"Homicide?" Clark asked shocked.
Just a few minutes ago, he had to learn that a lot of people at the DOD were aware of his secret. Thanks to research and maybe because of Jon-El, who was a prisoner for a while. And that Timmy Tanner knew the secret even longer than his sons. And only 30 seconds ago, he had to learn that this police-detective, who was investigating in his son's case, got told the secret, too. And now he told him that it became a homicide-case.
"WHO…?" Clark was trembling. He was scared.
"Mr. Kent, I am so sorry…" Detective Parker said. The man had no time to progress the reveal by himself. Or to say that he was shocked about the fact that Superman neglects his powerless child, the whole world was gossiping about. "…the two boys you caught in that house… after the effect of the X-K was worn off, we interrogated them. We found… blood in the car trunk of Sean Smith's car. And a lot of X-K inhalers in Timmy Ryan's house…"
"Detective, what happened?" Clark begged. Everyone else was shocked. "Is my son…?"
"Both have confessed, that they encountered your son in town after he left his truck for a moment. They tried to get the information he had about the team. And when he denied giving them what they wanted, they dragged him into an alley and… both have confessed that they took him and beat him until he was…"
"…NO… NO…" Clark wailed. "PLEASE! TELL ME THAT'S NOT TRUE!"
"Mr. Kent, a third boy took a video of the attack! I watched it!" the detective said with trembling voice. It was horrific and shocking. He had never seen such a hate from teens and such egoism. "There were four teens present! All under arrest. Sean Smith and Timmy Ryan, the boys you caught, have beaten your son until he was dead. A third boy took a video of everything, and the fourth boy already confessed that he took your son's truck and drove it away to park it in the forest… Mr. Kent…"
"NO!" now Clark fell on his knees.
This horrific image…
His son… being dragged into an alley by a bunch of teens fueled on X-K. All full of hate and with the X-K stronger and faster than Jon. And Jon, unable to defend himself… mocking him, humiliating him… all that just one hour after he got humiliated by himself so terribly… desperately looking for a way to make him proud on him…
"NO… NO… PLEASE, TELL ME THAT'S NOT TRUE!" Clark yelled with tears in his eyes.
Lois just silently fell on her knees and start to cry. She wanted to yell and to scream like a maniac, but she was not able to. She shock was too big. She couldn't believe it. Her son… her beloved son was dead!
Jordan burst out in tears. Having that picture of the body he found in the crevice in his head again. But it was Jon now. He burst out in tears, fell on his knees, and screamed. Sam didn't want to believe it. Tag and Timmy were shocked and fought against their tears. Unable to say anything about it, because they were too shocked.
"NO!" Clark yelled again. "NO…"
"Mr. Kent, I am so sorry… They confessed where they left him. In a forest south of town. In a little sinkhole. A team is on location to recover him…"
"NOOOO…"
And with that, Clark departed into the air, tearing off another big piece of the roof and making the hole in it even bigger…
Jonathan's last words to him played in his head again…
"Do you have any clue what it means to be your son? To be alone? All alone! Always playing the second fiddle to Superboy! You never wanted me in your business, or even wanted to show me anything. You always show me that you don't care for my problems! And for what? Because you are ashamed of me? Am I a failure, or what? I wish that fucking Krypton never existed! I wish you would have exploded with that planet! But now I wish that I was never been born!"
Clark couldn't accept that the last words he ever heard from his son that he wishes to never be born…
South of town… the tornado went north of town! South of town, most of the fields and forest were unharmed. Clark just speed to the mentioned forest. Using his vision and finding a big group of people in a forest. Like a bullet, Clark shoot into the forest, smashing a tree and running towards the group so fast that he was barely seen.
In the darkness, most people didn't notice Clark's super-arrival. Just when Clark pushed away some uniformed guys to investigate that sinkhole, they noticed his presence…
"JONATHAN!" Clark yelled desperately when he investigated the sinkhole…
There was a bit blood, some crime-scene tape, some markers, Jonathan's blood sprinkled backpack, that was also full of mud, but no body…
"JONATHAN!" Clark yelled.
"He is not here!" an officer said. "We found no body!"
"WHERE IS MY SON?"
"Mr. Kent, where did you come from?" a shocked woman asked.
"Where did he come from?" someone else murmured.
"I didn't see him coming!"
"MY SON! WHERE IS MY SON?" Clark yelled. Ignoring that many people were shocked about Clark's sudden appearance out of nowhere or that someone might have seen him using his powers.
"Mr. Kent, calm down!" another one said.
"JONATHAN… WHERE IS HE?"
"Mr. Kent… there is blood, but no body…" one of the officers said. "…ehm… there is…"
"Dammed, where is my son?" Clark yelled. He fell on his knees and cried waterfalls.
