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 Five: Taken
Watchtower
March 7 – (irrelevant)
"Go home, Clark!"
Batman had just begun his shift on Watchtower when the Superman materialized on the teleportation pad on the main bridge. The red and blue Boy Scout in a show of uncharacteristic hysterics had then launched into something that might have been an explanation had he spoken slower, didn't shout quite as much and kept to one language instead of constantly switching between English and Kryptonian.
Of course, Watchtower had detected the now very familiar and unmistakable energy surge in Metropolis that indicated a Boom Tube. It wasn't hard for the Dark Knight to determine that Superman had tangled with Conner's puppet masters. Obvious by his behavior, the fight had not gone in the Boy Scout's favor and he had not managed to subdue or capture the enemy. Distraught over his defeat and the continued threat to Conner, his 'son', Clark had come to the one person he had an almost religious belief could fix everything –the Batman.
Clark didn't seem to realize that the World's Greatest Detective worked better without a panic-stricken parent in the room.
"You've brought me some new information. That's good." The Batman was saying. "But I can't work with you hovering over me."
"What new information?" The Superman groaned. "We don't know anything more than we did before!"
"We know that they're not from Earth." Bruce began listing off. "We know they have henchmen who are almost as strong as you when you're off your guard and we know that the boss calls herself 'Granny'."
The Superman gave a snort of derision. "That's not a name."
"Neither is 'Superman'." Bruce shot back, not the least bit perturbed. Then he sighed. "Go home, Clark. I promise I'll figure out who's controlling Conner and why, but you can't help right now."
"And why not!"
"You're hysterical." Was the Batman's flat and simple answer. "You aren't thinking strait and need to calm down. Go back to your Fortress, hug your boy, have a glass of milk… whatever, just get yourself under control."
He put a comforting hand on the Man of Steel's shoulder and steered him to the zetta-pad. With a nod to Hawkman, whom had remained tactfully silent during the bout of super-hysterics, and took a step back as the zetta-beam energized, sending the Superman back to the Hall of Justice in Washington.
After he was gone Karter ventured hesitantly, "Was that, um, was that a different Superman than the one who couldn't stand the boy a couple months ago?"
"Sometimes I think so." Batman agreed. "His view of the Superboy did pull a rather quick one-eighty."
…
Fortress of Solitude
March 7 – 3:05 pm
If Conner thought it was weird that Kal-El had come home early then he thought it was down right bizarre when the first thing the man did upon seeing him was to pull him into firm bear-hug.
"Um, Kal…?" The boy ventured with hesitant confusion.
This was so far beyond what he'd come to expect from the man. He'd come a long way from ignoring and avoiding him, to teaching him Kryptonese and football, but Conner never would have imagined in a million years that the man would go so far as to ever hug him. In all honesty, it felt a little weird. Like, uncomfortable weird.
"I think its great that you're chill enough to hug me now, but, um…" The boy began. "But I'd much rather have that kryptonian name you promised me last month instead."
…
Fortress of SolitudeMarch 10 – 6:00 am
"So, what time will the others be coming over later today?" Conner asked as Kal was just on his way out for the day.
"Oh, sorry I forgot to tell you, Batman has a mission for them." The Superman answered. "They probably won't be over this weekend."
…
Fortress of Solitude
March 18 – 10:30
As Kal had predicted, Conner didn't see his Team at all that weekend. M'gann did stop by in the middle of the week on Wednesday after school and ended up spending the night (much to Kal-El's dismay). It wasn't until Sunday night of the following weekend when his Team came over, exhausted after not one but two missions. They had decided to screw school and invited themselves over to the Fortress, bringing pizza and soda and setting their tent up in the living room as per-usual.
He asked them about their missions and what everyone was doing while he was cooped up here at the Fortress. They told him about adventures with their mentors, gossip from within the League, and amusing anecdotes from school.
