2014.02.27 - Homefront

In the living room of the Kent home, Martha Kent sits with her eyes fixated on the television. The news footage recounts the attack on Smallville, including the apparent murder of an invader by Power Boy. She shakes her head, mouth slightly agape, and whispers to herself, "Oh, Clark ... "

Outside, in the middle of one of their fallow fields, her husband Jon stands with his John Deere cap clutched in his hands. His knuckles are white as he wrings it anxiously, staring off at the horizon where an acrid plume of smoke rises from the distant town of Smallville.

M'gann is in the barn, milking the cows. Well, she was when she first heard the booming. She turned her gaze toward it and saw the scene... Monsters, fighting a boy? And, suddenly, she sees Kara zooming in. Well, that settles it! Kara can definitely handle all those monsters. M'gann has every bit of faith in Kara--she is so strong, and beautiful. She sighs wistfully to herself and resumes milking the cows. She feels bad about not going to help, but she'd probably mostly be in the way, anyhow. But, as the sounds of battle grow worse, she grabs her milking pail and heads inside to sit with Ma. She sits next to the elderly woman on the couch and holds her hand, reassuring her that Kara will help take care of everything.

The problem is...Kara -didn't- take care of everything. She could have stopped him. She -knows- she could have stopped Powerboy from killing Zerzes but maybe she just didn't want to deep down inside. She knows her rage. She knows what she was feeling throughout that fight. Perhaps Powerboy was feeling that too but she didn't stop him. On her way to the farm, she spots Pa Kent standing in the field wringing his hat and looking back towards town. This causes her to float down in front of the man she barely knows but the man that raised her charge into a Hero. Kara looks -bad-. She smells worse as she's got bits of Parademon on her and those things REEK! At least her suit is in one piece. As she lands before Pa Kent, she looks into the man's eyes and says "Kal went into town, didn't he?" It's less a question and more a rhetorical one as she knows her cousin all too well. Powerless he'd still try to help.

“He went further than that,” Pa Kent answers solemnly, still looking past Kara at the distant chaos of Smallville, “He’s gone. Gotham, from what he told me.”

The old farmer looks Kara over quietly, only really knowing her by description and stories from Clark. Still, she’s wearing the S and that’s enough to trust her. Well, that used to be how it worked. After today, well, who knows?

Inside, Martha pats M’gann’s hand gratefully as she stares at the news. The flash of red and blue outside as Kara arrives causes her to stand up, rushing towards the door with M’gann’s wrist in her hand to go and see. Her shoulders sink a little when it isn’t who she thought it was, but she’s hardly surprised.

M'gann follows along with Ma as she stands and rushes to the window to see...Kara. When Ma's shoulders droop, M'gann slides a small arm around her waist and rests her head against the woman's shoulder, "I know, Ma. But, he'll be okay. Everything's gonna be okay. You'll see. We'll put it right. Everything will be just fine." Her voice is soft...and small...but, has a firmness to it that seems lightly forced--as though she's trying to be determined, and believe her words herself. She peers out the window at Kara, talking to Pa and swallows thickly, her eyes already glistening with the threat of tears at the sight of her cousin in such a state. "I...I'm gonna help make this right, Ma, I promise," she whispers.

Kara nods at Pa Kents words "Ah...he went to see Grumpyass." She sighs softly and does spot the motion at the house of Ma Kent and M'gann. A soft almost bittersweet smile graces her lips for a moment as she see's them both. It's gone quickly though as she steels herself and says "Powerboy killed someone. An enemy...but he killed him. No hesitation." She's sure that M'gann can hear her words to Pa Kent. "That isn't what Kal...that isn't what Kal teaches. We. Don't. Kill. There's -always- a choice. He told me you told him that. You raised a good son, Jonathan Kent. A man worthy of my House. A man worthy of my Loyalty...of my blood."

"He's a good man," Pa Kent answers with a nod, his voice ringing somewhat hollow as he puts his hat back on his head and turns back towards the house, "Come inside. We should get you something to eat. You look like you've been through the ringer."

Martha reaches out to pat M'gann on the arm once again, offering her a tearful smile and a silent thank you. When Jon invites them all inside she turns about, taking M'gann by the hand again, "Come on, you can help me cook."

Neither of them says anything to the apparent betrayal of Powerboy. It's not their place to weigh in on that. That's Clark's business.

M'gann relays all of what Kara says to Pa, a short, horrified gasp at the mention of Powerboy killing someone. This is terrible! And, she'd maybe caused Superman to doubt his suspicions about Powerboy!!! Her throat feels awfully tight, now. Maybe, if she'd kept her big, dumb mouth shut, this might not've happened... She tells Ma that Pa's invited Kara in for something to eat with a soft, downtrodden voice. And, her smile is weak as her hand is taken and she's led into the kitchen. The one place she doesn't screw up all the time. "Sure, Ma. Anything for you," she says, trying to choke back her upset.

Kara walks just a step behind and to the left of Pa Kent. Almost instinctively making sure she is ready to move and protect the adopted father of her kin. She is very upset about this situation but a growing Kryptonian girl still needs to eat. She nods and says "I'd really like a shower first more than anything else. Though not as bad as that little black and white furry creature I found out here once, those Parademons stink." Kara has spent some time out here at the farm and Kansas does have it's share of skunks and you can just imagine a young alien women meeting a delightfully cute little furry critter probably tried to pet the thing and Ma Kent would likely remember the tomato juice bath that Kara had to take shortly after.

