Strategy X

*Deep Space*

*Krypton*

A man and woman were having a disagreement as they walked down a hallway inside a fancy-looking building.

"Why won't the council listen to me?!" The man angrily demanded. "Krypton is going to be destroyed and they refuse to do anything about it!"

"You don't know that for sure, Jor-El." His wife pointed out that he could be wrong about their home world's destruction.

"I know, but still..." Jor-El sighed in defeat. He sincerely hoped he was wrong as well.

"Maybe Brainiac could offer some advice." Brainiac was an artificial intelligence for the planet. If there was a way to save the Kryptonian race, he would know exactly what.

When Jor-El got to the room housing Brainiac, the door wouldn't open for some reason.

*'That's weird.'* Jor-El thought to himself. Taking a master key out of his pocket, the scientist opened the door.

Krypton's core was displayed on a computer screen. There was no mistaking the readouts that were shown.

"What is this?!" Jor-El reacted in shock to what he was seeing on the screen. "The planet's going to blow up in less in a day."

"The planet. But not me." Brainiac replied. He had been downloading the entirety of the planet's knowledge.

"Over my dead body!" Jor-El roared. He inserted his card into the computer and initiated a shut-down command that would destroy Brainiac along with Krypton.

Then he ran back to where his wife Lara was.

"What's going on?" Lara asked her husband.

"Krypton's on the verge of being destroyed." Jor-El said. "There's not a whole lot of time left."

"What should we do?" Lara gasped. "There's not a opportunity for us to escape!"

"That's...not entirely true." He admitted.

The statement caused Lara to become confused.

"What...what are you saying?"

Jor-El's heart nearly shattered, but it was the best hope for their son.

"Do you recall what our plan was...if worse came to worse."

Lara had a horrified expression on her face.

"No..." She gasped.

Jor-El quickly keyed in a sequence on his palm computer, accessing a secret lab that housed the experimental Trans-Warp ship he had constructed...the only thing that would be able to escape the blast.

"It's his only chance." He whispered, walking inside the lab. He took the experimental nano-crystal he had created, the one that could automatically assemble a lab/outpost identical to this one, and walked to the ship. The ship was a long, almost cylindrical craft, tapering to a point, like a torpedo, made of silvery metal, with a small cockpit, enough to hold a child, the ship's on-board computer controlling the flight. At the rear of the craft were the thrusters, powerful enough to safely propel the ship faster than light.

"With this nano-crystal and the data-crystal I took, Kal will know who he is and where he comes from." Jor-El said. "I managed to encode a message into the crystal, so Kal will know us."

"Where is he going to go?" Lara asked, crying.

"Earth." Jor-El answered. "It's a planet like Krypton. The inhabitants look like us and their beliefs made our own; he's going to find a home there. It's people are similar to how we once looked; they're on the verge of evolution - they possess great potential. And it's solar system has a yellow sun."

Lara gasped in shock.

"He's going to be a lot more powerful than any other person on that planet." She said softly. "His strength and speed will be like nothing they've seen before. He will be able to see and hear things they miss. His eyes and breath will be turned into deadly weapons...none of their weapons will have a effect on him. He will be able to fly." She suppressed a sob. "They'll despise him for it...he'll be alone."

"But he won't be alone." Jor-El promised. "He will shoulder a great legacy. All of Krypton will live on through him. He will teach Earth the lessons we learned and we'll always be with him in spirit."

He looked at his beloved wife.

"It's better than dying here, Lara. There's no other choice."

Another quake shook the lab, emphasizing Jor-El's point. Lara suppressed another sob.

"All...all right." She agreed. "Just let me go get him." With that, she left the lab.

By the time she had returned with Kal, Jor-El had readied the ship, and inserted the crystals into it. Lara walked into the lab, holding their son. Suppressing a sob, she kissed Kal's forehead.

"Be happy, little Kal." She sniffed. "Your mother loves you."

Lara then handed Kal to Jor-El, who looked sadly upon his son. Kal cooed, and reached up to touch his father's face. A single tear ran down Jor-El's eye. "You carry a great legacy with you now, Kal-El." He whispered.

"You are our son...the Last Son of Krypton." He kissed Kal's forehead. "Be happy."

With that said and done, Kal-El was injected with a sedative.

Slowly, he felt Kal fall asleep in his arms. Savoring these last few precious moments, Jor-El wrapped his son in a blanket, placed him in the cockpit, and sealed the cockpit, the ship automatically placing Kal in suspended animation for the long trip.

