A Polar Plunge

"Soren, come with me!" he said enthusiastically.

Soren, puzzled, asked what was going on, but Clark didn't answer.

He just pulled Soren along, heading straight for the door.

Their friends got worried and called out, "Clark, where are you going?"

"Hey, Kent, you can't bail on us now!"

"Don't run off, Clark, the party isn't over yet!"

But no one could stop the tipsy young superhero.

Ignoring their protests, Clark quickly dragged Soren out of the apartment, running up the fire escape to the roof, leaving their friends far behind.

Soon enough, Clark was practically lifting Soren off the ground as they made their way to the rooftop.

From there, he took Soren with him, soaring into the night sky.

Soren: "Ahhhhhh!!"

"Clark Kent, wake up! Wake up!!"

Clark was holding Soren tightly, one arm around his back and the other under his knees, while Soren had his hands braced on Clark's shoulders, still clutching the wobbly slice of tomato pizza in his right hand.

They flew through the night sky, heading north.

The wind whooshed past their ears, and in no time, they were soaring above the stratosphere.

Soren was losing his mind.

He started hitting Clark's shoulder with his arm, "Clark! What are you doing?!"

The night sky above the stratosphere was a deep, solid blue.

The stars shone like diamonds, sparkling like jewels set in a velvet box.

But Clark's Kryptonian eyes were even brighter than the stars.

He had a goofy smile on his face and said cheerfully, "I'm taking you to the North Pole!"

"The North Pole?!" Soren didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He yelled into Clark's ear, "Are you crazy, Clark?! You're flying with me!! I don't want to go to the North Pole, put me down!!"

Clark ignored him completely, continuing to fly, and even changed his grip, cradling Soren like a princess.

Trying to calm him, Clark said, "Don't worry, don't worry, we're almost there. Just relax, Soren."

Even though Clark's movements seemed gentle, his grip was so strong that Soren couldn't break free.

When Soren kicked his legs, Clark held his ankles.

When Soren flailed his arms, Clark tightened his hold on his shoulders.

Soren felt like a little bird with its wings pinned down, helpless in Clark's grasp.

Clark chuckled lightly and said, "Don't squirm too much. You might fall, and we're over 3,000 meters above the ground. If you leave my biofield, you'll run out of oxygen."

Soren, frustrated and panicking, realized he couldn't move, so he tried a different approach.

He opened his mouth and started reasoning with Clark: "You can't do this, Clark! If they can't find us back on the roof, they'll call the police. And if people find out you can fly, they'll capture you! They'll take you to a lab, dissect you, and turn you into a specimen floating in formaldehyde at Area 51, with people staring at you every day!"

Clark found Soren both amusing and adorable.

He just smiled and held Soren even tighter.

Soren, seeing that Clark wasn't listening, got really frustrated, "Are you even listening to me, Clark?! I'm telling you to stop and take us back to Metropolis right now!"

Desperate to make him stop, Soren lifted his head from Clark's arms, tossed the pizza aside, and grabbed onto the collar of Clark's jacket to try and get his attention.

At that very moment, Clark had been looking down, trying to catch the pizza that had slipped from Soren's hand.

But instead, he accidentally bumped into Soren's head, and—completely by chance—Soren's talking mouth landed smack on Clark's cheek.

Clark: !!!!!!!!

Both Clark and Soren were shocked.

What did he just do?!

Soren's face turned bright red.

He quickly pulled away, instinctively covering his lips with the back of his hand, his eyes wide and blank as if his brain had turned to mush.

He suddenly couldn't even remember where he was or what he was doing.

Meanwhile, Clark's alcohol-fogged brain short-circuited.

His coordination failed him, and suddenly, he couldn't control his flight anymore.

His speed that was already breaking thousands of miles per second, became erratic, and he started flying in wobbly S-shaped loops in the sky!

He was soaring at near light-speed, but as unstable as a crashing plane.

One second, they were outside Earth's atmosphere, and the next, they were plummeting straight toward the Pacific Ocean.

If it weren't for Clark's biofield protecting Soren, the force of their speed would have torn him apart.

Clark, in a dazed panic, tried to regain control, but the more he tried, the more chaotic it became.

They zigzagged wildly—skimming the blue waters of the Pacific Ocean, swooping down toward the marble dome of the Taj Mahal, zooming over the golden sands of the Sahara Desert, and scaring off flocks of rare birds in the Amazon rainforest.

Soren... Soren had given up.

He didn't even try to fight anymore.

His limbs went limp as Clark carried him, helpless to stop the out-of-control Kryptonian from speeding aimlessly all around the globe.

The out-of-control high-speed flight slowly burned off the remaining alcohol in Clark's system.

Finally, the cold, salty winds of the Atlantic blew a bit of clarity into his chaotic mind.

Suddenly, he remembered his original destination—oh right, he had to take Soren to the North Pole!

Clark abruptly changed direction and dove straight toward the Arctic Circle.

In the stillness of the Arctic night, the beautiful blue and purple aurora was split apart by a flash of light—Clark's speeding figure.

The solar energy arcs that made up the aurora scattered, forming the shape of a rose with its petals blown apart.

From a distance, Clark spotted the vast glaciers of the North Pole and felt a surge of excitement.

Without thinking, he flew straight toward them.

A loud crashing sound echoed across the silent Arctic as the flying superhero, with his friend in tow, slammed into the massive glaciers like a missile.

The blue ice and snow shattered layer by layer, scattering like broken glass.