PROLOGUE
DISCLAIMER: Liz, Max, Michael, Maria, Isabel, and Kyle belong to Jason Katmis and UPN. Clark Kent, however, belongs to the WB and DC Comics. Superman was created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster. I don’t own them.
CATEGORY: Max/Liz, and possibly a little Clark/Chloe. This story isn’t relationship-centered, but situation driven. However, like any good story, you’ll see several elements of the relationships as well. Especially Max/Liz
RATING: PG-13
SPOILERS: Takes place immediately after ‘Ch-ch-changes’.
EDITOR'S NOTE: I’ve noticed that there are quite a few Roswell fans that call Smallville a ‘copy’ of Roswell. Now, I could go into a ‘chicken and the egg’ speech, but I don’t think it’s necessary. The only similarity between the shows I found were the titles and the fact that the leading characters are both from other planets. So this story focuses on the differences between the two instead of the similarities. One more thing…Lana Lang is the complete polar opposite of Liz Parker, I don’t care what anyone else says. Even trying to compare those two is…just wrong. Clark Kent has his own ‘Liz’, and it’s definitely not Lana. Her name is Lois Lane.
Space.
Infinite. Dark. Blanketed with stars, each one home to its own star system. Legends have been shaped by such majesty.
There are billions of worlds in the universe. And millions of them home to intelligent life. However, in the entire cosmos, there is no place like this.
Earth.
Out of the sky came a blast of emerald fire, so intense that the stars paled in comparison, streaking directly towards earth.
Towards Roswell, New Mexico. And whatever fate awaits it.
*****
“Great,” Kyle Valenti muttered. “Why do I get stuck with ‘clean up crew’?”
Kyle walked around the desert, just outside Roswell. As usual, he was the one everyone went to when the ‘manual labor’ had to be done.
Max was inconsolable ever since Liz left, Michael didn’t do much these days but mope around at watch ‘Bewitched’. Isabel was too involved in newlywed bliss, and his dad was still immersed in his mid-life crisis.
That left ‘good old Kyle’ to check out and see if there was anything left of the pod chamber after Tess rocketed out of there. Why they didn’t just go check it out months ago was beyond him.
‘Avoiding suspicion’ apparently. As far as Kyle was concerned, he called it ‘twiddling their thumbs’.
Kyle looked up at the hill that the pod chamber entrance used to be, and grasped his shovel. Oh well, time to get to work.
Then, he noticed something streaking in the sky. Something green.
A shooting star? he thought. Well, maybe it was worth the trip after all.
He stared at the self-styled comet and smiled. Then, something bizarre started to happen.
It turned towards him.
“Holy—“ Kyle watched as the ‘shooting star’ buried itself where the pod chamber used to be, leveling the rock formation and burying itself deep under ground.
Kyle ran towards it, his curiosity getting the better of him. If there was anything left of the pod chamber before, there definitely wouldn’t be anymore.
He reached the area where it landed, and looked down. It had hit on an angle, so it wasn’t so much a hole as a tunnel. A tunnel that was glowing green.
Suddenly something occurred to him. What if it wasn’t a comet?
What if it was a ship. More aliens?
Maybe Tess had found a way back?
Oh god, Kyle thought. I’ve got to talk to Max, or dad, or…or…
“Aw the heck with it,” Kyle said out loud. “Wherever you are, Alex, I hope you appreciate this”
Then he slid down the tunnel.
*****
Liz Parker gazed out the window of the bright yellow cab. The green grass…the deep blue rivers…the amber fields…it was so different from the deserts of New Mexico.
After all, she’d lived in Roswell her entire life, hadn’t she? She needed a change, and a sense or normalcy. If she could be considered ‘normal’.
A small patch of frost on the window blocked her view. Cautiously, she raised her hand her hand to it.
Focus, she thought. Like what Nasedo told Michael, remember? All you have to do is…
All at once, the palm of her hand began to glow. Then, the patch of frost melted.
Liz smiled, proud of herself.
That was her, Elizabeth Parker: super hero.
Yeah right, she thought. I’m just a small town girl who just happened to be the object of the affection of someone literally ‘out of this world’.
It was poetic justice, really. For most of her life, she hated being so ordinary. So boring. Then, she met Max Evans and everything changed.
At first, it was just the secret she had to keep from the world. That Max, Michael, and Isabel were aliens. The very same ones who crashed in Roswell back in 1947. They stayed, for decades, in incubation pods. Until they hatched just over a decade ago, resembling ordinary human beings. That stayed a secret until the day Liz was shot at the Crashdown restaurant. Max used his powers to heal her, and then it began.
As time went on, things became worse. The special unit of the FBI kept trying to expose them, and kill them. Then they found out where they were from. A planet called Antar, which was caught in the middle of a civil war. A planet where Max was the king.
And Tess, a fourth alien, was his queen.
Tess, she thought, with rage. She had to force herself to calm down when she noticed the green electricity began to form on her hands again.
As fast as it came, it went again.
Liz sighed in relief. As long as she kept calm, she’d be fine.
Tess was gone now, but her troubles were far from over.
It had just became too much. When Max brought her back to life, it didn’t come without a price. Ever since, she’d been changing. At first, she just got mental ‘flashes’ whenever her and Max kissed. However, slowly and surely, she was becoming like him.
She was turning into an alien herself. The only problem was, when she was around Max, she couldn’t control it. She had to get away. To somewhere where Max couldn’t find her, as much as it hurt to be away from him.
Everyone…Max, Maria, even her parents, thought she was at that boarding school in Vermont. She couldn’t go there…Max would find her there. She had to go somewhere no one would find her. Somewhere…small.
They passed the sign then, the one that said ‘Welcome To Smallville’.
“Well, Miss Parker,” the cab driver told her. “Welcome to Kansas.”
Liz sighed. Half with awe, half depressed.
Her expression changed when something came streaking by the window, too fast for anyone to see.
Unless, of course, your senses had started to be more…accurate. Liz could see things other people couldn’t.
“Damn wind!” the cab driver exclaimed.
But it wasn’t the wind. Liz knew that. It was some sort of car. Or a jet. Or…
No, that was crazy. It couldn’t be. But…
…for a moment, she almost swore that it was a person.
*****
The ‘streak’ ran ahead, faster than the normal eye could see.
You see, Max and his friends weren’t the only aliens on earth.
In the middle of a wheat field, the speeding figure stopped. Without any effort at all.
He was fifteen years old, dressed in blue jeans and a red t-shirt. Underneath the shirt was a physical figure that would make most Olympic athletes. His pitch-black hair grown just over his ears. And his eyes were ice blue, almost crystal-like.
His name was Clark Kent.
“I am so late,” he muttered, and took off running again.
He needed to get to class.
Little did Clark know, in only a few days, his life would change forever.
TO BE CONTINUED...