"What you do with your reincarnations is a completely personal matter. The System does not judge those who are good or evil. If you earn a Skill, it is yours to do with as you wish. There will come a time when you will be confronted with a choice; to either reveal that you are more than you appear to be or let others suffer. It is up to you whether the risk of exposing yourself is worth the suffering of others."

- Arthur McMillon, 9th-grade teacher at Western Regional High School

Mom carries me out of the hospital much later in the afternoon than originally planned due to my oversleeping and the doctor running some additional tests. Despite being given a clean bill of health by the doctor I can feel how Mom holds me slightly tighter than normal. This in turn makes me feel guilty for adding to her worries. The one thing I thought I could guarantee for my new parents was an easy childhood. No stupid arguments or needless stress while I grow up, but it seems like I have failed already. The parking lot is mostly empty and Dad has pulled the red SUV to the entrance. I am placed in the backward-facing car seat where Mom watches me strap myself in. She double-checks the clasps are locked in before kissing me on the forehead and getting into the passenger seat.

I stare out the car window as we pass through Smallville. Banners are hanging across the streets in yellow and red while people in the streets wave small yellow and red flags cheering. Dad rolls down the window and gives a cheer before turning to Mom "Looks like Smallville won the homecoming game again." It only takes me a moment to recognize what this means. Today is the day Clark arrives in a shower of destruction, and the Kents are in a car driving home just like in the show. What are the odds of Martha and Jonathan Kent being in this exact situation with all the changes having a son has had on their schedule? I may be present and we may be in a different car, but it looks like fate has decided that Clark belongs with the Kents. We are fifteen minutes outside of Smallville proper when the meteors begin to fall all around us. Having watched and re-watched the meteor shower multiple times I assumed I had a good idea what experiencing the meteor shower would be like.

Oh how wrong I was. The meteors fall screaming to the ground loud enough that I can barely hear myself think. The whole earth shakes on the impact of even a single meteor. Dirt is flying through the air and raining down around us. Dad tries to continue driving, but a losing battle suddenly ends when a meteor impacts only a few car lengths from us. Mom is screaming as the car flips. I reach out to hold onto the straps of my car seat as tightly as possible while squeezing my eyes shut. The car rolls for what feels like forever when we finally come to a stop upside down. My ears are ringing and I can just make out Mom calling my name. In a daze, I unclench my hands and just hang upside down. Mom and Dad scramble out of the car and retrieve me in less than a minute after the earth stops shaking. We are standing by the side of the road looking around at the destruction when a naked boy approaches us from where the meteor impacted the side of the road. Mom and Dad do not notice him at first, but when I wave and say "Hi" they both turn from the road and see him.

Clark waves back and smiles. Mom and Dad exchange a glance before Mom crouches down next to Clark "Are you ok?" Clark, of course, does not understand a word, but it is easy to see that he is fine. There is not a spec of dirt on him other than on his feet. After a few seconds of no answer, Mom continues "Where are your parents?" Another few seconds pass, and Mom turns to Dad and shrugs at a loss.

"Why don't we take a look along the direction he came from?" Dad asks.

Mom stands up and offers Clark a hand, which he gladly grabs onto. We walk along a deep furrow left behind by Clark's ship for about thirty feet. Meanwhile, Mom and Dad are talking about Clark and what they are going to do if they can't find his parents. They both agree to take care of him till his parents can be found. When we reach thirty feet from the road there is a small crater about the size of a small truck, and inside we see Clark's ship. The sleek black metallic object is half buried in the dirt and is only around six feet long and two feet tall. Mom and Dad take a moment to take this in before Mom says "I don't think we are going to be able to find his parents."

Dad looks from Mom to Clark then to the ship, before deciding with a sigh. "Let's get back to the road. Hopefully, someone will pass by and we can get a ride home."

When we reach the road Dad sees a stopped car in the distance and jogs off to see if we can hitch a ride. Mom, Clark, and I stay on the side of the road and, after I start to squirm, Mom puts me down next to Clark. Now that I am on his level and we are not moving around as much I take a moment to inspect Clark. He is the spitting image of the actor who played him in the pilot. He was silent to an almost eerie degree and seemed to be happy doing just about anything as long as he was moving around. I guess I would want to move around too if I had been stuck in a pod for who knows how long. Mom had stopped holding his hand at some point and Clark had crouched down to inspect some insect crawling around on the ground. I looked out in the direction Dad had gone to see that he had only just made it to the blue pickup in the distance and that we would still have a few moments before he came back. I take this time to begin project Make Sure Clark is Adopted by the Kents. I mentally pat myself on the back at how amazing my naming sense is. I walk across the two feet separating Clark from me and introduce myself when he looks up "Hi, I'm Jason, what's your name?". I can feel Mom watching from on high. Clark does not respond but does continue to look at me. My ingenious plan is failing at the first step. I wave at him and he waves back. Ok, monkey see monkey do. I can work with this. I point at myself "Jason." Then I point at him. He tilts his head. I point at myself again and say "Jason".