There was a horrific silence after that question. The forest was dark! The sun set long ago, and the sky was full of dark clouds. No moon was visible. A portentous thunder echoed threw the sky and announced the approach of another storm. Only a bunch of flashlights gave some lights. Everyone was looking on Clark full of despair and in shock.
Nobody ever saw Clark in that bad condition. So devastated and crying…
"I FOUND SOMETHING!" suddenly another voice yelled from the distance.
Clark looked up to see a waving flashlight. It was a man, who found a shoe… Jonathan's shoe… he was approaching them.
"Look! I found this! There are footprints… they lead to the train-tracks…" the man yelled.
"JONATHAN!" Clark yelled again.
"Mr. Kent, calm down!" the people around him yelled.
Clark just lifted and walked up to him. The shoe was Jonathan's size. And he could swear he was wearing them when he left…
"That's my son's shoe!" Clark said.
"There are footprints…" the man continued. "The storm destroyed most of them, but this was sticking in the ground!"
Clark pushed him away and looked on the ground by himself.
"Mr. Kent… take a flashlight!" a man tried to say, but Clark just walked into the darkness. He didn't need a flashlight. "Mr. Kent…"
Was it possible? Clark could see them! It starts to rain again… A thunder echoed through the air again…
But Clark only followed the footprints. Jonathan's size… They led from the sinkhole, towards south… Clark knew that south of this forest was a freight depot… trains… Jonathan walked away… He survived! He survived, climbed out of the sinkhole and walked away… he is hurt, he is alone… he lives… he went to those train tracks…
"Mr. Kent where are you?" a voice yelled.
Clark didn't listen. He suddenly heard Jordan, Lois and Sam crying again. He had to inform them…
Clark speeded back to the farm so fast that nobody could see him. A second later he crashed back into the barn, where his family was in despair…
"He lives!" Clark said full of tears to his crying family.
The news of Jonathan's supposed death, spread among town quicker than usual. Quicker than the message, that he was probably still alive. The video made it possible for the police to identify everyone who was in the alley. Homes were searched by the FBI and the DOD. X-K was found in countless basements and garages. Even in baby-bedrooms. More and more people got arrested, and more and more things revealed that made it evident that many people were wrong to believe that only Jonathan was responsible.
A huge shame for the town… especially when Jonathan's main-prove was spread over the social-media by Timmy's friend Jay in Metropolis. Making Smallville officially to America's X-K capital…
In the barn, Clark told his devastated family what he saw and about that Jonathan might be alive…
"WHERE IS HE?" Lois yelled desperately; her clothes soaked in tears.
"JON! WHERE IS HE?" Jordan yelled, also with tears in his eyes.
"SOUTH… He went through the forest…" Clark explained. Still having tears in his eyes but holding on that spark of hope! It was a straw he was grappling on, but it was still a spark of hope! He looked on the map again…
Their farm is west of the town. Metropolis is northeast of them. Like the forest where they found Jonathan's truck. The forest Jonathan was dumped was south of Smallville. And the footprints led to the south…
"I didn't search that area, because I was convinced that Jonathan would go straight to Metropolis!" Clark realized. He really didn't expect Jonathan to drive south or being there.
Detective Parker received a call, that confirmed Clark's sighting. "A search troop is now searching the forest! Looks like he went to the south… you were right! The blood they found has no known blood-type! It's Kryptonian!"
"He is alive!" Lois said relieved and cried again. As well as Jordan who felt hope again.
"He lost a lot… of blood… we have to hurry…" Clark said desperately. Knowing that it was extremely dangerous for Jonathan… suddenly having his mother's words and her angry and disappointed face in the fortress in his head again… seeing it as if he was still there…
"I detected a rare genetic defect in your son's DNA! It is lethal if it is not treated properly. If you would have taken Jonathan to your father, too to get him scanned when Jordan's powers manifested, we would had detected it earlier, so he gets treatment. The longer you procrastinate it, the higher is the risk for him to die."
Lara's angry voice was playing these words repeatedly in his head. Jonathan was sick! A Kryptonian-sickness, that was only treatable in the fortress. The one and only time, Clark took Jonathan to his fortress was when he was a toddler. And this sickness mainly breaks out when the kids get older. If Jonathan would have gotten sick, he would had taken him to a hospital!
"No hospital on Earth would be able to help him, Kal. Jonathan is Kryptonian! Just like his brother! And the fact that you didn't introduce him to me and your father or taught him about our world jus because he didn't develop powers is a huge shame. I am so deeply disappointed in you, Kal. And in Jordan, too! Being Half-Kryptonian should be an enrichment, for your son! Instead, he only sees it as a curse and a burden! He sees our family-crest as a symbol of rejection and shame! And I am heartbroken that my own grandson thinks he does not deserve to know anything about his heritage, just because of powers, you and Jordan shouldn't have, too!"
