/

Three years after birth

After that day all those years ago, I did a practical one-eighty in how I interacted with my parents. If they found it odd that I seemingly changed overnight, they certainly didn't mention it, either chalking it up to me being a baby or they just didn't care as long as I didn't cry at the sight of them any longer. After a few months, I had a strong enough grasp of the language to understand what they were saying, though I never spoke until a few months before my first birthday. They had been ecstatic when I spoke my first word. After they knew I could talk and understand them well enough they promptly started teaching me. It was just basic information but all of it was interesting to me, although admittedly some parts were more interesting than others.

Kryptonian society was based on a very strict caste system much like I remembered ancient India to be like. Unlike ancient India however, the people in our caste system were literally born for their specific caste. As in, our genetic makeup was physically altered to better suit the caste. Oh boy, how you wouldn't believe how surprised I was to find that I was a literal test-tube baby, although to be fair everyone on Krypton was one so I wasn't a freak or anything. No one was born naturally, the egg and sperm were taken from the parents and inseminated in a genesis pod where the baby would then be altered on the genetic level as it matured to ensure optimal results for the specific caste. Unsurprisingly our Caste was the Science Caste.

Also, I found out that my earlier assumption was wrong, I wasn't on a different planet, because technically speaking, I wasn't on a planet to begin with. I was on Argo City, which according to my Dad, had originally been a planet-killing asteroid on a collision course with Krypton a few thousand years ago, but using our advanced technology and seeing an opportunity we slowed it down and changed its trajectory so that it got stuck in our gravity well.

They had effectively created a fifth moon, a very metal, and mineral-rich moon. A mining colony was quickly established and the asteroid was stripped of all the resources we could find, but that took time, and time let the small pitiful little colony grow into the sprawling metropolis it was today, with an immense dome over its entirety to keep out the harsh vacuum of space.

I stared up in wonder at the ‘sky’ above me. Up above and taking up most of my vision was Krypton, and on the ‘horizon’, I could see all four of its accompanying moons. The view was so different from earth's that I always felt compelled to stare at the ‘sky’ whenever I got the chance.

"Eat your food before it gets cold." My mother scolded me, bringing me back down to Argo. We had gone out to a nearby park to have a picnic.

Glancing down at my lap I saw that my plate was still full, in fact, I hadn't even touched it. Admittedly it wasn't even that I was too distracted to eat, the food just really looked unappealing. My mother apparently thought it would be a great time to feed me something new. Some sort of meat dish, and while it smelled good, it looked like a steak and a sponge had a child...that was also a vibrant shade of blue.

Desperately looking to buy more time to build up my courage to try the weird meat. I pointed up at the sky. "Dad! Why is that one different?" I was pointing at one of the moons. This one, unlike the others, looked as if it had been shattered, but its own gravity had kept it together enough for it to still resemble the moon it had once been.

Dad's face, as he stared at the shattered moon, was one I recognized as his thinking face. His jaw was set firmly and his eyes narrowed in thought, he took a deep breath before looking at me. He studied me briefly before speaking, his shoulders slumping and he sighed. "I suppose now is as good a time as any. You were bound to find out eventually on your own, you’re too curious not to." He chuckled mirthlessly, his eyes once more looking at the shattered moon. "One hundred and seven years ago the moon known as Wegthor had a colony of nearly seven hundred thousand. On that lunar colony was a scientist by the name of Jax-Ur. He was brilliant, in fact he and your uncle Jor were said to be tied for the spot of Head Scientist."

"What?" I stared at him in confusion, my mind trying to make sense of that tidbit. Hesitantly I asked, "How old is uncle Jor?"

His somber mood quickly faded as he took in my confused expression, he looked at me with some amusement in his eyes "One-hundred thirty six years old."

I stared at him in shock, my eyes felt like they might pop out if I opened them any wider. "Then how old are you guys!?" I glanced at both of my parents.

"One hundred ninety-eight." My father was smiling as he said it.

My head whipped around to look at my Mom. Mentally pleading with her to give a more sane answer.

She raised one brow at my stare, mirth clearly dancing in her eyes as she answered "Two Hundred Seventeen."

All I could do was stare at them agape, my mouth opening and closing without any sound. They had to have been pulling my leg right? Even now, they both looked hardly a day over thirty, how could they possibly be that ancient?

"How?" I was only able to utter that one word with how shocked I was.

Both my parents looked at each other for a moment and with a single nod they turned back towards me and raised their right hands with the back of their hands facing me. At first nothing seemed to happen, then suddenly color started to bloom to life on the back of their hands. After a few moments the shifting colors finally stabilized, leaving behind a rather familiar pattern. The house of El crest now rested on their skin. The one on my mom's hand was blue on a gold background, Dads was red on a gold background.

Dad explained. "When a Kryptonian is in the Genesis chamber our genetics are altered, one of those alterations is the ability to form and control organic nanites within our bodies. They help us in almost every aspect of daily life from more efficiently breaking down foods, all the way to doing maintenance on our bodies, whether it be boosting our immune systems or healing damage. The last part is especially important since the nanites can slow cell decay, leading to much longer and healthier lives."

Taking in the information I stared down at my hands in a new light, flexing them experimentally as if having the knowledge would suddenly make them feel differently than they had yesterday. "So I have these...nanites as well then?" I glanced back up at my parents, they both nodded.

This time it was my mother who spoke. "All Kryptonians have them, however almost everything besides their automated functions are deactivated until they come into contact with a unique virus which specifically targets and activates the nanites. Only once a Kryptonian successfully finishes their Trials will they be exposed to the virus."

"But why aren't we allowed to have it fully active from birth? It sounds like it would be best to have it at a younger age. And why are the crests different colors?" I was already imagining all the things the nanites might be able to do.

Mom seemed to find my questions funny as she laughed, "I asked those very same questions when I found out about the nanites. The answer to it is quite simple, you see while the nanites are a great boon to have, they can also be a great detriment if used irresponsibly. In the early days when the nanites were first introduced they were active from the start and it led to some complications as children would accidentally use their nanites without even realizing it or they would use them irresponsibly, in some cases the results were lethal. So it was decided that only those deemed responsible enough would be able to manually control the nanites. As for your second question, the colors signify your status in the House, blue is for those like me who were brought into the house through marriage or adoption, and red for those like you and your father who were born into the house. Or to put it simply, blue for name, red for blood."

