Chapter 1:

Last Son Turned Farmer

On the planet Krypton, a certain man walked into his home and slammed the door behind himself before sighing.

"Well, Jor-El? Did they believe you?" a woman asked her husband as he came into their shared home, hoping it wasn't as bad as he appeared.

The man, Jor-El, sighed again and shook his head, "I'm afraid not, Lara. The Council wouldn't believe me, even after I showed them the data. Though, I cannot say that I blame them, the whole situation still seems insane to me as well."

"Then, what shall we do?" Lara asked.

"For now, the only thing we can do is continue to build escape pods for the people. Thus far, only one has been finished. Brainiac, how long until the rest are finished?" Jor-El asked the AI that acted like his assistant and the caretaker of the house.

"The remaining pods will require three more days to be completed," the AI said in his emotionless tone, "Also, I have detected unknown energy signatures in orbit over Krypton."

"What!?" Jor-El yelled before running outside and seeing three massive squid-like ships descending from the sky, "No, we're too late."

A loud, artificial voice rang from one of the ships, "KRYPTONIANS, YOU HAVE GONE AGAINST THE SET PATH. YOU WILL BE DESTROYED SO THAT YOU DO NOT DISRUPT THE ORDER OF THE CYCLE OF DESTRUCTION. DO NOT RESIST. IT IS FUTILE. WE ARE THE VANGUARDS OF THIS GALAXY'S DESTRUCTION," with the ending of this ultimatum, the ships started firing massive destructive beams, destroying entire city blocks with single attack.

"By Rao, they weren't supposed to be here so soon!" Jor-El shouted in horror.

"What do we do!?" Lara asked, clutching their infant child close to her, like her embrace could protect her son from the beams.

Jor-El looked at her before turning his attention to the infant in her arms and saying solemnly, "The only thing we can do." With that, he pulled his wife with the infant crying in her arms and they both got into the family personal transport vehicle.

With Jor-El piloting the hover vehicle, he set a course towards his lab, moving at an extremely fast pace. Lara looked out the window to see the situation was getting even worse. The armed forces tried to launch a counterattack against the massive ships, but they responded by launching drones that devastated their forces. The situation only got worse as lava began to spurt from the wounds in the crust.

Jor-El saw this with a horrified expression on his face, "It's as bad as I thought it'd be."

"Why? What's going on, Jor-El?" Lara asked, somehow managed to get even more worried.

"From my studies, our planet's core make-up, namely the minerals that make it up, is unique and it seems the energy of those beams is reacting to the minerals."

"What does that mean!?" Lara asked, beginning to panic.

"According to my calculations, our planet will explode in about twenty minutes," Jor-El explained in sorrow.

Lara sat the rest of the ride in horrified silence. When they got to the lab, Jor-El led his wife and infant child to the door, which, by order of Jor-El in case of this situation, had been sealed to all except the scientist.

When they reached the destination, the only escape pod that had been finished, Lara realized what her husband had in mind. "You want to send our child into the galaxy alone!? Who knows what kind of danger he will face!"

"We have no choice, Lara, my love. I've found a planet that seems to contain a species similar in appearance to ours. He will be able to live among them," Jor-El said as he took the infant from his wife to place him in the escape pod.

"But if they find out what he is, they kill him!"

"They won't be able to. He will be as a god among them," Jor-El said, much to the confusion of his wife, "Besides, he won't be alone. Brainiac 2.0, are you downloaded into the pod?"

"Yes, Jor-El. I am completely uploaded to the pod's database, along with the information that you have requested."

"Do you have all of the protocols uploaded into your matrix?"

"Affirmative."

"Good, prepare for launch and do so as soon as you are done," Jor-El said as he opened the launch doors for the pod, "Your mission will be to protect and aid my son in his exploits. Do you understand and accept these orders?"

"Yes, Jor-El," the AI said.

A few seconds after the launch doors were open, the pod's engine activated and took off.

"Will he be alright?" Lara asked.

"His life won't be easy, but he is destined to accomplish great things," Jor-El said, as he pulled his wife into his arms, "I know our son will succeed. He will end the cycle."

"Good," Lara said with a smile, seconds before the entire building was completely destroyed by one of the massive ships.

The pod's escaping the destruction and the atmosphere didn't go completely undetected by the ships as one of them gave chase.

It communicated with the pod, clearly unaware the only occupant was an infant, "YOU WILL NOT ESCAPE YOUR DESTINED DESTRUCTION! YOU WILL PERISH WITH THE REST OF YOUR KIND!"

As the large ship fired at the pod, Brainiac took control to make it dodge and ensure its survival. After chasing the pod for a few minutes, the large ship detected a large energy surge before the planet it had just been attacking exploded in a massive blast. Once its attention was off of the pod, Brainaic activated the cryo-sleep of the pod and activated the hyperdrive to head towards its chosen destination. Realizing its comrades were destroyed in the blast and its target was gone, it headed to the nearby Mass Relay to escape the blast. It had no fear of the rest of the galaxy's organics finding this place as the Relay was going to be destroyed as well.

As the pod traveled, Brainiac calculated that a meteor will move into the pod's trajectory, so he decided to change to the secondary destination. It would take longer, especially since the pod didn't have enough fuel to continue its hyperdrive system.

Six years later, on the planet of Mindoir, a husband and wife were driving in an old car heading towards their farm in the agricultural district, nicknamed 'Smallville' after a town back on Earth. The couple, John and Martha Shepard, both had depressed expressions on their faces. They'd just come from a clinic, where they discovered that Martha was sterile, a medical issue that modern technology still couldn't fix.

