Chapter Text
2037
Jonathan Samuel Kent was not having a great night. He was tired. He was scratched up. His whole left side was in pain. Nothing a little yellow sun couldn't fix, but still. On top of that, his father was walking in front of him, his shoulders rigid, his footsteps heavy, completely silent and really close, as if he didn't trust Jon not to fly off—which was completely unfair. If anyone should be angry, it should be him! But he was too tired to deal with his dad's ire, and the fact that his dad was walking and not flying told him just how angry he was, so he kept quiet as he watched his dad's cape sway in front of him.
The bass beats of the music in the crowded space full of dancing, sweaty bodies, with the heavy strobe lights, wasn’t helping his senses, either. He tried to take a moment to feel grateful that he and his dad showed up when they did, but the pain in his side just wouldn’t allow him to focus. People kept crashing into him as they weaved through the hyper crowd, screaming at the top of their lungs. The rave had been going on for twelve hours now. Jon knew the Daxamites loved to party; he just wondered if they knew when to stop. Truthfully, he just wanted to go home—to his planet with its yellow sun, to his mom, to his siblings, but most importantly, to his bed.
He heard someone yell, ‘Hey, look!’ and he looked up to find a crazed dancer on a platform yelling, ‘Superman!’ He looked toward his dad, expecting him to stop and say his kind hello's to everyone gathering to meet him. But he didn’t slow down; he just gave a polite nod to the whole group and kept walking toward the exit of the rave. They walked onto the clear road, the music slowly fading behind them, and his dad still didn’t take to the skies. That’s when Jon knew he had to say something.
”Dad.”
His dad kept walking.
“Dad,” he pressed further, walking a bit faster to keep up.
Still nothing.
“Dad! Just listen to me!”
Finally, his dad stopped walking and rounded on him.
“Like you listened to me?” his dad asked, his voice steely. “You expect me to stand here and give you a chance to explain yourself when you directly disobeyed me, Jonathan? Is that what you want?”
“Yes! I deserve a chance to explain myself because I know that I did what I did for a good reason!” Jon said.
His dad narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest, taking a deep breath and letting it out. Then he jerked his head up.
“I was in the middle school finding out information about the art professor,” Jon began, “just like we planned! Then suddenly, I was jumped from behind by a girl and a guy in leotards, which has no importance other than it being weird, but anyway—I got scratched up when they threw me into this canvas that had a bunch of razors sticking out of it! I think I ruined someone’s art project.” He took a breath and continued, “I managed to knock out the guy and tie him up when the girl came up behind me and tried to tase me. I grabbed her hand and tried to take it away when she started smiling! I realized that both of them were just a distraction! So I took away the taser and knocked her out, and went back to the files the professor had left on his desk. I couldn’t find anything and I was running out of time, but then I saw a blacklight and I thought, ‘Why does this art professor need a blacklight?’ so I turned out the lights and turned it toward the map of the city he had stuck on his wall. The park was circled with a time, and I’d already wasted so much of it that I didn’t think!” Jon was gesturing wildly now.
”I just flew to the park and into the storage shed where I saw him and his machine! I have no idea how he got ahold of so much kryptonite. We got into a scuffle and a bunch of security guards showed up, and I tried to tell them to stay away! They wouldn’t leave! I managed to get what I thought was the detonator out of his hands, but it was just a decoy. That’s when you showed up. The minute he saw you, he hit the button and, well—you know the rest.”
“What I know, Jonathan, is that I had to make a choice between saving my son and saving this planet’s citizens from a lead-and-kryptonite-filled machine,” his dad said, uncrossing his arms, his voice rising, “and I had to choose the citizens because, unlike us, the lead would have killed them. Which means that I had to leave my son behind to get blasted with kryptonite by a suicidal madman!” his dad yelled.
Jon could hear the worry in his dad’s voice, but the pain in his side where his dad melted all the kryptonite pieces was flaring up, and his anger was coming out on top.
“I didn’t know that this was a personal attack on you! We were just called here to help stop a madman who was killing crowds of people with lead! How was I supposed to know about the kryptonite?” Jon yelled back.
“This wasn’t a personal attack! He studied us, Jonathan! From the minute we got here, he caught wind that we were trying to catch him and he did his research. He learned our strengths and weaknesses, and he used them!” his dad exclaimed.
“How was I supposed to know that?” Jon asked again.
“By doing your own research! By being smart! Have your mother and I not taught you anything? You managed to not only endanger yourself but also those security guards! If you had taken a moment to think, you would’ve realized that he wanted you there for the big showdown. He wasn’t going to detonate it if you didn’t end up going, and we could’ve used that to our advantage. But you didn’t do any of that! You weren’t calm, you weren’t thinking, you were reckless and impulsive! You could’ve died, Jonathan!” his dad finished, his eyes fiery and his breathing heavy.
“I’m sorry we’re not all as perfect as you! I’m sure you’ve never made a single mistake in your life, Dad! In fact, I’m sure that when you were my age, you were just knocking it outta the park! I’m so terribly sorry that your son turned out less than perfect!!!” Jon yelled, his voice breaking.
His dad closed his eyes, his expression clearing. “Jon—” he started to say, when someone landed a few feet behind him. Jon looked at the newcomer. He had on a metal suit with tubes of some neon-purple liquid wrapped around it. He held a big gun that looked less like a weapon and more like the gun Jon used to play laser tag. The gun also had tubes sticking out of it with the same weird fluid. Jon didn’t recognize him, but apparently his dad did, because when he turned around the guy said, “It’s been a while, Superman.”
“Doram-Sur,” his dad said. “I put you in prison. How did you escape?”
“Time. I escaped with time, Superman,” the new guy, Doram, said.
“Well, I think it’s time you go back,” his dad quipped. Seriously, was there a time when his dad was not sassy?
“Not before you get what you deserve. You took away years of my life! You took away my wife! You kept me from my daughter! She grew up without her father because of you!” Doram yelled.
His dad took a step closer to Doram, shielding Jon from his view. “She grew up without her father because her father was so obsessed with getting her mother back from the dead that he used time travel to get her back and ended up killing nine entire generations of people. We were lucky that your wife understood that you were wrong and sacrificed her own second life by setting things right. Your daughter lost you long before you went to prison, Doram. She’s happy now. She has her own family. You can get to know her again. It’s not too late for you.”
Doram shook his head, clutching the gun tighter. “It will never be too late for me. I’ll make sure of that. And she will be happy. She’ll be happy with me. But first, you have to experience what I did. And you will, Superman. Because I know now. I know who he is to you.”
Just then, Jon felt a gust of air behind him, and before he knew what was happening, he was being sucked backward into a portal. The last thing he heard was his dad screaming, ‘JONATHAN!’ before he was enveloped by blackness.