Chapter 1: The Boy of Steel

He could see the birds flying freely in the sky, no strings and no boundaries. Fourteen year old Clark Kent always wondered what it would be like to fly up away in the sky, through and above those clouds.

"Why are you here?" He asked himself.

"Clark, why are you here?" The voice asked again. It apparently belonged to his best friend Pete Ross.

"Are you here to play football or what?!" Pete had to repeat his question twice to bring Clark to the present. Everyone was surprised that Clark had come to play ball. He never did, even when invited. Oh well, one more player.

"Go long Kent." Billy yelled at him throwing him the ball. Nothing seemed to exist when Clark's concentration was on the ball and nothing else. He was too involved to see Pete running towards him.

"I'll get the..."Clark managed to say before colliding with Pete.

Clark could easily hear the crack of Pete's arm. Somehow he had lost control his strength in catching the ball.

Pete was screaming painfully clutching his left arm. Everybody was running towards them. Clark was too horrified to notice the punctured ball in his fist.

"I'm so sorry" Clark was repeating himself over and over.

"You told me you were going to the library, Clark." Jonathan Kent asked plainly.

"I said I'm sorry, Pa." The only words he get out of his mouth.

"Don't be sorry Clark." Pete said. His grin had never left his face in the last half hour. His left arm was fractured pretty bad and would be in the cast for a few weeks, the fact that didn't seem to worry Pete.

"This, my friend, is the greatest day. Of. My. Life." Pete continued with a smug expression on his face as the swarm of girls surrounded him to sign his cast. It was not that the girls didn't take notice of him, but this was a whole new level for Pete. So, he was quite happy with the status quo.

In that commotion, one of the girls shoved Clark away dropping all his books on the floor.

"Need some help?" a soft voice asked him.

That voice belonged to the one of the most beautiful girl of the school, Lana Lang. Red shoulder length hair on the head, cute little upturned nose, beautiful almond shaped green eyes and a few freckles on her cheeks to touch up the beauty. Every boy wanted to date her but somehow she was only interested in Clark ever since she knew him, the fact that seemed to surprise everybody in the school. Not that Clark was ugly or anything but he was far from the most handsome boy in the school. Jet black hair, long face with a long pointed nose and a thin frail body which was 'frail' just in appearance. Actually no work out was enough to tense up his muscles so his body remained thin though he was far more stronger than any other human could ever dream of. The only positive characteristic in his appearance were his eyes, striking blue, pure cerulean, totally out of this world.

"No thanks" Clark answered her question not looking into her eyes.

"I called yesterday. I left a message with your mom."

"Sorry Lana. But I don't feel like talking to anyone." Still not looking at her.

"Not even me?" Lana asked.

"Wanna sign my cast, Lana?" Pete interrupted hoping to get a hit with her seeing the present circumstances.

"No thanks" Lana replied blankly.

"What about you Clark? The doc says good vibes from friends make it heal faster. And what better friend do I have than you?"

Clark looked down at his cast. He could hear the small buzzing sound emanating from the back of his eyes. He tried to shake away the sound but suddenly the cast disappeared from Clark's vision as if it was never there. He blinked then the clothes, the skin, the flesh, the veins, all of them disappeared one after another. The only things he could see were the number of skeletons standing in front of him and in the centre a particular one with broken bones in the left arm talking to him. Fear took the grip of his body. It was like the scene from the horror movie he saw a few nights ago. He did not like horror but, no, he had to be dragged to the movie hall by Pete.

"Clark? You don't look so good. Are you okay?" Pete's voice fell on his ears.

"Clark? Clark? You are white as a ghost. Are you alright?" He turned to Lana's voice and saw another skeleton right beside him.

"Holy--!" He could not take it anymore and ran away as fast as he could.

"Clark?!" He could still hear Lana's distant voice. Though the buzzing had stopped, he did not dare to look at anything.

"Are ... you ... okay? Man ... you run ... fast." Lana asked with labored breaths as she reached him.

"No. I am not okay. I saw right through Pete's cast, Lana! I broke his arm. It was my entire fault."

"Clark, look at me." Lana cupped his chin and slightly raised his face so he could look at her. "It's not your fault. You were just playing football. You didn't do it intentionally. Well looking at the present situation, I don't think Pete minds at all." She tittered lightly.

"You weren't there, you didn't hear his bone snap and you didn't hear his scream." Lana did not like pain and horror in his eyes. "And dad. He had warned me not to play with them. Even though he didn't say it he knows it was my fault too. I could see it in his eyes."

"You remember what you said the first time we found out how strong you were? We were playing hide and seek and I was in Ben Hubbard's field. I could hear the thresher but I didn't know it was coming right at me but somehow you did. And you came to get me out of the way. The blades broke when they hit you and we were both safe. That day you said, 'I am stronger than steel. COOL!' What you're capable of? It's still COOL, Clark."

"Not anymore. It's not. I hurt Pete real bad. I am afraid to touch anyone, Lana."