Clark had tears in his eyes. He wanted his kids to be normal! He wanted a normal life for them! A safe and happy life. He wanted them to be able to live without needing to always hold themselves back. He was glad that Jonathan got spared!
"You spared him from his heritage! From knowing his own grandparents! From his own past! Being Kryptonian has nothing to do with powers! You rather let your son die, than showing him where he comes from! I should take away Jordan's powers forever! And I should take away yours to teach you a lecture! But when Ally Allston took you your powers away, you didn't learn it eighter. No matter how terribly you humiliated your son ever and ever again!"
Clark had brought shame. Jonathan was ashamed of being his son and having a brother with powers. And Clark was ashamed of letting his son feel unloved and left out… for a reason he once swore to himself to never let it get between him and his family. And he broke his promise. More than once and way too often to get trusted…
Full of fear, Clark studied the map. Thinking how far Jonathan got with his injuries, how severe they were and how much blood he lost…
"A high blood loss, could cause his illness to spread faster!" Lara's voice appeared in his head again.
"Where are you, Jonathan?" Clark cried. Ignoring the rain, that was falling on him through the big hole in the roof. "Gosh… where could he be… the freight depot…"
"Dad, there are trains! Could he…" Jordan almost cried out loudly his fear, that Jonathan could have thrown himself in front of a train to finish what Sean and Timmy Ryan didn't made.
"OH, MY GOD! HE THROW HIMSELF IN FRONT OF A TRAIN!" Lois yelled desperately and fell on her knees again full of tears.
"Ms. Lane, if that happened, we would have heard about it! There are security-cameras all over that area, and staff and workers…"
"Cameras!" Clark realized.
In a glimpse of a second he left again.
"CLARK!" Lois screamed angrily. "COME BACK YOU DARN ASSHOLE AND TAKE US WITH YOU!"
Hearing that, Clark realized that he couldn't leave his family behind. They were missing Jonathan as much as he did. Clark speed back, took Lois and Jordan and flew them to the freight depot, too…
The freight-depot was a wide area with freight cars, trucks, a lot of tracks and workers. Due to the storm, the whole operations were ceased, but slowly resumed. Clark landed beyond the fence that separated the area from the forest where they found a big hole in the fence…
"Look!" Lois was the first to see it!
A little piece of cloth. Blue! Blue like the shirt Jonathan was wearing! It was hanging on the broken chain-link fence, miraculously surviving the storm. The tornado passed Smallville in the North. But here in the South, the storm was not so intense. That's how Jonathan's footprints survived. Or that piece of cloth.
"Jonathan…" Jordan got hope, too.
Hastily, he climbed threw the narrow hole. His broken arm in the cast, aching terribly with every movement!
"Jordan, wait…" Clark wanted to fly them over the fence, but Jordan just wanted to find his brother.
"JONATHAN!" Jordan yelled, ignoring his father, and running over the depot.
Clark took Lois and flew her carefully over the fence while Jordan already caught the attention of some workers…
"HEY… What are you doing here young man?" a grumpy worker asked.
"MY BROTHER… My brother is somewhere here!"
"SIR…" Lois yelled. "Sir, our son could be here somewhere. He is severely injured… where are your security cameras?"
"What? Who are you? And what are you doing here?" the man asked.
"Jonathan is here!" Jordan said and walked away to search.
"Who is Jonathan? And you are not permitted to…"
"WHERE DO YOU KEEP THE CCTV FOOTAGE?" Lois yelled angrily. Grabbing the man and by his jacket.
The bulky man was a foot taller than Lois and much stronger than her. But he was pretty scared off the small, thin, and weakened lady and the fury he saw in her eyes.
"Dispatcher's office!" the worker said a bit scared before Lois let off, pushed him away and ran to the little office building.
Clark and Jordan followed her.
"Lois, be careful!" Clark yelled.
Lois didn't care. Her severely injured, terminally ill son was here. There was hope that he survived. But that depended on how quickly they find him. Lois ignored that her body was still weak or that she was still ordered to take it easy. But Lois kicked in the door to the dispatcher's office who was shocked that this usually quite late shift was interrupted by this.
"YOUR CCTV FOOTAGE! WHERE IS IT?" Lois screamed.
"Why did you kick in the door? It was not locked!" the dispatcher said shocked and lift from his chair.
"Sir…" Clark entered the office. He was crying again. "… Sir… please… our son… On Friday afternoon, he was in the forest… he is hurt, he is sick… he needs help… and he is here…"
Lois stormed around the desk to search the drawers by herself.
