The place was fantastic. He had lived in the oddest of places, and more recently in the farm and then Clark's cramped apartment. Even greater than that, they didn't have neighbors who would be suspicious of their mysterious coming and goings. Batman was a good friend though he wondered if there was more to it than met the eye. He didn't doubt there was, but would probably learn what it was later on.
He placed the last box from the moving truck in the living room and stood there watching the sun through their new panoramic view window.
"Is that the last?" Clark asked as he started to open one of the boxes in the kitchen.
"Yeah. You know we got this thing called Super-Speed? We could be done with this in less than a minute," he said picking up a bookshelf before carrying it to the small study in the apartment.
"We could, but sometimes just taking your time is okay," Clark said pulling out a stack of plates rarely used.
"I suppose," he said opening another box and started sorting books. Some were going to the study, others to his bedroom. "Did you already check for bugs?" he asked.
"The regular and Bat kind," he said as he stared at a pot he didn't remember having.
"Some friends, right?" he said remembering a few years back how upset Clark had been when he found Bat-Bugs at his favorite dely. Though he would never admit, Batman learned that Superman didn't like his private life monitored.
"You get used to it," Clark said with a shrug.
"That's sad but no sadder than that third bedroom," he couldn't help smirking, "wishful thinking?"
It had been weird when he returned from San Francisco to find Lois dressed in one of Clark's shirt as she helped him pack. The moment she started making excuses about spilled coffee and such he forgot all about the dream. He told them he would go and grab something to eat to keep things from getting more awkward. By the time he returned Lois was dressed in the same suit she had come in the previous day and on her way out. When she told him to not say a word or she would reveal his identity to the world as her cheeks shone red, he burst out laughing. She had called him some unkind names before promising to put some Kryptonite in his cereal and then left. If he was to assign Lois a family role in his life it wouldn't be that of a mother, but a sister.
"I was hoping Kara would move in with us. Last time I saw her she said her roommate was moving out and was having trouble finding someone new," Clark said keeping an eye on him for his reaction, but he didn't betray anything.
"Good luck with that," he said not meaning it at all.
"Wouldn't you talk with her?" Clark asked innocently; he could go to someone else with that story because he didn't believe it for a second.
"I saved her from an alien parasite, and she still doesn't like me. What do you think?" he said trying to not sound snappy, but to his embarrassment he failed.
"You owe me," Clark said matter-of-factly.
"For what?" Okay, so he didn't pay rent, or food, or the gas for his motorcycle though he could just fly, and then there was the fact that half of his DNA was from him. Okay, so maybe owed him a lot, but he couldn't just decide to cash it in when he thought convenient.
"Have you seen the news?" Clark asked him.
"Ehm… didn't have much time for that today," he had forgotten all about the previous night with the dread of facing Clark after his experience at the Outlaw's island, and then the sudden move.
"I guess you kids slept through it. It seems the world thinks the League shouldn't let a bunch of kids run rampant into the awe hours of the day," Clark said calmly, good because he was starting to panic.
"This is going to be a pain," he knew from the moment they spotted those drug dealers at the club the night before that they would probably end up on the first pages, though he hadn't been sure what would be their take on it. He guessed a bunch of unsupervised teenagers engaging armed men would not look good in most lights.
"Like I said, you owe me," Clark repeated with a smug smile.
"What did you do?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Cat is making a special in a few hours about the whole thing. I told her I wanted it to show the good stuff you guys did and for a moment forget that none of you are old enough to drink. That, plus having her agree to let you and Lori transmit the interview through our feeds," Clark said.
"Like Cat would let a story like that slip her by," he countered.
"She wasn't happy you wanted the Planet to cover it too," Clark counter countered.
"The more, the merrier, right?" he said trying an innocent smile, but failed miserably.
"Not always, but either way; You. Owe. Me." Clark said with an even smugger smile.
"Fine, okay, I will talk to miss sunshine," he said with a sigh, "but aren't you upset?"
"Besides having an Amazon call me at some ungodly hour in the morning and tell me I need to be a better guardian, not really. You kids did a good job, all while looking after Bruce's little spawn," besides, they helped a lot of people and wasn't what they were all about at the end?
"Oh," Okay, he had been expecting some reprisal, but then again Clark was more open minded that people gave him credit for.
"There's a hostage situation," Clark said with a sigh, "could you finish here?"
"Go," he said knowing every second counted.
Once Clark was gone, he went and unpacked everything with his powers and was done in about two minutes. He could appreciate the ordinary stuff in life, but at that time he didn't have time to waste on it. He went to work on all the assignments for the following week and the project he was working alongside Lois before sending her the first draft. When done, he looked around his new bedroom.
