Rocketed from a distant planet to a bold new destiny on Earth. Found by a Kansas family and raised as Clark Kent. He learned he possessed the strength of steel, the speed of light, and the desire to help all mankind. He is...Superboy!

The Adventures of Superboy

"The Awakening"

By: Doug Chambers

“Do you think things will ever calm down around here?” says Clark Kent as he hangs up the phone at the Bureau for Extra-Normal matters.

      “Are things ever calm around here Clark? We’re always getting calls from psychos reporting exploding cows, UFO’s, and any other weird occurrence you could think of. Why should today be any different?” Lana Lang replies from her desk, next to Clark’s.

      “I don’t know. I was just thinking that after everything that’s happened lately...I just hoped things would calm down, that’s all.”

      As Clark talks to Lana someone catches her eye. A tall, blonde man walks into the Bureau. Lana instantly recognizes him.

      “Clark, look! It’s Will Masterson, my one time boyfriend! I dated him back at Smallville High School remember?”

      “Yeah, I remember. Captain of the football team, prom king, most likely to succeed.......”

      “Clark, is that jealousy I detect in your voice?”

      Before Clark can answer, Will steps over to talk to Lana.

      “Lana, hi! Remember your old beau?” he says.

      “Will it’s great to see you again! How did you find me?” asks Lana

      “I was visiting Smallville and dropped by your mom’s house. She told me you had come here to work as an intern. Since I live in Capitol City now, I thought I’d come here to say hi.”

      Lana glances over at Clark and starts to introduce him to Will, but Clark gets up and moves away.

      “What’s with him?” Will asks.

      “I dunno. You can never tell with Clark.” Lana replies.

      “Um, Lana, I was hoping that maybe you can I could, maybe, go out on a little date. I mean just as friends. Y’know go to that nice restaurant down at the pier, maybe see a movie. What do you say?”

      Lana glances at Clark again then looks back toward Will. “Sure. Sounds like fun.”

      “I’ll pick you up after work tonight then.” Will turns and leaves the office. Clark, obviously jealous of Will, returns to his desk and gets back to work.

      Meanwhile, Will arrives at his father’s house, in a rural area outside of Capitol City. He steps inside and greets his father, a tall, dark haired man who strangely appears to be not much older than Will.

      “Will. I’ve just talked to the other men. We perform the ritual tonight.”

      “But I have a date tonight with Lana Lang. My old high school girlfriend.”

      “Tell her you can’t make it. In order for this ritual to work, all of the members must be present. If one, just one, is missing from the circle, the ritual will fail. And it cannot be attempted more than once.”

      Will gives his father a puzzled look. “I thought the ritual required a sacrifice. Do you have one?”

      “We do not. But some of the others are trying to find a suitable one.”

      “Tell them not to bother. I have the perfect sacrifice in mind.”

      Several hours later, Will arrives at Lana’s apartment dressed in a tuxedo and carrying a bouquet of flowers. Lana comes to the door to greet him. He hands her the flowers and escorts her to his car, parked in front of the building.

      “Will, I thought we were just dating as friends. The flowers and tuxedo really weren’t necessary. But I must say you look great.”

      “And you’re still as beautiful as you were back in high school.”

      Lana smiles and Will drives off. Within just a few minutes, Land and Will are already outside of the city.

      “Will, where are we going? The restaurant is in the other direction.”

      “Oh, we’re going someplace very special. I want to surprise you.”

      Lana starts to get quite nervous. Will was acting very peculiar, it seemed. He had acted somewhat strangely in high school but Lana hadn’t really noticed it. Now she was becoming almost scared. Within minutes, Lana & Will arrive at the mysterious destination. A cemetery. And a relatively new one at that, but one that Lana never even knew existed. It’s surrounded by huge trees on all sides and would be completely invisible from the main road. As Lana steps out of the car, she sees, in the center of the cemetery, a concrete slab, roughly 6 feet long. Surrounding it are men in some weird kind of ceremonial robe. Lana turns and starts to run away, but is caught by Will. His grip is somehow exceptionally strong and Lana can’t break free.

      “What is going on here?! Why did you bring me here?” Lana screams.

      Will’s father steps forward. “You have been brought here for a very special purpose, young lady. Do you remember the incident a few years back when a sorcerer appeared in Capitol City and died fighting Superboy?”

