"Well, I grew up in the city of Shayeris, which is a city within the kingdom of Atlantis" Kaldur hummed, eyes growing glazed as he stared out at the darkening canopy and reminisced on memories long passed. If he squinted just enough, the canopy above them could be the aqua horizon, the trees seaweed, the logs coral, his teammates fish. He could still picture the domed buildings of home, the sea glass that glimmered beneath the waters and the lichen that climbed over every surface it could reach. In his mind's eye he saw the colourful corals that could be seen from his window and the familiar excitement he felt whenever he had been allowed to venture into the royal capital, Poseidonis. "Surface dwellers tend to think that all Atlanteans are the same, but our kingdom has many cities, many people and many cultures"
A gentle smile flittered onto his lips as he continued, "When I was twelve, I completed my mandatory service in the atlantean military, which is something that is mandatory for all at that age"
"So young?" Robin murmured, brows shooting up in surprise.
"Mmm, after a while, I was transferred to the prestigious Conservatory of Sorcery in the atlantean capital of Poseidonis" Kaldur continued, sending a smile towards the boy wonder. He supposed for surface dwellers, entering and graduating from the military might have been seen as a novelty, or even strange. But as he'd said, that was normal for Atlantis. "Queen Mera is the Headmistress of the conservatory there, and wife of King Orin, or as you know him, Aquaman. It was a very different time for me, y'see. It was difficult, as it would be for anyone at age fourteen, I s'pose. But it was also a time in my life where I met many friends that I know will be with me for a lifetime"
Because it was there, at the Conservatory of Sorcery, that he was granted his tattoos and twin water-bearers that allowed him to manipulate water the way he did. He'd been so excited when he had first received them and in the years afterward, in which he had spent sparring under Queen Mera's watchful eye, learning to wield them with deadly ease. There had been other lessons in other subjects of course and it was only when he breached the surface for the first time, some years prior, that he found certain similarities in the magic of the surface dwellers like Fate, Zatara and Rachel.
His expression grew forlorn as he continued, not quite seeing the faces of his surface-dwelling friends that listened with rapt attention. Kaldur couldn't recall a time (over their short time knowing each other) when these selection of sidekicks had ever been so quiet or still—Wally in particular. "Then came a day, a horrible day when Poseidonis was attacked by the Ocean Master" He did his best to ignore Rachel's muffled snickering at the name of his mentor's most hated foe. A nudge from Conner had the girl quietening (but not without a childish pout gracing her lips) once more, something for which Kaldur was most grateful for. It was not a battle he particularly liked to remember. Even now, he could still picture Ocean Master as if he were standing there before him. Wreathed in black & lavender, tall and reedy like that of seaweed with a trident to match the King's own. His face had been obscured by that foreboding helmet, but Kaldur hadn't needed to see his face to know how he leered at the King. Just thinking of that wretched man still made him shiver.
"I can still remember it vividly, as if it only happened yesterday. It was the day Aquaman almost met his end. Aquaman and Ocean Master fought for what seemed like hours, and when they clashed it seemed to shake the very foundations of the seven seas. Eventually, Ocean Master had worn down our King, gaining the upper hand and nearly defeated Aquaman" Kaldur continued before quickly amending himself, "Correction: Aquaman was defeated"
"No!" M'gann gasped, completely enraptured by the atlantean's tale.
"I'm afraid so" Kaldur's lips twitched upwards at the (slightly) childish reaction, "But Garth—a fellow student—and I intervened on the King's behalf. It was the only thing we could think of doing. The danger did not occur to us, the only thing that mattered to us at the time was that our king was in trouble"
"It may have been one of the most foolish things Garth and I have ever done, as we too, nearly met our own ends. Even with our military training, we had no hope of defeating Ocean Master whatsoever. But that did not matter for we were able to stall him long enough for our King to recover. That was all the time that he needed, for when he did wake once more, Aquaman finally triumphed over Ocean Master! He was able to drive him away from the city and saved us all!"
The celebrations that day had been vast and jolly, filled with the kind of happy relief you feel when a terrible incident passes in your favour. The kind where you knew it could have gone so much worse, but didn't, the kind where the antics of naive children played in your favour (for once). Kaldur could still remember the bone-crushing hugs that Queen Mera & Tula had almost suffocated Garth & he with, not to mentioned the lectures too. Let's just say he'd learnt not to backtalk those two again, nor to get on their bad sides. Scorned women, indeed!
