Everyone was in panic, despair and desperation at the same time. All expect Jonathan, who was boiling in fury, thanks to the aggressive red Kryptonite he breathed in when Lois put some on. But in his mind, there was this call… a call to go to a certain place…
In all his fury, loaded by his negative memories of all the terrible things he had to endure, his family's apathy and their disregard, and his own unfulfilled and unsatisfied needs, Jonathan felt something in his mind. Like a little spark of hope… something that told him to go to Metropolis. To the underground parking of the Luthorcorp-tower… discreetly and without someone following or noticing him…
In Smallville, Lois cried in despair again, when she sat at the table in John-Henry's and Natalie's kitchen. Telling them everything what happened and how Jonathan freaked out, while they treated her injuries…
"What an awful story! That sounds so not like Jonathan!" John-Henry said comforting.
"Red Kryptonite is unpredictable!" Clark explained. "Who knows what would have happened if I and Jordan had stayed longer."
"You would have killed each other!" Lois cried and put her hands on her swollen face. "This is all my fault! I should have noticed it! I should have been more careful! I should have…"
"You should calm down! We will find him!" Clark said.
"AND HOW? Your powers are not working properly, Jordan is trapped powerless in the fortress, Jonathan has destroyed all our communication devices, and I am pretty sure, he does not want to be found. Especially not by you or Jordan!"
Lois cried again. They could all be at home now! Having a peaceful evening. Instead, they were separated, and Jonathan was lost somewhere out of control, Jordan in the fortress, and Lois and Clark here in the Irons' kitchen. All over where moving-boxes and the place was ready to be left tomorrow, when John-Henry and Natalie wanted to move in in their new place in Lois and Clark's old neighborhood in Metropolis.
"Yes, Lois I am a bad father! I left to have fun with Jordan in Metropolis, and I left Jon home alone again to cook! I didn't learn anything from the barn-scene!" Clark moaned before his face paled.
Suddenly he remembered that Jonathan asked him at breakfast if he has time to talk later. Without Jordan! Something important and "embarrassing"! Clark told him that they could talk before dinner, while Lois is at her interview and Jordan in town. Clark thought they could cook together. And he ditched him.
He took Jordan on a flight to Metropolis, and they watched a football-match in the stadium from the roof. Jordan was upset because of the ongoing Luthor-crisis and the fact that they still didn't allow him to use his powers in public anymore. In the progress he forgot Jonathan just like he forgot him at the day he took Jordan for a flying lesson to the fortress while Jon was home alone, doing chores. All while his inverse doppelganger was out there and the town was so mad on him.
Clark blurted out all this loudly, causing Lois to be furious.
"CLARK… AS SOON AS JONATHAN IS NORMAL AGAIN, THERE WILL BE NO TRAINING SESSIONS OR TRIPS TO THE FOTRESS WITH JORDAN UNLESS JONATHAN IS FINE WITH IT AND I APPROVE IT!" Lois yelled loud enough to force Natalie and John-Henry to hold their ears.
"AND THAT FROM THE WOMAN WHO IS INFAMOUS FOR GETTING INTO TROUBLE AND TAUGHT THAT TO JONATHAN IN HER EXTRAORDINARY HUMANS PROGRAMM!" Clark yelled back, before he held both hands over his mouth embarrassed. Did he really say that? That went too far! "Awww… this darn red Kryptoni…"
Clark couldn't finish as Lois took the cup with tea, Natalie prepared for her after their arrival, and poured the hot liquid into Clark's face. Every normal human would get serious scalding. But Clark didn't even flinch when the hot tea spilled in his face. That was the moment John-Henry interfered and placed himself in-between the fighting couple.
"Okay, I think you two need a timeout! At least until Clark stops blurting and your concussion gets better, Lois!" John-Henry said sternly and ordered Lois to sit down at the kitchen-table again and Clark to sit down on the couch. "We will help you to find your son! Just stay calm! Nobody is helped when you two freak out! HEDY!"
"Yes, John!" the female voice of the A.I. that was living with them even back on their own Earth start to speak.
