onepassingnight | Candyland?

Entry tags:

Candyland?

Heavy footfalls resounded through the halls of the Fortress of Solitude, the cavernous halls of the building magnifying the sound. They sped up as Superman felt something was just a bit off, and when he entered the main hall he stopped and stared. The gigantic memorial of Krypton, supported by statues of Jor-El and Lara, his long dead parents, had been replaced…

By a gigantic jawbreaker being held aloft by peanut brittle likenesses of his parents.

“What,” he all but shouted, looking around the room for intruders. And it was then that it hit him. It wasn’t just the memorial, it was the entire fortress. The ice caverns had mysteriously changed into translucent rock candy, the chairs were constructed entirely out of solid peppermint, and there were boxes upon boxes of sweets of all shapes and sizes all over the floor, stacked neatly into every open space.

“…What’s going on here?”

He had to be dreaming. There really couldn’t be any other explanation, but then again maybe Mr. Mxyzptlk was up to his old tricks…

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Superman turns and gives her a sour look and shakes his head.

"It's possible, but I somehow doubt it. But, to be on the safe side..."

He reaches to his belt and presses a button, and the sounds of barking and scrabbling on metal echo down the hall towards them.

"Could it be one of your people?"

The fact that she has to think about it for a moment suggests that 'her people' are at least capable of the plan and feat of locating the fortress and diverting attention before implementing some plan of their own.

But she shakes her head as the answer to whether they have. "Not with candy," she says simply.

He takes her silence into consideration, meaning that perhaps the Fortress might actually be compromised, and that she wouldn't mind it happening. Of course anyone attempting to get past the now loose guard dog might be in for a rude awakening.

"Anyone you know fond of sweets then?"

Because Toyman certainly wasn't capable of it.

"There is one," the senshi says, a person who she now consciously realizes would love this place in its candy state. "However, she's also already gone."

Mercury tells herself it's only that similarity, and that she shares nothing with Clark's obvious regret. Of course. Anything else would be impossible, for someone like her.

"Oh," Clark replies with a nod. He could hear her heart slow at the mention of the other person, sensing it was a source of deep regret. It wasn't the time to pry, not when there was other stuff going on, so he filed it away. Whoever she was, it was someone important.

"Sorry to hear it. That the only possible source? No sorcerers or playful demons? It's definitely of magical origin."

It's a regret so deeply buried and unacknowledged that she'd probably think she was telling the truth when she denied it.

"Nothing like that," she answers. "If you're worried, begin by checking your defenses."

Clearly, she missed the warnings about the dog. It doesn't help that the computers are also candy. And as he's thinking this, a large white dog bounds into the room, his little cape flapping in the breeze as he whizzes along, stopping in front of Mercury and baring his teeth.

"No boy, she's not a threat. Down."

The dog whimpers and looks from one to the other, and slowly backs away.

"That...is the defenses for the moment. Hard to check when the computer is made of taffy."

"Even the dog has a cape?" She can't help being bemused at that. Her eyes trail along it, and lights on the telltale S markings on the cape and collar.

But as soon as Superman speaks, he has her attention. The computer, she seems to find less amusing than candy monuments and superhero dogs. She glances towards it and sees that he is of course correct. It has changed like everything else.

"I'd like to see it in its normal state," she admits.

"The dog has a cape, yes. And all my powers too."

He walks over to the computer and sighs. It was of Kryptonian make, taken from Brainiac's crashed ship. Hopefully the effect was temporary, because it was pretty irreplaceable.

"Fond of computers?"

"A little," said the girl who'd worked with computers ranging from simple laptops and the desktop at Crown to ones capable of accessing the Moon Castle systems. The little smile made the understatement clear: they were one of her larger interests.

"With computers, you can works towards your goal without interruption, and without having to rely on faulty data from others."

"Sure, until Brainiac shows up," snorted the Man of Steel, but he didn't miss the smile or interest in her voice. "Then they're a liability."

He started towards the door, gesturing for her to follow. Krypto bounded after him, eyeing her warily.

"Let's see if the zoo was affected."

A zoo, in this climate? Half assuming he must mean something else, and be using the term very loosely, Mercury follows anyway, not without a last glance at the computer. Of course, to have any chance of examining it, she'd need the answer to the candy, first.

He leads her down the hall, into a large hallway filled with glass paneling. Inside, there were supposed to be animals, but instead were filled with chocolate shapes of strange beings. Clark raised an eyebrow and shook his head.

"Guess they were too. This is too weird to be real."

Too weird to be real, huh? And of course, it shouldn't be possible for her to meet Superman.

"This may be a dream," Mercury says thoughtfully. She's had endless experience with that. All things considered, probably his dream. It's a bit of strange feeling, realizing that.

"It'd explain a lot, particularly the candy. Though I've never met someone like you before."

He was telling the truth there, a blue-haired Asian girl with ice powers and a miniskirt kind of stood out.

"So," she suggested, "Why not test that a little? If it's a dream, it should be in your hands." She continues the assumption that she is, indeed, the intruder, even without a totem like Ariadne used to talk about.

"You should be able to return this to normal by your will."

"I suppose you're right."

Clark closed his eyes and concentrated, and the dream...shifted. The candy animals changed, and started moving again. Lights flickered throughout the corridors and electricity thrummed on.

"Huh, guess it is"

An impressive display.

"Show me this place again. I want to see it returned to normal." She was probably thinking of the computer; but the ice caverns were impressive, too, and she'd be able to see them in their full scope.

He nods and heads back down the hallway. It wasn't like showing her something in a dream could be of any harm, right?

By the time they approach the console again, she has another request. As she looks at it, she doesn't recognize what she sees. It's as if it's in a foreign language - which, she realizes, must be the case. She turns back to Superman.

"This is the language of your home?" she guesses.

"No," he shook his head, "Not my home. The language of Krypton."

"You don't call that home?" The question is neutral, because she understands the question itself all too well: Is she a girl from Earth, a soldier from the Moon, or a princess from the planet Mercury? She has Mama to tell her the first, a grudge to push her away from the second, and pride to claim the third.

"I've never been there. My home is Earth," he replied in a flat tone. He was raised on Kansas. In Smallville. His home was Metropolis.

It must be nice to be so sure, Mercury thought with more than a small trace of cynicism. Even without living there in this lifetime, there is something about her former planet that makes her curious and want to see it. Even with her dislike of much about humanity and Earth, there is her mother - and the comrades she finally found.

"What made you decide that?" she asks him.

"It's where my family is, the only family I've ever really known. I've never even seen Krypton."

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject