Ficlet: Black as Pitch (FebFF 2016 Day Two, G, 839 words)
Title: Black as Pitch
Category: fic
Rating: G
Word Count: 839
Spoilers: None for Smallville; some for the beginning of Pitch Black
Warnings: Half an idea, mostly setting up the movie's storyline with Smallville characters
Notes: Written for my little February Fic Fest thing.
Summary: A crashed spaceship results in a group of people struggling to survive the elements, an unknown danger, and the predator among them. (The Pitch Black AU no one asked for)
Lex came to in a desert and knew to the marrow of his bones that he was on borrowed time. There was no grogginess, no slow awakening, just the knowledge that he was out of place--though recalling where he was supposed to be took seconds longer--and that his nemesis was no longer contained.
He sat up and searched himself for weapons. His gun was gone, but the knife in his boot was still there. His watch was gone, along with the Kryptonite shard he kept in it. There was a healing combination of bruises and burns around his wrist; they could have been caused by an attack from the prisoner, but it might also have been a result of the accident, his watch catching on flying shrapnel and being torn off. He wouldn't know unless he found the watch again, but there was no point looking for it.
In the distance, Lex could see other people moving around the pieces of a wreckage that had probably been their ship. Time to figure out how many still lived. There would be time enough to deal with Kal-El when the alien found him.
There was no doubt in Lex that Kal-El would find him.
* * *
They were a pathetic assortment of survivors. Kal watched them from a distant bluff, vision extending far beyond what any of the others were capable of. He could see them perfectly fine, but the same was not true in reverse. They would never see him coming, were he to come at them.
Not that he had any reason to do that.
He looked up at the bright sky and smiled into the yellow sunlight. It had been a long time since he'd had the right conditions to suit him. Too long on that dark planet in the Erias System, and then too long shackled with steel inlaid with Kryptonite. He didn't know how there was so much of it in the universe, especially since Krypton was the only planet in any record anywhere to have been home to the stone.
But exist it did, in all it's many colors. Kal's gaze slid toward the wreckage. Fate was indeed a whimsical thing. What were the odds that one accident would free him of both the collar with it's mix of red and green stones, and the bounty hunter's store of Kryptonite all in one go? And on a planet with a yellow sun, no less.
He frowned, gaze drawn down by the feel of the sand shifting under his feet. He narrowed his eyes and then relaxed them, let his vision slide through the sand and dirt and rock of his lonely--no, not a lonely planet at all. In minutes, he had glanced through miles of earth in any direction, hundreds of feet down, but the seething mass of life that lived below the surface was spread out far and wide under that sand. What kind of creature lived underground on a planet with three suns?
* * *
Chloe checked the line again, if only to satisfy her own need to ensure her father's safety, and then gave him an over-enthusiastic thumbs up. "All clear," she called.
"Thanks, Chloe," he called back, not bothering to hide his sarcasm. Her falsely bright smile dimmed into a real one.
"Just be careful." She was mostly talking to air, as he'd disappeared down the narrow earthen tunnel. There were dozens more like it in sight. While everyone else was exploring the settlement they'd come across, her father had found the tunnels and been overtaken by curiosity. Chloe wasn't as into geology as he was, but she had to admit to being curious. The tunnels felt vaguely familiar, like she'd read about something like them before. If her computer had survived the crash, she would have looked it up.
She turned on the spot, searching for higher ground. Maybe the formations would make more sense or trigger a more specific memory if she could see them all at once. She had almost made a full circle when a dark shape appeared in her peripheral vision and she jerked back instinctively. It was the boy she had seen earlier, the one travelling with his grandmother.
"You scared me," she scolded him.
His smile dimmed as he dipped his head, looking sheepish. "Sorry. I just saw you guys out here and was wondering what you were doing?"
"My dad wants to see what kind of rocks they have going on. These tunnels are pretty cool and there are a lot of them." An idea occurred. "Maybe they're natural vents for a hot spring. We could totally be standing on the sight of a major vacation spot, just waiting to be claimed."
He looked at the tunnel her father had entered, then back at her. He looked skeptical. "Someone already discovered it and probably claimed this area, and there's no resort. There's not even any people."
"So, it's probably not a hot spring." Despite the desert heat, Chloe felt a shiver creep up her spine.
