Superboy rested his head in his palms as he stared at the ceiling. Wolf was curled up in another corner of the bedroom, taking an afternoon nap. He sighed and shut his eyes, but he was not tired.
Truth be told, he was still trying to get used to sleeping horizontally. The first six months of his life had been spent upright in a Cadmus Pod, and he had initially chosen the small storage closet further down the hall as his quarters. As his possessions had started to accumulate he required more space to store them, and so he had moved into the room directly across the hall from M'Gann. Which also had other benefits.
Currently, however, M'Gann was out fishing with Artemis, and had not told him when she would return. He was still confined to quarters after running off without authorization—not that he really had anywhere else to go. None of the others were in the cave either.
And so he lay down on his bed. And waited.
"Screw this," he decided after a couple minutes, rising from the mattress and walking out of the room. Wolf emitted a curious moan, then stood up and followed.
They could not contain him like this. He had not even done anything wrong—hell, he actually did some good! While everyone else was busy moping around and talking to Black Canary, he had helped recover alien technology, not to mention uncovering a sinister plot by Desaad and whoever that creepy bastard's master was. He should have been commended for his actions, not punished.
He reached the hangar and located his helmet, then started walking towards the Super-Cycle, as Wally had taken to calling it. He still preferred Sphere, but he was apparently the only one.
"Tornado, open the bay doors," he ordered loudly.
"I am sorry, Superboy," Red Tornado responded. "I cannot do that."
He frowned. "Let me guess," he began, knowing who was behind him without even having to turn around. "It's because you told him not to, isn't it?"
"Yes," Batman answered. "You're not allowed to go running off again without authorization."
"Oh yeah, and who's going to stop me?" He challenged, turning around. "You?"
The Dark Knight's eyes narrowed. "I don't have to. The doors are too thick to punch through in the time it would take Captain Marvel to get here, and your Zeta-Gate authorization has been revoked for the time being. You're trapped here whether you like it or not."
He crossed his arms and huffed. "You shouldn't even be keeping me locked up like this," he asserted. "It's not like I did anything wrong."
"You left your team behind to go on a joy ride, and caused a significant amount of property damage."
"To what? A construction site and a warehouse? I helped stop a robbery at the Federal Reserve!"
"You still didn't consult the rest of the team, and you left here when you weren't supposed to," Batman pointed out. "You're all still dealing with the emotional stress of the botched scenario. It's not safe for any of you to go on missions yet."
"I wasn't leaving to go on a mission!" Conner pointed out, raising his arms above his head. "I left because I felt cooped up in here! The Forever People found me!"
Batman said nothing for a few moments. "I understand that you might not want to be around the rest of the team right now. But believe me when I say that running off on your own isn't the best course of action."
"You don't understand anything!" he shouted, making a horizontal sweeping gesture with his arm. "You don't understand what I'm going through and you don't understand how I feel!"
"I know that you're feeling guilty over what happened in the scenario," Batman responded. "I know that you don't want to be around your team right now because you felt happy when they died and you don't know what to make of it."
Superboy's eyes went wide with shock and rage. "Canary told you!"
"No, you did. Just now," the Dark Knight replied. "And it wasn't hard to figure out. You were created to replace Superman. He's the last of his kind, so when the others died you finally realized what it was like to be him and you felt happy. But you don't think you're supposed to feel that way and now you feel guilty."
"Hmph," he grunted, crossing his arms. "Guess I really can't put anything past the World's Greatest Detective."
Batman smirked. "If I had a dollar for every time I heard that line..."
"You'd be as rich as Bruce Wayne," he finished, picking a name out of a hat.
The smirk persisted. "Something like that," he answered. "But you're thinking about it all wrong."
"Oh?" he challenged. "And how's that?"
"Superman is the last Kryptonian, yes," he explained. "But that doesn't have anything to do with his life on Earth. He was adopted and raised by a small couple from Kansas. They told him he needed to use his gifts for the good of Mankind. He became a hero to protect the people of this planet. He was adopted by Earth, and he found meaning with people who care about him. That's what defines him, not his origin."
"Well good for him," Conner spat, not wanting to hear more about the man who refused to have anything to do with him.
"You're more alike than even you realize," he continued. "When you were rescued from Cadmus, the team brought you in. They've been your friends ever since. You've even started to bond with Wolf and the Super-Cycle. They're your family, and they give you purpose and something to protect."
Superboy just stared.
"Cadmus is where you come from," Batman finished. "It doesn't make you who you are."
"Then what does?"
"The decisions you make," he answered. "The people you care about. Who you are is something you decide for yourself."
Conner frowned.
"I can't pretend to understand exactly what you're going through," he said. "But I do know what it's like to want to be left alone. And I can respect that. But if you keep running off whenever you don't want to be around the team, it will eventually end up putting them in danger. And that's something I can't allow."
Even he could understand that. He nodded.
"As long as you understand that, you're free to go," he finished. "Red Tornado, open the doors."
The doors started to open and Batman walked away, leaving Superboy alone.
"Whatever," he muttered after a moment. "Let's go, Wolf."
They walked towards the Super-Cycle together, but the Dark Knight's words refused to leave him. He had not really solved his issue at all, but at least now he understood why he had been grounded. And it was true, he realized, that he had found a family here.
So why did he feel happy when that family was taken away?
Deciding he would figure it out later, he hopped into the Super-Cycle and rocketed out of the hangar, bringing the three of them up, up and away.