Prologue: The Boy Of Steel
Looking up in the blue sky, he could see the birds flying freely in the sky, no strings and no boundaries. Fourteen year old Clark Kent always wondered what it would be like to fly up away in the sky, through and above those clouds.
"Why are you here?"He heard the voice of his heart asking him his purpose in this world. Apparently the voice really belonged to his best friend Pete Ross.
"Are you here to play football or what?!" Pete repeated his question twice Clark could fully understand the meaning of his question.
"Go long Kent." Billy screamed at him throwing the ball in his direction. Nothing seemed to exist when Clark's concentration was on the ball and nothing else. He was too involved to see Pete running towards him to tackle him.
"I'll get the..."Clark managed to say before colliding with Pete.
KRAK!!
Clark could easily hear the sound of snapping of Pete's arm. Sometimes even he himself could not control his strength.
Pete was screaming painfully. Everybody was running towards them. Clark was too horrified to notice the ball punctured in his clutched hand.
***
"You told me you were going to the library to study after school." Jonathan Kent asked his son with a plain expression on his face.
"I'm sorry, Pa." The only words he get out of his mouth.
***
"Don't be sorry Clark." Pete said with a huge grin on his face. His left hand was fractured pretty bad and would be in that bloody cast for a few weeks, the fact that seemed to do nothing to worry Pete than to make him even happier.
"This, my friend, is the greatest day ... of ... my ... life."Pete continued with a smug expression on his face as the swarm of girls surrounded him to sign his cast. Rarely girls took notice of him, but it was due to the cast that he was the centre of attraction and he was quite happy about that.
In that chaos one of them shoved Clark away enough to drop all his books on the floor.
"Need some help?" a soft beautiful voice asked him.
That voice belonged to the most beautiful girl of the school, Lana Lang. Red shoulder length hair on the head, cute little upturned nose, beautiful almond shaped green eyes and a few freckles on her cheeks to touch up the beauty. Every boy wanted to date her but somehow she was only interested in Clark ever since she knew him, the fact that seemed to surprise everybody in the school.
Well though Clark was not ugly or something but also he was not by far the most handsome boy in the school. Jet black hair, long face with a long pointed nose and a thin frail body which was 'frail' just in appearance. Actually no work out was enough to tense up his muscles so his body remained thin though he was far more stronger than any other human could ever dream of. The only positive characteristic in his appearance were his eyes, strikingly blue, bluest of blue, totally out of this world, as if carrying the entire oceans on the surface of the earth.
"No thanks" Clark answered her question not looking into her eyes.
"I called yesterday. I left a message with your mom."
"Sorry Lana. But I don't feel like talking to anyone." Still not looking at her.
"Not even me?" Lana asked.
"Wanna sign my cast, Lana?" Pete interrupted hoping to get a hit with her seeing the present circumstances.
"No Thanks" Lana acquired a blank look.
"What about you Clark? The doc says good vibes from friends make it heal faster. And what better friend do I have than you?"
Clark looked down at his cast. He could hear the small buzzing sound emanating from the back of his eyes. Suddenly the cast disappeared from Clark's vision, and then the clothes, the skin, the flesh, the veins, all of them disappeared. The only things he could see were the number of skeletons standing in front of him and in the centre a particular one with broken bones in the left arm talking to him. Fear and horror took the grip of his body.
"Clark? You don't look so good. Are you okay?" Pete's voice fell on his ears.
"Clark? Clark? You are white as a ghost. Are you alright?" He looked in the direction of Lana's voice to see another skeleton right beside him.
He could not take it anymore and ran away as fast as he could.
"Clark?" He could still hear Lana's distant voice. He was crying his eyes out ironically with his eyes closed tightly. Though his vision was back to normal, he could not dare to look at anyone.
"You are not okay. Are you?" Lana asked as she approached him.
"No. I am not. I saw right through Pete's cast. I broke his arm. It was my entire fault."
"Clark, look at me." Lana cupped his chin and slightly raised his face so he could look at her. "It's not your fault. You were just playing football. You didn't do it intentionally. Well looking at the present situation, I don't think Pete minds at all." She chuckled lightly to lighten up the mood.
"You weren't there, you didn't hear his bone snap and you didn't hear his scream."A look of pain and horror in his striking blue eyes. "And dad. He told me not to play with them. Even though he didn't say it he knows it was my fault too. I could see it in his eyes."
"You remember what you said the first time we found out how strong you were? We were playing hide and seek and I was in Ben Hubbard's field. I heard the thresher but I didn't know it was coming right at me but somehow you did. And you came to get me out of the way. The blades broke when they hit you and we were both safe. That day you said, 'I am stronger than steel. COOL!' What you're capable of? It's still COOL, Clark."
"Not anymore. It's not. I hurt Pete real bad. I am afraid to touch anyone, Lana."
"Don't ever be afraid of that, Clark" Lana took hold of his chin and made him face her.
"What, Lana...?" Clark stopped when he saw the look in her eyes. Something was about to happen. Oh god, Lana was going to kiss him.
But before their lips could come in contact, he felt the sudden rush of adrenaline in his blood and the sudden increase in his heart rate. His head was feeling dizzy. He pushed Lana away against his own will. He could feel something extremely hot in his eyes.
"It's really hot in here." Clark fell back on his butt.
"Clark. Your eyes." He heard Lana gasp.
Hot red beams of fire shot out of his eyes onto the school banner in front of him immediately catching fire.
RING! RING! RING!
The fire alarm went off instantly soaking them in the sprinklers. They were still trying to understand what had just happened.
***
"Dad, I didn't put fire in the school intentionally. It was just that fire shot out my eyes." Clark answered.
"So you're telling me that the whole school burnt down due to your so called 'HEAT VISION'?" Jonathan seemed more amused than being angry.
