After going through the details with his parents, Jonathan and Martha were both astounded that there was someone else with similar abilities as their son. They all knew the likelihood that this person is still alive, and that Clark needs to find out who he is. However, the two were merely glad that Clark was safe at home and his identity secure.
Clark showed the crystals to his parents and watched as Jonathan picked one up. He took a long look at the crystal, holding it up to the light and said, “Come on Kal-El, let’s see what these are all about.” The three headed back down to the cellar.
When they got down there, they watched as Clark found the appropriate slot for each differently shaped crystal. One by one he put the four crystals in the console. The four crystals lit up. A blue light appeared in a crack from beneath the console. Clark pushed on the crack and out slid a drawer. Inside the drawer shone a single blue crystal.
Clark picked up the blue crystal that was half the size of the other four. He noticed that there weren’t any more slots opened. “Can’t wait to see what this one does,” Clark said as he turned to his father.
Once again, Clark began to talk to Jor-El as his parents deafly watched. He received further instructions and explanations. He was also informed of the purpose of the new blue crystal.
Clark asked Jor-El many questions, and he told him about the other man with similar super capabilities. Jor-El then made Clark aware of the urgency that has now taken place because of this latest news. Clark let his parents know that Jor-El had told him to go construct his station and begin his training.
“Clark, you don’t even know where you’re going. You’re just going to listen to some voice coming from this ship?” asked Martha.
“Mom, I have to do this. Something just tells me that this is the right thing to do.”
“Jonathan, talk to your son. Tell him this is simply reckless.”
Jonathan simply shook his head. “This is just over our heads, Martha. Clark has always made the right decisions. I trust him.”
“I will not have my son go off to the polar ice caps. I don’t care how strong or fast he is.”
“I’ll be fine, mom.”
Jonathan stepped between his wife and his son. Looking at Clark he said, “Clark, let me have some time with your mother. You continue to talk to this Jor-El, we’ll be right back.”
“Sure thing dad.”
_______________________________________________________________________
The two talked outside the cellar. “Martha, now look, Clark is quite capable of taking care of himself. Our job of raising a boy into a man is almost done. He has become everything we could have wanted. But ever since we had that car accident and we flipped over, we both knew that the infant, who easily ripped the doors off to get us out, was here to do more than become a farmer.”
“Land’s sakes Jonathan, he’s still our boy. What do you want me to do?”
Sadly Jonathan said, “Let him go, Martha. We have to let him go.”
Martha put both hands to her face and sobbed into them. Seeing the sadness in her aged eyes made Jonathan wish it was seventeen years ago, when they were blessed with a child from the heavens. The past two decades have gone by too quickly he thought. He knew he was never able to give his beautiful wife a big family with sounds of laughter coming from children that filled her home.
Jonathan began to reach his hand out to comfort his one and only love, but his hand didn’t make the full extension. Instead of grasping his wife’s hand, he clutched on his chest. There was just too much heartbreak to comfort, and no one was there to comfort his. It was the sound of Jonathan’s body that crashed on the barn floor that made Martha scream out her husband’s name.
Clark was in the middle of listening to Jor-El when he was struck by the sheer terror of the sound in his mother’s voice. He quickly ran to her and saw her on her knees. He called for the help of his father, but soon noticed why his mother was on the barn floor. He shouted, “Mom, what happened? Is dad alright?”
“Clark, go call Dr. Pryce. Tell him your father is having a heart attack.” Clark ran inside the house and called for help. Martha looked back at her husband. “Hold on Jonathan. Do you hear me? You’re not allowed to leave me.”
Clark made it back to the barn moments later. “Mom, the doctor said he’s at a medical convention for the day with the Ross’. We have to take him to Metropolis General.”
“Clark, that’s hours away. Just get your father in the car.”
“Let me take him, mom.”
“What? Clark we’re both going.” Martha said as though Clark thought he was staying behind.
“I’m not talking about driving. You won’t believe what Jor-El just told me I can do.”
“What Clark, what is it?”
“Just get the keys and head for Metro General. By the time you get there, dad will already have been admitted.” Martha watched as Clark picked up Jonathan and held him like a baby then left the barn. With Jonathan in his arms, Martha watched Clark squat down then push of the ground with both feet. She was pushed back from the force of the shock wave that Clark caused on the ground, but she was still able to see Clark fly off into the sky with her husband in his arms. Seconds after he was gone, Martha grabbed her purse and jumped in the truck.
_______________________________________________________________________
From up above, he found a secluded area to land. He was in the back alley of Metropolis General in mere moments. He continued to carry his father to the Emergency Room when he passed a homeless man getting dressed in an inoperative phone booth. He was hoping that he wasn’t seen by him, but then thought that no one would believe anything this man would have to say.