      Lana remembered the incident well. A bystander was gravely injured in a bomb blast during a botched bank robbery. Shortly after that, several bodies were found throughout the city. Each was young and healthy, with no apparent cause of death. Lana happened to discover that the injured man was stealing the life forces of others in order to stay alive. She told Superboy and he confronted the young man, a type of sorcerer. There was a long fight. The sorcerer tried to drain Superboy’s life force but was unsuccessful. Eventually, he collapsed and died when he exhausted the life energy he had stolen.

      “That young sorcerer, Miss Lang, was my son and Will’s brother! We are all sorcerers. My entire family. And we plan to bring that young man, Xavier, back to life tonight through a special ritual our ancestors learned about hundreds of years ago.”

      “You can’t bring people back to life! It’s not possible!” Lana shouts.

      “Ah, but it is. Only through very special circumstances though. You see, the ritual requires all of the living men of the family to combine their power. But that is not enough. We cannot create a new life force. We can only transfer a life force from one body to another. So a sacrifice is required. Our powers will take the life force from that sacrifice and bond it to our fallen brother. You are our sacrifice, Miss Lang.”

      Lana screams and struggles, but she can’t escape Will’s grip. He picks her up and puts her onto the concrete slab. No matter how much she tries she can’t get up. Some mystical force holds her down. Another concrete slab is moved into place next to her. The perfectly preserved body of Xavier is placed on it.

      Lana screams “Superboy!” Will’s father quickly waves his hand over her mouth and suddenly she can no longer scream or even talk. Will steps over to the slab.

      “I hate to do this Lana, but I have to. It’s for my brother.”

      Will takes out a sword and stands with it ready as the other men begin chanting a spell.

      Superboy flies over Capitol City on his usual nightly patrol. Nothing out of the ordinary is happening. He has stopped a bank robbery, flown a pregnant woman to the hospital, and put out a fire in the Peabody Hotel. All in all, just a normal night. He scans the city one last time with his telescopic vision and calls it a night. Back at his apartment building he lands on the roof and changes into Clark before heading downstairs to his apartment. Clark makes himself some coffee and sits down in a recliner, turning on the TV. Finally he has some time to relax and get away from his duties as Superboy. Or so he thinks. When Clark sits down he looks out the window and sees a strange light about 20 miles outside of the city. A normal human wouldn’t be able to see it, but Clark’s super-eyes detect it quite easily. It appears to be a fire out in a wooded area. Clark quickly thinks to himself: should he check it out, or is it just a harmless brush fire? His Superboy instincts win in the end and he flies out toward the woods.

      The ritual continues as the sorcery cult chants. Now an eerie blue light has surrounded the group of men. The fire, contained in a torch above the two concrete slabs, has grown unusually large. Lana is terrified but she is completely helpless against the power of the sorcerers. Suddenly, however, there is a ray of hope when she sees Superboy flying toward the cemetery. He flies down and lands behind Will’s father. Superboy grabs him by the shoulder and pulls him away from the circle.

      “Stop you fool! You’ll destroy everything!” screams Masterson.

      “What are you doing with Lana?! What is going on here?! Tell me now or I’ll....”

      “You’ll what? Kill me like you did my son?”

      “Your son? I didn’t-”

      Suddenly Superboy is speechless as the sorcerer bathes him in magical energy. An airtight force field forms around Superboy. Superboy tries to break free, but every time he punches the field or uses his heat vision on it, the energy is reflected back on him. Superboy stops struggling long enough to see that the blue light around the cult is getting more and more intense. Superboy notices that all of the members have now shifted their focus to the ritual again, and the force field is getting weaker with every passing second. Finally, as the ritual nears completion, Superboy shatters the force field, sending feedback through all of the cult members. Will jumps out of the circle just seconds before an impatient cult member grabs the sword and slices Lana’s throat with it. Superboy screams and watches in horror as the slab Lana is on explodes. Will holds Superboy back with his own power alone.

      “You’re too late Superboy! The ritual is complete!” Will screams insanely.

      A weird blue light emerges from the smoke of the explosion and moves to the other concrete platform holding Xavier’s body. The light fills his body and his arm lifts up off the platform. Then his entire body starts to move and he stands up, alive. Xavier turns toward Superboy, a look of hatred in his eyes.