"Hedy, make a scan of the area for Jonathan Kent's genetic structure. Use all available sources." John-Henry said before he turned to Natalie. "Nat-Bug, stay here with Lois and try to call Jonathan! Maybe he picks up when you call! I use my suit and help Clark! And take a sample of the perfume to analyze it! Maybe we figure out how it is working!"
"Okay!" Natalie said and took her phone.
John-Henry turned back to Lois. "Lois, does Jonathan's truck has GPS?"
"Yes, after Candice's father stole it, it's permanently on!" Lois nodded.
"Hedy, can you localize it?"
"Scan in progress…" Hedy said. "…No GPS signal detectable!"
They had no clue that the truck was burning and that the local fire brigade of the nearby town was already on location.
"He must have turned it off, too!" Lois said. "He is full of red Kryptonite infused fury, but he still thinks rationally!"
"Unlike Jordan!" Clark said. "It's true: Jordan is more impulsive and Jonathan is more rational! One more thing the red Kryptonite does increase."
"That still does not help us to find him!" Lois wailed. "You literally repeated the barn-scene, today. What happened back then with Jonathan after it?"
"I don't know, Lois. I was getting my powers sucked out by Ally! Jordan was… Jordan! He should know it? I've got an idea!" Clark said and was gone in a blur.
John-Henry activated his suit to prepare to fly around, too. As soon as Lois was sure that he was gone she lift from her chair and walked to the door.
"Hey, wait! You have a concussion, you have to…"
"I have to find Jonathan!" Lois moaned and turned around again to leave the house. "Natalie, get me back to the farm. Maybe I find a clue somewhere?"
Natalie followed Lois, closely. Knowing that this Lois was as stubborn as her own world's Lois, she knew it was not a good idea to leave her alone.
John-Henry meanwhile flew in his Steel-suit across the area and used his scanners. It didn't take long for him to find a bunch of firetrucks on a road 41 miles away from Smallville…
Clark flew in the meantime back to the fortress. Knowing his mother will be still mad on him and will demand answers. But Clark could only think about Jonathan, and he knew that there was no one in the world, who knew Jonathan better than his brother. Even if the powers created a rift between them, Jordan should know at least more.
Clark needed a couple of minutes to reach the fortress, that he could usually reach within seconds if necessary. His fluctuating powers didn't seem to get better. And his hearing was still severely impaired.
When he reached the fortress, he flew directly into the red sunlight again, that Lara used to cure Jordan from the red Kryptonite and crashed on the floor violently. Lara and Jordan, who was crying in shame, looked on him with big eyes.
"Where is Jonathan, Kal?" Lara asked harshly. "Jordan told me about how you two don't…"
"He is gone! He is infected by the red Kryptonite and left…" Clark cried desperately.
"I told you to bring him here, too! Instead, you…"
"I KNOW MOTHER!" Clark yelled, cutting of Lara before he turned to Jordan. "Jordan, that day Ally took my powers! Remember that we ditched Jonathan that day and left him behind to do our chores while we had fun?"
"Yes, I was ashamed that I can fly after I found him crying in his room!" Jordan confessed. "He didn't congratulate me for my flying. He just cried! He told me how you promised to him to help him and how it sucks that you use my powers to show him how inferior he is."
"KAL? How could you?" Lara asked shocked.
"I know, that was extremely shitty from me to ditch your brother and I shouldn't have told you directly into your face that I am proud on you for screwing away and for your flying. I rubbed into your brother's face that he is inferior and supposed to be our house-staff only!" Clark cried, seeing that this made his mother even angrier. "Jordan, did he say anything? Did he plan anything? Did he tell you anything?"
"He told me he wants to die in shame! He told me he wants to get out of Smallville! Away from all the crap there! He would ask our friend Timmy Tanner in Metropolis for shelter!"
"TIMMY TANNER! THAT'S IT!" Clark yelled. "Why I didn't think about him, too? Jordan, do you have his address?"
"What?"
"Jordan, your brother lost all his inhibitions and is out of control! He only follows his own desires. Getting out of Smallville! And I think… Timmy Tanner would be the one who would help him to get out. And that means Timmy is in danger!"
