26 Chapter 26
Inside the depth of the Kawatche Caves, Leonardo placed the stone in a small diamond groove in the center of a large stone table. Following the placement, nothing changed as Leonardo walked out of the cave and closed the door sealing the chamber. Before heading home or more specifically the Storm Cellar.
"We have retrieved a piece of the three elements, Jor-El. Are you able to ping the other two?" Leonardo asked as he appeared in the Storm Cellar.
"You must learn to be patient, my son." Jor-El replied. "This is a trial my son, and you must learn to rely on yourself more. You have done wonderful finding one this fast and I congratulate you."
Leonardo only sighed as he felt slightly annoyed, but also knew Jor-El never promised to ping the other elements after finding one piece. However, he knew that a second one should be in Egypt or at least it was in the show. So, it was a good place to start the next round of research.
"Fine, we will search for the next one ourselves, but will you be nice to ping the last one, once we find it?" Leonardo asked.
"Very well, you have my word." Jor-El agreed after a moment.
'Great, so what happens now?' Clark asked.
'Research in order to see if we can find any more legends left by previous kryptonian visits or wording.' Leonardo sighed. 'Let's start with Africa. What better place to hide an element than a place of full sand.'
'I hate this.' Clark grumbled.
'Yeah, and once this is over, I can cross off treasure hunting as possible occupations.' Leonardo joked.
Clark lightly laughed before a sudden light bulb went off in his head. 'It might be a long shot, but we can try Dr. Swann since he might have found traces of kryptonian languages. He's been researching the Krypton language for years and might have dug something up.'
Leonardo tilted his head for a moment. 'Very well, it doesn't hurt to try and it would beat having to speed reading hundreds of books and news on the computer.'
--
Leonardo just watched through Clark's eyes of the place Dr. Swann basically worked and lived out of. How he just strolled around made him wonder how often Clark came by since even the few employees seemed to know him well. Finally, they made it to a back room filled with bookshelves, planets, globes and various other space related if he guessed.
"Welcome, Kal-El. I was surprised by your visit since last I knew you were in Asia." A man in a wheelchair said softly.
The man while not old wasn't young either being in his thirties or even forties. He still had most of his hair color dark brown and eyes. His wheelchair moved slightly behind his desk as he tried his best to meet Clark's gaze.
"It's kind of why I am here. In your research, have you come across the legend of Stone of Power?" Clark asked.
"A bit." Dr. Swann replied truthfully.
"Well, that saves a bit of time." Clark said. "I managed to track one down in Asia and I was hoping you may have found traces of another one. The stones were apparently made by my father, before Krypton exploded to preserve Krypton knowledge. Now my father A.I. wants me to collect the stones to begin my training."
'While I doubt you would focus on training all that much since you are still resistant to even mentioning things related to Jor-El or Krypton. This fortress will allow me to get my own body.' Leonardo reminded Clark. 'While it may seem I am rushing to get my own body, but truthfully Clark. It would be nice to stretch my own set of legs.'
'You will be an outsider just like me. Having to hide our abilities and be wary of those trying to uncover our secrets. You won't be human.' Clark sadly.
'Clark, in case it slipped your mind, we knew from day one this would happen. However, Clark, what makes a human a human isn't blood or biology, it is our ideals and our hearts.' Leonardo calmly answered. 'Besides, having abilities just makes us special, not outsiders.'
"You are very hesitant about this, yet you still seek the stones." Dr. Swann asked.
"I was given a very good reason to collect them." Clark replied.
Dr. Swann just looked on for a moment, before he motioned to follow as he left the room. "I'm sure that you remember during our first meeting. I told you won't find the answers by looking at the stars. It's a journey you'll have to take by looking inside yourself. It's nice to see you are taking some steps in that direction."
'He means maturity.' Leonardo sighed.
Leonardo also guessed that Dr.Swann also meant embracing his kryptonian half, but Leonardo figured Clark wouldn't like to hear it again. It seemed to be a common topic brought up between them and truthfully, Leonardo was a bit tired of saying the same thing. Hence, he figured Clark can figure it out on his own in time.
"Yeah, traveling outside my comfort zone has that effect." Clark slightly smiled.
"Yet, you still have a long way to go, however, I am proud of you Kal-El. I half expected to find you trying to run instead of trying to learn or embrace your heritage." Dr. Swann said.
'Please, if not for me, Clark would probably destroy the ship and pay a terrible price due to an unforeseen event. Then he would feel terrible as grief overcomes him due to not properly thinking of the consequences and put on a red kryptonite ring and run rampant in Metropolis for a few months.' Leonardo grumbled.
Clark's thoughts paused as destroying the ship has crossed his mind more than once when it wants him to begin his training. However, he didn't know how to feel about Leonardo's words in the consequences of such actions, though he does see the high possibility. Since the ship did travel through the galaxy and destroyed it, well it won't go silently since he could only think of using kryptonite on it.
"Yeah, I still have a long way to go." Clark finally agreed.
"Indeed, but we all travel that road no matter the age, gender, race or color." Dr. Swann smiled slightly.
"Now, in my search for answers, I have managed to dig up what I believe to be kryptonian origins among other things. Recently one of the archaeological sites I sponsor managed to dig up what I believe to be an element stone you are after. However, it was stolen in transport and currently missing. For who had taken it, I currently don't know as they covered their tracks quite well." Dr. Swann explained.
"I sense there is a but?" Leonardo said before Clark.
"Yes," Dr. Swann agreed. "I also found traces in Asia and Egypt, however, I haven't managed to make much progress over the years. The teams I sent there haven't managed to find much, but I have been able to narrow down the search area."
After coming to a large screen that flickers on after Dr. Swann hit a few buttons. A map of the world appeared with three large circles on it that appeared over South America, Asia, and Africa. It took a moment for it to click that it was a map showing the general area of where the elements were.
Letting out a small whistle as two circles were much smaller than the third as it marked the area where two stones were already found. While the last was over Egypt.
"That's a lot of ground to cover." Clark almost whined. "Which means more sand."
"I can only suggest looking at hidden tombs and pyramids that have been covered in sand over the years." Dr. Swann offered.
"Anyways, thank you for the help. You saved me months of research." Clark straightened up.
"I wish you luck in your search, Kal-El." Dr. Swann said as Clark left.
--
Packing his bags once more and this time preparing for the desert. Clark sighed as he double checked he had everything he thought he would need. Since he would rather not race back here from across the globe for it. Then after another goodbye, he and Leonardo were off to Egypt.
