Superboy Unleashed
By Jeune Ecrivain
Rating: T
Summary: A while after 1x05, a startling truth is revealed about Jordan's powers, just in time for the Cushings to witness something they can't explain. Established Jordarah.
A/N: I originally imagined this chapter involving one or two more plot points, but I realized I'd written myself into a natural stopping point. I could be persuaded to write a sequel, though.
Clark scratched the back of his neck after hearing Lana's bewildered recounting of the incident in the junkyard. Lois' eyes met her husband's, and after a serious pause, a nod signaled a wordless agreement. He claimed a seat in one of the two chairs opposite the couch in the Kent living room, where he and Lois had promptly ushered the very anxious Cushings. Lois claimed the other chair, while Jordan nervously perched himself on the couch armrest next to Sarah, arms crossed.
"First of all," Clark gave his son what he hoped was a reassuring smile, "you did the right thing, Jordan. I should hope that would be obvious. Keeping our secret is very important, but it should never come at the expense of even a single human life. If I accidentally gave you even a slight impression otherwise, let me make it crystal clear right now. Whenever it comes down to either saving a life or keeping the secret, there's no contest. You save that life and deal with the fallout as best you can afterwards. Do you understand?"
"Yeah, absolutely!" Jordan said with a small but grateful smile of his own. "I didn't even think about letting anything happen to Mr. Cushing. I just wondered if maybe I could've figured out a way to save him without outing myself."
Clark nodded. "I'm glad to hear it, and even if there may have technically been a way to save him and stay under the radar at the same time, you clearly didn't have time to think of it. I would've done the same thing."
"Wait," Lana spoke up. "You mean you could have done the same thing?"
Clark turned to her with an apologetic look. "Sorry for immediately tuning you guys out for a bit, Lana, and yes, I actually could have done the same thing."
"How?" marveled Kyle.
Clark sighed, suddenly a bit nervous himself as he realized the point of no return was nigh. "Lana, you've known for a long time I was adopted."
"Yes," she confirmed. "The Kents said they found you abandoned in a cornfield as a baby."
Clark nodded again. "What they never told anyone was that they found me in a spaceship that landed in the cornfield." He exchanged another glance with Lois before he braced himself and uttered the single sentence from which there was no turning back. "I'm from the planet Krypton."
A pregnant pause followed before Sarah spoke next, now looking to Lois, presumably as the author of the seminal interview that, roughly twenty years before, had given the world a basic biography of the Man of Steel. "Krypton? As in Superman's home world? The one that was destroyed before he came to Earth?"
"The very same," Lois confirmed.
"Wait," Kyle blurted. "I thought Superman and Supergirl were the only survivors, besides the three not-so-friendly ones that those two had to fend off."
"They are," Lois said, noticing that Lana, the Cushing who knew her husband best, was the first to start looking pensive rather than confused or astonished.
"Sarah," Clark addressed the teen, "do you remember when you and your parents visited me and Lois in Metropolis a few years ago?"
"Yeah," the girl replied slowly, clearly curious as to the pertinence of the question.
"And do you remember what Lombard said I had the worst luck with, that you wouldn't stop teasing me about?"
Sarah's amused smile at the memory eased the tension a bit. "You could never seem to be around whenever…" Her smile fell and her eyes narrowed. "…Superman appeared."
Clark did his best to ignore Lana's jaw going slack as Sarah's abruptly re-widened eyes began darting back and forth between him and Jordan. He knew that, for at least two of the Cushings, the mental puzzle pieces were rapidly falling into place. With a heavy sigh, he removed his glasses. "Yeah, there's a reason for that." In a single, long-practiced motion, Clark opened his flannel shirt to reveal the unmistakable uniform underneath, though if Lana's gasp a mere couple of seconds prior was any indication, the literal scarlet letter on his chest only validated what was by then an overwhelming suspicion. "Not even I can ever be in two places at once."
A newly stunned Kyle leaned back and gripped the sides of his head in his hands. "Holy hell!"
"Are you serious?!" Sarah stared at Clark before turning to Jordan. "Your dad is literally Superman?!" Her hands flew to her mouth as her boyfriend could do little but nod.
Clark stood up and, just in case there was any lingering doubt, levitated a couple of feet above the floor for a few moments.
