Chapter 3: A dad and his responsibilities
CyberActors15: Welcome back ladies and gentlemen to the next chapter of How to Raise a Kryptonian. Before we continue on we just need a brief recap of the events of the previous chapter. Last time, we came to learn that Kevin had proposed to Gwen, additionally Ben also learned that the planet that Kara and Conner had come from, Krypton, had exploded and they were the last of their kind. With some advice from Dr Max he decided to take them in seeing that he was the only one who could.
Robin: Is that all that happened?
Gwen: Last chapter was a long one I feel like more happened.
CyberActors15: I mean sure Kara got rid of her sadness for a bit and played with Ben's Omnitrix assisted in the destruction of his apartment, but it doesn't feel important enough to mention.
Gwen: If it wasn't important why bother putting it in the previous chapter.
CyberActors15: …
CyberActors15: I don't need you to tell me how to do my job. Onto the chapter.
3 March 2008
Photographic memory is a rare gift, one which few humans and few Kryptonians possess, but those who possess this are truly fortunate. Learning and retaining information becomes as simple as breathing. It is especially incredible when learning a new language. The young Kara Zor-El or as she has been renamed, Kara Tennyson, is one of the people with this gift. Additionally like most children she has a very active imagination.
However these gifts also act as a double edge sword. The ability to learn and recall everything is an amazing talent, but it comes with the added turmoil of remembering even the worst of events.
That was what Kara experienced. Since the destruction of her home world. Nightmares would appear to her every so often. But this one was easily the worst.
Typically she watched Krypton's explosion from afar. But now she found herself on the streets of Krypton. The streets were empty, no people, no AI servants, only cracks of that weird green light. Her father called it some kind of radiation.
Kara didn't know what the word meant but she knew it took away her home.
Green flames began to grow from the green cracks. They were a little at first but they began to get a lot bigger. The bigger they got the more the city looked destroyed. Fear gripped the young Kara so she ran, trying desperately to find a place where she would be safe.
The flames seemed to notice her and chased after her, swallowing more of her home as they grew in size. However Kara was able to escape, just barely. She had escaped into her home, it should be safe here.
It was worse.
Kara saw her parents but the green cracks were spreading over their bodies. They looked at her, concern in their eyes.
"Runaway Kara." Her dad said.
"Avert your eyes Kara." Her mom added.
But Kara couldn't look away. She watched as the flames grew and consumed her parents and then the flames grew and surrounded her. There was no escape.
Kara screamed as she awoke. She was back in Ben's apartment, in the bed that had been bought for her. Even with the revelation that she was safe she began to cry, tears streamed down her face as the emotion took over her voice.
The reaction to the crying was instantaneous with Ben entering the room to see if the girl was okay.
"Kara are you okay?" Ben asked.
Kara only continued to cry as Ben called out to her, but through her crying she muttered words about her parents and how they were gone.
Ben had neither much experience with little kids nor much experience with personal trauma like the kind that Kara undoubtedly suffered from seeing her home world be destroyed so on that point there wasn't much he could help with, but he had experienced nightmares enough times to have an idea of how to help.
Kara seemed to like Ben's aliens so he might as well introducer her to another one. With a quick activation of him Omnitrix, Ben's form changed from his usual human appearance to that more reminiscent of a fairy.
"Pesky Dust." Ben called out in his new gender ambiguous form.
The fairy type alien floated over to the crying girl, and sprinkled a magical powder over the girl. Her screams quieted down, her tears stopped flowing, she began to fall back asleep and a small smile graced her face. Her nightmares had been turned back into nice dreams.
With that Ben turned back into human, satisfied with his work. It may not be much but at least it ensured that she wouldn't have any bad dreams tonight.
Ben leaned over to wipe the former tears away from her face but he hesitated. He may be taking care of Kara and Conner but, neither of them were his kids. Could he really allow himself to do something intimate like wiping away her tears. An act like that seemed like something reserved for their real parents, their real family, and a role that Ben couldn't possibly fill.
Ben retracted his hand, the tears would dry, and Kara would be properly cleaned tomorrow when it was bath time.
~00000~
5 March 2008
Kara was giggling, actually she was laughing, Conner was also giggling, Caitlin tried to act her age and hold back her laughter but even she couldn't help but let out a few chuckles.
