An Unconscious Keeper
Chinese Fairy: Just an UBER long drabble I thought would be pretty interesting… Nothing much more to say.
Disclaimer: I do not own "Young Justice"; the rights belong to D.C Comics, Warner Bros., and Cartoon Network. Nothing has changed since the update of "Pawns Can Feel Too", so better luck next time~
All right, there's nothing really much to say except… Enjoy~!
MEGA NOTE! In this story, Superman and Superboy are still not seeing eye to eye and the awkwardness is still around the two supers. Just an FYI~
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An Unconscious Keeper
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When a bright, beautiful sunny day is presented to you, some people tend to think it is a possibility for a perfect day; nothing could go wrong.
A similar day began for Happy Harbor with all of the Young Justice members enjoying a day at the beach.
Dick Grayson, Wally West, and Artemis Crock were all marked absent in school as they ran out into the waves that rolled onto the private beach. Kaldur'ahm and Megan were putting up the umbrella to offer them shade while they watched their friend's race into the surf.
Superboy jumped into the air only to cannon ball into the water, causing a bigger wave to wipe his friends out. Artemis was grinning, Robin was quickly adjusting his sunglasses, and Wally resembled a goldfish with his mouth opening and closing from the shock.
The Atlantean and Martian were laughing from their spot on the beach and noticed that the wave made from Conner's jump nearly toughed the beach towel laid out for them. "This is such a good day," she commented as she poured a glass of lemonade and offered it to her friend; Kaldur nodded and took a sip.
"Agree, and since we just completed a mission three days ago, there will not be another for quite some time."
Their small talk continued as Kid Flash and Artemis were now teaming up to catch the clone of Superman off guard with an act of retaliation. Robin was siding with his over powered friend and their teams were facing off on who could soak the other team more; a little ironic since all four of them were already wet.
You know that feeling you get when your think the day could not get any better and suddenly, it turns horribly wrong?
Red Tornado appeared by the two teen heroes on the beach with a tint of urgency in his robotic voice. "Superboy, you are needed in the mountain now." He ordered and disappeared just as quickly as he came.
The clone heard him from his place in the water and waded back to the beach with the other three following close behind. Aqualad and Miss. Martian stood from their spots on the beach and they all huddled together.
"What'd ya do, Supes?" questioned the speedster as he picked up a beach ball that was leisurely rolling in the breeze.
Conner shook his head, "I don't know… I don't think I did anything wrong." He commented as he took his offered shirt from Megan and slipped it on. The Boy Wonder slipped on his red sweatshirt and ushered to the base, "Come on, we can find out together."
The two heroes made their way up the sandy hill that turned into a forest with a dirt-paved road leading to the side of the mountain where the entrance was located. Aqualad and Megan glanced at the beach items littering the small area and Artemis caught their gazes.
"Don't worry about it, go in. We'll take it in." she offered; Megan smiled in thanks and Kaldur nodded his head. "We'll fill you in when you get inside." With that said, they both flew away from the beach with Megan using her powers to allow her leader to fly as well.
With the archer and the speedster left on the beach, she turned to pick up a glass of lemonade and turned to Wally, "Go on, start picking things up." She took a sip and internally laughed at his gapping face.
"WHAT? What about you?" he demanded, she smiled and drank down some more of the cool beverage before replying, "I already have something in my hands; you can handle an umbrella and a towel can't you?" to end her teasing, she picked up the lemonade glasses and pitcher with perfect balance and started swaying off in the direction of the hidden entrance.
Kid Flash yanked out the beach umbrella from its place and tossed the towel over his shoulder, "Still so glade that Uncle Barry isn't here to see this… And she also still on par with Auntie Iris…" he grumbled as he followed behind; the speedster smiled though when Artemis slowed her pace to walk side by side with him.
They were walking towards the mountain that held the reason their perfect day abruptly ended.
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There are a lot of things the world has never seen; other worlds, a star being born, and a horrible nightmare never made into reality: Superman leaning against a Dark Knight and Flash as his formed struggled to breathe.
Three large gashes lined his chest and what made the sight more gruesome was the chilling fact that he was bleeding. "I've never seen Clark bleed before; it's almost like a bad dream…" thought the Boy Wonder as he continued to gaze at the scene before him.
