That wraps up Season 1 for Clark. Pretty damn happy with how this game has gone, and I'm looking forward to some serious shenanigans going down in Season 2.
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Steam rises up from the sizzling skillet, the smell of onions and peppers wafting toward my nose. Stirring the chopped vegetables until I'm satisfied, I scoop them up with a spatula, set them aside on a plate lined with a paper towel to soak up any excess oil, then crack open two eggs into the pan.
Normally I'm on the job before I get a chance to make much of anything, but Lois did insist that I take the day off. That gives me the chance to brush up a little on my cooking.
"Mmm, that smells delicious," says Lois, stretching as she comes out of the bedroom, unkempt hair spilling in tangles down past her shoulders over the oversized T-shirt she's wearing in lieu of pajamas.
"I hope you don't mind me raiding your refrigerator," I say as I whip the eggs into a yellowy mass that slowly begins to solidify in the skillet. "I figure if I'm not doing anything else today, I can at least make breakfast."
"And how are you feeling?" she asks as she comes up behind me and puts her arms around me.
"Like my entire body is one big bruise," I admit. "Slowly puttering around the kitchen is about the best I can manage-- even if something does come up, I probably won't be able to spring into action without falling on my face."
I turn around and look at her, those one-in-a-billion violet eyes glittering in the morning light. Lois likes to put out a hard-edged, cynical, take-no-guff persona to the world, but just beyond that is one of the most deeply caring and good-hearted people I've ever met. And when she smiles, not just grinning or smirking but is genuinely happy, my God, it's stunning.
"I'll get some coffee going," she says, breaking the embrace to reach for a can of grounds. "We could both probably use a little caffeine this morning."
"Yeah," I chuckle. "Neither one of us got much sleep."
Lois's smile starts to fade a little, and I see some real concern on her face.
"About that," she says, "How, um....how do you feel about, y'know....about last night?"
I don't think I've ever seen her like this, so....uncertain of herself. She's always been the dauntless and daring Lois Lane, ready to take on the world at a moment's notice-- I often think in another life, she'd be Indiana Jones if she'd taken up archaeology instead of journalism. That persona of hers is usually just as bulletproof as I am. So to see her letting herself be, well, vulnerable like that, it catches me off guard.
"Well," I say, trying to lighten the mood, "for starters, I feel like I owe you a new bed."
She thumps me on the arm.
"Hey, that was a team effort," she says, meeting banter with banter. "But I'm serious, Clark. I think, I don't know.....maybe we moved too fast?"
I take a moment to consider.
"I know what you mean," I say, turning away from the oven, "We did kind of go from zero to sixty all at once...."
"Sure, I mean, we just....got caught up in the moment," she says, looking away. "Ran headlong into things without a care in the world."
".....yeah.....but, well.....do you....do you regret it?"
"......do you?"
As the eggs begin to burn and smoke on the skillet, I turn off the oven and look at her.
"Lois, I've...I've never met anyone like you," I hear myself beginning to gush. "Before I met you, I was hopping around from city to city, changing jobs, changing names, afraid of myself, and afraid of what people would think of me. You were the first person, apart from my Mom and Dad, who could see what I am and what I can do, and wasn't afraid. You inspired me to show the world what I can do, to help people on a bigger scale than I could have ever imagined. You've been there to push me when nobody believed in me, not even myself. And even if I couldn't do even a hundredth of what I can, you'd still make me feel like a Superman. So....do I regret being with you? Not for a second."
Lois wipes away a tear, and gives me a smile that warms me like the heart of the sun.
"Good to hear, Smallville," she says, pulling me close. "That saves me from having to give a similar speech about you."
We share a long, deep kiss, one that lasts until we're interrupted by the shrill beeping of her smoke alarm.
"The eggs!" I exclaim as I turn back to our now-smoldering breakfast. "Oh, hell....."
Lois laughs as I fuss with the pan, smothering the smoke with a lid and trying to fan some fresh air towards the smoke detector.
"Well, there's always a bowl of cereal," she says, pouring herself a cup of coffee and sitting down on the couch. "Any rate, I don't think you'll have much of an appetite for long. Lex Luthor's giving a press conference on GNN."
My expression sours. I still owe him a visit in regards to his part in the events that led to the Toyman AI.
