Chapter 22: Boys, Guys, and Moms

Disclaimer: All things Supergirl/Superman and Green Lantern belong to DC. No infringement is intended.

Clark knew that his mother was intentionally keeping him away from anything involving super villains and such for the time being. Every single time Superboy had gone out into the world alongside Superwoman, they had dealt with either natural disasters or "normal" humans, be it run-of-the-mill criminals or that one time where they defended a village in South America from an actual army of drug cartel thugs. His logical side saw the sense in that; she was obviously trying to ease him into things. An earthquake or a forest fire were highly dangerous to normal people, but not for powered-up Kryptonians. Machine guns wielded by hired thugs wouldn't even make them flinch.

It didn't change the fact, though, that he was growing frustrated. Not long ago he had wanted nothing more than to go into action alongside his mother and help people with his super powers. And for the most part it was every bit as exciting and cool as he had expected it to be. People cheered when they arrived. In a few short weeks he had already managed to save quite a few lives and there was no better feeling in the world.

His mother was always there, though. Always just a step behind him (figuratively speaking, as they were flying most of the time), always watching. He knew she was doing it out of concern, but it was getting a bit tiresome. He may only be 14, but he was not a little kid, darn it! He was strong, practically invulnerable, and more than fast enough to get away from anything and everything that could possibly be a danger to him. He knew she wanted to protect him, but right now he felt suffocated.

Which was why he was thankful for their current mission. Well, not thankful that an undersea earthquake had caused tidal waves that had hit Thailand, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and India. But considering the sheer scale of the affected area, his mom finally saw no other choice but to let him operate solo.

"I'm heading south," she told him. "You head north. Help wherever you can as fast as you can. Don't linger, leave everything that isn't life-threatening to the rescue operators, focus on the things only we can do!"

He nodded, aware of the severity of the situation, but also ecstatic that he could finally fly on his own for once.

The following 24 hours were the longest day of Clark's young life. He barely ever stopped for more than a few seconds, flying along devastated shorelines and ruined towns as fast as he could, helping wherever possible, and barely staying still long enough to even be seen properly. He diverted mudslides, rescued people from flooded towns, blew out fires, unblocked roads, and generally did everything that could be done by a single person with super powers in the face of so much devastation.

His mom checked in on him over the com system in regular intervals, but otherwise left him be, as she had more than enough on her own plate. Several other members of the Justice League were also in the area, helping in whatever way they could. Clark had caught a brief glimpse of Diana earlier, as their paths had crossed and he had heard J'Onn and Adam over the coms. Still, the sheer scale of things was enough to tire out even a Superboy. So when he finally reached the far end of the devastation zone, he took a moment to set down and just take a breather.

Said breather lasted all of ten seconds, though, before his enhanced hearing picked up cries for help from not too far away. He immediately shot into the air and headed toward the source of the cries. It was a small village near the shore. The village had been lucky, at least compared to some others, in that it still existed after the tidal wave had hit. Many of the buildings were damaged, though, the ground had turned to mud, and worst of all the water had destabilized the hill on the far side. An avalanche of mud and rocks was heading towards the remains of the village. Several hundred people were there.

Superboy quickly increased his speed and dug a deep trench at the edge of the village, which he hoped would be enough to stop the worst of the avalanche. He then used his heat vision to incinerate the larger boulders in rapid succession.

Then he blinked, because suddenly a glowing green wall appeared just in front of his trench and brought the remains of the avalanche to a hold. Looking up, he quickly spotted the source of the green light.

"A Green Lantern?" he muttered, quickly taking to the air.

His mom had told him about the Green Lantern Corps, protectors of the space ways, and of Abin Sur, founding member of the Justice League, who had given his life to save her from the alien tyrant Mongul. Clark had been rather mad that his mom had initially refrained from telling him about her close brush with death.

