like trim. Clark's was a rich sapphire blue while Jessica was a bright ruby red.
Martha realized the blankets were probably all they had from where they came from apart from their space ship. She decided she would find something else to wrap the babies in so they could hold onto the blankets.
She took the dirty blanket and carefully hand washed it in the sink. She took the bread out of the oven and set it on the side to cool.
She then picked Jessica up and took her out of her blanket, unfortunately waking her up. Martha soothed her and put a nappy on her and wrapped her in a warm towel.
She sat with them in front of the fire she had found a baby rattle and shook it seeing if they liked it.
Jonathan came in to see her sitting on the floor in front the fire smiling as she talked to the babies and smiled. (This is what I always imagined. Martha playing with our children. Me teaching them the way of the land. A family.)
She smiled happily at him. "Hey handsome, sandwiches in the fridge, lunch is on the stove, and bread just out the oven."
"You had some yet?" He asked and at the shake of her head smiled and said, "I'll bring you some then." He took out the plate of sandwiches and poured himself a bowl of soup and buttered some fresh bread to go with it.
"Everything ok out there?" Martha asked as he came through with a tray.
"Several trees came down, once chopped up they should last us the winter. The animals are ok and there doesn't seem to be any damage to the house or the barn." He said as he ate.
"That's good." Martha ate telling him about what she'd been up to. She looked at the babies who were looking back at them almost curiously. "I wonder what they think about all this," She said as she waved a rattle.
Jonathan grinned, "Probably 'that's an awful noise'."
She shook her head smiling and set the rattle aside and finished off her lunch. "We're gonna need to get some cribs and baby stuff as soon as possible."
Jonathan paused in wiping up his soup with a piece of bread as something occurred to him. He quickly finished his lunch and suggested, "Why don't you introduce them to the animals while I check the loft."
Martha put them in the pram with some warm towels and took them outside; luckily he had shovelled a path from the house to the barn.
Jonathan watched her go before climbing up into the attic and grinned.
At the far back not easily visible was an oak baby cot, high chair, an old-fashioned baby carry basket, a chest of drawers with a changing table on top. He opened his mother's chest and found even more old blankets and baby clothes from when he had been a baby. He quickly brought them down and set them up in their bedroom and got a wet rag to clean them.
"Jonathan!"
"I'm upstairs, be down in a minute." He shouted down and looked at his handy work. The blankets and baby clothes would have to be washed but the furniture would do till he made his own; it was family tradition for the father to make the baby furniture.
He went downstairs and watched her settled the babies down. "Martha?"
"Mmm?" She looked up with a smile on her face.
She looked so contented, so happy. He was glad that they were keeping them even if it was just to see her face like that.
"Come with me I found some thing's in the attic." He held out his hand and led her up the stairs.
She gasped as she saw the baby furniture.
"They are my old things. I cleaned them up, found the bedding, though it needs washing. I'll start making their own set soon."
"I love it." She span round and leaped into his arms and smothered his face with kisses. "And I love you."
(I better get making them quick.) Jonathan thought just before Martha kissed him and sent all the blood far away from his brain.
Jonathan was a light sleeper and woke when he heard one of the twins sneeze. He crawled to end of the bed and looked down into the crib the twins now shared.
Clark had his eyes half open and was wriggling, accidentally kicking Jessica.
Jonathan did not want them awake. He picked up the little tyke and rocked him as he'd seen Martha do. "Shh, now go back to sleep." He whispered to Clark who actually did.
He settled him back down beside his sister and looked around the cramped room. With their furniture and the babies you had to be carefully where you walked.
(We're gonna need more room.) He thought remembering how cramped it was when he was younger with him and his sister.
The house had three bedrooms; the master bedroom was the biggest covering the front of the house, but the other two bedrooms weren't that big, Martha used the smallest bedroom to work on her quilts and sewing. A small bathroom had been put under the stairs when he was kid because of the arguments over the main bathroom upstairs.
When the twins were older they'd want their own rooms. And he remembered what sharing one bathroom was like in the evening and mornings with everyone wanting to have a shower or bath. Maybe he could build an en-suite onto the Master bedroom?
But for the moment the guest room, his old childhood room, where Martha and Jonathan had slept till his parents passed, could be made into the twin's room until they got older. The bedroom already had a small wardrobe that would do for both of them until they started getting bigger and needed their own bedrooms.
In the afternoon after he'd done all his jobs while Martha wrapped up the twins and took them on their afternoon trip around the farm to see the animals before their last nap before bedtime, Jonathan got to work on the guest bedroom.
