Legion of Super-Heroes - Kal-El of Smallville

[fajrdrako_fic]

Title: Kal-El of Smallville
Author: fajrdrako
Fandom: Legion of Super-Heroes (DC Comics)
Characters: Clark Kent (Superboy), Pete Ross, Jo Nah (Ultra Boy)
Genre: Gen
Rating: G
Disclaimer: Not mine, no claims. Property of DC Comics all the way.
Note: Spoilers for vol. 4. This is one of a series of Legion of Super-Heroes stories I wrote in 1994 for the apazines Interlac, APA-247 and APA-LSH. Contextual notes follow the story.


Kal-El of Smallville

Visitors to Smallville had once been rare, but times change. Superboy had brought fame to the sleepy farming town. Fame brought strangers, and strangers were a target for greed. Or a product of it.

It was Mayor Kelly who conceived the idea of a Superboy Fair. Agricultural fairs, he argued, happened all the time. No one was going to come to Smallville for the hogs and the corn, as in previous years. No. These days, people came to Smallville hoping for a chance to see Superboy. You saw them on Sunday afternoons, driving into the town in their fresh-washed coupes, staring into the sky and into the faces of boys, any one of whom might be.... him.

The protest was token. Everyone loved the idea of the fair, except Clark Kent, who had been born Kal-El of Krypton, and who had reason for embarrassment.

"You're going to be more famous than ever, son," said Pa Kent, chuckling over the Smallville Beacon at breakfast. "You'll be the guest of honour at the fair. Balloons and fireworks, likely."

"May I see?" asked Kal, and his father, smiling, handed him the paper.

"Read it aloud," suggested Ma Kent, putting salt and pepper in his scrambled eggs. So he read: "'Smallville Fair renamed Superboy Fair. Smallville's favourite son will be the theme of this year's fair in June, with exhibits detailing what is known of this mysterious hero from Krypton. Since his daring rescue last week of the polar explorers trapped in an ice cave, reporters from New York and California have expressed interest in his home town. Those wishing to participate in the fair this year are encouraged to use the Superboy

theme....'"

"I can put the Superboy emblem in a sweater," suggested Ma Kent, stirring eggs with a thoughtful look.

"Ma!"

"I was going to put in turnips," said Pa Kent. "I could mark them with an S, or maybe paint them blue and red."

Kal groaned. Ma and Pa chuckled. "You're enjoying this!" he accused them.

"All your life, you'll have plenty of people wanting to look at you," said his mother. "You'd better learn how to deal with it, unless you can think of another alternative."

* * *

It is sometimes thought that nothing ever happens in a place like Smallville, but that had never been true, and was even less true while Superboy lived there. Days before the Superboy Fair opened, a new student enrolled at Smallville High.

This was unusual, since it was already the middle of June, with the year almost done. Gary Crane was given some sort of special permission to finish the year with everyone else, and came to classes one morning with his books under his arm and his sweater thrown casually over one shoulder, the top two buttons of his shirt casually unbuttoned.

Kal-El had been a little preoccupied with the matter of the Sheik of Tilkitu's alien jewels, and did not meet the stranger in any case until afternoon classes. He heard about him at lunchtime.

"Did you see the new boy?" Lana Lang asked Shirley Potter, and Shirley's answer was silent: expressively rolled eyes, pursed lips, and a dimple. This seemed to communicate something to the other girls, who suddenly started to talk all at once. Kal listened in amazement, but could make nothing of the half-finished sentences and the air of excitement.

"I wonder where he's from?" mused Lana, the first full sentence any of them had said in a full five minutes.

"San Francisco," said Pete Ross, sitting down with a sandwich and hot chocolate out of his thermos.

No one was ready to accept this at face value. "How do you know?" asked Patti Wray.

"I was working in the office when Mr. Clayton talked to him and his father about taking classes. Apparently some of his records had been destroyed in a terrible fire. They were pretty vague about their background, but Mr. Clayton registered him. He said it was good to see that Mr. Crane valued education."

"Ooh," said Patti. "I wish he'd educate me." She giggled. There were some who thought Patti was fast. Others just thought her slow.

"San Francisco," said Lana thoughtfully. "That explains why he seems so... sophisticated."