"Where is it? On a disk? On a USB-drive?"
"Hey lady… What are you doing? GET OUT OF MY OFFICE OR I CALL THE COPS!" the man yelled.
Suddenly the phone rang… the man picked up…
"Dispatch!... Who?... The DOD?... National Security… Okay… Okay!" the man said. Clark could hear that General Hardcastle called. The man hang off, turned around and pulled a DVD out of a drawer. "Here is what you need! That's the whole footage from Friday, till the moment the storm cut the power!"
"Why not like that before?" Jordan moaned when he used his healthy arm to grab the DVD and join his mother on the dispatcher's computer.
Clark could hear sirens in the distance. And he heard a swoosh, just a second before Tag Harris entered.
"Mr. Kent, General Hardcastle and the others are on the way!" Tag explained.
Clark ignored him. He joined his wife and his son, watching the footage of the security cameras.
Clark let it play in fast forward…
Jonathan left at 4:30 p.m. and it took around half an hour Clark thought. But he needed to be sure!
"The time… the time… Jonathan and Timmy talked twice… Tag, I need Timmy's phone!"
"Okay!" Tag left the office and used his speed outside where nobody could see him. Ten seconds later he appeared with Timmy Tanner's smartphone. "Here is it!"
Clark took the phone to see at which time he and Jonathan talked. But the phone was locked.
"Tag…, this is not helpful!" Clark moaned, showing Tag the locked screen.
Tag understood, left again and appeared a few seconds later with Timmy again.
"What the hell happened?" Timmy asked shocked, too overwhelmed by the trip at Superspeed. "Did you… my phone!?"
"Timmy, we need your help!" Clark begged. "Jonathan needs your help! Please, at which time did you two talk?"
Timmy understood immediately. He took his phone, unlocked it, and opened his call list.
"Okay, Jon called me for the first time at 4:32 p.m. and at 4:56 p.m. I called him back!" Timmy answered.
"4:56… okay… that was after Jon was at Brit and Duns'…" Clark realized. "If he… got attacked five to ten minutes later…"
Clark shuddered at the thought of Jonathan gotten beaten half-dead again. Lois was trembling even more. But her motherly instincts helped her to get through the footage and fast forward to the time, Jonathan must had been here.
Guessing half an hour to an hour for those jocks to dump him in that sinkhole and some more time for Jonathan to regain consciousness, climb out of the sinkhole and walking here. The sinkhole was not very deep, and it was luck that those jocks were dumb enough to forget to cover him with to hide him. They were in panic, they are dumb, it was an act in affect and Jonathan could sneak away before they returned. After dark, they guessed…
They played the videos in fast-forward. Suddenly they saw something…
"STOP!" Clark yelled and Lois pushed the space-button to pause the video. "Look…"
It was dark in the video. But in the light off a lantern, they saw a figure: Jonathan!
"THAT'S HIM!" Jordan yelled relieved.
Lois played the video again. This time in normal speed.
It was Jonathan! His clothes were full of blood. He was obviously dazed, severely injured and disoriented. Trailing his body over the area looking for a place to hide or to get help, or just to get away from Smallville. No matter where. He is alive… he was alive by the time he arrived here…
Everyone looked on the screen spellbound.
Jonathan walked like a blind person that lost his cane. He had obviously no clue where he was and used his hands to orientate. The video was unclear, and it was dark! But they guessed that Jonathan's injuries impaired Jonathan's senses and his attention. They followed his way and saw how he climbed into a freight car. Mentioned freight car was part of a long freight train that start to move just a few minutes later…
"STOP!" Clark yelled and Lois paused the video. The video was still very unclear but they saw a part of a number on the side of the freight car. "Where is the dispatcher?"
Tag left the office and got the dispatcher back into the office!
"This train… our son climbed into that freight train! Where is it now?" Clark asked.
The dispatcher watched the footage and was shocked that nobody noticed that bleeding teenager staggering over the area. After seeing the prove by himself, he opened the program on his computer to localize the freight car.
"This container is supposed for Tacoma." the dispatcher said after reading the information on his screen.
"TACOMA?" Lois yelled.
"Yes… the Container arrived at Tacoma Harbor, one hour ago…" The man was not able to finish, as he suddenly heard a loud swoosh and Clark was gone. "…hey… where is… Aghh…?"
Clark jetted through the air and reached Tacoma just a few seconds later. The harbor of Tacoma was full of freight trains. But Clark could see immediately that he was right…
Two police-cars, a ambulance-truck, and a CSI-vehicle were standing with blinking lights around a freight-car on the train depot. Clark heard their voices.
"Pulse is weak… no reaction…"