Double-posting today instead of once a day because of technical difficulties.
Category: fic
Rating: G
Word Count: 839
Spoilers: None for Smallville; some for the beginning of Pitch Black
Warnings: Half an idea, mostly setting up the movie's storyline with Smallville characters
Notes: Written for my little February Fic Fest thing.
Summary: A crashed spaceship results in a group of people struggling to survive the elements, an unknown danger, and the predator among them. (The Pitch Black AU no one asked for)
Lex came to in a desert and knew to the marrow of his bones that he was on borrowed time. There was no grogginess, no slow awakening, just the knowledge that he was out of place--though recalling where he was supposed to be took seconds longer--and that his nemesis was no longer contained.
He sat up and searched himself for weapons. His gun was gone, but the knife in his boot was still there. His watch was gone, along with the Kryptonite shard he kept in it. There was a healing combination of bruises and burns around his wrist; they could have been caused by an attack from the prisoner, but it might also have been a result of the accident, his watch catching on flying shrapnel and being torn off. He wouldn't know unless he found the watch again, but there was no point looking for it.
In the distance, Lex could see other people moving around the pieces of a wreckage that had probably been their ship. Time to figure out how many still lived. There would be time enough to deal with Kal-El when the alien found him.
There was no doubt in Lex that Kal-El would find him.
* * *
They were a pathetic assortment of survivors. Kal watched them from a distant bluff, vision extending far beyond what any of the others were capable of. He could see them perfectly fine, but the same was not true in reverse. They would never see him coming, were he to come at them.
Not that he had any reason to do that.
He looked up at the bright sky and smiled into the yellow sunlight. It had been a long time since he'd had the right conditions to suit him. Too long on that dark planet in the Erias System, and then too long shackled with steel inlaid with Kryptonite. He didn't know how there was so much of it in the universe, especially since Krypton was the only planet in any record anywhere to have been home to the stone.
But exist it did, in all it's many colors. Kal's gaze slid toward the wreckage. Fate was indeed a whimsical thing. What were the odds that one accident would free him of both the collar with it's mix of red and green stones, and the bounty hunter's store of Kryptonite all in one go? And on a planet with a yellow sun, no less.
He frowned, gaze drawn down by the feel of the sand shifting under his feet. He narrowed his eyes and then relaxed them, let his vision slide through the sand and dirt and rock of his lonely--no, not a lonely planet at all. In minutes, he had glanced through miles of earth in any direction, hundreds of feet down, but the seething mass of life that lived below the surface was spread out far and wide under that sand. What kind of creature lived underground on a planet with three suns?
* * *
Chloe checked the line again, if only to satisfy her own need to ensure her father's safety, and then gave him an over-enthusiastic thumbs up. "All clear," she called.
"Thanks, Chloe," he called back, not bothering to hide his sarcasm. Her falsely bright smile dimmed into a real one.
"Just be careful." She was mostly talking to air, as he'd disappeared down the narrow earthen tunnel. There were dozens more like it in sight. While everyone else was exploring the settlement they'd come across, her father had found the tunnels and been overtaken by curiosity. Chloe wasn't as into geology as he was, but she had to admit to being curious. The tunnels felt vaguely familiar, like she'd read about something like them before. If her computer had survived the crash, she would have looked it up.
She turned on the spot, searching for higher ground. Maybe the formations would make more sense or trigger a more specific memory if she could see them all at once. She had almost made a full circle when a dark shape appeared in her peripheral vision and she jerked back instinctively. It was the boy she had seen earlier, the one travelling with his grandmother.
"You scared me," she scolded him.
His smile dimmed as he dipped his head, looking sheepish. "Sorry. I just saw you guys out here and was wondering what you were doing?"
"My dad wants to see what kind of rocks they have going on. These tunnels are pretty cool and there are a lot of them." An idea occurred. "Maybe they're natural vents for a hot spring. We could totally be standing on the sight of a major vacation spot, just waiting to be claimed."
He looked at the tunnel her father had entered, then back at her. He looked skeptical. "Someone already discovered it and probably claimed this area, and there's no resort. There's not even any people."
"So, it's probably not a hot spring." Despite the desert heat, Chloe felt a shiver creep up her spine.
Double-posting today instead of once a day because of technical difficulties.