Rating: T

Where else can I find this story? All five parts are on the first page of Part 5 of the original Young Justice Anon Meme on LiveJournal.

Summary: Lex Luthor is in prison, and Superboy is given a mission to protect the man who put him there: Clark Kent. But what Conner doesn't know... (Part V of Masks, from the Anon Meme).

Hero

Masks, Part V

Chapter 2: Conner in Metropolis

The next person to figure it out, like Batman predicted, is Lois Lane. On the third day he's in Metropolis, she marches up to him in the park, pushes down the newspaper he was looking through, and asks, "Ok bub, who are you, and why the hell have you been following Smallville for the last three days?"

He blinks at her, then, just like Batman told him: "Hello Ms. Lane, my name is Superboy, and everything I say is off the record." Ms. Lane seems a little confused, like she really wasn't expecting this. While she's still off-guard, he pulls the biography of Jor-El that Artemis gave him for his birthday [1] out of his bag and a felt marker out of his belt and asks, "Could you please sign my book?"

Ms. Lane smiles. "Not if everything you say is off the record."

"Oh." He puts the book back in his bag.

She sits down next to him. "So, Superman's looking after Clark?"

Conner shrugs. "I don't know. The League sent me, but neither Mr. Kent nor Superman know."

"Your dad doesn't know that you're in Metropolis?"

"He's not my dad."

Ms. Lane doesn't answer for a while, then she says, "So, why is everything off the record?"

"Because Batman said."

"You do everything Batman says?"

Conner shrugs. "The last time I went against his wishes, Luthor pumped me full of kryptonite."[2]

"That was the red kryptonite incident where Superman threw Batman against a wall, right?"

"How did you—

"Superman told me. Off the record, but he told me. You know, it was a huge PR problem for him, and I needed to know the whole story to help him spin it, even if I couldn't exactly publish the fact that there's a little red rock that makes Superman act like a monster. You know I asked your mentor to—

"He's not my mentor either."

"Oh. But you are a sidekick?"

"The others don't like that word."

"No?"

"No."

"Well, but you are related, right?"

Conner shrugs. "We share some DNA, if that's what you mean."

"I see," Ms. Lane answers, and Conner really doesn't know if she does. "So, we don't often see you in Metropolis. Where do you go when you're not here?"

"Missions. Gotham, Central, Star, you know, where the other young heroes are based. Then, home, of course."

"And where would that be?"

"Rhode Island."

"That where your mom lives?"

"Haven't got a mom."

"Oh. I'm sorry."

He shrugs again. "It's ok. A lot of my friends are missing parents too."

"Which ones?"

"Batman probably wouldn't want me to tell."

Ms. Lane frowns. "He's really got you wrapped around his finger, hasn't he?"

"Batman is a good friend, a kind mentor, and a great leader. He gave me some advice, and I think it'd be wise to follow it."

Ms. Lane chuckles, "Batman? Kind? Hard to imagine tall, dark and scary that way."

Conner smiles. "Yeah, Batman's scary. But he cares."

"I guess you can't run around a town like Gotham and not be scary. Though I think he's lightened up a bit since he got the kid."

"Robin's great too, but he's kind of scary in his own way."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah, I mean, Robin's biologically the youngest of us, you know, of the new generation of superheroes, but he's been at it the longest. I've only been on the scene for a little over two years. He's really smart too. I'm not that smart."

"Don't sell yourself short, kid. So, is it Batman who sent you to look over Smallville?"

Conner stays silent.

"No comment?"

Conner just smiles.

"Batman's trained you well. You know, I've interviewed him a couple of times. He saved my life once in Gotham. Scarecrow's fear toxin is nasty stuff. I finally hounded him into giving me an interview that day." Ms. Lane smiles proudly, "I was the first reporter ever to get an exclusive interview with Batman. Vicky Vale wanted to kill me." Then she frowns again, "But I didn't get anything interesting. The only reason we published the interview at all was just so we could say we were the first to speak with Batman. He talked about the crime statistics in Gotham, and how he felt like he could do some good in the world by taking up the mantle of the bat. Really, nothing interesting. But that's the problem with Gotham, people are paranoid because all of the crazies."

Conner smiles. "I know all about Batman's paranoia."

"Sounds like there's a story behind that."

"Oh yes. But not if you won't sign my book."

Ms. Lane laughs. "You know what, kid? I like you."

"Does that mean you'll sign my book?" he asks hopefully.

