Disclaimer: I do not own either Young Justice or its related characters. Such are the property of DC Comics, Warner Bros. Entertainment and Cartoon Network. I'm just borrowing them for some non-profit entertainment.
Signals
Chapter Four: Searching…
Metropolis
Feb. 5 – 9:45 am
Clark thought about calling Bruce to ask his advice for dealing with the Conner-M'gann situation. The Batman had to know about their relationship, the Batman knew everything! But did he know that they were sexually active? Clark switched on his JLA comm to call the Batman.
"This is Batman. Go ahead."
"Hey, Bruce, I've got a question." Said the Superman.
"Oh, Clark!" The Dark Knight sounded equal parts pleased and surprised. "I was just about to call you. I know what the enemy got your boy to steal from our computer."
That statement pushed all thoughts of Conner's love life out of his head and Clark descended to land on a nearby rooftop. "What was it?"
"Access codes." Bruce said in that flat grave voice of his.
"Didn't he already have those?" The Man of Steel asked in confusion. "I mean, how else did he get into the computers?"
"Different kind of codes, Clark. Ya know how whenever you enter a zetta-tube it calls out 'Recognize: Superman 01'? The computer recognizes you as Superman because you've been entered into the computer and given your own call sign. Conner basically handed over the ability to give a JLA call sign to anyone. Basically, the enemy can come and go from any one of our bases whenever they please."
"Can't we just all change our access codes and lock them out?"
A low gravely growl of frustration filled the American Alien's ear. "It's not as easy as replacing a padlock on a barn-door, Clark."
'Barn', that sparked the Boy Scout's memory. "Hey, Bruce. This is a random question but, um… when do teenagers start having sex?"
Just because Conner and M'gann were rolling around in the hay together didn't necessarily mean that they were having sex, right? Conner was still less than a year old, after all, he probably wasn't ready for sex yet and M'gann seemed so well adjusted and innocent, surely she wouldn't be pressuring him for sex. It was perfectly reasonable for Clark to consider that he had jumped to conclusions this morning. However, Bruce's answer did not encourage this thought.
"If they could, they'd start in the morning and go until they collapse from dehydration."
He knew Bruce had meant it in jest but Clark was still terrified. In fact, he might have whimpered just a little at the prospect of having to take responsibility for Conner's actions and face the girl's uncle after knowing the boy for so short a time. But that was the honorable thing to do as the clone's equivalent 'father'. He would make his apologies to J'onn and if the martian asked, he'd force Conner to do right by M'gann. Damn, this was not what he needed right now.
"Oh lighten-up, Clark." If they had been talking in person, Bruce probably would have given him slap on the back. "If you're worried about Conner having sex, just sit down and talk to him. So long as they're being smart about it and taking precautions, I wouldn't worry about to much. We've got a responsible group of kids on that Team. Remember back to what it was like for you and draw on that."
Dear Rao!
"Anyway, can we stay on point please." That Dark Knight gruffness was back in his voice. "Of course I'm working on changing the access codes, we can't leave ourselves exposed and vulnerable. But its not an easy task, Clark. It'll take time to reconfigure the systems and then everyone in the League and the kids' Team will have to report back in for new recognition scans. While all that's going on, we'll still be defenseless."
"Well, at least your cave will still be safe." Superman offered a little ray of optimism. "And my Fortress too. We don't have zetta-tubes in our bases."
"Yeah…" Bruce's voice was low and grave. "In a worst case scenario, you and I just might end up playing host to the rest of the League."
"I'll bake cornbread." Clark replied, determined not to let the Dark Knight's perpetual pessimism bring him down.
…
Fortress of Solitude
Feb. 5 – 11:15 pm
Clark arrived back at the Fortress to find the kids already fed and board out of the skulls. Because, apparently, there weren't enough interesting artifacts within the grand room to keep them amused, they could only feed the animals in his zoo so many times before that got dull, none of them really had any interest in his gardens (a fact Clark was actually glad for) and they were all 'to cool' to find interest in his rather extensive library. So, when the Superman arrived back at his 'winter home' (as Bruce had started calling it), ready to hang up his cape and slip into some PJ pants and a ratty T-shirt to relax, he was greeted by the site of his living room completely rearranged.
The cushions and pillows had been pulled off the couch. The couch and chairs had then been arranged in a simi-circle, the coffee table had been moved out of the room completely and stood propped up against a wall in the corridor (partially blocking his path). Blankets and sheets had been thrown over the top of the simi-circle of furniture like a tent, the center of which came to an almost perfect point, held up by a line of Robin's bat-rope that had been suspended between two stalactite-like crystals protruding from the ceiling. From beneath the mini-circus tent Clark heard the distinct sound of giggles and snickering.