Why? Because of Ben's face.
Ben had come to realise that babies are just like cats. If you put them on a surface instead of a baby chair then they will literally push everything off said surface, and laugh as if they did nothing wrong.
Ben's mistake was thinking 'Hey Conner is an invulnerable super strong baby, putting him in a baby chair will only cause him to break it, so I'll just put him on the counter, it will be fine.' It was not fine.
Conner with the freedom to move all over the counter knocked everything off, including the food Ben was trying to cook. Ben was unsuccessful in hiding his disappointment in himself for not seeing this coming, which resulted in his current comical face. Conner found the face funny and started to giggle, which caught Kara's attention and she started to laugh, which caught Caitlin's attention and she failed to hold it in.
Their humour at Ben's expense lasted a few minutes after which they calmed down naturally.
"Sorry Ben I shouldn't be laughing, but it was such a pure moment, that I couldn't help myself." Caitlin said.
"Yeah I think I'm going to order take out." Ben decided to ignore Caitlin's comment. "You think Pizza's a good fit?"
"For all of us?" Caitlin asked.
"Yeah I don't see why not." Ben noted.
"You can't feed a baby Pizza when he barely has any teeth." Caitlin lectured. "Conner is too young to feed solids to and that includes Pizza. Either way I have this feeling that you can't afford Pizza at this point in time."
Ben was about to retort before he immediately shut his mouth. Admittedly her comment about funding might be truer than he cared to admit. He, Gwen and Kevin had been receiving an allowance from S.T.A.R Labs, which could allow them to live sustainably by themselves for a month. It wasn't a proper salary as they weren't employees but their assisting in science projects did earn them a bit of cash. With the sudden change to Ben's life, his funds had run dry pretty quickly.
"Okay you might be right about that." Ben admitted. "But what do I do about feeding these little aliens?"
"I'll help you with that today." Caitlin said. "But it doesn't change the fact that you need to do something about your financial situation."
"I'll ask S.T.A.R Labs if they can increase the money… that's a bad idea isn't it?" Ben spoke.
"You need to get yourself a Job." Caitlin spoke again. "S.T.A.R Labs won't be able to pay your expenses for you forever."
"This is true." Ben noted. "But how do I get a job when I have no high school qualifications, no university degree or diploma, or anything that really shows that I exist in this universe?"
Caitlin handed Ben a flyer. No one could claim that she wasn't prepared, as Ben had come to realise that Caitlin Snow, is always prepared.
"It's not the best job out there, but this is a good start. Best thing about it is that it won't ask questions about background. Additionally, you already love them so why not work for them?" Caitlin said.
~000000~
10 March 2008
"Hello and Welcome to Mr Smoothy. My name is Ben Tennyson and I will take your order today." Ben said.
On the 6th, as per Caitlin's suggestion, Ben applied to work at Mr Smoothy and unsurprisingly he was accepted almost instantly. Admittedly the recommendation letter from a certain bio-engineer/bio-chemist/biologist from S.T.A.R Labs did help secure his job. The 8th was training for Ben to ensure that he fit into the chain of business without causing disruptions and today was officially his first day working, as he was asked to start working on Monday, which was today. Ben being a frequenter of Mr Smoothy, since his teen years, and since he arrived in this Universe, immediately knew the level of charisma which was expected from the employees to sell the smoothies. Additionally his experience making smoothies when Mr Smoothy was temporarily closed (long story short, back on his home world a rogue To'kustar stepped on the only Mr Smoothy) led him to immediately be given a pretty good job within the Smoothy bar.
Just as Caitlin said the pay was enough that it would be able to keep a family of three alive which was essentially what Ben needed for the time being. Add the allowance from S.T.A.R Labs and the Tennyson Trio should be able to survive comfortably for the time being.
Speaking of which, on account of Ben needing to watch over Kara and Conner and needing to work at his job, he used the Omnitrix to allow himself to be in two places. Thanks to Echo-Echo and an Omnitrix failsafe, added by Azmuth, Ben was able to make a clone of himself that wouldn't have a deviant personality. So while he worked he could also take care of the kids. He was basically a stay at home guardian who also worked a 10 to 6 hour job.