I was gonna ask more questions when my Dad interrupted me. "We can talk about this in greater detail later. I believe we were talking about Wegthor before we got off topic?" Seeing my nod he continued with a sigh. "As I was saying earlier, Jax-Ur was a brilliant scientist. He was always pushing the boundaries of what we thought was scientifically possible. Eventually, he started to wander to more forbidden topics, one of them being interstellar travel which has been banned from being studied for more than ten thousand years. In secret, he had developed a prototype FTL drive, and while he was on Krypton attending a meeting, something went wrong with the drive. The result was an explosion so big it shattered Wegthor, killing everyone in the colony, my parents; your grandparents among them. Jax-Ur, seeing what he had done, gave himself up. He was actually the first person to be sentenced to the Phantom Zone."

"Phantom Zone?" I knew what it was, but they didn't know that, besides, my information on the topic pretty much started and ended at ‘Space Prison’.

"Jor was tasked with finding a better alternative to storing dangerous criminals, and in typical Jor fashion, he went above and beyond expectations." I listened in rapt attention as my father explained the history of the Phantom Zones creation, not even realizing in my distraction that I had popped a bite of the mystery meat in my mouth.

I blinked incredulously at the plate in my lap. The blue meat had a rather pleasant texture to it as it was somehow simultaneously tender like a perfect steak, while its porous structure made it almost explode in your mouth from all the trapped juices. But that wasn't what had caught me off guard.

'It tasted like...cotton candy?'

Four years after birth

Now four years old I found myself sitting in mom's lap as she brushed my hair. Apparently today we were expecting a guest and Mom wanted me to look my best, for some reason she really liked to brush my hair by hand instead of letting Kelex do it like most Kryptonian mothers would, she almost seemed to take pride in my hair, in fact, I think she liked my hair more than I did. But I certainly wasn't complaining as I found the action very soothing and it made me love her all the more. I wasn’t a very tactile person by nature even in the Before, but she somehow managed to make something like this a very welcome thing.

"Momma?"

"Hmm? Yes, dear?"

"Can I go to my room?"

My mother sighed good-naturedly and stopped her brushing, she lightly nudged me out of her lap. "Fine but you better come down for dinner this time young lady. You understand we're having a guest?"

"Mhmm!" I grinned at her as I ran out of the living room. Pausing in the hallway I turned and ran back into the living room and hugged her tightly, pressing my face into her legs, as I was still rather small. "Love you Mom!"

She snorted, "Love you too sweetie, but I still expect you to be down here on time for dinner." I quickly ran out of the room, slightly red-faced at being caught so easily. I heard her voice ring down the hall, "And don't forget to get dressed this time! I want you to make a better first impression than the last time we had a guest!"

When I got to my room the metal door slid up into the ceiling at my approach. My grin while still present faded somewhat as I entered. Now was time for business, not fun. Although the two weren't mutually exclusive in this case. I quickly made my way towards my bed and picked up the small silvery circlet I had left there earlier in the afternoon, I put it on my head and backed away from the bed, towards the center of the room, and promptly let myself fall backwards on open air as if I was doing a trust fall without a partner. But in this case I did have a partner, just not a conventional one, as the metal floor quickly rose up and caught me conforming to my body and repositioning me so that I was in a reclined position almost like a lazy boy chair.

I grinned brightly, no matter how many times I experienced it, liquid geo never ceased to amaze me. Its possible applications were honestly astounding, but what was even more shocking was when I realized that kryptonians practically never used the material for anything other than shitty throwaway display screens.

Once I realized that little horrifying tidbit, I promptly snapped up practically every ounce of the stuff we had lying around the house and locked myself in my room for the whole day. My parents had entered a few hours later to find me dangling from my foot, held aloft by an amorphous metal tentacle. Which may or may not have ended up grabbing them as well, leaving us all dangling by our feet until my father managed to deactivate it. After a stern lecture from both my parents about the dangers of experimenting without proper safeguards, they helped me work out the kinks with my design.

In my infinite wisdom, I had attempted to use a pre-existing AI matrix originally designed for organizing the minutiae of social events to handle both interpreting and translating my thoughts into something the liquid geo control system could understand. It was a rather hamfisted solution to say the least, hence the tentacular failure.

With some rather heavy guidance from their end, I ended up designing an AI from the ground up, perfectly optimized for controlling the liquid geo. It was a nice family bonding event. As an added bonus, the new AI was smart enough that it would passively improve itself with every use, becoming smoother and more responsive as it learned to better interpret my intentions.

It took a little over a month to do, but the results were worth it as the entire floor of my room was able to turn into anything I needed, even my bed was made of the stuff as it was able to conform to my body better than any mattress I had used in the Before, it certainly beat the tempurpedic bed I had in the Before that's for sure. Admittedly I had gotten the idea for the circlet from a Disney movie I remembered seeing in the Before.

The awesomeness of my room aside, I watched as holographic screens started to appear all around me, each one representing different subjects I had been studying previously or at least marked for future study. Finally after a few seconds I found the one I was wanting, reaching out I pressed it. All the other holograms faded away, leaving the one I pressed to expand into multiple different screens with texts and diagrams scrolling slowly across them. With my kryptonian brain I was able to process the information as it scrolled by, even with the multiple screens.

The kryptonian mind truly was remarkable, if the brain was a nose then being human was like having a stuffy nose your whole life, and being kryptonian was like finally having a clear sinus. The difference was so vast that if I had been reincarnated the other way around I think I might have actually killed myself. To go from this to that? It was like being on adderall all the time except it was actually adderall’s curvier, better looking sibling, and without any of the drawbacks. Yeah, no. Even with only four years of this I couldn’t imagine being able to go back to that. Everything was just so much...more.

In my previous life I hadn't exactly been the most competent of academics, I had been struggling my way through a Computer Science degree by the skin of my teeth when I had died, but now I was confidently tackling Quantum Mechanics, granted it was one of the beginner courses on the subject, but still, it was a subject that Kryptonian children were expected to understand. If that didn't exemplify the difference between the two species, then I wasn't sure what would. Although to be fair, the fear of the planet exploding might have also helped motivate me to learn. I did notice, however, that I did actually enjoy learning new things, which in itself wouldn't have been worth noting, but upon comparing it to the Before, I noticed that there was a large discrepancy between the two sensations. Whether the endorphin rush that came from learning was something inherent in all Kryptonians, or a result of the gene modifications done to the science caste was up for debate.

I spent the next few hours studying various subjects. So absorbed was I in the material that I didn't even notice when the door opened and someone walked into the room.

"Kara?" A voice said, not even a foot behind me.