Batman saw the two young heroes and spoke quickly, "We need you to get to the medical bay, Robin," he turned his attention to his protégé and continued, "Set up a blood transfusion machine and connect it to a dialysis machine. Take blood from Superboy and get ready for Superman. Go!" he barked the last word and it took a split second for the bird to understand.
"There's Kryptonite in Superman?" he asked out loud, Conner glanced at his friend and then to the man he was created after. "He needs me?" his mind started racing through all of the memories he had with Superman ignoring him, pretending he didn't exist, and never talking to him if he visited the mountain.
Conner glared at the face of the man he unconsciously idolized and thought bitterly, "I could almost call this poetic justice." The said teenager was snapped out of his thoughts as Robin tugged on his arm.
"Come on, we need to get to the infirmary." He said and the younger hero pulled Superboy along with the other three heroes following them.
Aqualad and Megan stared at the group leaving the docking bay with shock painting their faces. She glanced up to her leader and asked tentatively, "Have you ever seen him hurt like that before?" her voice trembled a little; before coming to Earth, her uncle J'onn told her stories about all of the heroes he fought along side with.
"None of the stories ever had Superman bleeding; I've never thought he could even bleed; an impossibility." Aqualad shook his head before replying, "I've never seen him hurt, period."
Artemis and Kid Flash ran down the linear hallway and soon met up with their other teammates. "What's up?" called Wally as he stopped in front of the Atlantean. The said hero shrugged and answered quietly, "We don't know, but something bad happened."
The four stayed where they were since Kid Flash and Artemis do not know about the injured Superman, and Aqualad and Miss. Martian did not know what caused the injuries.
All they could do now was wait.
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Robin rushed into the infirmary and quickly brought several machines to life. His hands flew over all of the necessary combination of buttons and codes to ready the equipment for an average, or assumed average, Kryptonian male suffering from severe blood loss.
The Boy Wonder proved he worked great under pressure when he also pulled out a set of surgical tools that would soon be used to save his mentor's best friend. While Robin was busy getting the infirmary clean room prepped, Superboy was awkwardly standing by the door just in case he wanted to leave.
"Why should I help him when he never helped me?" he rationalized to himself as he gazed at his friend who was moving at speeds that could shame Kid Flash. Finally, the doors to the room swung open and Batman and the Flash moved quickly to deposit their ally onto the gurney. "Get me a bag of Tenstaten; third cabinet on your left." Order the Batman as his pulled a stethoscope out of another draw and placed it on his friend's chest being mindful of the injuries.
The Flash proved his name true when in a blink of an eye he reappeared by his friend with the said bag of drug used to treat hypertension. The Kryptonian's blood pressure was too high.
"Robin, hook him up to the heart monitor, I want a heads up before his body crashes." He barked over his shoulder and his protégé did as he was told. He picked up three electrodes and moved closer to the injured hero; as he was about to place the monitors on, Superman began seizing.
With his arms thrashing about, he knocked Robin into the crash cart he wheeled out from its place in a closet and gasped as all the air in his lungs was forced out. Superboy was at his side in an instant to make sure his friend was uninjured, but the teen shook it off, "No," he gasped out, "Go help restrain him…!" he called as he began coughing.
Conner almost snapped out a "Hell no," but he saw how scared his friend was. The thirteen year olds body was shaking and shivering, but not from the cold, the general line of vision of his sunglasses was gazing at Superman's convulsing form.
The said clone shot up from his place and rushed to stand next to the Flash and with this strength, the three heroes were able to allow Batman to inject a shot of Anxiolytic into the writhing man's chest; this in turn allowed Superman to relax.
His form slump out of its tense posture and his breathing relaxed. Robin walked over to the side of the gurney and placed the electrodes in a pattern that surrounded the monitoring sites on Clark's chest.
The machine on Robin's right started to beep and indicated that it was reading Superman's heartbeat; it was stable for now. Batman's form loosened from its rigid posture for a moment before turning to his son. He didn't ask it, but the Boy Wonder already knew what he was asking.
With a smile, he said, "I'm fine; I was mostly startled then anything else." He glanced at Conner and saw among all the emotions his friend was feeling there was fear in those eyes that Robin deemed, "too expressive".