He hadn't taken the time to enjoy having his own space once again. The place could be called plain by some, but to him it was the calm. It reminded him of his room in the Fortress of Solitude, which he was way overdue for visiting. He and Clark had agreed to move Wolf to the Fortress. Sphere meanwhile was staying with Tim. He thought about relocating her to the Fortress too, but she could be of help to Red while they got their base built.
Just as he started to doze off, his cell phone rang. He noticed then he had ten missed calls from Lori. He grimaced before answering and listening to Lori tell him off about not yet having an answer from the young heroes.
"I was right! They were up to something. They call themselves the Titans. I know they are kids, but couldn't this mean they split from the League? Have they given you an answer yet? We can't wait much longer," she said in one breath.
"They said yes, and I already talked to Lois and Clark spoke to Cat. They will let us transmit it through their website."
"You-you are not serious," she said before he heard her drop something.
"I am very," he said calmly.
"OH MY GOD! WHY DID YOU WAIT TO TELL ME-"
He pulled the phone away from his ear and waited until she was over.
"I just got the confirmation a while ago," he told her as he went to ClarkCatropolis for Cat's special.
"What am I going to wear? Maybe something hip," she said sounding like a teen girl who just got asked to the prom.
"No one says hip anymore," he reminded her but was ignored.
"Or something more business-like, what do you think?" he asked her.
"You should ask Cat," he knew that even if he gave his honest opinion women usually ended up wearing what they wanted.
"You are right, oh my, just which ones are we interviewing?" she asked and he could tell she was bouncing on the tips of her toes.
"The kids from last night," he told her.
"Okay, so that's Superboy; Super-ugh, Kid Flash, Blue Beetle and the two mysterious teens? Wait; don't tell me you know who they are," she asked barely able to hold her excitement.
"The younger of the two is the current Robin and we aren't interviewing him. Batman is still training him according to the other one; Red Robin. He was the previous Robin," he said, there were only five minutes before Cat's special started.
"Red Robin, how original," he could almost hear her roll her eyes.
"They don't pick their names out of a jar Lori," he said unable to keep the sharpness of his voice.
"Soorry," she said not sounding one bit, "I forgot you are actually friends with them."
"He asked us to keep his new identity a secret until the interview. They don't trust just anyone with this. So, don't take it for granted" he said trying to keep his temper under control. But, he hadn't forgotten how stupid she had behaved a few nights ago just to get an interview out of him.
"Okay," she said a little more submissive. It wasn't like him to snap at her. She could usually rant for a long time and no matter how rude or forwards she was, he never got upset at her.
"We will work on the interview tomorrow, and I agreed to meet Lois on Wednesday to see the forum we would use for the interview. You can join us if you aren't too busy. On Friday, we are going to meet with them to talk about the interview as there are some topics they would really like not to touch," he told her.
"But interviews are so we can ask the hard questions if they give us a guide, we won't really get anything worth out of them," Lori said.
"Let's just listen to them first and then we might be able to work a deal," he told her, "we need to get this completed in two weeks."
"Alright," Lori agreed also know if it went longer than that the impact they had left the night before would be forgotten.
"I have to go; Clark and I moved to a new place and there is still a lot of unpacking to do," actually, he was tired. He just wanted to listen to Cat's special which would start in a minute and then go to sleep.
"See you tomorrow," she said.
"Bye," he said and hung up before changing to more comfortable clothing and then waited for Cat's special.
888
Clark sat across from Cat as they had breakfast. The woman stabbed her little tomatoes with such force the juices jumped all over the place.
"So, I take you haven't had any luck with the mole." It had been an issue that had started out small, but now more and more they were getting their stories published at the same time if not after the Daily Planet. People were beginning to say they were the ones stealing the stories from them. If it weren't for specials like the one from the night before, they would already be facing a bigger problem. Thankfully, the New Daily Planet under the care of Galaxy Broadcasting would never steal a good take on the capes. He didn't want to point fingers, but it might be because Morgan Edge was close friends with, of I don't know, Lex Luthor.
"I already questioned everyone, and you know how through I can be when I want to," said the woman who bought the same pair of shoes until no one else had them. "That Lori girl has been dropping by constantly to lend a 'helping hand,' are you sure she isn't the one?"
"She might be a Luthor, but she has been keeping away from the family business, so no," the girl barely visited Lex in the hospital, and at those times it was usually because her mother made her.
"What about Conner? He is young and impressionable, and if he is any more like you, is possible that he likes Lois,"
"Right," he scoffed at the idea and then paused. Conner was his clone, and his other half was Lex's who at one point had also been after Lois.
"Now he sees it," Cat said with a smirk.
"Even if that was true," wasn't true. Conner told him just about everything, "he wouldn't sell us out," or more precisely, him.