Speaking of which his duplicate was currently getting Kara and Conner registered as Tennyson's who were living with him. Getting official birth certificates and so on and so forth. They were being registered as Ben's adopted children with deceased parents who had asked Ben to take care of their children. It was weird to think about but with that registration, Ben would be known as a single father of two. Of all the titles that Ben expected to have, that was still and would continue to be the most surprising. Either way that wasn't important now.
What was important was Ben doing his job.
"May I have your name please?" Ben asked the customer in front of him.
"Bruce. Bruce Wayne." The customer responded.
The customer was this black haired blue eyed guy who was around Ben's age, maybe a year younger, around 23 years old.
"Bruce, huh? Pleased to meet you." Ben said.
There weren't much people in Mr Smoothy right now so Ben had the time to start a conversation.
"So you look like you've just come back from an epic adventure. Anyplace interesting?" Ben spoke.
True to his word Bruce looked like he had just come back from a trip to a place that was definitely out of the city. He wore this rugged adventure look that had an almost Middle Eastern vibe to it. Additionally the backpack on his back, looked like one which was intended for travel. Plus he pulled out a few different notes different from the US notes, before he paid, all signs of an intrepid traveller.
Bruce let out a low chuckle, but Ben could tell that it was more for appearance sakes, as if he had lost the ability to genuinely smile long ago but didn't want people to feel sorry for him. Ben always was pretty good at reading people, so he was certain that this Bruce Wayne was angry about something.
"That obvious?" Bruce asked. "I have done some traveling. I thought it would be nice to leave Gotham City for a bit, and see the world. I've been to Mexico, Brazil, South Africa, Japan, China, South Korea, Egypt, Vietnam, Thailand, Afghanistan and Nanda Parbat just to name a few."
"Wow must have been a hell of a trip." Ben commented. "When'd you leave?"
"10 years ago." Bruce mentioned casually before he noticed Ben's expression. "I had a whole bunch of tutors in every country so I kept up with my studies. But now I'm back and ready to see my home again."
"Dang dude…" Ben commented, sure he had gone to space on multiple occasions but admittedly his exploration of the rest of his world was laughable at best. "So what are you going to do now that you are back?"
"I guess, head back to my family company." Bruce said with a shrug. "I am supposed to be its CEO after all."
"Well good luck with that." Ben said as he handed Bruce his smoothie. It was blackberry flavoured. "And Welcome back to America."
"Thanks." Bruce said before hesitating. "Thanks for the chat. Also nice watch."
"Thanks it's a one of a kind." Ben said.
With that Bruce walked away towards the limo that was waiting for him, likely to take him back to Gotham City. He seemed like a cool guy, if not a little distant. He did answer Ben's questions but, Ben felt that he was still acting somewhat distant. That was fine, the guy was going to Gotham anyway and this would probably be the last time Ben ever spoke to or interacted with the guy.
Ben didn't realise at the time, but that train of thought couldn't be farther from the truth.
The rest of the day that Ben worked was pretty normal, he had a few customers at different times of the day and there was obviously the rush hour traffic which brought in a lot more people. While he was at work he even met another rich guy around his age, Lex Luthor, and young reporter, Lois Lane. Funny how many interesting people went past a small little Mr Smoothy, especially taking into account that Mr Smoothy wasn't as big a brand as it was on Ben's Earth.
~00000~
March 13 2008
Ben groaned as he read the letter that had been given to him by his neighbours.
"What's wrong son?" Dr Max asked.
Ben was currently back in S.T.A.R Labs, Caitlin had called him in simply because she wanted to show off her findings from when she took blood samples and scans from his ice aliens. Verdona and Dr Max were present as well as they were looking to see the fruits of Caitlin's research as well as assist in any way they could.
Ben had taken the letters that had been delivered to him so that he could read them and reading them all confirmed one thing.
"People can be such snobs." Ben groaned. "Why do they hate children so much?"
The letters were all complaints about the sudden increase in noise on account of having two children living in Ben's apartment. Conner being a baby meant that he was likely to cry a lot, and with those lungs of his he could cry for hours without end. Kara, although not as likely to cry as her younger brother, since she could just say what she wanted and could get attention with words, also cried whenever she had nightmares. Beyond that the two children were just obviously loud, as children where when they played.