He had also learned that a new Green Lantern would have been selected after Abin Sur's death and been told to keep a lookout for them, as they might well make their way to Earth sooner or later. Clark was surprised, though, that this Green Lantern hovering in the air in front of him seemed to be a human man, not an alien. A brief scan with his X-Ray vision confirmed it, he was human. A white man in his early twenties, he'd say, with reddish-blonde hair in what Clark considered a rather unflattering bowl cut.

"Hey," Clark greeted him. "Thanks for the help, Mr….?"

"The name's Gardner, kid," the Green Lantern replied. "Guy Gardner, Green Lantern of Earth. And you are Superwoman's sprog, right? Read about you in the papers!"

Clark frowned, not particularly caring for the tone of the other man, but put it aside. "The name is Superboy and yes, Superwoman is my mother." He managed to keep the "what's it to you?" quiet.

"Bird looks great for having a teenage son, I give you that," Gardner smirked at him.

Clark felt even more irritated now. He routinely heard comments from other teenage boys about how nice his mom looked in her skintight super suit. He certainly didn't need to hear adults aware of his being her soon tell it to his face, too, thank you very much.

"Yeah... again, thanks for your help, but there is still a lot more to do. Feel free to lend a hand!"

He started to fly off, but a moment later Gardner was flying beside him. "I think I will, kid. Looks to me like you can use all the help you can get. By the way, is your mom seeing someone? The pictures I've seen of her, I mean, wow! Don't get me wrong, Wonder Chick looks great, too, but I've got this thing for blondes..."

Clark was not usually someone who got angry. He was actually quite mild-mannered most of the time. But right now he was not feeling mild-mannered at all. He was tired, cranky, and this guy was certainly not helping it.

"Will you stop talking that way about my mother," he interrupted the other man, quite forcefully.

Gardner mockingly held up his hands. "Excuse me, kid! Sore spot there? Can't have been easy growing up with a MILF like that, I'd wager."

Growling, Clark poured on the speed, looking to put some distance between himself and the Green Lantern before he was tempted to slug him. Well, more tempted than he already was. Unfortunately, Gardner seemed unable to take a hint and kept up with him.

"You okay, kid? Maybe you should take a break. Let the adults take care of things!"

Clark's precarious hold on his temper snapped and he came to an immediate stop in mid-air, getting in Gardner's face.

"Adults like you, you mean? Where have you been the last 24 hours while we worked our butts off saving lives? I don't remember seeing your ugly mutt anywhere. So maybe YOU should take a break, Green Jerk, and let those with actual powers instead of fancy jewelry handle stuff!"

Gardner's face darkened. "Listen up, snot nose! Some of us got entire sectors of space to protect, not just one tiny little planet. I'm not going to take lip from someone barely out of his diapers."

Clark snorted. "Oh please! You have been a Green Lantern for what, six months now? I'm surprised they're letting you go out on your own without some glowing green training wheels!"

Gardner growled and his ring flashed. A moment later, a glowing green playpen had formed around Clark, boxing him in.

"There! That's more like it," Gardner grinned. "Time to act your age, kid!"

Clark growled back and easily broke free of the construct with a simple flexing of his muscles, shattering it into a dozen pieces and causing Gardner to flinch back from the mental feedback.

"My actual playpen was tougher to break out of than that, jerk!"

"You want tougher? I'll give you tougher, Superbaby!"

Green chains exploded from Gardner's ring, ready to wrap themselves around Clark, but he moved out of the way at super speed and sliced the constructs apart with a burst of heat vision. He dashed forward, looking to grab the Green Lantern, but Gardner evaded and a burst of green energy clipped him, sending him tumbling off course. By the time Clark had regained control of his flight again, Gardner was projecting a giant green hand that was about to engulf him.

Clark was about to destroy the construct with another burst of heat vision when Gardner was suddenly bowled over by a red-and-blue blur that came out of nowhere and hit him with the force of a cruise missile. The Green Lantern went tumbling down into the ground, smashing into the mud left behind by the tidal wave with a huge splash.

