Tal had no clue what just happened…
He remembered that he heard the voice of the man who experimented on him for years. He remembered leaving his meeting early to get revenge. He remembered killing several people and destroying everything they had…
But now he was flying aimless and disoriented over the Atlantic ocean with an child in his arms. A child! A child that was, according to the documents he found, related to him. A Kryptonian-human hybrid child, reacting to sunlight and cuddling against his chest.
Tal had no idea who this boy was. But he knew he couldn't leave him alone. On another document he found, before he burned it, he saw that the boy's name was Jonathan Reynolds. He will figure out later what about him but at first, he had to find a place to hide this boy.
He is Morgan Edge! A bachelor! Singe! No known relationship and no known relatives! He would never be able to explain the sudden arrival of this boy to the staff in his home in London. He had to hide him somewhere else. He is a billionaire. He has houses all over the world. Suddenly he got an idea…
Jonathan meanwhile relaxed under the sunlight. He didn't notice what happened around him. And he didn't remember that they were flying. The only thing he knew, was that he was not in this awful cell anymore!
And so, while Jonathan slept in the master-bedroom of this spacious mountain-house, Tal made some calls to cancel all his appointments as Morgan Edge and to arrange everything that would explain his absence for a while.
Then he used Google to figure out more about Jonathan and indeed found articles about the 'gas-explosion' in the hotel in Metropolis. The same day, his brother saved people in a much bigger gas-explosion in Chisinau. It made sense. And he found information about the 'parents' of this boy. They were definitely humans and that they have nothing to do with Krypton and obviously didn't know that Jonathan was Kryptonian.
It was a nice spacious bedroom, with expensive interior and the probably comfiest mattress he ever laid in. Jonathan had no clue where he was or how he got here. It felt like a dream. Jonathan still felt the pain in his arms and in his tummy. But they were much better. His arms were laying over the blanket to be in direct sunlight. The bandages he got in the lab were gone to allow the light to directly touch his skin.
Jonathan lifts from his pillow quickly to look around. Wherever he was, he was definitely not in Boston. Through the window he saw high wooded mountains. It was a remote place, far away from any bigger settlement. The sun was shining brightly through the big panorama-window. The expensive looking silk curtains were all open to allow the sun to shine on him undisturbed.
Carefully Jonathan pushed the blanket away and saw that he was wearing clean clothes. His injuries were healed better. But he was hungry and thirsty. And so, Jonathan lift from the bed to take a better look outside. Wondering if there is a way to open the window and run away…
"You can open it if you want!" a male voice said with a British accent.
In fear Jonathan turned around to see a man, he guessed in his late 40s, wearing a weird black outfit with a symbol on his chest and a long garment that looked a little bit like the Superman-symbol and a cape, but also entirely different.
Jonathan shied away and hid in the corner from the man who brought him a tablet with breakfast.
"No, need to be afraid! It is over!" Tal said in Kryptonese. "You are safe here!"
"What? No, please…"
"You don't speak our language!" Tal said. "So, it is true! You don't know anything about our world!"
"No, please… I want to go home! Where am I?" Jonathan was scared.
"In my house! Well, one of my many houses." Tal said calmly, placing the tablet on the table next to the window. "I guess you are hungry! I brought you some breakfast."
Tal put the hood away to reveal steaming hot scrambled eggs, fried bacon, toast, orange-juice and fruits. Compared to the bread, the water and sometimes tasteless mashed something Jonathan got in the last months, this was absolute luxury.
Jonathan carefully lifts from the ground and walked slowly to the table to join Tal.
A lot of thoughts ran through Tal's head. Like: Who is he? Where does this boy come from? Are there more Kryptonians on Earth than he thought? Is he really his son?
Tal remembered all the experiments they made on him. He wouldn't be surprised if they used the sperm, they forced him to give to create children to examine them. But why let him living an human life just to kidnap him at age 11?
Jonathan just saw the eggs and the delicious fruits and start to eat. Realizing how much he had missed dishes with real taste… Tal watched him eating the breakfast he made by himself. Hoping that his actually non present cooking-skills were enough. And seeing the boy eating what Tal prepared was somehow satisfying.
"Who are you?" Jonathan finally asked after a couple of minutes of awkward silence.
"You can call me Uncle Morgan!" Tal said.
