Two weeks with J'onn was so much worse than I first imagined. I am so tired of being scared all the time. I need a break from terrifying thoughts. J'onn changed his mind about scaring me with internal fears so he just keeps creating terrifying scenarios that include any kind of plot from a horror movie ever. But at the rate that we're going I've progressed so much. I can almost activate my powers on will power alone. As long as we keep moving forward I will feel more comfortable in my own skin. Crystal or not I'm regaining my ego little by little. I no longer feel as strange as I did a month ago. Man I missed Clark though, only one more month to go.
I rounded the last corner on my floor of the building and I stopped mid-step. Sitting on the ground beside my door was a young man that had black hair and blue eyes. As strange of a combination that is, that wasn't what struck me. For a minute or so I stared at this boy swearing up and down that Clark had came early and decided to surprise me. The resemblance was uncanny but the only way I knew this wasn't Clark was that he has a key to our place now.
"Um can I help you?" My voice trembled and I'm sure I looked pale as a sheet.
"Are you Jovilette?" Surprise, confusion, and curiosity all flickered across his face as he tried to settle on one emotion.
"Yes can I help you?" He stood up and he didn't look like a boy at all. He had a better figure than most of my ex-boyfriends and had a few inches on me already. I was so confused.
"My name's Superboy and I-"
"Shhhhhh!" I ran to my door and unlocked it and pulled him in and almost made him fall to the ground with my suddenness. I locked the door for good measure and just looked at him as if he were stupid.
"Are you kidding? Didn't you attend superhero 101?!"
"What?"
"You're not supposed to say out loud you're a superhero! Are you trying to get me in trouble? Batman's already on my case already but with you who knows what he's going to do with me!" I threw my hands up and stalked to get a water bottle I grabbed one and almost chugged the whole thing right there. I walked over to the table and sat down. I suggested he do the same and so he copied my movements.
"Okay so first off how do I know you and why are you here?" He scratched his hair and put his elbows on the table.
"Robin helped me find where you were and I'm here because I was wondering if you could help me."
"Wait Robin as in Batman's protégé? I've never met him before." I said with clarity.
"I need a place to stay for a little while and I was hoping you could help me out with that." His face was so blank it was amazing. He was showing no emotion whatsoever now that we were speaking of his situation.
"You're asking to sleep at my place? Are you homeless? What does this have to do with me? And how did Robin know to seek me out?" Man what a situation I was in.
"You ask a lot of questions."
"You would too if you found a troubled young man at your doorstep saying he was homeless."
"Okay I understand. I guess I should start from the beginning." He took a deep breath and I didn't realize what exactly I had gotten into. "My name is Superboy because I am Superman's clone."
"Whhhaaaaaaatttt!?" I stood up and started pacing around the living room. I wanted to pull out all of my hair. I could feel this boy's eyes follow me around the room so I had to remain calm, or as close to calm as I could get.
"Yeah but that's not all of it." I almost fainted at that sentence. How much more could there be? "I was created in a place called Cadmus and I was in there "maturing" until one day Robin, Kid Flash, and Aqualad were there, unbeknownst to the Justice League, and they discovered me. They broke me free from my mind control and my restraints to Cadmus. So naturally Cadmus wasn't happy that I escaped and wasn't under their control anymore because I was supposed to be their biggest weapon. But us four escaped and defeated the monster at Cadmus but then the Justice League caught us. Batman said we could start our own team but we had to wait until he got back from his mission so he could supervise our activities. Robin said I could stay with him but I wanted to know about Superman so I came here looking for him. So that's why I'm here." My mind was still reeling so I wanted to get the summary of it.
"So you have no family because you're a clone correct?" He nodded his head. "Okay wait you never answered as to how Robin knew where to find me, or Superman I should say. But you won't find Superman here."
"Robin is good at hacking computers so he hacked into the Batcave's computer and found Superman's profile. It had you listed as his significant other and it even had your guys' address. It even said something about you being attacked by a giant monster and acquiring powers?"
"Honestly Batman cares way too much about our relationship." I muttered under my breath but his face turned red as I said it. "So it figures he would have a profile about us… Anyways yes I have some powers I guess you could call them but we won't get into that now. I'm assuming you know Superman's identity?"
"Yeah it's Clark Kent right? Robin said you would try and quiz me if Superman wasn't here. Where is he?" I smacked my hand against my forehead.
