Posted: Mon Feb 12, 2007 2:07 pm
Chapter 20 – Mira and Serena’s Story
The group traveled through the vortex of the Granolith in its web-like tunnels and soon they were standing in the Kewatchee caves. Mira, Serena, Jesse and Ava looked around and then Ava said, “What the heck was that?” feeling her body, making sure she had arrived in one piece. “I thought the Granolith was some kind of spaceship.”
“The Granolith has many uses, which is the reason why it is a well sought after artifact from our galaxy” Serena stated, “but I can educate you on the many uses of the Granolith later, shall we make our way to this place called ‘Smallville’?”
Stepping outside the caves, Mira and Serena took a deep breath. The air was so different than Antar. They also noted they weren’t able to smell anything either. That was odd. Earth was an interesting place. They walked through a wooded area until it opened up to a cornfield that had recently been harvested of its corn. Mira sneezed and looked towards the group. Serena looked at her with a strange expression on her face and then she turned towards Max and asked, “What was that?”
“She sneezed. You’ve never sneezed before?” Max asked.
“No, I guess I haven’t. It kind of tickles” Mira stated.
“Don’t worry Mira, I don’t think I have ever sneezed either” Clark offered.
“Really?” Chloe asked. Clark nodded and then led the group towards his farm and entered his house through the kitchen door. “Mom, are you home?”
“Hello Clark” Martha said coming down the stairs, “I see you’ve made it back safely.” She went over to Clark and kissed him on his cheek and then she noticed that there were a few extra people. She held the door opened for the rest of the group to enter and closed it when everyone was inside the house. “So, how was the festival?”
“Oh, Mrs. Kent, it was awesome!” exclaimed Chloe. “I took lots of pictures and maybe later Isabel and Ava can set up their mock theater and I can show you.”
“That would be great Chloe. So, which one is Ava?” Martha questioned.
“Sorry about that,” Clark started, “Mom, this is Ava, Ava this is my mother Martha Kent.” Ava and Martha exchanged pleasantries.
“And this is Jesse, Isabel’s husband” Clark said, as Jesse and Martha acknowledged each other.
“And this is Mira and Serena” Clark said, introducing their new alien friends. “Max will have to explain who they are, because I’m still lost.”
“Well, from what I can figure out Mira is my mother’s Royal Protector and Serena is the Keeper of the Granolith, but that’s all we know” Max said turning towards Mira and Serena he continued, “shall we sit down and try to figure out what’s going on?” Everyone agreed and took a place in the living room.
“What’s a Royal Protector?” Chloe asked.
“A Royal Protector is exactly that, we protect members of the Royal Family on Antar. To become a Royal Protector we are subjected to many tests and have to graduate at the top of our class. Once we are accepted as a Royal Protector a binding spell is performed to bind the Protector to a member of the Royal Family. In my case, I’m bound to your mother Your Hi…sorry, Max” Mira said.
“So, when did you meet up with Mira and Serena?” Martha said, looking towards Max.
“They arrived at the Granolith at the same time that we were trying to activate it to come back here” informed Max.
“Max, I think if anyone is lost it’s Serena and me” started Mira, “how is it all these humans know about you and how did you find Clark and …” Mira and Serena had many questions, which they kept listing off for Max and the group to answer. After a couple of hours of explaining how the Pod Squad came into the world, Max saving Liz’s life, which introduced the first human into their little club, finding Tess and mating with her, Tess’s departure to Antar and her return, meeting up with the Dupes in New York and their adventures with the Skins in Copper Summit and the continuing investigation by the Special Unit it seemed like they were up to speed with the Pod Squad’s years in Roswell. Then they continued to explain how they found Zan and met up with Clark and their weekend’s adventure back in Roswell. During this question and answer period, Isabel and Ava set up the mock theater and showed their picture slide to the group. Martha loved the pictures of Clark dressed up as the Alienator and the other pictures of the UFO Convention and the Crash Festival. After the slide show, Max turned towards Mira and Serena and asked them about what actually happened the night the Royal Four died, their mother, Antar and their reason for coming to Earth.
“We can only tell you what we witnessed” Mira started. “I guess we should start out with a history lesson, so you’ll understand how everything fits into the scheme of things and along the way, we should be able to answer most of your questions.”
She continued, “I should probably start with your parents” she said looking towards Max and Isabel, “King Leonas, your father, fell madly in love with Lady Ankaa and after a brief courtship the two were married, as the custom was when the three moons of the Whirlwind Galaxy were aligned. This was supposed to bring good luck to the young couple. During your father’s reign, the Whirlwind Galaxy lived in peaceful times. The ‘Five Planets’ got along and all was well. Then your father contracted a deadly virus, which took your father’s life. There was a special summit held with the leaders of the ‘Five Planets’ and they took a vote and Zan was offered his father’s place on the throne. Not everyone was happy about this, especially Khivar, who was representing the citizens of Celaeno, his home planet. He thought he should’ve been chosen to succeed King Leonas, but the council had voted. This was when he started to devise a plan to assassinate King Zan and his family.”
Mira took a break, and allowed everyone to absorb the information she had just related and continued. “During his reign, King Zan found love on one of the ‘Five Planets’ known as Dione. King Larek’s cousin Avanya caught his eye and soon they were married. Now, I don’t know if you’re aware of Avanya’s heritage. Her mother Tara Lor-Van was a Kryptonian and if I’m not mistaken, she was your mother’s sister Clark. Anyways, when her shipped crashed on Dione, King Larek’s uncle rescued her and a relationship was formed. So, Avanya was the by-product of two different worlds, Krypton and Dione.”
"Yeah, we recently learned about her mixed heritage from Larek, who told us about the prophecy - that is how we found out that Zan is the one the prophecy speaks of, since he is a product of three worlds" informed Max.
You’ve spoken with King Larek? How can that be? Mira asked.
“I guess there is a way for people from our world to use human bodies as vessels for coming to Earth. Larek uses the body of Brody Davis, my former employer at the UFO center to communicate with me.” Max said.
“Well, it’s not just an Antarian thing” Clark interceded, “Jor-El’s essence uses the body of Lionel Luthor to communicate with me sometimes too.”
“This is another very interesting development we’ll have to report to Lady Ankaa.” Mira said.
“I have a question” Ava spoke up, “was that your or our true form when you entered the Granolith?”
Serena answered apprehensively, “Yes that is our true form, but it will never be yours. When you were engineered we had to combine the DNA sequences, which is the reason you will never be able to look like us or shapeshift. Why do you ask, was our true form frightening to you?”
“Honestly, I was a little shocked” admitted Ava, “but I always had the feeling that individuals on our home planet didn’t look like us. The reason I asked is because if Avanya’s mother was Kryptonian, and they have a human-like body” she said looking towards Clark, “then how did her parents get together?”
Mira answered her, “When Tara’s shipped crash near Mirek’s dwelling she was unconscious. Mirek pulled her from the crash and brought her back to his domicile. Not wanting to frighten her, he shapeshifted into a human form, and cared for her. Eventually, she learned of his true form, but a bond had already been formed between the two. They were unsure if they could have any children, but a miracle happened and Avanya came into the world. Her form looked like ours, except she had such bright blue eyes. Avanya was also very gifted in the sciences, another gift she received from her mother. Her mother had told her stories of her life on Krypton and how a person’s status in the community was based on their knowledge of the sciences and technology. In fact…” she looked towards Clark, “I believe your mother Lara Lor-Van was an astronaut at one time, before a highly revered scientist destroyed one of their moons while engaging in one of his experiments which shifted Krypton’s position in the galaxy. After that incident, the “Science Council,’ their government body, decreed that space flight was illegal. Lara moved to the capital city of Kryptonopolis and got an apprenticeship under Jor-El. Tara, not wanting to be constrained under these new laws, left Krypton.”