"But that wasn't the end, you see, because Aquaman is a being of two worlds. On the surface world he fights for the Justice League for all beings and under the sea, he is a leader to many. Each carry impossibly heavy weights of responsibilities—overwhelmingly so—and only the best of men can carry on for so long. Even Aquaman can't do both forever"
"Realising that on the surface, both Batman and Green Arrow had taken on apprentices that could one day take over their respective mantels, King Orin found himself contemplating a similar idea. With his in mind, he approached both Garth and myself with the possibility of becoming his protégées. I must admit, the possibility intrigued me immediately. I had never been to the surface world and I am the first to admit that I am a bit of an adventurer. Many was the day, in class that I would dream of visiting distant oceans and possibly one day even the surface world" Kaldur admitted sheepishly, thankful for the darkness blanketing them as it covered the slight blush covering his cheeks.
"Both Garth and I seriously considered the King's offer, but Garth ultimately chose to continue his studies with Queen mera at the Conservatory of Sorcery. For me, however, the chance to visit the surface world, was a dream come true. So at the age of fourteen, I became Aqualad. I still miss my friends, Garth and Tula…" His expression took on a dreamy quality as he thought of the people he'd left behind. A certain girl in particular, taking up most of his mind. "But the chance to work with my mentor and King was an opportunity I could not pass up. I like to think the work I am doing makes a difference"
Even now, he could still remember his first steps on land; embarrassingly wobbly like a newborn surface dweller on roller skates. He could still taste the strange tang in the back of his throat when he had swallowed oxygen for the first time. Correction: the first time he'd choked on oxygen. It had taken more than he'd like to admit to get used to the situation, and Aquaman's muffled laughter and teasings had not helped the matter. Nor had the slap on the back and the "You'll get use to it soon enough, son!"
"The rest of the story you know" Kaldur ended, coming back to himself. He blinked once or twice to return his vision back to the dark of the wood (though the porch lights of Mount Justice just barely graced the edges of their camp). The horizon of aqua returning to the canopy, the coral to logs, the fish to his teammates. "Aquaman brought Aqualad to the surface world…and now I am here, with you"
"Wow, so you wanted to be Aqualad?" M'gann chirped, practically glued to the edge of her seat. Her pupils had blown impossibly wide thanks to all the sugar she had devoured, but the s'mores collection had all but been decimated in the meantime, forcing the martian to calm down some.
Around the campfire, the rest of the Team appeared to be surfacing from his tale, just as he was. In front of him, Robin had titled his head back as far as it could go where he leant against the log, appearing to very much to be the young teenager that he was. With the dark lenses on, Kaldur was unable to tell if he had fallen asleep or not.
Next to him, Wally had slipped down to the ground, where he sat tucked in next to his best friend as he tried to coax the fire back to life. Across the way, Rachel had abandoned her skewered marshmallow to drip into the fire as she fully lent against Conner's leg. The kryptonian appeared unbothered by her touch, though she probably weighed nothing to him; like a fly sat upon a horse. "Yes" Kaldur smiled. They might not have been the friends he had left behind, but they were his friends nonetheless. "When the opportunity arose, I could think of no other path"
"Yeah? If you think that he wanted to be Aqualad so bad, lemme tell you how I got started!" Wally tossed a grin over his shoulder at the (un)impressed pair behind him. He continued excitably, throwing around wild gestures that Robin had to duck away from to avoid getting hit in the face. Rachel snickered at the action, barely even hiding it, especially when she found herself on the receiving end of the infamous Bat glare. "It literally goes back a couple of generations. Each generation of Flash started with a bang! Literally!"
"Jay Garrick, the world's first Flash, was in a freak lab accident and then one day boom! There he is! During the 40's and 50's he was everywhere! The fastest man alive! Then one day this guy comes long, a huge fan of the Flash, wanting to know all about this Jay Garrick character. 'Cause back in those days, Jay didn't really hide his identity, 'cause I guess secret IDs weren't really a thing…" Just watching the lively ginger, you could tell how excited he was to be retelling the story of his heroes and how he came to be like them.