"AHHHH!" The sudden sense of surprise must have been too much for the poor AI to handle, as the chair I was sitting on exploded, sending globs of liquid geo in all directions leaving me to fall on my ass as the chair was now scattered around the room. Quickly standing up I spun around to face the intruder, the room reflecting my thoughts as tentacles of liquid geo rose up defensively around me. When I saw who it was, the tentacles lost their cohesion and splashed back to the ground like silvery water. Jor-El stood in front of me with a raised brow clearly not amused with the liquid geo that was dripping off his form from being in the chairs blast radius. "Oh Rao! I'm so sorry Uncle Jor!" With a thought, the silvery liquid beaded up and rolled down his form to be reabsorbed into the ground. With that done I promptly tackled him in a hug, "What are you doing here?" While happy to see him, I was also genuinely confused as he lived on Krypton with his wife Lara.

Jor sighed good-naturedly, "It's fine Kara." He chuckled a little, patting my head, earning him a slight glare for messing up my hair. "I should have suspected something was up when your mother was so insistent I be the one to come get you for dinner. Must have been payback for missing the lunch date last week. I'm here to meet up with an old friend who's coming here."

"Wait. Did you say dinner?" A glance out the window proved his statement correct, as I saw the sun setting on the horizon. I gasped and started frantically pushing him towards the door. I didn't even fault his laughter, seeing as how I barely reached his thighs, it must have been quite a comical scene. "Out! Out! Out! I need to change! Mom will kill me if I'm not dressed properly this time!"

With him gone I willed my closet to rise up out of the ground as I quickly shucked off the clothes I had been wearing. I picked out a white skin suit with golden trimming, after stepping into the unibody outfit I pressed the small golden house of El symbols on the cuffs and with a slight hiss the back sealed itself shut.

With it on I examined myself in the mirror that formed in front of me. The outfit like its name suggested was skin tight and seamless, not even any stitches were present, our House’s shield was proudly emblazoned over my heart, although it was missing the S as I could only openly wear that once I passed the Trials. I was still four years old so my face still had a lot of baby fat present, and it still surprised me even after four years to see the cherubic blue eyed blonde girl staring back at me in my reflection, in the Before I was not only a different gender but also of African descent so the pale skin and more feminine features still threw me for a loop even with four years to come to terms with the abrupt change. I still hadn't quite come to terms with the gender thing, but that would surely rear its head once puberty started and the differences would be unignorable, but as the saying went. Out of sight, out of mind.

My hair was still pretty straight after my mom's prior efforts and ended at my shoulders, although I noticed the back of my hair was a little disheveled from my earlier study session. Holding out my hand a stream of liquid geo rose up into my hand and formed a brush, I quickly brushed it a little to straighten it out the imperfections. With a nod and a deep breath I headed towards the living room to wait for the guest and greet them properly. After a bit of waiting, Kelex the family robot informed us the guest was almost to the door, and he went to lead the guest towards the living room.

As the current Heiress of the noble and ancient House of El, proper etiquette and protocol was hammered into me since I could talk in full sentences. When Kelex returned with the guest I stepped in front of my parents as protocol dictated I do to welcome a new person into our home and bowed my head slightly and pressed my right open palm over the empty shield on my chest while doing something slightly resembling a curtsy without a skirt. "I am Kara Zor-El the current Heiress of the House of El and I welcome you into our home." With the greeting out of the way I was finally allowed to look at our guest properly, he was a tall well built man wearing a black skin suit with red accents, on his chest was a symbol I recognized immediately and it caused my palms to dampen slightly. It was a symbol almost as prestigious as my own families, if not for a different reason. The symbol decorating his chest in black and red was that of the House of Zod.

He pressed a closed fist to his chest before bowing slightly at the waist, "I am Dru of the house of Zod, Grand General of Krypton's military, Shield of Rao, and current head of the House of Zod." His titles were definitely a hell of a lot cooler than my paltry Heiress status. If he thought so however I wouldn't have known as he gazed down at me with a blank expression. No, I realized, not blank, calculating. His eyes seemed to be assessing me and whatever he found seemed to please him in some way, as his granite like face seemed to relax a bit and a small almost nonexistent smile formed on his face. "So you're the Kara I've heard so much about?" with a snort, he continued, "From the stories I thought you'd be taller." he patted my head to further accentuate my currently vertically challenged state, leaving my hair slightly ruffled.

I stared at him, my mouth agape in shock, not only at the blatant breach in protocol but also his words. Taking a moment to recompose myself I focused on the truly important part of his words, "You've heard of me?" I was highly skeptical, I mean I was just four years old and practically never interacted with anyone outside of immediate family, what could he have possibly heard about a four-year-old girl?

He raised a brow in apparent amusement at my words, "Heard of you?" He laughed openly this time, "Who hasn't heard of the up-and-coming prodigy in the House of El."

"...Prodigy?!" I squeaked.

This time he looked at me with narrowed eyes. "You did complete the phase one courses already right?" seeing my tentative nod his eyes narrowed further. "And you are aware that generally speaking most kryptonians finish that course around the age of eight?"

My eyes widened and before I could stop myself I spoke in surprise. "What? But they were so easy!" I quickly clamped my hands over my mouth in embarrassment at my loss of control. Some Heiress I was to lose control so easily like that right?

Zod shook his head in amusement and looked at my parents behind me. "Leave it to an El to break records like that and say it was 'easy'. Any particular reason you didn't tell her?"

I whirled around to glare at my parents. They only shrugged with slightly embarrassed looks on their faces. "We thought it was for the best, besides she looks so happy when she learns new things, I couldn't bring myself to tell her." My Mom only looked at me with slightly apologetic eyes. "And besides we were so proud of her."

"We wanted to see how far she could go." My father said as he put a hand on my shoulder.

I glanced at Jor wondering what he would have to say on the matter. He simply shrugged and said "Didn't think it mattered if she knew she was smart or not. The test results speak for themselves."

I preened at their praise, but I couldn't help but roll my eyes at their excuse. "It wouldn't have changed anything even if you had told me." 'After all I need to learn enough to save you all'. Turning back to Zod, I motioned for him to sit on the couch, once everyone was seated I just sat there and listened to their conversation. Kelex came by a few minutes later with plates of food for everyone.

It appeared that Zod was a great friend of my parents and uncle, which was surprising since I hadn't seen him before or even heard mention of him from my parents. I only knew of him and because he quite literally was in our history lessons.

Although by continuing to listen I did figure out why I hadn't seen him before, it seemed he had been off-world for the past four years dealing with some sort of threat at the edge of the solar system. Apparently some races had combined forces and decided to pool their resources together to attack Krypton; they jumped into the star system with a fleet that outmassed and outnumbered the kryptonian defence force three to one. Which under normal circumstances that would have been an automatic victory for the invading party, but unfortunately for them, Kryptonians did not do normal.

