Ascension 2

Chapter Sixty Eight: The Mysterious Mystery of Claire Kent Part Two. 

It was either really late at night or really early in the morning, depending on your perspective. Regardless of the perspective it was not the most ideal time to get a phone call. Which the phone was ringing in the Kent Residence, and Martha Kent shut the door behind her when she heard the phone.

She had been up for many hours due to the fact that her husband had not returned from being in town. That wasn't like him, unless he was stuck in an extremely bad snow storm which was possible at this time of the year. The only problem was that the sky was extremely clear without a cloud in the sky.

Martha allowed a sigh to escape her lips. She could normally set her watch by his comings and goings, which told her that something was wrong. The fact was that she was already on edge by the time that the phone rang.

She actually had to call the sheriff because her husband didn't have a cell phone. Not when he left, not ever really.

Despite the state of their marriage not being the most ideal these days, they got along well enough, more like friends than anything. They stuck together for Claire's sake and the fact that if they split up, there would be some really bad complications regarding her adoption. Someone like Lionel Luthor would pounce on that to take advantage of the situation. Martha would prefer that man not be in her daughter's life.

That being said, despite only taking six steps towards the phone and answered it in less than three rings. It felt like more rings.

"Hello," she said over the phone.

"Mrs. Kent?" a young man asked over the side of the phone.

"Yes….."

"I'm the sheriff's deputy. We found your husband, his truck wrecked on the side of the road," the man said in an apologetic tone over the phone.

It was numb shock at first that struck her. That numb shock was completely replaced by an abject amount of horror.

"Oh my god is he…"

Martha couldn't bare to complete the question. It hung on the tip of her tongue. The deputy jumped in with an answer that gave her somewhat a peace of mind somewhat.

"His truck is pretty damaged, and he's not the best, good thing he was wearing his seat belt or it would have gotten a lot worse, the paramedics said that he had a heart attack, along with a crushed lung and some broken ribs… but other than that he got off pretty mild, other than some contusions and bruises."

"So he's going to pull through," Martha said, struggling to keep things together. This was a scenario that she had thought about in the past.

Jonathan told her that his grandfather and father had both died before the age of forty of a heart attack and heart problems were abundant in his family. Given how hard Jonathan worked himself, Martha feared the inevitable. They dodged a bullet tonight, but for how long.

"We're doing all that we can for him, it was pretty bad without the heart attack, he's in critical condition, he's been taken to Metropolis General," the deputy said over the phone. "We're going to have the truck towed in the morning, but looks like it's pretty damaged beyond all repair."

Martha closed her eyes. It was a bad situation to find out about. She was better knowing than not knowing though.

"Okay…. thank you…"

"Not a problem, Mrs. Kent," the deputy said in a gentle voice. "You try and take care now, despite the circumstances…."

The circumstances were pretty bad and Martha turned around. This was a nightmare situation come to life. She was jarred something fierce. Now that she knew exactly what happened, she could recover and quickly.

She took a few seconds to compose her thoughts together and shakily moved up the stairs. The woman nearly tripped over he feet and she didn't pay attention to where she was going.

She reached outside of the door of the room that Kara and Harry shared together. Martha raised her hand and lightly knocked on it.

If someone was up, they would hear it. If not, she felt bad about waking them up. Especially considering the fact that Kara mentioned that Harry wasn't feeling that well.

"It's open," Kara whispered and Martha opened the door, entering with her hands shaking slightly.

The light was cast gently into the room and Kara sat up against the headboard, wearing a transparent white nightgown. A tablet rested in one hand and she played with a still sleeping Harry's hair with another. Karen crashed next to him, snuggling against his body, when they were sleeping.

Alexandria had gone home for the evening, although she made plans to meet up with Harry later in the day, tomorrow.

Kara frowned, seeing Martha's unexpected arrival. One look at her face said that she might dread what she learned.

"What happened, you look awful," Kara whispered deciding to cut to the chase but seriously, Martha felt awful as well.

"Jonathan….he got into a very bad wreck, he had a heart attack beyond the wheel, thankfully they found him in time," Martha said in a shaky voice, managing to work through the haze that she felt, even though she was not feeling her best right now.

Kara frowned when she looked at the woman, who epitomized strength as far as she was concerned.

"Is he going to be alright?"

