Chapter 278 - Ch: 238-242 (DC/Marvel arc)

Ch: 238-242 (Justice League/clark/smallville Arc)(marvel later on)

238 Recovering What Was Lost (Justice League AU Plus)

That was a right cock-up, wasn't it?

I blinked my mental eyes at that statement, that I somehow heard with in a male British accent, even though I didn't have any ears at the moment. I also wondered what the hell happened to it to make it sound so pompous and arrogant.

Where did my normal helpful guide disappear to? I asked.

It was decided that a heavier hand was needed to take control of...

You can fuck right off with that shit. I thought to whoever or whatever that thing was. I was doing just fine as everything was worked out with MY system. Even this last visit let me fix pretty much everything that was wrong with both myself and my system, and you think I'm going to want someone else taking control? Fuck you. Also, fuck you. And just to make myself clear. Fuck. You.

There was no response at all from the British asshole.

I don't have any free Karma Points left for you to steal from me to manipulate things on your end anyway, so whatever stupid plan you thought you had, you can shove right up your metaphorical ass and send yourself back to wherever you came from, you ignorant fuck!

There's no need for you to be so hostile.

I had the makings of a perfect life back there and I lost it, because I thought healing Scion's mate was the best way to save everyone from having to die, when he eventually loses himself to his grief in a few years, and tries to wipe out billions of people from every Earth-like planet of that microverse.

I spent a few moments collecting myself before I continued.

It never occurred to me that The Thinker would be aware that the ants she was going to play with had played with her instead. I made a huge mistake and I lost everything. I should have popped Scion's avatar and then destroyed his main body when he opened a portal to send another avatar to me. I would have gained all his powers first and... it doesn't matter now.

Again, there was no answer from whoever that was.

I was stupid and I lost. Put whoever was there back in control and they can send me off to the next world. I don't want to go to a world full of doom and gloom this time and my locked Karma Points should be good enough to ensure that much, unless you are going to ignore my wishes and screw me over again.

I floated there in the nothingness and there was no response.

You are totally going to screw me over again, despite what I just said? I asked and they didn't answer. You better hope I never find out who the fuck you are, because like Fate keeps reminding me, I'm always going to come back here when I die. I'll find you and I'll destroy you, then I'll destroy your power, and then I'll destroy the very concept of you.

Prepare yourself for insertion.

I was sure I heard a hint of fear as the British voice said that and I mentally smiled. Hey, reading buddy! I thought and somehow pulled a copy of Paige's gift from my inventory. I had made it in case Paige lost or damaged anything. Now you don't have to wait for Paige to sing it all.

I felt lips press to my non-existent cheek and the remnant of a hug before the box of papers faded away. I mentally smiled at reminding them that I had friends there to tell me things and everything faded to black.

*

I regained consciousness when I felt the warmth around me suddenly disappear. It was unbearably cold and then there was a tight squeezing all around me and then I was suddenly free and throwing up and coughing. My lungs had been filled with fluid and then I opened my eyes to see a very tall man stare at me with wonder.

"He's perfect." The man said and handed me off to a floating robot that carried me over to a weird tub thing and then I was quickly rinsed off and swaddled in a warm blanket. It felt heavenly and my eyes fluttered as a tiredness I never knew tried to take a hold of me.

"Here is your son, Lara." The man said as the robot floated me over to a very tall woman.

Lara looked like a beauty queen and I caught my breath when I saw her face up close. She hugged me to her chest and I could only stare at her in wonder.

"Are you hungry, my son?" Lara asked me and pulled her robe open to reveal a perfect breast. It reminded me of Diane, my mother back in Worm, and I teared up and started crying. Worry flashed across Lara's face and her delicate fingers wiped at my cheeks. "What's wrong, my little Kal?"

I stiffened at that name and then cried harder. I knew that name and I knew the trouble that lay ahead, for me, my new parents, and my birth planet of Krypton.

*

Three days was all I had to get to know my new mom before my father rushed into the house and grabbed the both of us. He rushed us out of the house, into the hovercar, and we were off to his private lab.

"They refused to listen, didn't they?" Lara asked.

"They laughed me out of the council chamber after forbidding me from telling anyone what I discovered." Jor admitted. "I did manage to tell my brother Zor before I was called into the meeting, however."

"The council are ignorant fools." Lara spat.

"Vindictive fools, too. Neither I nor my wife are allowed to abandon our people in their time of need." Jor said and Lara scowled at him. "I had to agree, of course. They would have had the guards shoot me if I didn't."

Lara opened her mouth to argue and stopped when she looked down at me cuddled in her arms. "Kal."

"Now you know why I didn't announce the first natural birth of a Kryptonian in centuries." Jor said, proudly. "No one knows about him or that he is not registered in the population matrix or is part of the genetic database."

Lara nodded and leaned down to kiss my forehead. "He's not bound by their restrictions."

"Nor is he tied into the planet's biosphere." Jor said. "It's still an extremely high risk to send him off into the cosmos with no guarantees; but, it's the only hope we have for his survival."

"Slim as that is." Lara whispered.

"I've done the calculations thousands of times and I've allowed very little margin for error." Jor countered. "With that and a little luck, the miniature phantom drive should shunt our child into hyperspace for almost the entire journey to his destination."

"And how did you find that place again?" Lara asked, her eyes narrowed.

"Scientific analysis." Jor answered. "The planet is in the perfect temperate zone for the highest chance of life forming and the star is a relatively young one. The few thousand years of his faster than light speed travel should pass quickly and there will be billions of years of life left for his new yellow star, unlike the red super-giant we have here."

Lara nodded and looked down at me. I was sure she was surprised that I hadn't had another crying fit, or kept her awake at night, or fussed more than my little body needed to be fed and changed. A few tears started to form in her eyes and I couldn't get my little hands out of the swaddling blanket to pat her face and reassure her.

"We're here." Jor said as the automated car came to a stop and he helped Lara out of the car and into the building.

We went right to the lab and he hit several buttons and part of the wall opened up and a sleek ship slid out of the hidden space and the ceiling opened up.

"This science probe has been modified with both a hypersleep system and a radio wave detection system." Jor said and entered several commands onto a console and part of the probe opened up. Instead of having scientific equipment inside, it was an open space with padding all over it. "He won't even notice the time passing."

Lara backed away and hugged me close. "No, I... I changed my mind. I don't want to let him go."

"Lara..." Jor started to say.

"No! I can't abandoned him to die in space all alone!" Lara exclaimed. "At least here we can all die together!"

I couldn't let her convince him of that, so I had to cheat and use one of my rarely used powers. I was only a few days old and most of my powers were greyed out, probably because they required a more mature physical body to be used, so I had to be really convincing when I threw my voice using ventriloquism.

"M... m... momma." A very baby-like voice came from my mouth and I moved my lips to match.

Both Lara and Jor gasped.

"Fwy." I said and stared up at her.

"K-Kal." Lara whispered and cried as she hugged me and kissed my forehead.

"Fwy away." I said.

Jor came over to us and gently took me from her arms. The wonder and shock on his face was priceless as he walked back over to the probe and placed me inside.

"Dada." I said and startled him.

Jor stared at me for a moment, saw the intense look in my eyes, and he looked proud at knowing how smart I was. "Good luck, my son."

I nodded and he closed the pod. I heard my birth mother wail and felt bad about that; but, there wasn't anything else I could do right at the moment. I was only a baby and did all I could to reassure them that I was going to be fine.

"Don't worry, Lara. I've had this scheduled as a normal launch for a month, so no one will question it, even after that debacle in the council chamber." Jor's voice could be heard through the probe's casing. "I'm initiating the hypersleep system and Kal won't feel or experience anything going through either atmosphere."

I didn't fight the sleepy feeling I felt and hoped Jor was right. I knew atmospheric reentry was going to be rough and I doubted my little body could handle it if I was awake and bracing for it. Even though I had a very dense muscular structure now, so did everything else made on Krypton, including the padding inside the pod holding me tightly.

I was also glad to not witness the destruction of the planet not long after I was launched. Billions of people were dead or dying and there wasn't anything that could be done about it.