"Agghh… 1938 Schuster Lane, Siegelberg, Metropolis." Jordan said, suddenly realizing that it could be really a chance to find Jon before he hurts anyone.
"I'll be back…" Clark yelled and ran out.
"KAL… Don't come back without Jonathan, or I will…" Clark heard his mother yelling, but he was already out. Lara turned back to Jordan and continued her rant with him. "Jordan tell me more about Jonathan's X-Kryptonite abuse!"
In Metropolis…
Lex Luthor was preparing to go to bed in his penthouse. Looking ever and ever again on his tablet where he checked if the signals were sent out properly.
He didn't expect Superman and the so-called Smallville Samaritan, who hadn't been seen in public since that tornado, to appear quickly. He knew he first had to wait for Lois Lane to meet Superman or the Smallville Samaritan. And he had to hope that she wears her new 'decent' and not 'too strong' perfume when she does.
Lex was convinced of it: Lois Lane knows more about the Kryptonian than she always revealed. Sure, she is married to that dorky farmer-boy. And she must really love him when she moves voluntarily to that Podunk to live on this shabby farm. Hell, Lex wouldn't be surprised if Lois Lane has an affair with that alien!
During his time in prison, Lex kept himself always up to date about Lois Lane. He knew about her family. He knew about her post-Daily-Planet career. He knew about everything the family had to give up for the move to Smallville. Still there was something that didn't make sense! Why does Lois Lane give up a good life in Metropolis to move into a town where her sons receive xenophobia, her husband does not properly farm the land, and she runs a small newspaper that does sell less issues with every day?
Luthor's first guess was Morgan Edge! Maybe Lois Lane knew that Superman's brother will try to use her husband's hometown as a headquarter for his attempt to take over the world? Maybe she knew that the cult, her sister was part of, is going to use a portal in the local mine? Or was it really only a circumstance?
Anyway, Lex was sure that it was not to grow closer as a family! In that case one son wouldn't had fallen for drugs and the other one wouldn't fail in school? Lex had his spies all over! He knew Jonathan Kent was bullied there and turned into a scapegoat after the X-K business of the local football-team was uncovered. He knew Jordan Kent was in no club, no extracurricular and that his grades where dropping. As if Jordan Kent is spending his entire time with something else than school?
With a loud moan, Lex laid down in his soft, expensive bed and took a final glimpse on his tablet to turn off the calling signals. All expect the one in the antenna over his building. And that one he put on the weakest intensity…
He couldn't expect this plan to be successful after the first evening. He would have to wait and hope that Lois Lane and Superman meet before. And even when, she would have to wear the perfume. It could take days before. Even if he had enough resources to overrun Smallville and kill her and her entire family with a finger snap, or blew up that Podunk, wiping out every life there, Lex knew he had to be careful.
All eyes were fixed on him. Everyone knew him! Everyone knew about his grudge against Lois Lane. He is the prime suspect of burning down her husband's barn and creating that Doomsday-monster, Superman fought for days. One wrong move, word, act, or even a wrong expression with his face, could bust him. Him and his plan to destroy Lois Lane once for all. Her, her family, her superpowered freak-friend, and everything she cares about…
For now, his plan to bankrupt her paper and to bankrupt her husband had to be enough… With a smile on his face, about the thought of Lois suffering, Lex fell into a peaceful sleep…
North of Smallville…
John-Henry was shocked when he spotted a firetruck with blinking lights right next to a traffic accident. Or at least something that looked like a traffic-accident. But much more shocking was the fact that the burned truck, was Jonathan's…
In shock, John-Henry activated the ELT-signal of his own suit (a feature he included after moving in with them with Natalie) to call Clark. But latter was still struggling with his fluctuating powers and crashed right in this moment into a high voltage line, causing a blackout in half of Oregon accidentally. Clark struggled keeping himself in the air at some points but was too focused on getting to Timmy Tanner's place.
"CLARK! CLARK?" John-Henry yelled before he landed with a loud thud on the ground next to the burned truck.