"He's in critical condition," Martha informed the blonde and Kara regretfully detached herself from Harry, to get up to her feet and face Martha.

"What do you want to do?" Kara asked and Martha decided to mull it over in her mind, before coming to a decision.

"I need to drive up to the hospital in Metropolis in order to be with him in case….." Martha said and there was a sigh and she managed to collect her thoughts. "In case the worst happens."

"So do you want me to wake up Harry so he can…."

Martha cut that one off instant, placing her finger on Kara's lips to shush her and stow that line of talk.

"No, if what you told me earlier about Harry not really feeling well is true, then we should really let him sleep," Martha said with a frown on her face and Kara paused and nodded in agreement.

"Okay, that's for the best I think, I should leave a note to tell him in the morning….."

"I'll do it, in the morning," Karen whispered and Kara smiled.

"Really, thanks," Kara said without another word and she was completely grateful about that. She kept herself calm and walked over, kissing Karen on the forehead.

After stealing a kiss from Harry, Kara walked over to change into something more fitting. Martha stumbled across the hallway to do the same.

Martha waited outside for Kara to join her, pacing around back and forth. Now that both of them were dressed, going to the car that she traded it for the old junker. It wasn't really high end to be honest, but it was practical and more importantly it ran

"I'm ready, sorry for making you wait," Kara said, making her way out the door.

"No, no, it's not a problem at all," Martha said, once again trying to hold herself together.

Despite the fact that their marriage didn't have the same spark that it did when they were first married, she did loved her husband. It was difficult to keep her sanity even though she did more than most.

Kara, sensing Martha's discomfort, walked over towards the Kent female and wrapped her up tightly in a hug. Martha closed her eyes, relaxing into Kara's embrace, and held Martha into her closely, giving herself time to compose herself.

Martha tried not to let out the sob that she let out but given the circumstances it was unavoidable. She needed to put herself together, for Claire's sake if anything else. She took a deep breath and readied herself to make the trip.

"Okay, I'm okay, really I am," Martha whispered in a quiet voice and she slowly pulled away from Kara, brushing her hand against the blonde's cheek with a smile on her face.

"I'll drive," Kara said firmly., opening up the door on the passenger's side. Martha opened her mouth to protest this but Kara was having none of that. "In the state that you're in, I don't think that it's really a good idea if you drive."

Martha wasn't going to say much of anything else. She came to an agreement.

"Thank you dear," Martha whispered, and Kara made sure that she was in the passenger side. "Are you…"

"I'm fine, I can handle it, I've had plenty of practice now," Kara said and she smiled despite herself, after a very shaky start, she managed to get a hang of driving all kinds of cars. But then again, when your husband collected said cars, it was kind of difficult not to really get the hang of it.

There were no shortage of opportunities to practice.

Kara placed herself behind the wheel of the car, buckling up and starting the ignition. Her next movement was backing out of the driveway and driving down the lonely country road. There was barely a soul to be seen on the road for miles when they made their way out past the corn fields.

The two women sat in silence for a lengthy amount of time with Kara driving and it was obvious that both of them were thinking about the day that was.

Martha hated the silence because of how unnerving that it could be. To break the silence she jumped in to ask a question that she had been meaning to ask for a while. "How has Harry been doing?"

Kara frowned for a second but her face brightened up with a smile. "He's doing well."

Martha made a noise that got Kara's attention and she sighed, frowning. She could see the woman's eyebrow raised even though she really should be keeping her eyes on the road.

She could see a Semi Truck blow down past them as she stopped at the stop light.

"I mean it….he's….fine…..but….."

"But what?" Martha asked and Kara looked at the road, her eyes glowing in frustration but she shook her head to clear the thought of it.

"I don't know," Kara growled underneath her breath and finally there was a damn that burst on him. "Well, I mean other than the fact that he keeps getting hurt, despite everything that he's been through and my best efforts to protect him, and Faora's as well, and how….well I'm be honest it scares the hell out of me to think about what could happen if he deals with something that he might not be able to walk away from and until his CORE heals properly."

Kara gave a long sigh and to her credit Martha was an attentive listener, not once speaking when Kara really was hitting her stride and she could hit her stride and hard.