Batman turned to the Flash and spoke, "I'm going to begin treating him. You can leave now." Barry Allen nodded and turned to leave, but the Dark Knight added something, "Thank you, Barry."
The said Flash smiled and replied, "And I'll thank you when he is better." He left the clean room.
Batman turned to Robin, "Why isn't he hooked up to the transfusion device?"
The Boy Wonder was about to reply, but Conner beat him to it. "I'm in the room; you can ask me instead of needling him!" he growled. Batman and Superboy glare daggers at one another with Robin in the middle of the staring contest for a few moments before the clone added, "And I NEVER said I was going to help him! Why should I when he doesn't even want to acknowledge my existence?"
That question was left in the air for a moment before Robin spoke first, "He does acknowledge you Conner, it's just hard for him-" he was cut off.
"Fine, he acknowledges me for a split second before trying to erase me from his mind! I see how he looks at me! He thinks I'm a cheap knock off of him!" he was yelling now, but neither Bat family members stopped him.
"I was made without his consent, I get that, but I'm not going anywhere! It's like he doesn't want to get with the program that I'm here and I NEED his help!" he paused a moment before adding, "Sure I have you, Robin, and Black Canary, and Batman, but none of you guys are going through the same things I am!"
His voice reverberated off the walls and Robin glanced down at the said Metahuman unconscious on the gurney in front of him and noticed the noise was not bothering him. "Bruce was right, you could drop a building on him and he wouldn't wake up!"
His attention turned back to his friend and then to his mentor. Batman was calm; too calm considering that his best friend was lying on a medical gurney dying from blood loss.
"Why haven't the wounds closed?" the Boy Wonder's mind screamed in panic.
Batman finally replied to Superboy, but none of his words held answers to the questions the clone posed.
"Half an hour ago, the Justice League was engaged in a fight with Metallo, he is an enemy of Superman," Conner bit his lower lip to prevent the knee jerk reaction of "I know that!" to come from his mouth.
"The fight was even and Superman had him almost beat, until a partial solar eclipse hovering over New York City, turned into a total eclipse and also engulfed Metropolis in darkness. This in turn did not allow Superman to absorb the yellow sun rays and Metallo struck," he paused and all eyes landed on the wounds on Clark's chest. "It was worse since there are flakes of Kryptonite in the wounds and they are being absorbed into his body.
"Without the yellow sun rays, his body cannot heal, and with the Kryptonite in his system, his immune system began failing him. He needs help now, before it poisons him and Superman dies." He finished informing the clone what happened and noticed that the hate and anger in the young hero's eyes diminished, but not vanished.
Conner said in a defeated tone, "So in his time of need, I have to take care of him when he has never done the same for me?" his eyes met with those eyes covered by the Batman's cowl. This is when Robin stepped in.
Tentatively, he placed a small hand on the bicep of Conner's right arm before speaking, "It's true, he has shown you nothing but awkward feelings and denial that we all see, but Conner," he lifted his hand to make sure the clone was listening to him.
"Even though he never shows it, Superman pays attention to you, he asks Batman or me about you." He smiled a small smile when his friend's eyes grew wide. With this chance, he continued in a heartbeat. "Superman asked Batman silly questions like your favorite shows, or what you like to eat the most; you should've seen Batman's face." His light attitude made Conner relax, but Batman was still glaring at the stats on the machine; the window of opportunity was closing fast.
"He asked me who named you, Conner… When I told him it was me, he smiled and said it is a good name. If he really didn't care, then he wouldn't have asked." He stopped and turned to stare at the "resting" form on the medical bed.
Superboy's gaze followed as well and he saw how… human the source of his birth looked like at that moment; the Kryptonian was deathly pale his breathing was inconsistent with proper breathing.
"Conner," Robin spoke, causing his friend to stare at him again. "You understand that he was taken aback the day he saw you, right?" the said clone nodded in a stiff manor; he didn't want to admit it, but he did see Superman's expression change from wonderment to confusion, almost betrayal.
"You saw his eyes… He felt betrayed and hurt. We can't foul him for how he feels, but we can foul him on being a jerk and not joining everyone on the bus ride of 'you're here now'. Conner, if he isn't saved now, you will never have the chance to get to change that about him after this day."