Being one of the oldest and most advanced civilizations in the known universe had its perks apparently, one of those being that when it came to war, Krypton was almost always the biggest kid on the block. The 'Invasion' of Krypton was halted in its tracks by the much smaller force, as our ships were superior in every way to the enemies.

While the enemy had to pound away at our shields, the Kryptonians on the other hand could blast through theirs within a few shots of their much more powerful weapons. But that wasn't what really made Krypton's defense so scary, it was the fact that no one actually knew what our defenses even were.

Krypton didn't have any FTL capable ships, even in its military, so to make up for that weakness they invented something else to level the playing field. Thousands of years ago, Krypton's greatest minds got together and made a series of satellites that generated a signal that made it impossible to use FTL technology when under its effects.

So when an enemy appeared they had no way of escaping the star system alive, and the signal also had the added bonus of jamming FTL communicators as well, forcing the invaders to rely on the infinitely slower radio waves to communicate between ships. Slow, at least when considering the vast distances the waves had to travel. It hamstrung any attempts at an organized offensive as it was more than a little difficult to effectively communicate with response times measured in minutes, especially with the ever changing variables of combat. Of course, all Kryptonian ships were able to communicate in real time just fine through the interference.

This led to no one outside of Krypton knowing what happened to the invading forces, as the saying went, 'dead men tell no tales'. The battle was over in a matter of hours, and Krypton only lost a few of their ships. Zod and his forces stayed out there for the following years to deal with any scout ships or probes they sent to investigate the disappearance of their fleet, and also just in case they sent another fleet.

When there was a lull in the conversation, I spoke up. "General Zod, how is it you know my parents? I wasn't aware they knew anyone in the soldier caste. Let alone the Grand General."

"Ah. Yes I suppose that is a good question, it is admittedly a rather unlikely friendship." He took a sip of his drink. "In the academy me and your uncle Jor shared the same combat class. Well to be more accurate I was brought in to show them the basics, as I was already practically done with the advanced classes." He smiled at Jor across the table as if remembering a fond memory. "I remember when I first saw him, I thought it was some kind of mistake. After all, what would a science caste member be doing in a combat class? But no, I soon learned that the boy's name was Jor-El and he was there because he had already finished all his other courses in the academy. His exact words were 'I don't have anything better to do, and this at least might challenge me.' Your uncle most definitely had arrogance in spades back then."

Jor apparently couldn't stay silent at that last bit. "Well to be fair I was the top of my class in every subject. I had reason to be arrogant, and besides you certainly put me in my place if I remember correctly. I know those bruises certainly helped me remember."

"True." He chuckled. "He didn't know when to quit, every time I would knock him down he would keep getting right back up. I respected that strength of his, he was a horrible fighter but at least he had a strong will. I ended up personally carrying him home after he passed out from his injuries. Zor met us at the front door and helped me bring him in, and somehow their parents got me to stay for lunch. After that the rest is history."

Seeing an opportunity I couldn't help but ask "Can I learn how to fight too?" Everyone froze and looked at me. Feeling a bit defensive under their stares I spoke up. "What? If Uncle Jor could do it, why can't I?"

Mom sighed "Kara..." Seeing my expression and knowing I wouldn't be swayed by anything she said. She looked at Jor, expecting him to do something as if it were his fault.

Jor seeing her expression panicked "Umm, ask Zod?" Apparently that had been the wrong thing to say. as Mom's expression turned murderous.

Zod however just looked at me with a serious expression ignoring everyone else's antics. "And why do you want to learn how to fight?"

Looking down at my food for a moment I thought of an answer, I looked back up into his eyes, "I want to be able to protect myself and those I love."

He nodded at my answer, his face and body still deathly serious. "Those are the same reasons I wanted to learn to fight as well. Protecting those weaker than you is the duty of those with power. Are you sure you want that responsibility?" His gaze bored into mine as if trying to see into my head.

"Yes." My gaze just as steely as his own.

His posture and face relaxed, and a small smile formed on his face. "Well met Kara. It would be my honor to assist you in this endeavor… assuming your parents are okay with it?"

My parents looked at each other for a moment and nodded before turning to us. "Fine. We will allow you to learn. However you must promise us it won't detract from your other studies."

"I promise!" I beamed at them. I truly was happy, even in the Before I always wanted to learn martial arts, now I get to learn alien martial arts. Definitely the cooler option.

Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

"So you want to be a princess?" Zod asked out of the blue when everyone was finishing their meal.

"What?" I blinked at him in confusion. 'Princess?'

"You're wearing a circlet right? Like a princess."

'Oh' "Oh! No! It's not a circlet, though I see how you might confuse the two. It's actually a synaptic neural interpreting system." He stared at me blankly, I was about to explain further but Mom interrupted me before I could go into more depth.

"Me and your father need to talk to your uncle, why don't you show Zod your room?" Mom looked at me and winked.

My eyes lit up as I caught on, "Oh! C'mon Zod you'll love it!" I grabbed his hand and dragged him the whole way to my room.

"It's very….nice?" The general didn't really seem to know what to say in this situation. Somehow I doubted he has ever had to critique a four year olds bedroom before.

I giggled at him "I didn't mean you would like my room silly." with a thought I summoned a tentacle and made it wave at him.

He approached the waving limb and walked around it studying it with a keen eye. "Interesting. This is liquid geo correct? How is it doing that?" He looked towards me once he was done looking at the waving metal.

I tapped the circlet "With this thing I can control the shape it takes."

"Why haven't I heard of it before?"

"Because I invented it." Technically my parents did most of the leg work, but hey, I helped!

He stared at me dumbfounded. "What? But that's…." He sighed and rubbed his face. "...never mind, I'm forgetting I'm dealing with an El. You guys always tell the impossible to go bother someone else don't you?" After a brief chuckle he focused back on me with an assessing gaze. "So tell me. How much control do you have over it?"

With a grin I concentrated and made the tentacle take the shape of a miniature statue of Zod, complete with crossed arms and a scowl.

He mirrored the statue as he stared at me unimpressed. It only lasted a moment as his lips slowly twitched upwards. "May I try?"

"Sorry but it wouldn't fit on your head, and even if it did it needs to be attuned to your specific brain pattern." I honestly apologized as he seemed genuinely interested in my creation.

He waved off my apology, "It's fine. Perhaps some other day you can make me one."

We spent the next couple of minutes working out a training regimen for me. He promised me he would send me a training AI to help me out, and he would come to visit every now and then to give me personal help and to make sure I'm progressing properly. Before long Zod left me to go chat with my parents in the living room, I stayed behind and researched the different Kryptonian fighting styles he had told me about. I never got to say goodbye to Zod as I ended up falling asleep in my cocoon of liquid geo.