By then, massive volcanic eruptions had begun to tear the planet's surface apart, and the quakes had given way to one constant rumble. Jor-El quickly finished programming the ship, plotting its course...and then, it was done.

Jor-El held Lara close as the ship's engines roared to life, and the ship soared into the sky, slicing through the roof of the lab, soaring up through the ash-blackened clouds...and above them, out into space, with all the speed that the two Kryptonians could will it...as it carried their son to safety.

When the ship was out of sight, Jor-El held Lara close as his wife wept. Then, the quake doubled in intensity.

Doomsday was seconds away.

Jor-El and Lara looked into each other's eyes. "Lara...I love you." Jor-El whispered.

"I love you, too, Jor-El." Lara murmured.

Then, the two shared one last, loving kiss...as doomsday claimed them.

As massive eruptions blotted the surface of Krypton, the Trans-Warp ship breached the surface, tearing out of the atmosphere, flying away at top speeds. Once it was clear, the on-board computer plotted in its course, and prepared to jump to light-speed. Outside the ship, two sleek wings extended from under the craft, as two small pylons extended back from the top. The pylons began to energize...

Suddenly, the planet Krypton exploded, in a monumental blast that shook the very fabric of space. The fiery plumes of the blast reached for the ship, as if trying to grab the one survivor, to bring the last trace of Krypton down with it.

...and then the ship's pylons energized, and the ship streaked away at light-speed, taking the Last Son of Krypton far away from the Xerius Galaxy.

Beyond the planet's surface, a man in a blue uniform spotted the ship leaving the Xerius Galaxy at light-speed.

He was Richard Rider, a member of the intergalactic police force known as the Nova Corps. They coexisted with the Green Lantern Corps, another intergalactic police force.

*Earth, New York State, Westchester, April 13, 1977*

Inside the Xavier Institute, a young man was seated at the desk in his office.

His name was Charles Xavier, he was the owner of the institute.

He was also the world's most powerful telepath, capable of reading the minds of others and manipulating them. He had vowed to never misuse his powers.

Suddenly, he gasped as a massive wave of thoughts bombarded his mind. Then the thoughts ceased and there was only silence.

*'What did I just sense.'* Charles thought to himself.

*10 years later...*

Deep beneath the Institute, Charles Xavier, in his wheelchair, was heading through the new metallic hallways, towards his newest creation with Robert Drake, or more commonly known as "Iceman". He was a mutant with the ability to control ice and temperature.

"So you finally got it done."

"It isn't *quite* done." Charles corrected him. "This is only a field-test, remember. I'll be fine-tuning Cerebro after this."

Cerebro. Charles' mutant-detection system, which amplified his telepathic abilities, enabling him to home in on the X-Gene...and find mutants, wherever they were. It wasn't perfect; it could only trace mutants whose abilities had become active – which usually happened at puberty – but it was a start.

The chamber consisted of only a long platform, with a console at its end, with a single metal helmet attached to it with two silvery metal cables. The chamber was spherical, consisting of numerous steel panels. Charles rolled to the console, took the helmet, placed it upon his head, and *reached* with his powers...

There were so many, in comparison to what he'd expected. There had to be nearly a hundred, much more than he'd expected. He could *feel* all of them; he was sharing in their lives, their hopes, their dreams. He could find them all if he chose, but for now, he was content to simply stay like this...

Suddenly, a blinding surge cut through him; he felt such *power*, more than any mutant could *ever* achieve. It was one mutant...or *was* it? He tried to locate this individual; it was moving so fast. It was in Mexico...then Los Angeles...then in Kansas...no, *over* Kansas.

Charles couldn't take any more. He struggled to reach out of his telepathic trance...and hit the emergency fail safe button on the console.

Cerebro then powered down, and as the doors hissed open Iceman entered the chamber.

"Professor!" He called out in concern.

*Smallville, Kansas, a few minutes earlier*

On one of the many dirt roads leading to and from Smallville, a single red pickup truck drove along, heading out of the little town, towards the Kent farm. In it were Jonathan and Martha Kent.

Jonathan was tall and well-built, in his mid-forties, the picture of the strong, trustworthy farmer. He had short, sandy-blond hair, green eyes, light skin, and he wore his usual faded blue jeans and green t-shirt under his favorite red flannel shirt.

