Hi, so this is the new chapter, and as promised, it's much longer than the prologue. I hope you'll like it :)

As you may have noticed, I changed the name from 'Damaged Hero' to 'The Damaged Hero,' because it seemed.. better. I like it more. :D

Disclaimer: Roses are red, violets are blue, I don't own these characters, which is a fucking shame, and neither do you.


Chapter 1 - Cheeky Dickhead

An explosion.

We cannot leave, Jor. But he can. He will not share our fate. He will live, amongst the stars."

A tremor.

I know, my love. He will be free. Alive. He'll be a god among men."

Terrifying screams, followed by another tremor. Stronger. Harsher.

The man looked down, and pressed a kiss to the child's forehead.

Farewell, my son. We love you, even in our doom. You are the last son of Krypton. The last hope."

The ground cracked open. People started falling in. Cries everywhere.

It's time," said the woman next to him. A beautiful woman. Young. Strong. With eyes full of compassion. Love. And desperation. She was terrified.

Goodbye, Kal-El. Remember – even if you feel alone. Even if you feel helpless. Desperate. Detached. We shall be with you. In your heart. Remember that, my son," the man said yet again.

The man tried to sound calm.

The cries intensified. Another terrible tremor shook the foundation of the planet.

The woman looked at the child. At him. Her eyes filled with unshed tears.

I love you, my little Kal. Forever and always."

The baby. Him.

He reached his hands towards his mother. To feel her gentle touch one last time.

He couldn't.

Something transparent closed around him. Cold.

Another explosion. Another tremor. Cries were heard everywhere, yet he couldn't hear them. He couldn't hear anything, for he was already up in the sky. Far beyond the tremors. Far beyond the explosions. And far beyond the cries.

The baby looked at the planet once again. One last time. It started to split open, geysers full of lava reached the sky, yet beyond his reach.

And with one last look, with one last tear, and one last cry.. the planet—

I woke up abruptly, cold sweat making my clothes clinging to me, my first hurting. I tried to breathe evenly, tried to calm down my fast-beating heart. unsuccessfully.

The pain in my fist was not easing, so I looked at the wall. Right where my fist collided into it, making, unsurprisingly, a fist-sized hole.

It happened again.

The dream. Or nightmare, more like.

I'm used to having nightmares. You can't be in a place like this for years without having terrors haunting you in your dreams.

My dreams.. nightmares.. usually consisted of pain. Of screams. Darkness. Brokenness. Crying. And yet, this dream is different.

Not because I can't feel pain. I can. The pain is still there. Not physical, no, this kind of pain is the worst one there is. The pain of losing someone again and again. Just like I lost Ma and Pa. And just like I lost.. them.

I figured a long time ago that they were my biological parents. I am uneducated, not stupid. Most of the ‚scientists' here called me an alien. An it. To them, I am not human. For them, I am below that. I am below any animal, any human, and any organism here on Earth. And yet, they need me.

Why else would they try to interrogate me for seventeen years straight? Even dickheads like them should've figured out a long time ago that I don't know anything.

Maybe they enjoy it. They know I know nothing, and yet they enjoy seeing me in pain. Seeing me try to hold my screams, my cries, my pleas in.

I did try to plea. I did scream. And I did cry. But I did NOT break. I'll never going to give them the satisfaction of seeing me broken.

I was pulled out of my thoughts by a sharp pain in my hand, and only then have I noticed that my fist was still in the wall. I quickly pulled it out and checked my knuckles. Split open. Bloody. Maybe broken. I don't give a crap.

I used to be stronger when I first came here. It was actually kinda funny, when they tried to experiment on me for the first time. Their scalpels broke. Even the titanium ones. I mean, yeah, they did manage to cut me open with some green scalpel, and yeah, it did hurt like a bitch. I still have scars left all across my abdomen.

I know what you're probably thinking. The guy has been in captivity for seventeen years and yet he can curse like a sailor. You are right. That is what the guards and the scientists are here for. I broke one's arm once, you should've heard some of the creative curses he spat out. It brightened my mood considerably, then. Well, until they broke my arm, as a reward, according to them.