“Wow Clark, it’s amazing how closely intertwined your two worlds are” Chloe remarked.
“I’m beginning to realize that” Clark stated.
“Well Serena, to answer your question Michael, Isabel, Liz and I have seen glimpses of Nasedo, one of our protectors, true forms when he died and we used the healing stones to bring him back, as well as when he died and reverted back to his true form and then to dust, so your true form wasn’t so much of a shock” Max stated. “I also witnessed Cal, our other protector, change into his true form before he transferred into one of the spacecrafts we found, but the ship was too damaged to fly” Max offered.
“You stated that Nasedo is dead?” Serena asked soberly.
“Yes. He died in my arms. A Skin got to him and fatally injured him” Max said remembering that day outside his bedroom window. “But the only Skin that remains on Earth that I’m aware of is Nicholas, Khivar’s right hand man, or I should say boy, I believe we destroyed the other Skins a couple years back when they took us hostage and Tess had reached for some kind of undiscovered power and burnt them to a crisp.”
“That sounds a lot like your heat vision Clark” Martha responded.
“That’s what I was thinking. I’m able to control it now, but when I first started developing this ability I was torching everything in sight” Clark mused. “I can’t imagine what Tess was feeling after that had happened to her, not realizing it may have been her Kryptonian self sneaking out.”
“So, where is Cal? Is he dead too?” asked Mira.
“No, unfortunately he’s still alive and living the life up in Los Angeles” Max said.
“You sound like you don’t like him much” Mira responded.
“I think he’s been on this planet too long. He has never really been there to help us out. I know he’s kept track of us, but when I learned there was another protector on Earth, I went searching for him. Let’s just say the ‘Welcome’ rug wasn’t laid out for me. I had to find out the ‘rules’ on my own; that he had to follow my orders and that he was unable to harm or kill me. But once I discovered this important piece of information, I had him do things against his will and let’s just say I regret what happened and if we can leave him out of this situation since I know he has no notions of going back to Antar, I’d appreciate it” informed Max.
“I think since Serena and I are here, we should be able to train and educate you all without any help from Cal, but if things get to the point were we need some extra help, we may be forced to call upon him” Mira stated.
Max reluctantly agreed and then Isabel spoke up, “This has been bugging me since it was brought to my attention. Did Vilandra really betray her family to Khivar?”
Mira sighed and said, “this is the point where I tell you about the night that the Royal Four were killed, but before I do, I should probably tell you the events that led up to that fateful night. As I said earlier, Lady Ankaa learned that there was a plot to assassinate the Royal family. To save the Royal Bloodline, Lady Ankaa called for a secret meeting among her most trusted advisors and scientists. They devised a plan to extract the essence of the Royal Four and combine them with the DNA of certain humans our scientists had been studying for years. By using the gandarium, a living crystal native to our planets, they were able to link the DNA sequences together. They created two sets of Alien-Hybrids, in case something happened to one of the sets, and sent them to Earth with four Royal Protectors.
While all this was happening, the palace was preparing for the royal wedding between Princess Vilandra and General Rath. Vilandra was betrothed to Rath, as was the custom and everything on the surface showed the union was a good one, but Khivar was secretly having meetings with Vilandra, pulling her into his web. By this time there were some rebellions going on between the planets, mainly due to Khivar’s influence. Now, everything I tell you about that night is all second hand, related to me throughout the years by acquaintances that were there when the Royal Four were murdered. It is said that Khivar had convinced Vilandra that he needed a meeting with her brother to try and resolve some of the problems going on between the planets. Zan had banned entrance to Khivar into the palace because he had learned that Khivar was behind most of the unsettlements within the galaxy. Vilandra was just convinced that Khivar wanted to make amends; so on that fateful night she allowed him entry through one of the back gates. She made it all the way into the throne room when Khivar ran a blade through her back, striking her heart. Rath had run into the room, hearing Vilandra’s final scream and was held down by Lycus and Chimarus, two of Khivar’s followers, as Khivar ran his blade through Rath, as he looked into his dying eyes. By this time the palace was awoken as Zan and Avanya rushed into the room to see Rath and Vilandra’s bodies lying on the floor. They were captured and held down as well and Khivar murdered them. I was with Lady Ankaa when we heard the commotion and I followed My Lady into the throne room to see Khivar standing over the bodies of the Royal Four, blood dripping from his blade. My job as a protector was to protect Lady Ankaa, so I pulled her away from the scene and rushed her through the underground tunnels to an awaiting spacecraft. We flew off to one of the furthest planets in our galaxy called Asterie, where we’ve been in hiding since. So, I don’t believe Vilandra was to blame for their demise. I think she thought she was doing what was best for the galaxy. I do believe she had some kind of relationship with Khivar, he was after all a dashing young man, but she was naïve and got entwined in his web of lies and she and her family paid the final price.”
“Thank you” Isabel said, “I’ve always wondered what actually happened. It’s nice to know that there are some individuals out there that don’t think Vilandra and in a sense I betrayed my family, at least now I can concentrate on ridding the world of Khivar and his followers and maybe the next time Khivar decides to make his presence known, I won’t be so influenced by him.”
“Has Khivar made contact with you?” Mira asked surprised.
“Oh yeah, he crashed Isabel and Jesse’s wedding and followed them on their honeymoon.” Kyle said.
Jesse was hearing all this for the first time. Granted, the first night of their honeymoon was definitely strange. In fact, they didn’t even consummate their union until the following day. He looked towards Isabel for some answers but Max spoke up.
“Jesse, don’t blame Isabel. Yes, Khivar crashed the wedding and honeymoon. This was before you knew about our existence and when we learned that Khivar had crashed the wedding and had a dance with Isabel, Michael and I followed you guys on your honeymoon.”
“I remember that. I was wondering what was going on and why you two were there on our honeymoon. I thought you were taking the brother/sister relationship just a bit too far” Jesse responded.
“Well, Khivar took over the body of a bystander and tried to talk Isabel into returning to Antar with him. He wasn’t too thrilled to see her getting married and he almost succeeded, but you showed up Jesse and stood up to Khivar. Isabel had to knock you out, but after the confrontation Khivar opened up a portal and proceeded to take Isabel and himself back to Antar, but Isabel pushed him into the portal, separating him from the human body he was using, Isabel said some choice words and then he disappeared.”
“Jesse, do you remember that guy named ‘Kevin’?” Isabel asked her husband. He nodded yes. “Remembering me telling you that he made me feel uncomfortable, well that was Khivar.”
“Now it all makes sense.” Jesse said.
“It looks like Khivar’s discovered a new mode of transportation,” Serena stated. “This is very interesting, definitely something to report back to Lady Ankaa.”
“What can you tell us about our mother?” Isabel asked.
“Well, considering I am your mother’s protector, I’ve gotten to know her the best. She is a fair and kind person. She captured the King’s heart and I think a lot of her can be seen in both of her children. She is very beautiful and was able to capture the eye of many Antarians, but it was your father that captured her heart. She is also very artistic. She loves listening to music and painting the scenes from her past, as well as what she could see out our cave dwelling. Some nights, she would sit there for hours watching the lightning dance and the thunder roar. She said it was nature’s music. It really killed her that night, seeing her children lying there dead on the throne room floor and she vowed that she would never quit searching for you. She left a message on the ship that she sent you in, did you receive it?” asked Mira.
