Bruce had a nagging suspicion so he decided to confirm it.
"Clark, can I ask you something?"
"Sure."
"When did your powers start manifesting? Like, when did you first realize you were different?"
Clark thought about it. "I guess I've always been stronger than I should be. But it was subtle when I was little. My parents could explain it away as just being a strong kid. The really obvious stuff, the stuff I can't hide, that started ramping up about a year ago. And it's been accelerating. Every month I can do more things, and the things I could already do get stronger."
Bruce's mind raced through implications. "Accelerating. So it's not a steady progression, it's exponential growth."
"I guess? I don't really understand the science of it."
"When did the heat vision start?"
"Six months ago."
"And the super hearing?"
"About the same time. It all kind of started hitting at once."
Bruce's thoughts crystalized into a disturbing conclusion. Clark's powers were emerging faster than some comic continuities had suggested. In some versions, Superman didn't come into his full abilities until his early twenties. But this Clark was already showing heat vision and advanced super hearing at seventeen.
'Timeline compression,' Bruce realized. 'Events are accelerating faster than the original comics. If Clark is manifesting powers this early, what else is moving up the schedule?'
He thought about the intelligence he'd gathered over the past nine years. Lex Luthor's movements, military activities, unexplained phenomena. He'd been cataloging everything, building a database of events and comparing them to his meta-knowledge.
And now that he thought about it, the pattern was clear. Things were happening earlier than they should. Lex had already started some of his early experiments. Certain criminal organizations were forming ahead of schedule. Small details that individually meant nothing, but together suggested a compressed timeline.
'If Superman emerges in eighteen months instead of three or four years, everything else accelerates too,' Bruce thought, his mind calculating probabilities at frightening speed. 'The Justice League formation, the first major crises, the arrival of threats that Earth isn't ready for yet.'
Which meant Bruce had less time than he'd planned for. Much less.
"Bruce?" Clark's voice broke through his thoughts. "You okay? You looked really intense there for a second."
"Sorry. Just thinking." Bruce forced himself to refocus on the present moment. "Listen, I need to head back. But let's stay in touch, okay? Text me if you need to talk or if your powers start doing something new."
"I will. Thanks again for everything today. For understanding, for helping. It means a lot."
They walked back to the house together. Bruce said goodbye to Jonathan and Martha, who insisted on sending him home with leftovers despite his protests. He drove away from the Kent farm with a container of food on the passenger seat and a head full of calculations.
Back at his temporary lodging, a modest bed and breakfast in Smallville proper, Bruce immediately pulled out his laptop and tablet. He connected to his encrypted server back in Gotham and started pulling up files.
Data streamed across the screens. News reports, satellite imagery, financial records, scientific journals, military procurement documents. Everything he'd been collecting and cataloging for years.
Bruce began cross-referencing timelines, looking for patterns he'd missed before.
Lex Luthor had purchased meteor crash site properties in Smallville four years ago. According to the comics, he shouldn't have started that until Clark was already in college. Timeline deviation: approximately six years early.
Military satellite activity over Kansas had increased three years ago. Should have been one year ago according to most continuities. Timeline deviation: two years early.
Strange seismic readings near the Arctic that Bruce's monitoring systems had flagged. Could be the Fortress of Solitude beginning to form. Should be happening five years from now. Timeline deviation: potentially five years early.
'Everything is accelerating,' Bruce thought, his enhanced intellect processing data faster than any computer. 'Not just Clark's powers. The entire timeline of major events is compressed. Which means...'
He pulled up his projections for other key events. Superman's public emergence. The formation of the Justice League. The arrival of major threats.
Based on this new data, Superman would go public in approximately eighteen months, maybe less. The Justice League would need to form within two years maximum. And the first major crisis that would require the League, probably Darkseid's initial scouts or something similar, was less than three years out.
Bruce had been planning for ten years of preparation time. He'd projected reaching perfect peak human at eighteen, then spending his early twenties implementing superhuman enhancements and building the Justice League infrastructure.
He didn't have ten years anymore. He had two, maybe three at most.
'I'm not ready,' Bruce thought, and for the first time in nine years, genuine fear crept into his mind. 'I'm at 92 Physique. Mind and Spirit are high but not maxed. I haven't started any enhancement protocols. I'm nowhere near strong enough to stand alongside Superman, let alone fight the threats I know are coming.'
He stared at his Status Panel.
*[PHYSIQUE: 92/100]*
*[MIND: 89/100]*
*[SPIRIT: 78/100]*
Eight points from peak human in Physique. Eleven in Mind. Twenty-two in Spirit. At his current training rate, accounting for diminishing returns, he'd need another full year of real-time training to max out Physique naturally. Longer for the other stats.
He didn't have a full year. Not if the timeline was as compressed as his analysis suggested.
Bruce sat back in his chair and stared at the ceiling. He'd prepared for this. Not this exact scenario, but something like it. A contingency for if he needed to accelerate his development beyond what natural training could provide.
He pulled up a different file on his laptop. This one was heavily encrypted, stored on local drives rather than the cloud, and labeled simply:
"BREAKTHROUGH PROTOCOL."
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