Ah, children.
He debated a moment or two over whether or not to disturb them, they sounded like they were having so much fun. But it was almost midnight on a school night, so the Superman pulled back the sheet to reveal six startled looking teens.
"Weekend's over." He announced. "Go home."
There was much moaning and groaning and the mumblings of protests that Clark was pretty sure he wasn't actually meant to hear. But the kids obediently got up from their game (whatever it was) and began packing up their things to return home. He had the robots bring out M'gann's martian bio-ship, watched Conner say his good-byes as they boarded, and walked back inside with the boy after they left.
Once back inside, Conner hesitantly said, "Robin dared me… That is, we were playing Truth or Dare and on Robin's turn he dared me to ask you if I could call you by your real name. So, uh, can I… Can I call you Kal-El? You can say no, Superman. Its okay, the dare was just for me to ask."
Clark led them through the corridor back to the living areas of the Fortress, pausing to pick-up his displaced coffee table. Taking a moment to consider the boy's request. It wasn't like he would be revealing his identity to an enemy spy; everyone knew the name Kal-El. He had told it to Lois in one of their first interviews and while no many widely referred to him as 'Kal-El of Krypton' it was still a publicly known name. Oh the flip-side, however, Robin had probably meant for him to tell the boy his real name was Clark Kent and that J'onn had suggested the bot's surname after him. Clark did feel a compulsion to give the boy his Earth-name, he had wanted to try and connect with Conner ever since his outburst on Watchtower, when he realized that the Superboy was like him in spirit as well as in body. But some part of him hesitated. (Probably that part of him that had spent too much time with the ever-paranoid Batman.)
So it was ever so hesitantly that the Superman answered, "Sure."
A smile of true pleasure spread over the boy's face at his answer. Not the light-hearted and easy smile he'd given Robin at breakfast, but neither was it the vulnerable and hesitant smile the boy had shown him among the ruins of Cadmus back in July. It was the kind of smile a person made when a request they were sure would be denied was suddenly granted, a sort of disbelieving joy. Clark replaced his coffee table in its proper setting in the living room and returned the boy's smile with one of his own, his a little awkward.
Something passed between them in that moment. A connection of sorts that was both a little bit more than but also slightly less than an 'understanding'; a feeling that skated on the edges of uchahvia –synergy, one of the Girod, the eleven kryptonian virtues. It was this feeling that prompted Clark to suddenly offer, "Would you like me to give you a kryptonian name?"
The boy froze in abject disbelief. He stood staring at the Man of Steel as if paralyzed by the pure shock of Clark's innocent question. And then, in a rush of words so slurred by excitement that even the Superman was unable to decipher it, he said, "Coodyut'chmikyptonian, too!"
Clark cocked his head to the side. "What?"
"Kryptonian!" Conner repeated. "Kryptonese…whatever, the language! Can you teach me that too! And the culture! And history! All of it! I wanna know! Could you? Would you? I mean," he took a moment to recompose himself, "would you please also teach me about Krypton, Kal-El?"
"S-sure." Clark was a little taken aback by the strength and passion of the boy's request, but there was no reason to deny it and it would be the perfect way for them to get to know each other better. After spending a week as frosty roommates (no pun intended, considering the Fortress' location), it would be nice to finally be able to connect to the boy he'd come to view as the equivalent to a son. "But first, you're gonna help me straiten out this mess your Team made of my living room."
"Right." Conner nodded and set to work straitening chairs while Kal-El floated up to untie the bat-rope that had suspended their 'tent'.
It was as he and Kal were folding the sheet that one of the robots entered carrying a small tray of what looked like tiny bat-shaped chits. "Please pardon the interruption, sirs." It said in its impossibly polite synthetic voice. "But the Robin seems to have left some of his possessions behind. Shall I put them away until he can come back to retrieve them, or would you prefer to take them with you next time you go out to, return them yourself?"
The pair paused in their clean-up to examine the bat-chits.
"Hey, isn't that Batman's spy wear?" Asked Conner.
Kal picked up one bat-shaped bug and glared at it, wondering if Bruce was monitoring at that moment and could see him.
"Are you Big Brother now?" He asked the tiny listening device knowing full well that he wouldn't get an answer. But then he didn't need one. Bruce had always been overly paranoid, in fact, Kal was rather surprised that the Batman hadn't already bat-bugged out his entire Fortress before now. With a sigh, the Man of Steel dropped the bug back in the tray with the others. "Please replace them exactly how Robin left them."
"Yes, sir." The robot left.
"Hey, how come you didn't get any of them to clean up the living room?" Conner asked, referring to the over two dozen robots that also inhabited the Fortress.