Kal hung back from the group, giving the kids their space as he usually tried to do when they were over. He sat in his favorite chair, an old-school typewriter in his lap, attempting to do some actual work for his day job since Bruce had decided he was to 'emotionally involved' to help with the investigation of what had been dubbed the 'Granny Case'. He listened to the kids as they giggled at the expense of their peers (as children tended to do), and just generally enjoyed themselves.
…And then Kid Flash said with a sigh, "Man, it sure is great to be able to kick back like this." There was the unmistakable sound of a body flopping down on a pillow. "Bats has got us so busy chasing your spy-masters, I'm starting to feel a little run-down. No pun intended."
Kal was on his feet and pulling the tent aside before Conner blinked, "My what?"
"Okay, bedtime!" Kal barked in an attempt to cut off any further slips. Jeez, what was it about the Flashes and taking such a casual and 'laxed approach to sensitive information?
Five pairs of eyes looked up at him startled, Conner stayed focused on Wally. "KF, what do you mean?"
The Flash's nephew might have been loose lipped a few seconds ago, but he was fast on the up-take and realized his mistake quickly, although it was still all to late. He slapped Conner on the shoulder and said with forced casualness, "No big deal, though. Anyway, Uncle Supes is right, we should be getting to bed."
He stood and began putting the living room back together. The rest of the Team was quick to follow, all standing and picking up pillows and couch cushions, righting chairs, folding the sheet they used as their 'tent' and retrieving Robin's bat-rope with which they suspended it. All the while Conner stood unmoving and glared at them all. Rationally speaking, he understood why they would keep it from him. He was the mole and so it was just plain stupid to share any sensitive information with him; that was doubly true of information about whomever was controlling him. But Conner was not a very rational person by nature, being ruled more by emotion rather than logic and so couldn't help but feel spurned.
Before he knew it, he was standing in the middle of an empty room, his Team having fled to their staterooms aboard the Titanic. Kal came up beside him and offered the boy a glass of juice.
"Here." Said the Superman.
Conner looked at it, suddenly feeling like he was back on Watchtower shortly after first learning that he was the mole. "I don't need a sedative." He growled. "I just want to know what's going on…"
Kal-El sighed and sank down to sit on the couch, motioning for Conner to follow suit. The boy reluctantly sat next to his genetic-parent, eyeing the glass of apple juice laced with sedative the man still held as if it might leap out of his hand and bite him. Kal sighed a second time and placed the glass down on the coffee table.
"You reacted badly when you first learned you were the mole." He said. "We didn't want to risk a repeat of that, so everyone's been trying to insulate you from the investigation."
Once again, rationally Conner understood that. But that didn't prevent him from feeling like he'd been lied to; this did concern him directly after all. "I told you I'd never ask you to do that again." He reminded his genetic-parent. "But I think I have a right to know what the hell is going on outside these walls, especially when it's about me."
"If I agree to level with you, you have to agree to take the relaxant if I don't like the way you take the news." He pushed the glass of juice closer to Conner.
The boy glared at it with distaste before looking back up at Kal and nodding ever so slightly.
Kal-El took a deep breath. "Recently, the signal used to control you has been cropping up more and more in direct broadcasts, its not imbedded anymore." He explained. "So far, it's only occurred in places that we know you've stayed, this leads us to believe that they're trying to find you."
Conner wasn't sure what exactly he had expected. He didn't know what information he had passed on or who he'd passed it to while he was under their control. There was no reason to assume that he had fulfilled all of their objectives, it made sense that they would be looking for him. Maybe to continue to use him, maybe to glean whatever else they could from him before cutting him loose now that he'd been compromised. He hadn't had a blackout or memory laps since going to Watchtower or coming here to the Fortress but that could just be that they hadn't tried broadcasting anywhere near here yet. What if they finally figured out where he was and got to him?