"Martha, it's not the end of the world. There are still other ways of having children besides the usual way," John said trying to reassure his beloved wife.

"I know," she said sighing, "It's, it's just that I've always wanted a child."

"I know, Martha, I ju-what's that!?" John exclaimed, pointing at what appeared to be an incoming meteorite.

The flaming ball of light flew over them and crashed into their cornfield. John slammed on the brakes and they got out of it to head to the crash site and investigate. When they found what ever it was that crashed, they found a pod of a make that they didn't recognize from their times as Alliance Naval officers. The pod opened up and inside they found an infant child, a baby boy. Martha picked the small baby out of the pod to hold it in her arms. The husband and wife looked at each other, both silently deciding what to do with the child.

Twelve years later, a thirteen year old child was tinkering with the family tractor. He activated his omni-tool, where one of his closest friends was located.

"Brainiac, could you bring up the specs for the tractor again?" the boy asked.

"Affirmative, Kal-El," the AI housed in his omni-tool replied, appearing as a screen with three green dots forming an upside-down triangle.

"Brainiac, you know you're supposed to call me by the name Ma and Pa gave me," the boy groaned.

"Apologies, Clark," Brainiac said.

Brainiac and Clark's parents had told him from the a young age that the Shepards found him in a pod and that they decided to raise him as their own son after Brainiac informed them of his birth parents' demise. They hid pod in a secret place beneath the barn, a place so secret that the most advanced scanners couldn't find it, due to the defenses they put into place. Brainiac also explained that a number of protocols were in place that kept him from accessing a great deal of information until certain conditions were met. As a result, Clark just knew who his birth parents were, what his birth name was, the name of his homeplanet, and that said planet was now nothing more than debris, though he didn't know why. Clark's adoptive parents taught him how to shoot with some civilian rifles and how to fight hand-to-hand after he'd said that he wanted to be an Alliance marine himself, just like his parents. Until then, he helped his parents on the farm when he wasn't at school. He was the designated Einstein due to his tutoring by Brainiac, but his work on the farm also kept him in shape, so no one ever tried picking on him. Clark actually liked working on the farm. He didn't know why but he always felt energized when he was in the bright sunlight. The Shepards were fine with their young son helping around the farm, especially with the tech-based issues, since Clark had a knack for it.

"Hmm, it's probably that darn fuel convertor again. Next time we're in town, we really need to get a new one," Clark muttered as he worked. When he was finished, he figured it allowed him a good couple of hours before his folks needed him, so he decided to take a walk.

He was walking down the street past the cornfields that were included in the Shepard family farm when he heard a loud crash down towards the bridge. Clark ran to investigate and found a school bus that must have been heading from the pre-school hanging off the edge of the bridge. Without thinking, Clark ran to the bus and grabbed the back end of the bus to keep it from tipping off of the bridge. He pulled on it as hard as he could. In his adrenaline-fueled mind, Clark was surprised to see that the bus was actually moving back towards the thirteen year old boy and his muscles weren't even feeling strained in the slightest. With one final pull, he managed to bring the front wheels of the bus onto the bridge.

He looked up at the bus windows to see the small children staring at him with expressions of awe and wonder.

"Clark, I believe we should make a swift escape before you are forced to answer questions that you do not have the answers to or cannot answer," Brainiac said.

"Yeah, uh, sure," Clark said, still uncertain as to what just happened.

He burst off running back to his home. He'd never run as fast as he was running now, the cornfields were blurs of yellow as he ran, a massive dust trail followed behind him. He managed to get back to the farmhouse in the course of a few seconds when it would have normally taken him almost an hour and he wasn't even winded. He felt like he could run ten times that length before he started breathing heavy.

"Brainiac, what's happening to me?" Clark said, frightened.

"Your biological father believed that the red sun, Rao, prevented the Kryptonians from using their full abilities and that a yellow sun could give the people unique abilities. He felt that a Kryptonian's body would act like a battery containing the energy of the yellow sun," the Kryptonian AI explained.

"Wow, uh, I should try these abilities out. Maybe I could find some use for them or at least make sure I don't accidently hug someone and break their spine," Clark said.

"An understandable worry," Brainiac said.

The next two years, Clark continued his normal life, while also learning the full extent of his powers. The first powers that he noticed was that every muscle in his body was improved so that it was superhumanly strong and the other was his superhuman speed. His dad, riding the bike he kept for the occasional ride, was willing to help him with the superspeed test. Even though he was driving at full speed on a straight road, Clark outran him with ease. He was able to lift the tractor with one hand. He also found his muscles in his respiratory system was superhumanly strong as well, which allowed him to literally blow someone off their feet. He also found that, at first, he could jump several meters into the air, but after a while, he found that he could glide, which later turned into full-blown flight. He later found that he could use a sort of x-ray vision that allowed him to see through solid objects and an actual laser from his eyes that could burn or even weld metal. His senses were also at a superhuman level. He kept his powers a secret from the other kids at school, even the few friends that he had, his friend, Lois, who was on the student paper, especially, since she could never keep a secret.

At this point in time, Clark was out of school for spring break and was once more fixing tractor when his father came out to talk to him.

"Clark, my boy, I need you to pack up some clothes for a trip. We're heading to Illium to get some of the new tech for the farm."

"Do I have to go, Pa? I'd rather just stay here."

"Oh, come on, Clark, you can't just do your schoolwork and chores and close yourself from the rest of it. You don't even hang out with your friends outside of school. This'll give you a chance to see something new. Who knows? You might meet a cute girl," his father teased, prodding his arm with his elbow, making Clark blush.

"I just prefer to be doing something productive," Clark said, "But I don't have any choice, do I?"

"Nope, now go start packing."