The Protagonist System

238 Recovering What Was Lost

That was a right cock-up, wasn't it?

I blinked my mental eyes at that statement, that I somehow heard with in a male British accent, even though I didn't have any ears at the moment. I also wondered what the hell happened to it to make it sound so pompous and arrogant.

Where did my normal helpful guide disappear to? I asked.

It was decided that a heavier hand was needed to take control of...

You can fuck right off with that shit. I thought to whoever or whatever that thing was. I was doing just fine as everything was worked out with MY system. Even this last visit let me fix pretty much everything that was wrong with both myself and my system, and you think I'm going to want someone else taking control? Fuck you. Also, fuck you. And just to make myself clear. Fuck. You.

There was no response at all from the British asshole.

I don't have any free Karma Points left for you to steal from me to manipulate things on your end anyway, so whatever stupid plan you thought you had, you can shove right up your metaphorical ass and send yourself back to wherever you came from, you ignorant fuck!

There's no need for you to be so hostile.

I had the makings of a perfect life back there and I lost it, because I thought healing Scion's mate was the best way to save everyone from having to die, when he eventually loses himself to his grief in a few years, and tries to wipe out billions of people from every Earth-like planet of that microverse.

I spent a few moments collecting myself before I continued.

It never occurred to me that The Thinker would be aware that the ants she was going to play with had played with her instead. I made a huge mistake and I lost everything. I should have popped Scion's avatar and then destroyed his main body when he opened a portal to send another avatar to me. I would have gained all his powers first and... it doesn't matter now.

Again, there was no answer from whoever that was.

I was stupid and I lost. Put whoever was there back in control and they can send me off to the next world. I don't want to go to a world full of doom and gloom this time and my locked Karma Points should be good enough to ensure that much, unless you are going to ignore my wishes and screw me over again.

I floated there in the nothingness and there was no response.

You are totally going to screw me over again, despite what I just said? I asked and they didn't answer. You better hope I never find out who the fuck you are, because like Fate keeps reminding me, I'm always going to come back here when I die. I'll find you and I'll destroy you, then I'll destroy your power, and then I'll destroy the very concept of you.

Prepare yourself for insertion.

I was sure I heard a hint of fear as the British voice said that and I mentally smiled. Hey, reading buddy! I thought and somehow pulled a copy of Paige's gift from my inventory. I had made it in case Paige lost or damaged anything. Now you don't have to wait for Paige to sing it all.

I felt lips press to my non-existent cheek and the remnant of a hug before the box of papers faded away. I mentally smiled at reminding them that I had friends there to tell me things and everything faded to black.

*

I regained consciousness when I felt the warmth around me suddenly disappear. It was unbearably cold and then there was a tight squeezing all around me and then I was suddenly free and throwing up and coughing. My lungs had been filled with fluid and then I opened my eyes to see a very tall man stare at me with wonder.

“He's perfect.” The man said and handed me off to a floating robot that carried me over to a weird tub thing and then I was quickly rinsed off and swaddled in a warm blanket. It felt heavenly and my eyes fluttered as a tiredness I never knew tried to take a hold of me.

“Here is your son, Lara.” The man said as the robot floated me over to a very tall woman.

Lara looked like a beauty queen and I caught my breath when I saw her face up close. She hugged me to her chest and I could only stare at her in wonder.

“Are you hungry, my son?” Lara asked me and pulled her robe open to reveal a perfect breast. It reminded me of Diane, my mother back in Worm, and I teared up and started crying. Worry flashed across Lara's face and her delicate fingers wiped at my cheeks. “What's wrong, my little Kal?”

I stiffened at that name and then cried harder. I knew that name and I knew the trouble that lay ahead, for me, my new parents, and my birth planet of Krypton.

*

Three days was all I had to get to know my new mom before my father rushed into the house and grabbed the both of us. He rushed us out of the house, into the hovercar, and we were off to his private lab.

“They refused to listen, didn't they?” Lara asked.

“They laughed me out of the council chamber after forbidding me from telling anyone what I discovered.” Jor admitted. “I did manage to tell my brother Zor before I was called into the meeting, however.”

“The council are ignorant fools.” Lara spat.

“Vindictive fools, too. Neither I nor my wife are allowed to abandon our people in their time of need.” Jor said and Lara scowled at him. “I had to agree, of course. They would have had the guards shoot me if I didn't.”