He took all the furniture out and stored it in the attic, took down the curtains and blinds putting them in the smallest bedroom, and started stripping off the old wallpaper. The hardwood floors would need to be refreshed and the walls would need a fresh coat of paint and then he could get started on making the babies their own furniture.
After all the wallpaper was off he gave the walls and ceiling a quick sand to smooth the surface and washed the room with a combination of boiling hot water and all-purpose cleaner to make sure the room was clean.
The next day he used the spare paint from when they had painted the kitchen and hallway to paint the walls, making them a soft yellow and cream, painted the ceiling white, put white gloss on the windowsill and skirtings. Then he worked on refreshing the floor, applying a few coats of varnish to polish them up till they gleamed.
After the room was ready he started making the baby furniture in the barn to keep it a surprise for Martha.
When he and Martha had first started trying for a baby they had looked at furniture discussing what they liked and what was useful so he had a fair idea of what she would like.
Since he wanted to keep it a surprise, he made all the main parts in the barn and then assembled them in the twins' room. He did it mostly by hand making sure the wood was smooth so there would be no splinters. Most winters which were often quiet on a farm he spent making furniture which they sold during the spring in town so he was fairly practiced.
He built both cot frames with drawers underneath for blankets and started carving pictures into the head and foot boards. A farm yard scene into Clark's headboard and made Jessica's into a fairytale castle scene, perfect for a little girl. When they got bigger they could take the rails off to be their first beds. They had one baby mattress but for now they were small enough to share one cot.
He built a large double baby changing table with drawers underneath for nappies and towels, two chests of 5 drawers along with two toy chests and one wardrobe for just in case the bedroom wardrobe wasn't big enough.
The two cots were on the far wall, so the morning light would shine over them but they weren't in a draft from the window, the cots facing each other so the twins could see each other. He placed a dresser in the corner at the end of one of the cots and put a lamp on it. He made a wooden mobile to hang over each cot. A sturdy rocking chair he'd found in the attic was cleaned up and placed by the window, the wardrobe was put in the alcove in the corner with the chest of drawers either side.
Martha was preoccupied with the twins and doing normal everyday chores, as well as her winter projects to pass the time and sell in the spring, she hadn't noticed what he'd been doing and he'd kept it well hidden from her. He got everything done within a few weeks waiting till Martha was asleep before slipping into the barn to work and doing it during the day while saying he was cutting up the wood, working on winter projects and he was he just didn't tell her what they were.
Between the finishing of the room, the farm jobs and then twins waking him up, Jonathan was exhausted.
"Keep your eyes closed," Jonathan said as he held her hand and led her down the hallway and opened the door and led her inside.
"Can I open them now?" Martha asked with one hand over her eyes.
He looked around quickly checking everything. "Ok, now open them."
Martha opened her eyes smiling before gasping as she took in the room.
"You did all this." She ran her hand over the smooth wood of one of the cribs.
"Well they can't sleep in our room forever."
She turned to him with tears in her eyes and came to him to cup his face in her hands. "Thank you."
He wrapped his arms around her.
A whole series of fronts swept across Kansas that winter, effectively isolating the Kent's from friends in the surrounding area. Being farmers, they had a full larder and were able to survive in relative comfort, if in solitude. For their part, the tiny infants thrived in their new parents' care.
As winter passed Jonathan got used to having the babies around, he and Martha would take turns getting up at night.
Martha made quilts for their cots as well as padded bumpers to go around the sides of the cots to protect them, she made them clothes to wear and knitted blankets to keep them warm.
The twins made their life complete.
But as spring approached so did the question of what did they tell people?
"We haven't seen anyone all winter and the twins still look like newborns. We could say they are ours. That I gave birth to them." Martha announced as she cooked.
"Martha-"
"We're been away blocked off from everyone for months, Jonathan. Women don't really start showing till after four months. And I've been wearing baggy clothes for a while now since I lost weight. We can say we didn't want to say anything because of the past. We go into town and say that we can get a birth certificate from the doctor."
"Martha-"
"Jonathan, please it will protect us this way. Everyone will think they're ours, no one will ever know they aren't. No one can take them away from us." She insisted, not looking at him as she hurried around the kitchen cooking.
"Martha-"
"I've got books for you to read because after all you helped me in labour so you'll have to know what happened. It's roughly the same with the animals, except women scream more."
He felt like smacking his head on the table. "Martha-"
"It's a great idea. You'll see."
Jonathan gave up and let his head smack the table.
