Within a Planetarium
Chinese Fairy: Yes, another story; another in-between-er before the next chapter of "Pawns Can Feel Too"~!
Disclaimer: I do not own Young Justice! It belongs to Warner Bros., D.C Comics and Cartoon Network. I merely borrow their characters and pretend for five minutes out of my life that they belong to me even if they don't! (cries)
Warning: Nothing much of a warning here, just an heads up for the fluff~! THE FLUFF!
NOTE: Since I have regressed the relationship between Superman and Superboy back to its awkward situation mode, this is going to give Conner and Dick an opportunity to replicate the relationship that Conner had with his best friend Tim Drake, from New Earth. JUST AN FOR YOUR INFORMATION!
Chinese Fairy: Yeah, nothing else to say, so get onto the story~ and enjoy!
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Within a Planetarium
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The inhabitants of Mount Justice noticed a certain pattern that sweeps through its base whenever Superman comes to visit.
The visits were short, but they left long lasting effects. Superboy, now known as Conner thanks to Robin, would sulk and anyone who tried to approach him within a window of five hours would have his or her head bitten off. Either that, or the closest object near the clone would be thrown at them.
The first five hours were the worse; usually, after that five hour cool down, there would a specific method to "breaking the ice" and reintegrating the Boy of Steel into the group.
Kid Flash, or Wally, would let him burn off the negative feelings with a race starting from Rhode Island all the way to California and back. When they returned, Superboy would have been relieved of his pent rage and he'd be too tired to be angry.
Megan and Artemis would tag team together to sit the Superboy in front of the big screen television in the living room and pop in an actual movie that showed more than the static snow on T.V. They would have popcorn, candy, sodas, and freshly baked cookies for him to "eat away his problems". His only issue appeared because the movies they chose were always "chick flicks".
Aqualad would challenge him to a sparring match. After the first three rounds, Kaldur would ask him how he was feeling. Some would think that would be a bad question to pose, but it was the conversation opener. After that question, the Atlantean and clone would bring up simple daily topics; anything to make the touché issue of the visit fade away into the back of his mind.
Robin would do an assorted amount of things with his best friend. Ranging from walks on the beach, to simply training long enough to offer Conner the chance to forget his donor. With the additional of time they spend together away from the Young Justice team, the Boy Wonder has taken the liberty to showing off the "normal" world little by little to his friend.
This was the team's attempt to show Superboy more and more how he could always turn to them for help, but even if it has been six months since the formation of the Young Justice team, the Boy of Steel still does not open up.
Over time, Conner has relaxed and he thinks before he allows his anger to seep out of him, but he does not seek anyone out for help regarding the Superman issue. The smallest similarity to a "seeking help" action is when he slips into Robin's room in the base and waits in there for his friends return from Gotham City.
To ensure no one noticed this, he would sneak into the bedroom in the middle of the night and depending if Robin stayed at Mount Justice or not, the thirteen year old boy would be prepared for his guest with a comfortable silence. This specific pattern only showed up if a "Superman visit" coincided with the late afternoons.
This was a slow process that everyone in the mountain were willing to indulge their friend until Conner was ready to verbally ask for help.
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A mid-fall day offered the people of Happy Harbor, Rhode Island a rare treat: a sunny day that had a light breeze and only a few clouds in the blue sky. A treat indeed since temperatures began dropping in mid-September. At the same time of this good day, the inhabitants in Mount Justice were experiencing a slow day.
Kaldur'ahm had left Mount Justice four days ago to return to Atlantis; he was going to pay homage to King Orin, or Aquaman, and Queen Mera's newborn son, Arthur Curry III. "I'll be gone for a week, if anything happens while I'm away, contact me and I will come back." Was his only order before he dove into the sea; disappearing from the human world.
Kid Flash was dragged back to Central City to attend his Aunt Iris's birthday and managed to take Artemis down with him. "Hey! Misery loves company, don't you say that all the time?" he asked the archer as they stood in front to the teleportation device to beam them to where Barry Allen defended the city as the Flash. "Only if I can see you in some form of misery as well," was Artemis's reply before they were beamed out of the base.