"What's he up to?" I ask, frowning as she turns on the TV and changes the channel to the image of a skinny, red-haired young man with an insufferable look of self-satisfaction on his face.
"Who knows," she says, "but there might be a story in it. Count yourself lucky; Perry was going to have you cover the event in person, but since you're out sick today, he's got Troupe on it."
She turns up the volume, just as Luthor is about to begin his speech.
"Ladies and gentlemen, thank you, ah, thank you for joining me this morning," Lex Luthor said, shifting back and forth uncomfortably at his podium as dozens of cameras pointed at him. "I, erm, I know there are plenty of more sensational stories you could be covering right now, but, ah, I hope that what I'm going to show you today will make up for the lack of explosions and planetary danger."
There was a dull murmur of half-hearted chuckles from the press in attendance. With his attempt at levity not landing the way he had hoped, Lex went right into his speech.
"We live in uncertain times," he began, "times when we have begun to question the validity of our institutions, the balance of power, and indeed, our place in the world and the universe at large. Just a few short months ago, most of us believed that if there was any sort of supreme power watching over us, it was off and away in some abstract plane, like Heaven or Asgard or the peak of Olympus. Now, though? Now supreme power flies around right over our heads, swooping by in little red capes or swinging on a spider web. When these impossible people, these gods and monsters, walk among us, it's easy, easy to feel powerless.....and if history has taught us anything, it's that there is nothing that can turn good people to acts of desperation, anger, and cruelty faster than feeling powerless....."
Luthor's expression darkened, and his gaze lowered, stewing for a moment in his own thoughts. Then, as if someone had flipped a switch, he snapped back to life, with all the energy of an old-timey carnival barker.
"BUT! You are not powerless, ladies and gentlemen," he said. "In the face of Men of Steel and Scarlet Speedsters, we must not forget our own super-powers, the ones that set us above the other 8.7 million species of life on this planet and made us masters of our domain: knowledge. Imagination. Ingenuity. Technology. The gifts bestowed upon us, according to myth, by the titan Prometheus, the trickster who stole fire from the gods and gave it to the people. With that, the Greeks became the bedrock of philosophy, of democracy, of society and civilization for thousands of years, while their gods? They're only relevant as museum pieces these days."
Feeling like he had found his proverbial groove, Luthor leaned in to his podium, almost conspiratorially.
"I have a secret to share with you, folks," he said, looking left and right in a mock gesture as if to make sure no one else was listening in. "On paper, about seven thousand people work in the LexCorp Tower on any given day. But the truth is, for the last two months? Nobody has been working at LexCorp. Oh, they're still being employed, don't worry, but I've been running an experiment with a new product that's taken care of their work for them. Every number-cruncher in accounting, every code-monkey and script-kiddie, every lab assistant and every engineer, even down to the janitors, has been allowed to take time off, knowing their work is being handled. My only catch is that they spend time with their families, pursue their personal passions, do whatever they want so they are objectively better people than when my little experiment began. And that they didn't violate the non-disclosure agreement they signed, of course."
The press began to murmur again, confused as to how this was possible.
"And how did I do it?" he asks, again dripping with corny showmanship. "How did I continue to run a multi-billion-dollar international corporation without anyone actually working, and without people noticing? Well, just like Prometheus, I stole fire from Olympus.....and I plan on giving it to the people."
Behind him, a screen lowered down from the ceiling, displaying images of the various smartphones, tablets, headsets, laptops, and countless other home, commercial, and military electronics designed by LexCorp.
"In the wake of the disaster involving the rogue 'Toyman' AI, I realize that many have low confidence in the viability of artificial intelligence," he said, addressing the concern before it could be raised, "but trust me when I say this will put any digital assistant, any functionary bot program, any top-grade supercomputer to absolute shame. Fast, smart, and so user-friendly it could be used by a kindergartner, and so effective that said kindergartner could have a PhD level education before reaching junior high. Constantly learning and updating itself, it is always going to be a step ahead of black-hat hackers and cyber-criminals, so your data will always be secure and private. Picosecond response times, not just gigabytes or terabytes or even petabytes of storage capacity, but peta-petabytes. Adaptive learning patterns that will adjust to each individual user, so it won't just give you access to, say, the works of Einstein, it will work with you to help you begin to think like Einstein."