*

My eyes fluttered open when I felt someone pick me up. I looked at the beautiful woman with wonder and couldn't figure out what version of Martha Kent this was. I knew of several of them, thanks to all the reboots in the comics, the different movie versions, the television versions, and the animated versions. Heck, I didn't even know what era this was.

"Just look at him, Johnathan. He's perfect." She said with adoration in her voice.

"Martha, he just fell from space inside something no one has seen before." A male voice said from not far away.

"He's a gift from the heavens." Martha said and hugged me close.

"Yeah, yeah. I know that tone of voice." Johnathan said, sounding defeated. "Be careful crawling out of the crater."

Martha held me as she did as he asked and then Johnathan dragged a chain down into the crater and the hook fit right into one of the support braces, as if it had been designed for it.

"Huh. It fits." Johnathan said, clearly surprised, and went back up to the truck.

I watched as he hooked an old-style block and tackle to the bumper of a beat up red truck. He grabbed the much smaller chain that worked the internal pulley and gear system and started pulling on it, easily shifting the weight of the light probe. It was made of space-age material from an advanced planet and was soon dragged back along the trench it had made when landing and up onto the road.

Johnathan moved the block and tackle to the back of the truck's cargo bed and then dragged the mostly intact probe ship up into the bed. He covered it in a tarp and then helped Martha into the passenger side and buckled her in.

"You know we're going to have trouble explaining him." Johnathan warned her.

"A distant cousin from out of state gave birth and unfortunately passed away. We generously accepted custody without asking questions or knowing who the mother was. We also refused any monetary compensation to hide the shame the unmarried birth would cause the family." Martha lied, making up a believable story on the spot.

Johnathan's mouth dropped open after hearing that and I wasn't far behind him.

Martha preened under both our gazes. "We need to go before anyone comes out here looking for something."

Johnathan closed his mouth. "Right. Just a second." He said and grabbed a shovel before he ran back over to the crater. He picked one of the larger rocks he didn't recognize with the shovel, moved back quite a bit, and then swung the shovel hard at the center of the impact crater.

A good sized indent was left and it was a great way to throw off the proof that there had been something else that landed. He then used the shovel to erase the footprints where both he and Martha had walked in the loose dirt and backed up out of the trench. He tossed the shovel into the back of the truck and hopped into the driver's seat. We sped off back to the farm long before anyone else showed up.

The next day, to my relief, it was explained in the newspaper and on the news as a rare meteor fall. The video showed the rock Johnathan had planted being cracked open by scientists at the local university and inside was a slightly glowing green crystal-like rock.

I mentally cursed at them having gathered a small pile of them from the crash site and their pledge to send them across the country to other experts to analyze and experiment with them. There was nothing I could do about it, so I had to let it go for now. I would need to wait until I was older to track them down and transfigure them from deadly Kryptonite into something else.

My life as the new son of Martha and Johnathan Kent, newly christened and baptized as Clark Johnathan Kent, was as normal of a one as I could manage. Since I was well aware of the effects that super strength had on a body while using it, I never once destroyed a toy, broke the table when patting it asking for food, or cried at night to keep my new parents awake.

Johnathan always gave me odd looks when Martha wasn't looking, as if he knew I was intentionally not causing them problems. I didn't bother telling him that I was doing my best to make their roles as parents as easy as possible, since he spent so much time outside and tending to the fields. My sole focus was keeping my mother Martha happy.

It wasn't until I was two years old, my crash date of August First 1981, being listed as my birthday, that I overheard Martha whispering to Johnathan about her worry that I wasn't talking yet. Since I didn't want her disappointed with me, I toddled into the living room on my little baby legs and right over to her.

"Ma." I said and lifted my arms.

Martha gasped and scooped me up into her arms. "Johnathan! I'm Clark's first word!"

Johnathan pretended to be happy about that and gave me a pointed look.

"Ma." I said and grinned at her. "Ma ma ma ma."

Martha laughed and hugged me close as she peppered my face with kisses. "I think someone deserves a cookie!"

"MA!" I said happily and she carried me into the kitchen to give me a chocolate chip cookie. I looked over her shoulder and saw Johnathan's frown as he looked at me. I waved at him and Martha turned to look, only for Johnathan's face to change to a smile.

"Clark? Can you say Da?" Martha asked me.

Since I was being a scamp anyway, I pretended to try. "D... d... d..."

"Come on, honey! You can do it! Say Da! Daaaa!" Martha encouraged me.

"D... d..." I frowned slightly and then smiled. "John!"

Martha looked shocked for a second and then burst out laughing. Johnathan slapped a hand over his own face and groaned, making Martha laugh even more.

239 A Farm Boy Farms

The next morning, Johnathan had somehow convinced Martha to let him take me out on the tractor as he tilled the field for the fall planting season. We were planting turnips and rutabagas this time and the turnips would have almost three full growths and harvests by the time the rutabagas were ready after three months. The turnips were used as a quick turnover while the bumper crop of rutabagas grew.

"You're a lot smarter than you pretend you are." Johnathan said when he finished planting the first field with turnips.

"Da." I said and he gave me a pointed look, because I didn't call him John. "Ma happy."

Johnathan held the pointed look for a moment and then sighed. "You have a point."

I nodded and he climbed back onto the tractor and we plowed the next field. As we worked, Johnathan told me about his crop rotation and how he won't plant anything for the few winter months to let the soil recover, then he would plant potatoes in January and then harvest in March. Another short break for the soil to recover and he would plant corn in late April or early May.

For the summer, it was time for corn and that would grow for three to four months, then he would go back to turnips and rutabagas. It left lots of time between different crops for the soil's nutrients to not be used up quickly. With the addition of fertilizer and regular watering when necessary, if there wasn't enough rainfall, each harvest produced the largest yield possible for sale.

Johnathan also mentioned rotating in cabbage and lettuce, because they were good companions for the rutabagas and didn't compete for the same nutrients as a root vegetable. They also had similar harvest times and brought in almost as much money, thanks to the similar growing times.

"Onion." I said and his arm stiffened around me. "Garlic."

"How do you know that?" Johnathan asked, his voice a little sharp.

I didn't want to admit to growing several large farms back in the Walking Dead and the Last of Us universes, so I lied and mentioned what I saw on the coffee table. "Farm... er... me... nak?"

Johnathan let out a sigh and chuckled. "The farmer's almanac."

I nodded and he didn't say anything until we finished the next field and he climbed off the tractor to change out the things he was planting.

"You can read." Johnathan said as he looked into my eyes.

I tilted my head slightly and knew I couldn't lie about it, so I nodded.

"You just have a hard time speaking." Johnathan added.

I nodded again, since I was only a baby and needed time to develop properly. I had gone through a lot to gain a Kryptonian body as a base for my divine body and I wasn't going to screw that up by trying to transfigure myself to allow proper physical movement or to allow speech be produced from my infant throat.

"How smart are you?" Johnathan asked.

I had to shrug at that, because I honestly didn't know. Just because I had more powers than I could count, that didn't mean I was suddenly a genius or could remember everything I ever did or learned. Despite a few inspiring thoughts, I wasn't that big of a thinker, as the massive mistake I made on the last world clearly proved.

Johnathan adjusted the planter for the next field and climbed back onto the tractor. We did up the last field and returned to the barn along a small access road. Martha stood inside the barn with a frown on her face, her foot tapping the ground, and she had a packed baby bag hung over her shoulder.

"We completely missed lunch, didn't we?" Johnathan asked.

"Wunch!" I said happily and clapped, making Martha smile.

Johnathan climbed down off the tractor and reached back to pick me up. He had barely turned around when Martha snatched me out of his arms and cuddled me and kissed my cheek several times.

"Who's my cute little farmer boy?" Martha asked me and then blew a raspberry on my neck.

I laughed a high pitch baby laugh, just like she wanted. It really tickled, too. "Me!"

"Yes, you are!" Martha carried me over to the barn door. "Say bye to Da!"

"Bye John!" I said and Martha laughed all the way over to the house.