"Hope that's true Clark," she said with a sigh before flipping through the pages of the things they needed to look at "have you received any word from your blue tights wearing friends. The League hasn't released any official statement about what happened with those kids."
"They are not tights, and the only thing he said was that they would make a statement after the interview Conner and Lori are going to make," the League though through a lot of his input had agreed to this. He was sure Wonder Woman was going to cross him off her holiday shopping list.
"With last night's special and the promotion of theirs, our views have grown even more," Lori said in a better mood, "we have to make sure we keep it in those numbe-" the building shook, "what a hell is that?"
Though they were far, they could both see the giant head of a dragon-like creature.
"Clark, we need someone to-" but the moment she turned around Clark was gone.
888
The apartment felt so empty. She sat on her bed and waited until the front door closed before she picked out. Siobhan, her only real friend since she arrived at Earth, was moving out. Not because she didn't like Kara anymore, but simply her life was moving somewhere else. Siobhan had punk band which had just been picked up by a great label and were going on tour, and she was moving to live with her boyfriend who was the guitarist of said band when they returned.
Though she wouldn't miss the awkward moments when she caught them on the couch (she made sure they took it with them), she would miss the strange young woman. Siobhan had a magical voice in more than one way. Besides having that beautiful singing voice she would miss waking up to every morning, her friend could speak any language she heard, including those of other long-gone worlds. She could speak it even better than Kal El and Kon El. It was actually thanks to her that she was able to dominate one of the countless languages of Earth (she still couldn't understand why they needed more than one).
She went about to make breakfast before she headed out to college, and then to work. What would her parents think of her at her age still not going through the initiation rite and still not having completed her education? Not that it was rare for earthlings to do so until they reached even older ages. She wished it was like Krypton where you just went along with what your family did, but that strange and overly complicated world you had to choose. And if things didn't work out did you have start all over again? It was a nightmare.
She finished washing the dishes and prepared for another dull day on Earth.
That was until she heard a screech that shattered the windows of her place.
"SKREEEEE!"
Okay, whoever had done that was going to pay and she didn't mean just punch their lights out.
She flew out only to see said creature smacking his cousin with its tale and sending him flying away. The creature followed after him a moment later.
"A tripedal Curosiananium?" she said before she flew after them.
888
He didn't want to do it, but he told Clark he would. The thought kept bouncing in his head until he was no longer to sleep. He listened again to Cat's special to try to lighten his mood.
Last night, a group of young heroes dismantled one of the most prominent chain of drug dealers in San Francisco, and I really mean it in one night. Yet, how does the public respond.
"What is the League thinking by sending kids here?!"
"They are a bad example for our children."
Our own Superboy, Blue Beetle, Kid Flash, and two more unknown teens were said to have taken down dealers. These men were selling to children as young as twelve years old and also keeping thirty-four more of them in cages to try out new drugs. If that's a bad example, then does this mean we should allow our youth to look away when they see someone doing something so wrong?
He really hoped Kara would say no even if it meant she would kick him out through a window. Clark had already tried to have them get along in the holidays, and though not exactly a disaster it wasn't working. Every single time they talked about their point of view on the whole Krypton Clone Attack, but they could never reach an agreement. There were things they both agreed on, but others were still there.
"I thought I was going to die when someone busted the door open. We all covered out mouths because some of them- some of them would…"
The young received inhuman treatment in accordance to Dr. Belle from the Sunrise Hospital and some of them wouldn't have survived for long if they had stayed. Dr. Belle couldn't give us further information as to protect the wellbeing of the children.
"I saw a red blur and then saw Kid Flash standing before one of the girls' cages. He had looked really angry before he broke the lock on her cage. A moment later all of our locks were broken and our cages were open."
"Superboy and Kid Flash took us out of the building before taking us here. I think both of them were very mad and I am glad they were. Those guys got what they deserved."
"I just want to see my parents again."
"Thank you for saving us Titans."
The young team of heroes left a big call card on the last of the organization known as the Tarantula.
He wasn't sure how was it that Cat got those kids testimonies so fast but was thankful she blurred their faces. They had a long way to recover fully and they didn't need people to known them as the caged kids. They had the right to try to have a healthy life.
He remembered how upset Bart had been, and he would have been the same if it didn't mean his powers could blow up the place. The closer he got to Kara's place he made sure to keep reminding himself that. He stopped at a red light and took a deep breath. It was just a question if she said yes he would deal with it if she said no, everything would be back to normal. He was sure she would say no. Of course, she would say no. Even the blind could see that she hated that he got along with Clark better than her. What did she know about being a journalist anyways? In Krypton, there was no such thing, and of course she would have trouble understanding their purpose.
The hairs on the back of his head had stood up on end before he heard a cold voice.