“Yes we did. We found it buried in the desert. It basically called out to us” Max said.
“From the communication we saw she was so beautiful. It doesn’t matter if she has an ‘alien’ body or a human one, she’s my, our mother. Why didn’t she come with you?” Isabel asked.
“Well, there are a few reasons. First, I think she was afraid that you would be frightened by her true appearance. She used a human form to communicate with you in the orb, but she looks like we did when we entered the Granolith. She wanted us to prepare you for your return to Antar, which includes teaching you about our customs, traits, and heritage so you are ready to take your place as our rightful King.” Mira said.
“Do you think the individuals in the Whirlwind Galaxy will accept me or Zan as their King? When Tess returned from Antar she said that they rejected Zan because of his human status and you just said that we are stuck with the bodies we have.” Max questioned.
“Well, considering Khivar took over the throne without even calling another summit and since our worlds have been in a constant civil war with each other, having the true King back on the throne might be the one thing to bring peace back to our worlds. Plus, whatever lies Khivar fed Tess; I find it hard to believe the people wouldn’t accept Zan. In fact, I heard from one of our spies in the Antarian Palace that Tess or who our spies referred to as Avanya was carrying a babe and was under heavy guards. I understand she and Khivar had an argument and then she escaped with the babe to Earth, which totally enraged Khivar.” Serena explained.
“Plus, there’s the Prophecy” Mira said, “Which is the other reason Lady Ankaa didn’t travel with us. She is going to travel to each of the planets in our galaxy and spread the word of your existence along with the contents of the Prophecy. She is hoping to gain the support of each of these planets, except for Celaeno, and here she’ll have to seek out the rebellious groups, which includes individuals that you refer to as ‘Skins’, and get their support.”
“So, since you were able to travel through the Granolith to get here, can we use it to return to Antar and visit our mother?” Isabel asked.
Apprehensive of answering this question, Mira said, “Technically yes. But, I’m under your mother’s orders to educate and train you before we return to Antar. Plus, the Granolith is located on Asterie and your mother is probably no where near it at this point.”
Succumbing to the realization that Mira was right and they would have to wait to see their mother; Max asked, “So, what are you going to teach us?”
“Well, it looks like most of your knowledge comes from first hand experiences and maybe a little from Nasedo, but we’ve got a lot to cover. First of all, we will teach you about our worlds and the different customs we have. This will also include learning to read, write and speak our language. We will also concentrate on improving upon your current abilities and possibly discover some new ones.” Mira said and then reached into her bag and pulled out a small cylinder that had a silver handprint on it with more glyph writing in its center. She walked over to Michael and handed it to him. “Michael, this belonged to General Rath” Michael took the cylinder and looked it over. It didn’t look like much. “Before we left the palace, some of the other Royal Protectors went back to the Royal Four’s chamber and acquired some of their personal items and brought them to the ship.”
“What exactly is this?” Michael said, still checking out the cylinder piece he had. Maria moved in closer to check it out too. “Why don’t you step over here” Mira directed Michael to the center of the room. “Now, place your hand on the silver handprint there.”
Michael grasped the cylinder, laying his hand on the silver handprint, and brilliant blue blades extended from each end of the cylinder and magically formed into a continually bladed staff. “What you have there is the weapon of choice of General Rath. He was the only one that could operate the staff, because it only responds to General Rath’s signature. I will teach you how to use this weapon and we will work on furthering your knowledge of navigating and warfare tactics. Now if you just lay your hand on the cylinder again and just think of retracting the blades it will listen to your thoughts.”
Michael did as he was instructed and closed the blade. There was a wide grin on Michael’s face. He finally realized he had a place in the scheme of things that did not simply involve blasting rocks into dust.
Mira reached again into her bag and pulled out a greenish gold slate and turned towards Isabel, “Now, this belonged to Vilandra” Mira said handing the slate to Isabel. Isabel took the slate and ran her hand over the slate. “What is this?” she asked.
“Have you discovered your special talent yet?” Mira questioned.
“Are you talking about dreamwalking?” Isabel asked.
“If that’s what you call entering another person’s mind, then yes. Well how do you enter these people’s minds?
“I have to have a picture of the person and then I run my hand over their picture and if they are asleep I can enter their dreams” Isabel stated.
“Well, all you need to do is envision the person’s mind you want to enter and run your hand over the slate.” Isabel did as she was told and as she ran her hand over the slate, Jesse’s face materialized before them. “Now, touch the picture.”
“Will this work, since he’s not asleep?” questioned Isabel.
“Try it out and see” Mira suggested. Isabel touched the picture and soon she was inside of Jesse’s mind, seeing how in awe he was with what was transpiring in the Kent’s living room. She left Jesse’s mind and looked at Mira.
“This is amazing! I always thought the subject had to be asleep for me to enter into their dreams. This will be very useful. Thank you.”
Mira turned back to her bag and pulled out an amulet. She walked over to Ava and handed it to her. “This amulet belonged to Avanya and it was given to her by her mother Tara. The stone inside of the amulet was taken from a crystal she grew and harvested from her home planet Krypton. It seems when Avanya wore this amulet it enhanced her abilities, in particular her mind warping ability. We’re not sure how it would react here with your Kryptonian side, because she was never exposed to a yellow sun, but I suspect it would enhance those abilities too.”
Avanya thanked her and put the amulet around her neck. Mira went back to her bag and pulled out a small buckle-like item and handed it to Max. Max looked it over and it was a square shaped object which had the Royal Antarian seal inlaid in a solid blue background. There was a black strap which was attached to the sides across the back. He looked up at Mira and asked, “And what does this do?”
“Well, one of your unique gifts is being able to produce a shield. By strapping this to your hand and pointing the Royal Seal in the direction in which you need the shield it will enhance your energy shield without draining you of your personnel resources. It uses the strength of the Royal Seal embedded into it.” Max strapped the shield enhancer to his hand and held his hand out and initiated his green shield. “Man, I could’ve really used this enhancer a couple of days ago” Max stated and then took off the enhancer. “Thank you.”
“You’re quite welcome” Mira said and turning towards Liz and Kyle she stated, “I don’t have any unique gifts for you, for we didn’t know of your existence until just recently.”
“We don’t require gifts Mira, but how do Kyle and I fit into your schedule of training?” Liz asked.
“Oh, and don’t forget my dad or Zan here” Kyle said.
“Yes, we could never forget about Zan. He will need to learn the same things as the others do. As far as Kyle, Liz and Kyle’s dad’s training, what specific gifts did they inherit?” Mira asked.
Liz spoke up first, “Well, I’m getting stronger each day and I’m able to do the same things the others can do, such as changing the molecular structure of things, but I’ve also developed some special gifts as well, such as receiving flashes, or premonitions and instead of sending out an energy blast like the others, green energy surges spring from my body. I also just inherited Tess’s ability of mind warping and in the past, with the help of Isabel, I was able to transport myself to New York, where I was able to warn Max of some impeding danger.”
“That’s impressive, all of those powers, just from Max saving your life. It almost sounds like you’re stronger in some ways than the others. Since you are the rightful King’s wife, I believe you need to study alongside the rest and work on developing and controlling your newfound abilities.” Then Mira turned towards Kyle. “So, what kind of gifts have you developed?”
