Chapter 2: Chapter 2: Man of Steel

Clark POV:

Clark was not a trusting man. Growing up, his parents had taught him to keep his secret. Working at the Daily Planet, Lois had taught him that everyone had secrets. In the Justice League, Bruce had taught him to look for threats everywhere. So, it was perhaps to be expected that when he heard about the mysterious, strange looking girl Pa found in the corn field, his knee-jerk reaction was to fly straight to Smallville and confront her.

However, his parents had also taught him love and kindness. Lois had taught him that secrets weren’t always nefarious, and Bruce had taught him patience. Patience, and the importance of reconnaissance and planning. So that was what he had done over the past month.

Every day, he had flown high above Smallville; too high for normal human eyes to see. He had observed her confusion for the first few days, and how she went from meek and shy to determined and outspoken. He had heard how she insisted on helping out with anything and everything, claiming repeatedly that she ‘could never repay their kindness, but she would sure as hell try’.

He also saw her practicing her magic. Sometimes, she would practice until she literally passed out. She practiced a spell that let her carry large amounts of animal fodder. She practiced a spell that would let her fix broken objects. She practiced a spell that divined the weather, letting her warn his parents about the storm last night. There were several other spells as well, but the thing they all had in common was that they let her more easily help around the farm. He had never seen her use anything that could be considered a ‘combat spell’.

He was sure there was more to her than what he had seen and heard, but for now, he had to conclude that she was a kindhearted and decent young woman.

Today was the day he was supposed to meet her for the first time. Ma had invited Lois and him for dinner, and while Lois was too busy to join them, he was happy to get a chance to subtly interrogate her.

He was currently standing in the loft of the barn, watching as Pa drove the two of them back to the farm after fixing the fence. He chatted excitedly to her about Clark as they parked the truck and the magical floating disk of logs in the yard. When they got out and started unstrapping their haul, he finally decided to go down and greet them.

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“...and then he backed the truck straight into the barn door! You can still see the marks over th— Clark!” Pa had spotted me exiting the barn as he turned to point out the embarrassing evidence of my first driving lesson.

“You sharing all my embarrassing stories without me around to defend myself, Pa?” I said with a smile as I went to hug him. “I’ll have you know, the gear stick was bent, so I didn’t know it was in reverse.”

“Yeah? And who bent the gear stick?” He shot back. I winced a little at the subtle hint to my superhuman strength, but Eve just smiled at the father/son banter.

“You must be Eve,” I said as I extended my hand for a handshake. Despite the somewhat unnerving demon-like features, she was undeniably beautiful. A narrow, button nose, high cheekbones, smooth skin. “Ma tells me you’ve been a great help around the farm. It’s good to finally meet you.”

She straightened up and seemed a little nervous at the attention, but grabbed the offered hand firmly. “Likewise, sir. It’s good to meet you too.”

“...sir?” I questioned as Pa let out a barking laugh.

“Um… well…” A purple blush filled her cheeks as she went from looking nervous to embarrassed. “You have a sort of… presence… about you… Um, sorry…” Her voice trailed off as I chuckled.

“I suppose I should take that as a compliment, but ‘Clark’ will do just fine.” At home, I acted a lot more like ‘Superman’ than I usually did. And as ‘Superman’ I actively tried to exude a ‘presence’, so to speak.

Meeting her and speaking with her up close like this assuaged even more of my worries. She wore her heart on her sleeve; her emotions clearly displayed on her face. If she was lying, she was incredibly good at it. But all my instincts told me that she wasn't. Now was as good a time as any to start the ‘interrogation’, I suppose.

“So, you know I have to ask,” I started, and her face went from embarrassed to… resigned? “A strange looking girl shows up out of nowhere and claims she has died and come back, not to mention your magical abilities. You’re living with my parents, whom I love very much, so I’d very much like some more details—”

“Clark!” Pa interrupted me. “Eve has been nothing but a sweetheart. If her past is hard for her to talk about then—”

“No, Jonathan. It’s fine.” This time it was Eve who interrupted. “It’s not hard, it's just… a lot.” She sighed. “I’ll tell you everything, but… after dinner, okay? Martha’s cooking is best enjoyed without a heavy heart.” She gave us a smile. It looked genuine and kind, but also somewhat… melancholic? Burdened?

“...Fine.” I finally said, a little guilt seeping into my heart. She really did look like she was carrying the weight of the world right now. “From what I've heard and seen, you’ve earned the benefit of the doubt. But this is my family, you know. I need to know they’re safe.”