The video presentation ended, displaying a simple, minimalist logo, of three circles connected by zig-zagging beams of light.
"This, ladies and gentlemen, is the promise of Prometheus himself," Luthor said. "This is fire to the people, this is the keys to Olympus, right in the palm of your hands. And it is available, for free, on every LexCorp device-- and, ah, don't go telling everyone, but I may have made it compatible with all of our competitors as well. Say hello, ladies and gentlemen....."
".....to Brainiac."
The X-Men movies are like the Simpsons of superhero movies. They were groundbreaking a couple of decades ago, but now they just kind of hang around without any real reaction from audiences beyond "Oh yeah, they're still making that. Huh."
With TMNT I flat-out never had an interest in until, oddly enough, the Nickelodeon cartoon from just a few years ago. I think because I really didn't quite figure out what their thing was beyond being radical party dudes, and saw all four of them as interchangeable. Catching the Nick cartoon on a lazy afternoon actually laid out their personalities plainly, and I got intrigued enough to read some issues of the IDW run. So I've been more interested since, though I still know barely anything about the lore.
Didn't see this earlier, but I fucking loved the 2012 Nick version of TMNT. Hands-down my favorite takes on Leo and Donny, writers who were clearly big fans of the franchise but weren't bogged down by it so they could still do their own thing, and a tone that made it not just a great TMNT show, but also a great spiritual successor to Teen Titans (and not just because the guy who voiced Mikey was also Beast Boy).
Also, the mini-series in the final season with Miyamoto Usagi is probably the closest we're ever gonna get to a legit Usagi Yojimbo series, so it gets some major love for that.
In regards to Bruces and Andys most recent post:
I can neither confirm nor deny that that was our inspiration.
I could never get into the sentai genre myself, but if we're talking suitimation and tokusatsu effects, ain't nobody can step to the realest mothafucka:
Tommy is the original Gary Stu and a garbage character who we've been forced to endure because Jason David Frank was the first actor to realize that there was money to be made off the nostalgia. /hottake
Amendment: Tommy was an incredible villain and a character whose arc was exhausted the second he lost his powers. Bringing him back as the White Ranger was PR's jumping-the-shark.
It always made me mad that Jason got screwed over for Tommy, letting a former arch-enemy take over the team. It's like whenever Magneto does a face-turn and everyone's just okay with him leading the X-Men despite all those times he tried to kill them. Meanwhile ya boy in the T-Rex has been loyal since day one and suddenly he's relegated to sidekick duty. I call bullshit.
#RedRanger4Life
"Clark? Are you okay, hun?"
"....I had a bad dream, Mama. I can't sleep."
"It's okay, Clark. It was just a dream."
"But it was....it was so real, Mama. There were people crying and screaming, and everything was on fire. I heard voices talking to me, and I couldn't understand them. I was so scared, and they were just.....sad. It was the end of the world, Ma."
"Well, that does sound pretty scary. But it's still just a dream, Clark. It's not the end of the world. Your daddy and I are fine, nobody's hurt, everything's okay."
"Okay, but....but can you stay here for just a little bit. At least until I fall asleep?"
"Of course, hun. I'll be right here as long as you need me."
"....thanks, Mama. Love you."
"Love you too, Clark. And don't you worry. The world isn't going anywhere."
"Fools, damned fools," he curses. "I could have stopped this, I could have saved us all, if they'd have just listened--.....too late now, far too late."
I've had this nightmare before. I'm being held in someone's arms, gently rocking me to try and soothe me as I cry out in confusion and fear. There's so much noise-- thunderclaps and earthquakes, the ground beneath us trembling. Dust and smoke chokes the air. Fire scorches the land and scars the sky.
It's the end of the world.
I've heard the voices before, desperate and angry and sad. I've only ever heard them speaking in babble, a language I could never hope to understand.
Now, I can grasp every word.
"We knew the Council may not want to hear you, Jor," says the voice of the person holding me, a woman with bright blue eyes. "Even with the evidence staring them in the face, one can't expect to simply uproot a hundred thousand years of tradition. And after the devastation brought about by the war with Zod...."
"Zod," the man, dark-haired with a short beard, spits the name out like poison. "I can't believe I ever trusted him, thought he could help us. I let him blind me with flattery, and then he led us all to this ruin. The Underverse fissures, the Doomsday Plague, the abduction of Kandor......it's almost obscene that he and his followers will outlive us all."