"How did Robin hack Batman's computer system and not know anything about Superman going on the same trip as Batman? Honestly boys are so weird. Man this is bizarre. Meeting the clone of my boyfriend. I never thought that would be a sentence I would say." This whole time Superboy had a blank face while talking about himself but the only time it cracked was now when I referred to him as a clone, which, made me feel like crap. "Listen Superboy I'm sorry I called you a clone this is just a bizarre situation. But if you want I'm more than willing to let you spend the night on my couch but only with one condition."
"What is it?"
"I work eight hour days and recently I've been doing training lessons so I am going to need you to look after my dog when I'm gone. I just need you to let him out to go to the bathroom and maybe take him on a walk if you want. He's a giant couch potato so he won't need much."
"You have a dog? Where is he?" He was looking around excitedly and I felt the corners of my mouth tilt upwards.
"Cobalt!" Sooner rather than later Cobalt came tiredly trotting into the living room area and started wagging his tail when he spotted the young boy. Superboy bent down and started rubbing Cobalt's belly. Now he was full on smiling down at the dog. I watched the boy interact with the dog and then it hit me.
"Wait do you not have an actual name? We can't go around calling you Superboy in public, that won't work." He looked at me confused so I carried on. "There's a reason most superheroes have secret identities. Unfortunately we live in a world where there are people who create a big frenzy over superheroes and even though you don't have any close relatives you are eventually going to want to protect someone you love. So we need to come up with a name for you." He scratched his head and Cobalt looked at him as to why he wasn't paying him any more attention.
"I don't know any names though." I just smiled.
"Well I can help you." I pulled my computer onto the table and looked at cool baby names on the Internet and I read the list to Superboy.
"Let's see there's Zeke, Xavier, Connor, Heath, Sebastian, Brody, and Jayden. Those are the popular names for this next year. Let me see another website." I started to look up more but then Superboy interrupted me.
"Wait! I like the name Connor."
"You do? You're not going to even listen to the other names?" He shook his head at my question. So I just shrugged. "That's funny, hm Connor and Clark. Okay Connor, do you want to figure out a last name now or later? We don't necessarily need to figure out one right away." He looked confused.
"We don't? I thought it was an important part of my identity." At all the attention not being paid to him, Cobalt walked back into the bedroom.
"No it's not too important. We don't need to have any special documents for you and if people ask just say your first name. It's okay to not give them a last name if they ask for it. It's none of their business." He seemed to consider this.
"Do you think at some point I would be able to adopt the last name Kent?" Oh man.
"Um honestly I think that's going to be something you're going to have to bring up to Clark when he gets back. He's the one with that last name, not me."
"Why don't you call him Superman?" I wanted to laugh but I didn't want to hurt his feelings.
"I call Superman Clark because I met Clark Kent, Superman's persona, first rather than Superman. And honestly, don't tell him I told you this but I prefer Clark Kent to Superman. Superman is more serious and takes things more personally when Clark can just roll with the punches." His eyebrows furrowed with confusion.
"Roll with the punches?"
"Oh sorry I mean he can adjust to his environment with ease and not have any complications." I hope my education was put to good use in that sentence.
"Oh okay I understand. So Superman isn't funny?" I laughed.
"I mean he can be! Compared to Batman, Superman is a comedian but there are points when we're alone and he isn't as personable as he is when he is Clark."
"Oh okay I understand." He looked thoughtful. "I can't wait to meet him."
"I'm sure he'll be uh… interested in seeing you too." I honestly don't think Clark was going to be very happy with this but oh well. Connor smiled up at me and I smiled back. This was going to be interesting having a little Superman running around the apartment, which reminded me.
"Hey what are your superpowers?" I asked curious.
"I have super hearing, super strength, super speed, and I can jump really high but I can't fly. I also can't shoot lasers."
"I'm sure you'll get there. After all how old are you, fifteen?" I questioned. He frowned.
"No I'm sixteen weeks." What?
"Wait you're four months old? How is that possible?"
"Cadmus has really advanced technology. Mentally and physically I appear to be around 15 years old but I was created four months ago." Holy cow, this was so weird.
"Huh interesting. Anyways it's nice to know your background. Listen since you'll probably stay here a while, do you want me to invest a bed? That couch is comfortable but not that comfortable…" He shook his head and smiled.
"No it's okay really. I'm grateful for being here. Thanks for letting me stay." He smiled and walked up to go to the bathroom. Before I knew it life had changed so much, I was just curious to see how Clark was going to react once he got home.
A/N: Okay so this chapter is a little short, sorry! But next chapter will be longer and have more spunk than the latest ones. I've got some ideas so let's see if I can execute them *muahaha*