Thanks, Lara, Mellie and Nancy!
Lara, as for why i gave Batman a Fortress of Solitude... I guess you could say he doesn't need one, seeing he has his own Batcave. But it just occurred to me that it would be nice to have an Arctic Fortress of Solitude in my story, and I was sure that the fortress wouldn't be Clark's. After all, he left the Earth before he even became Superman, so it just didn't seem right that he would have thought of building himself an Arctic Fortress. But I had Batman in my story, and he is an angst-ridden loner who is filthy rich and who sometimes has too much time on his hands. Wouldn't he just get a weird idea like that in his head, and use some of all his money to get himself an underground sanctuary in the Arctic? A good thing about his Fortress of Solitude would be that he could keep Alfred and Rick out of that place, when and if he wanted to be absolutely, totally alone.
I'm so glad that Clara came through as believable to you! Yes, I like her too.
Thanks, Lara!
Mellie! Thanks for nailing this so perfectly:
The talk between Batman and Clara was absolutely wonderful, showing the dark side in the life of the Dark Knight, the one obsession that made him become a crimefighter in the first place. And it also shows wonderfully what Clara still has - even if she thinks she has lost her mother. (Stupid girl, she'll never stop loving you!)
Yes, I was trying to show both Clara and the readers that when Clara is confronted with Batman and the trauma he suffered when his parents were killed, she'll realize how lucky she really is herself, and how much she wants to go back to her Mom and Dad!
And what an incredible compliment you paid me when you said that reading this part made your eyes all watery! Thanks!
Nancy! Thanks again for setting up the TOC for this story - and now, for updating it!
Thank you for letting me know that Clara's nightmare worked for you. I made it a part of the story to try to address the following question: Will kids whose parents have died think that their parents blame their kids for their deaths? (I tried to make Clara herself figure out that parents
won't blame their kids. That's what she told Batman when he was musing aloud that his parents might be angry at him for nagging them into taking him to the movies and indirectly causing their deaths.)
I'm so glad that you, too, thought that Clara seemed like a believable 12-year-old!
And I love that you love what Clark really said to Clara when he uttered no more than her name. Thanks!
As for that epilogue... no promises, but I think it would be nice to get to see a little of what happens afterwards. What will it be like for Lois, Clark and Clara to become a family? What was it like for Clark to be on Krypton? How could he get back? Will he fully regain his powers again? Will Lois become pregnant again? (I would like that, wouldn't I?
) If so, will Jonathan and Martha move to Metropolis to become more or less full-time baby-sitters? Will Clara and Rick keep on seeing each other? Will they even do some youthful heroics together? Will they actually become a pair of teenage superheroes? Naaah... they are too young, aren't they?
Questions, questions.... I don't promise to answer them, but I would like to!
Thanks again!
Dark and disturbed heroes. *dreamy sigh*