"Smart-ass kid." Johnathan said and then he chuckled as he started to put the equipment back where it was supposed to go. "I haven't heard Martha laugh like that in ages."

I hugged my mom's neck and gave Johnathan a quick thumbs-up gesture when he looked over at us. He nodded just before Martha brought me inside and shut the front door of the house. I was happy that he was fully onboard with making Martha as happy as we could and he wouldn't take my name jokes personally anymore.

*

When I was five, Martha did not want to let me go to school. She loved me too much to stay at home all day by herself without me there to keep her company. She cried more than I did when she had to let me go and passed me off to the teacher of my Kindergarten class.

"I already know my numbers and letters!" I exclaimed as the teacher brought me into the classroom.

"That's very good Clark." The teacher said, quite condescendingly. "Now play nice with the other children until recess and then we'll see if you know your colors, too."

I tried to not glare at her as she sat me on a plush mat with three other kids. I knew I had to try and pretend to be a normal kid, except I knew my adoptive mom was going to suffer a lot as she stayed at home without me there. I used a touch of Clairvoyant's power and focused it on Martha, only to find out she was still right there in the parking lot beside the school.

I hopped up and ran over to the window, saw it was a bit too high for me to reach, so I picked up a large desk and walked over to the wall and set it down. I climbed up onto it and looked out the window and pressed my face to it to stare at Martha.

"Clark!" Martha exclaimed and took a step towards me, only for the teacher to grab me from behind and set me back onto the plush mat.

"None of that, now." The teacher said and looked at the desk. "How did that get there?"

I thought about saying I did it and realized I had foolishly revealed how strong I was to part of the class. Thankfully, most of them didn't realize what carrying a huge desk meant and just accepted it as something I could do. They were too young to know any different, anyway.

I did my best to not stand out after that, only for the teacher to treat me like I was an idiot. She had read the report on how smart I was and had apparently ignored it. When I checked with a touch of telepathy, she had dismissed the report because all parents claimed their child was smart.

When recess came, I ran outside and jumped into my mother's arms and hugged her. Martha had stayed there in the parking lot and hadn't gone home like she was supposed to. Not surprisingly, there were a few other mothers there as well. Missing their kids was a common theme, apparently.

When recess was over and we all had to go back inside, the teacher pulled out a large color wheel and started playing a game with the other children. When it was my turn, she spun the little spinner, which told me she had copied the selector from the game Twister, and it landed on the purple one.

"Clark, what color is this?" The teacher asked me, her voice filled with indulgence.

"Lavender." I said and she stiffened.

"No, that's wrong. This is purple." The teacher said.

I reached into the pile of crayons the other kids used for coloring and picked up the purple crayon. "This is purple." I said and several of the kids nodded. I pointed at the color wheel with the crayon. "That is lavender. It's the same color as the flowers along the road outside."

"Flowers!" A few of the girls almost shouted.

There was a small rush of kids, a few boys included, that ran across the room and climbed up onto the large desk to look outside.

"Ooo! There are!" One of the girls said, which told me they hadn't noticed them when we were all outside. I had the feeling those flowers were going to disappear the next time we were allowed outside.

The teacher gave me a pointed look for disrupting her class.

I stuck the blunt end of purple crayon into my mouth and pretended it was a cigarette to give her my best Groucho Marx impression. "The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing."

The woman looked shocked and I held in my laugh, because I was sure she was finishing the quote in her head. If you could fake that, you've got it made.

She shook herself out of her shock and spent the next twenty minutes corralling the kids back into a semblance of order and away from the window. She even dragged the large desk away from the window, making all the kids groan sadly.

By the time lunch rolled around and I had eaten the lunch my mother packed for me, the teacher decided she needed to know how smart I was. I was given an aptitude test and I aced it, so I was given another, then another. My teacher left and brought the grade school principal back and I did another test, which I passed.

The local high school named Smallville High was soon called and they sent over a few as well. I was tempted to tank them completely and stay in grade school, then realized I had a great opportunity here, so I aced them as well.

The looks of shock on all their faces, especially on the high school's principal's face, made me proud. He had thought it was a joke and came himself, probably to make fun of both his fellow principal and my teacher for wasting his time, only they weren't.

"What are we supposed to do?" My teacher asked, her voice full of disbelief. "He's only five."

"I don't know." The grade school principal answered and looked at the high school principal. "Any thoughts?"

"I could make a few calls and get a college aptitude test sent over." The man said.

I shook my head, because I didn't have a lot of college knowledge. Most of the people I had the memories of had all been practical people that only completed high school and went to work afterwards or they had still been in high school at the time. That didn't translate well into college level information, so I would have to study if I wanted to earn a college degree for anything.

This was the one time that the knowledge to build and maintain any kind of technology, using Tinker powers, wasn't going to help me with any of the normal college subjects. Even with several intelligence quirks and shard powers available, none of them work well without me having the knowledge already.

I mean, high school was relatively easy by comparison and I've been there several times, only with a few specialized classes that weren't applicable most of the time. That usually meant I had to be humble with the knowledge I did have, most of the time anyway. This time I was kind of throwing off the whole pattern to see what would happen.

"That's a firm no from the high school elementary student." My teacher joked and the two men chuckled. "I'm not sure what we should do now." She said, almost repeating what she said before. "He's going to be a huge disruption to any class he's put in, no matter where it is."

Both principals nodded and sighed, then gave each other questioning looks. "Placement tests!"

I was shuffled off into a spare room and then provided with what I had to assume were grade twelve exams, since they kind of looked familiar and covered pretty much everything I knew was usually tested on in high school. I spent the rest of the afternoon taking those exams and Martha was brought in at the end of the school day as several teachers graded my exams.

"What's going on?" Martha asked as she lifted me up to sit me on her hip and hugged me.

"Your son is a genius." My teacher said.

"I already told you that." Martha said, as if she was tired of repeating herself. She wasn't, because she loved me and always told everyone around town how smart I was.

"He's a genius up to the high school level, anyway." The grade school principal said. "They're grading his high school graduation exams now."

Martha blinked her eyes at them and then looked at me. "Clark?"

"I don't know much about college stuff." I said with a shrug. "I have to study more."

Martha opened her mouth, closed it, opened it, and huffed. "I think I'd prefer it if you stayed a kid for a little longer than a single day at Kindergarten."

I grinned at her. "Oops."

The high school principal barked a laugh. "I see what Mrs. Crenshaw meant about him being a disruption wherever he went."

Martha nodded and she talked to them about my first day at school as we waited for the results. I passed with 95% and only my teacher was shocked by how high it was.

"I'll have a certificate drawn up and sent over." The high school principal said. "You'll have to wait for the end of the school year if you want to attend the graduation ceremony."

"No, thanks. There's farming to be done." I said, matter of factly.

Martha kissed my cheek and smiled. "My adorable little farmer is already planning next summer's crops?"

"I always am." I said smugly and the adults laughed.

"Let's go home." Martha said and held a hand out to my teacher and shook hers, then the grade school principal's, then she shook the high school principal's hand. "Thank you all for doing this."

"It's unprecedented and will be one for the record books as the youngest high school graduate." The high school principal said. "Perhaps he'll become the youngest college graduate, too."

"Maybe in my spare time between finger painting and bubble baths." I joked and only Martha laughed. "Tough crowd."

"It's not their fault, Clark. They don't know how funny you can be." Martha said and walked over to the door of the room with me still braced on her hip. "It was nice meeting you all."

The three adults waved or nodded as we left. I was placed on the passenger seat of the truck and buckled in and Martha climbed into the driver's side and we were soon on our way home.

"Clark." Martha said, almost in a whisper.

"Ma." I said and turned to smile warmly at her.

Martha glanced at me and saw my smile before she looked back at the road. "Thank you."

"I didn't want to leave you alone, either." I said, knowing that was what she meant.

Martha smiled. "Johnathan's not going to be happy when he finds out."

I couldn't stop my laugh at being reminded of that. "Let's not tell him and bet on how long it takes him to figure it out."

Martha laughed, too. "I think I'll take that bet."