The blur stopped and resolved itself into the form of his mother, who looked more pissed off than Clark had ever seen her before.

"Hands off my son!" she growled at the downed Green Lantern.

Gardner slowly got up, opening his mouth to say something, but obviously thought twice about it after getting a good look at a pissed-off Superwoman whose eyes practically sparked with barely leashed fire.

"Calm down, lady! The kid and I just had a bit of a disagreement. Boy needs to learn some self-control, I'd say."

"Self-control?" Clark yelled. "You started it, you...!"

"That's ENOUGH!" Superwoman thundered, shutting them both up. "I don't care who started what; we are in the middle of a disaster zone, thousands of people are still in need of our help, and you two have nothing better to do than launch a super-powered school yard brawl?"

She turned to glare at Gardner. "Maybe Green Lantern recruitment standards have been slipping as of late, but I can tell you that Abin Sur would be ashamed of his successor right now."

"Now wait just a min..."

She flashed forward so fast it looked like she had teleported, grabbed him by the lapels of his uniform, and growled into his face. "One more word, Green Lantern, and I will take that ring off your hand along with the finger it is on, do we understand it each other?" A hand capable of compressing coal into diamonds had caught Gardner's ring hand in its grip, underlining her statement.

Gardner paled visibly. "Uh... yes, ma'am!"

"Good," she shoved him away. "Now get moving and use that ring to help people!"

Gardner gulped, but finally did as he was told and started flying away. Not without giving Clark a stink eye before he did, but then he was gone. A moment later, his mom hovered right in front of him.

"Mom, I...," he began.

"We will talk about this later, Clark," she told him, cutting him off. "We still have a lot to do. Can I count on you to focus on the job for a few more hours?"

Clark bit back an angry retort and simply nodded.

"Good, then get back to it! We'll regroup above Bangkok once we've dealt with the worst of it!"

A moment she was gone as quickly as she had come, leaving behind a highly frustrated, angry, and humiliated Superboy.

Ten hours later a lull had come over the disaster zone. The sun had risen again, allowing rescue operators to work more effectively. All the immediate threats had been dealt with by the intervention of countless volunteers, including those with super powers. Clark was more tired than he had ever been in his life and was capable of little else than just floating above Bangkok and soaking up the sunlight.

"Good work everyone," his mom told Diana, Adam, and J'Onn, who were floating close by. They hadn't seen the Green Lantern again, but there had been reports of him helping out along the devastated shoreline, so apparently he hadn't just flown off. "I think we can safely take a break now. We'll check in this evening and see if there is anything more we can do."

The other members of the Justice League nodded, then flew off, probably heading to the closest bed they could find. His mom floated over to him, looking him over with concern.

"How are you holding up, Clark?" she asked.

"Fine," he replied, not in the mood for talking.

"Good. If you are fine, then maybe you can tell me what that tussle with the Green Lantern was all about!"

Clark took a deep breath. "He was a jerk!"

"I gathered as much. What else?"

He looked at her. "He... he was talking about you. You and Diana. He..."

She nodded. "I can imagine. And you think that made it okay for you to lose your temper?"

Clark gaped at her, not believing that his mom was taking the side of that jerk Gardner against him. "He called you... he said..."

She touched his shoulder. "Clark, don't you think I've heard all sorts of stuff like this before? I can't even count the number of times some stupid idiots have called me 'Superbroad' or 'Superslut' or even worse things."

"He still shouldn't say such things about you," Clark huffed.

"No, he shouldn't. I am not taking his side, Clark! Gardner is an adult, a Green Lantern, he really should know better, but we are not talking about him. We are talking about you, Clark, and why exactly you lost your temper and decided that getting into a fight with someone was more important than helping people in need!"

Clark didn't know what to say. He was so angry, at Gardner, at his mother, and at himself, too, for losing his cool like that.

