It never occurred to me that when Clark told us he would be staying up that he would do such a dumb ass thing as going out to fight Jor-El by himself. It should have, but it didn't. You'd think I would have learned by now, but it would seem that I was incapable of learning from trial and error.

I woke around noon the next day to the smell of something burning. "Jonathan, do you smell that?" Martha asked.

I opened my eyes and sat up slowly. Martha was already sitting up in bed. I still felt exhausted. Just how late had we stayed up the night before?

I began, "Smells like..."

I realized what that smell was at the same time as Martha. We were into our bathrobes and slippers and down the stairs in a flash. We rushed just as quickly outside, then froze and just stared.

The field in front of our house was in flames. On closer inspection, I realized that the flames formed a design. I'd never seen the design before in my life, but there was no mistaking a Kryptonian symbol.

"This is just like what happened last May," said Martha. "A Kryptonian symbol just appeared in that same spot, but it was different."

"We've got to put it out." I ran back inside to get the fire extinguisher. Martha ran to the barn to grab the other one.

"Clark!" I called up the stairs. I opened the closet and pulled out the extinguisher. No one answered my call. "Clark?" I called again.

A glance in the living room told me it was empty. I ran up the stairs and peeked in Clark's room. It was also empty.

Biting back a curse, I rushed back downstairs and out the door to assist Martha in putting out the flames.

It took very little time to put out the fire. Afterwards, we walked back to the house. "Where's Clark?" Martha asked me.

"He wasn't in the house," I replied. "I have a feeling I know where he went."

Martha sighed. "The caves."

I nodded. "Why else would this happen?" I waved toward the burned symbol.

She grabbed my arm. "Jonathan, the last time a Kryptonian symbol appeared in our field, I went to the caves to find you lying on the ground unconscious while Clark had disappeared!"

I bit my lip. "Get the kryptonite in the barn. Take all of it - red, green, and black. I'll get the key and the shotgun."

"The shotgun?" Martha stared at me. "Jonathan, what are you going to use that for? Jor-El would kill us both if he saw us with that thing!"

Deep down I knew she was right, but I still couldn't believe what I was hearing. "Damnit, Martha, I am not going to go in those caves again unprepared! If Jor-El doesn't already perceive me as a threat, he's likely not going to care if I bring the damn shotgun or not, but I'm bringing it anyway! I am tired of letting him use us!"

I stormed into the house before I could say anything else I might regret. Damnit, hadn't we been through this already? How many times did this have to happen before we were allowed to live in peace?

I kept the octagonal key in a locked safe in the downstairs hall closet. Only someone with Clark's abilities could break that safe open, or so I hoped. The shutgon leaned against the wall next to the safe. I put the key in a pocket, loaded the barrel of the gun, and placed a box of extra ammunition in another pocket, then headed back outside.

Martha was waiting by the truck. She held a lead box. Presumably, the different veins of kryptonite were inside it. "Ready, Martha?" I asked her.

Her lips pursed into a determined line. She nodded. "Let's go."

We got in the truck and took off in the direction of the caves.

So much for a carefully constructed strategy. Hopefully, we would be able to make it up as we went along.

*****

Strange purple, blue, and white light streamed out of the Kawatche cave mouth, visible only because of the overcast sky blotting out the sun. We saw the strange light the moment we pulled up. Something was going on and I knew I wasn't going to like it.

We got out. I grabbed the shotgun from the bed of the truck. Martha fell into step beside me as I cautiously approached the mouth.

The light died down as we drew closer. I wrapped my hands around the barrel of the gun and walked inside, keeping Martha behind me. I could see now that the purple light originated from the inner chamber. We rounded the bend. Martha gasped.

Clark hung suspended in the air by a light shining through a crevice in the cave wall. Light swirled around him like rope, slapping against his body like a whip. Clark cried out with each beating.

Martha hastily pulled open the lead box. She pulled out the chunk of black kryptonite. Before I even knew what she was doing, she threw the chunk at the crevice.

Remarkably, this seemed to work. The black meteorite hit the crevice and sailed on through. An anguished yell filled the cavern. The light suspending Clark dissipated and our son dropped in a heap onto the floor.

"Martha Kent, you will pay!" Jor-El's voice boomed out of the walls, nearly bursting out Martha's and my eardrums.

The design on the wall rotated, opening another crevice. Red light shot from it, heading straight for the two of us...

"Mom!" Clark cried.

What happened next went by too fast for me to see. A six foot three body rushed at me and latched onto my right arm. Clark grabbed Martha's left arm, and then suddenly we were moving backwards so fast that everything was a blur.

The next thing I knew, Clark, Martha, and I were standing next to the truck. Clark let go of our arms after making sure we wouldn't fall over. "Are you guys all right?" Clark asked, anguish in his eyes.