      “You. You are the reason I was dead for so long. Now you will learn how it feels to die!” Xavier screams as he leaps into the air. His eyes are glowing with a bright blue light. He hovers in place and fires beams of pure energy from his eyes at Superboy. Superboy quickly blocks the blast with his arm and counterattacks with heat vision. The beams quickly go from red to bright white as Superboy’s anger increases.

      “You killed Lana! And you will see justice, even if I do have to die for it!” yells Superboy. The two are now locked in combat. Xavier throws up a force-field to block Superboy’s heat vision beams and attacks yet again, this time using his abilities to literally pull the yellow solar energy out of Superboy’s body.

      “You cannot stop me without your powers, Superboy. And once I’ve drained all of the solar energy from you, you will be completely powerless and completely vulnerable. Then you will die. But you won’t be resurrected as I was.”

      Superboy falls to the ground. Already his flight power has ceased to function. His other powers, including his invulnerability, are fading fast. It feels a lot like having the wind knocked out of you, only much, much worse. Superboy musters up one final blast of super-breath, which has no effect on Xavier. Suddenly Xavier stops draining Superboy’s energy. His force field drops, and he falls to the ground. He stand there, stunned, for a few seconds, then collapses on the ground, just as dead as he was before the ritual was performed. All of the solar energy he drained leaves his body and is absorbed by Superboy. Superboy stares at the body in stunned silence. Suddenly, several cult members run over to the body.

      “Xavier! He’s dead again! How can he be dead again? Superboy did this and Superboy must pay for his actions. Come brothers! If we cannot have Xavier alive, we shall have Superboy dead!” Superboy jumps to his feet and faces the cult. Energy pours from the hands of every cult member directly into Superboy’s body.

      “Fill him with your power brothers! He cannot take it all at once!” screams Will & Xavier’s father. Superboy feels as if he is on fire. Only worse. Energy is filling every cell of his body, much more energy than his super body can store. It is only a matter of time now before the energy has to come out. And Superboy knows that when it does, it will destroy him. He has one last chance. If this supernatural energy works the same way as the solar energy that gives him his powers...perhaps he can release it. Or die trying. Knowing it’s his only hope, Superboy lets loose. The mystical energy suddenly pours from his eyes, a thousand times more intense than heat vision. It hits all of the sorcerers at once, knocking them out. Superboy continues to release the energy until it has all been expunged from his body. He surveys the area. The ordeal is over. But life can never be the same again. Lana is dead.

      Superboy turns and walks to the slab where Lana’s body was. He expects to find her remains, but instead he sees her lying on the slab, whole, unblemished, as if nothing had happened. She opens her eyes and looks up at him. Their eyes meet and Lana jumps up and hugs the boy of steel. Tears run down Superboy’s face. Lana is alive!

      “What happened? The last thing I remember was lying there about to be stabbed and then...”

      “I’m not sure exactly what happened. But it’s a miracle.” says Superboy.

      “No! It’s not.” a voice yells from several feet away. It’s Will, who is now awake and apparently powerless. Superboy and Lana walk over to him.

      “What do you mean?” Superboy asks.

      “The ritual transferred Lana’s life force to Xavier. But I broke away from the circle before the ritual was complete. So the transfer was successful, but not permanent. Lana’s life force was strong, and it was not yet locked in Xavier’s body. The process reversed itself and Lana was restored as a result.” explains Will.

      Lana looks at the other cult members, who are all now awake.

      “Our powers are gone. Between the ritual and fighting you, we’ve exhausted them forever. We do not want to live without them.” says Will as he slowly stands up. He looks to his fellow sorcerers. They all nod in agreement. Suddenly, they all begin to glow with a strange light.

      “We are combining the last reserves of our powers...so we can die in peace.”

      “No! Stop!” screams Superboy as he moves toward Will.

      “Do not stop us. It is better this way. I am sorry, Lana, for what I did. Please forgive me and my brothers. Goodbye.” Will and the other sorcerers seem to dissolve. Their bodies become like smoke, and they drift away into nothingness.

      Lana stares in disbelief.

      “They’re gone. Like they were never there.”

      “It’s over now. They won’t be bothering us again. C’mon, I’ve had enough of this night.”

      Superboy grabs Lana in his arms and pulls her to him. They kiss as Superboy thinks of what it was like to almost lose Lana forever. He hopes he never has to experience that feeling again. Superboy wraps his arms around Lana, and together they fly off into the night sky.

     THE END...

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