"Where am I?"
"Germany!"
Jonathan let his fork drop. "Germany?"
"Yes, in the Black Forest to be exactly! This is one of my houses! And at this time of the year, the sun shines in here very strong. So, it was the best opportunity for your recovery. We react to the sunlight. It gives us our powers?"
"What powers?"
"You don't know it?"
"So, it is true?" Jonathan's eyes filled with tears. "I… I am an alien?"
Tal was shocked about the boy's reaction. As a proud Kryptonian, it was heartbreaking to see that this boy was shocked about his own heritage.
"We are both, descendants of one of the greatest and most developed races in the universe… We are Kryptonians, Jonathan!"
"NO!" Jonathan yelled in shock and ran away to hide in the corner and burst out in tears. "No! I can't be… I can't be…"
Tal had no clue how to calm down the boy. But suddenly he remembered the black-Superman-t-shirt, the boy held tightly the whole time. Normally he wouldn't do something like this, but he could guess that this will calm down the boy…
Tal stood up and start to float…
Jonathan, still crying waterfalls about the reveal to be an alien, and that they really hold him in that cell because he is one, suddenly gasped when he saw the man who was so kind to him, told him that he is indeed one and start to float.
He is flying! He is really flying! This man is flying like he has only seen in TV Superman doing!
"You… you are not Superman!"
"No… But he is a relative!" Tal said. Not mentioning that they are half-brothers.
"Relate… I… what the… I am…?"
"Yes! We two… we are both descendants of the same planet from which Kal-El is! You probably know him better under his stage name: Superman!" Tal said before he slowly landed again. Tal mentioned immediately how astonished the boy suddenly was. His plan seemed to work. "Do you feel the sun?"
Jonathan looked out through the window and up to the bright sun on the cloudless sky.
"Feels good, don't it?" Tal said. "The humans would all close their curtains and hide in the shadow because they fear sunburn. But we absorb its energy…"
Jonathan just looked on Tal confused. His fear and the shock about being Kryptonian were replaced by confusion.
"I was once in the same situation like you! I was younger than you now when I landed on this planet and got caught. Locked up in the same kind of laboratory I found you in! And it took me years, to escape. You are confused, I guess! You grow up as one of them. Thinking you are one of them. But just like me and our, let's call him comrade in the blue body suit with the El-crest, we are destined to be better…"
"El-crest?" Jonathan was too confused.
"It is not an S, Kal-El wears on his suit!" Tal explained.
"Kal-El?"
"Superman's real name! And don't try to google it! Nobody knows this and it is nowhere on the Internet!" Tal explained. "I understand it! You are overwhelmed! Confused! You have a lot of questions! And I am willing to answer you them all!"
"What day is today?" the question blurted out of Jonathan quickly. Because it burned on his tongue. Tal told him the exact date, which let Jonathan burst out in tears again. "Eight months!"
Eight months! He spent eight months in that lab! Jonathan starts to cry again. Seeing this caused something in Tal. Tal, who spent 7 years in this situation, instinctively hugged the boy… Giving him the comfort he so urgently needed. But Tal, who was overwhelmed, too by the sudden appearance of another Kryptonian, was touched by this closeness ne never felt for someone before in his entire life.
"Everything will be all right, Jonathan!" Tal said. "I tell you absolutely everything about our world, but for that you have to tell me everything you know about yourself…"
Jonathan only nodded and followed Tal back to the table where they start to tell each other about their respective lives…
Tal told him about his own lonely childhood in Kryptonopolis. Krypton's second biggest city and about the last months of Krypton when his father, the parents of Superman and a lot of other people tried to escape from Krypton.
"How many survived?" Jonathan asked.
"So far, just me and Kal-El! But you are the prove that there seem to be more Kryptonians on Earth!"
For Tal, Jonathan was a glimmer of hope! After decades of thinking he is the only one, Jonathan was a chance to find others. And Tal was so happy to tell everything about Krypton to someone. Something he was never able to do! His own brother didn't know about him and his father strictly prohibited him to get close to a human, form friendships that are not essential to he mission or 'waste time' by doing what humans do.
Tal's lonely childhood, with no friends, under the hands of an embittered and cruel man, who saw in him not more than a constant reminder of the woman who left him to marry a man who shared her point of view instead of the genetical-match like it was usual on Krypton. As a child he had the longing for his mother, who was never allowed to visit him and whom he only knew from a holograph.