But later on that night as she lay sleeping beside him he thought over what she said and it did make sense.
If they were theirs no one would realize where they actually came from because they would see the twins as their miracle. He and Martha would have their family and the twins would be protected.
He went into their room and looked into the cots.
And Martha was right they still looked like newborns. They hadn't grown at all. He guessed aliens aged slower.
They looked so fragile, helpless and defenceless. No matter the how or why they were here, they were innocent babies.
No one would use them as lab rats or dissect them like frogs. No one would abuse or exploit them.
He would not let that happen.
He finally stopped fighting his heart and settled in the rocking chair.
It had taken until that moment to actually get through to him. Maybe it was denial, but he thought it was plain stupidity, and he felt the urge to hit his head on concrete repeatedly. Not that he thought it would have helped. He had to come to the conclusion in his own time.
The Kent's were known for being hard-headed and stubborn. Jonathan's world had been shaken the day he found two babies in a spaceship; he'd just needed time to get over the shock.
He hadn't wanted to get attached for fear of having to give them up or something. But as he looked at them he realized they weren't going anywhere and he wouldn't let anyone take them away. He finally became what Martha had instantly when she's seen them. He was stubborn, not stupid.
He was now a parent.
"Clark, Jessica. I don't where you came from. I don't know why you were sent here. But I promise you I will protect you. I will teach you to drive a tractor and to ride a horse. I will be your father and this will be your home." He vowed as he watched over them.
Martha had a few books that she'd bought when they had first started thinking about children and they described labour in detail. He'd birthed animals so he had the general idea already but it never hurt to check.
Jonathan decided they needed some physical evidence. Pictures.
They had to create a sort of time line showing the advancing pregnancy.
Jonathan took pictures of Martha with a large baby bump in her various baggy clothes. Martha even cut her red hair which had grown during the winter so in the pictures it looked like time had passed, her hair growing longer as her pregnancy advanced and then having short hair again after the twins were born.
For the after-labour photo that everyone had in baby albums Martha used makeup to make herself look pale and worn out and Jonathan misted her with water to make her look sweaty and then put the twins fresh from a bath in her arms as she lay in bed.
They took pictures of the twins in their cots, red-faced and crying for breakfast, to look like freshly born babies who had just entered the world. Then they did a shot of each child with each parent and then a group one by setting the camera timer.
There were other pictures, one with Jessica asleep on Jonathan's tummy as he read a book. Another with Martha in the rocking chair with Clark.
Jonathan was reading the chapter on child labour when a thought occurred to him. What was the twins birthday going to be? "What day are we going to tell everyone they were born?" Jonathan asked Martha.
"It depends when we have to tell everyone. We can tell everyone I wore baggy clothes to hide the pregnancy but clothes only hide it for so long, especially when you're expecting twins. I can't have been any more than four or five months along in October, I doubt people will remember clearly considering what happened that day." Martha said thoughtfully.
"So count on four or five more months."
"The book says single pregnancies tend to be around 40 weeks and twin pregnancy generally lasts for around 37 weeks. So if we say they came three weeks early," Martha tapped the baby book in front of her.
"So February?"
Martha nodded. "If the snow doesn't thaw till middle of March we can say they were born mid-February. But it depends when we have to tell everyone so let's leave if for now."
Jonathan nodded and continued reading the chapter on labour.
It was reaching mid-March when the snow started thawing and Jonathan saw the snow plough on the roads clearing a path to town. Being on the outskirts of town meant they would be the last to be seen to since they were further away, they tended to work from the center of town out since there were more people there.
Jonathan informed Martha, while looking at the twins in their play pen as he drank a cup of coffee.
Martha froze by the sink. She knew what that meant. It was time to tell the town.
Jonathan decided to go to town before they came to Kent Farm. Smallville was a small community and they were also very nosy one. Everyone knew everything about everyone else.
"I was thinking of heading into town and getting supplies. We're as prepared as we're going to be."
"Ok," Martha said trying to sound like it was nothing to worry about.
They stood quietly for a moment.
"I'm going to take the pictures in to be developed. The whole town will know. They're going to ask questions like 'when were they born?'." Jonathan prodded.
"How about National Freedom Day, its February the 1st?" Martha suggested.
"Good choice." Jonathan said and then suggested, "Why don't you stay here?" He could see the wheels turning in her head, the worries about losing the twins.
Martha nodded with relief.
"Everything's going to be fine." He kissed her and then kissed each babies head.
Jonathan drove into town, looking around to see what had changed. Many buildings were in the state of repair, Smallville's Savings and Loan second-floor was being rebuilt, but Ma's Eats was nothing but rubble.
