Hello Doppelgänger
1
The gremlins watch over the glass incubator in a protectively surrounding it's tiny occupant. Their faces unreadable as Superman makes his way closer to them.
Superman places his hand on the glass, and the gesture jostles the sleeping infant awake. Identical blue eyes staring back at his own curiously.
"Hello," he says gently.
He's greeted with a gurgling smile.
2
"Superman," the monster disguised as a teenager greets Clark cheerily. Robin's broken body under his foot.
"Me?" The boy responds still smiling. "I'm Superboy. But you can just call me your replacement."
3
Clark rushes to see a tiny doppelgänger's in. of himself playing with Jon. Five times his height and a third of his age. His son's abductor Ocean-master passed out in a crater in front of them.
His son is safe.
"Thank you," he tells his strange fun house who flushes from the gratitude.
The boy slips Jon back into his arms, Jon wrapping his arms around his neck tightly and he prepares to leave.
"Wait!" He says. "At least tell me your name?"
"I'm Superboy."
4
The meta collar around his clone's neck shines brightly against his still slightly green skin as Captain Marvel and Wonder Woman drag him into the make shift prison room.
Superman watches from the double sided glass as the teenage boy futilely struggles against his bonds. Roaring wildly like a animal from frustration.
"Certainly spirited," he says to the dark knight beside him.
Clark heard rumors first. Then there is echoes. Signs of his heat vision there, villains ice breathed there. For a brief moments, he excites himself with the idea of another kryptonian landing on earth.
Before he witnessed video of a teenage miniature of himself blasting Atomic Skull to Kingdom Come.
It takes weeks before they manage to find him, rendezvousing with Lex. His Victor Frankenstein to the boy's Adam. Kryptonite quickly disarming him as they took him and the billionaire into the custody.
"We found this." Bruce says, holding a black case with his house symbol.
"What is it?"
"Seems the clone can't measure up to the original." Bruce says, handing Clark the package he was holding. "Lex was giving him these to even the playing field."
In his hands are a handful of stickers in the symbol of his house emblem.
"And these are?"
"From what I gather they're performance enhancers. Gives a growing boy all he needs. Flight. Heat Vision. X-ray Vision. With the added bonus of rage and addiction. Looks like he's lucky we got him when we did. A few more and he'd probably have had overdosed.
Revulsion turns his stomach at the thought of Lex's plans for the child. Each possibility worse than the last.
Slipping into the room, the roaring boy goes silent at the sight of him.
"I'm Superman," he tells the Superboy who obviously knows who he is. "And we're going to have a very long talk."
The boy does not respond looking at the stickers in his hand with raw, desperate longing. His skin still green and eyes blood shot. Superman closes the gap between them, forcing the boy to look at him.
"After we get you clean."
5
Sometimes amidst the aliens, magic, world-reaching conspiracies and good old fashioned mad science, Clark takes petty crime for granted.
Clark has been having a rough few days. The bomb that destroyed the Krolotean base the previous night had done a number on the Kryptonian's body and despite his promises to both Bruce and Diana he hadn't managed to receive any rest. Somehow he manages to get up to go to the Planet at the crack of dawn to deal with the fallout of the Luthorcorp fire that had somehow shut down half the city for the past three days. Not to mention the upcoming trial on Rimbor to clear the Justice League's name was weighing heavily on this mind.
And after a hard day's work all he wants to do was get home and sleep like the dead
So when he slips into an alley to get to Bibbo's to pick up dinner, this late January evening he's quite surprised to see a gun in face.
This was not his day.
"Hand over your cash and valuables," says the mugger, his face mostly hidden by a thick scarf and hat. He keeps his gun shakily on Clark and stretched his other hand out.
Frowning as he went through the thousands of ways he could disable the criminal at that moment but not finding a single one that wouldn't look out of place for a simple reporter. Clark sighs, closing his eyes and reaches into his pocket, promising himself that as soon as he got away from the thief he'd retrieve his belongings as Superman.
He hears the robber's voice hitch and snaps his eyes open to see the mugger's dark eyes were filled with panic. He pushed Clark aside and ran out of the alley like the devil himself was after him.
Clark looks around warily to see what could put such fear in the criminal before noticing the shadow of another person on the ground, turning around he saw he saw a empty space. Turning his attention to the sky, he gasps.
Up in the air was another him.
Correction—it was him but much younger. The boy is the spitting image of him at fourteen. He is wearing a strange white outfit that covers him from neck to toe with the House of El emblem on the front of the chest.
Since he knew for a fact Clayface was still in Arkham, Bizarro happily on Htrae and Myxzptlk still in the fifth dimension for the next thirty-five days, there was only one explanation for the boy in front of him.
He had a clone.
The idea had haunted him since he learned about his missing sixteen hours the previous five years ago, since he learned what The Light had done to both Red Arrow and Speedy. How many sleepless nights had he spent wondering if he had been a copy who had replaced the original like Roy?
But to find out they actually had stolen his DNA and made a new person from him? There weren't words for how violated he feels at the moment.
"You okay?" asks his fun-house mirror reflection, his voice much higher than Clark's. He gently descends to the ground. Luckily, it seems, he couldn't recognize him.
The answer was a resounding no. He wants to scream. He wants to get away as far as possible from the younger boy, for this to all be a horrible dream that one of villains cooked up.
Somehow he manages to take three long deep breaths to try to get his bearings.
He has a clone.
There is a boy in front of him with all his powers standing right in front of him. He knows he's walking on eggshells at the moment. He had seen what a wreck Roy had become when he learned he wasn't the real one. What if this boy thought he was the real Superman? The boy might freak out just the-
"Mr. Kent?" asks the strange boy, interrupting his train of thought.
"Yeah, thanks to you," he lies before moving to the more concerning issue. "I'm sorry but I don't think we've met. How do you know my name?"
"You're Superman's friend." the boy explains, crossing his arms.
"Did Superman tell you about me?" He asks already knowing the answer.
The boy shakes his head. "Do you know where he is?"
"I'm sorry," Clark apologizes. Feeling a pang of genuine sympathy as he watches the smaller copy's face fall.
The boy just nods and starts to lift off the ground once again.
"Wait!" He exclaims as the boy prepares to fly away. He couldn't just disappear that easily. He has too many questions left that needed to be answered.
The boy raises an eyebrow in confusion.
"D-Do you need a place to stay?"
End
not really sure where this came from.
