Chapter 3

Kal still didn't know how he ended up in the situation like this, he never experienced this before. In fact, nobody of his generation had. One minute ago he was immersed himself in the Earth history class, then suddenly, the artificial alarm in school set off out loud saying that an earthquake detected and have to prepare immediately because it will be the center. Usually it has few minutes or even 15 minutes to evacuated when received such strong alarm, but this time was different. Right after the alarm saying and before all of them even had the time to react, the crystal ground started shaking violently, the students and teachers started to screamed,run or take cover. Without heastied Kal ran to a crying shocking Raiya who was trapped by the two fallen crystals when he saw the third crystals nearby was about to falling to her. He ran acrossed the room because he was sitting opposite sides of the classroom with her, it felt like a long while but in fact just seconds. He tried to use all of his strength to run fast enough to grab her while he started to get dizzyed from the shaking. Finally, he succeedfully reached her, and pulled her out. As they started hurried ran together, the crystal was falling upon them. He tried to run a little bit faster to avoid it and shielded Raiya, the crystal hit his right arm when it fell. At last when it touched the ground one second later, it hit his right ankle. They fell to the ground by the impact. But they were lucky to escape the falling.

"Oh my Rao! Are you okay Kal?" Raiya sobbed worrily and shaken as she saw Kal's arm bleeding.

Kal sat up looked at his arm, then tried to stand but fell, "Ow..! Yeah..I am okay, but I hurt my ankle." He touched his right ankle and hissed in pain. He tried not to panic and cry for pain.

Raiya sobbed more, "why are you so silly? If you didn't come to save me then you won't get hurt.." She paused and clamed herself, how stupid was she? Now was not the time to blame herself or Kal's heroism, he was just trying to help and he saved your life! Now he needed your help! I have to be brave. "Can you walk if you lean on to me? Let's get out of here before it shakes again." Kal nodded.

"Come on, it will be alright, you came to my rescue and now it's time to save you, my hero boy." Raiya tried to light up the mood as they stumbled around the ruined classroom. Together they walked out of the hallway and towards outside, while aviod any fallen objects in the now-rugged ground. Almost all the crystals,desked and chairs all fell down, there were people everywhere crying hurried outside. Everywhere is dark, the only light they saw was the sun light outside. Kal tried his best not to slow down for his injuries, he had to be brave for Raiya, they had to walk to the safety place. He realized that some people maybe trapped in somewhere or even..died, just lik if he didn't came to Raiya's rescue. He felt sad, but knew there was nothing he could do. Hopefully the rescue team will save those people. He suddenly worried for his parents, were they alright? Were they hurt? But most of it, he missed them after all these chaos.

Jor-el and Lara couldn't understand why the earthquake happened so rapid, it should have at least few minutes to prepare until it comes. But now there's no time to blame themselves or shock or analysis, all they could thought about was their son and other students and teachers' safety. They were hurried on their way to Kal's school in their suspension car. It was set to its fastest speed and autopilot. Kandor was a very big city, as the captial city of Krypton. But considered people were able to fly around with their cars, it is still in normal reach range from anywhere.

Kandor only had four schools in total, located on four sides of the city. Every school day morning there's a autopilot flying school bus came to pick the students up from wherever. The road to Kal's school was usually 15 minutes from their house in a flying car, Now even 10 minutes which under the full speed was too long for them.

"I cannot connect to Kal through his watch, the earthquake must hit the power source and affected the communication ways. Or..his watch was crashed.." Lara said worrily and tried hard not to cry.

"We must have faith in our son, he will be alright, he has to be." Jor-el tried to remain clam and think logically. He remained himself that he was the man of the house, he had to be brave for his wife and son. Besides, they may had to help other people if the rescue team hadn't reach them in time.

Finally they saw the school from afar, the school was quite big as the other main structures on Krypton. But now it was almost completely ruined, the crystals that structured the school had mostly fallen. Lara gasped in horror, Jor-el stunned in slience. They had never seen such similar destruction since the Kandor war, and even that was not as this ruined as it was caused by this powerful-ever earthquake. There were no earthquake in decades.

They arrived in front of the school and nearly jumped off the car. They hurried looked around. There were students and teachers who been shocked, some with dazed eyes still haven't recovered from what happened; some were injured but luckily the medical team already arrived and assisted them. Suddenly, they saw two children slowly coming out of the building, one of them was limping...My Rao it's Kal! They hurrily rushed to Kal and Raiya and gave them a big hug. They pulled away, carefully sat them down.

"My Rao Kal are you alright?" Lara touched Kal's shoulder, noticed his injuries and asked panically while Jor-el quick examined the two of them.

"Yeah mum dad I am okay I guess, I hurt my arm and ankle though. Oh and I crashed my watch.." Kal tried not to whined in pain, he was so happy and reliefed when saw his parents.

"Oh sweetheart the watch is not important, as long as you are safe." Lara hugged Kal again gratefully but hurt by the fact that her son were injured like this,"You will be alright now, everything will be ok. Raiya you too, are you alright?" Lara looked at Raiya with caring eyes.

Raiya felt so warm from this family, "Yes I am okay, coz Kal saved my life! If it wasn't for him I'd be..dead." Raiya said in such appreciated and scared tone. Lara rubbed her shoulder for comfort.

She turned back to Kal, "I am going to check if you have head injury or concussion. Do you have any dizziness, nausea, headache?" Lara asked carefully using her nurse knowledge. Fortunately, Kal didn't have any of them.