He was now out of the alley and screaming for help in the E.R. A doctor passing by stopped to help the young man in his situation. The doctor called for a gurney and had a nurse push a red button that was on the wall of her work place. Within minutes, there were seven more people in white coming to his father’s aid. As they were wheeling his father away, he heard someone say that they couldn’t find a pulse. With all his power, with all his ability, this last male Kent knew there was nothing he could have done to save his father.
Clark sunk in a waiting room chair. A few minutes later he happened to glance up at the television when he heard a reporter’s voice stating that there was an explosion of some kind at a police department’s forensic facility in Central City due to a lightning storm from the areas heat wave. They mentioned only one person was working that night, and he was taken out on a stretcher, a Barry Allen.
“I’m here to see Jonathan Kent. Where is he?” Clark heard someone ask by the desk.
“Mom?”
Martha turned around to see her son in the waiting room. She ran over to him and gave him a hug. “Clark! How is he?” Surprised, she asked, “They just have you waiting here?”
“This is the room to do that in.”
“You’re going to make jokes at a time like this. C’mon, let’s go.” Martha escorted Clark back up to the desk. “I demand to know what is going on with my husband. I want to speak to a doctor now.” Just after those words fell out of her mouth, a frail old man with a lab coat was already walking towards them.
“Mrs. Kent?” he asked.
“Yes. Is my husband alright?”
“I’m Dr. Vale, the Chief of Neurology and Cardiology. Mrs. Kent, your husband suffered from cardiopulmonary arrest or what we call SCA. I’m sorry, but we did everything we could. If it eases your mind, Mrs. Kent, he wasn’t in much pain for too long.”
“Are you telling me that Jonathan is dead? That my husband is dead?”
“I’m very sorry Mrs. Kent, but yes.” The doctor turned to leave as he saw Martha weeping on Clark’s shoulder.
Through his own tearful eyes, Clark watched the blurry doctor walk away. He was filled with hurt and anger, and when his tear dropped to the floor it cracked a single tile. After Martha had completed all the necessary paperwork, they headed home in silence.
Clark was the last one to walk through the door. “This is all my fault. I was just extra stress in his life, wasn’t I?”
“Clark, you shouldn’t think that at all. Your father’s health wasn’t in great condition to begin with even before you came into our lives. A heart beats only so many times in a life. Your father used his more than anyone I know. Your dad and I are just at that age now where our bodies are giving in.”
“That’s just another reason why I shouldn’t go up north yet. Maybe you were right.”426Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8sp9LSw3z0
“Clark that is what your dad and I were talking about when we left you in the cellar. And on the ride home from the hospital, I figured out that he was right. You were meant for greater things than to run this farm.”
“Ma’ I can’t leave you alone. There is still work to be done.”
“Nonsense, I have the Langs to help me out.”
“Yeah, but…”
“Not another word. Don’t forget about this other person who has abilities such as your own. You need to see that you’re able to stop him if it should come down to that. Every world needs its heroes, Clark. They inspire us to be better than we are. And they protect us from the darkness that's just around the corner."
Being inspired by her words and not wanting to let his mother down, Clark agreed to go and complete his training at the polar ice caps. A few days following Jonathan’s funeral, Clark set off with the crystals to go up north.
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Flying from up above, Clark gazed a remote area that would be a suitable spot that Jor-El suggested. He remembered Jor-El’s instructions about planting the blue crystal deep into the ground of sheer ice. Still in the air, Clark threw the crystal into the ground with tremendous force. The rocketing object split the earth as it fell straight down and dropped beneath the surface.
Standing on the snow and ice a few yards away from the hole he created, Clark heard a rumble from below his feet and felt the ground shake. Off in the distance he could see movement from the ground and what appeared to be a snowy white pyramid protruding from where the crystal had landed. He soon realized that this was no Egyptian relic.
After the ground stopped shaking, and when it appeared that his station was at its fullest, Clark made his way inside. Deep within the crystallized walls, Clark found a bigger replica of his ship’s console. On the floor, in the console area, he saw the same blue crystal. He looked up at the slots for the other crystals and noticed one blue slot among all the other clear ones. At once, Clark picked up the blue crystal and placed it in the same color slot (a perfect fit). He started to hear a high pitched, single tone that just repeated. He found it very annoying at first, but soon realized it was a beacon to his station. He removed the blue crystal from the slot until it was time for him to go. Having silenced the beacon, Clark removed from his bag the first crystal that he had received and placed it in its slot.
“You have brought a piece of Krypton back to existence. How do you like your isolated station my son?”
“A friend back home once told me that I had done such a swell job of isolating myself from others my age that I created my own fortress of solitude. I guess I actually have one now.”
“Kal-El, you need to forget about home for awhile. Your training will soon begin.”
“How long will my training last?”
“It is equal to that of one full phase of your moon.”
“Are you kidding me? That’s like a month. I have no food, no water…”
“You will soon see that your body does not require that sort of replenishment as frequently as the other inhabitants do. You have been brought up like them my son, and your mind has been trained to think like them. But like them you are not.”
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