"And his hobbies…..well I'll be perfectly honest, they aren't what you call safe," Kara said and she gained an even greater stride when she smoke. "And he's so squishy right now, and I was that way once, but it seems like an entire lifetime ago, and…..yeah he has magic, but he can barely use it at the best of times because of his CORE and the restrictions that he has. If he exhausts it, he could die, and if he uses too much…..he will explode."

Kara clutched the steering wheel tightly and took a deep breath before calming down and mentally counting down from ten.

"And I mean it, he will literally explode and he will go boom and everything within a twelve mile radius will go up with him."

Martha didn't know it was that bad. She had a an inkling but she didn't to know the extent of it. Kara was just hitting her stride now.

"And despite all of that…..he likes to dress up in a suit of body suit, and try and go back Gotham Fucking City into a better place, even though it's like missing in the wind," Kara whispered and she shook her head. "And he has this knack of attracting all of these women…..who are nearly as crazy as he is…like Vicki, Selina, and Lois as well and it's just…..well it's completely nuts."

She smacked the dash hard to emphasize that point and she managed to calm down just a little bit.

"So, are you feeling better now?" Martha asked in a tentative voice and Kara paused and she nodded in response.

"Yeah," Kara said, chuckling softly.

Her eyes returned to the road like she didn't launch it a tirade. It felt extremely good to get that off her chest.

When the cat was away, the mice would play. As far as Catwoman was concerned, there was a lot of rats that toiled in Gotham City that would allow her to play quite nicely. It was time for her to get to work.

On most nights, this would be a heavily guarded warehouse, and from what the sources that she had on the underworld said, it belonged to the Falcones. A name that just rose her blood pressure up at the very thought of them. It was a place where those bastards stored their ill gotten gains before they sold them to God only knows who at what price.

'Okay Selina, time to take advantage of a very bad situation,' she thought to herself, running her finger down the side of her neck and sighing instantly.

The renewed gang activity in Gotham City increased over the past few nights. On this particular night, hostilities reached a fever pitch between various factions of the mob.

The Penguin snapped out of whatever funk he was in and then he took out his frustration on the nearest goon that he could find. The foul bird beat him to death with his umbrella or so the story went. Then he decided to drive his goons into Black Mask's land and down his throat by having them storm into the industrial district.

Then pretty much all of the shit hit the fan from there and what would normally be watched by guards, it was pretty much barren. They were too busy dealing with more important things than what basically amounted to a massive storehouse.

Most cases that wouldn't even register a blip on the radar. There was only one problem They were not dealing with most cases. Catwoman didn't deal with the conventional rules of the Gotham City underworld, because she wasn't affiliated with any of the gangs in the city. She played her own game and that upset the plans of a lot of people.

Despite that she did have her sources and those sources told her that something that she wants happens to be inside. Therefore, she was going to get inside while the Falcones were distracted by the little slap fight between Penguin and Black Mask. She would take what she needed and sort it out later.

She dropped down through the open skylight from the roof and she could hear that there was a hell of a rain storm that began to brew. That was a typical evening for Gotham City. Add that to the wind that was brewing and it was not going to be a night outdoors that was fit for man for beast.

She cut a hole through the glass and created herself an exit point. She dropped down nicely onto the metal beam below and slowly but surely lowered herself onto the ground.

Stepping forward, Selina sauntered her way towards the office where she thought that her item in question might have been lying around. Well maybe not lying around because she was pretty sure that it would not be in any place where any old thug could get their hands on it. Rather it would be nice and safe inside a safe.

Therefore it was off to the manager's office where she figured that would be the most likely location.

Selina then tensed up a little bit, perhaps she was insane, or perhaps there was something to all of this. After what happened to her with Mario and also her encounter with Batboy and Nightwing, she developed some kind of sense for danger. It was being tweaked badly at this present moment.

Stretching her neck out and looking around, Selina looked to see if they did station a guard here. She didn't see anything but at the same time, she had to remain still just in case something was going on.

When there was nothing going on, the dark haired female slipped from her spot, and then made her way into the office.

Frowning, she noticed that something was off, the floor rug in front of her seemed to have been shifted recently. Triumph filled her eyes, when she leaned down. She shifted the rather heavy carpet out of place. They thought it hid her from her prize. They were wrong.

"Jackpot," Catwoman muttered and she saw a heavy duty looking safe that had been set into the floor.