Miss. Martian left early that morning since she had the chance to visit her Uncle J'onn, or the Martian Manhunter, in Detroit, Michigan for quality time away from their work. "I'll be back by the end of the day maybe tomorrow afternoon depending on my uncle; if Batman comes in with a mission, contact me and I will meet you there." She smiled cheerfully and flew into the Bio-Ship to fly off towards her uncle's temporary house.
Superboy was left in the mountain with Red Tornado checking in with him every four hours.
Robin had not come to visit since training two days ago, "Sorry, guys. Crime bumped up a little in Gotham and Batman wants to make sure I'm not slacking!" he grinned and teleported out of the base.
Conner found himself watching movies; Artemis and Megan taught him how to work the DVD player, or exercising in the training room on the third floor, which gave him a view of Happy Harbor through the one-way mirror. He could see out, but no one could even find the window camouflaged into the colors of the mountain.
A sigh escaped him as he watched the ending credits to the movie, "300" scroll upward… "I had no idea that people were so talkative during battles…" he chuckled at his musing and turned off all the technology in front of him with the universal remote in his hand.
He stood up from his spot. "Artemis and Wally won't be back until tomorrow; Kaldur had three more days in Atlantis; Megan will be back… whenever. Robin…" his thoughts faded since he did not know when the Boy Wonder would come back to Mount Justice.
Conner leisurely walked through the base that he considered home and sighed; everyone else had another place to belong to outside of this mountain while he, Superboy, had no where else to call "home". "Superman doesn't like me and will probably never give me another place to call my home." A frown marred his face his thoughts unconsciously lead him back to the Man of Steel.
"I'll never have a relationship with him…" he hissed under his breath and made his way to the weight room. As he passed a corridor, he paused mid-step when he heard voices coming from down the hallway.
He stopped moving and concentrated his super hearing ability to hear who had come to visit the empty mountain. "…He has been watching movies and training. Nothing much to inform you on." Conner's eyebrow quirked, "That's definitely Red Tornado…" he thought and all his functions ceased when the second voice replied, "With everyone else gone and no mission, I guess there is nothing much for him to do."
It was Superman.
Superboy snapped out his brain freeze and moved quietly down the hallway until he was able to peek his head out from a shadowed portion of the corridor.
The two heroes were standing by the security room where Red Tornado seemed to disappear into whenever the briefing was complete. Their postures were relaxed, so there was no reason why Superman needed to come visit them if he was not there to call on their minder.
Red Tornado stated after a few moments of silence, "I may be an android, but why not just ask Superboy these questions instead of asking everyone around him." This took Conner off guard and he nearly stumbled out from his hiding spot. The Man of Steel shook his head, "I… It just seems uncomfortable every time I see him; every time I meet his gaze for a second, I can see how much of me he has in him and then shortly after I come to that conclusion, I am reminded of what Cadmus did to me."
Superboy glared from his position swallowed up in the shadows and stalked back down the hallway he came from.
"Why the HELL am I being screwed over because of what CADMUS DID? I never asked to be created!" he inwardly snarled and punched his fist into a wall, ignoring it crumbling slightly from his abuse.
After a pause, his rigid form continued down the linear halls with no destination in mind. Conner was so engrossed in his fuming that he was snapped out of his brooding thoughts by a yelp.
Superboy looked down and saw Robin sprawled out on the floor while he rubbed the back of his head. His glasses were slightly off balanced on the crook of his nose, but he righted it before those blue eyes could be seen.
"Sorry," bit out Conner and the Boy Wonder knew that he was not. "What's up?" he asked as he stood up without an offered hand from his best friend. "Sign one that something is wrong; I may go as far as to say that Superman came to visit," he thought before Superboy shoved past him to continue down the hallway.
