Tempering Steel

Chapter Two: Settling

After a long night of examinations, Dinah had declared that the children retrieved from the Reach Ship would be moved to STAR Labs to make sure the alien abductors had not done any lasting damage to their victims. Their last experiment on a boy named Neutron had nearly ended the life of the Flash, so there were always chances of their being traps hidden within the bodies of the children that prevented them from being set free. Lois who was not going to leave her husband's son alone for a single moment had instantly cashed a fortnight's worth of vacation days to an irate Perry White, furious that he had lost two of his best reporters at once.

Even if the boy in question did not particularly care that she was there.

"Why are you holding my hand?" he had asked her as they walked into the STAR Labs facility. The few other children that they had come with sent her strange looks as well.

The dark haired woman looked down and saw she had instinctively grabbed it as they crossed the lab's large doors out of concern for the boy; the sterile white walls had always given her the creeps. Lois saw Superboy's impatient face and made an excuse. "I'm not a fan of labs and hospitals. I usually grab Superman's hand whenever I do. Makes me feel safe…I can let go if you want?"

The mention of her husband seemed to mollify the teen, and he mumbled under his breath, "Y-You don't have to do that."

She had spent the past few hours taking him in, his every moment and action, amazed at the differences between Superboy and Clark. A strange mirror of what her husband might have become without the kind hand of The Kents guiding him in the world. Superboy was a rather temperamental boy from what she had gathered, though how much was from the insanity of the situation wasn`t quite clear. As far as she was concerned anyone would be crabby in his situation. But there were little moments like this, where she saw echoes of her husband's gentleness hidden in him.

"Thank you," she said lightly. Taking the olive branch he had offered, she grabbed his hand tighter in response. The boy turned bright red at the action and looked away from her, finding the walls of STAR Lab to suddenly be the most interesting thing in the world while he slowly levitated higher in the air.

Yeah, he was definitely Clark's son alright.

The next morning, the children including Superboy were sent through a myriad of assorted tests. Lois, well aware from the experience she had received from her sister Lucy, growing up, had decided to reward the enduring children by picking up the unhealthiest, most fattening junk food, money could buy for their lunch.

And more importantly it was s a way for Superboy to break the ice with the children that she had not seen spoken to once since she met him.

"You're an angel," said Virgil Hawkins as he ate the piping hot fries she had laid out on a table. He was a black boy that had been abducted from his loving home from Dakota City while out with his sister Sharon. "I can't believe how good this tastes right now."

"Anything is good, when you haven't eaten in months," Tye Longshadow added as he grabbed a slice of pizza. From what she had gathered from Dinah, he had run away from a abusive home when he had been taken.

Eduardo Dorado, the son of the head scientist here at Star nodded in agreement. Lois wasn't quite sure how he had managed to be abducted like the other two or why his father hadn't told the League he was missing. But she was sure she didn't have a large part of the picture.

The last member of their foursome was a Japanese girl named Asami Koizumi with heterochromia. That was all that they had managed to get out of her, without any interpreters here at STAR. The girl coughed loudly but refused to pick up any of the milkshakes that had mere inches away from her.

"You don't want a shake?" Lois asked, offering the girl a drink. "I got every flavor."

The girl shook her head passionately, speaking in Japanese far too fast for Lois to even pick out a single word.

"She's said she's severely lactose intolerant," Superboy told her dully, having half devoured the plate of hot wings that she left on the table.

"Oh," said Lois, reaching into her bag and grabbing the soda she had bought for herself. She handed to the girl who chugged it down in thanks.

"You know Japanese?" Ed asked.

"I know every language," Superboy said haughtily.

The other four children rolled their eyes simultaneously in response and Lois had to stop herself from doing the same. They had gotten over whatever awe they had of the teenage Kryptonian within the past few hours.

Superboy was at the end of the day not a very humble boy it seemed.

Lois frowned and lightly bonked the younger Kryptonian on the head, more for the ceremony than for any physical response he would have from the gesture. It was one of the big problems from dealing with invulnerable skin.

"Be nice," she chastised. "Superboy, since you know the language. Can you ask Asami about her parents? How she managed to get abducted?"

Superboy sighed before turning his attention to the girl and started to speak Japanese. Asami mumbled a few syllables before Superboy switched back to English. "She doesn't want to say,"

Wonderful.

"Hey, so you're like Superman's girlfriend, right?" Tye asked. Superboy had instantly straightened up at the mention of his father.

"I'll have you know I'm happily married," Lois corrected. Married to Superman, but they did not need to know that.

"Yeah, whatever," Tye said. Not quite believing her. It was a response she was quite used to getting from outsiders. "What is he like?"

Superboy inched closer towards her to listen to her response, Lois found particularly endearing and Lois decided to regale the children in front of her of tales with his father.

"He's the nicest guy you'll ever meet. He's a lot sillier than he looks on TV. One time he met Metallo and…"

End Chapter