"Cleaning up after yourself builds character." Kal replied without pause. Also, Ma had drilled the habit into him so thoroughly that he sometimes forgot he had other things to do it for him when staying at the Fortress. "Now then, the kryptonian alphabet has one hundred and eighteen characters…"
…
Fortress of Not-Quite-Solitude
February (no specific date)
Over the following few weeks Kal-El worked with Conner teaching him the one hundred and eighteen characters of the kryptonian alphabet and their respective sounds as well as kryptonian history and how closely their own family's history tied in with it and reflected on a suitable name for the boy. He had already missed out on the chance to give him a civilian name, Kal wanted to make up for it by giving Conner the best damn kryptonian name he could possibly think of.
He thought momentarily about naming him after one of his ancestors, perhaps Erok-El, the first Bethgar of Urrika also the first member of their line to take the name of 'El' –the star. Or perhaps Jaf-El, whom saved his people from a flood that purged over half the planet. Or maybe Jor-El after his father? Jor-El III. But no, naming the boy after someone else might put unnecessary pressure on him, as if he had to live up to the name. Conner already had enough pressure being Superman's clone, he didn't need anymore. Kal would just have to come up with something on his own without resorting to recycling the names of his ancestors.
On the weekends, the Team would come to visit and sometimes during the week as well if they could find a time when all five of them were off from school. Their visits became so frequent that Kal finally caved and forsook the security of his Fortress and told them how to bypass the main door to enter. After that, it started to feel like the kids lived at the Fortress with him and Conner rather than at Mount Justice or even their own homes. Artemis and Kid Flash (under Robin's encouragement, no doubt) had even started calling him 'Uncle Supes'. Kal still wasn't quite sure how he felt about that.
They would drop whatever entertainment they'd found for themselves while he was out and beg a story out of him. Sitting in the living room, sometimes in their makeshift tent, other times in proper chairs the Team would ask him to tell an embarrassing story about one of their mentors or maybe a tale of Krypton. They made an event out of it, with hot chocolate and smores… Kal-El started to feel like a real Boy Scout sitting under their circus-tent sheet and telling tales –camping out in his own living room.
After sharing the story of the unification of the warring tribes of Urrika and how the Els became the first ruling house of Krypton, M'gann had gone starry eyed and turned to gaze at Conner, a dreamy expression on her face as she muttered, "Wow, you're a prince…"
This elicited a chorus of groans from the rest of the Team and Conner had looked rather uncomfortable and just a tad bit confused. For the most part, Kal-El tried not to worry about the relationship between his clone and the martian girl. Bruce had told him not to worry and Bruce was usually right about most things. He had spoken to J'onn about it briefly during his most recent Watch duty and the Martian Manhunter had seemed equally unconcerned. Well, if the girl's family didn't mind then it was no business of his. As Bruce had said, as long as they were being smart about it he wouldn't worry. Of course, that still didn't stop him from having a very uncomfortable conversation with Conner over his relationship with the girl.
He took the boy aside one morning before leaving for Metropolis and asked flat-out what his relationship was with her. Kal had then proceeded to give the boy a short lecture on responsibility and gentlemanly behavior, then a longer lecture on safety and accountability. He reminded Conner that just because he was immune to almost every virus in this solar system that did not mean that he couldn't pass something on to his partner. Kal had also regrettably admitted that Earth-made condoms weren't exactly 'durable' enough for them and he (with great difficulty and a very very bright and uncomfortable blush covering his face from ears to neck) offered to make some 'kryptonian strength' condoms for Conner's use.
The boy had then turned an equally vivid shade of red. He thanked Kal-El for the offer, his advice, and his concern but assured his genetic parent that he and M'gann had that area under control. Kal made them anyway and left the foil-wrapped rubbers in the living area where the boy would be sure to find them. The next time the Team came around for a visit, the Superman couldn't help but notice that the batch of condoms he'd made for the boy had 'mysteriously' vanished.
…
Metropolis
Feb. 20 – 11:55 am
Clark… Kal-El… whatever name he was going by these days; at work Clark, at home (he'd come to call the Fortress 'home' rather than just a base now) he was Kal-El and at his other work he was Superman. He was making his lunch-hour circuit of the city when he heard it.
It had been almost a moth since the Man of Steel had heard that dissonant cord. Like an E flat being pulled against an open A. He paused in mid-air; hovering above the city he honed his hearing to try and zero-in on its source. Bruce had said that they were imbedding the signal in more than just TV static now. That it was also in radio waves, actual television programs and commercials, internet pop-ups, maybe even memes; but Kal was to high up for any imbedded signals to be reaching him when he wasn't already looking for them. Even now when he had tuned his hearing into the dissonant melody he could not identify it as coming from any particular building. It was not coming from the city below him.