The present firefighters, police officers and onlookers all turned to him in awe and of course recognized him as Steel. The friend and partner of Superman. John-Henry ignored their gawking and the phones that were all fixed on him to post him on social media. His eyes were only fixed on the burnt truck.
The truck itself was already extinguished. The surrounding bushes and trees were burnt, too but the situation seemed under control. But the most shocking was a yellow body bag laying right next to the burnt truck. With a body inside…
In Metropolis…
Randy and Helen Tanner, the parents of Timmy, walked up and down in their living-room in their house in Siegelberg, a quite suburb of Metropolis. Worried why their son didn't respond to their calls, messages, or anything else. Helen Tanner just left the fifth voicemail…
"I know you are a grown-up boy, but we are worried. Please call back!" she said and hung off, sitting down next to her husband on the couch. "Randy, I don't like this! Something must have happened."
"Maybe he and Jonathan stopped somewhere to eat or to rest?" her husband tried to calm her down.
"Randy, in that case he would have told us! You know our son! He always tells us when it is going to be later. But you heard that voice-message from Jonathan Kent! Something serious must have happened. No… I have a terrible feeling! A really terrible feeling that something serious happened…"
Helen could barely finish as suddenly loud thud led the whole house shake violently. The Tanners yelled in shock when mud, flowers and some garden decoration from the front yard was smashed against the living-room window and let it shatter. Almost as if a meteor hit their yard…
Clark, still very impulsive from the red Kryptonite and not able to think completely clearly, left a big crater in the Tanner's front-yard before he crashed through the locked front door, tearing it out of its hinges in the progress and appeared in a blur in front of the scared couple…
"RANDY, HELEN, WHERE IS JONATHAN!" Clark yelled upset.
Helen screamed again; Randy just looked on him with big eyes…
"Superman?"
"Jonathan, where is he?" Clark yelled upset and looked around.
It was a neat, detached house with garden in a quite suburb of Metropolis. That kind of house, Clark actually wanted to buy when the boys were on the way. Lois wanted a something closer to the city. A condo or a penthouse. The brownstone was a compromise…
Clark looked down on himself and saw that his civilian clothes, he was wearing the whole time, were damaged after his crash with the high voltage line. His iconic suit was visible below his torn pullover. He was missing his left shoe, so his red boot was visible. And his glasses were probably on the bottom of the ocean. He remembered Jordan scratching over his face when he brought him to the fortress.
So, it was no surprise that the Tanners immediately recognized him as Superman and not as Clark.
"Our door?!" Randy exclaimed when he spotted the destroyed door.
"My flowers?!" Helen said shocked when she looked out of the window and saw the mess Superman left. "Superman?!"
Clark suddenly realized that he made just chaos.
"I am sorry for that all, but is Jonathan here?" Clark said, using his Clark-voice, instead of his deeper and more serious Superman-voice. "Please, he is in danger, and he is a danger for others. Did he contact you or your son?"
Still totally perplexed by the presence of the famous hero, in damaged civilian clothes and being so totally unheroic and upset, the Tanners start to tell him how their son received that panicked voice-message from Jonathan, asking for shelter from his supposedly abusive family and that their son Timmy was on the way to pick him up… But that was hours ago and they don't have heard from either of the boys ever since them.
"Really?" Clark asked.
"Really, Superman! We don't know where Jonathan Kent is! We don't know where our son… AGGHHHH…" Helen Tanner suddenly screamed in horror when she spotted her son.
Clark turned around and saw Jonathan's friend Timmy in the open door. A terrible bruise covering his forehead, two black eyes, his nose was bleeding, his arms, hands and face covered with scratches, his damaged clothes were smeared with blood that was dripping out of a small thin cut at his throat, and he held a long blood smeared butcher knife in his hand. The boy looked like someone beat him up terribly. And with the knife he looked like fresh from a horror-movie.
"WHAT HAPPENED?" his mother yelled scared.
Timmy, who obviously had a severe concussion and was dazed, just pointed with the knife on Clark before he let it drop.
"You're such an idiot, Mr. Kent…" the boy murmured before he collapsed.