"Two weeks." I said and she glanced at me. "I'll plant the radishes next time."

Martha smiled knowingly at me and looked back at the road. "I'll say a month and you have to convince Johnathan that rice is a good crop for the back 40."

I laughed hard at hearing that. "We'd have to borrow Mister Johnson's backhoe to dredge out enough irrigation for that to work!"

"I know." Martha said with a grin.

"You're on." I said and held my little hand out.

Martha took a hand off the steering wheel briefly to shake mine and concentrated back on the road.

By the next morning, I knew I had been scammed. Martha acted exactly the same way she had when I had to go to school the day before, then she drove me away from the farm as if taking me to school... and went all the way through town to the mall and we stayed there until it was time for school to let out.

I hugged her neck and complimented her for being so smart. It made her blush and she looked proud. As another reward, I granted her the same first stage tune-up I did for Jensen back in Worm. I still wasn't able to access all of my powers, not even the inherent ones I should have had as a Kryptonian.

Then again, I was only five, so I probably needed to be a few years older to activate a majority of them, kind of like Superboy did. Oh! Maybe I was in a pocket universe the Time Trapper made with just Earth and Krypton in it? That would be both neat and disappointing if it was true.

At least I still had my magic and I used it in secret at night to let us have great crops every year. I sometimes managed to also affect the fields on either side of the farm, just so it wasn't only us that were having great growing seasons the last few years.

By the time the month of the bet was over and Martha hung my diploma on the living room wall, making me laugh and my dad spit and sputter, I had already convinced Johnathan to plant rice on the almost useless land of the back 40, since it would prime the land for a great wheat harvest the next summer.

I also gave him the same tune-up I gave my mom and both of them had a much easier time living the farm life, just like I was. I didn't miss going to school, thanks to the books Martha borrowed from the library for me. There wasn't anything like a correspondence course, so I would have to wait for a long time before I would be allowed to go to college.

240 More Details Needed

The Smallville Gazette ran a story about my shocking graduation from high school and a news reporter showed up from the local television station. They did a small human interest story about it and that was it. Apparently, something that happened in a 'hick town' like Smallville, wasn't important enough for the well known networks to pick it up.

Now that I knew I wouldn't be pestered by the newsies, I studied my ass off and learned everything I could over the next few years. It was kind of the first time I was allowed to do such a thing without restrictions, so I went whole hog with it.

Both Martha and Johnathan were impressed by how much information I could absorb and I allowed both my Occlumency and intelligence powers full reign. I also did my best to help the both of them during the day, my dad with farming and gathering, and my mom with cooking and cleaning. According to them, I was the best son they could have ever asked for.

By the time I was eight years old in 1989 and had studied as many books from the library as possible, pretty much all of the relevant ones, I started to worry. You see, I knew a significant event was going to happen soon and I had no way to tell what day it was going to happen on.

Because of all the different continuities I knew of for this universe, the death of Batman's parents could be changed to be anywhere from early summer to late summer, in any alleyway from the slums to any upscale neighborhood in the city of Gotham, near a theatre, a play, or a restaurant, and Bruce Wayne's age changed anywhere from 8 to 12, as does his date of birth.

It was really frustrating to know it was going to happen and I only had brief uses of my clairvoyance power to keep an eye on them. On the positive side, I was slowly regaining access to my full powers again as I grew older. On the negative side, I had a successful farm and a family to take care of and didn't have a lot of spare time to maintain a constant watch.

I was tempted to convince my parents to go on vacation for a week or two to Gotham City, just so I could be that much closer to my targets during this time of high potential. The only problem with that was it was considered the crime capital of the world, just above New York City's crime rate... and wasn't that city name a surprise to discover.

This world had both New York City and the city of Metropolis. They were both huge cities that covered hundreds of square miles and had millions of people living in them. What was funny was Metropolis was located in Delaware, Gotham was in New Jersey, and New York City was in New York.

All three cities were in a kind of direct line with each other along the eastern seaboard and were in competition for the biggest and best city. Gotham was very easily losing, because it was nestled between the other two large beacons of hope. That wasn't really the point I was trying to make, though.

Kansas was pretty much smack-dab right in the middle of the US and it was about 1,400 miles to reach any of the cities on the east coast. It would take about 20 hours of straight driving to get there, so there was no way I was running that distance. Neither my flight ability nor my teleport ability had activated yet, which pissed me off.

I also didn't have many karma points, since my contributions to the world have been few and far between, not to mention very small. I once tried to 'find' some gold coins while I was out exploring, to help my family make ends meet and buy newer farm equipment, and my father immediately turned them over to the local museum for testing and date authentication. We never saw them again.

I didn't bother trying to find any money, because I knew my too-good-for-his-own-good dad would turn it over to the local police for them to search for the money's owner and we wouldn't get it back for at least a year if it was unclaimed, which I suspected it would be just before the deadline. That was just how things usually worked out when I tried to cheat like that.

Johnathan was constantly saying how we couldn't deny others their good fortune, while also denying it to his own family. It was maddening that I couldn't curcumvent that in any way, no matter what I tried. If he didn't accomplish something with his own hard work, he saw it as charity and wouldn't accept it.

I did eventually discover that I could make a teleportation circle like I used to make back in Danmachi and Harry Potter, which was another reason to visit one of the cities on the east coast. At least it would have gotten me a lot closer than I currently was.

However, we couldn't really afford to take a trip like that, even though we were one of the better off farming families in the area. Johnathan kept sinking the finances right back into the farm to ensure it would always be successful.

I did my best to ensure it as well, even suggesting sectioning off a large part to build a cheap greenhouse for growing smaller crops during winter. After looking into it, Johnathan decided it was too big of an expense for so little gain and decided against it. Plus, those were his months off and he usually relaxed during them.

By relaxed, he meant he was constantly repairing the farm vehicles and equipment while also helping out his fellow farmers. He really was a nice and honest guy and explained why Martha fell in love with him in the first place and still loved him after so many years of dealing with his stubbornness.

That didn't solve my problem, however. How the hell was I supposed to cross half the country on a moment's notice to save Bruce from the tragedy of losing his parents? Yes, it would stop the creation of Batman; but, it would also stop decades of suffering and obsession on his part. It wasn't healthy to be so focused on fighting crime that your normal life was the facade you lived to cover up what you were doing.

For the entire month of August, I briefly used my clairvoyance power and checked on the Waynes diligently every night before going to bed, just to see if my late bedtimes were going to coincide with them going out.

It wasn't until the last day of the month that I 'saw' them leaving a movie theatre that was replaying an old movie, The Mask Of Zorro, that I realized this was it. This was the night when Bruce's parents died and I couldn't do anything about it.

My power somehow didn't end as I watched the masked robber assault them and bring them into the dirty and grungy alleyway and I cringed as Thomas Wayne didn't back down from the mugger, even as he handed over his stuffed wallet.

The criminal didn't like his defiance, since he had the gun and all the power, so he snarled at the rich snob and pulled the trigger.

*BANG!*

I flinched from the sound and tears came to my eyes as blood started to flow and Thomas dropped to his knees.

"DAD!" Bruce yelled an tried to catch him, only his father was too heavy and fell backwards anyway. Both Bruce and Martha cried as Thomas bled out through the large whole in his chest.

"I warned you." The mugger said and turned to look at Martha Wayne. "Sorry lady. I can't have any witnesses."

"No!" Martha and I said at the same time, because we both knew he meant he was going to kill Bruce, too. The man's finger started to squeeze the trigger again and I lost it.

I wordlessly yelled my frustration as all my hopes to help were dashed, then I felt my whole body tingle. My not-so-silent wish was granted when there was a loud crack of thunder at the same time that the mugger's gun went off, and I was suddenly there in my own vision in front of Martha and the bullet slammed into the right side of my forehead.

My head whipped to the right as I felt the bullet tear into my skin and bounced off my skull. Thankfully, the bullet went off on an angle and pinged off of the alleyway wall instead of hitting the taller woman behind me. I felt a small trickle of blood and wiped at it with the back of my hand.