"Lemme look at it."

He hands it to her.

"Did you get this second-hand, or something? Because, you know, I don't get royalties that way."

"Oh, no. It was a gift for my birthday, but it was new then."

"How many times have you read it?"

"A lot."

"How come?"

"It's good."

"Yeah. So's War and Peace doesn't mean I've read it more than once. Heck, I haven't even read Harry Potter more than once."

"Well…" he pauses. He doesn't know if he should tell her, but she's Lois Lane, and Batman said she was honorable, and she's friends with Clark Kent and Superman… "You know, there aren't a lot of ways for me to connect with… well, with Krypton…"

"Superman hasn't shown you the crystals in the Fortress, has he?"

"Ms. Lane, I've met Superman four times in my life. Twice he ran away from me, and… well, I haven't seen him since the Luthor incident."

She puts her hand on his head and ruffles his hair. "Stay out of trouble kid, and take care of Clark. Don't let Luthor get him before I can repay him for locking me out of a story." Then she gets up and leaves.

She's back the next day, however, with a pizza. "I didn't know what kind of pizza you liked, but I figured you can't go wrong with pepperoni. Unless you're a vegetarian… You're not a vegetarian, are you?"

"No. And that, like everything else, is off the record."

"Sheesh kid. You've been hanging around the Bat too long, you're as paranoid as he is. But don't worry. I'm not here as a reporter. I'm here as a friend of Clark Kent. If you're protecting him, you're entitled to pizza. Even if he is a no-good-lousy rat."

Conner takes a slice of pizza. The cheese is hot and gooey and there are deep puddles of orange grease filling up the little crevices of the melted cheese. It's the kind of pizza that Wally would devour and Robin and Artemis wouldn't touch. "Mmmmm! he shouts out. "This is the best pizza I've ever had!"

"I know. Best pizza in the world comes from Arturo's, down the alley from the Planet building."

"Oh, wow, I have to bring W—Kid Flash here to eat this. He could eat five pies of this."

Ms. Lane raises an eyebrow. "He might die of a heart-attack if he did that."

Conner is about to respond that Kid Flash's metabolism could handle it, when it occurs to him that that might fit Batman's idea of TMI, so he's just quiet.

The next day, Mr. Kent gets a notice telling him his landlord's not renewing his lease and he has a month to find a new place to live. Conner overhears Mr. Kent talking about it with Mr. Olsen.

"You know CK, you can stay at my place, if you need to. I can't imagine you'll have an easy time finding an affordable place to stay. Luthor owns two thirds of the real estate in Metropolis."

"Thanks for the offer Jimmy, but I already talked about it with Mr. Wayne. He's letting me stay in his penthouse apartment atop the Wayne Enterprises tower."

"I didn't realize you were on such good terms with him."

"Oh… It's just, he's not a fan of Luthor."

"Yeah, no kidding."

"And besides, now that Luthor's behind bars, all of LexCorp's major customers are thinking of switching to Wayne Enterprises—he's swamped with business in Gotham. I don't think he'll be coming to Metropolis any time soon."

"CK, you've got to be the luckiest guy in the whole universe. You get evicted and a billionaire playboy lends you his bachelor pad penthouse." Suddenly Olsen's eyes go wide. "Omigosh Clark! This is the chance of a century. Think of the possibilities. This is amazing."

Mr. Kent chuckles. "Now Jimmy, Mr. Wayne is being kind enough to put me up—I don't think it'd be kind to repay him by throwing a wild party. Besides, I don't think I could pay to replace anything in that place. I swear, just walking on the carpet makes me anxious."

He follows Mr. Kent to the Wayne Enterprises tower and makes his way up the building across the street. He tries to keep track of Mr. Kent as he goes up by looking through the building—it's how he keeps an eye on him when he goes to work, but the elevator shafts are completely lined with lead. It's the same story with the penthouse, and when he tries to get a glimpse inside through a window, he realizes that despite the apartment's large luxurious windows, there's not a single angle from which he can look in. He jumps to the next building, and it's the same story, so he tries another, and then another, and then another, until finally, he's back where he's started. He sits there dumbfounded for a few minutes, until he watches the glass change so that it's completely opaque, and he has a feeling that the glass is now also (somehow) lined with lead. Apparently Ms. Lane was right. Everyone from Gotham is insanely paranoid, even the playboy billionaires. He's briefly wondering why Mr. Wayne could possibly want to hide from the world (and, really, from Superman) so desperately.