Was it sophistication? Kal wondered, when he met the brown-haired young man in geography class. True, Gary had a citified manner that was unusual in Smallville, but he didn't seem particularly good at naming state capitals, and though he was clearly bright, he didn't seem to be paying a lot of attention to the teacher, Miss Williams. Some of the time his mind seemed to be quite elsewhere. Failing to answer a question about the location of Atlantic City, he apologized to Miss Williams with such urbane charm that she failed to scold him at all, putting her normal role as the Dreaded Dragon of Smallville quite in jeopardy. Kal thought he detected a falseness in the charm, as if this Gary Crane thought himself better than his classmates, or smarter, or knew something they did not. Not that it would be surprising if Gary Crane was a smart alec,

and a little vain - he had looks, if the surreptitious glances of the girls were any indication, and poise that was rare anywhere. Time would teach him humility.

His accent did not sound Bostonian. Kal had been to Boston often enough to know. This was more like.... British? No, not exactly. Irish? It was almost foreign, yet the words were perfectly spoken. Almost too perfectly, as if he had studied acting, or as if he was a teacher himself. He sounded a little like someone in a Hollywood movie.

After school, Kal-El had to return to Tilkitu, where he was able to expose the attempted murder of the Sheik by his nephew. With the matter firmly in the hands of the Tilkitu legal system, Superboy flew back to Smallville, stopping merely to save a little girl's lost kitten on the way. Someone had to do it.

When he got there, it was to find the police in Pa Kent's General store, with quite a crowd milling about. "Dad, what happened here?" he asked, the anxiety in his voice real. If he had jeopardized them - or anyone in Smallville - by his presence, he would never forgive himself. Or if he had been away when they had needed him.

Pete Ross was looking relieved and proud at the same time. "I captured a crook who tried to rob the store," he said. He explained how the crook (a stranger who had come in on the morning train) had tried to hold up the store with a large blue gun, but Pete had defied him. Before the crook could make good his threats and shoot Pete, Superboy had melted the gun and the bullets with his heat-vision, and Pete had been able to restrain the crook while Pa Kent telephoned the police.

Kal was more than a little alarmed. He had not melted the gun. He hadn't even known what was going on. He had been in Tilkitu, near the Persian Gulf, but he could hardly explain this to Pete, who didn't know he was Superboy. Frowning slightly, he watched the policeman put the crook into his car, and noticed Gary

Crane and his father quickly walking away. His superhearing caught one word Gary was saying - "Superboy" - but Ben Crane's reply ("We shall see") revealed nothing.

Talking about Superboy was hardly a crime. Kal didn't want to be xenophobic, or to misjudge the Cranes when he hardly knew them, but he thought there was something odd about them. He picked up a bit of melted lead from the floor of the general store. Pa Kent put a hand on his shoulder. "Good work, son."

"I didn't do anything," said Kal. Pete Ross was out of earshot. "Dad, this is lead. I can't melt lead bullets. Someone melted them - but it wasn't me."

"Whoever it was, he did us a favour," said Pa Kent.

"Whoever it was, he may be more powerful than me. Who did this? I'm baffled."

"Beats me," said Pa, looking worried.

Later that evening, Pete came over for a chess game with Clark. Pete won. As he was leaving he said, "Clark, what do you think of Gary Crane?"

"He seemed okay." Kal was unwilling to mention the uneasy feelings he had about the Cranes.

"Yeah. The girls really like him. But...."

Pete was pretty perceptive sometimes. "But what?"

"I think he was following me."

"What do you mean?"

"After school, I went for an ice cream with Lana and Patti and the others. Gary was there. Well, so was half the class, that didn't mean much. But when I went home to drop off my books, he was at the corner of the street. I don't know how he could have got there so fast, when I'd left him at the ice cream shop talking with the others - well, with the girls. He must have run. He didn't look as if he had seen me. But then he turned up at you father's store while I was working. I saw him looking through the window in front just before the

robbery. Afterwards he just left."

"Maybe he had to buy something."

"But he didn't. He didn't come in."

"You think he had something to do with the robbery?"

"Seems far-fetched, doesn't it?" said Pete. "I guess it makes sense if he wants to explore the town a little. Still... if anything else happens, I'm going to watch him."

"I hope nothing else happens," said Kal, shuddering to think of Pa Kent in his store with a vicious armed gunman, and no one there to protect him but Pete.

