Jor-El.
"So... you're going to train with All Might?" Jonathan asked, looking at Clark with surprise that his son not only met the hero but had an opportunity like this. It was night, and they were having a conversation on the balcony of their house after Clark recounted the day's events to his father while they had a drink—Clark with a soda and Jonathan with a beer.
"It seems that way," Clark said, smiling carefree as he took a sip of his soda while looking out at the fields of the farm in front of him. He hadn't told his father about One for All or the situation with Izuku. Earlier that day, when All Might offered to train them both, Clark didn't hesitate. Besides the opportunity to be trained by someone experienced in combat, he could train with someone who could actually handle training him.
"For how long will this training be?" Jonathan asked, now looking out at the field alongside his son.
"From what he said, it would be until the U.A entrance exam, so I'd say about 10 months. But it won't be a problem—I can swing by here before you start crying from my absence," Clark joked, smiling.
"Hahaha, very funny, son. Don't stay up too late; I'll need you in the morning," Jonathan chuckled ironically as he turned to head back inside the house.
"Of course, Dad," Clark chuckled as he watched his father head inside. Feeling the cool night breeze, Clark smiled softly.
~~~Time Break~~
It was 4 AM, and Clark was sleeping in his room when he heard a noise echoing in his head. He woke up startled and looked around, trying to locate the source of the sound. When it seemed like nothing was amiss, he lay back down to sleep, only to hear that same sound echoing in his head once more.
"Alright, let's find out where this is coming from," he said, getting up with his sleep disturbed, and starting to search the house for where the sound might be coming from.
He searched throughout the entire house, but no place seemed to be the source of the sound. Finally, the only place left was the barn.
Upon entering the barn, he found nothing unusual until his eyes settled on a specific spot. It was the trapdoor leading to the spacecraft, and from its cracks, a faint blue light was escaping.
As he opened the door, he could see stairs illuminated by a pulsating blue light. Descending, he found the spacecraft he had arrived in as a baby, emitting the same blue light. Every time the light pulsed, the noise echoed again. He had found the source of the sound.
What was strange was that the spacecraft had been inactive all along. When Clark was younger, he had tried to get it to function, but nothing he did seemed to trigger any response from the ship.
As Clark approached the spacecraft, the intervals between the pulses of light seemed to decrease. Unsure of how to make it stop, he placed his hand on the left side of the craft.
As he did so the noise and light coming from the ship stopped. Clark sighed in relief that it had stopped, and the next moment he was startled to see a hologram of blue light materialize in front of him. The hologram was a middle aged man, he was gray haired, and wore armor that appeared to be made of some sort of silvery metal, on his armor hung a dark blue cape that reached down to his ankles. And on his breastplate was an S emblem.
Clark, recalling certain information from his past life, immediately recognized who the hologram was: Jor-El.
"Kal-El, my son, I record this message with sorrow in my heart as you are being prepared to be sent to a distant planet. I apologize for my actions, which may seem strange but have a reason behind them," said Jor-El's hologram with a deep voice, while his face showed sadness.
Clark's heart pounded heavily as he listened to Jor-El's hologram.
"If you're seeing this, it means you've reached the level of maturity necessary to know the truth," Jor-El said as the hologram changed, now showing a planet orbiting a red sun.
"This is our planet, Krypton. It was a beautiful planet, and with our technological advancements, we soon conquered the stars, which for many years inhabited our colonies. We achieved a utopia where every birth was destined for a specific function; there was no inequality, murder, or disease. However, due to a decision by the Kryptonian Council, all our colonies were deactivated, and we isolated ourselves on our home planet," said Jor-El, showing incubation chambers displaying developing embryos. He then switched to an image of a council of five elderly Kryptonians in golden attire.