Would he give away how to enter Kal-El's Fortress? Kal had told his Team how to come and go without having to muck about with his giant key gimmick and they had in turn told him. He could easily pass that information on to whoever was controlling him. Or, what if they ordered him to neutralize Kal? It was what he had been created to do –kill Superman. But he'd started to like the man allot since coming here…
Before he had just idolized him as what he wanted to be like, a lofty unobtainable goal, his shining example of what heroism looked like. That view had dulled slightly as the man constantly rejected him. But since coming to live in his Fortress with him, Conner had grown to view the Superman, not as an idol to be placed on a pedestal, but rather a friend. Kal-El's name had been added to his list of people he'd rather die than betray. If his masters were looking for him… if they found him… if they turned him against Kal…
Conner reached for his sedative-laced juice and took one large swallow.
"I shouldn't have told you." Kal said. "Bats warned me not to worry you."
The boy continued to sip his juice.
"Conner, are you going to be okay?"
He didn't know how to answer, so he said nothing. Kal-El interpreted the boy's silence as dejection and placed what he hoped was a comforting hand around the boy's shoulders, pulling him closer to himself. It wasn't quite a hug, but it was close enough.
"I don't want them to find me." Conner said at last. He took another sip of his sedative-laced juice, draining the last from the cup, and relaxed against his genetic-parent's side. Maybe it was a sign of how much more comfortable with the man he was becoming or maybe it was the sedative taking affect, but this didn't feel quite as awkward as their first hug almost two weeks ago.
"I don't want them to find you either." Kal said.
"I don't want to betray… my friends," He was starting to feel a little fuddled. It sure didn't take long for the kryptonian cocktail to take affect. "…or you. Mm, even if you still haven't given me… that name you promised…"
"I know you don't want to hurt anyone."
Conner began to say something else but his speech was so slurred that it was impossible to decipher. His head flopped down on Kal's shoulder –asleep. Kal-El shifted slightly, intending to stand and carry the boy to his room, but Wolf jumped up onto the couch and laid across the boy's lap, effectively pinning him down. Kal sighed and relaxed back into to the cushions.
"So, you're the culprit who's been leaving white fur all over the furniture."
The cobra-venom enhanced predator looked up at the Man of Steel innocently. Then Krypto hopped up on his other side and placed his head in Kal's lap.
"And you're picking up bad habits." He said by way of reprimanding his own dog. Krypto, like Wolf, also looked innocent and licked Kal's hand in an attempt to placate his master.
The Man of Steel sighed and resigned himself to having to sit there for a long time. He cast his eyes sideways at the boy whose head rested on his shoulder. He had promised Conner a kryptonian name, it had been his own suggestion, the boy had not asked and yet it had been almost two month and he still hadn't decided on a suitable one yet.
The idea of naming him after one of his ancestors had been thrown out rather early on; so had the idea of giving him the kind of name a person grows into like 'Zrig' (wisdom) or Dihviao (greatness), he felt they had the same problem as naming him after an ancestor, that of placing unneeded expectations on the boy. He had then decided on a descriptive name, something that applied to the boy, but he didn't want to call him 'weapon', or 'copy' (there was no word for 'clone' in Kryptonese), or anything along those lines and he figured Conner wouldn't appreciate any of those either.
He brushed the spit curl of hair identical to his own out of the boy's face and reflected on how suddenly and inexplicably the boy had fallen into his life. That night in July he had been so socked to learn he had been cloned, he hadn't been able to see the boy for the gift that he truly was. Bruce had put so much pressure on him to claim the boy as his son that it ended up having the except opposite effect and only pushed Kal farther from him. But, loath though he was to admit it, Bruce was right. Conner was his son and the boy needed his father.
Conner had called himself a 'living weapon', he said he had been created to kill and replace the Superman. When he first appeared, Kal had been wary and suspicious of the boy (after the initial shock had worn off), he viewed the boy as a possible threat, almost as a 'curse' rather than the blessing he was.
A blessing in disguise, an unexpected gift.