"We're fine. Are you all right, Clark?" I asked.

Clark nodded. "Dad, please don't be mad at me. Jor-El's voice called to me last night - I tried to resist, but I suddenly found myself here and I couldn't get away-"

Martha and I wrapped our arms around him. "It's alright, Clark. We're just glad you're okay," she said, her voice muffled by the material of his tattered shirt.

The ground rumbled beneath my feet. "What the...?" We pulled back from the embrace and turned to face the cave. Rocks fell within the cave, stirring up great clouds of dust.

An enraged cry filtered out through the dust clouds from the bowels of the cave. The will of Jor-El's voice cried out a phrase in Kryptonian.

I turned to Clark. "What is he-?" I paused. Clark looked horrified.

"We've got to get out of here," he said.

He turned away from the mouth and grabbed our arms again, fully intending to rush us away with a burst of super-speed. He didn't see the tendril of purple energy sneak out of the cave toward him, but Martha and I did. "Clark!" we shouted together.

It was too late. The tendril hit Clark's back dead-on. His body spasmed. My heart stopped beating. The tendril beat against Clark's back for several agonizing seconds, then it penetrated Clark's skin and passed through it, bursting out the other side in the center of his chest.

Clark screamed...

...and then it was over. The purple light disappeared. Clark collapsed on his knees, gasping. Two circular holes had been cut into his shirt. His chest and back were scorched beneath those holes.

Martha and I hastily got him to his feet. The Earth rumbled even more; any minute, the caves would collapse, and we needed to get far away from them before that happened.

"Let's get him in the back!" I yelled over the noise. Clark was barely even conscious. We pushed Clark over to the back of the truck, then somehow pushed him up into the bed. Martha climbed in after him. I left her to close the back door then rushed around and into the driver's seat. I slid the keys into the ignition and, as soon as the engine revved, I put the truck into gear and high tailed it out of there. The whole time, it felt as if I was going agonizingly slow.

The cave mouth exploded behind us, sending dust and shards of rocks everywhere. I heard Martha cry and glanced through the rearview mirror at her. A rock had hit her in the cheek and left a nasty cut. My heart skipped a beat again, but instead of slamming on the breaks and making sure she was all right, I pressed my foot down harder on the accelerator.

The truck went faster than it ever had in its life.

The first hints of rain fell from the sky, slowly at first then rapidly. I switched the wipers and the dim lights on and kept driving. Visibility was poor, but I didn't dare slow down. One glance into the rearview mirror gave me a good reason why.

Purple and blue tendrils of light shot up from the unseen remains of the Kawatche cave system toward the gray clouds. It looked like the alien equivalent of a twister, and it swirled in the sky like a toy top. Then, as if seeing us, it stopped. The tendrils arched back toward the Earth and headed straight for our truck.

"Hang on!" I shouted. I didn't think Clark or Martha heard me, but it didn't matter; Martha had turned around and seen the tendrils for herself. She screamed.

I kept an eye on the road and the other on the approaching tendrils. "Come on, come on..." I muttered.

The tendrils took forever to get to us. I only hoped the maneuver I had planned would actually work.

They hovered in the air over the truck, then swept down in one smooth motion.

I stomped hard on the brake. The tendrils, still moving at sixty miles an hour, raced on ahead of us. The whole truck shook and I glanced in the rearview mirror. Clark and Martha were both pressed up against the back of the cab. Both of them cried out; Martha mostly from surprise and Clark from pain.

Silently praying for them to hang on, I put the truck in reverse, then sped back in reverse at forty miles an hour. Ahead of us on the road, the tendrils were only just stopping and pulling around, readying for another pass.

I pulled hard on the wheel. The car went sliding across the road. I stomped hard on the brakes when the car had turned completely around. I hardly waited for the truck to settle back on all four of its wheels before I put it back in drive and took off, heading back in the direction of the caves.

I glanced back in the rearview mirror again, fully expecting to see the tendrils heading straight for us. Instead, I watched the tendrils as they appeared to break apart. It looked like the black kryptonite was finally taking its toll; Jor-El's power was weakening.

I didn't dare take any chances. I kept driving, past the former Kawatche caves and onward toward the Smallville dam. We'd cross the dam and then continue on to the farm. It would mean putting a few extra miles to our journey, but I didn't dare take the shortcut; that meant turning around and facing the now-unfocused purple and blue energy in the sky behind us. I didn't think it would pursue us again, but it would probably still attack us if we headed straight for it.

The drive was a long one, made all the more longer by the now-pounding rain which reduced the roads to mud. I glanced frequently into the truck bed. Martha had Clark's head cradled in her lap. Clark was in the throes of a nightmare and kept tossing and turning. As I watched, Clark kicked a hole in the side of the truck with his left foot....

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