Timmy's parents yelled when their son lost consciousness again and Timmy was caught by a shocked Clark, who realized that Timmy just called him Mr. Kent…
"Timmy, Timmy, wake up…" Clark yelled, shaking the unconscious boy slightly. "…where is Jonathan? Timmy?"
"Timmy?!" the boy's parents exclaimed and looked on their son and then to Clark, looking on him with big eyes.
"Mr. Kent?" his mother asked confused.
Clark blushed and had another knee-jerk reaction…
"Concussion! I take him to a doctor!" Clark yelled and left with Timmy in a blur.
"WAIT… STOP… NO!" the Tanner's yelled.
"Come back…" Mr. Tanner yelled through the open door.
"Is it just me… or does Superman suddenly look and sound like Clark Kent?" his wife asked still in shock…
In Smallville…
Lois and Natalie landed in front of the house. Natalie put on her own suit to help Lois and fly her back to the farm as ordered.
"Oh my gosh… he was busy!" Natalie murmured when she saw the severe damages. Lois didn't listen. She only ran inside and start to search. "What are we looking for?"
"I am looking for a clue! And you scan this place! I want to be sure that everything of that stuff is out here!" Lois yelled and start to search her way through the destroyed house.
The moment she saw the broom chamber, everything came up again. All of Jonathan's accusations. The terrible things he revealed…
Jonathan was the strong son. The one they could always rely on. The one who was easy. The one who supported her more during her cancer... Did they really just took advantage of him? Did they really told him from young age to don't ask for anything and that his brother is always more important? Thinking about all the times, Jonathan literally cried for attention, for help, or at least a shoulder to lean on, and they simply brushed him off for Superman-business, Jordan's powers, or a story, let her migraine getting just worse.
Lois looked for more evidence or at least a clue. Expect his car, nothing seemed to miss. In her office, Jonathan made a bigger mess. Upstairs the bedrooms and the bathrooms seemed okay. Looks like Jonathan had no time to go up there before he suddenly changed his mind…
"Why?" Lois asked ever and ever again, trying to imagine how it could happen?
Natalie came in, too.
"Found anything?"
"No! He was here… he was here… freaking out… the perfume was there…" Lois said, pointing on the place where she found the bottle. "…he was exposed long to it… too long… Oh my god… and suddenly… he is quiet… He is quiet and drives away… but why?"
"Maybe the effect stopped, and he became panicked?" Natalie shrugged.
"No! No… in that case I would have heard it! It was like a switch was turned!" Lois explained and looked around in the living-room again.
Was it a coincidence that the only device that was not shattered on the ground was a picture of Martha that was hanging on the wall? Her picture was a constant reminder of why they were here! She suggested them to move here! She was the one who always had a good influence on everyone! Jonathan didn't shatter her photo frame! He spared here! Almost if Jonathan had still a pinch of heart inside him?
"Martha, you are stronger than red Kryptonite, that's now evident!" Lois murmured. All while she could swear that Martha was scolding her from the photo...
Lois shrieked and shied back, turning away from the picture. Did Martha just move on the picture and scolded her? Lois turned back and saw Martha looking on her sternly!
"Natalie, Martha scolds me!" Lois said scared.
Natalie looked back and forth between Lois and the photo of the old woman; everyone told her so many great things about. "Your concussion is worse than expected!"
Suddenly John-Henry's voice echoed through Natalie's communicator. Telling them about the 'accident'…
In his bed in Metropolis…
Lex was torn out of a beautiful dream, in which Superman was burned on the pyre, when suddenly his tablet beeped loudly…
"Awww… now when it got exciting!" Lex moaned and took the tablet again.
The alarm came from the underground parking garage below the building.
"What… Could it be?" Lex said and took the phone from his night desk, dialing the number of his security service. "This is Lex Luthor speaking. Has anyone or anything entered the chamber… Really?... A boy… how old… that could be him? I'll be there in a few minutes!"
Lex hang off and got out of the bed. Suddenly he was fully awake. They probably just caught the 'Smallville-Samaritan'!