"What exactly happened? You were quite a hero in there son! We are proud of you." Jor-el smiled, but noticed that his son need immediate medical care for his injuries, although not as serious as needed to go to the hospital. But at least needed bandaged his arm to aviod further infections. After they back to the lab he could use the healing medicine there, it should be healing within one night. But for his leg, it needed medical ice pack to stop the swollen, then with the medicine it still need a few days to heal.

"Wait, save your story for one second, I am going to get some bandages and ice package." Jor-el hurried back to his car, and thankfully they equipped with the first aid pack in it all along.

Lara carefully put the bandage around Kal's injuries arm while Jor-el was applying ice pack to his injuried ankle. "Are you in pain sweetheart? It should be done in no time." Lara tried to keep clam and comfort her son.

Kal tried to be brave from the sudden pressured pain and took a deep breath, "It is not so pain anymore, I can handle it. I have mum and dad and Raiya with me. If not then I probably would passed out.." He murmured.

Raiya smiled and held Kal's hand, "Yeah again you are my hero! But you can cry or shout if pain you know." Lara and Jor-el smiled to each other hearing this.

"Umm but I haven't get to the pain point that needed to be screamed out.." Kal said honestly. Then he did something that surprised even himself, he kissed Raiya in her cheek, "thanks for supporting me though. And without you I may cannot escape the earthquake site. You let me lean on you the whole time."

Raiya blushed, "That's what I should do! You saved my life first and was hurt because of me..that's the least I can do."

Jor-el grinned when he heard the two kids' conversation and saw his son's action. Well he definitely got his heroism from his father, and, of course his mother. But I hope he will be careful next time, try not to get himself kill..

Lara smiled as well after finished bandaged Kal's arm, "Well we would like to know what's our two little heroes' story, care to tell us?"

"It's not a big deal really, I didn't even have time to think. We were in the Earth history class and the ground started shaking crazily. Everything was blurred in the shaking and I saw Raiya trapped in the corner while a crystal was about to fall. I ran to her as fast as I could, pulled her out and then ran. But not fast enough.." Kal blushed and said with a bit upset.

"Kal's my hero! He saved me. I tried not to cry after I saw him hurt, and helped him walked out of school together." Raiya added appreciatly.

"You both are a hero today! We are so proud of you helping each other." Lara's heart melted for these two kid's bravery. "But be careful next time okay? No matter in what situation. We are so proud of you two that's for sure." Lara kissed both of them in the cheeks. She and Jor-el did not want their son and daughter (well they already seen this sweet girl as their own daughter, or in-law..) had any harm anymore, but telling them not to save other people just to keep themselves safe is not a currect opinion. Because they would do the same, in a heartbeat. So they can only hope that when next time it happens they can aviod injury or..death..while try their best to save others. But of course, they preyed that there won't be next time like this..

Kal promised, "I will be careful next time, I won't let you and dad and Raiya worried." They hugged together.

Raiya's parents arrived to the site and hurried to their daughter, "My Rao Raiya! Are you alright?"

"Mum, dad! Yes I am okay, Kal here saved my life!" She said proudly. Raiya's mum looked at Kal and his family and gasped, "My Rao, the son of the house of El saved you? We are grateful! Thank you so much! Thank you Kal." She sightly bowed as a traditional respect. Raiya's father looked at them at sincere.

"There's no need to bow, we are all equal, especially when facing the natural disaster." Jor-el walked forward to touch her shoulder, "please, let us be friends for our children and Krypton's future. I am glad that you two chose to gave birth to Raiya naturally, as we did with Kal. I am grateful that they became best friends." Jor-el smiled.

Raiya's parents smiled nervously then changed to shake Jor-el's hand, then Lara's and Kal's. They all grinned happily. Raiya's mother noticed Kal's injuries, "Oh my, will he be alright? Is he need to go to hospital?" She was concerned of the child's condition although it seems not serious anymore, but also worried the fact that it was her daughter caused Kal hurt. All of them looked at Kal.

"No he will be fine. We just finished doing first aid to him. We will go back to our lab and use the medicine there and it should heal faster." Jor-el assured them.

"Right, that's a relief. You are the famous scientist, I am just so honored that your son saved my daughter. I don't know how to repay you.." Raiya's father said.

Jor-el and Lara glared at the two best friends, they knew exactly what they wanted as a 'repay'.. "Well there's no need, my son saved your daughter was not for reward, it is an instinct and what he should do." Jor-el touched Kal's shoulder. "Besides, your daughter also saved my son by getting him out so bravery. Just allow your daughter to continue to be friend with our Kal, that's the greatest 'rearward'for them." He smiled.

"We will. Thank you again Kal, you are so brave." They said gratefully.

"You are welcome, as long as Raiya's okay." Kal said shyly.

"Same goes to you Kal." Raiya grinned.

"Well we better get going, to take further analysis the data from this earthquake. I don't think it is a coincidence." Jor-el said honestly.

"May Rao blessed us. We appreciate your effort Jor-el and Lara, no matter what happens we will follow you and support you." Raiya's dad said loyally.

"Thank you for your word, we all appreciated it. It may will be a difficult time for us all but we will get through this." Jor-el touched Raiya's father's shoulder then left with Lara and Kal. He carried Kal on his back. Kal and Raiya said goodbye to each other as they left.