"Fascinating. You are a clone, but how is that possible? How could any technology on Earth ever hope to forge a clone from the far more complex genes of my fellow Kryptonians?"
He looked up and saw a man, or at least he thought it was a man with long black hair floating in front of him. He claimed to be Kryptonian, but he didn't look one bit like it. His eyes were black tar pools and his skin a shade between paper white and walking dead with scars that didn't heal correctly. His torso was bare, but the rest was like Kal El's uniform for the exception of the long wavering red waist cape. But what really disturbed him was that on his chest he had the crest of the House of El carved backward. It reminded him of Match.
Someone honked their horn behind him and he noted no one but him could see the floating man in front of him. He took off on his motorcycle at all speed knowing this so-called Kryptonian would have no trouble following him.
"You should know Earth's primitive vehicles are no match for me, clone," the man said flying side by side with him. He felt his skin erupt in goosebumps at seeing him closer and his senses screamed at him of the unspoken danger.
"I know, I just don't want people seeing me talking to myself. I have an image to keep, you know?" and he didn't need any camera or witness presence his change from the stoic Conner Kent to Superboy.
"If you mean not learning of your brutish nature, they shall learn soon enough," the man-like being laughed making his gut clench.
"Are all Kryptonians such charmers?" keep him distracted as long as you can. He made a sharp turn and went into a parking place before taking his clothes off in a fraction of a second only leaving his uniform behind. When he came out the being was waiting for him, but now with a frown.
"You dare wear the crest of my House," the man said appearing before him. He didn't even get a chance to create a barrier before the man blasted him through the building and two more before he crashed into the middle of a road.
"Everyone! Run!" he felt that meaning this guy probably had the same strength as Superman. If he was going to survive had had to hit him with everything and that meant he couldn't have civilians distracted him.
"Do not attempt to escape or resist me. Compared to me, you a grain of sand challenging the sea," the man appeared to him in a flash of light. That wasn't super-speed. He just appeared.
He didn't contradict him because it felt like it. His brain was still rattling in his skull as he pulled himself from the crater he created. He could only hope his T.K. would give him a surprise advantage against him. He expanded his senses until he had hold of everything he could make use of and then threw it at match five speeds at him. The earth shook and he heard screams of fear in the distance. He wouldn't let him hurt them if he could help it. But he wished he could assure them that so they wouldn't be afraid. He could sense their combined fear all the way where he was.
A long silence reigned as the pile of rubble stood still. Now, he only had to contact Kal to help him move the guy without causing any further damage.
"Debris? Is that how you protect yourself?"
"OOFT!"
Next thing he knew he was bombarded with his own missiles at double the speed that they had been thrown at him. It couldn't be that he had the same powers as him right? He lifted his head from the pile where he had landed and stared at the barrier the Kryptonian had created around himself. There was some relief in his chest as he realized this man had used his barrier to blast the debris at him but had no actual power over them like he did.
"I guess I couldn't expect any less from the shame of the House of El," again he appeared before him. This time he planted a foot on his chest, right over his crest.
"Let me go!" he tried to move the man with his strength and T.K, but he wouldn't move even an inch.
He applied more force in his step until he was being pushed at all speed through the underground layers of the city.
"Ahhh!" he felt one of his ribs start to crack and his back finally hit bedrock.
"Stay still abomination, your pathetic existence will be over in a moment." The foot moved and then slammed into his head.
"Ahhhhhhhh!" though it felt as if his head was going to split in two, he managed to create a barrier around his body. Otherwise, his brains would already be splattered about.
"Just like an unnecessary pest, you have to make things more complicated," but he was laughing, as if he was no more than a little critter.
"I am tired of always being the patient one with you Kryptonian bastards. To hold my temper," he said through clenched blood covered teeth. He pushed the foot back as his eyes started to shine red. "NO MORE!" he shouted before blasting the man back. The red began to bleed out of his eyes as he continued to clench his teeth trying to keep control over the amount of power that was pouring out. He had never allowed this much out without breaking something.
"How dare you," the man said with a snarl as he pulled himself up with a bloody lip.
"How dare I?! You are the one that is trying to kill me!" if he was going to break something it would be that bastard. "I will teach you a lesson on not messing with clones!"
"Disgusting," though he slammed the man on the ground and obviously heard some of his bones crack, he still managed to piss him off even further.
He floated in front of the man not bothering to hide his rage. He said with a forced smile, "I know you are new around here, but the truth is that I am not just any clone. I was made to be a living weapon."
"You are just embarrassing yourself clone. I only lowered my guard to see what you were actually capable of," he disappeared before his eyes, "as you said your structure is something else."
He was lifted off the floor by the Kryptonian's grip on the back of his neck.
"I will find your secrets clone, even if I have to pull you apart atom by atom."
"AARRRGH!"