Martha was a slender woman in her late thirties, with mid-length auburn hair, blue eyes, and light skin, wearing blue jeans, a white blouse, with her brown jacket over it.

Today had been a sad day for the Kent family. For the longest time, Jonathan and Martha had been trying to have a baby, but to no avail. Finally, after seeing a doctor, they knew why; the doctor had tried to be nice about it...but there just wasn't a nice way to use the word "barren."

They had both wanted a child so much...and now it was impossible, at least on their own. Jonathan glanced over to Martha; she was trying to put on a brave face, but Jonathan knew that this was *killing* her.

Smiling, Jonathan reached over with his right hand, keeping his left one on the wheel, and took her hand. "Hey, it'll be okay." he whispered. "This doesn't mean that we can't have a baby at all; we can always adopt."

Martha looked at him, smiling weakly, squeezing his hand. "I love you." she whispered.

"I love you, to – *Holy!*" Jonathan yelled, as he swerved the truck to avoid a huge rock that shot down from the sky, impacting the road where the truck had just been, nearly knocking the truck off the road. Looking up into the sky, Jonathan saw numerous flaming cosmic projectiles blazing through the sky.

It was a meteor shower.

"Hang on!" Jonathan declared, as he accelerated, trying to watch the road *and* these deadly space-missiles. He had managed to evade several of them, and was nearly home...when, in his rear-view mirror, he saw a large object, seemingly gleaming silver, coming right at them. He couldn't outrun it. "*Martha, brace yourself!*" Jonathan yelled.

The object hit the road inches from their rear bumper, cratering the ground, sending the truck flying.

When Jonathan came to, he found himself, other than a few bruises, none the worse for wear. Looking around, he saw that the truck was at the base of a huge crater...with Martha standing at its edge, looking down.

"Martha, are you okay?!" he cried, practically leaping out of the truck, rushing to her side. Martha said nothing...and pointed into the crater. Jonathan looked...and *froze*.

There, lying in the crater...was a silvery *spaceship*, like nothing that NASA had ever built...and nothing that the Soviet Union had ever knocked together, either.

All the late-night alien horror movies he and Martha had ever watched came flooding into his mind.

"Martha...that...that isn't *human*..." He murmured. Suddenly, the spaceship hissed, its cockpit opening...and Jonathan's ears were assaulted by a sound he had never heard before...

"*WAAAAAAHHHHHHH! WAAAAAAHHHHHH!*"

Instantly, Martha ran down to the spaceship, and reached into the cockpit. Jonathan was about to protest...until Martha extracted its occupant. "It's a *boy*!" she cried, holding the tiny infant. "It's just a baby boy!"

Jonathan almost smiled...until he remembered where that sweet little boy had just come from.

"Martha..." He began.

"Jonathan, *look* at him!" Martha exclaimed. "He's *beautiful*!" She walked over to him, and held the baby out to him.

As Jonathan looked at the kid, the baby smiled, and began giggling.

Any worries Jonathan had about this little miracle vanished in an instant. "Hey, little guy." He cooed to the baby, taking him in his arms. "Where'd you come from?" The baby just giggled, his tiny hands reaching up to explore Jonathan's face. Jonathan smiled, and gently touched the baby's tiny hand; the baby giggled, and gripped his finger. "Wow! What a grip you've got! Ow!"

*Crack!*

"*OW!*" Jonathan howled.

Instantly, Martha took the baby in her arms, as he started to cry.

"You *scared* him." She admonished.

Jonathan winced, shaking his hand; nothing *felt* broken...but it had been *close*. But then he saw the baby's sniffling face, as if he knew he'd done something bad, and was sorry.

"Hey, it's okay." He murmured, taking the baby in his arms.

Martha beamed.

"Our prayers have been answered." She whispered.

Part of Jonathan almost wanted to argue – *almost* – but he somehow knew that she was right. "What'll we call him?"

Martha smiled. "How about...Clark?"

Jonathan smiled at his new son.

"Hi, Clark." He said. "Welcome to the world." Then, he handed the baby – Clark – to Martha. "Wait in the truck, honey; I'll try to get this ship into the back – we can't have it lying around, now, can we?" Martha smiled, nodding, and headed to the truck, cooing to their new son.

Clark's ship had been amazingly *light*; Jonathan had no trouble loading it into the truck. He quickly covered it, got in, and drove off. He glanced over to Martha and their new son, smiling. Martha had been right.

Their prayers had been answered.