Robin sped walked a few steps before matching his friend's brisk pace. "I'm going to take a stab and say something bad happened just now; is Superman here?" he asked, and he almost instantly regretted speaking his father's best friend's name when a glare was directed at him.
"DON'T SAY HIS NAME!" growled the clone and without another word he ran off down a random corridor. A frown appeared on the thirteen year olds face before he murmured under his breath, "Huston, I just received the memo that Super Elvis is in the building…" with that, he left towards the scarcely used room that was his in Mount Justice.
"It's going to be five hours," Dick paused his thoughts to pull out his cell phone to see it informing him that it was 10:06 in the morning. "Four hours and 58 minutes until I can go looking for him…" he sighed and entered his room.
"I should've brought my homework…" he spoke out loud and just sat down on his bed and pulled out criminal profiles of every Arkham Asylum patient in order for some "light reading" to ensue.
"A long time, indeed…"
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It was around 12:43 P.M when a tentative knock rapped at his bedroom door. A delicate eyebrow rose from behind the sunglasses before he spoke out, "Come in."
The sliding door did not move an inch and the Boy Wonder was about to unfold himself out of his spot on his bed, when the automatic door slid open to reveal a downward gazing Conner.
As a knee jerk reaction, the younger hero pulled out his cell phone again to make sure four hours did not pass without him noticing. "No, it's only been a few hours… This is kinda weird seeing as how he is breaking his own pattern!"
Neither spoke for a few minutes; they just remained glued in their places with Conner glancing up every so often at his best friend before shifting his eyes back to the floor. Robin was left patiently waiting for his friend to speak, however, when a fifth minute was beginning he spoke, "Come in, Conner; otherwise the door will close on you." He said with a smile and the said clone stepped inside the nearly empty room.
His eyes roamed over the empty walls and the crowded desk that was piled with several criminal profiles; maps; and criminology textbooks. "Nothing about his personal life, I guess…" mused Conner until his eyes finally rested on Robin's sunglasses.
His mouth opened and closed a few times in his attempt to speak, but nothing came out. The Boy Wonder was still sitting on his bed with case files sprawled over his lap and bed. "I think the universe was made faster than this," he thought with a inward groan.
Finally, Superboy spoke, "Look, I'm… I'm- before I was kinda an ass, so yeah…" the same eyebrow from before quirked at the apology, but Robin nodded, "It's okay. You were not feeling that great; I guess I was right about… him being here." He reminded himself not to speak Clark's alias's name in front of Conner.
The said hero nodded in return and moved to sit on the bed. Robin scooped up all the profiles and cases and deposited them on the floor; "Thank god I asked for my own copies…" he thought gratefully since Batman would kick his butt for mixing up the files.
Superboy sat down next to him and his shoulders slumped as a large breath exhaled from his large form. "Every time he comes here… I feel awkward seeing him. He hates me and doesn't want anything to do with me, but… I NEVER ASKED FOR THIS!" he snarled and stomped his foot into the smooth ground under his foot.
The once smooth flooring was now a concaved form in the ground with bulks of concrete littering his bedroom floor. Robin sighed inaudibly and replied, "You never asked to be created and he never consented to giving Cadmus his D.N.A… you both are victims of their playing God, but it doesn't excuse him for being a jerk to you. Conner," the Boy Wonder paused and placed a hand over the older teen's larger hands.
"Just because he was wronged, that doesn't give him the right to treat you like the plague. He's being a jerk and you're paying for something that was not in your power." He paused and glanced down at the black and red covering on his bed.
"Want me to kick his butt for you?" Robin offered and he inwardly cheered as Conner released a chuckle; "I doubt it would do anything, but thanks for the offer."
Silence entered the room, but it could have been compared to the comfortable silence that usually came with Superboy's presence in his room. Robin broke the silence, "What exactly do you want from him?" Conner looked to him with a passive face and he quickly elaborated. "I-I mean, you know about him via the Genomorphs, but what else do you want to know? Maybe I could hack into the Justice League database again to find some answers."