There was a directionality to the sound, though. Slightly louder to the north-east than it was to the west or south-west. Whatever was the source of the dissonant cord was coming from somewhere outside of Metropolis. Kal-El focused his ears on the signal and sped off in the direction from which it seemed to come.
He zoomed over New York and crossed the boarder into Rhode Island but it was as he entered Massachusetts that Kal paused and turned back. He had over shot the sound's source. It was coming from somewhere in Rhode Island and a sharp stab of something that might possibly have been fear hit him in the stomach. Mount Justice was in Rhode Island.
Bruce did say that the enemy would be able to get to the boy so long as he was at the Cave. The base wasn't exactly a secret one. They were hiding the kids in plain sight and the base had already been attacked once. Kal was glad that Conner was safe up north in the Fortress, but what about the others? If the enemy was trying to find Conner and attacked the base to get at him, what would they do to the other kids?
The Man of Steel zoomed to the mountain. He landed and perched on its peak, using his X-ray vision to scan the inside. Red Tornado was in the library with a book in one cybernetic hand and a Cliff Notes in the other, no doubt attempting to expand his human understanding. M'gann was not present; it being a weekday Kal imagined she was probably in school. No other mentors or Team members were present. All seemed fine at the Mt. Justice base. Kal breathed a sigh of relif.
But he could still hear the cord.
Turning his attention from the base, Superman narrowed his hearing to block-out everything but that one disharmonious melody. He strained his concentration until he could hear its path, almost like seeing a beacon and tether leading him to the sound's origin. Once again Kal found himself airborne. He followed the cord to the outskirts of Happy Harbor, but before he could reach the source, the signal stopped, almost as if someone had simply flipped a switch and turned it off, the dissonant cord was gone. Superman once again paused in flight, scanning the area with all his senses.
There was a sharp BOOM, not quite like the sound barrier being breached, but definitely like some barrier of one sort or another had been broken, then Kal saw what he could only describe as a tube of light appear. He flew to it, but with a second loud BOOM the tube was gone leaving behind no evidence of what it was or who had made it.
…
Wayne Enterprises – Gotham Offices
Feb. 20 – 12:20
Bruce Wayne, Gotham Prince, notorious playboy, owner and CEO of the economic super-power Wayne Enterprises hated it when his friends from his 'extra-curricular activities' bothered him at work. With a sound that we are not going to call a 'growl' (because Bruce Wayne doesn't do that sort of stuff) Wayne reached up to his ear and replaced his bluetooth with an earpiece of a different sort.
In a voice just barely louder than the sound of him breathing he said, "This is Batman. Go ahead."
"Bruce," Clark's voice came over the channel sounding agitated and worried. "I think we have a problem. I'm in Rhode Island right now, I can be in Gotham in five. We need to talk."
'Five' coming from the Superman meant 'five seconds' not 'five minuets'. Bruce switched off his comm and pushed his chair back from the desk. As important as maintaining his civilian identity was, the Batman and the JLA came first.
Clark was already waiting for him by the time he turned the silver Lamborghini behind the faux rock wall that concealed the Batcave. Pacing back and forth in front of the large monitor array, his hand's clasp behind his back wrinkling his cape, his mouth set in a grim line of anxiety. He hovered over to the car before Bruce even had the chance to climb out.
"They're looking for him." The Superman blurted out. "They knew he was living at the Cave so they were looking for him at the Cave but they didn't find him there, now I don't know what they're gonna do, but they're looking for him. Thank Rao he's safe at the Fortress! But, Bruce, what am I going to do?"
"You saw them?" Bruce all but jumped out of his car. "You know who the enemy is?"
"N-no…" Clark had to reluctantly admit. "I was in Metropolis when I heard the cord. It wasn't coming from a TV or computer or anything, it wasn't an imbedded signal. It was just the signal, just the melody, Bruce –it was a direct broadcast. I followed the sound to just outside Happy Harbor where it stopped. Then there was a loud boom, not an explosion or anything. It was more like when I break the sound barrier only it wasn't like breaking the sound barrier. Then there was something that looked like a tunnel of light but I didn't get down there in time and when I did it was gone and there was no trace of the enemy."
"You say there was a 'boom' and then a tunnel of light?" The Dark Knight echoed. He loosened the red tie he'd worn to work that day, (damn things were miserably uncomfortable) and made a B-line for the Bat-computer and his monitor array. "Was it like a tube?"
"Sure. Why not." The Superman floated after the Batman and hovered behind his chair. "But, Bruce, what does it matter what their magic teleporting thingy looked like? They're out there and they're trying to get their dirty reprehensibly fiendish and rotten hands on my son!"