Obviously the noise had started to get to Ben's neighbours, quite a few of which were around his age (university students) and didn't realise that raising children would be a loud endeavour. Some of the neighbours were older, but they were the type of older who were either newly wedded or those people who didn't want kids in their life, they had similar complaints. There were a few who didn't mind but there was a greater majority who did not like loud children in their apartment building.
That wasn't the only problem with the apartment in relation to Kara and Conner being there. As Ben had come to learn, both of the two were high energy balls, which meant they liked playing. It was natural, they were children after all. But his apartment did not have enough space for children to be children and run around and play. There was also the problem of the two breaking a lot of stuff, but in the grand scheme of things it wasn't too bad considering Ben could go Clockwork and reverse time on the damage done.
"Probably a good idea to move out of your apartment" The elder ice sister, Crystal Frost, said as she walked past Ben.
"Oh yeah sure because it's that easy." Ben retorted dryly. "I'll just walk on over and buy a house with my meagre salary."
"I'm sure the great hero from another world could manage to find a way." Crystal taunted. "You could sell those diamonds that you create as Diamond Head. Instant Millionaire."
"Yeah I could do that, and I could destabilise the economy in the process." Ben commented.
"What economy? You are the only person capable of producing those types of crystals. You would quite literally be the economy." Crystal noted. "I'm sure any of your other aliens could help you get millions in no time."
"You're not wrong about that." Ben commented. "But I would prefer not to use my powers like that. Fun things and protecting people, sure, but to make an easy million? No thanks."
"Well if you want to be so noble, you could always ask Caity to help you." Crystal teased. "I'm sure my baby sister would accept any reason to help you and your babies out."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Caitlin spoke up from her station.
Crystal gave a sly smirk.
"Wouldn't you like to know?" She said. "I mean you and Ben spend so much time together, and it seems you're always helping him out. Sometimes I wonder why that is."
Before the conversation could advance any further, the three twenty-somethings were interrupted by Verdona and Dr Max. It's more accurate to say that Verdona stopped the discussion. No matter what universe, the Anodite woman could stop bickering anywhere she was present.
With the three being brought back to being silent, they proceeded with the important work, which included Caitlin explaining her findings and the discussions regarding the different Alien DNA and how there were similarities to human DNA. During that discussion Ben and Omni explained additional information about the respective ice aliens.
After the discussion about genetics and genomes, Ben was stalled from leaving by Verdona and Dr Max.
"It seems you have quite the predicament young man." Verdona spoke. "We have an idea of how to help you."
"I may not have had the chance to raise children of my own, but I understand your struggles Ben." Dr Max explained. "That's why I would like to offer you something to help with your needs."
Dr Max went onto explain that in his days as an Army Scientist he was given a safe house of sorts in metropolis, one that could act as a regular unassuming house but also doubled as a secure bunker, one which had almost become more secure with the addition of technology from Verdona's ship when she crash landed on the planet some time ago. Making Dr Max's safe house high tech was the least she could do after she accidentally opened a boom tube and crashed a ship right into the house.
Dr Max admitted to never using the house, much, it was a gift that he could potentially use for retirement or something along those lines but Dr Max actually preferred a mobile home or a beach house or a country side house as opposed to the alien enhanced house in Metropolis.
Dr Max explained that it wasn't in the CBD of Metropolis like Ben's current apartment, but in a more suburban area. It was close to a few schools, should Ben decided to put the Kryptonian children in a school, as well as had plenty of space for children to play. It was connected to the more nature orientated part of the city so there were more trees and mini forests around the house, so privacy was a bit higher there.
It was surprisingly perfect. Ben didn't hesitate to accept. Hey if the offer was available and for free, then Ben would be a fool to turn it down. There was only one condition, although it wasn't used to often, Dr Max and Verdona would come by and stay there every once in a while and even host events there, as it was close to one of the S.T.A.R Labs facilities, and they wanted to be able to keep their ability to do that. Beyond that the house was Ben's to do as he saw fit, something which Ben eagerly accepted.
~00000~
March 15 2008
Ben's jaw dropped. Dr Max told him that it was big, but this was bigger than he expected. The house was a three story house, not a mansion or a manor or anything like that but still big in the grand scheme of things. Definitely bigger than the pay check he was currently getting would allow him to afford.