The offer was tempting, but Conner shook his head, "No… I don't want you to get in trouble with Batman again… I, I just want him to tell me about… Krypton; its people; what happened to it; who took him in; and if he has any parents here on earth. I have all these questions, but he will never answer them since he will never talk to me unless it is a straight forward 'yes' or 'no' answer."
A frown was reappearing on the clone's face and the more Robin stared at his friend's expression, the more the younger hero felt like holding him close.
Frequent memories of a younger version of Dick Grayson appeared in his mind and he remembered always be held in his mother's warm arms. They were a source that comforted him whenever he felt down… Shaking his head of another lifetime, Robin stood up from his spot on the bed.
"Do you have anything planned today?" he asked randomly; Superboy shook his head, "No." he answered and the Boy Wonder slipped on his jacket. "Come on, we're leaving the mountain." He said and walked out of his room with Superboy closely following.
They passed the security room where Red Tornado was now in and the said Boy Wonder knocked on the door; a moment later, the metal door slid open to reveal their minder.
"Robin, what can I help you with?" spoke the red android. The Boy Wonder replied swiftly, "Superboy and I are going to Gotham City for the rest of the day. We'll be back tomorrow morning at the latest." He said as he pulled out the gloves that were placed in his jacket; the teenager slipped on his gloves and turned towards the underground garage where all their vehicles were parked until they were used.
Red Tornado nodded and answered back, "Very well. I will inform Batman and I will see you both when you return."
The thirteen year old smiled in thanks and walked down another hallway. "Thanks, Red Tornado!" he called over his shoulder and he began running; Superboy followed without question and waved once at his minder. "See ya later, then." He added awkwardly and disappeared down the same hallway his best friend did.
Two motorcycles were parked in the center of a ray of light that illuminated each parked vehicle in the one floor parking lot and Robin hopped onto his. Superboy jumped onto his as well and they bother began suiting up for a drive.
Gloves were slipped on; helmets were locked on top of their heads; and Conner put on his leather jacket that would defend him from the cold. "Where are we going?" he asked through their communicators in the helmets.
Robin kick started his cycle and replied, "Somewhere in Gotham City; it will take us about five hours to get there," he paused and revved his engine, "I bet we can shave off some time." Grins appeared on their lips and they sped out of the garage and secret entrance that was opened by Red Tornado.
Their road trip would end when they arrived in Gotham after several businesses closed for the day.
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They cut off an hour and a half from the normal time it takes someone to travel from Rhode Island to New Jersey, but since no highway patrol caught them, they came to a stop in front of a restaurant in Downtown Gotham.
"Let's eat before we get to our destination." He offered and walked into a pizza joint. Conner was more hungry than curious about why they came to Gotham and brushed off how blatantly vague Robin was being by avoiding talking about the said destination; afterwards the little birdie better tell him what's going on.
They ordered a medium pepperoni pizza with Coca-Cola to help drink down the still steaming food. Robin paid for the meal and they left without any complaints. The sun was setting and soon it will be Twilight in Gotham. The Boy Wonder pulled out his cell phone and smiled, "Good, they should be closed by now." He murmured under his breath and walked back to his motorcycle.
Now was Superboy's chance to ask about this field trip, "Are you going to tell me where we are going?" he asked with a tint of annoyance in his voice.
Robin turned to him and replied simply, "To the Gotham Museum."
The only response the Boy Wonder was given was a look resembling the phrase, "What the Hell?"
They kick started their cycles and were once again driving off down the streets of Gotham.
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Gotham Museum was located in between Grant Park and Gotham Harbor, two streets away from both locations. It was a large establishment that was constructed of red bricks and cement acting as a lining. Large Roman columns kept the front entrance of the building up and three large sheets of glass acted as the wall in the entrance; this allowed a peak into the lobby of the five-story building.
Robin rode his motorcycle up to a bush where he parked the said vehicle; no one would find it unless they were looking through the bushes. "Come on Conner. Hide your bike; we're going in." the younger hero said as he waited for his friend to do the same.