I quickly stood up from the bed and made my way across the room, which was done by no more than three steps. There, I had what I call, my improvised calendar. I snorted. February 29th.

Happy birthday to me. I'm now officially 21.

I could be legally drinking now. If I wasn't locked up in here.

I don't even know what time is it, seeing that I don't have any windows in the cell, just a little light bulb on the ceiling, which I do not want to break again in my fit of anger, but I guessed it was sometime between midnight and lunch. Yeah, that seems to fit.

I heard a scream of pain and a laugh from the cell right next to mine. The guards seem to be in a good mood today, not that they aren't in good mood every day.

The screams subsided, as did the laughs, and I heard footsteps right next to the door of my cell, where they stopped abruptly. I heard a chuckle. Great.

The guard punched the code in, and the door opened.

„Wakey, wakey, Zero!" said the guard tauntingly. Oh, how much I wanted to clear that smirk out of his fat face. With my fist. The good one, of course. „It's time for another examination."

If you didn't figure out what the examination is yet, you are pretty slow, but if you did, congratulations then.

The examination, as they call it, is an every-day experimentation on the prisoners, as well as torturing them, if somebody decides to step out of line – which happens almost every time with me, therefore, I am already used to this.

Pretty sad, I know, right?

I sighed and made my way over to the guard, holding my hands in front of me for him to put the cuffs from some reinforced metal on them, as I already broke about thirty set of cuffs in the past. I know I could break these, too, even though it would hurt.

I decided a long time ago to wait for an opportunity to do it. I'm not stupid, I know I have to wait.

The guard, Mitchell, I think his name is, though I call him a cheeky dickhead, grinned coldly and without a warning, punched me into the stomach, knocking the wind out of me while simultaneously making me fall down on my knees.

It took me a few seconds, but when I was finally able to breathe again, I stood up and looked down at his eyes. Yeah, I'm taller than the cheeky dickhead. Awesome, right? Yeah, nope.

„Morning to you, too, you cum guzzling whale vagina," I said evenly, trying not to laugh. I know, I'm original, and I could already see him starting to get pissed off, „how are you today? Slept well?"

Most of the people working me hated my guts for multiple reasons. The scientists hated me because I told them to fuck off every few minutes. The guards hated me because I also told them to fuck off frequently, but also because I tried to protect the other prisoners here – something that my Ma and Pa instilled in me – I have a sense of responsibility, and if I can protect them, you bet I will protect them.

And generally, the people hated me here because I wasn't afraid to say them anything to their face, be it an insult or a compliment, which I practically never give, so yeah, basically, just insults.

Call it a defense mechanism, but I figured that since there's nothing worse they could do to me, I can at least have some fun with them.

„Oh, I'm going to enjoy this one, Zero. I'm going to watch you writhe and cry in pain while they dissect you again. And then, when you heal, which you always do, I'm going to have some fun with you," he said with a sneer, and then winked at me.

I wrinkled my nose. „Sorry, hun, you're not my type."

Truth be told, I was a little bit afraid now. They've never done anything like this. I can't even say the word. But I sincerely hope it doesn't happen, because I swear to every god from every single mythology there exist that if this guy tries to.. to rape me, I will tear him apart. Limb. By. Limb. And that's exactly what I said to him.

The dickhead just laughed, but he stopped abruptly when he looked into my eyes. Something he saw in them made him frown. And.. is it fear I see in his eyes?

Good.


I was led through the hallways by no less than four guards, one of which included Mitchell, the cheeky dickhead himself. They know I resist a lot.

The hallways were sterile and white, like a hospital. A mental one, probably.

I tried not to look at the other cells, as most of the doors had a small window, so that the prisoners could look at the hallway, for reasons unknown.

I had a window like that once, too. Until I broke it. With someone's head. Okay, moving on.

I saw a few of the prisoners give me a look of sympathy, for they know what they do to me in there.

