Batman told Barry to take me home while he dealt with Vandal and Desmond. Barry brought me to a place in the watchtower that had what he and the others called a 'zeta-beam'. As we walked into it, a bright shine surrounded us with a voice saying 'Flash 04, Aaron A21'. Suddenly I found that instead of the watchtower, we were now in a phone booth within an alley. We stepped out and I asked, "How…?"
"The zeta beam's are basically teleports", he answered, "saves time getting places rather than plane or super speed." I nodded in acknowledgement. "Hold on a minute, I've gotta quickly change", he said. He then held out his hand where normal clothing randomly appeared before Barry started what I could only describe as a 'speed spin' consuming the clothes before stopping to reveal Barry back in his day clothes. "Let me guess, magic", I sarcastically commented.
"No", he chuckled, "but good guess. Now let's go home, Iris has been worried sick about you, although I'm not sure how she's going to react to 'Superlad' (making a quote signal with his fingers) and the…preference thing." "Wait a second, Iris knows!", I exclaimed. "of course she does; if your a superhero in a marriage, it's hard to keep the secret for long." When he puts it like that, it does seem kind of obvious. "What about you, how are you taking it?", I asked as we walked, "I mean a few days ago, you take me in and now you find out I'm half alien, I'm surprised you're not…freaking out or acting surprised." "Oh trust me, I am", Barry laughed, "but after all this time you learn to stay calm through unexpected twists. Unfortunately, I can't say the same for Iris."
"Yeah I wouldn't blame her", I said, "I mean if it was me in her shoes, I'd be majorly surprised." As we walked through the hot, sun filled neighbourhood nearing the house, I came to a realisation. "Wait, how are we gonna tell Iris about the superpower thing?", I asked, "I mean it's not like we can walk in and shout 'Hey Iris, today I became a superhero and by the way I'm into boys.' now can we?"
As we pondered on the question, we didn't pay attention to the house door opening to reveal the person in question running towards us. "Oh Aaron, thank God", she said grabbing me into a bear hug, "I was so worried, are you ok?" "Iris…can't breath", I rasped. She released me and was now facing Barry, "where was he?" "Um Iris, can we talk about this inside?", he requested. Iris looked confused but I instantly knew what Barry was gonna say. "Sure", she agreed and we entered the house with Barry closing the door behind him. "Barry, what's going on?", she asked Barry as he guided her to sit down before doing so himself.
This was gonna be an interesting conversation.
"Well Iris, when we found him, we found out that he was taken by Vandal Savage", he began to explain already earning a gasp from Iris, "when we found him, Savage revealed to us that Aaron is not exactly the person we though he was." Iris' attention diverted to my standing form with a questioning look, I could already anticipate her question, "when I was born, half of my DNA is kryptonian - the same species as Superman." Her reaction was normal, her face stood in shock.
"Wait what?", Iris was taken aback leaning closer to Barry, "I thought Clark was the only kryptonian left after what happened to his home." "Not anymore apparently", he said, "but how Aaron turned out half kryptonian is anyones guess."
"Um, actually…", I interjected, "I can help out with that part." This caused the couple to turn to me with questioning looks on their faces. "Right before my grandma…", I choked trying to find my next word, "died, she called me over to her to explain how her husband, my grandpa was actually from the planet Krypton." Iris was quiet for a few seconds. "But wait", she said breaking the silence, "what would a kryptonian be doing here on Earth; I thought it was gone." "That part I don't know", I replied, "but I'm hoping to find out."
"In the meantime", Barry continued, "the league has decided that it would be best that Aaron learns to control his abilities and fighting techniques in case anyone else comes after him." I saw Iris stumbling with her words as it was obviously troubling to her. What would happen next would be one of two things: anger or confusion…really hoping for the latter on this one. Luckily, I made the decision to go.
"I'm just gonna go up to my room", I slowly said as I backed towards the stairway, "and leave you guys to process this." I looked to see Barry with a pleading face that clearly asked not to be left alone to talk to Iris. Sorry Barry, but no way am I getting involved in this talk more than i have to.
I turned around and quietly ran to my room, closing the door allowing to release a sigh of relief I hadn't realised I'd been holding in. As I walked away from the door, I could still hear the whispers of Barry and Iris conversation emanating from downstairs. I got onto my bed and my mind began to reflect on the past few days: I got kidnapped, got rescued, became an official superhero and now I'm trying to go to sleep while my carers are currently deciding what to do downstairs.
Then, I begin to hear just a faint shout causing me to shoot up. "But Barry he's just a kid", a voice that was obviously Iris shouted. "So was Clark when he was growing up", Barry countered, "at least, if Aaron does this, he'll have a mentor to help him." As much as I was interested in hearing the outcome of this debate, I found it rude to be hearing in on it, so I quickly put on my headphones on the loudest volume I could and just listened to music until a deep slumber overcame me.
When I opened my eyes, I felt my eyes stinging in the glow of the radiating light of nature coming from my bedroom window causing me to raise a hand to shield myself. I groaned as I slowly stood up from the bed followed by a morning stretch. I walked over to my phone which lay on my desk to see the time, 8:30AM. "It's too early", I commented to myself. I was about to go back to the bed when a delicious smell filled my nostrils. "But I can be up for breakfast", I added as I exited my room and made my way down to the kitchen to find Barry cooking what created the juicy odour which attracted me to the room. "Sausages and bacon?", I asked causing Barry to face me.