Lara opened her mouth to argue and stopped when she looked down at me cuddled in her arms. “Kal.”

“Now you know why I didn't announce the first natural birth of a Kryptonian in centuries.” Jor said, proudly. “No one knows about him or that he is not registered in the population matrix or is part of the genetic database.”

Lara nodded and leaned down to kiss my forehead. “He's not bound by their restrictions.”

“Nor is he tied into the planet's biosphere.” Jor said. “It's still an extremely high risk to send him off into the cosmos with no guarantees; but, it's the only hope we have for his survival.”

“Slim as that is.” Lara whispered.

“I've done the calculations thousands of times and I've allowed very little margin for error.” Jor countered. “With that and a little luck, the miniature phantom drive should shunt our child into hyperspace for almost the entire journey to his destination.”

“And how did you find that place again?” Lara asked, her eyes narrowed.

“Scientific analysis.” Jor answered. “The planet is in the perfect temperate zone for the highest chance of life forming and the star is a relatively young one. The few thousand years of his faster than light speed travel should pass quickly and there will be billions of years of life left for his new yellow star, unlike the red super-giant we have here.”

Lara nodded and looked down at me. I was sure she was surprised that I hadn't had another crying fit, or kept her awake at night, or fussed more than my little body needed to be fed and changed. A few tears started to form in her eyes and I couldn't get my little hands out of the swaddling blanket to pat her face and reassure her.

“We're here.” Jor said as the automated car came to a stop and he helped Lara out of the car and into the building.

We went right to the lab and he hit several buttons and part of the wall opened up and a sleek ship slid out of the hidden space and the ceiling opened up.

“This science probe has been modified with both a hypersleep system and a radio wave detection system.” Jor said and entered several commands onto a console and part of the probe opened up. Instead of having scientific equipment inside, it was an open space with padding all over it. “He won't even notice the time passing.”

Lara backed away and hugged me close. “No, I... I changed my mind. I don't want to let him go.”

“Lara...” Jor started to say.

“No! I can't abandoned him to die in space all alone!” Lara exclaimed. “At least here we can all die together!”

I couldn't let her convince him of that, so I had to cheat and use one of my rarely used powers. I was only a few days old and most of my powers were greyed out, probably because they required a more mature physical body to be used, so I had to be really convincing when I threw my voice using ventriloquism.

“M... m... momma.” A very baby-like voice came from my mouth and I moved my lips to match.

Both Lara and Jor gasped.

“Fwy.” I said and stared up at her.

“K-Kal.” Lara whispered and cried as she hugged me and kissed my forehead.

“Fwy away.” I said.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

Jor came over to us and gently took me from her arms. The wonder and shock on his face was priceless as he walked back over to the probe and placed me inside.

“Dada.” I said and startled him.

Jor stared at me for a moment, saw the intense look in my eyes, and he looked proud at knowing how smart I was. “Good luck, my son.”

I nodded and he closed the pod. I heard my birth mother wail and felt bad about that; but, there wasn't anything else I could do right at the moment. I was only a baby and did all I could to reassure them that I was going to be fine.

“Don't worry, Lara. I've had this scheduled as a normal launch for a month, so no one will question it, even after that debacle in the council chamber.” Jor's voice could be heard through the probe's casing. “I'm initiating the hypersleep system and Kal won't feel or experience anything going through either atmosphere.”

I didn't fight the sleepy feeling I felt and hoped Jor was right. I knew atmospheric reentry was going to be rough and I doubted my little body could handle it if I was awake and bracing for it. Even though I had a very dense muscular structure now, so did everything else made on Krypton, including the padding inside the pod holding me tightly.

I was also glad to not witness the destruction of the planet not long after I was launched. Billions of people were dead or dying and there wasn't anything that could be done about it.

*

My eyes fluttered open when I felt someone pick me up. I looked at the beautiful woman with wonder and couldn't figure out what version of Martha Kent this was. I knew of several of them, thanks to all the reboots in the comics, the different movie versions, the television versions, and the animated versions. Heck, I didn't even know what era this was.

“Just look at him, Johnathan. He's perfect.” She said with adoration in her voice.