As he drifted back into a seated position on the chair, Lana shook her head in awe. "Clark,…all this time? You've been carrying this around your whole life?"
"Well, since I was old enough to fully understand the gravity of it, anyway. And my powers didn't really start coming in full force until I was a preteen."
A pregnant pause ensued before Kyle found his voice again. "So you're Superman?" It was more of a finalizing statement than a question. "Whenever you sense that you're needed, you just…rip of your normal clothes and take off?"
"Basically, yes."
"And Jordan…?"
"He's inherited at least some of my powers, though until recently, we didn't think he was anywhere near the level you saw. When Lois first got pregnant, neither of us had any idea just how much like me our kids would be. They didn't show any major signs of special abilities until shortly after Mom died."
"The accident in the barn," Sarah realized aloud.
Lois nodded. "We let you think it was luck, but we knew better."
"The truck accident in high school?" Lana ventured.
Clark shook his head. "That wasn't luck either."
Lana exhaled. "Clark,…I know we're not as close as we used to be, but really I wish you'd felt like you could trust me with this when we were."
He gave her a sad smile. "It's not just a matter of trust, Lana. In fact, I don't think that's even most of it."
"Then what is it?" Kyle wondered. "Why the secrecy?"
Clark and Lois exchanged another knowing look before the former proceeded. "Having a normal life, at least to the extent I can manage it, keeps me grounded. It helps me maintain my humanity and my capacity to empathize with people, which is very important for someone as powerful as I am. Without those human connections, no matter how deep or casual, I might be corrupted in some way or other by my power. Maybe not, and as I sit here now, it's very difficult to imagine compromising any of my values, but especially after the things I've seen in my career, it's just not a chance I'm willing to take. Besides, my actual origins aside, I was brought up by two very Earthly parents who raised me essentially as a human who just happened to have some unique gifts. I don't think I could ever give up that life entirely. It's just too much a part of who I am." He began re-buttoning his shirt before continuing. "But if my identity were public knowledge, even a decent semblance of a normal life would be virtually impossible. At least, that's why I hide it from people at large."
His shirt now closed, Clark put his glasses back on and preempted the question he knew would likely follow. "On a more personal basis, sharing in my secret can often be a burden, sometimes even dangerous, and as I'm sure you can guess, I don't like putting the people I care about in danger, or even just thrusting such a unique responsibility onto their shoulders."
Lois spoke up. "Of course, Clark realizes, and has for a long time now, that the closer anyone gets to him, the more of a right they have to know, but at the same time, the closer they are, the more he worries about potentially endangering them."
"Wait," said Sarah. "I get the responsibility, but I'm not sure where the danger comes in. I mean, I know you have plenty of enemies, but if they wanted to, like, get to you through us or something, wouldn't they have to know your secret too? Or are you afraid we'll be more likely to get caught in the crossfire of one of your epic battles or something?"
"Good question, Sarah," Clark replied with an appreciative smile. "And yes, you getting stuck in the middle of a fight is one possibility. But unfortunately, my enemies wouldn't necessarily need to already know my secret to make you a target. They'd just need to suspect that you know something useful about Superman."
Kyle caught his daughter's attention and demonstrated by forming an imaginary gun with his hand and pressing the tip of his finger against Lana's temple. "'Tell us who Superman is or else!'" he role-played.
"Exactly," affirmed Clark. "If they're particularly perceptive, they might get a clue even if you're consciously doing your best not to drop any hints. I know it's not fair to thrust this on you, but I don't have a choice anymore. The three of you are going to have to be very careful from here on out."
"Jordan saved Kyle's life!" Lana reminded him. "As far as I'm concerned, bearing this 'burden,' as you call it, is the least we can do!" Her husband and daughter both gave fervent nods and murmurs of agreement.
"I appreciate that, guys, I really do. But just to be clear, you don't owe me or Jordan anything." Clark's face briefly grew grim as he hastened to clarify, "Also, I hope this goes without saying, but I'd feel better if I said it anyway. If anyone ever does put a gun to your head over this, I don't want any of you to even think about sacrificing yourselves. Like I told Jordan, as important as keeping my identity secret is, it's definitely not worth any of your lives. Am I understood?" He successively looked each Cushing in the eye to impress his vehemence upon them.