"Wh-wh... who the hell are you?" The mugger asked.

I was hurt from being shot and too angry at the man to answer, then I felt my eyes start to itch. Two bright red beams shot out and hit the gun that I was focused on, heating it to bright red almost instantly. The man yelped and tried to throw it, which was a mistake. I was still pouring my heat vision into it and the gun deformed and melted over his hand.

The mugger screamed and fell to the ground, his hand and the gun almost merging together. I felt a delicate hand on my shoulder and the red beams cut off. The last thing I needed was to look at Bruce's mom with lasers coming out of my eyes. I turned to look at her and saw her face was streaked with tears. She nodded to me before she knelt beside her dying husband.

"Dad, no! Don't die. You can't die!" Bruce pleaded with him.

"I'm... sorry, son." Thomas said, his voice faint. "Martha..."

"Hush, my dear. Someone should have heard those gun shots." Martha said and petted his short dark hair with one hand and had her other hand gripped over the wound to try and stem the bleeding. "Help will be here soon."

"No, I..." Thomas shook his head. "It's too late..."

It was a touching scene and I was tempted to let it play out a bit more; but, I wasn't an asshole or a masochist, so I walked around them and knelt by the man's head and put a hand on his neck.

"What are you doing?" Martha asked me and her voice was calm, despite the situation.

"Helping." I said and used his own body to push the bullet back out of his chest and then reformed his heart, the damaged sack surrounding it, part of the lung, his chipped ribcage, then the muscles and skin where the wound was. I gave Thomas the same upgrade package I gave my mom and dad, too.

"DAD!" Bruce yelled when he saw Thomas regain his color and his breathing went back to normal.

Martha on the other hand, stared at me with a blank face, the bullet gripped tightly in her hand.

"You might want to save that." I said and patted her hand, giving her the same upgrade.

Martha sucked in a sharp breath, somehow feeling the change as it happened, and I smiled at her. She watched as I stood and went over to the whimpering criminal.

"Who sent you?" I asked.

The man gave me a pitying look. "N-n-no one."

I knelt and grabbed his melted hand and he screamed. "Don't make me repeat myself."

"F-Falcone! He offered a fortune to get rid of the Waynes!" The mugger now assassin admitted.

"Anyone else?" I asked.

The man said a few other crime families had also offered a nice sum to remove the thorn in their side that the Wayne Foundation's charities were causing to their operations. As a reward for telling the truth, I numbed the pain in his hand and stopped any chance he would die from the damage, then stunned him.

I stood up and nodded to Thomas, who was sitting up and holding his wife and son tightly. "I think you know what to do now."

Thomas nodded and his eyes held a world of retribution that the crime families of Gotham were going to regret bringing down upon themselves. "Who are you?"

"A friend." I said and closed my eyes as I concentrated and built up some magic, then another loud crack had me back across the country and inside my bedroom. I opened my eyes, glad to be back home, and froze... because I was not alone.

"I think you have some explaining to do." Martha said to me.

"This was the first time, I swear!" I admitted and she squinted her eyes at me, then she nodded. Just like Diane, she could always tell when I lied to her. Maybe it was a special power that all mothers had? I wondered. I was not stupid enough to ask about it, though.

"I heard your yell and then the loud snap of thunder. I rushed in here and you were gone." Martha said and patted the bed beside her. "Tell me what happened and how you got that jagged scratch on your forehead."

I took a deep breath and let it out, ducked my head and walked over to the bed, and plopped down beside her. She put her arm over my shoulders and pulled me into her side. That meant two things. She was supporting me as I talked to her and she wasn't going to let me go until I told her everything.

*

The assassination attempt on the Wayne family was in the national papers and on the news for the next week. It would be months, probably years, for the case to be investigated and probably thrown out. Gotham was a cesspool of corruption and crime, so the attempted murder would be covered up eventually.

I also had a small white scar on my forehead in the shape of a lightning bolt, which seemed really appropriate. I had used accidental magic to apparate across the country to save someone and was marked for it. I could have healed it right away and was going to, then Martha told me it would be a reminder of the very first life I had saved with my powers. That had been a great point and I decided to keep it.

Life at the farm went back to normal, even though Martha knew about my powers and how I had been hiding them as they developed. She chose to not include Johnathan in the secret, since I had been so diligent in hiding them from everyone, because that would be exactly what he would have wanted.

Keeping them from him actually fit into his philosophy. It also stopped him from needlessly worrying about someone else finding out about my powers, which both my mom and I agreed would slowly consume him to the point that he would be paranoid beyond all reason.

Sometimes during the days, and sometimes during the evenings, Martha would ask me to look in on someone or something. Her family, her friends, the president, a famous actor or actress, and once even her mother's grave. She wouldn't say she was helping me practice, even though she was.

It also gave me the idea to check in on a few people, like Princess Diana on Themyscria, Arthur Curry at his lighthouse, Barry Allen at his home and... dammit, I apparated right into his house and stopped his mother from being murdered and his father being framed for it.

Unlike last time, I didn't let myself be seen or allowed the criminal to live. I snapped Reverse-Flash's neck and stored his costume, transfigured normal clothes on him, and left his body in the local morgue for the police to find. An unexplained John Doe being found never made it to the newspapers.

I also checked in on Hal Jordan, Bruce Wayne a few times, and J'onn J'onzz, or Martian Manhunter. He was already on Earth somehow and was living a relatively normal life while also solving crimes as a detective. I checked on Mars to see that it was the desolate wasteland it was always depicted as, which meant the Martian Civil War must have been either devastating or a very long time ago.

I briefly checked other people that might become heroes in the future and had to smile at confirming I was in a world where the Justice League was possible. What iteration it could be was completely up for debate, since many different types of those heroes were in several different versions of the League.

Well, only time would tell which one it was going to be. All I could do was wait for it to happen, assuming a heavy hand wasn't needed here and there to fix things. That made me think I should start looking into the various villains I knew about and possibly stop them from being created or appearing later.

I sighed, because a hero's work was never done when applied on a near global scale.

241 College Boy

Despite being so busy, I still interacted with my fellow children in town occasionally. It was enforced by my mom, too. Martha wanted me to be sociable with others my age, no matter how smart I was or thought I was. I didn't bother trying to convince her otherwise, for two reasons. One, it let me get out of the house and spend more time with her. Two, I spent more time hanging out with the other mothers.

Let me tell you something important right now. Women in the late 80s and early 90s were hot and sexy, even more so than anyone realizes. The casual tightness of their clothing, their almost easy way of flirting without trying, and their attitude, made them the epitome of confidence and determination. They knew what they wanted, knew how to get it, and had no problem telling you so.

They were also all married and completely off the market, which sucked. I was approaching ten years old and was still in the cute stage of my development, which meant I was looked at with affection and indulgence. I was really tempted to take as many hugs as possible from them, and maybe a cheek kiss or two, because I knew they would let me get away with it because I was a kid.

Martha always gave me a particular look every time I was near them, and I always refrained from doing anything, which usually made the other mothers ask my mom why I was always so hesitant to hold the hugs longer than was strictly necessary and why I sometimes had a red face.

"He's worried you'll get the wrong idea." Martha would tell them. "Or he will if you don't object."

Most of the women laughed it off, both flattered and accepting of that, except for Lana Lang's mother.

"Has he tried anything like that with you? You are his mother, after all." Sarah Lang asked.

"What do you mean?" Martha asked back, a little defensive.

"They always say that the first woman a man ever falls in love with is his mother." Sarah said with a wicked smile and Martha blushed. "With him out of school all day, he spends a lot of time with you. If there was anyone around that he has feelings for, it's you."

Martha looked at me and I looked right back at her. "Clark?"

"You're happily married, mom. I decided a long time ago that despite how awesome you are, you're dad's wife and I had no right to interfere with that." I responded.

"A... a long time ago." Martha whispered, as did a few of the other mothers.

I gave them all the best smile I could, Gilderoy Lockhart's, and a couple of them caught their breath. "I know I'm only a kid and will be for years, so I have to wait until I'm older before I can do anything to make a woman happy, in different ways than I already do."

