Jordan and Jonathan had both had a rocky start when trying to fit in in a completely new town. Not hearing the constant traffic and sirens from police cars driving by their house, but instead waking up to complete silence was a big change.
But having to find their own place in a new highschool, where people have known eachother for basically their whole lives... was an even bigger change, and a difficult one at that.
But after a couple of months of settling in, the boys had found their own friend group. Consisting of Malcolm, Sarah, Tyler, Max and Seth. Tag had also been apart of this odd group of friends... but unfortunately, that had been short-lived. No one else in the group knew why he had suddenly disapeared, except for Jordan and Jon. Who both knew of his new powers... and also where it had originated from.
Despite what his parents and granddad told him, Jordan still felt guilty whenever Tag was brought up in a conversation. Sure, Tags' powers weren't directly caused by his heat-vision. But would Tag have been affected by it without the blast? Jordan had come to the conclousion that, no, he probably wouldn't have.
And that is why this conversation made Jordan extreamly uncomfortable.
As usual, Max had brought her guitarr. She could never leave it alone it seemed like, but considering the fact that they were all seated around a fire in the middle of the woods, it did seem pretty fitting, and cosy.
Max had been trying to teach Tyler some guitarr chords for the past 15 minutes, but it didn't seem to go very well.
"No, but you index finger over here, and don't move your other fingers just because you moved one of them." Max repeated for the third time that evening. The rest of the group grinned while watching the pair struggle.
"I'm sorry but I can't stretch my fingers that far apart, they're not long enough"
"Well I feel sorry for your girlfriend then" Max retorted, a playfull snear spreading on her face.
The rest of the group roared with laughter while Tyler crossed his arms and pouted. Jordan could swear he saw him blush.
"You'll just have to accept that the only one in our friend group who was musically gifted was Tag, Max" said Malcolm while handing another beer over to Seth, then cracking one open for himself.
Jordan immediately stiffened after hearing Tags' name. It was a long time ago he had been brought up.
"Yeah, I miss him" Max replied while staring into the fire, with a sad look in her eyes. A feeling of guilt spread in Jordan, he dared a glance at his brother, who, just like him seemed very uncomfortable and had also taken to studying the dirt underneath his feet, as if it was the most interesting thing in the world.
"Yeah we all do" sighed Malcolm. Everyone answered with nodding agreements. "Has anyone been able to contact him?" He continued. Nobody seemed to have had any luck "No" started Max "I contacted his dad, he appearently lives in Metropolis now, in an apartment close to that shopping mall we went to last month." She said sheapishly, realising that she just revealed that she had done some thorough reasearch on the family, on an almost consearning level.
"Did he say anything about Tag?" Sarah asked, ignoring Max' confession to her stalker-ish behavior.
"Well... not really, just... um something that probably isn't that important..." Jordan could've sworn that he saw Max' eyes flash over in his direction. But he really wasn't sure. "What? Why did you never say anything about this?" Argued Sarah. Max looked unsure, something unusual for the usually confident girl "I just... you know, whatever he said was kind of unclear... I... um... I did kind of tell Tyler and Seth though" Jordan looked over at the two guys, who now also looked pretty uncomfortable, what is going on!? "I just didn't really know what to do with the information he gave me you know..." Max continued "I don't know but he didn't really sound sober. And he kept blaming Jordan and Jonathan for Tag... being taken away, he said... and he especially blamed you Jordan..." Max shot Jordan a look if worry. He could feel his insides turn as he looked around at his friends. An uncomfortable silence had fallen over the group. Clearly this had been discussed behind their back. How long had this been kept from them? Jordan glanced over at Jon, who, just like him, looked extreamly worried.
Sarah was the first one to break the silence "So... what? How could Jordan and Jon be connected to... what did you say? Tag being taken away?" Malcolm, who was just as confused as Sarah had also noticed that weird part of the story "Yeah, what do you mean taken away? We don't know what happened to him... right?"
Max glanced around the group, hoping for someone else to answer. But Tyler and And Seth had, just like Jon, started studying the ground with great interest. "Well he, um.. he said something about the government taking Tag away... because he appearently had 'powers', according to his dad." Max tried to make it sound like the most ridiculous thing in the world and laughed it off, but no one else seemed to fall for it. "And how is that connected to Jordan and Jon!?" Argued Sarah. "I... um, I don't know he was really unclear... can we just drop it? He kind of called me up the day after and asked me not to talk about it" Everyone around the fire were now very uncomfortable while the girls kept arguing. "And you still told Ty and Seth!?"
"That was before he called me up! And I just asked Ty and Seth for advise, because I also know that you And Malcolm are closer to Jordan an Jon than we are, just so they wouldn't let it slip to them." Jordan suddently felt the urge to intervene, if this was so secretive revolving around Tags' powers, it couldn't be good for the Kent family secret. "Hey guys let's just drop this, it's probably just the alcohol making us say stupid shi-" Jordan attempted. But Seth unexpectedly interupted him "What? You got something to hide?" Jordans' could swear his heart was beating at a fatally fast pase, even for a half-kryptonian. "No.. uh why.. why would I?" 'Shit! That was a bad answer, to much stammering, he's gonna know it's a lie' Jordan thought as he looked over at his twin, quietly pleading for help. He could hear that Jons' heart was also beating at a consearningly high speed. "Well according to Tags' dad, you caused the explosion that broke Tag's arm" This time it was Jon who cut Seth of "And how was he supposed to do that? We were both on the ground, being beaten up!"