* * *

Everyone was talking about the fair. It was going to open on Saturday, and the novelty of it generated an excitement that Smallville had not seen since an alien monster had menaced the Pastor's wife.

Superboy explored it on Friday morning, before anyone was about. On a bright June day, the sun was up early, shining on statues of himself in many poses, on games which duplicated his skills, on rides that promised to be like flying, on marvels that claimed to be like those of Krypton. He was amused and a little

frightened by it all. What had Ma Kent said? "All your life, you'll have plenty of people wanting to look at you. You'd better learn to deal with it." How? How could he manage to be hero and friend? To save them and help them without being officious? To teach them without compromising them? Because he was what

he was, he had to help; but he knew no one, not even Ma Kent, understood what the cost was.

He heard a scream.

It was Pete Ross. He was there in an instant, on the road out by the old stone bridge. Pete was unharmed. A boulder had fallen from the stone outcropping beside the road, which was odd, because that had never happened before. It had entirely blocked the road, and had it fallen a second later, would have smashed Pete's car and quite likely Pete in it. Pete was trying to act cool, but Kal could tell he was shaken.

The rocks weren't loose, or precarious. They had been there since Precambrian times. They were safe as houses. They had been checked out by the highway commission just last month - and Superboy had helped them establish that. Lifting the rock away, he looked carefully at it, and saw marks of burning. Someone had cut it, as if with an acetylene torch, but no torch known to man could have cut that rock from its base.

He put the rock back where it came from, wedged in a little further. Pete thanked him and he waved him off to school.

* * *

Nothing odd happened all afternoon, unless that something seemed to be bothering Krypto, who was licking his paw and looking indignant, as if he expected a gnat to bite him. Kal scratched his ears and talked to him, and threw a stick for him to fly after, and the pup cheered up. By that time it was just about time for the Superboy Fair to open, so he changed back into Clark Kent clothes and went to the fairgrounds.

Gary Crane was hanging around waiting for the Mayor to cut the ribbon and declare the fair open. So was half of Smallville, including Clark, Pete and Lana. "Look, there's Gary!" said Lana, and waved to him. He came over.

"Hi," he said, smiling at Lana broadly enough that the smile encompassed them all. "Quite an event, isn't it?"

"Superboy's the greatest hero we've ever had," said Pete. "It's about time we honoured him like this. He does so much for us, often risking his life, and for no reward at all."

Gary answered seriously. "There is a reward in doing something important. You don't know what motivates him. I bet he gets as much from you as you all do from him."

Now, how does he know that? wondered Kal.

"I wish I knew who he was, really," said Lana.

"Me, too," said Gary. "Do you think the Superboy exhibits will have any clues?"

Pete didn't comment. The gates opened. The Mayor welcomed everyone to the Fair. They went into the fairgrounds, where earlier Pete and Clark had helped Pa Kent set up a booth of turnips, potatoes, corn and lettuce, and where Ma Kent had not only sweaters and pies (marked with the S symbol) but also a patchwork quilt in Superboy's colors. "Your mother's amazing," said Pete, honestly admiring. He liked Ma Kent.

"You're lucky," said Gary quietly.

Lana touched his arm in sympathy. "Your mother's dead, Gary? I'm so sorry."

He shrugged. "It happens."

They went into the Life of Superboy pavilion. This was a real building, not just a tent, and the lit glass cases had memorabilia from Superboy's life. Not much of his life; mostly from his adventures. Some of it was pretty tenuous. Kal knew for a fact that the lever labelled as part of the spaceship that took him to earth was really part of a tractor made in Cleveland, but he didn't point that out.

Then suddenly he had an odd feeling.

It started in his guts, like a green-apple bellyache, except that he had never experienced such a thing. He felt a wave of nausea and weakness. He had felt like this before, once or twice, and always from the same cause. He had to get out of the building.... out in the open.... but he found himself immobile, afraid to move, to weak to walk. His head ached too much to think. He could see and hear, but could not move while the pain filled him like a bucket.

"Oh, look!" said Lana. "They have some kryptonite. Or so it says. Do you suppose it's real?"

They crowded around it, all except for Clark, who had hung back a little, sweating. The green rock glowed slightly. "It's probably phosphorescent paint," said Pete. He sounded uneasy, and glanced at Clark.

