Here is the moment that you have been waiting for. The final chapter of Family! Enjoy!
Going on a mission with Superman was awesome. I got to watch him up close and personal. See how he worked. Sure, there were a few missteps (like teleporter being set to the wrong location), but overall it was worth it. Superman needed me. He was including me on a mission. I couldn't turn him down even if I wanted to.
What I did expect was what happened in the kid's cell. He lost his shit down there. His eyes went wild and even started to glow. Although I had a feeling he had no idea that he was doing that. He looked like a freaking demon. I watched the man just about completely lose it. He wanted to kill that wall. There was nothing nice about it at all. He reminded me of the way I was before I was rescued by the others. So full of anger, hate, and pain that he couldn't take it. He had to hit something.
I wanted to make myself known, but I decided against it. I was a little concerned that he might hit me instead of the wall. So, I let it go. Opting instead to keep watch since clearly he was no longer paying attention to anything around him. He accidentally found a room with cameras that had footage and files on my half-sister. He sat down and started to go through those files. I stood there for what seemed like hours, watching him. What I saw was disturbing. I saw a man grow more and more angry and resentful with each new video. His eyes never left his daughter as she was tormented by her captors. I know that this sounds crazy, but I swear that I saw the Man of Steel cry. Just a little, but he definitely was crying. I wasn't aware that he could cry.
Of course, I said nothing about the waterworks. I left him alone. Or at least as best as I could. We were in a confined space with six large monitors showing a horrorshow. Not evenI liked what I saw. The kid was tortured. Not physically, mind you, but emotionally. She was trapped in a strange place. Kept from her parents and her home. Given no toys or food. Receiving no human interaction besides doctors entering to draw blood or run scans. Even then they either spoke Spanish (a language that she did not understand) or did not say a word at all. The isolation would almost be enough to drive one mad. It certainly affected her father. He stood up and was about to trash the place.
Now, I would have let the man destroy this god-forsaken place if he wanted to. I did not care. However, we didn't come here for him to lose his shit. We came here to find out what they were doing to the kid and how much they knew. He had to calm down and get some perspective. So I intervened.
"And they say that I'm a hothead." I said.
Superman took a breath and forced himself to calm down. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you."
He did not scare me. He was worrying me, but not scaring me. I said, "I wasn't scared."
He turned to face me. He studied my face for a moment then finally said. "No, I suppose you're not."
He took a breath then forced himself to calm down. He turned back towards the screens and started his work again. This time he was more controlled and clinical in his examination of the recordings. His face betrayed a lot less of his feelings. It could see it affecting him, but it was less pronounced. He was in control. So, I left him be. I focused my attention on the area around us as he worked. I made sure that nothing was moving out there. It was as quiet as a grave. Which kept me on edge. I wanted to leave this hell hole as soon as possible.
I noticed a slight change in his behavior. He was going through the files and deleting everything and anything relating to his daughter's physiology. Blood, DNA, medical scans, etc. If it was about his daughter then he deleted it. Then he scrubbed the computer of anything useful. Finally, he stood up and trashed it. The last bit seemed to be more for his entertainment than any use. He seemed to delight in watching it all burn. Which was not worrying coming from Superman. He didn't look like a Supervillain. Nor was he trashing everything that he could get his hands on. Nope not at all. This was completely imaginary.
And people call me a hothead. Geez. Finally, I could take it no more. So I interrupted again:
"Um . . . Was that necessary?"
He seemed startled. It was as if he was caught misbehaving by a teacher that he did not know was there. Which was odd and disturbing. This was the man who I looked up to. The man that I called father? What in the world was going on?
"Hmm . . . it seemed like a good idea at the time."
"Uh huh."
"In any case, it seems that Cadmus was doing experiments on her. They didn't have enough time to do much. And that's all thanks to you and your team. Thank you."
My father was praising me. Really praising me? I was overjoyed but also a little overwhelmed. I wasn't used to this side of Superman. I liked it, but I wasn't used to it.
"It's not that big of a deal."
"No, I mean it. Thank you, Superboy. I won't forget what you've done."
I looked away for a moment. I didn't know how to react. How to reciprocate. It was all new to me. People didn't praise me. Least of all him. I felt almost as if I was his son. It was an awesome feeling.
I finally said, "Let's just get out of here, okay?"
He agreed and we exited the building. Not long afterward the building exploded. It seemed that we had triggered some kind of bomb. It was good that we got out when we did. We headed home through the Justice League teleporter. Our mission was over.
Once we were back in Mount Justice, Superman seemed uncomfortable again. I thought that things were going back to the way they were before. I was wrong. That was not the issue. It appeared that he wanted to ask me something uncomfortable.
"Um Superboy?"
"Yes?"
He paused for a second. "It's morning in Metropolis and I need to go home to make breakfast for the family. Would you like to come?"
I never thought he would say something like that. "You bet!"
He smiled at me. "Then let's go . . . son."
I know that this story is short, but I felt that this was a nice place to end it. A start that was more put together, the little brother scene at the end of season 1. Of course, I welcome your comments and reviews. Please share them with me. Thank you for reading!