“Well, I’m a late bloomer. I just recently began to develop some strange alien tendencies. Over the weekend, we found out I was able to freeze time just by yelling ‘Stop’ and restarting time by saying the word ‘Start’, but those of us with alien tendencies weren’t affected, just humans” informed Kyle.
Mira thought about this for a moment and like a light bulb had turned on, she spoke up excitedly. “This could become very useful indeed” she said. “Your gift isn’t just freezing time; you have a special gift indeed. Your gift is basically ‘the power of suggestion’.”
Kyle looked at her strangely so she continued to explain, “Let’s say you’re in a sticky situation with a human, all you have to do is think of a suggestion, voice it and it’ll happen.”
“You mean all I need to do is think about anything I want someone to do and voice my suggestion and a human will respond to my suggestion?”
“Yes, but you need to be careful and not abuse this ability, because your counterparts will keep you honest” she said turning towards the group. “If you’d like, think of a ‘nice’ suggestion for one of the humans to do and voice it.”
Maria and Liz both looked at Kyle simultaneously, who had a big grin on his face, they each knew Kyle all too well and really didn’t want to be the object of his test. Kyle thought about it and said, “Chloe, would you please get me a Snapple from the fridge and put some Tabasco sauce in it for me.”
As if on cue, Chloe got up from her position on the floor and proceeded to the kitchen to prepare Kyle’s Snapple, as Kyle looked over at Maria and Liz and said, “See, I can be nice.” Soon Chloe returned to the living room and handed Kyle his drink and sat back down on the floor and came out of her trance.
“That was so cool. You’re right Mira that could be a very useful gift. Thanks Chloe.” Kyle said holding his drink up to Chloe as if he was toasting her.
“What’s he on about Clark?” Chloe questioned.
Clark spoke up, “and the person under the ‘power of suggestion’ doesn’t remember anything either.”
“That’s right” Mira said.
“Was I the object of Kyle’s suggestion?” Chloe asked.
“Yes you were” Kyle said. “I only had you prepare a drink for me.” Chloe looked relieved and began to relax back in Clark’s lap again.
“Another part of your training will be learning to operate the Granolith and its many uses” Serena said. “I’ll be teaching each of you, including the humans in the groups how to use the Granolith, because you never know when you’ll need an escape and the Granolith, or at least its chamber is a great place to go. I’ll make it accessible to each of you, not just the Royal Family and Clark, but I’ll need to program you into the database. I’ll also need an assistant to help me out, because even though I can operate it by myself, having another person doing daily analysis with me will make my job easier.”
“I’ll help you out” Liz volunteered.
“Thank you Liz, I look forward to working with you. Now, when do we want to start training with each of you?” questioned Serena.
“What about my father?” questioned Kyle.
“What kind of abilities has he demonstrated?” Mira asked.
“Well, he hasn’t really demonstrated any ‘alien’ characteristics, but when I froze time back at the Crash Festival he wasn’t affected.” Kyle said.
“I see, so he’s in the beginning stages. Maybe we should wait and see what transpires and we’ll monitor his situation and when he starts demonstrating any ‘alien’ characteristics we’ll deal with it then. I think I’ll have Serena program him into the Granolith though and teach him how to use it, so he can contact us if he needs anything.” Mira suggested.
“That’s probably a good thing, because he’s a deputy and getting away from work will be hard enough” Kyle said.
“Well, I think we need to get Zan back tonight instead of tomorrow, since he decided to have a growing spurt while we were in Roswell.” Max stated, “His adoptive parents will definitely have some questions and I would also like to talk to Lionel Luther, if Martha can set up a meeting, to make the purchase of the Lang property go through smoothly” and turning towards Jesse he said, “and I would like to have you look over any contract to make sure everything is legit, plus this would be a perfect time to introduce you to Mr. Luthor and see if we can get you a job in Metropolis at one of his law firms.”
“And I need to get back to Metropolis too.” Chloe stated.
“Well, I need to get back to Roswell soon because Jim is picking me up around 2:30 so I can make my shift at the CrashDown by 3:00.” Ava stated.
“Okay, it looks like Max, Liz, Zan, Chloe, Jesse and, I’m assuming, Isabel and I will be going to Metropolis” Clark asked of the group at large. Everyone agreed. “So, we can drop Ava off at the cave and make sure she makes it back to Roswell and then we can go to Metropolis. The rest of you are welcome to hang out here on the farm, go into town or whatever you want to do. Now tomorrow, I’ve made arrangements to be at the ‘Fortress’ at the break of dawn to start my training with Jor-El until noon, so that’s where I’ll be. We’ll find out later what time I need to pick up Zan to bring him here for his training.”
“I need to know when I need to be here for training purposes, so I can work around my work schedule at the CrashDown” stated Ava.
Mira and Serena were sitting back totally confused. What was everyone talking about? They each thought when they set out to train the Royal Four, they would have their full attention, but by the sound of things this wasn’t the case. “Um, Max, what are you talking about? Where are you taking Zan and why is Ava leaving to go back to Roswell and what’s this training Clark’s talking about and how does this fit into what we need to teach you all?” Mira asked.
Max explained, “Well, in order to pass as humans, we’ve had to fit ourselves into society, which means getting jobs to earn money to pay for bills. Ava has a job back in Roswell and if she just disappears, it’ll bring attention to our situation. We have also placed a deposit on the neighboring farm so we have a place to live, instead of imposing on Mrs. Kent’s hospitality, so Jesse needs to come with us to talk to a very powerful individual to work out the details of this transaction and possibly get a job in one of his firms. Chloe works for a newspaper company, basically a place that sends out the daily news to all the people. She’s our eyes and ears to what’s happening in the world around us. Clark has his own training sessions he needs to attend. There’s a place known as the Fortress of Solitude, which is a replica of Clark’s home planet, and his biological father Jor-El has designed a training program within its confines. Clark needs to attend his training session each morning and then he can go to Metropolis and pick up Zan. When Tess came back to Earth with Zan, she stated that he was all human, which was the reason Antar rejected him, so instead of subjecting him to the alien chaos we lived each day, I gave him up for adoption hoping he would have a chance at living a normal life. Well, we recently found out that Zan is by no means normal and his adoptive family, Bob and Brenda Chambers are aware of our existence. They are also aware of the prophecy involving Zan and have agreed to have him available for training, but he is also their child legally. We’ve made arrangements so he can attend public school and keep up the front of a normal child with the Chambers during the days and Clark has agreed to pick him up at nights and bring him back here for training purposes and we’ve also agreed to switch off weekends too. Liz, Maria and Kyle will probably search for jobs in Smallville. Now Michael, Isabel and I will be free to train whenever you need us. I think we can work around everyone’s schedule; we just need to take a look at it and go from there.”
Mira and Serena thought about it and it made sense. They could work with Michael, Isabel and Max in the mornings and work with Ava, Kyle, Liz and Zan in the evenings and somewhere in there allow Ava and Zan to work with Clark to hone in on their Kryptonian abilities. They voiced their idea and everyone thought that would work out for the best. Martha had slipped off earlier to phone Lionel to make arrangements for the kids to meet with him at his office. Lionel agreed and once they made their final arrangements, the group that was going to Metropolis loaded up in the van, along with Ava and began their trip to Metropolis, making a stop at the Kewatchee Caves to drop off Ava.
Michael, Maria, Kyle, Mira, Serena and Martha stayed on the farm and made themselves comfortable. After all it had been a very enlightening day.
