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Someone had broken into the fortress, someone was knocking over crystals, shattering glass, ripping the limbs off his drones, setting free the creatures in the intergalactic zoo. They weren’t being subtle about it, in fact they were making as much noise as possible. They wanted Clark to find them, confront them, the question was did they want Clark to stop them? Or would it be better to let him go.
“I’d been meaning to do some spring cleaning, it seems he beat me to it.” Clark didn’t focus on the noise of the destruction. He was listening to the soundtrack, the song bouncing off the glacial walls, likely scaring any animal life within a hundred mile radius. "How did he get those speakers to synch to earth tech? Bruce had tried to retool them twice! He wants my attention he has it."
🎼I've got a little black book with my poems in
Got a bag with a toothbrush and a comb in
When I'm a good dog they sometimes throw me a bone in.🎼
“Kal-El the damage is extensive, irreparable.” Kelex was at the gate the second he turned the key, the invader had found another way in. “But we cannot engage the threat due to his genetic structure and your specifications. Please authorize-”
“Don’t touch him. I’ll handle it.” Clark knew why he was here, why he was breaking anything that bore a resemblance to the Kryptonian that found haven here. “Don’t stop him unless he harms himself.” Clark walked slowly through the expansive hall of his heritage.
🎼I got elastic bands keeping my shoes on
Got those swollen hand blues
I've got thirteen channels of shit on the T.V. to choose from
I've got electric light
And I've got second sight
I've got amazing powers of observation🎼
“I know you’re here!” That was Konner’s voice, his shout. He was hurt, he was hurting something awful. Clark wasn’t sure what he could say, what he could do to help. “Come on! Come on say it! Your dad’s 8-bit ghost did! Lex did! Metropolis did!” Clark said nothing at first, just watched as Konner wailed fist after fist into the tiny rocket that Clark had arrived in, crushing it to bits, cursing that it ever existed in the first place. "You wish I wasn't huh! You wish I wasn't here! No matter what I do? No matter who I try to be! You just want me to disappear! Well how bout it? How bout you send me somewhere big man! Superboy who? Weren't those the days!"
🎼And that is how I know
When I try to get through
On the telephone to you
There will be nobody home 🎼
“I spoke to Luthor.” Clark remained calm, he wasn't sure that was the right choice, maybe Kon wanted a screaming match, a fist fight, someway to get revenge for what Clark had done. Though as much as Konner couldn't stop being him. Clark couldn't stop being Clark, so he staid calm, spoke with a tempered confidence. "We talked about what you need."
“Oh I’m sure you did! I’m sure you told him . . . this is what you get! This is what you get when you play mad scientist! You get . . . I’m maladjusted mal practice! I’m a mistake, you finally have something to agree on! What do I need? Tell the knock off how he should be feeling and what medicine will set him right."”
Clark had seen the headline, in his own paper. He hadn’t written the article, he tried to dissuade Perry from printing it, but he wasn’t an editor. He wasn’t someone who got that say. Clark Kent's voice didn't have that sort of sway.
“Super Blunder. Lex apologized for me, apologized that I’m not you! I’m not you! I’m not you! I’m not you!” Konner went from alternating fists to bringing them up and down in tandem, he was creating a crater in the fortresses’ floor.
“I know.” Clark's voice grew quiet as he placed a soft hand on Konner’s shoulder. “And I’m not sorry about that. You're you, and maybe not today but people will start to see what a great thing that is. You're just a trend setter Kon, takes some time for others to catch up.”
🎼I've got the obligatory Hendrix perm
And the inevitable pinhole burns
All down the front of my favorite satin shirt.
I've got nicotine stains on my fingers
I've got a silver spoon on a chain.🎼
“Trend? Yeah I'm trending but you're the reliable they want. I was just a trend that kept em busy while you were. It was easier when you were dead! Now?! I can’t be you! Not when you're . . . This often replicated never duplicated asshole.” Konner’s shoulders were shaking.
“I know. Metropolis airspace seems a bit crowded but that's just because we're competing, if we-”
“I . . . look can I borrow a ship?” Konner turned around and there were tears flowing from under those lennon shades.
“To go where?” Clark didn’t say no, Konner heard plenty of that.
“Somewhere that doesn’t have a Superman.”
All Konner heard was how he was wrong, should be doing something else, be something more. The fact that he was called superboy made him a disappointment in Luthor’s eyes, a lesser when he had wanted to craft something superior. Though tweak all he liked, splice and implant, stretch science to it’s limits Luthor hadn’t created a man. He’d created a boy, a boy who needed support, guidance, encouragement, someone who said yes, you are more enough, you have a worth all your own.
“I hate it here. I don’t belong here. It’ll be better for both of us. This planet isn’t big enough for two supermen.”
“You belong, Konner.” Clark hugged Konner, held him tight, tighter than anyone else could. “This wasn’t my home always. I wasn’t born with this life in mind but I didn’t have a choice. I was just sent-”
“To a family who wanted you! Loved you!”
“They found me, and I . . . found you and just like my parents I didn’t know exactly what to expect out of someone so . . . special. I made mistakes, I-”
“Stop! You’re not my dad! I have no parents! I have a creator and my . . . blueprints! That’s all you are, a map of what I should be.” Though Konner didn’t push out of Clark’s hold, he just shook and sobbed.
“Do you think you’d feel less alone . . .shooting off into space? There’s a lot out there, but there’s a lot of nothing too.”