Superboy grumbled under his breath about vague and bossy shrimps, when he turned and saw Robin pulled out his utility belt from a saddle on his motorcycle. "Since visiting hours are over, you are going to join me in Robin's personal tour." Robin looked up from his grappling gun and saw a skeptical look marring his friend's face; he chuckled and replied, "Don't worry; we are only going to slip into one of the exhibits and then we're gone."
The Boy Wonder aimed his gun towards the third floor of the building and fired; the hook embedded itself into the brick wall and after a few tentative tugs, he activated the reeling mechanism in his device. As he was flying towards the window, Conner jumped upward and his hand caught onto the ledge lining the outer wall.
Robin disabled a security alarm and slipped into the building with Superboy following him. They landed softly on the third floors carpeted ground and the eyes hidden behind the sunglasses scanned the area. "No security guard tonight…" he thought to himself and the young hero walked down the large hallway that displayed planets, star charts, and computers that allowed interactive learning of the solar system.
"If I wanted to see all of this, I would have come here during business hours," Conner commented dryly as he still followed his best friend through the "space" area of the museum.
Robin chuckled and replied, "I bet once I show you why we came here, you are going to reconsider that observation." The clone shrugged and they continued walking until they reached two closed redwood doors.
Confusion found its way onto Superboy's face as he question, "What's in here?" Robin just grinned and picked the lock that barred them from the room. "You'll see in a bit…" he paused and turned to face Conner, all humor and adventure removed itself from his face.
"Conner, do you trust me?" he asked; this took the Boy of Steel off guard, but after a split second he replied confidently, "Yes."
The thirteen year old teen nodded and he opened the doors, "Then please do me a favor and do not use your powers to find out what's in the room." He took his friend's larger hand into his own and they slipped into the pitch-black room.
Superboy was inwardly impressed that Robin did not have any special eyesight, but he was able to avoid running into anything in the room. After about thirty steps into the room, the younger hero released Conner's hand and disappeared from his side. Moments ticked by and once the one-minute mark came and went, Conner spoke out, "Robin? Where are you?"
His question was answered by a machine in the middle of the room humming to life and the room lighting up by thousands of white lights on a bluish-black background.
Superboy's gaze panned around the entire room and now he had a clear view of where he was. Rows upon rows of chairs lined the walls and they were surrounding a large machine that was centered in the middle of the room. Robin appeared by the machine and a computer with his fingers typing commands into the said device.
"Conner, this room is called a Planetarium; it is used for showing people the galaxy, night sky, and celestial navigations." Spoke the younger hero and Conner laughed a warm laugh as he saw all the stars of the night sky inside an indoor room.
"This is incredible…" he whispered as his eyes caught sight of a computerize replication of Haley's comet flying above his form.
Robin grinned and typed something else into the computer. A few seconds passed until the galaxy shrank to one point in the system. It was still ten thousand little lights that represented stars, small planets and something else that instantly caught Conner's attention, but he didn't know why…
The Boy Wonder began his personal lecture with explaining what they were looking at, "We started off in the solar system and moved out of our system and I zoomed into another portion of the Andromeda, our galaxy… This star system is called 'Rao' and this planet here is called-"
Superboy cut him off as he connected the dots. "Krypton." He breathed; Robin nodded and replied, "This is special in my tour since I had to include my own software in order to show you this system… The Planetarium is nice and has a good idea of what color Krypton is, but I thought you'd like a closer look at it."
Conner continued staring at the planet that glowed a bright green and it had a red moon that orbited Krypton. "How did you…?" Superboy asked and his question faded… Not even the Genomorphs at Cadmus had such detail of Krypton…
The younger hero grinned sheepishly replied, "Well, once… my father's company did business with another corporation and in doing so, a nanotechnology being hacked into our systems and nearly brought down our business… Thankfully, my dad was able to delete him from our system. At that same time, we got a piece of him; information about Krypton since he had an abundance of knowledge on the planet and well…" Dick Grayson inwardly praised himself since he did not reveal Bruce Wayne's identity and he was vague about the details pertaining to the one-month joint plan of Lexcorp and Wayne Enterprise.