She moved through the necessary steps that it took to get the safe open, she had very little time to work with it. The cat burglar moved quickly. She wretched it open, before she found a heavy looking leather satchel. It was just what she watched.

With more triumph dancing through her eyes, she snatched it into her hands and stretched herself back up to her full height, with a purr. Then suddenly, she tensed up, dropping to the ground in response and looking around.

There was someone who was here and she avoided having her head taken off by a vicious spin kick. In response Catwoman ducked and rolled to the side, and then popped up to face an interesting new adversary.

She had short platinum blonde hair, along with a tight black short top that strained over her breasts, and a black skirt. Thigh high boots added to her outfit. She had a grin on her face, when she raised her claws.

"I seem to have inspired a few imitations, haven't I?" Selina asked, barely keeping the grin off of her face.

"Oh, please, don't flatter yourself," she said and she charged Catwoman.

The razor sharp claws nearly sliced into Catwoman. She dodged out of the way to avoid an attack.

"So, what do you call yourself, honey?" Catwoman asked, avoiding her attack once again and then she knocked her back hard into the wall.

"Call me Magpie," she said and she charged Catwoman once again.

"You know, sweetie, this time in Gotham City, you could catch a dreadful cold in that get up," Catwoman said in a mock motherly voice.

Magpie's only response was to rush her again and try and move in for the kill.

"That's nothing compared to what I'm going to do with you," Magpie said and the two women circled each other. Both looked to do anything necessary. "You have something very shiny and I want it, or rather I know someone who does."

"Really, who would want something like this?" Catwoman asked, but she did have her suspicious.

"Calls himself Enigma, says that he's willing to pay a lot of money, and with that kind of money, I can get a lot of shinies," she whispered and she charged Catwoman, preparing to carve her up but once gain she ducked. "So hand it over, if you know what's good for you!"

Catwoman grinned, and she motioned for Magpie to bring it or rather come and take it.

The two of them went into an acrobatic fight, with Catwoman grabbing Magpie by the hair and flinging her down to the ground. She crashed down hard, but Magpie grabbed the satchel.

"Mine," Magpie said but Catwoman did an acrobatic flip, before snatching it out of her hands with one fluid moment.

"Don't be so childish," Catwoman whispered, shaking her head. She rushed her way towards the exit, with Magpie howling in agony when she followed Catwoman. The two of them were about ready to make their way to the main warehouse area.

The satchel had changed hands several times before the time that they got there and it was a spirited round of hand to hand come back.

"Freeze!"

"Oh look they do have guards, how nice," Catwoman muttered underneath their breath.

Suddenly, a large truck smashed through the gates.

"And who called for the clowns?" Catwoman muttered in despaire.

Magpie took advantage of that distraction to swipe the satchel from her. She slipped out of the exit, avoiding being shot.

"Oh no you don't, that's mine," Catwoman said and she chased her from the warehouse, both of them going out into the pouring rain in Gotham City.

Things were about to heat up, and Catwoman was not going to let some little upstart steal what she had worked so hard to acquire.

Claire Kent, Age Eleven, of Smallville Kansas, known as Clara Jor-El of Krypton, stirred awake because of the smell of breakfast and the signs of the sun rising. That combination allowed her to stumble in the direction of the kitchen, like all children who were raised on a farm had been conditioned to do.

She shook her head and pulled on a pair of blue jeans, and made sure that her shirt was properly on. Then she made her way down the steps, in a half asleep mode. She was stumbling down the steps, resembling a Kryptonian zombie to be honest.

Claire stopped on the door and was greeted with a very odd sight. The young pre-teen girl spotted Harry cooking breakfast. Okay, that wasn't weird since he's cooked for them before, but normally he was helping her mother there. And her mother wasn't there.

This hardly registered with her given her state of being half awake. Claire shuffled into the kitchen, because it was one of her chores to help her mother with breakfast, so she decided to help Harry.

A cute little yawn was barely stifled, and she was a bit dazed and half asleep at the moment.

'Guess I'll wake up when I have something to eat,' she thought to herself and she reached in, taking the bowl that Harry handed her, and she began to stir the mixture it was.

It slowly sunk in completely that her mother wasn't cooking breakfast. It was the young man who had visited her in her dreams and she blushed slightly when she thought about the nature of said dreams.