The group traveled through the vortex of the Granolith in its web-like tunnels and soon they were standing in the Kewatchee caves. Mira, Serena, Jesse and Ava looked around and then Ava said, “What the heck was that?” feeling her body, making sure she had arrived in one piece. “I thought the Granolith was some kind of spaceship.”
“The Granolith has many uses, which is the reason why it is a well sought after artifact from our galaxy” Serena stated, “but I can educate you on the many uses of the Granolith later, shall we make our way to this place called ‘Smallville’?”
Stepping outside the caves, Mira and Serena took a deep breath. The air was so different than Antar. They also noted they weren’t able to smell anything either. That was odd. Earth was an interesting place. They walked through a wooded area until it opened up to a cornfield that had recently been harvested of its corn. Mira sneezed and looked towards the group. Serena looked at her with a strange expression on her face and then she turned towards Max and asked, “What was that?”
“She sneezed. You’ve never sneezed before?” Max asked.
“No, I guess I haven’t. It kind of tickles” Mira stated.
“Don’t worry Mira, I don’t think I have ever sneezed either” Clark offered.
“Really?” Chloe asked. Clark nodded and then led the group towards his farm and entered his house through the kitchen door. “Mom, are you home?”
“Hello Clark” Martha said coming down the stairs, “I see you’ve made it back safely.” She went over to Clark and kissed him on his cheek and then she noticed that there were a few extra people. She held the door opened for the rest of the group to enter and closed it when everyone was inside the house. “So, how was the festival?”
“Oh, Mrs. Kent, it was awesome!” exclaimed Chloe. “I took lots of pictures and maybe later Isabel and Ava can set up their mock theater and I can show you.”
“That would be great Chloe. So, which one is Ava?” Martha questioned.
“Sorry about that,” Clark started, “Mom, this is Ava, Ava this is my mother Martha Kent.” Ava and Martha exchanged pleasantries.
“And this is Jesse, Isabel’s husband” Clark said, as Jesse and Martha acknowledged each other.
“And this is Mira and Serena” Clark said, introducing their new alien friends. “Max will have to explain who they are, because I’m still lost.”
“Well, from what I can figure out Mira is my mother’s Royal Protector and Serena is the Keeper of the Granolith, but that’s all we know” Max said turning towards Mira and Serena he continued, “shall we sit down and try to figure out what’s going on?” Everyone agreed and took a place in the living room.
“What’s a Royal Protector?” Chloe asked.
“A Royal Protector is exactly that, we protect members of the Royal Family on Antar. To become a Royal Protector we are subjected to many tests and have to graduate at the top of our class. Once we are accepted as a Royal Protector a binding spell is performed to bind the Protector to a member of the Royal Family. In my case, I’m bound to your mother Your Hi…sorry, Max” Mira said.
“So, when did you meet up with Mira and Serena?” Martha said, looking towards Max.
“They arrived at the Granolith at the same time that we were trying to activate it to come back here” informed Max.
“Max, I think if anyone is lost it’s Serena and me” started Mira, “how is it all these humans know about you and how did you find Clark and …” Mira and Serena had many questions, which they kept listing off for Max and the group to answer. After a couple of hours of explaining how the Pod Squad came into the world, Max saving Liz’s life, which introduced the first human into their little club, finding Tess and mating with her, Tess’s departure to Antar and her return, meeting up with the Dupes in New York and their adventures with the Skins in Copper Summit and the continuing investigation by the Special Unit it seemed like they were up to speed with the Pod Squad’s years in Roswell. Then they continued to explain how they found Zan and met up with Clark and their weekend’s adventure back in Roswell. During this question and answer period, Isabel and Ava set up the mock theater and showed their picture slide to the group. Martha loved the pictures of Clark dressed up as the Alienator and the other pictures of the UFO Convention and the Crash Festival. After the slide show, Max turned towards Mira and Serena and asked them about what actually happened the night the Royal Four died, their mother, Antar and their reason for coming to Earth.
“We can only tell you what we witnessed” Mira started. “I guess we should start out with a history lesson, so you’ll understand how everything fits into the scheme of things and along the way, we should be able to answer most of your questions.”
She continued, “I should probably start with your parents” she said looking towards Max and Isabel, “King Leonas, your father, fell madly in love with Lady Ankaa and after a brief courtship the two were married, as the custom was when the three moons of the Whirlwind Galaxy were aligned. This was supposed to bring good luck to the young couple. During your father’s reign, the Whirlwind Galaxy lived in peaceful times. The ‘Five Planets’ got along and all was well. Then your father contracted a deadly virus, which took your father’s life. There was a special summit held with the leaders of the ‘Five Planets’ and they took a vote and Zan was offered his father’s place on the throne. Not everyone was happy about this, especially Khivar, who was representing the citizens of Celaeno, his home planet. He thought he should’ve been chosen to succeed King Leonas, but the council had voted. This was when he started to devise a plan to assassinate King Zan and his family.”
Mira took a break, and allowed everyone to absorb the information she had just related and continued. “During his reign, King Zan found love on one of the ‘Five Planets’ known as Dione. King Larek’s cousin Avanya caught his eye and soon they were married. Now, I don’t know if you’re aware of Avanya’s heritage. Her mother Tara Lor-Van was a Kryptonian and if I’m not mistaken, she was your mother’s sister Clark. Anyways, when her shipped crashed on Dione, King Larek’s uncle rescued her and a relationship was formed. So, Avanya was the by-product of two different worlds, Krypton and Dione.”
"Yeah, we recently learned about her mixed heritage from Larek, who told us about the prophecy - that is how we found out that Zan is the one the prophecy speaks of, since he is a product of three worlds" informed Max.
You’ve spoken with King Larek? How can that be? Mira asked.
“I guess there is a way for people from our world to use human bodies as vessels for coming to Earth. Larek uses the body of Brody Davis, my former employer at the UFO center to communicate with me.” Max said.
“Well, it’s not just an Antarian thing” Clark interceded, “Jor-El’s essence uses the body of Lionel Luthor to communicate with me sometimes too.”
“This is another very interesting development we’ll have to report to Lady Ankaa.” Mira said.
“I have a question” Ava spoke up, “was that your or our true form when you entered the Granolith?”
Serena answered apprehensively, “Yes that is our true form, but it will never be yours. When you were engineered we had to combine the DNA sequences, which is the reason you will never be able to look like us or shapeshift. Why do you ask, was our true form frightening to you?”
“Honestly, I was a little shocked” admitted Ava, “but I always had the feeling that individuals on our home planet didn’t look like us. The reason I asked is because if Avanya’s mother was Kryptonian, and they have a human-like body” she said looking towards Clark, “then how did her parents get together?”
Mira answered her, “When Tara’s shipped crash near Mirek’s dwelling she was unconscious. Mirek pulled her from the crash and brought her back to his domicile. Not wanting to frighten her, he shapeshifted into a human form, and cared for her. Eventually, she learned of his true form, but a bond had already been formed between the two. They were unsure if they could have any children, but a miracle happened and Avanya came into the world. Her form looked like ours, except she had such bright blue eyes. Avanya was also very gifted in the sciences, another gift she received from her mother. Her mother had told her stories of her life on Krypton and how a person’s status in the community was based on their knowledge of the sciences and technology. In fact…” she looked towards Clark, “I believe your mother Lara Lor-Van was an astronaut at one time, before a highly revered scientist destroyed one of their moons while engaging in one of his experiments which shifted Krypton’s position in the galaxy. After that incident, the “Science Council,’ their government body, decreed that space flight was illegal. Lara moved to the capital city of Kryptonopolis and got an apprenticeship under Jor-El. Tara, not wanting to be constrained under these new laws, left Krypton.”