Pa Kent nods his head as they step inside, gesturing towards the staircase, “The bathrooms upstairs. First door on the right. You can just take some towels out of the linen press.” And maybe burn them after. Parademon gunk is gross.

In the kitchen, Ma Kent begins to pull a whole bunch of cling-wrap covered plates out of the fridge. Dinner that she made for Pa, Clark, M’gann and Mae when they were all here but a few days ago.

“We’ll just heat some of this up,” she tells M’gann with a sigh, “Or do you think we should cook something else?” She might not have been there very long, but Martha has already come to trust the young Martian girl’s opinion.

M'gann takes the plates from Ma and begins heating them up one at a time. With her eyes. She can measure the temperature very well, feeling the bottom of the plate, and this is how she cooked food for herself whenever she was hungry and on her own. "I think Kara can eat all of this by herself," she says gently to Ma, with a crooked grin. "So, maybe we'll heat these up and I can start making something else, in case she's not full by the time the plates are clean?" she offers. Kara was banged up a bit. She's probably gonna be pretty hungry. "Something with pasta, maybe?" she wonders, smiling at Pa as he comes into the kitchen.

Reaching behind her back and the cape as she passes the kitchen on the way to the stairs, Kara tosses two orange wrapped packets onto the table near M'gann. Reeses Peanut Butter cups. They are a little bit smushed but not out of the packaging. Those were really why she was on her way to Smallville to begin with but then Parademons, New gods, and mayhem ensued. The young Kryptonian looks -tired- more than beaten up really. Like she's been really burning through her energy levels fast. She can't even really climb the stairs so she just slowly floats up them. She's never had to use her superspeed to that degree before and her poor legs are feeling the burn almost like a human that's just run a marathon. Before long, the shower can be heard and to M'gann's sharper than human ears, quiet sobbing as the Girl of Steel finally lets some of her emotions out.

“You’re a clever one,” Martha says with a warm smile, nodding her head to M’gann, “I think I’ve got some pasta in the pantry. Go take a look?”

In the living room, Jon slides into his overstuffed, comfortable chair and takes a load off. He doesn’t have super hearing but he hears the crying upstairs, turning his eye towards the ceiling sadly.

Kara is up there a while. Eventually she stops crying and tends to the washing. Getting rid of any Parademon funk left behind. Downside to having a suit that's more open than Kal's is that goop and gunk gets into places. Yuck! Eventually the water turns off and she heads into Kal's old room and borrows one of his shirts to wear and a pair of his boxers. Kal seems like a Boxers kinda guy. She knows she's gonna have to get up to the fortress later to get her new suit and have the one she was wearing really cleaned and repaired. Coming back down the stairs, she's again floating as her legs still burn from the exertion. "Someone mentioned...food?"

By the time Kara arrives downstairs all the leftovers have been heated and laid out at the center of the table for the taking. Martha is just now putting the final touches on the pasta, smiling despite herself as she watches M’gann cook.

“You’ve got a knack for this, Megan,” she says, not having quite got the hang of her Martian name, “It took me years to get the recipe just so.”

As Martha speaks, Jon steps in from the living room and nods wearily to Kara, “Grubs up. You’re staying here tonight. You look like a truck hit you and don’t try to tell me Kryptonians don’t need sleep ‘cause I know better.”

M'gann keeps herself busy by putting the plates with food in the center of the table, setting up the plates and silverware at the various chairs, and helping Ma finish off the food. She smiles, slicing some bread /almost/ all the way through, but not quite, leaving it whole enough to stay one piece, and slipping pats of butter and some garlic into each slice. "Well, I'm learning from the best, Ma! I love your cooking. I don't need to eat to live, but I sure do live to eat your food!" she giggles, bobbing her head from side to side as she laughs at her own joke. As Kara comes down the stairs and makes her way into the kitchen, M'gann carefully sets down whatever she was holding and *ZZZIP*. She's right in Kara's personal space, hugging her tightly. She does this without saying anything, just putting all the love and caring she can into the force of her hug--one that's meant only for people as durable as she and her Kryptonian adoptive family members. Then, a moment later, she's back to what she was doing, almost as if she never even moved at all.

The tantelizing smells of Ma Kent's cooking and M'gann's definitely get her attention. It even wards off some of her sadness. Pa Kent's words, his tone, the finality of it reminds her so much of her own father for a moment that her vision super-imposes Zor-El's face over Pa Kents and it is at that moment that she slips up a bit and says "Of course, father." without even thinking it. A dutiful daughter sent across the stars to raise her cousin from infancy yet a trick of universal proportions brought Kal-El into the lives of these wonderful people. People that accepted him and encouraged him. People that were unfairly punished to get back at him. That burning rage builds again as she mentally curses Darkseid with every foul thing she can think of. Then there's M'gann. Sweet, innocent, and delightfully warm, M'gann. Another orphan of the stars brought into this Family. She returns the hug to the other young alien woman tightly and then settles herself down at the table to eat. Business...the Family business can be discussed later. Now. Now is a time for warmth, food, and love-shared. Family. No matter his evil there is something that Darkseid cannot know. The love of Family. Evil just doesn't understand.