"You didn't start yelling at him for what he said about me, did you?" his mom said.

"What do you mean?" he asked, confused.

"I mean that you tried to do the right thing, Clark, namely walk away. And then he called you a child and told you to let the adults handle it. That's when you flew off the handle!"

Clark couldn't believe what he was hearing. "You... you spied on me? You listened in the entire time?"

"It was your first solo mission, Clark. Of course I kept an eye on you!"

Clark shrugged her hand off his shoulder and put some distance between them. The anger that had started to cool was surging back up, stronger than ever before.

"You didn't trust me!" he accused her. "You didn't think I could handle this on my own!"

"You did a great job with the rescue effort, Clark," she told him calmly. "I am very proud of you for that. But then you allowed an idiot to push your buttons. If your fight had escalated, it might well have caused even more damage than the tidal wave already had. With the power you and I have, we always need to be careful."

"I AM careful," he yelled. "I am ALWAYS careful! I have been careful for YEARS! I thought we were finally where you trusted me to do stuff without you constantly hovering over me! I can do this on my own!"

"Well, today you have shown me that you CAN'T, Clark!" She didn't yell, but her voice was louder than before. "This talk is over! Time to go home!"

"Stop treating my like a baby," he raged, all his tiredness and frustration coming out.

"Then stop acting like one, Clark! I am your mother and I will..."

"You're not really my mother!"

Even as those words passed his lips he wanted nothing more than to take them back, to catch them in mid-air and somehow stuff them back inside before they could reach his mom's ears. It was too late, though. All his rage and frustration vanished into thin air as he saw the expression on his mom's face. For a moment, she looked as if he had physically slapped her.

Then her face settled into a stony expression that didn't show a single emotion.

"Go home, Clark!" she said, her voice barely more than a whisper.

"Mom, I..."

"GO! HOME!"

Tears threatening to break free from his eyes, he finally did as told and flew off, back home towards Kansas. All the while wondering how he could possibly have said something so stupid!

"You're not really my mother!"

The words kept ringing in Kara's ears over and over again. She had known this was coming, of course. Clark was a teenager and while Kryptonians and humans were different in many ways, teenage hormones seemed to be a constant in both species. She had fully expected them to have a fight sooner or later and had fully expected Clark to use these exact words at some point if his teenage temper was riled up enough. She also knew that he didn't really mean them, that he loved her, and saw her as his mother regardless of their actual biological relation.

Still, she was unprepared for how it hurt to hear him say those words.

"Kara?"

She started, too preoccupied to notice that someone else was close by. Opening her eyes, she saw Diana hovering in front of her.

"I... wasn't quite out of hearing range and... are you okay?"

Kara shook her head. "No! I'm really not!"

Diana nodded and quickly gathered her best friend into a hug, even as tears sprang free from Kara's eyes.

It had been early morning in Bangkok, but given the 13 hours' time difference it was still evening of the previous day in Smallville, Kansas. The sun was just setting, but Clark was still sitting on top of the barn. He had ditched his super suit for civilian clothes the moment he got home and ever since, he had been sitting up there, his gaze searching the skies.

"Did he tell you anything?" Jonathan asked his wife.

She shook her head. "Nothing. But if I were to venture a guess, he had a big fight with Karen and is now feeling guilty about it."

"That was my take, too," Jonathan agreed, sighing. "Well, it was overdue, I guess."

"Probably. I'm just a bit worried that we haven't heard from Karen yet."

Jonathan hugged her. "She'll be all right. Probably just wants to give Clark the time to cool off. And cool off herself, too. I distinctly remember that she has a bit of a temper, too."

Martha chuckled, remembering some of the shouting matches she and her daughter had had during Karen's difficult teenage years. More often than not Clark had been the subject of their disagreements, as Karen's single-minded focus on her cousin-turned-son had worried Martha a great deal now and then. Thankfully, they had long left their fights behind them.

"They will work it out," Jonathan assured her.