"So, where's Ma and Pa?" Claire asked managing to shake her head. "I mean, my mother's….she's normally down here…cooking breakfast, even though you help and Pa….you can usually see him outside about this time, he's up even before the roosters, doing chores."

Claire looked out the window to verify this and sure enough, there was no Jonathan Kent outside, which was a fairly worrying sight and she shook her head, biting down on her lip in response.

"You know, I don't know where your father is exactly," Harry said and he looked at her. "As for your mother, she got a phone call late last night and she needed to drive into town…and Kara went with her. Don't know where…..because Karen didn't mention it."

Claire nodded in response.

"As for your father…..don't know," he responded to her and Claire nodded in response. "Maybe his business ran long, so he had to stay in town instead of making the drive home so late."

Claire nodded slowly, she supposed that made a little bit of sense. Something hit her instantly; that seemed to be out of character for her father. Normally her father was stubborn enough to drive home in the dark. Regardless, she decided to let it be by now, because it was time for her to eat and just in time as well.

Karen joined them, fresh out of the shower, wearing little more than a tight bathrobe, her hair still dripping wet. Claire stopped and stared at her older cousin, dropping the silverware onto the floor, with a startled squeak.

It was all that they could do not to say anything because they didn't want to embarrass the poor girl after all. Karen sauntered over, leaning down on the floor, to help Claire pick up the silverware.

'So what exactly happened?' Harry asked.

'Jonathan had a heart attack last night and got in a wreck, Martha and Kara went to the hospital,' Karen said when she helped her cousin pick up the silverware.

'He's in critical condition, but he's out of surgery, he broke his arm pretty badly, some ribs, and punctured lung,' Kara thought and she shuddered as she thought about it. 'It was a damn good thing he wore his seatbelt.'

"So, how are things doing at school?" Karen asked Claire and Claire shifted before she answered in an honest manner.

"Fine, I guess," the young girl said, shifting rather nervously.

"So, are there any boys you like?" Karen asked and Claire went slightly red at the thought.

Harry could not help himself from amending that statement. "Are there any girls that you like?"

If anything else, Claire went slightly redder and Harry thought that was the perfect opportunity to serve up some breakfast, where the three sat.

Now it was time for them to explain to the young girl, now that everyone was fed and watered about the status of her father's condition.

"He's going to be okay, isn't he?" Claire asked, and she seemed distressed about what happened, as Harry pulled her onto his lap, allowing her to snuggle into his chest.

"He's just out of surgery, I'm sure that he should be fine," Harry told Claire and she nodded in response. "Do you want to go and see him in the hospital?"

After considering it for a moment, she responded with a shaky nod.

Harry and Claire finished the chores on the farm in fairly decent time and they did them right as well. That needed to be done because the last thing that someone wanted to do was get behind on the chores on a farm the size of the Kents.

After the drive from Smallville to Metropolis, which took longer than expected thanks to running into some unfortunate traffic, Harry, Claire, and Karen got there. Or maybe it seemed longer.

Karen's face had an expression like she swallowed some rancid milk when she ran into an extremely unfavorable person.

'Well, well, of all of the people that you would have run into, it would have to be the Prince of Darkness himself,' Karen thought with a look of disgust dancing in her eyes.

'You have to be kidding me, you really, really have to be kidding me,' Lily said and her stomach pulled in disgust.

There was only one person that she hated more than Lionel Luthor and it was obvious a close race between the two.

Harry wondered why Lionel was lurking around in the hospital, and this was the first time that they came face to face since the party that they had met this past summer.

At first glance he seemed to be sniffing around, at second glance, Harry wasn't really too sure and at third glance, he was cradling his left arm, which was bleeding a little bit.

'Whatever it is, he deserved it,' Karen said, holding Claire off to the side, almost as if she was shielding her from Lionel Luthor.

"Doctor Potter…..well this is an interesting surprise," Lionel said and he leaned forward, wincing at the sudden movement.

"Not as interesting to see you here, Mr. Luthor," Harry said in a respectful and cordial voice. "What….."

"One of my employees decided not to take his termination well," Lionel said and he took off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose. "He decided that it would be a logical and sane reaction to stab me. Thankfully my security caught him before he could get even further."