The Cushings nodded. "As a mother," Lana admitted, "I might've preferred to spare Sarah from the potential danger, but I know that couldn't be avoided."
"At least Sophie's still clueless," Sarah offered. "Wait," she suddenly turned back to Jordan. "Is this why you quit the team? You were afraid you could've done alot more than break a bone?"
"Yeah," Jordan replied, lowering his gaze as a look of regret passed over his face.
"We never would've let him play at all if we thought he was going to be anywhere near as strong or as fast as he's turning out to be," Lois explained to Kyle and Lana. "Up until the past couple of weeks, every indication seemed to be that his powers would always be slight."
"That's what I don't get," Jordan said, taking the opportunity to ask his father a question of his own. "Jor-El said I would never be even a hundredth as strong as you, but I don't think I even broke a sweat in the junkyard. And yet, just a couple of weeks ago, I'm almost positive that I wouldn't have been able to do what I did. Not even close! So what the hell's going on?"
"Jor-El?" Kyle repeated.
"Clark's biological father, or rather, a hologram of him," Lois clarified. "Basically a ghost, but made possible by Kryptonian technology instead of anything supernatural."
While the Cushings digested that bit of information, Clark answered his son. "Yeah, we were wondering about that too, so your mother put her investigative skills to work. It turns out, your benzos were actually suppressing your powers all along."
Jordan raised his eyebrows. "Seriously? How did that work?"
"Until recently, the green coloring on them has apparently been laced with kryptonite. Your mom was actually sharing that discovery with me just when you and the Cushings arrived."
"Damn!" Jordan marveled.
"What's kryptonite?" asked Sarah.
"It's this glowing green rock that weakens Dad if he's anywhere near it," Jordan answered.
"There's actually something that can hurt you?" Lana remarked.
"Radioactive debris from the destruction of Krypton," Clark elaborated with a nod. "If I'm in the same room with a handful of it, my powers are noticeably dampened in less than a minute. After about five minutes or so, I become essentially like an ordinary man. If I'm exposed long enough to enough of it, it can theoretically kill me. Bullets and blades made of it tend to be just as effective against me as normal weapons are against humans."
"The amount on Jordan's pills was probably tiny, which is likely why it didn't seem to cause any noticeable reaction from Clark," Lois added, "but since Jordan was actually ingesting them, that seems to have been all it took to put a major dent in his abilities, especially since he'd been taking them for years."
"Does Jon have any powers?" Sarah asked.
"He doesn't seem to yet, but I suspect it's still a possibility," Clark responded. "Lois and I will be keeping a close eye on both of our boys for at least a few years yet."
Realization dawned on Kyle's face. "Is that why you became assistant coach? To watch for any signs of special abilities on the field?"
"You catch on quick," confirmed Lois.
"Which reminds me," Clark turned to his son with a smile. "I'm proud of you for deciding to quit football after what happened. I know it wasn't easy to give that up. You can probably guess that your mom and I would've made you quit anyway if you hadn't came to that decision on your own, but I hope you also know that we would've taken absolutely no pleasure in doing it. We just…have to take your powers seriously."
"Thanks," Jordan replied, his expression thoughtful. "I just don't want to have anymore accidents, I guess. What happened at practice kinda scared me."
Clark responded with a nod of understanding. "Believe me, Jordan, I've been there. But…" He clapped his knees, hoping to supplement his empathy with some reassurance. "…that's one thing neither your Grandpa Jon nor your Grandma could ever say to me, and I still turned out…okay, at least." He accompanied the implied self-deprecation with a mirthful smile, and his attempt to finally lighten the mood seemed to work, as it earned a smirk from Jordan, warm chuckles from the Cushings and a playful eye-roll from Lois.
There would be more to talk about in the days to come, but the worst was behind them, and it had gone as well as Clark could've hoped for. In some ways, he was actually grateful for the afternoon's turn of events. Possible perils notwithstanding, he knew there would also be a bright side to the Cushings being privy to his identity. If nothing else, having a few local confidantes would likely be a welcome comfort and perhaps even a convenience. He had a feeling it would be especially helpful to Jordan, serving to further strengthen a couple of the most healing and important bonds he had managed to forge outside of his family. The future demanded vigilance, but it also promised hope.