Hesitantly, Robin placed his fingertips under the rim of his sunglasses and before his logical left side of his brain could stop him, he pulled off the last defense of his secret identity had.
Batman's form became rigid and it took all of his mental powers to not snap at his ward at that moment. Conner gasped as sharp dazzling blue eyes met his equally shocked blue orbs and Dick Grayson spoke, "Please, save him. Otherwise, you'll regret it. I know you will, Conner. You're not that cruel to let someone die just because you're angry with them."
The younger teen pulled Superboy into his arms and added, "Please let me connect you to the blood transfusion device and then to the dialysis machine. Let all three of us save him."
Silence enveloped the room and a second later, Conner replied quietly, "Come on; we're on a time limit. If Superman's stats aren't a warning, the glare from Batman is."
Dick Grayson turned to his mentor and inwardly flinched as he caught sight of his father's death glare pointed at Conner and himself. "If that is a head's up, I'm going to be dead once Clark is stable…" he thought and moved towards the blood transfusion machine.
Batman noticed that Superboy's posture changed and hid the serene expression crawling onto his face, "He realized a part of what Clark is going through… It only cost my son's identity." He turned to gaze to Clark's face and murmured, "We are going to save you."
He glanced at Superboy who was seated in a recliner chair and Robin was preparing his arm for the needle. The thirteen year old was informing his friend of what will happen,
"Your blood will go through this machine and be cleaned; after that it will be 'ready' to go into Superman's. This dialysis machine will help us take out the Kryptonite in his blood stream and your blood will replenish the lost blood." He smiled in encouragement and Superboy nodded.
"Thanks for making me see his point of view; I was so engrossed in my own hate, that I almost allowed my anger to condemn him." He said and the needle entered his vein at the junction of his upper arm and forearm.
The blood began flowing into the machine and Superboy watched with morbid fascination as the blood flowed through the thin tube into the device.
Robin smiled, "Thank you for saving him; I hope it was by your own choice and you just listened to my requests." He chuckled lightly as Conner gave him a skeptically look of, "just a request, huh?"
Batman was now suturing the wounds close with a sterile surgical suturing kit. "With the Kryptonite in his system, I can pass the needle through the skin," he paused to smile. No one else could see it and Clark was unconscious. "It's going to be interesting when I have to remove these in a couple hours."
Both Bat family members worked on both Super men as they all worked together to ensure that Clark Kent and Superman would survive this ordeal.
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Robin stared at Conner who fell asleep in his seat after ten minutes of being forced to stay still. He turned his gaze to follow the tube into the blood transfusion machine and then his eyes settled on the dialysis machine that was giving Superman clean blood.
The Boy Wonder's still naked eyes finally landed on his mentor's form that was a few feet away from the gurney that was still holding Clark. "He's already looking better; the blood from Conner must really be helping him out." He thought with a smile growing on his lips.
The only sounds in the room were from the beeping of machines or the soft whirling sounds from the dialysis machine next to Superman. That is until Batman spoke, "When did you stop listening to my orders?"
Dick Grayson flinched at the tone of his father's voice, but did not allow it to show on his face. "It… It needed to be done," he replied lamely. Those white eyes that replaced Bruce Wayne's blue eyes zeroed in on his form and stated in a growl, "Where do you figure that?"
The Robin in him replied with a tint of confidence in his voice, "I was asking so much of Superboy and thought it wasn't fair to do that to him, so I offered something of myself to him! It is an equal trade! I wanted to ask him, not as Robin, but as Richard Wayne who knows Clark Kent, through his father as the man who is Superman; the man who exists to save the world.
"I felt that it was necessary…" he finished with the confidence leaving him and it was mirrored in his slumped shoulders. Batman turned his gaze to land on Superman's face that had more color compared to an hour ago.
"That sounds like the reasons are more emotional than logical, Dick…" stated Batman, but any real anger abandoned him.
Robin moved closer to his mentor and wrapped his arms around Batman's waist to hug him; he rubbed his cheek against the Kevlar lined suit and murmured, "I'm not sorry I showed him who I was; when he comes to I'm going to tell him my name…"
The Dark Knight placed a hand on his son's shoulder in support, "I figured; well, since your rebellious stage is still not over, as seen by today's action, I shouldn't be surprised."