"Eternity in the Phantom Zone is hardly 'living,' Jor," says the woman, stroking my forehead with her finger. "And at the very least, Kal and Kara will live on. There's still hope in that."
"Yes," the man says, stepping toward me and looking down on me with a weak smile. "There is at least that."
"Attention, says a third voice, seemingly from nowhere, "the Star Drive reactor is charged, life support systems and guidance are nominal, and target coordinates have been set. Chances of a successful evacuation are currently 91.338% but dropping quickly; I recommend we begin the evacuation process now."
"Thank you, Kelex," the man says, taking me from the woman's arms and walking me into a large domed room. "You're right; the longer we delay, the worse Kal's chances are."
He holds me up, and I see tears in his eyes.
"I'm so sorry, my son," he says. "I wish upon Rao and all the stars that I could have done more, that your mother and I could have joined you. But I can at least save you...my boy, my son.....the last son of the House of El. The last son of Krypton."
The ground shakes violently, and out of fear and confusion, I begin to cry again.
"This is the end, Kal," he says as I feel a force begin to lift me away toward a bright light. "It is my time, your mother's time, our world's time, to join our ancestors in infinity. But it is not your time, my son.
It is not your time......"
My senses slowly return to me, a hot and sharp wind beating against me, nearly knocking me off my feet, rain pelting down in sheets. I'm stumbling through sand and gravel, soaked to the bone, salt water washing up at my ankles.
There are sirens going off in the distance.
I begin to realize how tired I am, and how much pain I'm in. Every inch of my body feels bruised and beaten, muscles aching, bones creaking. The only reason I'm not face-down in the dirt is that it genuinely hadn't occurred to me to fall over.
My memory starts to rush back to me.
It was the end of the world.
.....and then, it wasn't.
"I'm.....I'm alive," I realize. "I'm okay........how am I okay?"
Last thing I remember, the Toyman had launched a missile toward Gotham City, carrying a nuclear warhead. I'd managed to steer the missile out over the ocean, but couldn't get away from the blast. I'd accepted that, was okay with what that meant, had made my peace.
I screamed, and my lungs filled with fire.
I burned, and I choked.
I fell.
I drowned.
.....and I lived.
I can't get my head around it. If I can survive something like that.....what does that mean? I've been hurt before, sure, but if even a nuclear blast can't put me down for good......what can?
As shocking of a realization as that is, I can't dwell on it for long, as my thoughts quickly turn to how tired I am. More than anything, I just want to lie down and sleep.
Perched on a rooftop, however, looking down at me, is my former enemy from earlier tonight, the Batman. Lord knows how he was able to find me, but I feel like I should probably say something to him before I meet up with Lois and go home.
I don't push off into the air so much as I begin to drift, like a balloon, before touching down on the rooftop in front of him. His mask has come off, and I swear, I must still not be all there yet.....because I swear, he looks for all the world like Bruce Wayne.
"I, erm, I know we've still got plenty of differences to work out," I say, still in something of a daze, "but I gotta tell ya, I don't think I've got it in me to go another twelve rounds. Is there anywhere around here where we can grab a cup of coffee and just talk things over?"
Something a bit different.
As a kid, growing up who was your favourite Superhero(es)?
I'm sorry but for me:
For anyone to claim they aren't Superheroes... they have secret identities, have an arch nemesis with mind control powers and go around the world using advanced technology to save people.
I wasn't exposed to a lot of Superhero culture as a kid, no comic book stores near me. I can't remember ever actually watching Spider-Man on TV for years and years. These were the heroes I grew up with, something with the spaceships/rockets and the way they operated always interested me.
I guess child me was destined to become a nerd.
I actually didn't get into superheroes proper until I was in high school, apart from the occasional Spider-Man comic (and even then, it was usually only if it had Venom in it). However, if we're just expanding the definition of superhero to include any heroic protagonist with superhuman abilities who saves the world from evil, then this was my gateway drug which eventually got me into comics (and gaming):
Kent Farm
Smallville, Kansas,
Ten Years Ago
"I....I don't understand...." I stammer, suddenly finding it hard to stay on my feet. "I c-...I can't be a....an...."
