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The Fire In Which We Burn
Chapter 5
A story by Nik Stanosheck and Mark Weisenberger
"NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!" shouted Superboy as Match threw Triad's lifeless body to the ground. Tears streamed from his eyes. Sadness turned to hate as his gaze turned from Triad's corpse to Match. What happened next surprised both Match and Superboy.
Energy emanated from Superboy's eyes, blasting Match in the chest. Superboy threw the rubble that was pinning him to the ground off of him and flew headfirst into the stunned Match.
Superboy pounded on his opponent with such rage that Match could barely defend himself. Even after Match was knocked unconscious Superboy wouldn’t let up. He was about to deliver the fatal blow when he heard a familiar voice.
"Superboy! Don't do it!" said Triad.
"Lu!" said Superboy. He looked around, but then realized that everything was white. "I can't see you! I think I'm blind!"
"Don’t worry," said Triad, "When we dig the others out of the wreckage we'll go back to the 30th Century."
"What about Match?" asked Superboy.
"We'll take care of him!" said a voice that Superboy recognized as The Guardian, head of security at the Cadmus Project. "You just take care of that vision problem of yours.
Later…1000 years later in fact, Dr. Gym'll examined Superboy's eyes. "Well Superboy," Dr. Gym'll said, "when you used that new power of yours, you burned the cornea of your eyes. With minor surgery you should be able to see again in a few hours."
"So I'll never be able to use that power without going blind?"
"Actually you just used the power too early, before your eyes were ready to withstand the damage. I will make modifications to your eyes to make them able to withstand the energy from your heat-vision. By the way, you have a visitor. I'll leave you two alone."
"Hi Kon-El," said Triad.
"Lu!" said Superboy. "I can't believe you're alive. I saw Match break your neck."
"It was only part of me," said Triad. Superboy could tell by the sound of her voice that she was holding back tears. "I was hoping that Dr. Gym'll or Brainy could save her, but they couldn't."
"I thought that you couldn't survive without all of your bodies," said Superboy.
"Brainy thinks that the reason I survived was that since most Carggites have the same personalities for all the bodies, the stress of being seperate from the other bodies kills them. Since I have diferent personalities, I can survive being seperated. We're holding a memorial service for my other self tomorrow. I think she would have liked it if you would be there."
"Of course I'll be there," said Superboy. I only hope I'll be able to see by then.
The surgery was a success, and Superboy did attend the funeral, which was broadcast across the galaxy. On a distant planet, a figure that bore a striking resemblance to Superboy watched the broadcast with a tear in his eye.
"So it has finally happened," the figure said. "Time for me to fulfil my destiny which I have awaited for a millenium!"
The day after the memorial service, Luornu was in her room trying to think of a good new code name since she now had only two bodies.
She looked over the list she put together. Duo-Damsel was too long and cheesy sounding, and shortening it to "Duo" just didn't sound right. Duet sounded okay, but it seemed to imply that singing was part of her powers. Double was okay, but it left her wide open for bad puns from her teammates. Gemini was the best she could come up with.
As she pondered her choices, Superboy knocked on her door. She let him in and he sat on the edge of her bed. "Lu," he said, "we have to talk!"
Because of the tone of his voice, Luornu was afraid that he was about to tell her something she didn’t want to hear. "What is it?" she asked.
"I've been doing a lot of thinking," he said. "When we went back to the 20th century, I realized how much I miss it. And going up against Match made me realize how much I'm needed there at Cadmus."
Triad's heart sunk. This was it. He was leaving her to go back to his own time.
"But," Superboy continued, "I can't picture living without you. I guess what I'm trying to say is, will you marry me and go back to the 20th century with me?"
"Kon," she said genuinely shocked, "I don't know what to say!"
"Say no!" said a voice coming from the door. They both turned to look and saw someone who looked just like Superboy dressed in standard 30th century clothing.
(to be concluded soon!)
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