This time when I point at him he says "Jason."

I shake my head "No that's my name." This time I point with both hands at my head and repeat my name. He just responds by pointing at me and repeating my name. I clap my hands as if I was excited and nod my head. Well, at least he knows my name now. Dad pulls up and quickly ushers everyone into the truck. Luckily the truck is a bench seat, so Mom sits in between me and Clark on the right side of the Car, an arm around each of us. Dad rushes off into the field, drags Clark's ship back to the truck, and loads it onto the back. It took a surprisingly short amount of time for Dad to move that ship, especially considering the whole truck shifting once it was thrown onto the back. It didn't take long for us to be on our way home once again. Thankfully, Mom is holding onto us both when a disheveled and panicked Lionel Luther runs into the middle of the road waving his hands. Dad slams on the brakes and swerves by Lionel. He puts the car in park, jumps out of the car, and rushes over to Lionel. He waves to us briefly before following Lionel into the cornfields. I take a moment to think about the future. Now that Clark is with us I have to decide whether to continue acting young or reveal my maturity. On top of that, should I tell my parents I have powers? I know I am going to have to be honest with Clark so Mom and Dad finding out seems kind of inevitable. Unless I start telling the future, there is really nothing to prove that I have powers. Maybe I just reveal my abilities as I get them? It works for Clark... Now that I have my Psi Pool, I will need to prioritize which abilities will be important going forward. What do I want to do in this life? My goals so far have been short-term, but my life will continue after high school. If I am going to purchase abilities they need to be usable outside of just helping Clark. Since I have Psi Pool committing in that direction would be the easiest. There are plenty of mind readers and mind controllers out there in the DC universe and I cannot let any of them get ahold of my memories. I cannot assume that the first mind reader will come through Smallville after Clark and I get to high school, so I will have to purchase something to defend my mind sooner rather than later.

-Exchange

- Search: Psionic Mind Defense

- Mind Blank (Psionic Ability): Completely separate your mind from the psionic plane. The user will be completely immune to all mental influences and intrusions for as long as the ability is active. Warning: The user will be unable to use any psionic abilities while active. Overuse may result in feelings of isolation, paranoia, and hallucinations. Cost: 50 Experience

- Mind Bunker (Psionic Augment Enhancement): The boundaries of the user's Memory Library become psionic walls to prevent influence and intrusion. Psionic walls need to be maintained with psionic energy and will fail if completely depleted. Any actions taken to breach the psionic walls by foreign minds will result in a drain on psionic energy stores. Cost: 100 Experience

-Mind Fortress (Psionic Augment): Expand the user's Mind Library to include psionic walls, traps, barracks, empty rooms, weapons, and escape routes. All psionic constructs need to be maintained with psionic energy or become inactive. Any actions taken to breach the psionic walls by foreign minds will result in a drain on psionic energy stores. Warning: Using escape routes will result in the user's mind being whole in the psionic plane. Spending too long disembodied in the psionic plane may result in mind dissolution. Cost: 1000 Experience

...

Well, I know what I want to defend my mind. It costs a lot, but depending on what my next quest reward is it might be affordable. Mind Bunker is a good backup. It just seems to be a small upgrade to Mind Bunker, which makes the enhancement description self-evident. On the other hand, I am not touching Mind Blank with a ten-foot pole. What the fuck is that warning! May result in isolation, paranoia, and hallucinations... More like may drive the user insane. No wonder it is so cheap, it's for those too desperate to be able to afford anything else, and need an immediate solution. Note to self, not all abilities are positive; just because The System offered the ability does not mean it is good. Moving on from that, defending my mind will not help me introduce the fact I have abilities to my family. Out of all the abilities I had perused over the last year, Telekinesis seems to be pretty easy to prove and is not too scary. It will also be useful no matter what I end up doing and will give me a tool to help around the farm beyond just being a farmhand. In a moment of reflection, it looks like I just gave myself a bunch of new goals to work toward.

1. Protect my mind from intrusion and outside influence.

2. Slowly reveal my maturity.

3. Figure out what I want to do with my life after high school.

4. Reveal my abilities, as I obtain them, to my family without scaring them too much.

Not too complicated although figuring out what I want to do after high school is long-term. I will not have to worry about that till I am making ability choices that aren't useful in everyday life. I do not see that happening for quite a bit at my current rate of experience gathering. Mom has been fussing over Clark and me this entire time, occasionally sending worried glances to where Dad ran off into the cornfield. I realize that Dad is back when Mom picks Clark and me up and scoots over to the middle of the bench to make room for Lionel and an unconscious Lex. Dad jumps in the driver's seat and says "We are heading back to the hospital." Dad drove as fast as he could while avoiding any debris and craters in the road. At one point Lionel asks Dad to speed up, but Dad says that he is going as fast as he can and continues driving. Lex wakes up for a brief moment, Clark waves at him, and Lex smiles slightly before passing out once again.