Chapter Text
“This will be a temporary situation. Once the Kryptonite is recovered, an extra layer of precaution will no longer be necessary.”
Jonathan gave a slow nod as the General spoke, trying to keep the worry from showing on his face.
When he’d woken up that morning, he hadn’t expected that his day to end with an emergency meeting at the DOD. But things often took unexpected turns in his crazy life, so there he was. Sitting in a small office with his parents, John Henry, and his grandfather’s grim-faced replacement General Hart.
“I’m still trying to figure out how they got past my security systems,” John Henry noted, releasing a tired sigh. “Nat and I are going to keep at it. Hopefully we can unscramble the security footage and get to the bottom of this mess. It might just take a bit of time.”
There was no doubt that the man felt personally responsible for this, the guilt was palpable. He’d been the one in charge of project 7734 and had been confident that he’d taken adequate measures to secure the government’s secret stockpile of Kryptonite.
Frankly, Jon had assumed that it was something they didn’t have to worry about and it had barely crossed his mind over the last few years. Between Superhero-ing and getting through his first two years in pre-med at MetU, he’d been preoccupied.
He certainly didn’t blame John Henry for this abrupt crisis, but he couldn’t ignore the pit of worry that had bloomed inside of him when he’d gotten the call that day.
Nearly a ton of Kryptonite had been hauled out of the DOD by an unknown entity. Despite the mystery surrounding it, there was no doubt that whoever had done it didn’t have good intentions. Kryptonite had one main purpose, and his family had amassed their fair share of enemies over the years.
They were obviously going to be targeted.
“So these DOD security guards are going to follow us everywhere for the foreseeable future?” Jordan asked, arms folded tightly across his chest. General Hart had just finished outlining the extra protective measure that he was planning to implement.
Jon had instantly hated the idea and his brother was clearly not amenable to it either.
“Won’t it be kind of obvious that something is up when there are suddenly secret service agents walked five paces behind us on campus?” Jordan pointed out.
The whole thing did seem insane, and was going to work against their aim of keeping this situation under wraps.
“They will be undercover. Rest assured, our agents are extremely subtle and well trained,” General Hart replied, looking back and forth between them. “I know this is far from ideal but, with this much Kryptonite out there, we all agree that extreme steps need to be taken to protect you both. The disruption to your daily lives will be minimal.”
Jon found that hard to believe, and he didn’t love that everyone else had clearly decided this for them before they’d arrived.
Neither of his parents looked thrilled by the prospect, but he could tell from their stony expressions that they agreed on the necessity.
Jon knew there would be no changing it, but Jordan (as always) wasn’t ready to give up.
“We’re always targets,” the other Kent twin pressed, “we don’t need DOD babysitters. I think we’ve proven how capable we are of looking after ourselves.”
Jon agreed and couldn’t hold back another nod. He didn’t like to dwell on the fact that he was now one of the most powerful beings on the planet, but he knew that was true. The thought of having an undercover protector seemed absurd.
“Are a few guys with guns really going to make a difference in a super villain attack? If anything happens, we can just get out and call for backup.” He finally chimed in. “We’re not going to be reckless.”
“We’re deploying our elite metahuman unit for this task,” the General replied without missing a beat. “Anderson may have been problematic, but his Academy has been a success and we have well trained forces uniquely suited for this job.”
That came as a bit of a surprise, and Jon briefly wondered if Tag Harris would suddenly be following them around. He’d been enrolled in the Academy, after all. He hadn’t seen his former teammate in years and the thought made him wary.
No matter who it was, this whole thing was going to be weird.
“We don’t need anyone to protect us.”
His mother’s expression hardened at Jordan’s comment.
“In this case, you do,” she replied firmly. There was absolutely no way they were getting out of this. The battle had been lost before it began. “You know what Kryptonite does to Kryptonians. And so does whoever took it. If they decide to attack, you need people nearby who can make sure you’re safe.”
Jon’s stomach twisted as she spoke. It wasn’t something they talked about a lot, but Kryptonite was a uniquely unsettling thing. He hated the thought of being susceptible to a rock from another planet— and it was crazy that pretty much no one else would feel a thing in its presence.
He’d embraced his powers and learned about Krypton. He wore his family symbol with pride on a daily basis. The entire world knew him as Superman’s son. But even still, he didn’t feel “alien” on a fundamental level.