'Blessing in disguise'… 'maaltes konvh'… 'blessing'… 'konvh'… Konvh-El? No.
'Unexpected gift'… 'enikhs kon'… 'gift'… 'kon'… Kon-El? Hm, that didn't sound to bad.
"Kon-El." He said allowed, testing the name on his tongue. It felt pretty good, too, rolling off the tongue with ease. It was short and easy to remember and similar enough to his Earthling name to not make him feel strange when called it.
"You're name is Kon-El." He told the sleeping boy, well aware that he wouldn't register it. "Kon of the House of El."
…
Fortress of Solitude
March 19 – 5:00 am
As the Team had said 'screw school' that Monday, so too did Kal-El decide 'screw work'. He'd be damned if he was going to leave Conner alone after last night. True, he wouldn't be alone; his entire Team was still here with him, but after the Kid Flash's slip last night Kal thought that perhaps an adult's supervision was also needed.
Conner blinked at him, sitting at the kitchen table still in his pajamas and attempting not to incinerate the Daily Planet's crossword puzzle in frustration. One of these days he was going to sit down and have a word with Brent about these clues. They made no sense!
"You're not wearing your uniform."
"Nope." Kal sipped a cup of hot chocolate.
"You're not going to Metropolis today?"
"Nope."
"Because of me?"
Kal-El did not respond, but that was answer enough for Conner. He pulled up a chair at the kitchen table and poked listlessly at the plate of food that was placed in front of him by one of the Fortress' robots.
"Cheer up." Kal said, tossing his crossword aside and turning his chair to face the boy. "You're perfectly safe here. Even if the enemy knew where you were, they wouldn't be able to get to you."
"I guess." He took a bite of toast, chewed, swallowed and repeated the process with the eggs and bacon. When Conner had taken at least one bite from every item on his plate he set it on the floor for Wolf and Krypto to share (or fight over, it was sometimes hard to tell). Kal glared at the action, Ma would not approve. But at least the boy wasn't hand-feeding them strait from the table. That was something right?
"Well, if that's not enough to get you to quit being moppey, maybe this will." He grinned at the boy. "Last night, after you fell asleep, I finally decided on your name."
His mood did brighten at that. Not just brighten, the boy's whole face lit-up as if the trouble he'd been worried about only moments before didn't exist and all was right with the world and him in it. And then Kal saw the slightest hint of apprehension set in as the boy asked, "What… what is it?"
"Kon." He answered simply. "Kon-El."
The boy frowned, but Kal-El couldn't decide if it was from disappointment or confusion, or any combination there of.
"You don't like it?"
"No, its fine." Kon-El assured him. "'Kon' sounds like 'Con', which is the first syllable in my civilian name so I can see why you chose it. Its just… it took you a really long time to figure that out. I had thought you were taking so long because you wanted it to mean something, or whatever."
"It does mean something."
"I meant within the context of the name." The boy clarified. "I know that 'kon' is the Kryptonese word for 'gift'."
Kal flashed him a deliberate smile.
Kon raised an eyebrow.
Kal's smile morphed into a grin that was accompanied by the slightest of nods.
Kon blinked. "I don't understand."
…
Fortress of Solitude
March 19 – 9:45
Kon-El took the four hours between his conversation with Kal-El and when the rest of his team awake and began trickling into the kitchen to consider his new name and his genetic-parent's reasons behind it.
Okay, so he had chosen it for its meaning, not because it also just so happened to be the first syllable as his civilian name, that could mean one of two things. Option one, Kal could be meaning to imply that he, Conner, was a 'gift' of one sort or another (pff, not likely, at all!). Or, option two, Kal could have meant the name to be a gift to Conner, like a peace offering or an apology for his negligence and behavior prior to being given custody of him by Batman (highly likely). It wasn't exactly the most appealing of reasons for his name, but it was a name, it was kryptonian and Superman had given it to him. Conner, ney, Kon-El resolved to be content with it.