The Boy Wonder pulled away from the hug enough to gaze upward to his mentor's face, "You're not as upset as I thought you would be," he commented.
Batman met his gaze and answered, "You are now part a team, Dick, even if I wanted you to keep your identity a secret, it is really your own choice whether or not you want to share it." He pulled away and turned to leave; "Come on, let's tell the others that Superman is going to be fine."
As he walked out of medical clean room three, Dick placed his abandoned sunglasses on and raced after his mentor as Robin, Boy Wonder.
The beeping and whirling now filled the room again as Conner's eyes hesitantly opened to make sure the two Bat clan members were really gone before sitting up. "I know you're awake," he stated out loud, "Your breathing changed ten minutes ago."
Superman opened his eyes as well, but he did not rise from his place on his bed. "I guess I shouldn't expect less from my clone." He spoke in a small voice.
Superboy glared at the Man of Steel before biting out, "Yeah, I have super hearing and a few more colors of the rainbow, but I still don't have a lot of things you do;" his tone became bitter, "I can't fly, I don't have longevity, and I don't have a few more abilities you are rumored to have…"
Superman turned his head in order to see Superboy was still attached to the machine, but he was sitting up with his shoulders slumped in defeat.
"I know you don't like me and you don't want to acknowledge me, but… It will help if you can just answer a few of my questions." Superman was startled as he heard his clone's voice almost beg for his help; it was then that Superman saw how young his "son" as Bruce called him really was.
"He needs someone to help him and I'm the only Kryptonian on earth that can help him…" his gaze softened as the Man of Steel moved to remove the needle in his arm that connected him to the dialysis machine. Conner looked up in the direction off the high-pitched beeping coming from the right side of the room.
His eyes settled on Superman standing from his place and Conner quickly blurted out, "Are you sure you should be moving?"
Clark nodded and offered the clone a smile, "I am feeling better thanks to you," Superboy blushed at the gratitude and also pulled out the needle in his arm; copying his "father". Superman switched off the machines and turned to Superboy, "Can you keep up?" he gestured his head towards the exit; Conner gazed at him with confusion plaguing his eyes, but after a moment, he decided to "go with the flow" and smirked at the challenge.
"Let's race," was his response before they both shot off like blurs through the corridors of Mount Justice; out of the secret base; and the two super men found themselves running on top of the water.
The room was vacant for thirty seconds before Batman and Robin sprinted into the medical room; as alerted by the security system and the medical devices, they found the space empty.
"Where did they go?" asked the Boy wonder, looking up at his father; the Dark Knight allowed a smirk to grace his lips and replied,
"To where a Kryptonian can clear his head."
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The Fortress of Solitude stood grand and tall, isolated from the rest of the world as it laid waiting in Antarctica for Kal-El to return whenever he wanted.
It was a glittering castle that seemed to be constructed out of diamonds and no power on earth was able to break through its barrier. Superman and Superboy both stopped in front of what seemed like a dead end with Conner panting from the long run from Rhode Island all the way to the South Pole and Clark moving closer to the wall of shimmering ice.
"Wh-What are we doing out here?" asked the breathless teen as he eyed his fellow hero skeptically. Something shifted in front of the Man of Steel and after what sounded like a retinal scan; an opening appeared and granted access into what seemed like a mountain of ice to any other person who came across the fortress.
"Come with me," ushered Superman and the younger hero followed him into the unknown passage.
Waves of warm light rolled off the walls and made Conner pause to actually take in the linear hallway that was lit with no actual equipment; all of the light seemed to be coming from the ceiling and the warmth was from the walls.
The two continued walking until the corridor opened up into a larger room that could have made Mount Justice seem a "little cramped".
They both stood on a high platform that gave a vantage point over the space. On lower levels, foreign plants and trees with purple leaves flourished in plant boxes; models of different space ships were place on another lower platform. Across the vast room was a green dome that held several advanced machinery from a glance; the younger hero's eyes danced over other passage ways that lead off in other direction and other bizarre objects were in this same room, but something immediately caught Superboy's attention. He was now entranced by a floating statue of two people holding up a sphere of that same diamond substance; this was located in the center of the room.