This felt like the biggest possible reminder that he was. Jon wasn’t quite sure how to truly process that.
He had a tendency to pretend that he was fine with it all. But was he? This was putting him to the test and he found himself grasping at his last glimmer of hope.
“I might be immune,” he said, eliciting a raised brow from both John Henry and the General. “I mean, I was around that synthetic gas once and I was totally fine. Even though dad and Jordan weren’t.”
He didn’t love throwing his brother under the bus, but Jordan had had enough encounters with the stuff to know that he was vulnerable. He recovered from exposure faster than their dad, but he still went down hard. The times Jordan had described the feelings of pain and helplessness to him, Jon had experience the chill of fear.
But he’d never actually felt it himself.
The one time he’d sort of been around it at fourteen, he’d been fine. He’d run out of the house with his mother and grandfather, secretly relieved that he was obviously the human one.
As Jordan was quick to point out, however, a lot had changed since then.
“Dude, that was before Kryptonian puberty hit you hard,” he snorted, sounding annoyingly self assured. “Trust me, if you can absorb solar energy, you can absorb Kryptonite radiation. We’re the same now. But, uh…”
He trailed off, perhaps realizing that his response was going to work against their shared goal of getting the DOD and their over protective parents off their backs.
Not that it was going to work anyway.
“Jonathan, it’s too risky,” their dad sighed defeatedly. He’d been uncharacteristically grim this entire time and it was apparent that the worry was getting best of him too.
His sympathetic gaze did little to help the situation.
“You could at least test me, or—“
“I’m not exposing you to poison,” his dad cut in firmly. “Your brother is right. Chances are, you’d react differently now. And as much as I wish I could spare you both from all of this, Kryptonite is the one thing I can’t protect you from. This vulnerability is part of being Kryptonian and I can’t change that, no matter what I do. I’m so sorry, boys.”
The statement hung heavily in the air and even Jordan finally slouched into a defeated position.
Even though a small part of him still clung to the hope that he was somehow an exception to the rule, Jon also knew that there was nothing more they could say.
This was happening. And life was suddenly more dangerous than it had been before.
“It’s not your fault, dad,” Jordan said quietly, foot scuffing against the floor of the office.
Jon once again nodded along. Their dad didn’t want this for them, and obviously hadn’t inflicted his weaknesses on purpose.
But as he looked at the man who was standing in front of them wearing an iconic symbol and cape, the weirdness of the entire situation struck him more than it usually did.
The facts he’d known since the age of fourteen were abruptly more unsettling than they had been before. Even getting his powers hadn’t shaken him like this.
He’d never felt like more of an outsider in his life, and he silently vowed that he wasn’t going to let Kryptonite get the better of him, no matter what.
Not because he was afraid of the pain and vulnerability, but because he was afraid of facing what he actually was.
The sooner this was all behind them, the better.
“So when does this all start?” he sighed, leaning back in his chair. He didn’t want to drag this meeting out any more than it had already.
They’d lost, and now he just wanted to move on.
“Monday,” General Hart replied. “Until then, I suggest laying low together at the farm. We’ll monitor the area and have everything operational in time for your classes after the weekend.”
“Great,” Jordan muttered, his tone making it clear that he didn’t think it was great at all.
A firm hand clasped his shoulder, squeezing it tighter than any human could withstand. But to Jon, it felt like nothing.
“We’ll get through this, boys,” his dad reassured, trying to comfort them both with the familiar gesture. “Things will be back to normal before you know it.”
Yeah.
Normal…
Jon found himself holding back a scoff.
And once again, it was Jordan who didn’t bother keeping his thoughts inside.
“We’re flying aliens with a space rock allergy, dad. I don’t think normal is possible.”
He didn’t love hearing it put so bluntly, but Jon couldn’t argue with the assessment either.
That was pretty much the situation, and now they needed superpowered human babysitters to make sure a mysterious enemy couldn’t exploit their weaknesses.
He was dreading this.
And he hoped whatever DOD lackey was sent to track his every move was as subtle as General Hart promised.
It was hard enough fitting in on campus when you were a world famous superhero.
The last thing he wanted was to feel like more of a freak. But it was already too late for that.
This term was totally going to suck.