"I always wanted to show it to you… but I thought maybe Superman would break from his funk and finally tell you himself… I was wrong." A sad smile graced his lips as he stared at the planet that held a part of Conner's heritage. "Even if he was born on earth with stolen D.N.A from Clark, he is still a Kryptonian and I will not bar him from knowing about a part of him…"
He was pulled out his thoughts as Conner roughly pulled him from his seat by the computer and into a hug. Robin was utterly confused at the random show of affection, even more so at the fact that it was an affectionate hug but his inward freak out was paused as Conner whispered into his ear.
"Thank you, Robin… This, this is incredible… Thank you for this great night out." He hugged the smaller hero closer and continued; his voice was raw with emotions that were breaking from his mental restraints. "This field trip came at the perfect time… the anger and unanswered questions were almost at bubbling over point and then… you bring me here and you let me see a small piece of myself."
Conner pulled away enough so he could gaze into his best friend's sunglasses, "This has got to be the best thing you've done for me," he chuckled, "Right next to giving me my name." Robin grinned at this and replied, "We are all here for you like this, Conner… You just need to talk to us. We are not mind readers- well, Miss. M is, but she won't intrude in your mind… you need to talk to us… If you need answers, then we will all work together to find you the answers." He paused and placed a hand onto Conner's shoulder.
"If Superman won't be there for you, then all of us in the Young Justice team will try our damned hardest to answer all the question you have."
Smiled graced their lips and Superboy nodded, "I would… like that very much, Robin." The Boy Wonder hesitated for several moments before he removed his sunglasses from his face. Conner gasped as he caught sight of those blue eyes that shimmered just like his; Robin spoke, "I wanted to promise you this not just as Robin, the Boy Wonder, but as Dick Grayson: your best friend."
He took in a small breath and continued, "Conner, if you don't want to talk to the others then you can always come to me for answers and I will do my best to answer them in Superman's stead. Remember this and do not let yourself get so worked up over Superman coming to visit."
Conner hugged his best friend close, "Okay… I'll, I'll try my best to make sure to ask you the questions." They pulled apart and the game of a million questions began.
If Robin did not know the answer, he wrote it down in a notebook he pulled out of his seemingly magical belt; he was assigning himself more important homework than the Calculus work on his desk at home and once he found the answers, the first person he would see when he teleported into Mount Justice would be Conner. Superboy asked his questions with a serene smile on his lips and neither noticed the person standing in the slightly ajar entrance door.
"My alarm system went off and what do I find? My son and his friend hacking into the Planetarium's system…" Batman shook his head and walked off with the intent of leaving the museum. "He gets this once chance. Dick if you try this kind of stunt of breaking and entering into another museum, I'm going to put you through a training regimen that you won't get out of Scott free…"
Just as he arrived at his point of entrance, the super hearing device in his cowl picked up laughter coming from the Planetarium and he allowed a ghost of a smile to cross his lips, "This is solid proof that Robin was right, he needed to leave Gotham and join this team. He is ready…"
The Dark Knight left the Gotham Museum and continued his patrol of the city he called home.
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Chinese Fairy: Wow! I finished it in one go! (goes and dies) I'm tired, but I wanted this up before the weekend ended. I hope you all enjoyed and I will try to get the next chapter of "Pawns Can Feel Too" up soon!
Alright, just so we can clear up a few things! I had to look up several things and want to point out a few things!
J'onn J'onzz once lived in Detroit, Michigan and I chose there since it was pretty close to the East coast.
Another note is given to Krypton! I looked up the planet's information and the color of it via dc (dot) wikia (dot) com a great place for INFORMATION! Also, I corroborated the color of Krypton by watching the Superman: The Animated Series intro! I am OCD about info, so yeah…
THANKS FOR READING!
Take care and I hoped you enjoyed!