Had this statement been preceded by any other news or comments by the Superman, the Caped Crusader would have turned around to bring attention to Clark's use of the word 'son'. Even after the revelation he had experienced on Watchtower, the red and blue Boy Scout had tried his best to avoid continued use of the word. Perhaps this was a sign that he and Conner were finally starting to bond? Or more likely it just showed how deeply this still nameless and faceless threat affected the All-American Alien. Either way, the World's Greatest Detective did not have time to waste on the Superman's emotional development. His description of the enemy's sudden vanishing act sparked a bit of memory. He pulled up Conner's report from when he'd run away shortly after the failed training simulation.
In the report, Superboy mentioned that both the Forever People and Intergang used the same inter-dimensional teleportation devices. He went on to describe the portals they created as 'tubes of light' that both appeared with a loud 'boom' and were closed with the same sound for punctuation. The one called Dreamer had explained them as 'Boom Tubes' and that they were used on both New Genesis and Apokolips for interdementional travel as well as through space. Now the question was: 'What in the multi-verse did people from another world want with Earth and why did they still seem to need Superboy?'
(Okay, so maybe that was two questions.)
"Clark, I think I have an idea of who might be helping the ones controlling Conner, if not the actual culprits themselves."
That snapped the Superman back to attention, pushing the still unfamiliar feeling of parental-panic to the side long enough to read Conner's report projected on the monitor screen. "Intergang?" He sounded skeptical. "They're dangerous, but this is a bit out of their league, don't you think?"
"You're focusing on the familiar and drawing the wrong conclusion." Chided the World's Greatest Detective. "Go back over it, this time think about the new and unfamiliar players…"
He did.
"Apokolips and New Genesis…" He muttered, crossing his blue-spandex clad arms over his broad chest. "If Apokolips is supplying Intergang with weapons and other technology then they might be supplying other villains as well."
"Aw, look who gets a gold star on his homework." Bruce did not smile as he said this, the Batman rarely smiled. Still, the playful humor was present enough for the Superman to pick-up on. There were very few that the Dark Knight ever felt comfortable enough around to actually joke with, but Clark was glad to be counted as one of them.
"So, what do I do?"
"For now? There's not much we can do." Bruce minimized Conner's report on his little 'outing' and opened a second window to log into Watchtower's Sentry program. He sifted through the program's recent history, looking specifically over the eastern seaboard for anything suspicious. "There was an unusual energy surge in Rhode Island today at five to noon and then a second almost thirty minuets later."
"Those would be about the time I first heard the cord and when it vanished." Clark nodded.
Bruce turned back to the computer array. "It matches similar energy surges from the same night of Superboy's encounter as well as times going as far back as their mission to Bialya. Since Watchtower can detect their teleportation devices when activated, we can track their movements and look for any patterns that could give a clue at to their motives-"
"And if they get close to Conner!"
"Yes, that too." My, my, my, look who was quickly turning into an over-protective mother hen. "But try not to bring this trouble home with you, don't let Conner know his puppet-masters are looking for him. You don't want a repeat of his episode on Watchtower, do you?"
"No." Sober, quiet, ever so slightly guilty.
"The best thing you can do for him right now is exactly what you have been doing for the past two weeks. Just keep teaching him Kryptonese and kryptonian history. He's enjoying himself and he trusts you."
Kal-El smiled to himself. He didn't bother asking how the Dark Knight, the 'Big Brother' of superheroes knew about his lessons with the boy. Even if the whole Fortress hadn't been bugged-out with his spy wear, he was sure Robin still gave him weekly reports. Bruce was probably more informed about Conner's activities than Kal was and he lived with the boy.
"I'm also finding it to be a nice refresher-course for myself." The Batman grinned. "You should break-out some of those old ballads you got from Kandor. I'm especially fond of 'the Voyage of Val-El', there's something very Nordic about it."
Kal sighed. "Well, I'd rather play him some Garth Brooks and Loanstar. But since those aren't options…"
…
Fortress of Solitude
Feb. 24 – 1:45 am"So, I was thinking you might have had enough of the folksy stuff, how about symphony music!" Kal smiled as he set three small audiocrystals beside the crystalplayer in the living room.
Conner knelt on the floor at the coffee table, studying the corrections Kal had made to his translation of 'the Flight of Hyr-El'. Kal had used the English word 'flight' when telling the boy the title and that had confused the ever-living-daylights out of him until he was halfway through the second movement when it hit him that 'flight' was used as a romanticized alternative for 'escape'. The result was having almost the entire first half of his translation covered in red pen corrections while the second half only had the spelling or grammar errors marked. He looked up from the page.