Fifteen minutes later it begins to rain.

"FM—

He gets a call on the League communicator, and wonders if Batman really cares enough (and is omniscient enough) to interrupt his almost-cussing. "How's everything going?" Batman asks.

"No sign of trouble," Superboy reports.

"Good. You can take the night off."

"But—

"Kent's staying at Wayne's Metropolis penthouse. Even if anything were able to get to him there, you wouldn't be able to find out in time to stop it."

"Why does Mr. Wayne have lead-lined walls?"

"Wayne and his ward, Richard Grayson, are often targeted by criminals. Not to mention paparazzi. A few years ago I carried out extensive security overhauls to all of Wayne's properties." That explained the paranoia—Bruce Wayne's paranoia was really Batman's—but it didn't explain why Batman had gone to the trouble. "Wayne's a major backer of the Justice League," Batman elaborated.

"Oh."

"There's nothing you can do for Kent while he's there. It's late. It's raining. Take the night off, get some sleep, or call M'gann."

"Can I go visit her at Smallville?"

"No. But she can come to Metropolis. You could go see a show together tomorrow evening."

"Oh." He's not quite sure why he's as disappointed as he is.

"Connor?"

"Yeah?"

"Get out of the rain, and take care of yourself."

"Ok, Batman."

Metropolis is strange in the rain. The sky is bright, though the moon and the stars are blocked by the rain clouds. The buildings here are tall—much taller than they are in HappyHarbor or Star or Central. They're just as tall in Gotham—maybe even taller—but Metropolis is missing the thick coating of grime. He wonders if Superman would be able to make Gotham sparkle like Metropolis does, or if it's the other way around and Batman's the only one strong enough to deal with the grit and grime in Gotham.

The Planet building, with its enormous illuminated globe, is a beautiful building. Looking at it makes Connor feel warm, almost like he's home. One day, he's going to take M'gann there for a picnic at dusk. Maybe for her birthday. After he turns 21. That way, they can have wine without Batman frowning at them. And, he figures, he'll probably be able to fly by the time he's 21, if he's ever able to fly at all.

Sometime around midnight he winds up at Arturo's, the pizza parlor Ms. Lane had mentioned. Batman told him to get some sleep, but he doesn't really need to sleep, and he does sort of want another slice of the pizza Ms. Lane gave him. He orders a slice of pepperoni—because you can't go wrong with pepperoni unless you're vegetarian, and he isn't. He takes out his wallet, but the guy behind the counter holds up his hand. "For Superman's son, it's on the house."

Connor's about to explain that he's not Superman's son, but then he thinks better of it. It's late, and even if he doesn't need to sleep, he's a little bit too tired and lonely to explain who and what he is to a random stranger, even if that random stranger makes the best pizza he's ever tasted. Instead, he just drops a fiver in the tip jar when the guy's not looking.

Connor sits down with his pizza and a coke and wolfs down the food. He's fiddling with a bendy straw when someone enthusiastically calls out "Superboy!"

He looks up and recognizes Jimmy Olsen, though he looks much younger up close. Without asking permission, Jimmy Olsen sits down across from Connor. "Wow. This is my lucky day—I've been begging Superman to let me meet you for years."

"Oh."

"Yeah, I guess he wants you to have your privacy."

"I guess."

"But I'm Superman's pal, you'd think he'd let me meet his sidekick."

"I'm not his sidekick. Besides, we don't like that word."

"Sidekick? Why not?"

"Because it's degrading. Are you Clark Kent's sidekick?"

"Of course not," Jimmy says with a smile. "I'm Lois's sidekick. As I figure it, it's cooler to be a sidekick than an intern, though I don't imagine being a sidekick pays any better—little intern humor.

"Gosh. You're so lucky. You know, I used to dream about being Superman's sidekick. I sorta still do. I saved him once, from Parasite, you know. Course, he's saved me a lot more often. He even gave me this cool signal watch, in case I was ever in trouble." Olsen pulls back his sleeve and shows him a simple wrist-watch with the El-crest. Suddenly, Connor doesn't think he likes Jimmy Olsen very much, and Connor has a feeling that if there were any red kryptonite around, Olsen's face would be flatter than a pancake.

"I've got to go," he says brusquely and gets up.

"Hey, wait, can I get a picture, not for the papers, just for me?"

"Sorry, got to go on official League business."

"You're going to go save the world? So cool!"