Finally, a few seconds later, we reached the end of the hallway, at which end was a door with the name Dr. Emil Hamilton. Oh, so today's ‚session' will be with Dr. Hamilton. He was one of the nicer ones, though I still hated him with passion. It's hard to like someone when they are cutting you apart and taking samples of your internal organs. Every day.

One of the guards knocked on the door. A few seconds later, the door opened and the doctor himself stood there, in his usual white lab coat, balding grey hair and a graying beard. I would have shaved that little bit of hair on his head if I were him, but alas, I'm not. Lucky me.

„Ah, Subject Zero, welcome. Come in," he said and gestured for me to come in.

If you asked me, I would tell you that no, thank you, I do not wish to come in, but you may, if you want to, but the guards already pushed me inside. I sighed. So, one of those days, eh?

Two guards had a hold of both of my arms, while the other two stood and watched my every move very closely. I tried not to spit at them. Ah, to hell with it, I may as well.


10 minutes, 2 spits, and a black eye later, which was not mine, I am strapped on the examination table in Dr. Hamilton's laboratory, the guards standing outside the door, the man himself standing above me and looking at me curiously.

„What?" I asked, irritation creeping into my voice, but I couldn't care less at the moment.

He still had the curious expression on his face. „You have been here for seventeen years, yet you still fight."

I wanted to tell him that no shit, really? I wouldn't have guessed, but I decided to give him a chance to finish his thoughts.

„Why?" he asked me.

I looked at him, and for the first time in a long time, I thought about the answer I would give him. Normally, I would just be quiet or told him to fuck off, but not this time. There was something in his eyes. Compassion. Something I haven't seen in a really, really long time.

„I've been here for seventeen years, yes," I started, „but if you think I'm just going to sit.. or lay.." I added as an afterthought after I realized my current position, „here and let you break me, you are wrong. Very wrong. You are never going to break me. And I swear to you, one day, I will get out of here. Alive."

He seemed to think about it for a moment, and then, his eyes hardened in determination. He started unstrapping me from the table. I looked at him, question evident in my eyes.

„You are stronger than you think you are, Kryptonian," he said, „now go."

I gently rubbed my hands, which were still a little bit sore from the cuffs. Wait. Did he just say—

„Did you just say.. Kryptonian?" I asked.

He just nodded. „You'll figure it out. In time."

I looked at the door. He gently shook his head, and I knew I had no chance of escape through the door. An idea struck me. It would probably hurt like hell, but it would be worth it. Probably. If I didn't die in the process.

I looked at the wall pointedly, and the scientist's expression changed from puzzled to one of realization.

„I don't know if you're going to survive this," he said, „we're not exactly on the lowest floor."

I shrugged. „Better to die while trying to escape then die one day in here, like a lab rat."

Dr. Hamilton looked at the wall again, and then back at me. „Okay. If you do this, and survive this, remember two things," I gestured for him to continue. „Don't come back. Ever. Live your life. And two. The sun."

I didn't have the time to ask him what he meant by the sun, because right then, the guards started pounding on the door. I guess Dr. Hamilton locked it. Huh. Strange I didn't notice.

I looked at him. „I'm going to hurt you a little bit for it to be convincing, okay? Trust me, it's not going to be too bad."

Dr. Hamilton just shrugged and nodded, as if he was expecting this. I sighed, told him to get ready, and punched him hard across the jaw, knocking him out.

I looked at his unconscious body. „Thank you, doctor."

With that, I made my way over to the opposite side of the room, and with a record-breaking sprint, I ran into the wall, shattering it in the process.

It hurt like bitch, I'm not gonna lie. The punch in the wall while I was having a nightmare was like a tickle against it, but I didn't care. I was free. Finally.

That was until I realized I wasn't on the ground yet. I looked down. I was at least a hundred feet in the air.

There is only one word to describe this situation.

Shit.


Alright, please, write a review and tell me what you thought about this chapter.

I know Clark seems a little.. okay, a little more than little.. OOC, but don't worry. He won't be like this forever.

Or will he?

Nah, just kidding, he won't.

See you again:)