Besides, Kal didn't have to give him the surename of 'El' along with it. Kon hadn't asked to be accepted into the House of El, and when the offer of a kryptonian name had been made he had no expectations of such. He was a clone, not an illegitimate relation; creatures of his sort didn't have families. Of course, now that he was an El he supposed not only did he have a family (a family of two) but also a family history. A rather long and moderately epic family history, too.
He didn't share even half of these reflections with his Team, however. It really wasn't their business; he might confide it in M'gann later when they found the time to be alone. When the rest of his Team had assembled in the kitchen (in varying degrees of wakefulness) he simply announced, "Hey guys, guess what! I have a name!"
They had all frowned at him in confusion, M'gann especially. She had been the one to give him his civilian Earthling name. Kon hadn't considered that preferring his new kryptonian name over the one she gave him might be misconstrued as a snub. They would have to talk about that next time they were alone too.
"Uh, Supey, you already have a name." Wally reminded him.
"I meant a kryptonian name. Its Kon, Kon-El."
…
Fortress of Solitude
March 19 – 11:30 am
Kal paused when he entered the living area and found Robin going threw the audiocrystals he'd left out after Conner's episode. "What're you doing?"
"Which crystal was the one that gave Conner his headache?" Dick asked by way of explanation. "I can't tell one from another, they all look the same to me."
Kal-El crossed the room to stand in front of the boy and his kryptonian stereo-system. It wasn't hard to guess that Bruce had asked him to grab the music crystal and bring it back to the Batcave to be examined by the World's Greatest Detective (though, Kal wasn't sure what the Batman expected to learn considering that its alien technology wasn't compatible with anything he had in his cave). Still, there was no harm in letting Bruce try.
He picked out the symphony they'd been listening to when Kon-El had gone into spasms and handed it to Dick. "Here."
…
Arctic Circle
March 19 – 2:06 pm
The kids were having a snowball fight outside the Fortress, and by 'snowball fight' we mean 'ground shaking free for all and all out war, take no prisoners'.
Kal threw a hand up to shield his eyes from a wave, yes, a literal wave, of ice and snow that had been kicked up by Kaldur. His intended target had been Wally, but the Kid Flash was to fast for him and was already several meters away and retaliating with a barrage of super-fast snowy projectiles of his own by the time the wave broke. Kal decided it might be best to climb to a higher altitude to watch the children. He was there to supervise, not become a casualty.
They didn't seem to be split into any sort of recognizable 'teams', it was every man (or woman) for themselves. Kaldur went after Wally, who went after Kaldur, but when one of Wally's speed-force snowballs hit M'gann, it was Kon-El and M'gann against Kaldur and Wally. Then one of Kon's attacks went wide and scathed the martian girl slightly, then it was Wally, Kaldur and M'gann against Kon. Amidst the battle, Kid Flash made a comment about girls that M'gann took offense to and then it was M'gann and Artemis against Wally, while Kon and Kaldur teamed up to find and neutralize Robin (whom had taken to using a hit-and-fade maneuver popularized during the American Revolution).
Watching it all, Kal-El couldn't help but smile at the fun the kids were having. Kon was in such high spirits, much happier than one would have expected after learning that the enemy was still out there and looking for him. Kal knew he probably shouldn't be letting him outside with such a real and present danger looming, but he also couldn't keep Kon-El locked up inside the Fortress all the time. The boy needed fresh air and real sunlight.
Besides, he was here watching. It was fine for Kon to be outside so long as the Superman was with him, right?
…
Metropolis
March 21 – 10:15 am
Much as he might have wanted to, Kal-El could not spend his every waking moment at the Fortress hovering over Kon. He did have to leave at some point, if not for JLA missions then at least to pay the rent on Clark Kent's apartment and drop off an article for the Planet in order to keep his job. Also, while he might grow a good majority of his food in his gardens at the Fortress, it might be in his best interest to do a bit of grocery shopping, especially since Kid Flash visited so often and had the propensity to eat everything in sight.