'I'm sure that you were an innocent little angel in that, Luthor,' Karen thought with a scowl but she managed to turn it away from it.

It would be a long time before she forgot what happened to her in the alternate universe and what Lionel was capable of it. There were some scars that never really healed.

'He did deserve it, and….' Lily thought but Harry walked forward, deciding to be the bigger man in this situation.

"Go on up, while I make sure that Mr. Luthor is taken care of."

Karen opened her mouth to protest. In response Harry silenced her with one of those looks. This really wasn't the time or the place to stir up shit, especially when Claire was with them.

'Just take Claire up, it's best if you two aren't in the same room anyway, and thankfully Mum isn't here,' Harry thought.

'Believe me, any time that I'm not anywhere close to Lionel I'm thanking anyone who will listen,' Lily thought to herself.

"So Mr. Luthor….."

"Call me Lionel, given the relationship that you have with Lexi, it's quite possible that you will become family soon enough if your relationship continues at the rate it's going," Lionel said and he smiled.

He was glad that one of his children seemed to have their head on straight and had some level of ambition. Alexandria's twin on the other hand…..well he needed to learn some valuable and painful lessons if he wanted to get on by. He got himself in a fair amount of trouble that was unbecoming of a Luthor.

"You know, she doesn't quite like being called that," Harry said and Lionel only had a shadow of a smile in response. "And I wasn't aware that any relationship that we may have is public knowledge….."

"Now, Harry…you and I both know that there is no such thing as privacy for men of our stature," Lionel said and he looked over the young man before him. "But that just gives us a challenge to make sure that our actions are looked in on the right way and not looked in the right way…and I understand that you're going for your fifth doctorate soon?"

"It's a work in progress, but yes I am," Harry confirmed and Lionel smile in response, as he made his way to the emergency check in.

"Well you're progression is well, it's a shame that we had to meet under such circumstances once more, given the nature of my condition," Lionel said and he was left in the very able hands of the doctors.

Harry turned to say his goodbyes. The young man didn't take more than a few steps he ran into Lex and Alexa who was standing in the distance. Lex looked rather unimpressed with his father but that wasn't really a newsflash. Alexa on the other hand looked quite bored by the entire situation.

"Thank you for your assistance," Lionel said and Lex left to join him, after a brief nod of acknowledgement towards Harry, leaving Harry and Alexa alone.

"So, I'm sorry to hear what happened to Jonathan Kent," Alexa whispered to him and she walked towards him.

"So you….."

"Yes, I did," she said, pleased that he was able to put that together.

"I guess that I owe you a favor….."

"No," she said with a smile on her face and she walked close towards him, closing the gap between the two of them. "You, owe me a date. We can talk about that later."

She smiled and there looked like she was going to say more. Alexa's thoughts was dashed by both her brother and her father's words to each other.

"Now if you excuse me, I have to keep Alexander and Lionel from killing each other."

Alexa walked off, leaving Harry alone in the hospital lobby for a moment, to consider his thoughts.

Thanks to Jonathan's work of taking care of the farming of the Potter property on Smallville, he had some pretty good medical insurance. Officially on the books he was an employee of the RAO corporation, legally speaking. Therefore all of his medical bills should have been taken care of promptly.

He made his way into the room and could see that Faora had joined them, not really that surprised to see her. Kara was there around, and Karen looked at him, with a curious expression. Questions burned the tip of her tongue. She held them back.

While she wasn't too happy that he acted too cordially with Lionel Luthor, she understood the long game that they were playing more than anyone else. It would last until they got majority share.

Faora moved over and pulled him into a hug, and checked him over. The good news was that the vast majority of the residual brain damage was fixed.

"Well you're doing well," Faora said and that was not a moment too soon, as they had more than enough problems to deal with. The woman shook her head and sauntered off, she needed to speak with Jonathan's doctor anyway.

Harry sat himself down onto a chair, and a sleepy looking Kara sauntered over to him not even two seconds later and parked herself into his lap and seconds later drifted off to sleep.

Claire was standing with her mother and she could see Jonathan's eyes flicker open.

"You gave us a heck of a scare," Martha whispered and Jonathan nodded.

"I'll be fine….just got to rest this off," he managed and he could feel that he had been through something fierce.

That being said that he drifted off to sleep, all was well for now.