"Yeah", Barry smiled, "good guess." I sat down at the table as he placed down a plate in front of me. "Yeah", I said, "people always said I had a nose like a sniffer dog growing up." "Well it seems they weren't lying", he replied as he sat down with a plate himself, "if so, whenever we lose the keys we'll have our very own tracker to find it using the power of smell." We laughed but unfortunately, the events of yesterday decided to come back. "Hey", I whispered, "what happened last night Barry?"
He sighed. "We talked", he answered, "after you left me alone to deal with that…" "Sorry, but that conversation was a time bomb waiting to happen.", I interrupted. "That doesn't mean you leave me alone to deal with it!", he exclaimed.
"Regardless", he continued, "she was a little hesitant at first but I think I managed to convince her to allow…Superlad - still think it's a weird name though." "'Lad' means young man", I argued taking another bite of my sausage, "I don't want people to think of me as a boy. Plus it worked for Aqualad."
Before Barry could give a response, we heard a creak from the stairwell and turned to see Iris slouching over to the fridge and preparing a bowl of cereal. We didn't say a word as she sat down and began eating. She looked a little off, instead of a smile and joyous glow, she had a slight frown and hanging eyes.
"Morning", she mumbled. I looked to Barry and even he shared a puzzled look at the tired red-haired woman. "Um, morning Iris", I greeted, "are you alright?" She only responded with giving her eyes a rub and straightening up in her chair before speaking, "I'm fine, just had a late night is all."
"Was it something at the GBS?", Barry inquired, "were they having you look over something?" "No", she answered, "I was just thinking about last night." We struggled to find what to say next when I bluntly asked, "d'you wanna talk about it?" "I do", Iris replied as she took her bowl and spoon over to the dishwasher, "just maybe when I'm more awake first." With that she walked upstairs leaving me and Barry to talk in a little less…depressing atmosphere.
"Was she like this before", I asked. "Yes but it's extremely rare, meaning the 'Superlad' topic must've been big for her.", Barry explained, "I mean when she find out about me being the Flash, I wasn't able to talk to her for a few days." I groaned as I lightly slammed my head into the table hoping it would knock me out so I wouldn't have to face a probable awkward situation. "Don't worry", Barry comforted me, "it just means she need some time to process."
As the day passed, I grew more anxious as Iris still hasn't talked to me, even when she passed by or when I entered the room. Finally, just as we finished dinner, Iris cleaned her face with a napkin and asked, "Barry can I talk to Aaron alone please?" He agreed and exited giving me a silent good luck as he left the room, putting me in the same situation I had put Barry in just the previous day.
"Aaron…", she began, "I want you to know that, when Barry came home telling me about you and how we should take you in, I was excited." I nodded as she continued, "and when we took you in, I made a promise to keep you safe and look after you to the best of our ability and be the best mother I could be and love you with all my heart." "I intend to keep that promise.", she stated before bringing me into a hug.
"It's just that when I learned about the superpowers", she explained, "I was surprised and scared because if you do this, I won't be there to protect you and now I have to worry about whether the 2 of you will come home or not and that terrifies me." I was a little shocked to say the least, from the way she acted, she seemed like the happiest and care free person you'd ever meet. So I hug her back.
"I understand", I replied, "really I do, because I've lived it." Iris released me and I continued. "On the day my family was killed, the last thing I said to my parents before they left was 'see you later' my usual response cause it was the same every time. But that day, those became my last words to my parents as they left. They never came back." I hadn't noticed the slight tears forming in my ears as I finished and as I felt the them run down my face, I saw Iris' face even more saddened.
"I'm sorry", I apologised, "it's just I understand your feelings about this but I also want to help people, to protect them from people like CADMUS or the other villains like Cold or even Joker…I want to do this." Iris just nodded and said, "I understand but that doesn't mean I'm fully on board, but maybe it won't be bad with Barry there to look after you." I smiled, "yeah, but it's kind of weird that my carer be a speedster while I'm kryptonian, I mean what are the chances of that?" We chuckled. "To be honest, I'd never even think of the possibility of that happening.", Iris admitted. "Me neither", I agreed.
"So when will you start?", Iris asked. "According to Batman, starting next weekend Barry will take me to the watchtower and I'll take superpower lessons from Superman and fighting lessons from Batman and Black Canary.", I explained. "You've got your work cut out for you, Superman will be ok but Batman and Canary have tough training regiments.", Iris commented. "Thanks that was a real confidence booster", I joked. "Don't worry", she reassured me, "you'll be fine and you'll make a wonderful superhero." "Thanks Iris."
Suddenly I noticed a block of blonde hair peaking out from the stairwell. "You ok Barry?", I asked causing Iris to turn and stare at the same block of hair I saw which now revealed the man in question. "Just wondering", he said, "have you guys finished yet because I was hoping to get something from the fridge." "We've literally just had dinner", I replied. "Don't worry about it", Iris answered for Barry, "because of his powers, he needs to eat a lot of food to keep up with it."
"And he doesn't get fat", I was surprised, "Barry, you gotta give me some tips." He laughed, "Unfortunately not Aaron, you see, my super speed causes me to digest my food faster than I can eat it so I have to eat a whole lot of food or my body will start eating itself." I was surprised, which was quickly becoming a common emotion nowadays, "well that isn't a creepy thought at all." "Think about how we feel", Iris contributed, "can you imagine the bills we get for all the food we have to buy. It'd be enough to afford a mansion." She began to laugh which began a series of giggles and laughs between the three of us.