"Clark, you shouldn't say things like that." Martha admonished me.

"It's okay, mom. No one here has any regrets about their choices and are happy with their lives and how they turned out, especially you." I said and she nodded. "I just have to ask you one thing first."

"Go ahead." Martha said, even though her face was still red.

"When are you going to tell your friends you're pregnant?" I asked with a huge grin on my face. I had detected the life growing inside of her when I hugged her before breakfast.

"You're pregnant?" They all gasped.

"I'm pregnant?" Martha asked, shocked.

I realized then that I made a mistake revealing some of my power and needed to cover it up. "The doctor called this morning when you were in the bathroom."

Martha was swarmed with hugs and congratulations from all of the other mothers, because they all knew how long she had been trying to have a baby. She accepted it all with a happy face and kept giving me worried glances. She assumed I had something to do with it, only I hadn't.

Healing her up and giving her body a tune-up, let her body get back to its normal rhythm. I was actually surprised it took this long for it to happen, with how much she and dad went at it all the time.

The rest of the visit went by fast after that and we were soon on our way home. Martha was quiet for a while and kept giving me those same worried glances.

I sighed after using a touch of telepathy on her to find out what was wrong. "Mom, I won't be jealous that you're going to have a baby, because this is the best thing to happen to you since I arrived here."

Martha sighed as well. "You can't blame me for being worried about how you're going to react, Clark. You're my son, even if you're adopted, and you've always been the sole focus of our family."

"I know you're not going to push me aside." I responded an she gave me a surprised look. "You're going to need my help, actually."

"Why?" Martha asked.

"You and dad aren't as young as you used to be..." I started to joke and she reached over and slapped the back of my head. I laughed and rubbed the spot. "I promise to be the best older brother on the planet. Scout's honor."

Martha huffed. "They kicked you out of the Boy Scouts because you knew more than the scout troop's leader."

I grinned at her. "It's not my fault I know more about roughing it than he did. He's a divorce lawyer and hasn't had any local work in years!"

Martha softly laughed and nodded. What I said about the mothers back at the meet and greet was true. They were all perfectly happy with settling down in Smallville with their husbands and they had the right number of kids, which pretty much filled their childhood dreams of a normal family life.

We pulled into the driveway at the farmhouse and Martha parked the truck. We sat there in silence for several minutes before she spoke.

"I don't know how I'm going to tell your dad." Martha said.

"How about we make a bet on how long it'll be before he notices." I suggested.

Martha softly chuckled and shook her head. "I can't sucker you into another easy bet."

I chuckled, too. "Isn't that half the fun?"

Martha nodded and reached over to pet my head. "Let's go inside and surprise him."

"I'm not catching him if he faints." I warned her and she laughed.

We went inside the house and ambushed Johnathan coming out of the fruit cellar. He actually did faint when he learned he was going to be a father again, technically for the first time, and I didn't catch him. Martha rolled her eyes at me sticking to my vow to not reveal my powers to my dad and went to get an ice pack for the growing bump on his head.

*

Over the next couple of years, I kept my word and was the best older brother to my baby sister that I could be. I also kept checking on a few of the villains that would show up later to cause a lot of trouble. I also practised a lot with apparition to get the sound back down to almost nothing. Moving around almost silently was the best thing to keep myself from being caught.

The most innocuous villain I checked on was Mr. Freeze, or the man who would eventually become him after being caught in a failed experiment trying to save his wife from a debilitating disease. It took barely a moment to heal the teenage girl that would grow up to become the wife of Victor Fries.

Gorilla Grodd was only just starting his scientific pursuits in Gorilla City, so a quick stab with a blade made of disintegration magic through a hand-sized portal solved that future problem.

I didn't check on Darkseid, because I was somehow sure that he would be able to sense me using my clairvoyance power to look at him. His annoying Omega Beams were weird like that and might even possibly hit me through my vision, despite how impossible that seemed.

The biggest threat I could find was Ra's al Ghul, the immortal man running the League of Assassins. He had already had his two daughters, Nyssa and Talia, so I wasn't going to mess things up too much by sealing off the Lazarus Pits from the main fount of the planet and transfiguring the fluid into slightly diluted hydrochloric acid.

They were going to be quite surprised the next time anyone took a long dip in the sacred pools and they waited for them to resurrect. Left inside an acid bath for three days should ensure that there was nothing left for them to lift out afterwards.

I checked in on the Penguin and saw a sad little boy being ostracized by his parents and even the staff of their mansion. I healed him and transfigured his flippered hands and feet into looking normal, reduced his nose to a normal size, and changed his slightly rotund stature into a normal one. The change should be noticeable enough to make them all see he was no longer the freak they thought he was. I would need to check on him more than anyone else, too.

Black Adam was still trapped in his magical cage, the one the old wizard named Shazam tricked him into, so a single fingertip with Black Hole solved that problem. My few Karma Points were a small price to pay for the bonuses absorbing Black Adam's powers gave me, which included boosting my own slowly developing powers.

The problem I now had was a lot of the future villains were just teenagers or even kids. Did I have the right to end them long before they became villains? Should I take on that responsibility? It was a difficult decision, especially knowing what some of them were going to become if they were left to develop.

I had a long talk with my mom about my existential crisis of conscience and she told me she loved me even more, because I was actually considering all of the factors and not just arbitrarily using my powers to remove them as a first option.

After we talked for a long time about everything I've done up to that point, Martha convinced me that my work with the Penguin should become the benchmark I needed to set as my standard procedure. I would do what I could to change the circumstances that created those villains, and if that didn't work, I could remove them when it was time.

So, that's what I did. The smallest impact with that strategy was on my work with Lex Luthor, whom was nearly seven years my senior. His father was also a bastard that treated Lex like garbage and would eventually form him into the ruthless businessman he would grow into.

Lex had learned a lot from his father, like hating anything that wasn't normal or fit into his world view, which meant Superman's debut with supernatural powers and being revealed as an alien was against everything he believed in.

Not surprisingly, he was just as stubborn as my dad. If Lex didn't work for it and achieved it for himself, it was worthless and considered charity if you tried to give it to him. Again, it was frustrating to have to deal with another person with that mindset and there was absolutely no way to convince him to see things differently.

There were a few smaller villains that I also handled, like Toyman, Livewire, Killer Croc, Clayface, Eclipso, Doctor Light, Polaris, Neutron, King Shark, Hugo Strange, Deathstroke, and a few others. The one I impacted the most was Catwoman, or the teenage girl that would become a minor villain later, Selena Kyle.

A few mental prods and suggestions, a few 'found' items of value, and some judicious advice, had her off the streets and well away from any crimes she might consider doing, like prostitution and petty theft. She was also a lot more observant than anyone else and knew someone was helping her.

"Thank you, whoever you are." Selena said when she picked up the large pack of food stamps her intuition helped her find. Since I didn't want her to think she was going crazy, I opened a tiny portal above her and tossed through a piece of paper. She caught it and smiled. "When you're taking care of cats, you can only give them as much attention as they'll let you give them."

With a soft laugh, she tucked the note and the food vouchers into her jacket pocket and walked out of the alley. I may have also watched her cute denim-covered ass swaying as she walked away and I had the distinct impression that she knew I was staring at her and didn't mind in the least.

*

When I was fourteen and started my growth spurt, letting me pass for a few years older, my mom had the brilliant idea to put my sister into Preschool and audit several of the classes at Kansas State A&M University. It was an agricultural college as well and the classes were huge, so after paying a nominal fee to let mom sit in on classes, barely anyone gave us second looks as we attended a few lectures and classes for the first few days.

Once we established ourselves as part of the student body and everyone ignored us, just as they mostly ignored everyone else, Martha attended what she wanted and I stayed in the library. I did attend some of the larger lectures with her and it was great, because I managed to see how others reacted when my mom showed off how intelligent she was. Martha had been helping keep my own studying on track since I was five and a lot of it rubbed off on her.

By the end of the school year, after studying my ass off in the college's library every day, I paid the fees to write the college accreditation exams for everything I could and passed with flying colors. They weren't the highest marks that the college review board had seen in years, so my graduation wasn't even noticed.