“I know.” She said, “And thank you. It’s nothing bad or nefarious or anything like that, it's just… *sigh* a lot.”

I believed her.

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Eve POV:

So, this was it. Time for the big reveal.

Both Clark and Jonathan agreed, Martha’s cooking was, indeed, better enjoyed without a heavy heart. The earlier confrontation was easily set aside as we ate and chatted about lighter things. Mainly Clark, since both Martha and Jonathan loved to both brag about him and tease him in equal measure.

I learned that he was currently 33 years old. He had graduated MetU at 21 with a masters degree in journalism, before getting a job at the Daily Planet. There, he later met Lois Lane, whom he had been dating for two years now. I didn’t know if he had told her he was Superman, but if she was as smart as she was portrayed back in my world, she had probably figured it out on her own.

I also answered some questions about how my magic worked. Clark — whom I had given permission to read the Maginomicon — noted that there were quite a few combat spells and asked how good I was at them. I think he tried to be subtle, but it was pretty obvious that he was trying to do a threat assessment.

(“Just ‘Magic Missile’— that one there. I started practicing it for fun — you know, shooting tin cans and stuff — but it’s been great at dealing with gophers. Although, I think Tina is doing a better job of that than I am. Huh? Oh! Athena is my familiar. A barn owl. ‘Tina’ for short.”)

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

All in all, it was a really enjoyable dinner, and I was even able to forget about my anxiety for a while. It was back in full now, though.

“So, Eve, whenever you’re ready.” Clark said with a determined but kind voice. Martha and Jonathan gave him a slight glare, but I could tell they were curious as well. I sighed. How to do this?

“Alright, let’s start with me as a person. I’m not anything special— or at least I wasn’t until I woke up here. I was born human. Blonde hair, blue eyes.” I gestured to my face. “My dad left before I can remember and my mom drank herself to death when I was seven. My grandma took me and my brother in, but it was mostly my brother who raised me. He’s five years older. My grandma… isn’t a nice person. Or wasn’t. Since we’re in another world now, I suppose she doesn’t even exist anymore. Can’t say I’m sorry about that…” I grumbled that last part mostly to myself. Martha grabbed my hand comfortingly and I smiled at her.

“About that,” Clark interjected. “I understand you believe you died in another world and somehow resurrected here. I’m sorry for being blunt, but are you sure you weren’t taken and experimented on by a mad scientist of some kind? That could explain your appearance. Trauma like that may have unlocked latent magical abilities, even if you don’t remember it.”

And so, we came to the hard part.

“No.” I shook my head. “First of all: train crash. My heart was impaled by a metal pipe. Hurt like hell.” They all winced. “If I remember that, I’m pretty sure I’d remember at least some parts of being experimented on. Second: I died in 2025, and since it’s now 2010, I’ve either time traveled or gone to another world where the timeline is a few years behind. Third: my world didn’t have any magic. Or superheroes. Or the Justice League. Hell, I looked up the geography, and some countries even have different names!”

There was a beat of silence before Clark spoke again. “...Alright. With all of that, I admit dimensional travel is the most likely scenario. It’s not something unheard of, after all.” A pause as he took in the hesitance on my face. “But there is more, isn’t there?”

And here came the hardest part.

“Yeah… *sigh* We didn’t have superheroes flying around in the sky, but we did have them in comic books. Some of them exist here, I checked. Spider-Man, Iron Man, The Hulk.” I hesitated some more before jumping into it. “Some of them… exist here. Batman, Wonder Woman… Superman…” I trailed off.

“Wait,” He frowned. “You’re saying the superheroes we have here exist in your world as… comic book heroes?” I nodded. “And these comic books show…” His eyes were growing wider now.

“...they show their lives. Heroic actions, fights, stories. Successes and failures. Their…” I glanced at Jonathan and Martha before finishing the last word in a near-whisper. “...families.”

“...I see.” Clark said, his voice tinted with some emotion. His hands were white from being clenched tight. He opened his mouth to speak again but Jonathan put a hand on his shoulder and met his eyes. A silent conversation seemed to pass between them before he sighed and asked: “So you know?”

I nodded timidly, extremely nervous now. “Yeah. The… um, the glasses don’t really help much when you know what to look for… Sorry.” Martha squeezed my hand comfortingly as Clark sighed again and leant back in his chair, removed his glasses. It was incredible how much of a difference it made on his appearance.

“And the others?” He asked, a resigned tint to his voice. “You know their secret identities as well?”

“Yeah,” I confirmed. “Most of them. I don’t remember Captain Atom’s name, and I get the Lanterns mixed up. Hawkman and Hawkgirl also have a couple of different options. I’m pretty sure about the rest, though.”

