Chapter Text
The afternoon sun over Happy Harbor was blinding, but Conner didn’t mind it at all.
He was lying down on the sand just outside Mount Justice, arms folded behind his head, letting the warm tide wash over his bare feet. Inside the cave everyone but him that was in ‘the team’ were off spending the weekend with their respective mentors and family. The massive subterranean base was completely quiet. Back in Cadmus—where the Young Justice squad had breached the deep sub-levels to pull Superboy out of his pod—there was never quiet. There was only the low hum of his pod, the telepathic static of Genomorphs, and the cold glare of lab lights.
He was just profoundly, deeply grateful to be lying out here under the sun. To feel the wind on his skin. Looking down at himself, he wondered what it would be like if he actually had a real identity. He caught himself right away, shaking his head—yeah, that was probably never going to happen. He didn't want to complain or seem like a burden when the League had given him a place to stay.
Staring up at the sky, he wondered what his life would be like if he had a mentor. He knew Black Canary was an instructor for the team, but he couldn't help wondering if she was looking for a sidekick, or if anyone would ever step up to take him under their wing. He pushed the thought down, trying to stick to being grateful for what he had, missing the faint, heavy ache in his chest entirely. He felt a little sad lying there on the shoreline, but he had no idea what he was feeling.
𓆟𓆟𓆟𓆟𓆟𓆟𓆟𓆟𓆟𓆟𓆟𓆟𓆟𓆟
Somewhere across the country, Lena Luthor was having an incredibly bad week.
"Purge it off the local drives," Lena ordered. "Every piece of research Lex compiled on Kryptonian biology, vulnerable frequencies, and genetic sequencing gets pulled off the LexCorp servers permanently."
Lex was rotting in Stryker’s Island, and Lena was using her new position as CEO to execute a total, scorched-earth cleanup of her brother’s paranoid legacy. Kara was currently off-world on a deep-space mission, leaving Lena entirely alone with the migraine of fixing the Luthor family name.
She plugged in her external drive, authorizing the final server wipe, when a flagged system alert popped up in Lex's most secret partition. PROJECT KRYPTON.
Lena’s jaw tightened as she scanned the medical logs: 50% Kryptonian, 50% Human (Source: L. Luthor). There had been two separate cloning projects across different facilities. The second, younger clone had completely vanished from the files—the Cadmus server logs were corrupted and dead-ended, with zero trace of where he went.
The first clone, however—the original test-tube specimen held at LexCorp Black Site H-1—was glowing bright red on her screen. He had taken advantage of a chaotic battle between Lex and Superman right before Lex's arrest, using the mid-fight security breach to tear his way out of the facility and break out on his own. Lex was taken straight into custody immediately after the fight, he never got the opportunity to track him down or bring him back. But his tracker was still embedded under his skin, broadcasting a steady signal straight from Hawaii.
Lena stared at the blinking red dot. She knew she should probably wait for Kara to get back to handle this, but she couldn't just leave it alone. I know I should wait for Kara, Lena thought, a knot of genuine worry tightening in her chest, but I can't let this be. What if something happens to the poor kid?
Wasting no more time, Lena pulled the encrypted drive from the terminal and grabbed her coat. "Prep the jet," she barked into her intercom. "We're going to Honolulu."
𓆟𓆟𓆟𓆟𓆟𓆟𓆟𓆟𓆟𓆟𓆟𓆟𓆟𓆟
The afternoon heat in Oahu was thick and heavy, but the ocean breeze off the sea wall kept the air moving.
KR sat on the worn stone ledge, his knees pulled slightly up toward his chest. He was wearing an oversized black leather jacket despite the tropical sun—living on the shoreline and absorbing solar radiation directly to keep his strength up. He didn't need to eat human food to survive anyway, which was convenient, considering he had escaped from Black Site H-1 with literally nothing to his name. The scientists had spent nearly two years running diagnostics on him, convincing themselves his smaller stature was a sign of cellular degradation. They had panicked because he hadn't grown into a six-foot brick wall. He was perfectly tall for a—16 year old human male—no thank you. Besides he didn't understand why he was shorter either he just knew the scientists kept scowling at their clipboards and calling him under-projected.
He hated them. He hated the sterile labs, and he especially hated the names they had shoved on him—Superboy, Project KR. So he was just calling himself KR (very creative I know) till he could find a better name for himself. Right now he was hiding in plain sight and hoped for the best.