“Wow Clark, it’s amazing how closely intertwined your two worlds are” Chloe remarked.
“I’m beginning to realize that” Clark stated.
“Well Serena, to answer your question Michael, Isabel, Liz and I have seen glimpses of Nasedo, one of our protectors, true forms when he died and we used the healing stones to bring him back, as well as when he died and reverted back to his true form and then to dust, so your true form wasn’t so much of a shock” Max stated. “I also witnessed Cal, our other protector, change into his true form before he transferred into one of the spacecrafts we found, but the ship was too damaged to fly” Max offered.
“You stated that Nasedo is dead?” Serena asked soberly.
“Yes. He died in my arms. A Skin got to him and fatally injured him” Max said remembering that day outside his bedroom window. “But the only Skin that remains on Earth that I’m aware of is Nicholas, Khivar’s right hand man, or I should say boy, I believe we destroyed the other Skins a couple years back when they took us hostage and Tess had reached for some kind of undiscovered power and burnt them to a crisp.”
“That sounds a lot like your heat vision Clark” Martha responded.
“That’s what I was thinking. I’m able to control it now, but when I first started developing this ability I was torching everything in sight” Clark mused. “I can’t imagine what Tess was feeling after that had happened to her, not realizing it may have been her Kryptonian self sneaking out.”
“So, where is Cal? Is he dead too?” asked Mira.
“No, unfortunately he’s still alive and living the life up in Los Angeles” Max said.
“You sound like you don’t like him much” Mira responded.
“I think he’s been on this planet too long. He has never really been there to help us out. I know he’s kept track of us, but when I learned there was another protector on Earth, I went searching for him. Let’s just say the ‘Welcome’ rug wasn’t laid out for me. I had to find out the ‘rules’ on my own; that he had to follow my orders and that he was unable to harm or kill me. But once I discovered this important piece of information, I had him do things against his will and let’s just say I regret what happened and if we can leave him out of this situation since I know he has no notions of going back to Antar, I’d appreciate it” informed Max.
“I think since Serena and I are here, we should be able to train and educate you all without any help from Cal, but if things get to the point were we need some extra help, we may be forced to call upon him” Mira stated.
Max reluctantly agreed and then Isabel spoke up, “This has been bugging me since it was brought to my attention. Did Vilandra really betray her family to Khivar?”
Mira sighed and said, “this is the point where I tell you about the night that the Royal Four were killed, but before I do, I should probably tell you the events that led up to that fateful night. As I said earlier, Lady Ankaa learned that there was a plot to assassinate the Royal family. To save the Royal Bloodline, Lady Ankaa called for a secret meeting among her most trusted advisors and scientists. They devised a plan to extract the essence of the Royal Four and combine them with the DNA of certain humans our scientists had been studying for years. By using the gandarium, a living crystal native to our planets, they were able to link the DNA sequences together. They created two sets of Alien-Hybrids, in case something happened to one of the sets, and sent them to Earth with four Royal Protectors.
While all this was happening, the palace was preparing for the royal wedding between Princess Vilandra and General Rath. Vilandra was betrothed to Rath, as was the custom and everything on the surface showed the union was a good one, but Khivar was secretly having meetings with Vilandra, pulling her into his web. By this time there were some rebellions going on between the planets, mainly due to Khivar’s influence. Now, everything I tell you about that night is all second hand, related to me throughout the years by acquaintances that were there when the Royal Four were murdered. It is said that Khivar had convinced Vilandra that he needed a meeting with her brother to try and resolve some of the problems going on between the planets. Zan had banned entrance to Khivar into the palace because he had learned that Khivar was behind most of the unsettlements within the galaxy. Vilandra was just convinced that Khivar wanted to make amends; so on that fateful night she allowed him entry through one of the back gates. She made it all the way into the throne room when Khivar ran a blade through her back, striking her heart. Rath had run into the room, hearing Vilandra’s final scream and was held down by Lycus and Chimarus, two of Khivar’s followers, as Khivar ran his blade through Rath, as he looked into his dying eyes. By this time the palace was awoken as Zan and Avanya rushed into the room to see Rath and Vilandra’s bodies lying on the floor. They were captured and held down as well and Khivar murdered them. I was with Lady Ankaa when we heard the commotion and I followed My Lady into the throne room to see Khivar standing over the bodies of the Royal Four, blood dripping from his blade. My job as a protector was to protect Lady Ankaa, so I pulled her away from the scene and rushed her through the underground tunnels to an awaiting spacecraft. We flew off to one of the furthest planets in our galaxy called Asterie, where we’ve been in hiding since. So, I don’t believe Vilandra was to blame for their demise. I think she thought she was doing what was best for the galaxy. I do believe she had some kind of relationship with Khivar, he was after all a dashing young man, but she was naïve and got entwined in his web of lies and she and her family paid the final price.”
“Thank you” Isabel said, “I’ve always wondered what actually happened. It’s nice to know that there are some individuals out there that don’t think Vilandra and in a sense I betrayed my family, at least now I can concentrate on ridding the world of Khivar and his followers and maybe the next time Khivar decides to make his presence known, I won’t be so influenced by him.”
“Has Khivar made contact with you?” Mira asked surprised.
“Oh yeah, he crashed Isabel and Jesse’s wedding and followed them on their honeymoon.” Kyle said.
Jesse was hearing all this for the first time. Granted, the first night of their honeymoon was definitely strange. In fact, they didn’t even consummate their union until the following day. He looked towards Isabel for some answers but Max spoke up.
“Jesse, don’t blame Isabel. Yes, Khivar crashed the wedding and honeymoon. This was before you knew about our existence and when we learned that Khivar had crashed the wedding and had a dance with Isabel, Michael and I followed you guys on your honeymoon.”
“I remember that. I was wondering what was going on and why you two were there on our honeymoon. I thought you were taking the brother/sister relationship just a bit too far” Jesse responded.
“Well, Khivar took over the body of a bystander and tried to talk Isabel into returning to Antar with him. He wasn’t too thrilled to see her getting married and he almost succeeded, but you showed up Jesse and stood up to Khivar. Isabel had to knock you out, but after the confrontation Khivar opened up a portal and proceeded to take Isabel and himself back to Antar, but Isabel pushed him into the portal, separating him from the human body he was using, Isabel said some choice words and then he disappeared.”
“Jesse, do you remember that guy named ‘Kevin’?” Isabel asked her husband. He nodded yes. “Remembering me telling you that he made me feel uncomfortable, well that was Khivar.”
“Now it all makes sense.” Jesse said.
“It looks like Khivar’s discovered a new mode of transportation,” Serena stated. “This is very interesting, definitely something to report back to Lady Ankaa.”
“What can you tell us about our mother?” Isabel asked.
“Well, considering I am your mother’s protector, I’ve gotten to know her the best. She is a fair and kind person. She captured the King’s heart and I think a lot of her can be seen in both of her children. She is very beautiful and was able to capture the eye of many Antarians, but it was your father that captured her heart. She is also very artistic. She loves listening to music and painting the scenes from her past, as well as what she could see out our cave dwelling. Some nights, she would sit there for hours watching the lightning dance and the thunder roar. She said it was nature’s music. It really killed her that night, seeing her children lying there dead on the throne room floor and she vowed that she would never quit searching for you. She left a message on the ship that she sent you in, did you receive it?” asked Mira.
