onepassingnight | 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

"Can that be trusted?" she asks skeptically. The words fall from her mouth without any thought.

"If Brainiac had it in his memory banks, yes."

"I might be able to see it that way," Mercury acknowledges, "However, it wouldn't change anything about what happened since then."

As much as she's curious, and wants to see it, does she want to hold something right in front of herself that she can't quite truly reach?

"It's up to you," he nodded, "It might give you some sort of peace, but I don't know if Brainiac knew about it."

"It's something that's been forgotten," she says, which means that he probably didn't know about it, and is a reminder to herself that she shouldn't anticipate success in this.

"Well, I'll give it a shot," he said, punching in a few commands, and the hologram turned into one of the planet Mercury.

"It'll take a few moments to search."

It's alright; she's eyeing the hologram anyway, mentally comparing it to charts and depictions she's seen of the closest planet to the sun. From what she knows, it's extremely accurate - and precise.

"A simulation?" she asks.

"Yes, it'll run through and see if Brainiac ever discovered civilizations on Mercury. If he did, there will be a record of it."

"He recorded the data of everything he saw?" Ever? She's impressed, despite herself. It would have been a notable feat, even with the technology of the Silver Millenium, she knows.

"Yes, and everything ever recorded on Krypton. He's an artificial lifeform, a sentient AI."

Like Cortana, or Mist, or the hologram of Queen Serenity, thousands of years later. Mercury nods crisply.

"I understand the theory." The image of Mercury begins to take on detail.

"Well, see anything?"

"It's as I remember it," Mercury says. This is not precisely true. She does not remember it in such vivid, perfect detail. She remembers it in vague impressions and feelings - and dreams.

But what's in front of her matches that image: the graceful classical aesthetic, the sharp evidence of highly developed technology, the seat of the Silver Millennium's incredible advancements. Her society, at its brilliant peak.

(Did they know there was a part of her that still thought of them? Or did they consider her glad to go to the Moon Castle, to the glittering Silver Millennium dynasty where she would have free access to the libraries and computer databases? These are questions she is surprised to find in her thoughts.)

"Well, that's something else. I don't guess I've ever paid enough attention to Mercury," Clark replies with a shrug. "I guess we could check it out, see if it's still there."

In another world, there might still be ruins. There might, at least, be something.

"We're going," Mercury decides. In preparation, feathery black wings erupt from her back.

"Can you breath in space?" Superman asks, totally ignoring the weird wings.

"If I couldn't do it, I wouldn't be planning on this," Mercury points out levelly. She'll be fine on her own with her own power.

"If you're planning to go there as well, you should be the same." Not surprising, she supposes, to think that Superman can also make this journey.

He just shrugs and takes off, flying up and out the roof, a hydraulic gate opening in the ceiling. This was a strange dream, one of the weirdest he'd ever had, that was for sure.

It's silent; that's the first thing she notices when they begin to approach her planet. It's a deeper silence than any on Earth, where there would be a breeze or even water nearby, or the noise of traffic and civilization.

There's nothing like that here. There's barely any atmosphere. She notes that Superman seems as fine with that as she is, just as she'd guessed.

"If there is something there, it may only be remains." A few rocks that used to be pillars, a broken fragment of what used to be graceful marble.

"Remains are interesting in their own way," Superman replied into the silence. He regarded the sun for a moment, feeling stronger for it's proximity, and reached out to touch a bleached marble pillar.

"It could be that there are remains buried, though."

This time, the sarcasm is light, almost teasing instead of cold. "Would you suggest digging throughout the planet to look for them?"

Truthfully, her vague memories would at least direct her to a likely area. But it would be luck, and unlikely to succeed, from there.

Sarcasm noted, Superman shakes his head and floats up over the ruins.

"I had something else in mind," came an equally teasing tone. And then he began to sweep his eyes across the ground, scanning with his x-ray vision, and carefully avoiding Mercury.

She decides not to question it. Instead, she calls out for the results. "What do you see?"

Strange, that she can think there'll be something, even when she already knows this is another world, and the likelihood is low.

"Just ruins. Rubble. Nothing much else. There's lead in the soil here, makes things a bit fuzzy"

"As I expected," Mercury tells herself. "Before we came, I already knew this would be what we found." At least, in some part of herself, she had assumed that.

(no subject)

themanoftomorrow - 2012-11-29 06:52 (UTC) - Expand