Gary Crane moved closer, standing between Clark and the display case. "It's probably papier mach‚ painted luminously," he said.

Suddenly Kal's pain went away. Since he could move, he went quickly out of the door, into the bright sunlight and the noise crowds. Fresh air had never smelled so good.

The others appeared around him. "Pretty boring exhibit, really," said Pete. He was looking at Kal as if he had perhaps guessed his temporary distress. Gary, oblivious, pointed to the booth where Sally Kramer's mother was doling out cinnamon buns. "Feel like something to eat? I'll treat you."

They walked across the fairground, and a crowd of unruly children ran deliberately into Clark, knocking him down. His glasses fell. The kids, shouting and jeering, milled around for a moment while Lana yelled at them. "You little monsters! That's not funny! You should he ashamed!"

Kal thought she looked rather magnificent when angry, and watched her as he put his glasses on. Gary was staring at him rather closely, he saw. And he saw at the same moment something else in Gary's blue Latin-idol eyes: an understanding that should not have been there.

With a quick flash of x-ray vision he saw the red-and-green shirt Gary wore under his street clothes. A costume? A uniform? A secret society, or something worse?

Whatever it was, Kal realized that Gary knew his secret. He knew that Clark Kent was a pretense for the reality of Superboy; what else might he know? What was he? Human? Alien? Friend or foe? He had done nothing overtly vicious, but might be biding his time.

If it were he who had melted the lead bullets at Pa Kent's store.... Who had interposed his body, obviously more than mere human flesh, between the vulnerable Kryptonian and the deadly Kryptonite.... both would appear to be friendly acts. But how, and why?

Kal tried to think, as he ate the cinnamon bun, of a way to force Gary to talk, or at least to get him alone in conversation. But Gary seemed rather more interested in getting Lana alone in conversation. She wasn't exactly fending him off. Kal imagined himself giving her dire warnings about how this Gary Crane was more than he appeared. It was a satisfying thought, but he was realistic enough to realize that Lana probably wouldn't listen to a word he said, and if she did, it would do no good at all.

Pete looked at his watch. "I have to go to the bank before it closes. Meet you later, okay?"

They waved him off. "Let's go on the Superboy Rocket-Ride," suggested Gary. So they did. Clark was alone in the back seat, while Gary and Lana were in the front. Lana screamed and clung to Gary as the rocket swooped and rolled, and Gary put a protective arm around her.

Kal saw Ben Crane talking to some of the farmers at the cow barn in the distance. Under his jacket and under his shirt, he too wore a coloured skintight jersey that might or might not be a uniform, and the fibres were odd. Kal couldn't figure out what the fabric was. He had never seen anything quite like it.

When the ride was over, they went to look at the Garden of Superboy statues. Some were life-size. Some were made of popsicle sticks, or clothespins, or bread-dough. There was a Superboy rag doll that was really quite cute, and when Lana admired it, Clark had a sudden fear that Gary might buy it for her. But he

didn't. Instead, he pointed out a globe model of Krypton, electrically lit from the inside. "Did it really look like that?" asked Lana.

"No one knows," said Gary.

* * *

Then Kal realized something was wrong.

He wasn't sure what sense had alerted him, but glancing across the city he saw the Superboy flag waving above the town's newest bank, not in honour of Superboy or the fair but in the way that meant distress. An ambulance was pulling up to the door, but there was some other problem. "I'd better be going," he said casually to Lana and Gary. "See you later."

They didn't try to persuade him to stay, so it was an easy escape. He flew as Superboy to the bank. "It's Pete Ross," said the manager. "He's locked in the new vault. Mr. Lumley fell against it -- a heart attack."

"He's the only one who knows the vault's combination," said Mrs. Ripley.

Kal examined the vault. It was lead. It was rigged against violent shocks, and any detonation would simply hurt Pete. Yet they were running out of time, for the air inside would not last forever.

Think, Kal told himself. There's always a way out of any problem. You just have to think of it.

Outside, someone was trying to enter, and the policeman was stopping them. Old Mr. Lumley had already been taken away in the ambulance.

Then someone was in the bank, standing beside Kal. It was Gary, in his red and green costume. He had moved so fast Kal hadn't seen him approach. Super-speed. Another -- ? No, he couldn't be another Kryptonian. But he was something.

"I am Ultra-Boy," said Gary, and his deeply-modulated voice commanded the attention of everyone in the room. The guard at the door silently let Ben Crane, also in a red and green costume, come in behind him at normal speed. "I saw Pete Ross's danger just as I was about to leave Smallville."

Kal asked, in even tones, "Did you do this to Pete?"

"I wouldn't harm either you or Pete," said Gary. "Ask these others to leave, and I will save him."

"How?" challenged Kal. "This vault is lead, and protected by explosives."

"I can handle it," said Gary. He smiled, the dimple showing for a moment. "Trust me. I have a power even mightier than your super-vision."

Kal nodded. He glanced at the Bank Manager, who said, "We'll go," and did so.

"I can see through lead," said Ultra Boy to Kal, doing so as he spoke. "The combination is...." He reached out a hand, and, at ultra-speed, moved the dial. The door opened. Pete walked out, grinning. "Superboy! You saved me!"

"Ultra Boy saved you," corrected Kal. He was filled with relief, with gratitude.

"Gary?" said Pete, glancing at his friend in the strange costume.

"You have probably guessed," said Ben Crane, "that we are not what we appeared to be."

"Bloody nass," said Ultra Boy cheerfully, "I think they were both onto us from the beginning."

"Who are you?" asked Kal. "Where are you from? What is this... penetra-vision?"

"One question at a time! My name is Jo Nah. This is Marla Latham. I am from the planet Rimbor - Marla is from Earth. We come from the thirtieth century, where I was swallowed by a...."

"A whale?" asked Pete, incredulously.

"Of course not. An energy-beast. I was saved, but I was changed. I had new and different powers - strength, ultra-vision, things I hardly understood."

"Why did you come to Smallville?"

"To see you. Sort of."

"Jo," said Marla, warningly.

"Oh, it's all right for him to know some things, don't you think, Marla? It's a sort of... initiation rite. I was given a quest, and I needed to meet you here in Smallville to do it, with Marla as witness."

"What was it? Why didn't you just ask for my help?"

"I had to learn your secret identity."

Time stopped like a finger snapping. Then started again. "And did you?" asked Kal-El.

"Yes."

"I see."

"Don't worry, I'm not about to tell anyone. Not even Pete, here."

Pete did not look particularly disappointed.

* * *

Kal-El went with Jo and Marla to say good-bye as they left in their time bubble. Ben and Gary Crane had checked out of their lodgings, being called back to the city on urgent business, as far as anyone in Smallville was concerned. Gary had said good-bye to Lana in private, and what she had said to him in parting, neither Kal-El nor anyone else in Smallville ever knew. Nor did Kal-El know about the 30th century coin in Pete Ross's possession.

"Take care of yourself," said Jo to Kal, shaking his hand in the Legion manner, and giving his shoulder a warm squeeze with one hand. "Home-town hero."

Superboy blushed. "It's so stupid," he said. "They make all this fuss."

Jo looked at him oddly. He said, "You don't know how lucky you are."

"What do you mean?"

"What you have here. Smallville. The Kents. Everyone. It's worth more than -- well. You just don't know how rare it is."

Kal was surprised. "I know," he said. "Believe me, I know!"

Jo grinned. "By liberty, it's just possible you do."

Later that evening, while they sipped lemonade and played chess on the Kent's porch, Kal said to Pete Ross, "What were you doing, rooting around in bank vaults?"

"Besides getting locked in, you mean? I was getting a safety deposit vault."

Kal almost laughed. "Why? You don't have anything valuable! What would you put in a safety deposit box?"

Pete smiled, and smugly moved his bishop. "Keeping secrets, Clark. Just keeping secrets."

------------

Notes:

This is my version of the story which first introduced Ultra Boy (Jo Nah) in Adventure Comics.

Jo Nah: A young actor from the planet Rimbor, a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes under the name of Ultra Boy. His powers were essentially the same as Superboy's, but he could only use one power at a time.
Kal or Kal-El: Superboy's Kryptonian name.
Lana Lang: The girl who lived next door to the Kent family.
Marla Latham: A friend and mentor of the Legion of Super-Heroes.
Pete Ross: Superboy's best friend back in Smallville. Pete Ross knew Clark Kent was Superboy, but Superboy didn't know he knew.
Smallville: The town where Superboy grew up, in the continuity of these stories. Somewhere in the American midwest.