“Yes we did. We found it buried in the desert. It basically called out to us” Max said.
“From the communication we saw she was so beautiful. It doesn’t matter if she has an ‘alien’ body or a human one, she’s my, our mother. Why didn’t she come with you?” Isabel asked.
“Well, there are a few reasons. First, I think she was afraid that you would be frightened by her true appearance. She used a human form to communicate with you in the orb, but she looks like we did when we entered the Granolith. She wanted us to prepare you for your return to Antar, which includes teaching you about our customs, traits, and heritage so you are ready to take your place as our rightful King.” Mira said.
“Do you think the individuals in the Whirlwind Galaxy will accept me or Zan as their King? When Tess returned from Antar she said that they rejected Zan because of his human status and you just said that we are stuck with the bodies we have.” Max questioned.
“Well, considering Khivar took over the throne without even calling another summit and since our worlds have been in a constant civil war with each other, having the true King back on the throne might be the one thing to bring peace back to our worlds. Plus, whatever lies Khivar fed Tess; I find it hard to believe the people wouldn’t accept Zan. In fact, I heard from one of our spies in the Antarian Palace that Tess or who our spies referred to as Avanya was carrying a babe and was under heavy guards. I understand she and Khivar had an argument and then she escaped with the babe to Earth, which totally enraged Khivar.” Serena explained.
“Plus, there’s the Prophecy” Mira said, “Which is the other reason Lady Ankaa didn’t travel with us. She is going to travel to each of the planets in our galaxy and spread the word of your existence along with the contents of the Prophecy. She is hoping to gain the support of each of these planets, except for Celaeno, and here she’ll have to seek out the rebellious groups, which includes individuals that you refer to as ‘Skins’, and get their support.”
“So, since you were able to travel through the Granolith to get here, can we use it to return to Antar and visit our mother?” Isabel asked.
Apprehensive of answering this question, Mira said, “Technically yes. But, I’m under your mother’s orders to educate and train you before we return to Antar. Plus, the Granolith is located on Asterie and your mother is probably no where near it at this point.”
Succumbing to the realization that Mira was right and they would have to wait to see their mother; Max asked, “So, what are you going to teach us?”
“Well, it looks like most of your knowledge comes from first hand experiences and maybe a little from Nasedo, but we’ve got a lot to cover. First of all, we will teach you about our worlds and the different customs we have. This will also include learning to read, write and speak our language. We will also concentrate on improving upon your current abilities and possibly discover some new ones.” Mira said and then reached into her bag and pulled out a small cylinder that had a silver handprint on it with more glyph writing in its center. She walked over to Michael and handed it to him. “Michael, this belonged to General Rath” Michael took the cylinder and looked it over. It didn’t look like much. “Before we left the palace, some of the other Royal Protectors went back to the Royal Four’s chamber and acquired some of their personal items and brought them to the ship.”
“What exactly is this?” Michael said, still checking out the cylinder piece he had. Maria moved in closer to check it out too. “Why don’t you step over here” Mira directed Michael to the center of the room. “Now, place your hand on the silver handprint there.”
Michael grasped the cylinder, laying his hand on the silver handprint, and brilliant blue blades extended from each end of the cylinder and magically formed into a continually bladed staff. “What you have there is the weapon of choice of General Rath. He was the only one that could operate the staff, because it only responds to General Rath’s signature. I will teach you how to use this weapon and we will work on furthering your knowledge of navigating and warfare tactics. Now if you just lay your hand on the cylinder again and just think of retracting the blades it will listen to your thoughts.”
Michael did as he was instructed and closed the blade. There was a wide grin on Michael’s face. He finally realized he had a place in the scheme of things that did not simply involve blasting rocks into dust.
Mira reached again into her bag and pulled out a greenish gold slate and turned towards Isabel, “Now, this belonged to Vilandra” Mira said handing the slate to Isabel. Isabel took the slate and ran her hand over the slate. “What is this?” she asked.
“Have you discovered your special talent yet?” Mira questioned.
“Are you talking about dreamwalking?” Isabel asked.
“If that’s what you call entering another person’s mind, then yes. Well how do you enter these people’s minds?
“I have to have a picture of the person and then I run my hand over their picture and if they are asleep I can enter their dreams” Isabel stated.
“Well, all you need to do is envision the person’s mind you want to enter and run your hand over the slate.” Isabel did as she was told and as she ran her hand over the slate, Jesse’s face materialized before them. “Now, touch the picture.”
“Will this work, since he’s not asleep?” questioned Isabel.
“Try it out and see” Mira suggested. Isabel touched the picture and soon she was inside of Jesse’s mind, seeing how in awe he was with what was transpiring in the Kent’s living room. She left Jesse’s mind and looked at Mira.
“This is amazing! I always thought the subject had to be asleep for me to enter into their dreams. This will be very useful. Thank you.”
Mira turned back to her bag and pulled out an amulet. She walked over to Ava and handed it to her. “This amulet belonged to Avanya and it was given to her by her mother Tara. The stone inside of the amulet was taken from a crystal she grew and harvested from her home planet Krypton. It seems when Avanya wore this amulet it enhanced her abilities, in particular her mind warping ability. We’re not sure how it would react here with your Kryptonian side, because she was never exposed to a yellow sun, but I suspect it would enhance those abilities too.”
Avanya thanked her and put the amulet around her neck. Mira went back to her bag and pulled out a small buckle-like item and handed it to Max. Max looked it over and it was a square shaped object which had the Royal Antarian seal inlaid in a solid blue background. There was a black strap which was attached to the sides across the back. He looked up at Mira and asked, “And what does this do?”
“Well, one of your unique gifts is being able to produce a shield. By strapping this to your hand and pointing the Royal Seal in the direction in which you need the shield it will enhance your energy shield without draining you of your personnel resources. It uses the strength of the Royal Seal embedded into it.” Max strapped the shield enhancer to his hand and held his hand out and initiated his green shield. “Man, I could’ve really used this enhancer a couple of days ago” Max stated and then took off the enhancer. “Thank you.”
“You’re quite welcome” Mira said and turning towards Liz and Kyle she stated, “I don’t have any unique gifts for you, for we didn’t know of your existence until just recently.”
“We don’t require gifts Mira, but how do Kyle and I fit into your schedule of training?” Liz asked.
“Oh, and don’t forget my dad or Zan here” Kyle said.
“Yes, we could never forget about Zan. He will need to learn the same things as the others do. As far as Kyle, Liz and Kyle’s dad’s training, what specific gifts did they inherit?” Mira asked.
Liz spoke up first, “Well, I’m getting stronger each day and I’m able to do the same things the others can do, such as changing the molecular structure of things, but I’ve also developed some special gifts as well, such as receiving flashes, or premonitions and instead of sending out an energy blast like the others, green energy surges spring from my body. I also just inherited Tess’s ability of mind warping and in the past, with the help of Isabel, I was able to transport myself to New York, where I was able to warn Max of some impeding danger.”
“That’s impressive, all of those powers, just from Max saving your life. It almost sounds like you’re stronger in some ways than the others. Since you are the rightful King’s wife, I believe you need to study alongside the rest and work on developing and controlling your newfound abilities.” Then Mira turned towards Kyle. “So, what kind of gifts have you developed?”