It was a memorial for a planet.
"What is this?" he asked Superman as he stepped closer to the statue but could not go further since there was no more space on the platform he found himself on. Superman smiled and replied, "This is a memorial stone for Krypton, my home planet; being held up by my mother and father, Lara Lor-Van and Jor-El."
He paused and added softly, "And also it was technically your home planet too." He glanced at another confused look from the teenager and clarified, "You have Kryptonian blood in you; even if it was… stolen," he pretended not to notice Conner shift uncomfortably, "you still have a connection to Krypton."
Conner's hand outstretched towards the statues and closed his hand into a fist. "It is strange," he spoke; his voice was oddly soft. With his back to the Justice League member, Superman was silent, waiting for the teen to continue.
When Conner turned to face the Man of Steel, Clark gasped as he saw tears rolling down the clone's cheeks. "I have no memories of Kyrpton and the only connection with it may have been tampered with by Cadmus, but… I still feel sad, gazing at the planet that was lost to you."
He turned away and subtly wiped away to tears; "Sorry," he murmured as he collected himself. Clark moved closer and placed a hand on Conner's shoulder.
"I should be the one apologizing to you, Conner." He felt the said Metahuman stiffen at his words and continued; knowing that if he was stopped, he may not ever continue this line of conversation again.
"You and I were wronged by Cadmus; my D.N.A was stolen and you were created to replace me, but we both know you cannot replace me," he saw Conner nod his head once in agreement, "but that is not a bad thing Conner. We are two different people even though you have my D.N.A… it is not a bad thing, yet I looked at you like a great betrayal had stabbed me in the back."
He paused to make sure he knew what he wanted to articulate. "You were created without my knowledge and I did feel betrayed, but Bruce and Robin are right, that gives me no excuse to mistreat you and I'm sorry for that Conner."
Silence enveloped the two as the Fortress of Solitude gave them both the privacy they needed to have this conversation.
After what seemed like forever and a day, Superboy spoke, "Robin told me that I would regret not saving you and he was right… I'm glad I could help you," he turned and smiled at the hero he was copied from. "Even if you don't help me after today… This is enough."
Clark nodded and replied, "Then I guess you are going to be pleased to know that I'm ready… to start helping you on subjects that only I can help in."
Conner smiled at this and nodded happily; his "too expressive" eyes glistened with excitement at the offered opportunity to finally learn about himself in matters that those Genomorphs could not help.
Superman took Superboy's hand into his own and floated down to a platform that allowed them to be closer to the statues.
"Conner, Robin gave you a first name; how about a last name?" he asked while staring up at his parents; he glanced at the said teen and Superboy shook his head, "No just my first name."
Clark nodded and continued, "Since I am titled your father by everyone else in the Justice League, I was wondering if you would…" he paused and chuckled, "This sounds silly; I'm not sure if you even want to acknowledge me as your 'father' since I have been a lousy one so far." Now it was Conner's turn to support his fellow Kyrptonian.
"You acknowledged your mistakes and are now working on rectifying them, that is enough… I… I would like to consider you a parent since Cadmus never gave me such an odd structure of normality."
The Man of Steel nodded and continued his previous sentence. "I was just wondering if… you would like a last name to go with that good first name Robin gave you. My name is Clark Kent and if you want, you can have the last name."
A minute passed before the teenager said, "Conner Kent… I like it; is that your last name?" Clark smiled a warm smile and added, "It is also the name of my father here on earth, Jonathan Kent."
Superboy now held a weary gaze in his eyes, "Are you sure he doesn't mind me taking his family name?" this made the elder hero laugh. His laughter bounced off the warm walls until it returned to it origin.
Clark shook his head, "He doesn't mind; actually Ma and Pa put me in the dog house ever since I told them about you and they haven't met you yet. They want to meet you; Ma says she always wanted another son," he saw Conner blush at the weird title and more laughter rang from his mouth.
Superboy glanced down to the floor and stated, "Wi… Will they like me?" his childlike question made Superman lift his son's chin up so their eyes could meet.
"I do not know, but that is why they want to meet you, they want to get to know you Conner." He added, "I want to get to know you."