He headed straight to the library. First he needed to find out what Smallville knew about the meteor shower in case he needed to adjust his story so he read the Smallville Ledger and Daily Planet editions he'd missed.
Earth's satellite systems hadn't been able to detect them until it was too late; they'd been hit so fast, some of the meteors had been so small they hadn't been detected at all.
The meteors had hit other parts of the world but very few in number or very small that they'd barley been noticed, Russia had been hit twice according to satellite information and yet had no casualties, they couldn't even see where they'd landed … meanwhile in Kansas Smallville had been hit by the highest number and suffered the most damage and causalities.
Smallville Urgent Care Unit had done its best but was clearly overwhelmed, usually handling farm accidents and typical flu's, it hadn't the space or the right equipment to handle the large numbers or severity of the injuries produced by the shower. Considering the area was prone to Tornados Smallville had been asking for the Urgent Care Unit to be made into a proper full-fledged medical facility, now with the latest and severest disaster it looked like they were gonna get their wish.
But overall the emergency services were highly praised for doing all they could to help the wounded and get the dead taken care of respectfully, as well as preparing for the winter locking them in their homes.
The little town was a strong one and it knew how to survive.
The Smallville Ledger had printed a list of the dead, driving home the point of how devastating the shower was. Jonathan was stunned by how many they'd lost; the town had never suffered this much even during a tornado.
(The only good thing that came out of that day was the twins.) He thought as he photocopied the articles and put them in his pocket.
He left the library trying to look happy and relaxed as he entered the doctor's surgery, luckily the old doctor could see him right away or he didn't know how long he could have sat there looking relaxed. Dr Mars was getting on in years; he'd actually been the same doctor who had brought him into the world. Jonathan told him about the labour and that he was now the proud father of twins. He breathed a sigh of relief when Dr Mars didn't even question him. He'd explained to the doctor that they'd been to Metropolis for all Martha's doctor appointments to reassure her that everything was fine. Dr Mars understood that after three failed pregnancies that someone would be scared to death and would want to keep it a secret in case something did go wrong.
Dr Mars congratulated Jonathan on the birth and told him he would be delighted to make a house call to check on the twins and give them their birth certificates and vaccinations.
Jonathan breathed a sigh of relief as he left the doctors surgery. It had worked… so far at least.
He was smirking as he came out of the pharmacy and photo shop. Wayne ran the pharmacy and photo development shop and was the biggest gossip in town, the whole town would know by the end of the day if not by lunch that the Kent's had new members in the family.
And he was right.
Their friends were thrilled and happy that at last they had the child - or children - they'd so wished for. Knowing Martha's medical history, everyone readily accepted their story that she'd kept another attempted pregnancy a secret. And Jonathan had helped deliver so many calves, they knew that he could easily have played midwife. When questioned further, the new father just beamed and said, "It was a good birth… easier than a cat dropping kittens." Which as matter of fact it had been.
As Jonathan went around for supplies he was stopped in the street, the supermarket, the feed store, even the fabric store. The ladies smiled as entered the baby store with Martha's list of necessities and were extremely helpful. He even got a discount!
He stuck to blue, red and yellow colours staying far away from pink. He also got a baby bag, a few cans of newborn baby formula, nappies, and pacifiers. He saw baby books to hold pictures and to store little details like their first word and date of first steps in.
(Plain but Martha will fix them up.) He bought everything and put them in the truck.
He then parked outside the bank and went in.
"Hi Jonathan, how are you?"
"I'm good, came to check on my accounts."
"Well, a large sum was put in your account."
"What? When? By who?" He asked in surprise.
"Lionel Luthor."
(Luthor... the kid… this is a thank you… feels like a payoff.) He'd seen Luthor look at his son in horror and guilt. Couldn't even hold his own child when he needed it most.
Jonathan shook his head. "I found his son in a cornfield, he was hurt. I guess this is a thank you. High society is the same all over. Throw money at something and it will be ok."
"Well the thank you certainly helps your bank account."
"I just don't feel comfortable accepting money for doing what anyone would. It doesn't seem right?"
"Jonathan, stop being a saint and think of your farm, accept the money. Its small change to him, it's not like he'll miss it," His friend said to him.
"Maybe your right." Jonathan stood still feeling … wrong about the whole thing but left it alone.
Martha was waiting on the porch wringing her hands. "How did it go?"
"I think it worked," He said happily.
She relaxed.