Zeta-Rho was a cruel man. With tempers! Absolute obsessed with power and not open for others. Member of the … and something what humans would call 'a house-tyrant'. But Tal skipped that part of his history to share the nice aspects of Krypton with Jonathan. Like it's culture, how the people lived there, the values…
"Sounds like a great place!" Jonathan said.
"Oh, yes… It was a great place!" Tal said a bit moody.
"But… what led to its destruction?"
"A lot…"
Tal knew that Krypton's resources were running low. The planet's core was mined. Destabilizing the whole planet and causing a chain-reaction. Despite living nearly isolated, Tal remembered the chaos in the streets and the panic when it was evident that the planet was doomed.
Tal never openly talked about this time with anyone. But talking to this boy about it felt good.
"I don't know how long Krypton continued existing after my departure! A day, a week, a month…? But not long! Everything is gone! And as soon as I arrived here, the caught me and…" Tal stopped talking. Seeing how traumatized Jonathan was, it was a bit too early to mention that he was in the same situation for years.
Jonathan told him that he never ever dared to think that he could be from another planet. Or at least one of his biological parents. He told Tal how he was found by his parents in front of their door and how they decided to keep him and raise him like their own. He told Tal how he and his friend made that heritage-DNA-test and how it probably led to his kidnapping.
"It is my fault!" Jonathan said lethargic before he burst out in tears again. "My parents are dead! It is all my fault!"
Tal put a hand on the boy's shoulder to comfort him. Normally he was not a very social person, but maybe the fact that boy was one of his people, made him more open for such things.
"It is not your fault! Unfortunately, our genetic structure is too obvious to get tracked. But it is not your fault!"
Tal was surprised that he was able to talk to kids that good.
"There was Gas! Green Gas! And… they… aww…"
Tal hugged Jonathan again to comfort him when he burst out in tears again. A minute later he left to make a call and to cancel all his appointments for the rest of the month, too. Having another Kryptonian with him was right now more important than his mission to eradicate the world…
The following days, Tal and Jonathan spent a lot of time talking. And Tal was absolutely delighted to see with such an awe Jonathan listened to his stories about Krypton and even start to learn the language from him.
Jonathan wanted to call his friends in Boston. But Tal told him immediately that this was not possible. He had to take a new identity from now. Because everyone is thinking that Jonathan Reynolds died and that everyone he likes would be in danger if he knows that he is alive. Which was hard for Jonathan.
Most of the time they spend in the house or outside in the garden to fuel as much sun as possible. Tal organized that they got food delivered, as the boy needed to eat like a human. He also ordered clothes and some things for the boy to keep him busy. They played cards and board-games sometimes. And Tal was astonished that Jonathan was such a good chess-player, that he even beaten him several times.
Of course, Jonathan wanted to know if Tal knows Superman. And Tal confessed that Superman doesn't know him because Tal feared he could be rejected. Tal told Jonathan finally what happened to him in the lab. And that this is the reason he is not doing the Superhero-stuff like Kal-El, who was a baby when he crashed on Earth.
They were now sitting on the terrace again and played chess in the sun.
"I guess Kal-El, was welcomed with open arms when he arrived! Living a free live!" Tal said while moving his queen over the board. A bit jealous on the happy childhood, his brother might have. "Check!"
"And my real mother or father?" Jonathan asked while moving his king out of danger.
"Maybe!" Tal answered. "I guess your mother or your father was around my age! If not older? Remembering Krypton and fearing to get caught, too!"
"But… why did they abandon me?" Jonathan asked.
This was a question; Tal was not able to answer.
"I don't know… But they must had a reason! A real one!" Tal had a lot of theories. But discussing them with the boy would be too exhausting.
"When you have the same powers as Superman and I am related to you, does it mean I could have powers, too?"
"There are ways to figure this out! Your relation to the house of Rho is proven." Tal said, making his next move. "Check!"
Jonathan made his move and start to smile. "Checkmate!"
With big eyes, Tal looked on the board to see that Jonathan won again.
"You definitely have the intelligence of a Kryptonian!" Tal realized. No human ever beat him at chess. "I see a lot of potential in you Jon-Rho…"