"Symphonies, that's just strait music, right? No lyrics?" 'No difficult translations?' Was the unspoken question.
"Nope." Kal nodded. "I thought it would be some nice background noise while you got started on the saga of the 'Bethgar of Urrika'."
The boy groaned. Kryptonian literature was hard. It was like all their writers reached the Renaissance and then said, 'Eh, we're good. We don't need to evolve beyond this.' Every damn author Conner had read and translated so far was like Marlowe, Dante, or Lanyer. Thank Rao Kal hadn't given him any kryptonian 'Shakespeare' yet!
"Ya know, they say that playing classical music while you study helps you learn."
"'They' say lots of things."
Kal only shrugged and selected a crystal to listen to. He fit it into the player and skipped the orchestra's warm-up to dive right into the first movement. He then sat down with Conner to begin reading the saga of the 'Bethgar of Urrika', a tale of three generations of leaders during the Era of Warring Tribes, before Erok-El had claimed power and unified the continent.
Music filled the living area, soft and slow at first but climbing in tempo. Beginning with low wind instruments first, a combination of woodwinds and a metal flute similar to Earth's oboe (though, obviously not made from the same material). They set the melody, but as cadence continued to climb, the winds were joined by moderate percussion, not to bold they were trying to study after all. But then the strings joined the melody and Conner gave a yelp as if in pain, his hands flying up to grasp his head.
"Conner?" Kal-El placed a hand on his equivalent-son's shoulder. "What's wrong?"
At first the boy did not answer. He groaned, clutching his head, his teeth gritted against the apparent pain. He pushed away from the coffee table enough to collapse on the floor, drawing his knees up to his chest.
"Conner, what's wrong?" Now Kal was very concerned. "Conner, talk to me! Conner, look at me!"
The boy cracked one eyelid, his crystal blue iris peering between his splayed fingers at his genetic-parent. "It… hurts…"
"What hurts? Conner, keep talking. Focus on me. What hurts?"
"I don't… know!"
He writhed on the floor, Kal-El looking on helplessly not sure what he should do to help the boy. Then, the music in the player shifted. The kryptonian string instruments faded to the background of the melody allowing the winds to return to the forefront before the song ended and they were given a moment of silence before the next track began.
"It's… gone." Conner pushed himself back up into a sitting position. Kal placed a strong, supportive hand on his back. "I don't know what happened. My head hurt so much and then it just stopped."
"I think you've had enough studying for one night." The Superman helped the boy to his feet. "C'mon, lets get you to bed. I'll ask J'onn to stop by tomorrow. You won't mind him looking into your mind again, would you?"
…
Fortress of Solitude
Feb. 25 – 9:00 am
J'onn came over a few hours after Kal-El left for Metropolis, M'gann tagged along with him to play 'nurse' while her uncle examined Conner. She had morphed her bio-clothing into what she assumed was traditional nurse's attire. Conner wondered if he should tell her that real nurses wore scrubs, not mini-skirts, garter belt, and cherry-red platform heels. Then she bent over to pet Wolf and Krypto and he decided he'd much rather just let her keep wearing that, the view was worlds better than any frumpy scrubs would be.
Then J'onn cleared his throat and the Superboy was forced to take his eyes off his very fetching girlfriend. Of course, the girl's uncle would not appreciate Conner's surface most thoughts to be inappropriate visions of his niece when he delved into the boy's mind. He tried his best to compose himself and relax.
J'onn did as he had often done during their sessions on Watchtower, coasting over his Outer and Inner Webs to the boy's core. Aside from the other sleeping presence that the martian had already noted weeks ago, there was no noticeable change in Conner's mind. Well, he did seem a bit more tempered and contented since he'd started living with his genetic-parent, but J'onn was fairly sure that was cause for celebration rather than concern. He pulled out of the boy's mind and asked him what he'd been doing when the episode had occurred.
"Just studying with Kal-El." He answered simply.
He had given Black Canary an equally unhelpful answer when he first confided in her about his blackouts and memory lapses, but J'onn refused to believe that Conner was that unmindful of his surroundings. "What else was happening while you were studying?" He asked. "Were the dogs in the room? Or one of Superman's robots? Maybe an item from outside that one of the Team might have left?"
"No." Conner shrugged. "Wolf and Krypto were playing in the gardens, Numbers One through Twenty-Four were working in the parts of the Fortress I'm not allowed in, and no one left anything here last time they were over. It was just me and Kal. Oh! He did put on some music. But I don't think that was it."
"Would you please play it for me?" The martian asked.
"Sure." Conner stood and crossed the living room to the crystalplayer with the same audiocrystal from the previous day in it. He switched on the kryptonian stereo and, like Kal had done, skipped over the orchestra's warm-up track to dive right into the first movement.