Luckily, they didn't notice I had left my age blank when I had filed the paperwork to take the exams and handed over my diploma without question. Martha hung it beside my high school diploma on the living room wall with a sigh.

"I'm sorry you had to wait so many years before you were tall enough to pull that trick off." Martha said. I was now fifteen and was only an inch shy of six feet. I was also fairly muscular, which had let me fit in with the other students without standing out too much.

"It was only fair that you wanted me to be old enough to not look like a kid among the adults." I said and hugged her from behind and rested my chin on the top of her head.

Martha chuckled. "How many times did you turn down the football coach anyway?"

I barked a laugh. "At least once a week and twice on Saturdays when they had practice. The poor guy always looked like I had kicked his puppy every time."

Martha patted my arms and I eased my hold on her. She turned around and hugged me as she looked up at my face. "Someone was bound to notice how big you are. You're growing like a weed that's had lots of fertilizer."

I grinned at her choice of words. "Excuse me, did you just say that I'm full of shit?"

"Clark!" Martha gasped at my cursing and then realized what I said and laughed. "I guess I did."

Johnathan came into the living room with his daughter Emma hanging on his back in a piggy-back ride. He had a huge smile on his face, too. "It's about time you two got back. Emma's been teaching me how to farm properly and we absolutely had to tell you as soon as she heard the truck pull in."

That made Martha and I laugh and we rushed over to hug her and kiss her cheeks, making her giggle happily. She immediately started to babble all about her day and how she set her dad straight on the right way to farm. The three of us listened to the adorable little girl and Emma basked in the extra attention.

We moved into the kitchen and I helped mom make supper while Emma kept talking, pretty much non-stop, and repeated herself a few times. None of us minded, because she was the best thing to happen to the Kent family since my own appearance fifteen years ago. She was loved and well protected, just like I had been, and we would do anything to make her happy.

Now that I was a college graduate, I could do anything I wanted. I mean, I did that anyway; but, with a college diploma under my belt, I had nothing academically that was going to hold me back. To me, that meant I could buy the farm next door and I could do all the things my dad wouldn't let me do to the family's farm to make more money.

With a legal source of income, I could then branch out with all of the other things I could make. Also, since this was a super-science world, the tinkertech I could create wouldn't stand out. Well, not too much, anyway. It was still only 1996, so any massive innovations would have to be tempered with both public perception and cost effectiveness.

I wouldn't worry about that for a while, though. I needed that land to build what I wanted first and I had to go to the bank to try and get a loan. Would they take a chance on a 15 year old farm boy college graduate? I could only hope... and maybe use a few compulsion and confusion charms, just in case.

242 Farming For Fun And Profit

"I'd like to buy a farm, please." I said to the woman behind the desk and handed her my entire worked out business plan for the farm, the projected crop plantings, the potential sales I expected, and I also accounted for droughts and slumps in the market.

Miss Margaret Jessome was the main loan officer for the entire district I lived in. If she didn't approve of my plan, no one would. She looked a little surprised to see the pile of papers before she gained a determined look in her eyes as she started reading.

I sat there and waited her out, because I knew if she didn't think it was a sound plan, I was going nowhere with my ideas. Unfortunately, my backup plan of compulsion charms wouldn't work on her, because she was locally known as a hardass and ridiculously difficult to convince. However, if you did have her backing, she was behind you 110%.

Margaret finished reading and sat there for several minutes as she stared at me. Her gaze didn't waver, and neither did mine. Since I wasn't an idiot, I let her be the one to dictate when she would speak. If I tried to rush her, I knew she would rule against me on pure principle. Telepathy for the win!

"This plan might work." Margaret said, both raising my hopes and dashing them at the same time. "If you put it to use at a different location."

I didn't ask her where that was, because she was going to tell me anyway.

"Your father's farm runs parallel to two other farms, one of which you include in this plan." Margaret said and tapped her finger onto the survey papers I had for both the family farm and the neighbor's farm. "The problem is, these crops will not be viable for long in the same area." She moved the survey papers aside and put a blank sheet of paper on her desk.

I leaned forward because she expected me to.

"On the other side of Johnathan's farm, behind what you call the back 40, is pretty much a waste of space." Margaret said and drew out a skewed plot that was like a parallelogram with two offset front and back faces. "As you can see, the odd shape pretty much ruins it for classic farming techniques."

Oh, I get it. I thought and smiled slightly.

Margaret saw that and frowned. "Don't misunderstand me."

"I'm not, Miss Jessome." I said, my tone firm. "If I change my base plan from a full farm with existing structures to one that needs to be sectioned off to function, the odd shaped remains can be used for other things, like building a barn and perhaps a modest house."

Margaret gave me a squinted-eyed look for a moment and then nodded. "Your greenhouse project should fit here, here, and here." She said and drew three almost perfect rectangles inside the parallelogram and left two large triangles at either end. "You can have large deep wells dug here and here, both for irrigation and for household use."

I nodded at her marking the centers of both triangles, one of which I would be using the well excuse to dig out the space for my hidden factory as I 'looked' for a good spot for the well.

"If you put the house in the back of the lot, your access road has to be here, along this edge." Margaret said and drew a line all along the left-most side of the lot. "From the front, it's your choice. I suggest the same side, however. The gradient will keep it dry during the fall and spring months."

I mentally agreed that the runoff would work in that direction and would plan accordingly. I also noticed the size of the lot and the size of the neighbor's farm. "It's barely half the size of what I wanted."

Margaret inclined her head in acknowledgement. It was still a risk she was taking, only not as huge of one like it would be if I bought the much larger plot of land. Despite the numbers I provided, it really was a huge risk for her and the bank to take, especially in the current economy.

"I'll take it." I said in confirmation.

Margaret let out a cute little sigh of relief that I liked. She must have seen something on my face, because she frowned at me. "I hope you don't have any ideas that I wouldn't approve of."

I had to smile at that qualification. "Only if you don't mind dating a slightly younger man."

Margaret blinked her eyes several times and then blushed. "I'm married."

I glanced down at her hand and didn't see a ring there.

"Jessome is my maiden name and I kept it for my career." Margaret said, her face red. "I don't wear the wedding band because I'm allergic to gold."

Ah, that makes sense and is also disappointing. "Then I apologize for assuming wrongly."

Margaret nodded and we started in on the paperwork. We stayed there for quite some time working out the details for the smaller plot of land, the payment plans, how big of a loan I wanted and for how long, and a few other things.

I had also allocated part of the money for vehicles, both for the farm and for personal use, and Margaret signed off on it with a look of approval. Planning ahead was apparently a huge turn-on for her and I was again disappointed that I couldn't take advantage of that. This time, she looked a little disappointed that I couldn't, too.

I left the bank with the deed to my property, some cash in my hand, and ideas in my head that I was eager to get started on. I just had to tell my parents that my entry into the family business was happening about a decade before it should have happened naturally, as in taking over the Kent Farm.

The thing was, I was still going to help out, especially when I let my dad borrow my new farm equipment. Yes, it was a sneaky way around buying him the equipment outright, bypassing his view of it being charity. Borrowing was not the same as giving and he would begrudgingly accept the offer, even if I had to bring my mom into the conversation to convince him.

I went to the various stores that I needed to visit and placed my orders, just as my plan called for. It would set into motion my complete renovation of that plot of land and would be the perfect cover for what I really wanted to do, which was revolutionizing the tech industry years before it was supposed to.

The biggest purchase was the full size tractor, with the wide front scoop and the rear backhoe, making it a versatile piece of equipment that would be crucial for my plans. I already had the training and certifications to operate heavy machinery, since they were required for operating farming vehicles, and I arranged for the delivery to my oddly-shaped plot of land.

Next were the supplies for building the giant greenhouses and putting a down payment on a large double-wide trailer, something I would need to live in until I earned enough spare money to build an actual house. For now, all I could do was dig out a basement for it and buy the supplies to build that base structure.

