1989

John and Mary had been between hunts when John had been driving them through Smallville. Mary had been the one to see the first meteor high up in the sky and said, "John, look!" A few seconds later, John was gritting his teeth and pushing the gas pedal to the floor as he tried to avoid a fire storm that was straight out of the Old Testament or Revelation. Mary looked back to see the small town burning. She shivered at the sight of fire and held herself with arms crisscrossed with burn scars, a "gift" from the yellow-eyed demon when he came to visit more than five years ago.

They were driving down a road that was surrounded on both sides with cornfields that were now topped with black smoke. John stepped on the brakes. "Son of a . . ."

"John!"

"I see a kid up ahead," said John, pointing to the left.

Mary saw where John was pointing and gasped to see a dark-haired toddler standing alone on the side of the road.

Mary was about to get out of the car when John says, "Stop!"

She freezes. "Why?"

"He's not crying or frightened. I smell something rotten," said John, as he reached back and got the duffel bag.

John walked up to the kid and said, "Christo." The boy's green eyes did not turn black. He reached into the duffel bag, took out a flask, and splashed him with holy water. The boy laughed instead of screaming with pain. John pulled out a silver knife and was about to scratch him with it when Mary finally lost her patience and said, "That's enough, John."

"You can never be too careful, not in the middle of whatever the hell this is . . ." The storm had diminished but he was itching to get back in the car and get some distance away from this. This could just be the first wave, he thought.

She took a blanket from the back seat, ran to the little boy and wrapped him in it. "Hey, little guy, what's your name?"

The little boy babbled something that was neither English or any language that he had ever heard.

Seeing Mary acting maternal toward the small boy gave him pause. When they had agreed to hunt together, they had made a pact that they wouldn't drag any children into the lifestyle, especially with the pact with the yellow-eyed demon hanging over her head. However, he knew that she longed to hold a child in her arms. He felt the same way.

"Did you kill all the vampires, Kal?" said John as he walked into the house where the nest of vampires were staying and felt a grim satisfaction at seeing the tableau of Kal holding a bloody machete with more than a dozen beheaded bodies surrounding him.

"Yes, sir," said Kal.

"Good job," said John. He had doubts about keeping Kal for years after they picked him up. It was moments like these that had changed his mind. Stronger and faster than almost any supernatural creature he knew, his adopted son was like a long delayed answer from a God he had thought deaf and uncaring.

When Kal had began showing signs of powers around the time he was in elementary school, he had gone to Bobby Singer and asked if he knew anything about someone who had abilities like this. Bobby had pricked up his ears when he heard the name of the town. "Smallville, huh?" said Bobby.

"What?"

"I know a professor near that area named Joseph Willowbrook. His specialties are languages and prehistoric cave paintings. He also knows the legends and myths of his tribe, the Kawatche."

"Uh, huh," said John impatiently.

"You found Kal during the meteor storm, right?"

"Yeah."

"They have a legend about a man who's unbelievably strong and could shoot fire from his eyes. And before you say it, he's not a demon in this story but a man from the stars. He left them but promised that he or someone like him would come back Funny thing is that the time he was supposed to come back was around the time of the meteor shower."

"He doesn't shoot fire from his eyes."

Bobby took a swig of beer. "Yet . . ."

John groaned. "He's an alien?"

"Numan is a good guy in the story, if that makes you feel better."

John had once talked to Mary about dropping him off somewhere so he could be put into the foster care system. Mary had scoffed, "You think that a pair of farmers can handle this kid? Please, John!" He then suggested that Joseph Willowbrook might be interested in Kal only to see her scowl at him. He could tell that if he pressed the issue, she'd tear him a new one so he decided to be quiet. Besides, he'd miss the smile she had on her face when reading stories to Kal like The Ice Queen and The Ugly Duckling. They even started staying in one small town for one year and then two.

Of course, he should've known that it wouldn't last long. Nothing perfect ever does.

It had been the yellow-eyed demon. Mary had managed to fire a bullet from the Colt at his head as she had promised her parents' grave every year. Unfortunately, he had crushed her spine right before she got a clear shot. As she lay dying in John's arms, she whispered, "He wanted to take Kal. He's already taken so much . . . Greedy bastard . . ."

"I'm going to get you to the hospital so don't . . ."

"How's Kal?"

"He's fine."

"Good," she said, before, leaving him to raise Kal alone.

That was the first and only time Kal ever saw his father cry.

Once he had trained Kal to come with him on hunts, their team quickly ended up with nicknames due to a body count that passed one thousand. One nickname was "Trinity" since they were father and son and Mary was the holy ghost and could destroy whatever evil crossed their path. Another nickname was "The Kill Right Machine." After three years, they had managed to clear much of Kansas and the surrounding states of evil. Often their very arrival would cause some monsters to leave town.

Kal had begun talking about stopping while they were ahead. He kept talking about wanting to be normal and staying in one place. Even though he knew that Kal was looking tired lately and coming down with headaches, John had brusquely told him that he wasn't normal and that what they were doing was right, that it was something he was made for. Kal then said, "Once when I was little, you were gone for a week, hunting a witch. I told Mom I wanted to hunt, too. Mom said that she didn't want me to become a hunter, that eventually hunters lose themselves until they forgot that there was a world outside of the hunt. She told me I should want something else."

John had turned pale but said, "Sometimes, you don't get what you want."

A week later, John woke up to find Kal gone. He drove all over town, hoping that Kal had just decided to blow off some steam. He waited at the hotel room for a few days and called Ellen and Bobby to see if they had seen Kal. Neither of them had seen him but promised to keep an eye out. As days and weeks went by, John realized that Kal wasn't going to come back.

John found himself alone.

Two Years Later

John was in a diner in Ohio, eating a pastrami sandwich, when he saw Kal's face again. Kal was in a bizarre get-up and his eyes were so cold and alien that they might as well have been demon black. He told the world that he planned to rule them with strength and wipe out all the evil that he knew was out there. The messy combination of bread and fatty meat fell unto the table as John's stomach felt full of broken glass.

The End