“Well, I’m a late bloomer. I just recently began to develop some strange alien tendencies. Over the weekend, we found out I was able to freeze time just by yelling ‘Stop’ and restarting time by saying the word ‘Start’, but those of us with alien tendencies weren’t affected, just humans” informed Kyle.
Mira thought about this for a moment and like a light bulb had turned on, she spoke up excitedly. “This could become very useful indeed” she said. “Your gift isn’t just freezing time; you have a special gift indeed. Your gift is basically ‘the power of suggestion’.”
Kyle looked at her strangely so she continued to explain, “Let’s say you’re in a sticky situation with a human, all you have to do is think of a suggestion, voice it and it’ll happen.”
“You mean all I need to do is think about anything I want someone to do and voice my suggestion and a human will respond to my suggestion?”
“Yes, but you need to be careful and not abuse this ability, because your counterparts will keep you honest” she said turning towards the group. “If you’d like, think of a ‘nice’ suggestion for one of the humans to do and voice it.”
Maria and Liz both looked at Kyle simultaneously, who had a big grin on his face, they each knew Kyle all too well and really didn’t want to be the object of his test. Kyle thought about it and said, “Chloe, would you please get me a Snapple from the fridge and put some Tabasco sauce in it for me.”
As if on cue, Chloe got up from her position on the floor and proceeded to the kitchen to prepare Kyle’s Snapple, as Kyle looked over at Maria and Liz and said, “See, I can be nice.” Soon Chloe returned to the living room and handed Kyle his drink and sat back down on the floor and came out of her trance.
“That was so cool. You’re right Mira that could be a very useful gift. Thanks Chloe.” Kyle said holding his drink up to Chloe as if he was toasting her.
“What’s he on about Clark?” Chloe questioned.
Clark spoke up, “and the person under the ‘power of suggestion’ doesn’t remember anything either.”
“That’s right” Mira said.
“Was I the object of Kyle’s suggestion?” Chloe asked.
“Yes you were” Kyle said. “I only had you prepare a drink for me.” Chloe looked relieved and began to relax back in Clark’s lap again.
“Another part of your training will be learning to operate the Granolith and its many uses” Serena said. “I’ll be teaching each of you, including the humans in the groups how to use the Granolith, because you never know when you’ll need an escape and the Granolith, or at least its chamber is a great place to go. I’ll make it accessible to each of you, not just the Royal Family and Clark, but I’ll need to program you into the database. I’ll also need an assistant to help me out, because even though I can operate it by myself, having another person doing daily analysis with me will make my job easier.”
“I’ll help you out” Liz volunteered.
“Thank you Liz, I look forward to working with you. Now, when do we want to start training with each of you?” questioned Serena.
“What about my father?” questioned Kyle.
“What kind of abilities has he demonstrated?” Mira asked.
“Well, he hasn’t really demonstrated any ‘alien’ characteristics, but when I froze time back at the Crash Festival he wasn’t affected.” Kyle said.
“I see, so he’s in the beginning stages. Maybe we should wait and see what transpires and we’ll monitor his situation and when he starts demonstrating any ‘alien’ characteristics we’ll deal with it then. I think I’ll have Serena program him into the Granolith though and teach him how to use it, so he can contact us if he needs anything.” Mira suggested.
“That’s probably a good thing, because he’s a deputy and getting away from work will be hard enough” Kyle said.
“Well, I think we need to get Zan back tonight instead of tomorrow, since he decided to have a growing spurt while we were in Roswell.” Max stated, “His adoptive parents will definitely have some questions and I would also like to talk to Lionel Luther, if Martha can set up a meeting, to make the purchase of the Lang property go through smoothly” and turning towards Jesse he said, “and I would like to have you look over any contract to make sure everything is legit, plus this would be a perfect time to introduce you to Mr. Luthor and see if we can get you a job in Metropolis at one of his law firms.”
“And I need to get back to Metropolis too.” Chloe stated.
“Well, I need to get back to Roswell soon because Jim is picking me up around 2:30 so I can make my shift at the CrashDown by 3:00.” Ava stated.
“Okay, it looks like Max, Liz, Zan, Chloe, Jesse and, I’m assuming, Isabel and I will be going to Metropolis” Clark asked of the group at large. Everyone agreed. “So, we can drop Ava off at the cave and make sure she makes it back to Roswell and then we can go to Metropolis. The rest of you are welcome to hang out here on the farm, go into town or whatever you want to do. Now tomorrow, I’ve made arrangements to be at the ‘Fortress’ at the break of dawn to start my training with Jor-El until noon, so that’s where I’ll be. We’ll find out later what time I need to pick up Zan to bring him here for his training.”
“I need to know when I need to be here for training purposes, so I can work around my work schedule at the CrashDown” stated Ava.
Mira and Serena were sitting back totally confused. What was everyone talking about? They each thought when they set out to train the Royal Four, they would have their full attention, but by the sound of things this wasn’t the case. “Um, Max, what are you talking about? Where are you taking Zan and why is Ava leaving to go back to Roswell and what’s this training Clark’s talking about and how does this fit into what we need to teach you all?” Mira asked.
Max explained, “Well, in order to pass as humans, we’ve had to fit ourselves into society, which means getting jobs to earn money to pay for bills. Ava has a job back in Roswell and if she just disappears, it’ll bring attention to our situation. We have also placed a deposit on the neighboring farm so we have a place to live, instead of imposing on Mrs. Kent’s hospitality, so Jesse needs to come with us to talk to a very powerful individual to work out the details of this transaction and possibly get a job in one of his firms. Chloe works for a newspaper company, basically a place that sends out the daily news to all the people. She’s our eyes and ears to what’s happening in the world around us. Clark has his own training sessions he needs to attend. There’s a place known as the Fortress of Solitude, which is a replica of Clark’s home planet, and his biological father Jor-El has designed a training program within its confines. Clark needs to attend his training session each morning and then he can go to Metropolis and pick up Zan. When Tess came back to Earth with Zan, she stated that he was all human, which was the reason Antar rejected him, so instead of subjecting him to the alien chaos we lived each day, I gave him up for adoption hoping he would have a chance at living a normal life. Well, we recently found out that Zan is by no means normal and his adoptive family, Bob and Brenda Chambers are aware of our existence. They are also aware of the prophecy involving Zan and have agreed to have him available for training, but he is also their child legally. We’ve made arrangements so he can attend public school and keep up the front of a normal child with the Chambers during the days and Clark has agreed to pick him up at nights and bring him back here for training purposes and we’ve also agreed to switch off weekends too. Liz, Maria and Kyle will probably search for jobs in Smallville. Now Michael, Isabel and I will be free to train whenever you need us. I think we can work around everyone’s schedule; we just need to take a look at it and go from there.”
Mira and Serena thought about it and it made sense. They could work with Michael, Isabel and Max in the mornings and work with Ava, Kyle, Liz and Zan in the evenings and somewhere in there allow Ava and Zan to work with Clark to hone in on their Kryptonian abilities. They voiced their idea and everyone thought that would work out for the best. Martha had slipped off earlier to phone Lionel to make arrangements for the kids to meet with him at his office. Lionel agreed and once they made their final arrangements, the group that was going to Metropolis loaded up in the van, along with Ava and began their trip to Metropolis, making a stop at the Kewatchee Caves to drop off Ava.
Michael, Maria, Kyle, Mira, Serena and Martha stayed on the farm and made themselves comfortable. After all it had been a very enlightening day.
***Waves to all the Lurkers too***