"However, even with our advancements, we were not free from stupidity and ignorance. For many years, I warned the Council that isolating ourselves on our home planet would soon deplete our natural resources needed to sustain our way of life. Due to overpopulation, which I feared would happen, our resources became increasingly scarce and people grew more rebellious. Anticipating the imminent collapse of our society, your mother Lara and I made a decision: you, a child born naturally, someone who could choose your own destiny without it being predetermined from birth," said Jor-El, showing a picture of his wife Lara.
Clark, upon seeing an image of his mother, couldn't help but raise his hand, now trembling, to touch the hologram. As his hand passed through it, he instinctively recoiled, looking at the image of his mother with a heavier heart.
"We hoped that your birth could be a turning point, that you could change our society for the better, but even I couldn't foresee what happened next," Jor-El said, now with a melancholic voice.
In the next moment, an image of a man with short black hair and a beard of the same color appeared, looking at him with an expression of anger.
"General Zod, once my friend," Jor-El continued, "like me, he saw the imminent destruction of our society. He went to the Council seeking change, but like with me, they didn't listen. Unlike me, Zod didn't leave it at that. He sought loyal soldiers who shared his vision to carry out a coup d'état," Jor-El said, his voice tinged with disappointment.
"With the help of his soldiers, he managed to eliminate three of the five elders from the council. However, he and his soldiers were captured and sentenced to exile." The image shifted to show Zod and four soldiers standing before the remaining two elders in what appeared to be a trial.
"But that didn't stop the council, so I discreetly prepared a ship to take you to a distant planet, thus sparing you from what was to come. Our society continues to extract our resources, finally reaching the core of our planet. As it was By extracting from it, our nucleus became increasingly installed, now our end was no longer a possibility, but a certainty." The hologram image changed showing Krypton contracting and then falling apart in a huge explosion.
Clark, seeing his home planet being destroyed, couldn't help but fall to his knees. Even though he had seen this in his past life, even though he knew what to expect, seeing his father, his mother, and his home planet destroyed, he couldn't help but feel a sadness unlike any he had ever felt before.
The hologram returned to the image of Jor-El as he spoke to Clark.
"We chose a planet whose inhabitants had a physiology similar to ours. However, due to an evolutionary peculiarity, they acquired unusual abilities," Jor-El said as the image showed Earth orbiting the sun and shifted to a picture of an unknown man breathing fire from his mouth.
"The sun of this planet was young compared to our red giant, and because of this, its cells would absorb its radiation, granting you abilities that not even a Kryptonian could imagine having. We knew that because of the people of this planet, you would not be considered different. But you would be better, stronger, faster than anyone on that planet could ever hope to be. You would be the improvement that Krypton never had," the hologram said, returning to the image of Jor-El.
"Of course, we wouldn't leave you without any information," Jor-El said, and with that, a small compartment opened at the tip of the ship, releasing steam, and from the compartment emerged a blue crystal.
"In this crystal lies all the information about our people and everyone Kryptonians encountered during our era of space exploration. Any doubt you may have about us is stored within this crystal. To access this information, you need to place your fingerprint on one side of the crystal, which will activate it once removed from the ship. However, I must warn you, do this in an uninhabited location because it will trigger the materialization of a Kryptonian fortress where you will find all the information you need," Jor-El said, looking into Clark's eyes.
Clark was speechless; even though he knew what to expect, all of this was breathtaking.
"Thank you, Father," Clark said, looking at Jor-El with a melancholic gaze.
"You don't need to thank me, son. Your mother and I did this because we loved you and wanted the best for you. I apologize for things being this way, for our society failing you. But I am happy to see what you have become. Remember, son, be what these people need, be better." With that said, the hologram dissipated.
Clark remained kneeling in front of the ship, his eyes now fixed on the crystal. Standing up and brushing the hay off his knees, he extended his hand and removed the crystal from the ship. In his hand, the crystal emitted a faint blue glow, with one side glowing a brighter light blue than the others. Clark supposed this was where he should place his fingerprint when the time came.
"Yeah, things are really going to change," Clark said to himself, looking at the crystal glowing in his hand.