Clark had his eyes closed and was pinching the bridge of his nose for a long moment before he spoke again. “Batman is not going to like this.”

“If it’s going to cause so much worry…” Jonathan interjected. “Why even tell them? The fact that she told us proves that she’s trustworthy, I think.”

“I have to.”/”We have to.”

Clark raised an eyebrow at me and gestured for me to go on, probably curious as to my reasoning. So I obliged.

“First of all, I don’t like lying. Second, I’m kinda hoping to use my abilities to help people, same as the league. Keeping my knowledge secret from them would be a massive breach of trust. Third, I know about potential threats as well, and that knowledge can save lives. Finally, keeping secrets from Batman is impossible.”

“Hah!” Clark barked out a laugh. “Yeah, I’ll admit that that last one is my main reason as well. Beyond that, I have a duty to inform my friends of potential threats. Not that I think you’re a threat, Eve. Pa is right, you have proven yourself trustworthy.” He gave me a reassuring smile that assuaged my anxiety so much it actually made me dizzy.

After my revelations, it took a surprisingly short amount of time before the conversation flowed freely again. Clark seemed almost relieved to have someone else to share his secret with. He told me the history of the Justice League from his perspective, which was much more detailed than what I found online. Apparently, they had gathered together to fight off a full on demonic invasion back in ‘03.

Batman had started investigating a string of ritual murders in Gotham, and soon discovered that similar murders were happening in cities all over the US. Before he could get to the bottom of it though, a portal to Hell had opened up in Times Square and demons were pouring out of it en-masse. Recognizing this to be a potential world-ending threat, the other six founders (Superman, Wonder Woman, the Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman and Martian Manhunter) raced to New York to assist. Because of his speed, and the fact that he had been watching the news as it happened, Superman was actually the first to engage the demonic horde. Fortunately, the portal had closed once they destroyed the Biggest and Baddest, a demon called Trigon. Afterwards, they had all gathered and decided to found the Justice League to share information and hopefully prevent anything like this from happening again. The other members had joined in the following years.

I had never heard that particular origin story for the Justice League, but something else rang a few bells.

“Say, do you know if Batman — or anyone, really — has kept track of birth records from roughly nine months after that invasion?” I asked casually. Clark wasn’t stupid enough to miss the implication, though.

“Do you know something?” He asked, sharply.

“Well, ‘know’ is a strong word.” I dawdled and scratched my nose. “I’ve heard of Trigon, and in the comics he has a half-human daughter. Not many living humans in Hell, I’m guessing, so the invasion would’ve at least been an opportunity to… copulate.”

“Do you know her name? Where we can find her?” He was in full-on Superman mode now.

“No idea where to find her.” I answered. “As for her name… *sigh*” I hesitated. “She kinda becomes a superhero and actively fights against her father, so that sorta breaks my ‘no spilling secret identities’ rule.”

“Eve, she is seven.” He pointed out in a stern tone. “And she doesn’t have a secret identity yet”

“Six, if my math is right.” I sighed. “And that’s why it only sorta breaks my rule. I don’t like bending my integrity because of technicalities, Clark.”

“She could be in danger.” He pressed. “You did mention a ‘life-or-death’ scenario clause.”

I raised an eyebrow. “That’s really thin, and you know it.” He tried to argue further, but I stopped him with a hand. “Alright! How about this? We have the entire League vote on it. If you all agree — unanimously — I will tell Batman her name.”

This time he was the one to raise an eyebrow. “Why only Batman?”

“If the reality is even vaguely similar to the comics, he’s the one I’d trust the most with a secret. And to know how to act on it.” I answered. “If he thinks the rest of you need to know, I’ll leave that up to him.”

“What? You haven’t even met him and you trust him more than me? I’m hurt!” His tone was teasing now, so I could tell he was satisfied with the compromise. I tried to nudge him teasingly back, but he was like a mountain and didn’t move a micron. He just grinned at me.

“Pff! Seriously though, the rest of you can lift mountains or run faster than light and stuff. His only superpower is ‘competence’, and it lets him stand shoulder to shoulder with literal gods. It’s not that I trust him more than you, it’s that I trust him more than I trust myself.” I glanced over at him. “You disagree?”

“Huh…” He looked surprised for a moment before answering. “No. No, you’re right. I just didn’t realize how good of a grasp you had on our personalities. Heh! ‘Competence’ as a superpower. I’ll have to tell him that one.” The last part he seemed to be saying to himself rather than me. Looks like Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne are buddies in this world as well.