Seth, Tyler and Max all shared uncomfortable glaces. While Sarah and Malcolm looked to Jon and Jordan for answers.
"What is this about!?" Sarah whispered to him. "I... I don't know" Jordan said.
"Oh fuckin' hell I'll say it then!" Seth spat annoyed with the others cowardness "Tags' dad said that Jordan has some kind of powers, that in turn caused Tags' powers."
Jordans' felt like his head was spinning around, if he could sweat he would be swimming in it right now. He once again dared a glance at Jon, who just like him, had paled significantly. This is not what Jordan had had in mind earlier this week when he agreed to go camping with his friends.
Sarah was once again the one to break the silence "So what!? You guys believe this!?"
"I don't know what to believe..." Max started "Jordan" she looked over at Jordan "If this is true, and you are some kind of... metahuman?? Then that's fine, it's just the fact that his dad was claiming that you somehow hurt Tag... And you know, metahumans don't really have a great reputation-"
"And how can you prove this!?" Sarah interupted. "How can you prove that Jordan appearently has powers and somehow caused the explosion!?"
"I can't, and I don't want to, but there must be some kind of reason to why he said that!" Max' voice broke when she spoke, and her eyes were starting to water.
Jordans' eyes flickered nearvously around the group, everyone were looking at him now, it seemed as if they were seeing him with new eyes.
"And what is this 'power' that Jordan appearently has?" Malcolm asked. Max seemed to once again want someone else to answer, but to no avail. "He mentioned... heat-vision... or 'laser eyes' like he phrased it" 'shit shit shit' "What like... Superman!?" Sarah exclaimed. "Yeah I guess... He.. um, he also talked about strength, said something about Jordan being the only one to hold tag still... Cause Tag had appearently started glitching and shaking uncontrolably fast..." Max stated "Well... except for superman who appearently saved him... or 'took him away' like he said it" Silence fell over the group again. He could see Tyler in his peripheral vision, who was studying him closely. Jordan looked over at him. He could swear he saw a look of suprise and then understanding in his eyes. 'Had he figured it out?' He snapped his head back to look at the ground. 'Had she seen the resemblence? No that's impossible... right?'
After a couple of seconds of silence Tyler spoke for the first time in a while "Do you have anything to say about this Jordan? Just kinda feels wrong that we're discussing this without your input you know..." he said while nervously tugging at his hem.
"I- um..." Jordan tried to speak, but he didn't know what to say. What lie could get him out of this? He could say that he had 'no idea what they're talking about' and that Tags' dad had for some reason made up the whole story. But would they believe that? No, probably not.
He looked over at Jon helplessly. He seemed to have understood.
"Can Jordan and I just talk privately for a moment?" Jonathan asked.
'Great, now they're definetly going to know that something is up.' Jordan thought.
The group nodded. When they walked over to a tree far away from the fire, Jordan could still hear whisperers from the group. If he focused he would probably be able to hear what they were saying. But right now, he figured that he already knew what they were discussing.
"Shit what are we gonna say!?" Jon whispered
"I don't know, but they won't believe another lie! We can't explain why Tags' dad would blame me!"
Jonathan seemed to contenplate what Jordan just said.
"We could say that you are a metahuman... and then just say that the blast was the first time, and you didn't know you could do something like that. Which technically isn't a lie-"
"Yes Jonathan! It is a lie!" Jordan interupted. "I'm not a metahuman! In fact, I'm barely ever human at all!... Just like you!"
Jonathan once again started studying the ground. He knew that was true, but Jonathan had always seen himself as the more human one. Especially since Jordan gained more powers and became stronger and stronger for every week that passed, he had even hovered a couple of times, but never managed to fly.
"So... what do you wanna do then? It's not just up to you, you know? It kind of affects both dad and me."
"Yeah I know..." Jordan said while looking over at his friends by the fire. They would understand, wouldn't they? They had been through alot together and shared many secrets, they'd be fine with it right? They were fine with metahumans so why wouldn't they be fine with the truth? 'because metahumans are actually humans' a voice told him.
"Do you think they would understand?" Jordan asked his brother.
"To be honest... yeah, I do." Jon started "But if dad finds out we told them-"
"Yeah I know... we should tell him first." Jordan interrupted.
"But he's not gonna let us... unless we say that they figured it out by their self. And tell him that we have to explain it to them or something."
Jordan considered the Idea... "Yeah... I guess we could just call dad to tell him that"
"Yeah..." Jon scoffed "which is actually still a lie."
"True, but I guess he did lie to us" Jordan tried. "And... I'm not sure but it kind of seemed like Tyler figured it out."
Jonathan looked confused by that statement "what do you mean? He barely said anything"
Had he imagined it? Maybe he should just drop it? "I don't know, he just looked at me as if he understood" Jonathan didn't look convinced.
"Soo, do you think I should call dad?" Jon asked.
'Shit' Jordan thought, were they really gonna do this? He felt bad for kind of lying to their dad, but they would figure it out soon anyways, they had already made the connection with superman. And he knew he could trust his friends.
"Yeah sure, call him"