/

Krypton, despite being a heavily science oriented civilization, still believed in religion. Specifically the worship of Rao, the red super giant star that our planet orbited.

I supposed it made sense in a way for the deification of Rao to have stood the test of time, considering how life on Krypton had so heavily depended on its light for nourishment. Especially since before we had terraformed the planet, it had been a rather harsh and unforgiving ice world. Raos light was literally life giving back in those days.

Even still, I couldn't help but roll my eyes as I read the passage from one of the mandatory religious texts. It waxed poetic about the unholy corrupting nature of other stars, how to bathe in the light of other stars was to forsake Rao’s blessings and thus be struck down as a heretic.

It was utter nonsense of course, probably added in after the Clone Wars to help enforce the recall of the colony worlds. If governmental decrees didn't work, religious fervor would usually do the trick.

With my knowledge of the Super family, the notion was even more ridiculous. Unless gaining the power to rival gods counted as being ‘struck down’. And if that were truly the case, I would gladly become a heretic.

Five years after birth

For my fifth birthday we took a family trip down to Krypton, specifically to visit one of its beaches.

The Fire Beaches of Kara-Dun were one of the most popular vacation spots on the planet. The biggest natural Sunstone deposit was only a few miles off shore, and over the many millenia of erosion, the sand that made up the beach was made up almost entirely of the crystalline material. Under the glaring red light of Rao, the sand refracted the light, making it almost seem like the very ground was on fire.

Besides it being one of the few remaining natural wonders of the world, it was also where my parents met. And somewhat less surprisingly, it was also where my name had originated from.

Six years after birth

We were currently heading towards our family's ancestral home on Krypton visiting Jor and Lara. Or at least that's what Dad told me as our ship was breaking into the planet's atmosphere, but to be honest I wasn't listening all that much as I had my face plastered to the glass to watch the transition from black void to purple skies. No matter how many times they took me planetside, I never got tired of the view, much to my parents' amusement. I watched as the glittering city of Kandor got closer and closer. Our ancestral home was located towards the edge of the sprawling Capital.

The home was a massive structure that almost looked reminiscent of a medieval castle from my old world except made of interwoven sections of metal, glass, and opaque crystals. It sat atop a small hill covered in flora, it was a stark contrast to the other houses around it that were built using newer more compact designs and had no extra land around them for plant life. The structure was perhaps a few thousand years older than the surrounding buildings. The land it was built upon had been in the El family practically since its inception. We landed on the roof, and the roof's access door opened automatically for us, recognizing our biometrics. After a bit of walking, we found Jor and Lara sitting in the living room. They stood to greet us as we entered the room.

"Look at you Kara! You've grown so much since I last saw you!" Lara gushed as she hugged me tightly.

"Hey Auntie Lara." my voice muffled as my head was currently being crushed into her stomach. Honestly, this woman was so child crazy I was genuinely confused as to how she had waited so long to have Kal.

Once the greetings were done we all sat down and just talked, as it had been a few weeks since we had last seen each other. Eventually, Dad and Jor got up and asked me to come with them somewhere as they had something they wanted to show me. We ended up going to the basement. They led me to one of the walls where Dad proceeded to press his open palm against a section of it. After a moment the wall slid down into the floor revealing a staircase that went downwards.

I stared at them in shock. "What is this?" I thought I had known every inch of this place as I had explored it extensively on my previous visits. Instead of answering me, they motioned for me to follow and walked down the stairs leaving me with no choice other than to follow them.

The silence that filled the stairwell was broken by my father, "What we are about to show you, Kara, is one of the House of El's most well-kept secrets." No one else spoke for the remainder of the descent. My mind was too busy trying to make sense of my fathers' cryptic words.

When we finally reached the bottom we ended up in a hallway with a thick metal door at the end of it. As we got closer I noticed that the door was practically covered in its entirety in strange glyphs. "This isn't kryptonian….?" Some parts of it looked similar but the moment I focused on them I would realize that they weren't even close.

"Technically it is." Seeing me about to speak, he quickly went on to explain. "This is ancient Kryptonian script, it predates the use of even the Genesis pods."

My eyes widened at that, the genesis pods had been in use for a little over twenty thousand years. "Wha-...Bu-...Why is this here!? Under our home no less!"

Dad laughed at my gobsmacked reaction. "The Council of Krypton would love for us to believe that the caste system has been around since the dawn of Krypton. But that is simply not true, before the caste system people were free to choose their role in society." As he spoke he started pressing symbols which started to glow. 'Some sort of combination lock?' "Before the House of El became a house of scientists, we were a house of warriors." The door started to slowly open revealing the room beyond inch by inch, familiar red light seeped through the widening crack. Once it opened fully we made our way into the room. The slight buzz dancing across my skin confirmed my suspicion, the red light was sunlight, or at least close enough to it that my body reacted as if I had stepped outside.

It was a chamber with a vaulted ceiling so tall the light didn't quite reach it. At the center of the chamber was a dais made of glossy black stone, on it was the source of the red light. Some sort of red plinth made of glowing deep red crystals, it had what appeared to be a sword handle sticking out of the top. On closer inspection, the pommel which seemed to be made of the same glowing crystal was stylized to look like a more archaic version of our house's crest.

"A sword?" I stared, studying the design of the hilt as it was the only thing visible.

Jor chuckled "Not just any sword Kara. This is the Sword of Rao. Its an heirloom of our family."

"This sword, Kara, has been with the House of El almost since its inception. While back then we were mostly a house of warriors, we still had a passion for the sciences as well. Our ancestors created this weapon using a Quantum Forge."

I tilted my head at the unfamiliar word. "A Quantum Forge?"

Jor tapped his chin. "Hmm I suppose you probably wouldn't know about those, would you? They went out of fashion right around the time when Genesis pods became the norm. Like the Matter Forges that are in use today, a Quantum Forge can create any object so long as you have the design and the required amount of feedstocks. Actually, a quantum forge is superior as it can manipulate the object on the quantum level whereas a matter forge can only go down to the atomic level. Unlike a matter forge however a Quantum forge can only create one single object in its entire lifetime, and the object it creates can only be serviced by the forge that created it. Which as you can imagine is why they lost popularity when matter forges were so much cheaper and have more uses. Also, it didn't help that the methods used to create the forges were lost in the Clone Wars, and considering how unpopular they were to begin with, nobody really put much effort in recreating them."

Dad put a hand on Jor's shoulder. "We're getting a bit off topic here." Receiving a nod from his brother he continued. "Before any member of our house is allowed to take their Trials, it is a tradition for them to add something to the sword. It can be anything so long as it either adds a new feature or enhances a pre-existing one, it doesn't even matter how incremental the enhancements is. I suppose you could call it a rite of passage."