"Anyway, he contacts Jay and the two spend hours talking about his adventures and the accident that turned him into the Flash. This guy even goes so far as to recreate the accident that created the original Flash, filling stacks upon stacks of journals with his notes. But where Jay Garrick's accident was this total freak thing, this guy recreated the accident under proper laboratory conditions. He set the whole thing up in a lab and tried to make it happen! Result? Still a big explosion! But lo and behold he becomes Speedy McSpeed-Speed himself!"
"Speedy McSpeed-Speed?" Rachel mouthed, unimpressed.
"Now he's the Flash! Well, not the original Flash, but the new Flash—the Flash we all know today! I mean, there's the Jay Garrick Flash and now there's the new Flash. You know, it just occurred to me that they could probably use different names. Anyway…This time he's even faster than the Flash! Well, the old Flash—it gave him even more speed!"
"Okay, so check this! The second Flash is a fan of the first Flash; it turns out great minds think alike 'cause I was a fan of the Flash—the second one, not the first—well, I was a fan of Jay Garrick, after I got to know him. He was little before my time, though…Long story short, one day when I was in my uncle's house, I stumbled across his notebooks and got the shock of a life time! That was the day I found out my uncle was The Flash! Once the shock passed a bit, I kept reading. He kept a journal of all his experiences and experiments! Especially the one that made him the Flash—the second, not the first"
"We get it already!" Robin snapped, tired of his friend's needless repetitions.
"Anyway, when I found that out, I kinda kept hinting to my uncle that the Flash could maybe use a partner. I then tried to convince him that Flash needed a partner; I mean, c'me on! By this time Bats already had Robbie over here and Green Arrow had Speedy! This was a no-brainer! But I've got to admit, Flash was a bit resistant at first"
The truth may have been stretched a little whenever he retold this story…but as it did whenever the memory of the real event came to mind, it made him cringe at the whiny little thing he used to be. Even now, he could still hear his own high-pitched whine asking the blonde why he couldn't be his partner and the panic that had spread across the speedster's face when he had snapped back that he didn't want a partner because he wasn't ready for that responsibility. In hindsight, it was a bit like asking the blind to lead the blind considering Barry Allen (the current Flash) hadn't even had his own powers for that long by that point.
"Does this sound confusing to anyone else?" Conner huffed with a roll of his eyes.
"Just lemme finish and then you will be confused no more, Supey!" Wally grinned, flashing a pair of finger guns at the unimpressed kryptonian across from him. "So, where was I?"
"You were just telling us about how Flash didn't want you?" Rachel prompted around a yawn, rubbing tiredly at her eyes.
"Oh yeah! So, having seen his journals—just like he saw the previous Flash's—I tried to recreate the experiment with my own chemistry set!"
"Wait—! You decided to recreate an experiment known to implode on the scientist with a middle school chemistry set in your bedroom? And you thought that was a good idea?" Rachel asked incredulously, "Were you trying to kill yourself?!"
"What? No! Of course not!" Wally refuted, furiously shaking his head. "…Though, I guess I can see how it might look like that…"
"And the experiment actually worked?" Kaldur quirked a brow at the ginger. Despite his recklessness, it must've because otherwise Wally wouldn't be sitting here, telling them his origin story.
"Well…it did work, just not at first" Wally winced, remembering the long stay in the hospital and watching his worried family through the layers of bandages wrapped around his head, as they sat at his bedside. Although the super speed wasn't there as soon as he woke, in hindsight the increased metabolism probably should have been a sign. During his recovering, Wally & his Dad had spent days raiding the cafeteria for their supply of fruit-flavoured jelly and hoarding it like squirrels in winter. He still had a couple of the stickers from whichever pop star had had a 'golden ticket' competition going on at the time.
"It wasn't until a couple of weeks later that I was off and running! I couldn't wait to show the Flash! When he saw that I had powers like him, how could he not want me as a partner?" Wally grinned when he remembered how he had literally run circles around the speedster. Barry had more or less had an aneurism in the middle of the Allen-West living room because of that. Part of that may have been because the blonde no idea how to teach a literal child how to control their super speed, when he and Jay had both been in their adulthoods when they'd first gotten theirs. It had been Iris in the end however, who had talked Barry around to the idea and Wally would be forever grateful for it.
"I can be your partner! We could make a great team! I could be…Kid Flash!"