The soft click of high heels against the pavement made his posture lock up instantly.
A woman was walking toward him, stepping smoothly over the uneven stone. She wore a tailored suit that practically screamed wealth, her dark hair pulled back, carrying herself with an air of absolute authority.
"It's a nice jacket," Lena said casually, stopping a respectful distance away. "But you'd hide a lot better if you weren't broadcasting a signal straight to my laptop."
KR bolted upright then went back down, pulling the heavy collar of his leather jacket tight around his neck. His blue eyes narrowed in sharp, immediate hostility. "Who are you?"
"My name is Lena. I'm Lex Luthor's sister, which makes me your aunt," Lena said smoothly, her voice even and unbothered by his defensive stance. "And right now, you have a LexCorp tracker embedded in your shoulder. I have a medical bay on my private jet at the airfield. Let me take it out."
KR stood on the stone wall, staring at her tailored suit and refusing to budge. He locked his eyes onto her face—staring at her sharp jawline, her dark hair, the cool green of her eyes. He squinted hard. He squeezed his eyes half-shut, his brow furrowing until a deep crease formed between his eyebrows, concentrating every ounce of his energy straight at her head.
Come on, he thought, straining his jaw. Manifest something. Mind-reading. Telepathy. Anything.
The Cadmus scientists had pumped him full of Genomorph enhancements to give him Tactile Telekinesis, so he figured if there was some hidden telepathic command center locked in his brain, now seemed like a good time to force it open. He squinted harder, his entire face scrunching up as he tried to pry into her thoughts, waiting for a whisper of her real motives to leak into his mind.
Nothing.
Frustrated, he switched tactics. He closed his eyes tight, tilted his head, and strained every muscle in his ears to listen for her heart. Superhearing, go!
If he could just hear her heartbeat, he could tell if she was lying to him—if her pulse spiked when she offered to help, or if she was secretly terrified. He held his breath, straining so hard his face went slightly red, trying to pick up the rhythmic thumping of a Kryptonian lie detector.
Still nothing. Just the exact same waves crashing against the rocks below, the rustle of palm trees, and the faint, normal rush of ambient city noise. His ears were completely human.
KR blew out a sharp, annoyed breath, letting his facial muscles collapse back into an indifferent scowl. No mind-reading, no lie-detecting super-ears. Just him, his leather jacket, and his telekinesis.
He looked down at his worn boots, then back at her tailored suit. Shrugging to himself—reasoning that if this turned out to be a trap, he could easily use his TTK to punch his way out and fly away anyway—he gave a simple, sullen nod.
"K," he muttered.
He stepped off the stone sea wall, tucking his hands deep into the pockets of his oversized leather jacket, and followed Lena toward her waiting car.
𓆟𓆟𓆟𓆟𓆟𓆟𓆟𓆟𓆟𓆟𓆟𓆟𓆟𓆟
LEXCORP PRIVATE ARCHIVES (BLACK SITE H-1)
DOSSIER: EXPERIMENT 13
- Designation: Project K.R. (First Hybrid Prototype)
- Date of Inception: August 15, 20XX
- Chronological Age: 1 Year, 10 Months
- Biological Age: 16 Years
- Status: ESCAPED / TRACKABLE (Signal Active: Oahu, HI)
- Genetic Profile: Kryptonian / Human (L. Luthor)
- Physical Profile: Stable. Failed to hit LexCorp target height and mass metrics; flagged as "under-projected."
- Abilities: Genomorph-enhanced Tactile Telekinesis (TTK) active. Flight active. Standard human sensory parameters.
PROJECT CADMUS ARCHIVES (SUB-LEVEL 52)
DOSSIER: EXPERIMENT 14
- Designation: Project Kr (Cadmus Weapon)
- Date of Inception: March 21, 20XX
- Chronological Age: 7 Months (16 Weeks in Growth Pod)
- Biological Age: 14 Years
- Status: UNKNOWN / OFFLINE (Security Breach / External Server Purge)
- Genetic Profile: Kryptonian / Human (L. Luthor)
- Physical Profile: Growth matrix modified to maximize physical density, height, and heavy muscle mass.
- Abilities: Standard biological Kryptonian kit. Genomorph TTK matrix disabled. Sensory kit active; high-tier mobility powers dormant.
- Conditioning: Genomorph telepathic education installed. Deep-layer command protocols active.