"That doesn't sound so hard." My brows furrowed in confusion, with the way he had been talking he made it sound like some Herculean task.

Dad smiled down at me in amusement. "Ah, but there is a catch. Whatever you do cannot negatively affect anything about the sword. This sword is the literal accumulated efforts of every El before you, thousands upon thousands of upgrades and adjustments, which you will need to work around. It took me nearly four years before I managed the feat, and my brother three. With every generation it gets harder and harder to accomplish as the sword gets more complex."

I stared at the sword with wide eyes, I gulped, suddenly feeling a lot less sure of myself. If it had taken my Uncle Jor-El the literal head scientist of our entire planet three years then what chance did I have? My hands clenched and I glared at the unsuspecting sword, this hunk of metal was what was standing in the way of my Trials? Ha! I wouldn't allow myself to be stopped by this, no matter how hard the task, I needed to do this to be able to have a chance at saving everyone I loved. This hunk of metal wouldn't, no, couldn't stop me.

Dad sighed, bringing my attention back to him. "You know. I never thought I would be bringing you down here so early. My own father brought me down here when I was fifteen. But you've been breezing through all your lessons so fast that soon enough you'll be able to take your Trials." He kneeled down in front of me and brought me in for a hug. "I'm so, so proud of you Kara and all you've accomplished so far. In fact, you're actually the youngest El to have been brought down here."

Once he let me go I reached out to touch the 'leather' wrapped handle, I let out a startled yelp however when my dad's hand clamped down on my arm like a vice. I looked up at him in shock.

"DO NOT TOUCH IT!" My father's voice boomed and echoed in the empty chamber. Seeing my frightened expression he winced and lowered his voice, letting go of my arm slowly. "Sorry, Kara, I didn't mean to frighten you." He looked back at the sword handle for a moment. "The sword can only be wielded in times of peril and only by one with the blood of El running through their veins, but even then the sword will kill anyone it deems not pure in their intent. It has a way of reading a person. It has only ever been successfully drawn a handful of times in our history, each time to defend our planet or House from grave threats. Those that were unsuccessful at the attempt, however….met less than enviable ends. Do you understand Kara? You are to never touch the sword under any circumstances? Can you promise me this?"

I slowly edged away from the suddenly not-so-innocent-looking blade. Looking back at my father I said with as much seriousness as I could muster. "I promise Father." 'I wouldn't touch the damn thing with a ten foot pole.' I couldn't afford to die before I saved everyone after all.

Seven years after birth

"AGHHHHHH! THIS IS SO STUPID!" I threw the cup in my hands across the room, only feeling slightly better after hearing the resulting tinkle of shattered glass and splash of liquid. I was mad, no, I was furious! I glared at the object of my hatred. Its invigorating red glow only served to infuriate me even further.

I had thought this task would just be difficult, but no, it was impossible. The damn sword had so many different subsystems that were all interconnected in some way, that moving a single fucking atom out of alignment caused the whole matrix to fail. And if the simulations I was seeing on the screen in front of me were any indication, such a failure would be bad….for most of Kandor. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, counting to ten before releasing it.

"Penny, please note for the record that test number four hundred twenty-six was a total failure… Again."

"Yes Mistress Kara." The soothing smooth tone of my personal AI did nothing to negate my anger.

"How many times have I told you to stop with the Mistress crap! It's creepy as all hell." I turned my glare on the apple-sized floating sphere of liquid geo behind me.

"One Hundred Eighty-Nine times since my creation….Mistress." She answered oh so innocently. As if butter wouldn't melt on her processors...technically her processors ran colder than ice, but that's beside the point!

Before that day I didn't think it was possible for an amorphous blob of liquid geo to look smug, but Penny was somehow managing it. I had created her using recordings of my own brainwaves, so I couldn't even get annoyed at her, she was loosely based on my own thought patterns after all. Oddly enough her response actually made me feel better, perhaps that had been her objective all along.

"I hate you." I said the words with no real heat behind them.

"Love you too Mistress."

Getting back to the project at hand. "Ok, Penny you got any ideas you wanna run by me? I think I'm practically out of them at the moment."

"Well according to all the previous data, it seems that you are actually getting incrementally closer to properly implementing your designs. It may not feel like it, but the data doesn't lie. The problem here however isn't your ability to get everything to work correctly, as that is just a matter of time and effort. The problem is the amount of time it will take you to redesign it after each failure, as I know you wish to pass the Trials as soon as possible." She paused to let me absorb her words before continuing "There is simply nothing I could suggest that would make this go any faster."

I froze, something in her words striking a cord somewhere in my brain. 'Oh no fucking way!' "I'm such an idiot. Such a fucking Idiot." Quickly getting up from my position sitting on the floor, I ran over to hug Penny and spun her around a bit, feeling my arms sink a little into the cool metal. "Thank you Penny!" I practically flew up the staircase to get to my room, barely remembering to close the vault door on the way out of the chamber.

After being told of my task I moved in with my uncle and aunt so that I could have constant unfettered access to the sword. It turned out I always had a room reserved for me as it was the ancestral home of our House. Kelex had ensured that it mirrored my old room perfectly, he had even included the control circlet and liquid geo floor. I quickly got to work on the new design I had in my head.

What Penny had said made me realize I had been looking at my task all wrong. I didn't need to create a new feature or even upgrade an existing function of the blade. I already had something I could implement or at least the beginnings of one, and it was currently sitting on my head at the moment.

The control circlet, while in its current state it would be pretty much useless for the goal I had in mind, it served as an excellent starting point. If I could upgrade it further I could in theory link a mind directly with the forge itself, which would allow the user to more easily and intuitively create new designs when the old one failed. It would cut down on the development time because it would cut out the need to physically design it. As Penny said the true challenge of upgrading such a complex device wasn't the complexity itself, it was the time it would take before you got it to work.

And since technically it could be considered an upgrade, my parents might even consider it a pass, and even if they didn’t I could still use the new feature to speed up the design process for a proper upgrade. Either way, this route was undoubtedly quicker than what I had been doing prior.

After a few days of working out the design of the new circlet, I came to a roadblock. Every simulation I ran indicated that a Kryptonian brain for all its wonders wouldn't be able to take the load of processing all that data, in short, if I tried to put the circlet on now, my brain would literally fry itself trying to keep up. The solution me and Penny came up with was simple enough if a bit unorthodox. If I had an array of computer banks that were all synced to my brainwave patterns I could divert some of the computational load onto them. I could only divert roughly 73% of the load before it was too diluted for me to properly interact with the forge. The remaining 27% was all on me, but assuming that I had all the numbers right I should only suffer a minor headache at most ...hopefully.