It was as he was in the cereal and snacks isle, staring helplessly at all the over-bright snackies and reading the ingredients to try and figure out what differentiated them from one another, when his JLA comm. buzzed. Kal shifted his shopping basket to his other hand in order to reach up and tap his ear-bud. Glancing around himself quickly to make sure no one was looking at him, he said in a voice so low no human ear could detect it, "This is Superman. Go ahead."
"Where are you?" John Stewart's voice asked.
"Metropolis. Why?"
"You need to get back to your Fortress now!" The Lantern said with the kind of urgency that managed to sound both quiet and tempered but also significantly critical, the kind of command that was indicative of a military training. "Watchtower just detected a Boom Tube energy surge near Iqaluit on the Baffin Island in Canada. That is close to your base, isn't it?"
Kal had already abandoned his basket and was airborne before the word 'Tube'.
"Close enough." He growled as the eastern seaboard rushed by beneath him.
…
Arctic Circle
March 21 – 10:20 am
It was as Kal was nearing and then passing over Inukjuak that he started to hear the dissonant melody, faint in the distance ahead at first but growing in volume as he zoomed over the Hudson Strait. The Superman didn't bother looking for its source, Stewart had said it was near Iqaluit, but Kal wasn't concerned with stopping the melody or capturing 'Granny' at the moment. His one singular thought was Kon –getting to Kon-El before the enemy got their hands on him.
At least Kon didn't go outside when he wasn't home. The dissonant cord wouldn't penetrate the thick walls of his hollowed out mountain Fortress. So long as Kon-El was inside his sleeper-program wouldn't activate. So long as Kon-El was inside he'd be safe. So long as Kon-El was inside…
Kal-El dropped out of the sky outside his Fortress where he saw Kon's pet Wolf laying unconscious, his white furry form almost lost in the ivory-gray snow. He looked around for any sign of Krypto but found his own Superdog to be in absence. Kal didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing, since becoming acquainted with one another Wolf and Krypto had been near inseparable pack-mates.
Kal knelt beside the domesticated predator; he was still alive and looked, for the most part, to be uninjured –just out cold. The Superman lifted the cobra-venom enhanced wolf into his arms and carried him into the Fortress, forgoing his inefficient giant key gimmick and instead entering through the second entrance on the opposite side of the mountain, the entrance that had come to be called the 'Guest Entrance'. He handed the animal off to one of the robots and demanded if they knew where Kon-El was.
When they told him the Superboy had been outside with the dogs, a sharp stone of chilly dread sank into his stomach. With a string of kryptonian curses that would have made even Mongul blush, Kal was once again sailing through the air, his hearing jacked up to its most sensitive, honing in on the dissonant melody –searching for its source and his wayward son.
Green Lantern had said they were close to Iqaluit and he had been right. Kal-El found them set-up along an uninhabited bank of Lake Sylvia-Grinnell –and with them was Kon-El.
Krypto was there, too. The Superdog's jaw had a firm hold of the boy's boot and was trying to pull him away from the Granny. It look the Superman only less than a second to register all of this and it took him less than a second more to rush forward into he fray.
He grabbed the boy by the shoulders and spun him around to see that his face sported that same expression of odd-determination it had back at the Cave so many months ago. He didn't overtly look like he was under mind-control. Most of the mind-control victims Superman had encountered in the past would stare off blanking into the distance, or had empty almost lifeless eyes. That was not the case with Kon-El, he didn't look 'lifeless' just 'willess'.
"Superboy," he said, "snap out of it! Kon-El… Conner!"
The boy did not respond and before the Superman could say or do more he was set upon by two henchmen of the same type as those he'd fought before in Metropolis. Green uniformed with gold-colored armor, large bug-like eyes and mouths full of sharp serrated teeth. They pulled Kal away from the boy and he watched as Kon turned back to Granny whom opened a Boom Tube for them.