The best part? I could call on all the local farmers to come over to help, since we were a tightly-knit community and Johnathan had made huge inroads with every other family by being so nice and accommodating whenever anyone asked him for help. I could also offer to pay them a fair wage, thanks to them not being the selfless goody-two-shoes that my dad was.

Plus, every farm hand loved to raise a barn from scratch. It was a huge accomplishment and their families always showed up and brought drinks and food, making it like a party. It was always a good time that everyone enjoyed and I was sure raising my barn was going to be the same.

I would need to wait for that until after the planting was done this month on everyone else's farms, though. I wasn't going to disrupt anyone's livelihood, just to get my own started. The potential that new equipment brought to the area would be quite the incentive to help, too. It wasn't like I could use them much after I put up the greenhouses.

You needed a lot of area to turn those large vehicles around to plow, plant, and harvest, and that was not happening inside of a building I was going to fill to the walls with crops. Everyone was going to assume I was still using them, especially when I put large garage-like doors in the greenhouses to allow the passage of shipping trucks and farm vehicles.

By the time I made it back home to the Kent Farm, I had everything on its way and let my mom know. She looked both proud and worried, so I hugged her and kissed her cheek, then I reassured her that I knew what I was doing. I was also going to let dad borrow my new equipment until I could have a barn raised and that made her face light up. Martha loved a good barn raising, too.

Not surprisingly, a few of the farmers politely asked to borrow my new farming machines. It delayed their own plowing and planting by a day or two, as they waited for the previous farmer to finish using it. I went along as well, since I had so much experience with both the new equipment and helping out on the farm. My college diploma showed I was an expert, too.

I had a lot of very interested looks from the local girls once they heard that and everyone showed up to raise the large barn on my property. Even Lana Lang seemed to give me a lot more attention, as did her friends and their friends, if their giggling every time I passed by was any indication.

I was a big strapping young man as well, so they were seeing a lot more potential in me than they did with the other guys in the town. They also knew I owned the small farm we were currently on and that had them all thinking about the future. I wasn't going to fall for any of them, though.

Despite being horny and needing a good screwing, I refrained for now, because my accumulated powers were getting back to their previous strengths and I couldn't expose a normal girl to them. I was tempted to grant them powers, except none of them had the right mindset to accept becoming so different from everyone around them.

Needless to say, the barn raising party was a huge success and was considered the biggest social event of the summer. School was going to start next week and everyone had a great time, even all the teenagers that were going to high school.

Quite a few of them, mostly the girls, said they regretted that I couldn't go there with them. I responded that I would have enjoyed it as well, and I would have, only not for the reasons they would assume. Constant and easy access to so many girls was like a dream come true, as my time in the last world proved. I doubted I could get away with being such a player here, though.

After everyone left, my parents left as well to put my sister to bed. I cleaned up the mess from the party and moved the farm equipment to store it inside the large brand new barn. I closed it up and locked it, using both magic and a physical lock, then I spent the next hour under the cover of night as I set out the ward stones to protect the property.

I felt a magic ripple near me after the wards activated and I didn't feel my danger sense go off. I walked over to the slight distortion and felt time slow down as an olive-skinned woman stepped out of it. She had slightly Asian features and smiled at me.

"Congratulations on passing your entrance exam, Clark." The woman informed me.

I chuckled. "I didn't know I was being tested, Doctor Rose Psychic."

"How did you..." Rose stopped talking and huffed as she crossed her arms. "You knew I was coming."

"Nope. Knowing people's names is a trick I learned a long time ago." I said and she smiled.

"Then you haven't ruined the surprise! Excellent." She said and held a hand out to me. "Come along, we have to get you to your dorm room and settled in."

I looked down at her offered hand and back up at her face. "Why exactly would I do that?"

"You're going to learn magic, of course!" Rose said and wagged her hand at me. "Before you complain about being taken away from your dreams or something, I have full control over my chronokinesis and no discernible time will pass, not even inside the pocket dimension where the university is."

I glanced around at my new property and gave her a raised eyebrow.

"No one will know you left, except you." Rose said. "None of what you're worrying about will come to pass. I promise."

I didn't have any other objections besides those, so I took her hand and the distortion appeared behind her. She pulled me inside and we stepped out onto a college campus. I could feel the time distortion and she technically lied. Time still passed, only it was at very tiny increments that most people wouldn't notice.

"Welcome to Mystik University, Clark Kent." Rose said, proudly.

A whoosh of air passed over us and I looked up to see a huge dragon flying by and there was someone on a flying carpet passing over the quad. The pilgrim statue with an owl familiar on it was a nice touch, considering the pilgrims burned the witches they found and anyone accused as a witch.

Rose saw me looking at it and chuckled. "Yes, the irony. I know."

I chuckled again and motioned at the huge castle-like building and at the groups of people seemingly lounging around. There were all kinds of beings of different shapes and sizes, including the legendary Sasquatch, a Yeti, an orc-giant, a whole bunch of humans dressed in various styles, and animals of all kinds. Some of them were sentient, too.

"You're a psychic type?" A very excited tiny green Faerie asked as she flew over to me. She wore a cute blouse and skirt combo that showed off her little legs.

"Technically." I said and held my left hand up for her to land on.

She landed on my palm and gasped, moaned like a cheap whore, and collapsed to her knees as she shook from pleasure. Both Rose and I stared at the small puddle of fruity-smelling liquid that formed on my palm underneath her.

"M-m-marry me." The green Faerie whispered and gave me a look full of love and desire.

"We just met, Absinthe." I said with a smile.

"You know my true name, too." Absinthe said and shuddered. "Please, please take me."

"He can hardly avail himself of your flat ass in your fairy form." A pretty young woman said as she walked over to us. She had short dark hair, wore a little black dress and fishnet stockings under a trenchcoat, and had an overlarge pistol strapped to her hip.

"Oh, right. Hold on." Absinthe said and hopped off of my hand and a greenish glitter formed around her and she grew to stand at close to my own height. She was also very thin, almost skeletal. "Hi, bitchy bitch."

The trenchcoat girl gave her a smug smile. "You're playing with fire, plague-breath."

Rose stepped between them and held a hand up to both of them. "I'm trying to bring a new student to his dorm." She said and both girls stepped back from each other. "Can you save the drama until later? I have someone else I need to pick up."

"I only came over to warn her." Trenchcoat girl said and looked at me. "This one is well acquainted with Death."

I smirked at her. "I'm not sure Death appreciates a blabbermouth, Lisa Drake."

She looked surprised for a moment and then smirked back. "Yeah, good luck asking her about that." She said with a soft chuckle at my still raised left hand. "I can't wait to see your face after you find out how boring it is to have sex with a fairy that gets off on just touching you."

"Hey! I wasn't prepared for how good that felt." Absinthe said and gave me a longing look. "Also, can you call me Green Fairy from now on? I don't want anyone I don't trust to have my true name."

"Sure thing." I said and held my right hand out for her to shake. "You can call me Atlas."

Green Fairy looked down at my hand and blushed. "Give me a minute or two."

Both I and Lisa chuckled at her reaction. Rose checked her watch and gave me a pointed look.

"I'll stay right here and won't go off wandering around." I promised, even though I wondered why she would have a watch when her main power was to control time.

Rose nodded as the distortion appeared behind her. "I'll be right back with your classmate."

I watched as she disappeared and turned back to the two young women in front of me. "So, does tasting a fairy's fluids count as accepting food or drink from a fairy?"

Both young women looked at the small puddle on my still raised palm and blushed.

"It's best to not risk it, even though there's been no precedent like that set." Lisa warned me and turned her head away as she whispered. "Now I have more research to do about my own fairy bloodline."

I didn't let her know I heard her and pretended to pull a napkin from my pocket to wipe off my hand. I transfigured part of it into a vial and scooped up the fluid to save it, just in case it might have some magical properties, and then tucked it back into my pocket as I stored it.

"How long do you think..." I started to ask when the distortion appeared right where it had the last time and Rose and a very familiarly dressed young woman stepped out of it.

"Welcome to Mystik University, Zatanna Zatara." Rose said, proudly.