He doesn't answer. The minute he's outside, he starts running towards Smallville as fast as he can. Batman calls him once he's left the state. He almost doesn't answer, because he knows what Batman is going to say, but of course, he answers anyway.

"Superboy, how long will it take you to get to MountJustice?"

That wasn't what he was expecting. "Five minutes, why do you ask?"

"I'm doing some remodeling in the Cave, I need someone to help me move my giant dinosaur. I thought you might be able to help."

Connor knows what Batman's trying to do—get him away from Smallville. But… it's the Batcave, and the last time he was there was the best day of his (admittedly short) life.[3] So he answers "I'll be right there," with a smile on his face, even though he knows Batman's playing him like a fiddle.

He gets to MountJustice in four minutes—a new record for him, and one he'll have to tell KF about. Robin's already waiting for him, on the R-Cycle.

"Come on, get on," Robin says, waving for him to get on.

"Um, don't you have to knock me out or pat me down?"

"Nah, just get on."

"You know Batman doesn't like it when you ride the motorcycle through the zeta beam teleporters."

"You're invulnerable. Let me worry about that."

So they ride through the teleporter at top speed, and Connor finally knows why Robin does it all the time. He also knows why Batman tells Robin not to do that. It's exhilarating and terrifying.

When they get to the Cave, Batman's seated at the computer; but it looks like he was telling the truth. Batman is remodeling the Batcave. Things have been moved around and there are new glass cases scattered throughout the Cave with variations on Batman and Robin's costumes.

"Oh good, you're here!" Batman says getting up. "So, I was thinking, we could move the dinosaur ten feet to the left, and that would let me put Robin's original costume where the dinosaur is right now.

Robin's face goes white. "Omigod, no Batman, you can't do that to me! I thought I'd burnt that."

"It was fireproof. And also, I have spares."

Connor doesn't quite understand what's going on, until he sees the case right by the giant dinosaur he's supposed to move. Inside is a costume that bears a passing resemblance to the one that Robin is currently wearing… except, it's a lot more colorful. Like, a LOT more colorful. Also, it doesn't have any pants, just bright green, scaley underoos and matching green pixie boots. The red of the uniform is bright red and the cape is almost fluorescent.

"You used to wear that?" Connor can't help but snicker.

"Hey! I was nine! I was the only kid sidekick!"

Connor laughs. "Does Wally know?"

"If you tell him…" words seem to fail Robin.

Connor just laughs again. Robin crosses his arms and scowls, just like Batman. "Just remember, I know where Batman keeps the kryptonite."

"Ok. Ok," Connor puts his hands up. "I promise I won't tell." I'll just beg Batman to let me have my birthday party here again next year.

Batman interrupts, because he wants the dinosaur moved. Connor moves it, though it's tricky, because it's extremely heavy, and not exactly easy to balance, and if he were to drop it, it could squash someone, or another one of Batman's precious souvenirs. When it's finally done, the old man in the domino mask shows up with hot chocolate for the boys and earl grey for Batman. It's the best hot chocolate Connor's ever had, and he wonders if there's anything this masked man can't do brilliantly.

While they're drinking their hot beverages the masked man calmly begins to polish one of the exhibits, apparently completely unconcerned by the fact that it could crush him. Then he turns to the case with Robin's first costume. "Ah, Master Robin, I remember the first time you put this costume on." He looks around, "Though, Master Batman, I don't think I see your first costume."

"It fell into a volcano," Batman answers.

"Ah. I see. You should have asked me. I have spares."

This time it's Robin who snickers.

"Though," the man adds, "your first first costume was just a black track suit and a ski mask. I might have that somewhere too."

Robin snorts. "A ski mask?"

Batman glares, but then the Batcomputer begins to beep.

"Killer Croc," Batman frowns. "Let's go."

It only takes Connor a second to realize that he isn't speaking just to Robin.

On the way back from fighting Killer Crock, Connor asks Batman what he thinks about Jimmy Olsen.

"He takes very flattering pictures of Superman," Batman answers coolly. "Why do you ask?"

"I bumped into him earlier tonight."

Batman clenches his jaw and doesn't say anything further.

To be continued...

Author's Notes: I'd gone back and edited this a while back to get rid of all the references to Two-Face. Originally, it's the Giant Penny that Bruce needs Conner to move, but as I subsequently decided to use DA!Harvey Dent as a character, that had to be are wonderful.

End Notes

[1] & [3] - See events recounted in Present.

[2] - Read the full story in Red and Green.