"Thank you. Please sit back down."
Conner did as he was told and J'onn resumed his study of the boy's mind, this time how it was affected by the music. As the rythem picked up, the boy's serotonin levels began to rise, but that was normal of most all sentient beings and was not out of the ordinary. That was one of the things that set music apart from other arts like poetry and literature. They rely on the rational transport to inspire an emotion. They are meditated from words while music omits that stage and communicates emotions directly. Music did not pass through rationality to express its essence.
…And then the strings took up the rhythm.
J'onn was so socked by the sudden change in the boy's mind that he almost retreated out of it. Waves of angry dissonance reverberated outwards from the boy's Chalice, no, not his Chalice from that dormant presence that clung to his Chalice. Whatever had attached itself to Conner's center did not like the sound of string instruments from Krypton. It seemed almost like whatever it was were trying to push the sound or maybe the sensations it caused out of the boy's mind. This caused shockwaves that quaked through his Inner and Outer Webs. It was no wonder he had felt such pain. In a greater intensity it might run the risk of ripping his Webs to shreds and reducing him back to just his basic core Self.
"M'gann, please turn off the music."
She stared at the alien symbols for a moment or two, Kryptonese not being one of the languages offered for study on Mars, before she pressed a finger to the symbol she was pretty sure was equivalent to 'On/Off'. Whatever it was she had pressed in actuality didn't matter, the music stopped and with it the chaos of Conner's mind. The boy returned to normal with no sign of the inner violence that had torn through him only moments before. The martian pulled out and looked at the boy.
"Conner, are you okay?" M'gann came up to stand behind her uncle.
"Yeah." He said. "After it stops it feels like it never happened."
J'onn nodded. That was consistent with what he'd experienced while in the boy's mind. "I will need to speak to Superman about what I've learned. The input of someone more knowledgeable about kryptonians than I would be helpful. As for you, I suggest steering clear of the orchestra's sting section. Try percussion, that's where the piano lives and pianos are beautiful."
(Assuming, of course, Krypton had an instrument equivalent to the piano.)
"Uh, sure…" Conner didn't really know much about music, but then, it wasn't really something he was all that into.
…
Fortress of Solitude
March 2 – 3:45 pm
Kal-El decided to ease-up on the language and history tutoring a bit and began breaking-up study sessions with something else that was equally near and dear to the alien's heart. Good ol' American football! Since relocating his residence to the Fortress Kal had missed almost the entire season. (He heard that Kansas State lost to Gotham U, damn Knights!) So he figured, why not teach Conner the game and play a little one-on-one in their spare time?
Their 'one-on-one' matches were really more like 'keep away' and Kal soon learned that in an all-out match between himself and his clone it was better to play outside. So, after Conner helped him clean up the grand room and patch-up the damage done to his restoration of the Lusitania, their games were moved to the ice-fields of the Arctic. It was the first time since he'd come to live at the Fortress that Kal allowed the boy outside.
During one of these outdoor matches that the Team arrived for one of their weekend visits.
At first all that could be seen from the martian bio-ship were the clouds of snow and ice kicked up from their tackles, shock-waves reverberating through the snow and radiating cracks in the ice. M'gann circled the ship around the field while everyone wondered if Conner had snapped into mole-mode again and Uncle Supes was trying to subdue him. When she did finally land the ship (in camouflage mode), everyone climbed out to approach the battlefield cautiously.
Conner seemed to be running with something in his hands, but no sooner had he gotten a few paces away when the Man of Steel pounced on the boy, knocking him through the ice-sheet and wrestling whatever it was he carried from his arms.
"Whoot! That's Kal five and Con two!"
It was then that the Team saw the thing they had fought over was a strangely textured and slightly beat-up looking football. They were playing a game?
Uncle Supes looked up at them, then turned back to the hole in the ice. "Hey, Conner, you're friends are here."
There was no answer from the boy, but the gurgle of frigid water under ice.
"Conner…?" The Superman ventured again, the slightest bit of concern slipping into his voice.
Then with a loud crash and splash, the ice behind Superman burst under the force of the Superboy propelling himself fists first though it. He grabbed the Man of Steel's cape and flipped it over the man's head, taking advantage of the distraction he plucked that football from his hands and gave a whoop of his own.
"Ha! Got you old man! That makes us five-three. Although, it should be four-three for that out-of-bounds you threw." He then turned to face his Team. "Oh, hey guys."
Uncle Supes righted his cape, he had long since forfeited his dignity when he allowed the kids to start calling him 'uncle'. "Nice. You managed to pull one over on me." Oh, the pun, it burns! "There's hot chocolate and cider in the kitchen if you want it. I guess I better call Watchtower and see if one of the Lanterns can retrieve that out-of-bounds."