"You guys should've seen his face when I showed him! This time he jumped at the chance to have a partner" Wally's grin stretched impossibly wide, his eyes gleaming in the firelight. As he retold his origin story for the hundredth thousandth time, he felt like he could still picture it, clear as day. How Jay Garrick, the first Flash had discovered this awesome power, and how Barry Allen, his mentor, had improved on that accidental genius. And then from there, how he, as a middle schooler, had taken those notes and improved upon them still. Unfortunately, unlike Barry, Wally wasn't faster than his mentor (a sore spot if there ever was one) but he was still faster than your average person.
"Okay, you can be Kid Flash. BUT you have to do EXACTLY as I say and when I say it!"
"Flash couldn't wait to show the world! The Flash was ecstatic! He couldn't contain his excitement! It was the greatest day in the history of the world! Why you ask—?"
"—Just for the record, we didn't—" Robin interjected, but was summarily ignored.
"—That's the day the world got Kid Flash! You. Are. Welcome!"
"Yeah" Robin scoffed, his head in his hands as they decided to just let the fire die out. "We're all thrilled you're so speed-capable!"
"What's the matter? Jealous?" Wally retorted with a grin, brows wiggling suggestively.
"Sheeyah, right!" Robin chuckled as he shoved his friend's face out of his personal space. "Jealous of you?"
"Can you tell us about how you got started, Robin?" M'gann curiously piped up, licking at her chocolate-covered fingers. Rachel perked up slightly at the question, her own curiosity burning brightly. The sunglass-wearing boy wonder was just about as mysterious as the winged mentor he followed around.
"Ha~ha!" Wally snorted aloud as he shoved his fingers out of his forehead in an attempt to mimic the bat's cowl, "Are you kidding? Bats won't even let him you his real name! Hehe~I mean, you'll probably get a better origin story out of Supey, over here"
You? Rachel puzzled, brows furrowed at the ginger's strange choice of words. Does that mean Wally knows his real name? How'd he work that one out? Did he talk Bats to death or something?
"But you already told me his story, didn't you?" M'gann puzzled, her brow furrowed. "You said that the four of you rescued him from Cadmus"
"Yeah, we did" Rachel hummed as her thoughts then turned to the turmoil that was the Cadmus mission and the subsequent fallout. Azar! Was that only two weeks ago?
"Yes" Kaldur nodded in agreement, "Chronologically speaking, Conner is the youngest at only 16 weeks old"
"…And you have no memory of things before being rescued?" M'gann asked of the clone.
"I have some memories from the G-Gnome" Conner admitted quietly as his fingers nervously fiddled with the stray strands that escaped from Rachel's beanie. "It would teach me about the world outside while I was in the containment pod"
"So you can remember things? When you were in the containment pod, I mean?" Wondered Rachel, titling her head back slightly. "Did they feed you that information telepathically? Stuff that you still remember?"
"I guess so" The kryptonian shrugged.
"Well, if you can remember what they taught you, you must've been thinking about something" M'gann added as she tried to get some kind of story out of the boy, "What did you think about?"
"You're right, when I was in the containment pod I was fed information" Conner nodded as his gaze grew distance and hard. "I didn't really start thinking for myself until after I got out"
"Well, what kind of things do you think about now?" Rachel pondered.
"…There's one thing that's always on my mind…"
"Don't you know that you're always~always on my mind~?" Wally sang cheekily.
"Dude!" Robin playfully cuffed his friend over the back of the head in an effort to quieten his antics so that Conner could continue.
"Go on" Kaldur urged, leaning forward in interest.
"The one thing that is always on my mind is…" Conner swallowed audibly and took a deep breath as if to steady himself for his confession. "Destroying Superman"
A tense and heavy silence reigned over the campsite as the clone's words sunk in. Fire-lit eyes had blown wide, shoulders grown tense and words had become caught in their throats, though Conner's ministrations with Rachel's hair had not stopped even as she had stilled beneath his touch. Afraid to look up, the clone found himself afraid of what his new friends would say and yet unable to look down where the other child of the group sat at his feet. Instead, he found himself staring off into the hypnotising dance of the flames as the Cadmus programming he'd known all his life, flashed before his eyes.
"No! Superman! What are you doing?!"
"He's going to kill us!"
Civilians screaming in terror as they gazed upon the once revered kryptonian. Fear ran rampant throughout the cities as the former hero took hostages and slammed people against the earth so hard that he broke sidewalks and shattered bones. The roads ran red, skyscrapers crumbled and glass shards fell like snow. Superman's expression was contorted into an ugly expression that did not match his usual facade.