"You're our son," says Pa, putting a hand on my shoulder to steady me. "You're the brightest boy in your class, you're the first to volunteer when someone in town needs a hand, and you're always there for Pete and Lana when you need them. You're everything your mother and I could have ever hoped you'd be. None of that's changed, Clark."
"All of it's changed!" I blurt out, on the verge of tears. "I--I know I've always been different, but.....now you're telling me I'm not even human? I'm not even from this planet?!"
"It doesn't matter where you're from, son," he insists.
"I'm not your son!"
Pa is stunned for a second, actually takes a step back, then furrows his brow and steps forward to hug me.
"Yes you are," he says. "I don't give a damn if you're from the other side of the universe, or a million years in the future, or the seventh circle of Hell itself. That's not what makes who who you are. I've watched you grow up from before you could even speak. I've watched you struggle with the things you can do. And I've seen you choose to do right, again and again. That's what matters, Clark. You are who you choose to be. And since the day me and Martha found you in that pod, we chose to be your Ma and Pa. And we're never gonna choose otherwise."
I feel my chest start to heave, my eyes stinging with tears.
"...what am I gonna do?" I say between sobs. "I...I can't just go to school and get a job and....and spend the whole time knowing I'm not like them.....it's driving me crazy.....and now.....now I know I'm not.....Dad....what am I gonna do?"
He ruffles my hair and hugs me harder.
"I know it's something every parent tells their kid," he says with a weak chuckle, "that they can do anything, but hell, I think you actually can. I've never been the kind to believe in things like fate, or destiny, or providence. I think it's up to us to make our destiny. But that just makes it matter that much more. I've known you since before you even knew yourself. And I know you're going to choose to do right whenever it matters. Because that's the kind of man I've seen you choose to be."
I sniffle, and turn away to look out at the night sky. The sky over Kansas at night is that deep dark blue, with the occasional vein of purple, that you only see when there's no city lights for miles on all sides. Thousands of stars, some barely visible glints, others bright and powerful fixed points in the heavens, look down on us, casting their light from unfathomable distances away.
"So....somewhere out there," I say, drying my eyes, "there's other people.....other people like me?"
Pa smiles.
"Clark, if I know one thing, it's that there's nobody like you," he says. "But you're right. You even being here means something incredible, something special. It means we're not alone. But you know what else it means?"
"What's that?"
"It means you're not alone, either," he answers. "And you never will be."
Altitude 30,000 Feet
10 Miles from Gotham City (and closing)
Now
"Come on, *rgh!*" I grunt as my arms and back begin to ache, trying to push against a missile going nearly the speed of sound. The fuselage itself isn't much compared to some of the things I've moved in the past, but its velocity is great enough that I can barely make it budge. I don't dare just blast the missile apart, for fear of setting off the warhead over one of Gotham's suburbs. But that second wind I got from Lois seems to finally be wearing off. I've only got one real chance left to change this thing's course, or millions of people are going to die, including Lois....including Batman.....and very likely including myself.
It'd be so easy now to just let go. To fly away, to tell myself that I did all I could do, that I've been running on empty for what feels like ages, and I just didn't have it left in me to stop this thing.
To live another day.
Instead, I make the choice I always do. The same stupid, reckless, bull-headed choice that gets me into trouble just as often as it gets other people out of trouble.
I grit my teeth, and I really put my muscles to work.
"GYYAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!"
With a determined, primal shout, I push as hard as I can, feeling metal creak and bend in my hands. Smoke, and steam, and radioactive fallout wash over me, but I feel the missile starting to change course.
A few seconds later, we're not over Gotham anymore. We're over the ocean, getting further out. The missile keeps trying to correct course, but I keep pushing it back away.
Somewhere in the back of my head, I realize I'm not going to be able to get away from this thing in time. Even if I let go right now, I'll still get caught in the blast.
In the moment, I'm okay with it. This is what I choose to do.
And if this is really it, that's fine. Because in this moment, I'm not alone. Pa's here with me, assuring me as always. Ma's with me, too. And Lana, and Pete, and the whole town of Smallville. And Jimmy, and Perry, and everyone else at the Planet. Hell, even Batman's here with me.
And Lois. Oh God, Lois. If there's one regret I have about this, it's that there wasn't enough time for us. Still, at this moment, you're here in my heart.
It's okay.
"I lo--"
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