"Help me bring this stuff in," Jonathan said as he started pulling things out of the truck. "I spoke to the Doc, he'll come see us this weekend. I dropped off the pictures to be printed as well. I got everything on your lists."
Martha smiled as he listed what he'd done. He was looking quite proud with himself. "How was town?"
"Good. The whole town within an hour knew that we had twins; everyone kept stopping me to ask after you and the twins. The town despite the tragedy is getting back on its feet." Jonathan said, not ready to tell her about the devastation left behind by the meteor shower.
"I got these for the pictures, thought you'd make 'em nice." He handed her the baby books.
She kissed him. "I love you, do you know that?"
"I have a fair idea." He grinned happy to see her so happy.
"Everything is fine. They have ten fingers and toes. Their heart and lungs are healthy. I don't see why they should need to go to the hospital. They are a little small, but they did come early so that's to be expected." The silver haired Dr Mars said after he had examined the twins and vaccinated them much to the twins dislike.
Jonathan hid his sigh of relief. The town had bought their story but he'd been worried that Dr Mars would somehow find out the twins weren't human. He'd checked their heartbeats, listened to their lungs himself and couldn't find anything that said alien but Dr Mars was a trained doctor who might.
They seemed stronger than ever. Jonathan read in the baby book the progress they were supposed to make from week to week, and they seemed far ahead both physically and mentally of where they should be. They obviously recognised Jonathon and Martha, and even now with the doctor they locked onto him when he entered the room, watching him intently without blinking, almost uncomfortably so, like a predatory animal might.
They had easily held up their heads before the book said they would and they were pushing themselves up on their arms as well as using their hands for coordination. Yet in front of the doctor none of that was shown, as if they knew.
But he was comparing them to human babies, who knew how aliens developed or aged.
"Since you were alone out here you'll need birth certificates for the little ones." He pulled out two birth certificates from his black doctors bag and filled in the parents' names, peering through his bifocals which rested upon his nose as a concession to aging eyes. "Their names?"
"Clark Joseph Kent and Jessica Katherine Kent."
"When were they born?"
"1st February, both out by 10:30 in the evening. Clark came first then Jessica." Martha said as she cradled Jessica.
He pulled out an ink sponge. "Now I'll need to do handprints and footprints." He pressed their little feet to the sponge and pressed their feet to the paper and then did their hands. "Would you like a copy, I know parents love it?"
Martha grinned, "Yes we would."
He handed her the pieces of paper. "I'm so happy for you both." He grinned at the couple.
"Thank you Doc."
Jonathan stared at the birth certificates.
Clark Joseph Kent & Jessica Katherine Kent
Mother: Martha Clark Kent
Father: Jonathan Joseph Kent
Date of birth: 1st February 1987
He placed them in the filing cabinet along with his and Martha's own passports and birth certificates.
They were a family now.
END OF CHAPTER 1
The whole idea will be based on 'Smallville' but with little bits of 'Lois & Clark the New Superman Adventures', and the Superman movies and comics added with my own ideas. Jessica basically takes the place of Lois in the later Smallville parts since the first time Clark will meet Lois is when he goes to work for the Daily Planet.
I've changed the plot and few little details. (The Smallville timeline has Clark falling to Earth in 1989 and he's like three/four but I wanted them to arrive as babies so I made them come earlier.)
In Smallville the Meteors only seemed to land in Smallville but in my Universe they landed mostly in Kansas but several hit other parts of earth to make it look more random and natural, otherwise I think the government and Alien fanatics would have suspected something. Smallville was named 'The Meteor Capital of the World' because they were hit by more meteors than anywhere else, suffered the most damage and causalities, (the largest pieces struck Smallville smaller pieces hit elsewhere barley causing any damage or casualties). Now the Meteors were caught in the warp field created by the twin's ship, bringing the Kryptonite with them. The closest Meteors to the ship would have followed it to Smallville the outer edges were pulled away by Earth's gravity.
When I picture the twins spaceship I picture a cross between the ship from 'Lois & Clark the New Superman Adventures', L&CNSA, the hatch that lifted up, the symbol of the House of El in front of where they sat. And Smallville ship with the key and floating. Put in the key, and it unlocks, floats (Smallville) The hatch lifts up (L&CNSA) and then the egg does the sliding back thing (Smallville) to reveal where the twins had slept in stasis.
This is going to be a very long series split up into parts and I can only access the internet once a week so be patient with me. Plan is for Part 1 to cover the high school years which should cover the first four seasons.
Hope you liked it, if so review it.
PHOENIX FURY.