It took a bit of work to bring all the necessary computers down the stairs, but with the help of some of the helper drones in the house, it wasn't all that bad. I sat in a padded chair in front of the Quantum Forge, staring at the almost delicate-looking circlet in my hands, this was the moment of truth, it would either work or it wouldn't. And the only way to tell for sure was to put it on.

Taking a deep breath to calm my nerves, I glanced back at my family who were standing behind me. Mom, Dad, Uncle Jor, Auntie Lara, even Kelex. All of them were here to show their support, and in case something went wrong we had a pair of medical droids floating off in the corner of the room. Penny was floating right next to me, either out of worry for my well being and to be close enough to help or just to show her support, I wasn't quite sure which to be honest, probably a mixture of all three.

With one last look around the room, I put the circlet on my head. "Penny, initiate merge sequence."

It was quiet and peaceful for a moment, but then suddenly my head was full of so much information. Too much information, my head felt like it was going to burst. Right when I genuinely started to fear for my life, the pressure suddenly dropped to manageable levels as the computers took up the load. With a gasp of relief I focused on the streams of information I was getting. I ‘stared’ at all the different criss crossing streams in wonder, somehow I knew exactly what each stream represented, I examined the lattice and with a slight mental nudge on one of the streams I 'watched' as all the other streams shifted to accommodate automatically although since it was just a random change, the whole lattice work unraveled violently.

It worked! With the circlet I was able to literally see how everything interconnected, if I spent more time with it I could definitely figure out how to put in my own change. I was excited, and for good reason, with this new system I made it a much easier task for all future El's.

"Penny. End merge sequence." I let out a sigh of relief as the constant pressure between my ears finally faded to a dull throb.

I whipped the circlet off my head and turned to my waiting family. The grin on my face must have clued them in as I soon found myself being crushed to death in the center of a group hug.

'Meh. There are worse ways to go.'

Eight years after birth

I was right there were worse ways to go.

Currently I found myself curled up on the floor, my arms clutched protectively around my abdomen. The pain radiating from it was immense and it took nearly all my will power to avoid retching.

"Oh come on Kara don't be so dramatic. I've seen you shrug off harder blows." The amused tone of my assailant spoke from above me.

I got onto my hands and knees before glaring up at him, the sweat made the hair that escaped my ponytail stick to my face, no doubt making the glare even less effective. "Shut...Up...Zod." I managed between pants.

"Oh? Does the delicate Princess still have some fight left in her?" His voice contained even more amusement than before.

He knew how much I hated being called such a girly name and the way he put so much emphasis on the word lit a fire in me, I would pound his face in if it was the last thing I did. "AGHHH!" I screamed in impotent rage as I shot back up to my feet and attempted to tackle him.

The sight of his eyes widening in surprise sent a vindictive thrill through my bruised body. 'This time I had him, there was no possible way he would be able to-'

Whatever I was thinking at that moment came to an abrupt stop as Zod almost casually grabbed one of my extended arms and pulled me up and over himself, brutally slamming me into the mat. I just laid there, lamenting my fate of being one big mildly concussed bruise for the rest of my existence, when I suddenly found it impossible to breathe and I sat up coughing up the frigid water Zod had so kindly poured over my face.

"Fuck you!"

"Language, Princess. What would your parents think of you swearing like that?" He attempted to sound scolding, but the amused condescension was unmistakable.

"They would side with me and call you out for the bastard you are." My response was less than mature but I was bruised, sweaty, and now I was sitting in a puddle of cold water.

Zod finally seemed to realize my less than pleased state as with a sigh he grabbed my arm and hauled me up to my feet. Although that didn't mean much as the moment he let go I flopped back to the floor in a boneless soaked heap. The General knew a losing battle when he saw one so with some reluctance he sat on the floor next to me so we could talk easier.

"You've improved Kara." The glare I sent him must have clued him in on what I thought of such a statement. "No really Kara. If you were one of my cadets I would have been proud of your progress. And besides you really shouldn't feel bad about getting beat by me. I have spent my entire life learning to fight, perfecting my technique, I was literally born to fight. The fact that you have taken so well to my training is a testament to your determination, especially considering the science caste doesn't have many augmentations meant for physical labor. Not to mention the fact that you are eight years old. Even if you were a part of the Soldier Caste it would be impossible to effectively fight an adult, the size difference is just too great."

Slowly but surely my anger was morphing into something resembling pride at his praise. "However, you do need to learn to control your emotions better, that last attack? That was pitiful. A warrior is only as good as his mind, and you Kara have one of the brightest minds of your generation. Use it. Never let your emotions get the better of you in a fight. You understand me Kara?"

I nodded my assent, a hint of guilt worming through my heart at disappointing him. I didn't have the energy to give a verbal answer.

He seemed satisfied with just a nod. "Good. Now you go freshen up, you've got a big day tomorrow, with your Trials. Unfortunately, I won't be around to congratulate you when you pass." seeing my questioning look he elaborated. "There were some gravitic fluctuations five light minutes out of our system, we’re going out to look around and see what is causing it. It could be nothing or it could be the precursor to a fleet jumping in."

As he began walking away I managed to scrounge up the energy to speak. "Be careful out there Zod." If he heard the worry in my voice he made no mention of it, simply waving over his shoulder lazily in acknowledgment.

After a few more minutes, I managed to drag myself through the house and into the sun room. With a press of a button, my skin suit unsealed and I managed to painfully shimmy out of it. Now nude, I dropped heavily onto the padded chair, lazily swiping through the options as the chair whirred to life, calibrating and conforming to my body perfectly.

Humming in thought, I kept swiping through the menu, eventually settling on a concentrated bath and massage combo. With my decision made, the wall began shifting and coming apart at the seams, retracting and folding into hidden recesses. Once the process was complete, a wall of articulating glass panes replaced the once metal wall.

I closed my eyes, beginning to relax the moment the sunlight hit me. The warm buzzing sensation that played across my skin never quite got old. As arms came out of the chair and began massaging my aching muscles, the glass panels began changing their configuration. I let out a pleased groan as all the sunlight that streamed into the room was suddenly focused solely on me, the glass wall now acting like a magnifying lens of sorts.

Now instead of just a warm buzz that skipped along my skin, the concentrated light became more of a hot tingle that penetrated deep into my muscles, working to soothe my aches and pains. If I had to relate it to something, it was the difference between taking a hot shower and sitting in a jacuzzi with all the jets turned on.

The combination of massage arms and hot sunlight quickly lulled me into a blissful slumber.