Superboy smiled at this sentence and turned his gaze to the parents of his "father". "Their names were Jol-El and Lara Lor-Van… What is your Kryptonian name, or is that what people call you?"
Clark shook his head and said, "My human name is Clark Joseph Kent, the name my birth parents gave me was, Kal-El."
Superboy nodded, "That sounds cool; did your mother name you or was it…?" he saw Clark shaking his head and his voice faded off.
"My father named me; it is a tradition on Krypton that the father names the son and mother names the daughter." the Man of Steel clarified.
Their gazes shifted slightly as Conner took this moment of silence to look at the large room and Clark's gaze drifted to the floor; after a few minutes he spoke again, "Conner, I have only just taken on the responsibility of being your father, but I was wondering in you would… also like a Kryptonian name."
Conner's gaze moved up to meet Clark's eyes with wonderment and a glimmer of hope; "This is another step on me accepting him as my son… If Bruce saw this now, he's be smirking that smug grin!" thought Superman and he groaned inward; the Dark Knight already knew where the two super men vanished to…
Superboy nodded and hesitantly said, "I would like that, but what name would you give me…?"
Clark took a moment before saying in a nostalgic tone, "Well, in a rough translation of a last name would be the 'El' in my name; it means 'of the star'… I have been thinking of a name for you for a while," He smiled at his own inner humor and continued, "I took the name Robin named you and though of Kon-El…"
He paused and added, "Kon, you know… Like Conner, Konner with a 'K' to Kon."
He stared at Superboy's face to see how the younger man liked the name and felt his own smile grow as a grin appeared on Conner's lips.
"Kon-El… It sounds cool!" cried out the sixteen year old. Clark nodded and replied in the same happy tone, "I'm glad you like it, I was a littler nervous thinking you wouldn't."
Conner's smile shrank, but did not diminish. "For someone who seemed to not care about me, it is a little weird hearing you were nervous about giving me my Kryptonian name."
He moved close and hesitantly opened his arms. This action confused Clark for a moment before realization clicked in his head. This was a trust game offered to him, by Superboy and this was the real test to see whether or not he, the Man of Steel was truly ready to be a "father".
Clark Kent, to his friends at the Daily Planet; Kal-El, to any fellow Kryptonians in the universe; and Superman, know as the protector of earth, pulled his son into their first hug and both were surprised by how calming the embrace was.
The House of El had just gained another family member; as did the Kent's in Smallville.
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It was very late when Conner slipped back into Mount Justice. With his super hearing ability, he was able to tell that everyone was asleep. Red Tornado was informed by Superman that he was coming in and disarmed the security system long enough for Superboy to enter the mountain.
With stealth, he never knew he had, Conner walked quietly through the corridors and passageways until he found himself in the living quarters of the teenage heroes.
He moved to go into his room when a voice froze his body. "I was wondering where you and Clark went off to…" Conner glanced behind him and saw a wide awake Robin adorned with his sunglasses standing a few feet from him. Superboy smiled and replied in an equally quiet voice, "Clark and I were… catching up."
The Boy Wonder walked closer to his best friend and took the larger hand into his own. "Come on, there's something I need to tell you," he pulled Conner into his room and led him to sit with him on the bed.
"It's about my name… I think that since you've seen my eyes, you are entitled to know my name."
Now Conner was grinning from hear to ear, "After you go, I have a couple things to tell you about and you're not just entitled, you've got to hear about where I've been."
The sliding door silently closed shut and the best friends told each other two simple sentences that meant a lot more than anything else.
"My real name it Richard "Grayson" Wayne."
"My full human name is Conner Kent and my 'father' gave me a Kryptonian name, Kon-El… Cool, huh?"
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Chinese Fairy: This may a little different from my other stories, but I wanted to take this chance to make a more detailed closure scene with Clark and Conner.
I have money on the fact that Clark was nicer in the comics, but I guess the show wanted to have a little more drama between the two super men. That's fine, it will be a happy day when they finally can make up~!
That is why I may have to consider them a little OUT OF CHARACTER... Dang it, oh well...
Thank you and I hope you all enjoy it and don't worry about "Pawns Can Feel Too", it will be updated soon!
Take care~