"I know." She just hoped it didn't take too long. Both of their alien children could be very, very stubborn.

"You should have gone to bed!"

Clark started at the soft voice behind him. He had nodded off, it seemed. It was full dark and the stars were out. Turning around, he saw that his mom was sitting on the barn roof behind him. Like him, she had shed her super suit and was back in civilian clothing. Dark rings were under her eyes, as lack of sleep marked Kryptonians just as much as humans.

"Mom, I'm so sorry," Clark quickly got the words out. "I didn't mean..."

"I know, honey," she interrupted him, a slight smile on her lips. "I know."

When she opened her arms, Clark was quick to enter the embrace, tears of relief on his face.

"I really didn't mean it," he sobbed. "You're my mom! I love you!"

"I won't pretend it didn't hurt to hear those words," she replied, squeezing him tightly. "But I know it was the heat of moment. Believe me, I've said far worse things to Martha and Jonathan."

"Really?" he asked, drawing back from the embrace so he could look at her. "I can't imagine you fighting with them."

She chuckled. "Oh, believe me, we had some epic fights." Her face sobered. "When I was 14, like you are now, we had only been here on Earth for a year. I had barely gotten the hang of my powers, Earth was still a strange and intimidating place for me, and I... I fixated on you, Clark. You were my lifeline. Not just because you were only thing I had left from my life on Krypton. I used you, my promise to take care of you, as a way to... avoid dealing with things. Martha and Jonathan called me out on it more than once and... well, I didn't react well to that at first."

Clark didn't know what to say, so he just listened. It was hard to imagine his mom ever having been 14 like him. He knew, of course, that she had been just a teenager when they arrived here on Earth, but it was difficult for him to really see it. She was always so together, so strong. For a moment he tried to place himself in her situation. How would he feel if, a year ago, Earth had exploded, his family had died, and he had to build a new life on an alien world? It boggled his mind, he simply couldn't imagine it.

"You know it was wrong to rise to Gardner's taunts, right?" she asked him.

"Yeah," he grudgingly admitted. "He's still a jerk, though."

She nodded, smiling. "Life lesson, Clark: there are a lot of jerks out there. And as much as we would like it, we can't punch them all in the face, because if we did, that's all we'd ever do."

"I know."

She hugged him again. "I know you are feeling suffocated, Clark. I know that I am... clingy. For so long you were my entire world, my only reason for even getting up in the morning, that I... I find it very hard to let go. I promise I will work on it, though."

Clark nodded. He felt a bit like a jerk himself right now. He was well aware how many kids had it far, far worse than him (including his mom when she had been his age). That his biggest problem was a mom who tended to be overprotective was... well, it could be far worse.

"And I promise not to punch jerks in the face," he mumbled.

"Good," she agreed. "Seems we both have our work cut out for us then."

Getting up, she stretched and yawned. "Let's head inside, Clark. We both need some sleep. The situation in the disaster zone is more or less stable for now, so you're going back to school tomorrow."

"Aw, moooom!"

End Chapter 22

Author's Note: The way I see it, when Guy Gardner is not brain-damaged, flying into red-ring-induced rage, or replaced by an evil clone (yes, all of that happened to him in the comics, some of it multiple times), he is simply a jerk. A heroic, possibly loveable jerk, but still a total, unapologetic jerk. Also, I always got the impression that Guy Gardner was a few years older than Hal, though I don't think it was ever really stated. So for my purposes, he is a few years younger than Kara and Bruce, early twenties.

Also, it's really hard writing angry teen Clark, especially writing angry teen Clark trying to curse. It always makes me want to go "aaaawww" because it just seems so cute. As for the fight between him and Kara, you knew it was coming. Hope it was worth the wait. I briefly thought to include a flashback to Kara's teenage years and show her having a row with Martha and Jonathan, but it wouldn't really have fit here. Something for future chapters, as I definitely intend to write teen Kara, too.