"No!" Kal cried and did a slight twist and roll of his shoulder to throw one of the villains that held him –a strait-line judo toss (Bruce would be proud of him). One arm now free, Superman landed a punch with hammer-to-anvil like force to the other's face, causing the creature to stagger and freeing his other arm.
Superman rushed to grab Kon-El again before he could disappear into the time-space wormhole. The two henchmen recovered quickly and as Kal rushed for Conner, they rushed for him. But Krypto acted as back-up and shot one in the throat with his heat-vision while sinking his teeth into the other's wrist. Superman was almost to Kon-El. The back of the boy's black muscle-shirt was just a hair's breadth from his grasp when the Granny backhanded him across the face.
He hadn't expected that. So, super-human strength was one of the overly masculine woman's abilities.
Kal-El was dazed for only a moment, but that moment was all it took for Kon to disappear through the Tube.
"No!"
"Oh, I'm sorry he couldn't stay to play." The old woman mocked. "But I'm sure my little Parademons can keep you company."
And with that, the alien woman likewise disappeared through the dimensional portal, the Tube closing behind her.
Kal-El stared at the spot where it had been, as if glaring at it could somehow reopen the wormhole and bring his son back. Then he was hit in the back by one of the henchmen –'Parademons' she'd called them- thrown by Krypto, and Superman turned to the creatures, his eyes ablaze with barely contained fury and heat. All his anger and distress was focused on the two creatures. When last they he had tangled with their like, he had been taken by surprise having never encountered them before. But now he knew their strength and their limits. They battled for hours, turning the almost pristine landscape around Lake Sylvia-Grinnell into a torn and charred waste. Everything had been a blur to him, mostly. The world colored by the red tint of his rage, or maybe it was his heat-vision.
When the creatures were subdued, not dead, furious as he was the Superman still could not bring himself to kill another living thing, but when the pair had been subdued Kal-El found himself panting almost breathless amid a waste of ice and dirt heaped up over broken trees and torn lichen.
Someone placed a hand on his shoulder.
Superman wheeled around, his eyes again blazing, but paused and checked himself before the heat of his vision could blast the Green Lantern that now stood before him.
"Whoa there!" John Stewart held up his hands in surrender.
"John." Kal registered. "Sorry."
Behind the Lantern a sleek black and vaguely bat-shaped plane landed on the unnaturally level filed of dirt and ice. Batman climbed out and joined the Superman and Green Lantern. He did not 'rush', having already taken in all that there was to see of the scene and determining that there was no longer any present danger, the Dark Knight would never be so undignified as to 'run' merely to ask a simple question. But his steps were still very hurried.
"What happened?" Demanded the Batman.
"They took him!" Kal-El bit out. His words bitter with anxious anger. "I was here. I was right here! He was just within my reach but I couldn't reach him and now he's gone. Kon-El's gone!"
…
(A/N1: … and then one of them (probably GL asks "Who's Kon-El?")
(A/N2: Some comments on the meaning of Conner's name and just Kryptonese in general. Most of the Kryptonese that I use is an amalgamation of those featured on and Superman Through the Ages' Kryptonese page. However, most of what's featured in THIS chapter I have completely and shamelessly made up and has no basis in canon. Most notably, the meaning of Conner's name. I never got a change to read the first few issues of the original Superboy comics from the 90s and neither nor Superman Through the Ages can provide a meaning… so I made one up. Then shortly after drafting up this chapter I read the latest issue of the New 52 Superboy –issue #6- and learned that "kon" means "abomination". Well, fuck that! Like much of the New 52s so far, I refuse to accept that as cannon. So, within the context of this story 'kon' means 'a gift' and 'Kon-El' means 'star gift'. Jeez, I can't decide who's name is gayer Conner's "star gift" or Clark's "star child". )