"Don't ever be afraid of that, Clark" Lana took hold of his chin and made him face her.

"What, Lana... ?" Clark stopped when he saw the look in her eyes. Something was about to happen. Oh god, Lana was going to kiss him.

But before their lips could come in contact, he felt the sudden rush in his blood and the sudden increase in his heart rate. Suddenly his eyes were burning. He held his head to stop the pain. He pushed Lana away.

"It's really hot in here." Clark grunted through the pain.

"Clark. Your eyes." He heard Lana gasp.

Hot red beams of fire shot out of his eyes onto the school banner in front of him immediately catching fire.

The fire alarm went off instantly soaking them in the sprinklers. They were still trying to understand what had just happened.

"Dad, I didn't put fire in the school intentionally. It was just that fire shot out my eyes." Clark answered.

"So you're telling me that the whole school burnt down due to your 'HEAT VISION'?" Jonathan seemed more amused than being angry.

"Yes dad."

"Clark. Okay son I believe you. But from now on be careful and try not to use your powers in front of others. I don't want my son to be taken away from me by those government people." Jonathan said still trying to grasp the fact.

"Yes dad. I'll be careful. But may I ask something?" Clark said.

"Anything." Jonathan answered.

"What's wrong with me?"

"Nothing is wrong with you. You are just a very special boy." Jonathan answered but he seemed to be worried about something.

"Oh my god, are you okay baby?" Martha Kent was pretty shocked when she heard there was a fire at the school. This discussion interrupted the dinner in the Kent house.

"Mom, please relax. I can't get hurt, remember? Anyway the fire was my fault." Clark informed her.

"What? What do you mean your fault?" Martha asked dropping her spoon in her plate.

"I did not do it intentionally. I guess I got excited about something at school and fire shot out of my eyes." Clark was clearly embarrassed about the real reason of the accident but he had to tell something to his parents whenever any new power emerged.

"Look Clark. We love you more than anything in the world but you need to get control over powers as fast as possible. On your last birthday instead of blowing off the candles on your cake, you blew the whole cake into the wall in the front. Thank god, we did not invite anyone from the outside. At first it seemed amazing that you had special powers but now it's going out of control. You need to get control over them." Jonathan spoke first.

"I think its past time, Martha." Jonathan took his empty plate to the sink. "Well past time."

"Past time for what?" Clark was now concerned.

"Nothing, Clark." Martha assured him with a weak smile.

"He almost set the school on fire, Martha" Jonathan spoke again as he returned to the living room.

"No, he is too young for that."

"But he needs to know."

"I need to know what?" Clark again interrupted, again curiosity winning over him.

Jonathan took Clark to the barn and pointed at some large rusted junk covered by a dirty rug. Clark had seen it over all these years but never bothered about it much but wondered why his dad didn't sell that old scrap.

Clark looked at Jonathan totally clueless.

"Clark, the day we found out that you are stronger than the blades of Ben Hubbard's thresher wasn't the first day we knew you were special. Neither was it the day you blew out just more than the candles on your birthday."

"Dad it was my last birthday." Clark chuckled. Somehow Clark found it funny that he blew the whole cake into the front wall instead of just blowing off the candles.

"1st of December is not your birthday, Clark." Jonathan spoke with a serious tone as he approached the old junk. "It was the day we found this." Jonathan removed the rug.

It was not rusted at all and it looked like some kind of a small rocket shining brightly in the light of the electric bulb.

"What is that?" Clark asked fascinated by the rocket.

"As far as we've been able to tell, it's a rocket."He heard Jonathan speak.

"I know that. Where did it come from? It is awesome."

"It came from the sky, Clark. It landed right in front of us." Jonathan paused for a moment then continued. "You were in it."

The last sentences did not register in his mind as he watched the rocket in awe. He could not resist touching it. As soon as his fingers came in contact with the ship, it started glowing brightly. Jonathan and Martha had to cover their eyes until they could adjust to it.

"Clark?!" He heard Martha gasp.

"#&$#& $@#& #*$# $#@$@$#! <#&$@" Some kind of electronic voice came from the ship.

Suddenly a hologram of a tall man and a woman wearing some kinds of robe appeared in front of him. There was a godly glow on both their faces. The robes were brightest of white they had ever seen and a symbol looking much like 'S' on their chest which seemed to be very familiar to him but could not recall where he had seen it before. Both of them had a caring smile on their faces.

"#@{{@ #@( #(@. # $ #$# #(@. #$ #& #$#@." The man spoke in the same alien language as the ship.

"What did he say?" Clark's voice interrupted the message.

The message stopped immediately.

The voice from the ship again spoke: "TRANSLATION TO LANGUAGE: PLANET EARTH, ENGLISH. COMPLETED." Again it continued.

"IDENTITY CONFIRMED: KAL EL."

Again the man and the woman appeared.

"Hello Kal El. I am Jor El. I am your father." The man spoke and turned towards the woman. "This is Lara. She is your mother."