///

I stared in wonder, awe, and some trepidation at the red and gold crest on the back of my right hand. It represented seven years of near-constant study. But it also was just a stepping stone I reminded myself, a means to an end. I didn't need to feel anything regarding the symbol. I just needed it to better my chances to save my loved ones. Not just them though, I wanted to save this planet that had wormed its way into my heart, everything from the purple hue of the sky, the way the beautiful red moons filled up the night sky, all the way down to how nice the people were, although by human standards they would be considered cold and aloof they were still rather pleasant once you got used to the chill. I didn't want to feel pride in my achievements or my House, I didn't want to care about this planet's fate. But it was impossible not to feel something in regards to these things after spending years in contact with it.

Indoctrination was a bitch that way.

The plan originally had been to just save my family, but somewhere along the way I came to genuinely love Krypton. It was my home, and I refused to lose it without at least a fight.

With this symbol, I now officially held the title of Thinker and was considered an adult in the eyes of the law. Krypton didn't use age to determine adulthood, but generally all those who passed their Trials were usually around the age of seventeen or up. I had created quite a stir when I walked into the Academy of Kandors testing facility, as all the other kids had been over twice my age. Everyone thought it was some sort of joke, hell a few of them had even approached me to ask if I was lost. It was quite amusing seeing their reactions when I passed them on the way out after receiving my house crest.

With a brief bit of concentration not too dissimilar to when I worked with liquid geo, I watched as the 'tattoo' sunk beneath my skin becoming invisible. The 'tattoo' was actually made up of the organic nanites that could with a mental command disperse throughout my body. Technically, I could summon the symbol anywhere on my body, however it was both tradition and simple practicality that dictated it be summoned on the dominant hand.

Even my outfit had changed after passing my Trial that morning, as now the once blank shield over my heart was now filled in. I couldn't stop the surge of pride I felt when I saw the completed crest glimmer in the light. With a happy grin I got up off the park bench I had been sitting on for the past few minutes. I had the whole day to myself as both my parents, aunt, and uncle were at an important meeting on Argo. And Zod was out in space investigating the gravitic anomaly.

With nothing else to do, I decided I would just explore the city. Rao knows I didn't spend enough time outside as it was. I needed to take advantage of every scrap of free time I got, especially since now that I passed my trials I could actually actively work towards figuring out how to save everyone. As a Thinker I would have unrestricted access to pretty much all of Krypton's databases, and as an added bonus I would be receiving a personal lab stocked to my specifications and sizable funds to do with as I pleased.

With a grin, I reached into my pocket and pulled out a pair of gloves, after putting them on I tapped my heels together twice in rapid succession. With a slight hum my feet rose up into the air. It wasn't flying by any means as I couldn't rise more than a foot off the ground but it certainly beat walking. With my shoes in hover mode, the gloves also activated. They were used to stabilize myself when in the air and to help make sharp turns. All of it was controlled through mental commands that were read through my nervous system, via sensors in both the gloves and boots. With them I could explore the city without worrying about fatigue and just enjoy the sights, and it was admittedly fun zooming around with the wind in my face, and my hair whipping behind me. It reminded me of the times I would go rollerblading as a child on earth.

It was nighttime when I finally decided that I had had enough of exploring. As much as the sights and smells of Kandor entertained me, I just wanted to go home and take a nap. After all, this would probably be the last day I would get to do such a frivolous thing, I would probably be spending every waking hour cooped up in my new lab, no rest for the wicked and all that.

As I was starting to head home I heard the distinct rumbling sound of something large entering our atmosphere, I ignored it however as such sounds were a common occurrence on Krypton, especially since Kandor was literally the capital. However I stopped walking when I heard a sound that didn't belong in a capital city such as Kandor. A sonic boom, or to be more accurate multiple sonic booms.

'What the hell? What kind of idiot broke the sound barrier over Kandor of all places? Whoever it was, was about to get fined into oblivion by the Council.'

I looked up into the sky to see what was going on, I froze upon seeing the literal hundreds of fireballs falling straight towards the city. 'A meteor shower? On Krypton? The planet's automated defenses wouldn't have let anything bigger than a baseball enter the atmosphere.' If it had just been one or even two meteors I would have just shrugged it off as some sort of glitch or just luck, but this many making it through? No. Something was seriously wrong.

I watched in muted horror as the meteors hit buildings with enough force to literally pass right through and down towards the streets below. Some of the flying transports were swatted out of the sky by the meteors in fiery explosions. This was quite possibly the biggest disaster in the last hundred years of the city's, no, the world's history. Kryptonians had lived such an idyllic and peaceful life that there was no doubt in my mind that this event would be talked about in hushed tones for years if not decades to come.

One of the meteors actually crashed just down the street from me. Everyone around me including myself screamed in fear as it had roared over our heads. The shockwave of its impact flung everyone off their feet, although since I was hovering I managed to get away with just getting pushed back before stabilizing myself. After a minute of hearing the distant explosions and crashes, the silence that came after was deafening in its own way. Eventually, someone took the first step towards the crater, and as if some silent message had been sent, everyone soon followed.

We all crowded around the edge of the crater looking down into the still smoking depth. The lady behind me gasped, "What was that?" She looked down at me briefly before turning her eyes back to the smoke speaking a little louder, her voice a little more shrill. "Did you see that? I swear I saw something mo-" She never got to finish as something shot out of the smoke whizzing past my head so closely that it left a shallow cut on my cheek, I felt something warm and wet splatter and roll down the back of my neck. Hanging in the air in front of me was some sort of thick metal cable, one end I could see originated from the depth of the smoke, the other end went over my shoulder, with shaking and clammy palms I turned around to see where it led.

Some part of me already suspected what I was going to see and yet I still almost shot backwards into the crater in my shock. The woman that had been speaking before, now had the end of the cable embedded in her eye socket, her face was frozen in silent agony and her body was shaking violently as if she was in some sort of seizure.

I heard something shift in the crater and whirled around to face whatever it was. A gust of wind dissipated the smoke enough for me to get a clear view of whatever had shot the cable. It was a kryptonoid robot of some sort, standing a little over seven feet tall with a matte black body with chrome accents, its head looking like a skull with blazing red orbs in its sockets. On its chest it had three glowing green circles connected by two lines forming a sort of V pattern. With a sickening squelch the cable released and retracted into its outstretched palm, splattering more blood on my face on its return trip.

I had only seen the robot for a moment before darkness enveloped us all. Every single electronic device on the street suddenly shut down, including my hover boots. The sudden shift in light took everyone by surprise.

For a brief moment, the world was as silent as it was dark.

Then the screaming started.