"Wouldn't it just burn-up when it reached escape velocity?" Asked Conner.
"Pff, not one of my balls." The Superman flew off to retrieve the giant key to his Fortress that was usually disguised as an airline marker (an obsolete navigation took now thanks to satellite tracking). When he had the door open Kal turned back to the kids. "Well?"
"Can we…" Conner ventured meekly. "Can we maybe play a little out here? We won't be out long, not everyone is as tolerant of the cold as we are." Robin, Artemis and Wally were already shivering.
Kal knew he should say 'no'. The enemy was still out there and Conner was still susceptible to their control. But there was five of them to try and subdue him and they would be right outside and he was home and could respond immediately if something did happen. It should be fine if they just played one game outside…
"Sure. But remember the others aren't as durable as you are."
…and that was the first time since he'd come to live at the Fortress that he allowed the boy outside unsupervised.
…
Washington, DCMarch 5 – 12:00 pm
DC, as in Washington DC was bit farther from Metropolis than Happy Harbor (a 'bit' being a relative term considering the method of travel). In this case the method of travel was flight and the 'bit' was roughly over a hundred miles. It was worrisome the distance the mysterious enemy's signal could travel and still be heard, but Kal-El was determined to find its source this time.
Since he had first brought it to Batman's attention back in Febuary, Watchtower had picked up the enemy's Boom Tube surges two other times. Once in Central City where Conner had stayed with Kid Flash and his family during those three days between the fiasco at Cadmus and the official formation of the Young Justice Team and then the second was today, now, in the Distric of Colombia.
He followed the sound to the construction site that had once been the front for Cadmus Labs. The real Cadmus was still underground, his X-ray vision confirmed that. He could only see the upper most levels, but the signal didn't seem to be coming from the lab anyway, just near it. Kal readjusted his hearing. Bruce had said he was focusing to much on the familiar and drawing the wrong conclusions. He needed to follow the sound all the way to its source, not part of the way and then pause to investigate tangent that had once been relevant but was no longer so. In Rhode Island he'd gone to Mount Justice where Conner had lived instead of continuing to follow the sound and now here in DC he stopped at Cadmus where Conner had been created rather than following the sound.
Kal turned from the innocent looking construction site and redirected his attention back to the dishonest cord. It wasn't at Cadmus, but it was near Cadmus. Was the enemy broadcasting their signal specifically in places they knew Conner had inhabited?
That was a question for the Batman.
Kal-El never got to actually catch the culprits. As with the time in Happy Harbor and in Central the enemy had cut the signal and escaped through their Boom Tube before he could get close enough to nab them. But Kal did use his telescopic vision to get one good look at them.
It was a group of three. Two wore alien uniforms and acted as nothing more that grunt-troops, taking orders from the third. The third was large, heavy-set but not 'fat'. The being's considerable bulk looked to be muscle, but it wasn't exactly a 'human' muscle configuration. Humanoid, yes; human, no. Between the off body-type, alien dress, deep lines in their face and their while shock of thick white hair, there was something very uncanny-valley about them. Whoever or whatever they were, it was clear that they were not from Earth.
…
Metropolis
March 7 – 11:45
…And then Kal heard the dissonant melody in Metropolis. Not from Metropolis, it wasn't coming from out of state as it had before and he just happened to hear it because he had super-hearing. No. It was coming from somewhere here, someone in his own town!
Kal-El was determined to catch the fiends this time. He blocked out everything but that one unpleasant noise. A discordant melody that offended his ears and grated on his nerves. There was such a thing as tunnel vision, well, he discovered something akin to 'tunnel hearing' and he followed it to a back-ally in Suicide Slums.
There was the boss with the wild white hair, the two grunt-troops and what looked like some version of a pary-DJ sound system, only… different. Kal landed directly on top of the machine, smashing it on contact. The dissonant melody was silenced.
He faced the boss but she (on closer inspection he decided the alien was female) was already opening a Boom Tube for herself to escape through. Kal moved to intercept her but the two henchmen pounced him upon.
"That's it boys." Said the boss. "Protect your dear old Granny."
She disappeared through the Tube.
One of the grunts gave him a sucker-punch to the gut and Kal was surprised to learn that these aliens almost as hard as he could. The three of them tumbled through Suicide Slum for some time, drawing the attention of the denizens of the slum and after buildings started getting smashed, the rest of the city as well.
The fight finally ended when Superman had been hit hard enough to daze him, giving the pair time enough to open a Boom Tube of their own and escape.
…And Superman was left with no more information on who was controlling Conner than he had started with that day.
…