“I just need somewhere . . . somewhere I’m not being stared at! I’m not being . . . . I just want to be left alone for one day. I always have to be on, life of the party and even that's getting old! I haven’t had a minute to myself since I hatched out of that egg! Do you know what that’s like?! To be studied every second of every day, every move being compared, judged, it’s not fair! You got time to . . . time . . . you got time!”
“I know I did. That’s why I talked to Luthor.”
🎼I've got a grand piano to prop up my mortal remains
I've got wild staring eyes
And I've got a strong urge to fly
But I've got nowhere to fly to.🎼
“About what? You gonna . . . you gonna get rid of me? You gonna put me on ice till I grow up into something stable something . . . that looks like the scout?” Konner thought he was so disposable, a limited addition toy that had fallen out of vogue once it lost it’s shiny fresh out the box sheen.
“No.” Clark knew Konner was a bit to old for it, but sometimes to be allowed to feel small, after being forced to stand tall day after day, it took some pressure off, allowed you to breathe, and Konner needed to breathe. His face was so red, wet and strained, he needed a breath. So Clark rocked slightly, he held Konner and rocked back and forth for a few moments. “There are ships here if that’s really what you want but you can also . . . just stay. It’s a fortress . . . of solitude, use it that way. If you want time to yourself, take it Konner. I talked to Lex and I told him if he disturbed you . . . well I’d disturb him.”
“You’d both . . . leave me alone?”
“I want to be there for you Konner, even if that means giving you some space, my space, as long as you need for here . . . for earth to feel like a safe space.”
🎼Ooh, babe, when I pick up the phone
Surprise, surprise, surprise...
There's still nobody home🎼
“Aren’t you afraid I’ll build something to try and kill you?”
“Sure.” Clark replied calmly, the rocking slowing slightly. “But most of my closest friends have tried to kill me atleast once. It's nearly a compliment, shows you care.”
“We’re not friends.”
“We don’t have to be anything at all Konner." That hurt Clark to say, he hoped for some different outcome but if it took pressure off Konner to hear it, that's what mattered now. Konner's feelings had played second fiddle far too long. "You don’t owe me anything, but know . . . I’d do anything for you. I will always be in your corner.”
“I’d like . . . I like it here. I don’t want to go.” The mania was winding down and Konner was left with his true feelings, which were more complicated, more raw, so much more than he could handle all at once. He had friends here, a life here, it just wasn't the life he'd been instructed to have. Being told your life can't be trusted in your own hands? Who wouldn't be angry?
“I know.”
"Stop saying you know! You don't, you really don't. You were the first, the best, how do you know what it feels like to be chasing someone you don't even want to catch. I want to do it my way!"
🎼I've got a pair of Gohil's boots
And I've got fading roots.🎼
Clark had no answer that would satisfy Konner. He was the first of his kind on earth. Any heros he idolized, he was never tasked with duplicating. Konner was right Clark knew strain and pressure, but what Konner was feeling wasn't something he had gone through.
“What you said? You meant it? Let me just chill?” Konner panted out the question, he wasn't out of stamina or strength, he was just frustrated that nothing being said or done was making him feel better.
“Doesn’t get much chiller than the artic tundra.” Clark let go of Konner, took off his Glasses and wiped Konner’s face with his sleeve.
“You came as Clark.”
“Figured . . . you might’ve had enough of Superman for a while? I’m not like you Konner, but I do know what it’s like for people to forget that I’m more than a big flying S. I forget sometimes too, I should have . . . Clark is a little easier to have a conversation with than Superman, he can be kind of intimidating.”
“I’m not scared of him.” Konner stood up, straightened out his jacket, took his glasses back from Clark.
“I . . . Yeah I know.” Clark chuckled looking around at all the damage. “How’d you get the speakers to play . . . anything other than the sound of space Dolphins?”
“Just punched this, twisted that . . . wait you don’t have this place figured out yet?”
“This is an entire world or what’s left of it. I spent a few decades messing around with it but it’ll take me plenty more . . . I won’t ever figure it all out, no one figures it all out Konner, not ever Superman.”
“I’ll . . .” Konner looked around at the chaos he’d created but he could see the calm as well, he could see the opportunity within these walls, if he wanted it. “Clean up before I leave.”
Clark used his ice breath to put out any actual fires. “Take your time Konner, make some messes, nothing here is unfixable.” Clark wasn’t talking about the fortress, somethings were lost, destroyed, pummeled into atoms. He was talking about their relationship. “You don’t need fixing, there’s nothing wrong with you, what you need is a chance . . . give yourself a chance Konner, give yourself a break, you might be the Metropolis kid but-”
“Yeah yeah I’m just a kid.”
“Just getting started Konner, you have plenty of time to save the world. For now take a chance to . . . decide who Konner is, the world can wait, you’ll make it worth it, I know you will.”
“Not going to say I love you, that you’re proud of me, that-”
“I love you and I’m proud of you.” Clark smiled. “And if you didn’t know that before I’m sorry, but know it now, and let it mean whatever you want Konner.”
“I. . .Don’t feel the same way . . . yet.”
“I know, I’m not asking you to.” Konner always had to earn affection, affirmation, acknowledgement. His life had been given and could be taken away was the pressure he’d been living under. No one should have to live like that. “It doesn’t change how I feel, Supers are stubborn like that.”
“Kay . . . thanks then.”
“Make yourself at home, lock the door on your way out.” Clark wanted to say more, wanted to do more for Konner, but this wasn’t something that they could take in a giant leap. They would have to take small steps, and this was the first. Clark had meant to do some spring cleaning and getting some of the baggage between his and Konner out was decent progress in his book.