"I don't know what Dr Max did to get this, but I'm thinking of enlisting in the army, so that I can get something like this." Kevin commented as he also gawked at the building.
"Same here." Ben commented.
"But this house is already yours." Gwen added.
"I mean, you're not wrong."
Today was moving day and Gwen and Kevin were helping Ben, Conner and Kara with moving in and setting up. Admittedly it wasn't like the trio had too much stuff to move but still the sentiment was nice. However the trio weren't expecting the house they saw. Quite frankly it was everything Dr Max said and more.
"Shall we get to work boys?" Gwen asked as she rolled up her sleeves.
"No time like the present." Ben responded as he mimicked his cousin's actions.
They had all arrived early in the day for the sole purpose of working on the vacant house. It may be barely used but that meant it was barely decorated. The three adults would spend most of the day working on fixing up this home to be liveable for Ben and his two kids. Luckily, they had the advantage of powers and an alien watch to help them out.
Gwen's magic and Mana manipulation worked wonders to bring the small amount of furniture into the house. Kevin's days of engineering and Ben's smart aliens worked wonders for figuring out and improving the alien technology in the house. At the same time they alternated shifts in terms of watching and taking care of the kids, which consisted of playing with them and or teaching Kara English.
By the end of the day the house was cleaned up and the furniture had been brought in, even though there wasn't nearly enough to fill the house. To celebrate the three adults and Kara enjoyed pizza and ice cream, Conner, being unable to eat solids, just happily ate pizza flavoured baby food.
Kevin and Gwen eventually left. They would have stayed over, if there had been enough adult sized beds but there weren't so they left, with the promise that they would come back and see how the little family was checking in.
At the end Ben was satisfied. Kara and Conner were both asleep, in their own rooms, both of which were being monitored by the resident AI, Omni, whom Ben and Kevin and connected to the house's electrical and digital network, and he had had a good meal after spending the day with his cousin and best friend.
It would have been the perfect end to the day, however, it wasn't. The day didn't end for Ben until much later that evening when he learnt of Kara's crying.
It would appear as though she were having another nightmare. And it was keeping her up and causing her untold levels of fear.
Ben immediately came by to comfort the poor girl but through her tears she couldn't find much comfort. Ben considered using Pesky Dust again, the dream controlling alien could make this situation several times better but he decided against it.
The reason being, Kara was crying about being alone. She was afraid of being alone and Ben feared that leaving her with good dreams wouldn't change that, so he decided on a different plan.
Waking up the crying girl, Ben consoled her over a bowl of ice cream and he talked with her and listened to what she had to say. Kara didn't want to talk about what made her sad so instead she spoke about Krypton before the explosion. Ben accepted and listened whole heartedly to the tales of the alien world from the three year old girl.
After their late night chat, Kara was able to calm down considerably however she still retained a miserable air about her.
"Can sleep with you?" Kara asked trying to use the English which she was learning. "No want be alone."
Ben hesitated. The last thing he wanted was to do anything wrong and typically sharing a bed with a child that wasn't yours or related by blood was something many would consider wrong. But Ben rid himself of those thoughts when he looked at the terrified girl. Regardless of whether it was right or wrong, Kara needed emotional comfort. And even though he wasn't her real dad, he had agreed to take care of her and Conner. He had adopted the two, and he went through a lot of effort recently to ensure that they had a good place to be. Their biological dad, he may not be, but a dad he was, as weird as it was to admit.
"Sure." Ben said.
A smile graced Kara's features. Her fear of being alone would be halted for tonight.
"Thanks Papa." She said with a tired yawn as she switched between Kryptonian and English.
Ben never thought that he would hear those words and quite frankly hearing them made him smile.
Robin: I am trying to comprehend what just happened.
Gwen: I am not going to lie, this chapter made me happy.
Robin: Those were some cute family moments. But to me the biggest surprise was Ben running into Young Batman.
CyberActors15: Not even. The Bruce Wayne that you saw in this chapter is Pre Zero Year, when he first gets back from traveling around the world. He isn't Batman Yet. And as for the Family moments, it took some time but I think I did a good job with them.
Gwen: I feel inclined to agree, but since you are writing my character in the story, I am biased towards your thoughts.
Robin: So what will happen next? Read, Review, Favourite, Follow and Stay Whelmed to find out.