"Stop!"
Conner would cry, hovering just above the elder kryptonian, calm and collected. Enraged by the boy's disposition the hero would explode, inciting a battle that was sure to be one for the ages. That is, if Conner were not so much stronger. Grabbing a hold of the hero's fluttering cape, Conner would throw him about, pummelling him with ease. Bones would shatter beneath his punches, the ground crumble under the pressure of two kryptonians battling it out and sometimes Superman would get a lucky shot in. But always—always—Conner would come out on top, victorious and the people would love him for it.
"He—he killed Superman!"
"He saved us!"
"Superboy! Long live, Superboy!"
And then the images would fade, fading into another lesson or memory for the clone to soak up, leaving him no time to rest. Sometimes the sounds of Cadmus would trickle in like whispers on the breeze, sometimes he would feel glass beneath his fingers instead of flesh and yet he would sleep on.
"Sir! He cracked another containment pod!"
"Incredible! Let's keep him under and get a new containment pod in here!"
"Yessir!"
"He is under, right? I mean…he's not going to wake up or anything, is he?"
"No, he's out, he can't hear you"
"What the G-Gnomes make him see must be pretty real to him…"
These memories, they weren't like the others, but they were his memories, his thoughts even if they were implanted, it was what made him, him. What made him Conner, what made him Superboy. A clone, a hero.
"Uh…come again?" Wally blinked, finally breaking the silence. "Did you just say that you would destroy Superman? One of the big guys? A Leaguer?! Rob! Can you believe this? Rob—!"
"Huh? What?" Robin blinked as he shook off his own thoughts, coming back to the present.
"Did you hear what Supey just said?"
"Uh…"
"He just said he wants to take down Superman!"
"That's um…wow" Robin blinked, just as dumbstruck as the others.
"Are you serious, Conner?" M'gann implored.
"…It's how I feel, sometimes…" Conner replied, refusing to look anyone in the eye. Though that did not stop the words from rushing from his lips. "What if that's why I was created? What if that was the only reason I was created—?"
"—That's not possible!"
"Yeah!" Wally nodded furiously, (though whether he was agreeing with the martian because he liked her or because he meant was still up for debate. He seemed genuine, either way), "Look at all the good stuff you've done so far! Remember when we took down the Terror Twins?"
"And then got ripped into by Flash?" Robin grinned mischeviously, just barely avoiding the elbow aimed for his ribs.
"Not helping!" Wally hissed through gritted teeth.
"What would be the possible reasoning behind this thinking?" Kaldur inquired, his calm tone easily masking the hushed conversation between the detective and the speedster.
"I just—I dunno what I feel…sometimes those thoughts just happen" Conner heaved a great and heavy sigh, one that rattle throughout his whole body and made his shoulders slumped towards his feet. Rachel, who had all but fallen asleep against his legs, blinked blearily up at him with those wide innocent eyes that gleamed with something he couldn't quite decipher. Understanding, maybe? Acceptance? Empathy?
"Those would be silly thoughts!" M'gann chirped, though her chipper tone sounded a little more forced than it had been a moment ago. "You should put them out of your head"
That's easier said than done! Conner huffed, fingers still carding through indigo locks (he then had to shove the urge to shudder when he remembered that the martian was telepathic).
"He does have a valid point, though" Robin absently hummed as he stared at the clone, eyes just barely grazing over the edges of the dying flames. "We really don't know anything about what they did to him yet"
"But we do know that he's one of the good guys" Wally retorted as he cleaned out the last of the marshmallows that had languished in the bag. "And we know he's a part of this Team!"
"Then again, in my world, actions speak louder than words. Superboy had proven his intentions with actions"
"Yeah! You put those thoughts outta your head, Supey!" Wally grinned as he playfully chucked one of the offending sweets at the clone's head, only for it to bounce off of his crown and land in the fire much to Wally's glee and Rachel's dismay.
"…Thanks everyone" Conner murmured, eyes barely glancing up to see the meaningful expressions staring back at him (except for Rachel who was half-asleep).
"Hey, what's up with you tonight?" Wally asked of his friend as he tipped a bagful of crumbs into his mouth and got icing sugar everywhere. "Not like you to zone out like that"
"I guess Supey's not the only one lost in thought" Robin hummed, his eyes growing glazed over once more.