“Martha, he just fell from space inside something no one has seen before.” A male voice said from not far away.

“He's a gift from the heavens.” Martha said and hugged me close.

“Yeah, yeah. I know that tone of voice.” Johnathan said, sounding defeated. “Be careful crawling out of the crater.”

Martha held me as she did as he asked and then Johnathan dragged a chain down into the crater and the hook fit right into one of the support braces, as if it had been designed for it.

“Huh. It fits.” Johnathan said, clearly surprised, and went back up to the truck.

I watched as he hooked an old-style block and tackle to the bumper of a beat up red truck. He grabbed the much smaller chain that worked the internal pulley and gear system and started pulling on it, easily shifting the weight of the light probe. It was made of space-age material from an advanced planet and was soon dragged back along the trench it had made when landing and up onto the road.

Johnathan moved the block and tackle to the back of the truck's cargo bed and then dragged the mostly intact probe ship up into the bed. He covered it in a tarp and then helped Martha into the passenger side and buckled her in.

“You know we're going to have trouble explaining him.” Johnathan warned her.

“A distant cousin from out of state gave birth and unfortunately passed away. We generously accepted custody without asking questions or knowing who the mother was. We also refused any monetary compensation to hide the shame the unmarried birth would cause the family.” Martha lied, making up a believable story on the spot.

Johnathan's mouth dropped open after hearing that and I wasn't far behind him.

Martha preened under both our gazes. “We need to go before anyone comes out here looking for something.”

Johnathan closed his mouth. “Right. Just a second.” He said and grabbed a shovel before he ran back over to the crater. He picked one of the larger rocks he didn't recognize with the shovel, moved back quite a bit, and then swung the shovel hard at the center of the impact crater.

A good sized intent was left and it was a great way to throw off the proof that there had been something else that landed. He then used the shovel to erase the footprints where both he and Martha had walked in the loose dirt and backed up out of the trench. He tossed the shovel into the back of the truck and hopped into the driver's seat. We sped off back to the farm long before anyone else showed up.

The next day, to my relief, it was explained in the newspaper and on the news as a rare meteor fall. The video showed the rock Johnathan had planted being cracked open by scientists at the local university and inside was a slightly glowing green crystal-like rock.

I mentally cursed at them having gathered a small pile of them from the crash site and their pledge to send them across the country to other experts to analyze and experiment with them. There was nothing I could do about it, so I had to let it go for now. I would need to wait until I was older to track them down and transfigure them from deadly Kryptonite into something else.

My life as the new son of Martha and Johnathan Kent, newly christened and baptized as Clark Johnathan Kent, was as normal of a one as I could manage. Since I was well aware of the effects that super strength had on a body while using it, I never once destroyed a toy, broke the table when patting it asking for food, or cried at night to keep my new parents awake.

Johnathan always gave me odd looks when Martha wasn't looking, as if he knew I was intentionally not causing them problems. I didn't bother telling him that I was doing my best to make their roles as parents as easy as possible, since he spent so much time outside and tending to the fields. My sole focus was keeping my mother Martha happy.

It wasn't until I was two years old, my crash date being listed as my birthday, that I overheard Martha whispering to Johnathan about her worry that I wasn't talking yet. Since I didn't want her disappointed with me, I toddled into the living room on my little baby legs and right over to her.

“Ma.” I said and lifted my arms.

Martha gasped and scooped me up into her arms. “Johnathan! I'm Clark's first word!”

Johnathan pretended to be happy about that and gave me a pointed look.

“Ma.” I said and grinned at her. “Ma ma ma ma.”

Martha laughed and hugged me close as she peppered my face with kisses. “I think someone deserves a cookie!”

“MA!” I said happily and she carried me into the kitchen to give me a chocolate chip cookie. I looked over her shoulder and saw Johnathan's frown as he looked at me. I waved at him and Martha turned to look, only for Johnathan's face to change to a smile.

“Clark? Can you say Da?” Martha asked me.

Since I was being a scamp anyway, I pretended to try. “D.... d... d...”

“Come on, honey! You can do it! Say Da! Daaaa!” Martha encouraged me.

“D... d...” I frowned slightly and then smiled. “John!”

Martha looked shocked for a second and then burst out laughing. Johnathan slapped a hand over his own face and groaned, making Martha laugh even more.