Chapter 5: Change
"It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power" – Alan Cohen"
Johnny couldn't believe it. He was flying. No, they were flying. When he took a hold of his father's hand, he found himself floating off the ledge and into the air with nothing holding him down.
Superm… his dad held him close to his chest as he flew across the world seamlessly. The last time he felt this safe and protected was when his mother tucked him into bed for the last time.
He was so confused now.
There was surprise.
There was hesitation.
There was exhilaration.
Many questions swerved in his mind as the lights beneath him disappeared in and out through a blur of colors.
His father, Clark Kent, is Superman. How could he have not known? How could he have kept it from him? More importantly, how could he have not seen it himself? Have they grown that far apart that he wholeheartedly believed that Superman and his dad were two completely separate people?
He still processed the revelation.
His dad is Superman.
Fortress of Solitude, Arctic
His dad carefully lands them atop of smooth ice. He has been completely and utterly speechless since flying off from Metropolis, he honestly didn't know what else to say.
"Wow"
Clark smiled.
"I'm sure you have a lot of questions. I'll answer every one of them"
"Just like that, huh," Johnny suddenly found himself saying bitterly. "Sorry," he added, his emotions getting the better of him.
"No, I deserve that." Clark turned and looked around the fortress. "I wasn't the father I wanted to be"
"Why?" Johnny honestly wanted to know.
"When you were born…"
"Don't change the subject"
"Do you want an answer or not?" his father returned.
Johnny quieted and realized there was a point to what he was about to say. There was a brief silence before his father continued.
"When you were born, your mother and I promised that we both would be there for you, raise you together"
Johnny could not help himself but intrude. "So when she was gone you decided that I wasn't worth the trouble"
"No, that's not it at all"
Johnny was breaking down, and he knew it. "Admit it! You look at me and you see mom and that's why you stayed away!" he spat out angrily.
"You're wrong," his dad says softly and with all the love in the world.
"Then explain it to me! Please!" Johnny begins to shake, his tears visible. He was so angry; he took it out on a nearby wall, shattering it to pieces. He looked at it awestruck. "I did that?" he says staring dumbly at his hand, putting his pain aside and dealing with the changes he felt stirring inside him.
Clark saw the pure anger and emotion in his son's outburst and understood his need to express them. "Are you familiar with Sun Spots?" he changed the subject instead to help his son understand his lineage.
"Yeah," he nodded, his temper subsiding. "They're like Solar Flares, extreme magnetism around the sun that causes increase in radiation. What does it have to do with what's happening to me. I figured now that it was just genetics." This was wear he felt comfortable most. Knowledge. He's had plenty of it.
Clark shook his head knowingly, glad that his boy is as smart as he always knew he was. "The sun's what gives me my abilities. You're ancestors thrived on a planet called Krypton. Like Earth, they too had a sun, a Red Sun."
"Is what they say true? Krypton was destroyed?" He somehow managed to ask.
"The planet's core was unstable, and it was too late for them to do anything about it"
"So they sent you away," Johnny finished for him. He's heard the stories a thousands times from classmates, friends and teachers alike. Hearing it from the source was a bit… overwhelming and a little surreal.
"Yes"
"So our Sun is changing me?"
"The flares awakened your dormant Kryptonian DNA, and in a matter of weeks, maybe even days, you're abilities will emerge. I was 15 when I learned I wasn't as normal as I thought. You're 20 now, and I don't know what kind of surprises we're to expect, I wasn't ready for this"
"I wasn't ready to lose mom either, but what can I do," Johnny retorted.
"I deserve that too"
"I'm sorry, I'm just…" Johnny's confidence begins to waver once more at the painful subject and he begins to cry. "I… I miss her dad," he cried, sniffling in-between words. "I… miss her so much." Clark closed the gap between them and held him tight. Embracing him tightly as he did when he was a small boy.
"It's okay, I'm here," he tried to soothe. "I'm sorry too, I'm so sorry"
To be continued…