But something wide and comforting was wrapped around his entire body with a smell that he knew instantly — Jon quickly lifted his head to see that he was completely covered in a familiar red cape, and the towering stature of his father over him. But not in his normal work clothes and glasses, no — his blue suit with the giant red S on his chest. Now not Clark Kent but Superman, his father.
"Dad?! Mom, s-she's gone! I couldn't save her! I —" Jon felt another familiar presence kneel down to hug him tightly, squeezing him even if she didn't have super strength. "M-mom? But… but he shot you…"
Superman opened up his palm to show the caught bullet and looked over at the leader terrorist who was knocked out on the ground. "Faster than a speeding bullet, remember? Wait, the police are here — I'll be quick."
As his father went to fly over the police that finally arrived on the scene, Lois then unleashed a flurry of questions about if he was hurt to which Jon shrugged, feeling a rather different type of hurt to a physical one. "Mom, people are gonna think it's weird that you're hugging a random kid with a mask. I'm gonna go hide now…"
"Oh. Right, right! Just make sure you head straight home and I'll be there as soon as possible okay?" Jon gave his mom another shrug and soon leapt high into the air, away from the scene with his dad's cape around his body. Something was wrong with him; there was festering anger inside of him that was mostly at himself for failing to save his mom, but also towards something else — rather someone else.
He accidentally stumbled and rolled when he landed on his cape on top of an ice cream parlour, grumbling as he stood back up with the sensation of something extremely fast coming to an instant stop behind him. "Hey, sport," said Superman with a smile that countered Jon's growing frown. "How about I carry you home so that it's quicker — or maybe you wanna try flying again?"
"Where were you?" Jon muttered darkly as he crossed his arms. "I called you like so many times, and you didn't come, Dad. Where were you?"
Superman's smile fell away, replaced by twinge of guilt as he landed to his feet. "I… I was needed someplace else, Jonathan. It… it was important."
"More important than your wife?! Dad, they were gonna kill her! They were gonna kill Mom and nobody was gonna save her," Jon lashed out as Superman placed his hands on his son's shoulders.
"But you did save her, Jonathan — her and all of those people under hostage. If it wasn't for you, none of them would be alive and the city. You saved everyone," smiled Superman but Jon shook his hands off to retreat.
"But that isn't my job, isn't it? I'm not a superhero, Dad. I can't save anyone; I'm not allowed to save anyone because you guys won't let me!"
"Jon…"
"I was so scared a-and I didn't know what to do but call you. But you didn't even come the first time."
"Jonathan," repeated Superman a little more sternly.
"And what if you didn't come at all," Jon continued to rant. "Mom would be dead and it would've been my fault, wouldn't it? Because I wasn't trained or allowed to be a superhero —"
"Jonathan!" shouted his father — Jon immediately became silent. Whenever he'd shout on the rare times that he did, Jon always held his tongue. Superman then sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose before continuing, "We've already had this conversation before: you're not ready to take the next step. Your mom even said you had an overload today, one that was much worse than before. What if that happens when the stakes are high again, huh? I can't allow that to happen, Jon. I just can't."
Silence passed between father and son as Jon looked away, seeing his father's giant statue at the park. "If you think I'm not ready now, then I'll never be," Jon muttered as he let the cape slide off his body and walked towards the edge of the building, facing his home from a distance. "I don't even care anymore. Being a superhero sucks."
"Jonny, wait —" but he didn't. Jon jumped so hard and far that the parlour below trembled like an earthquake had just hit, Superman standing with a crestfallen look as his son disappeared into the distance, Jon's little superhero heart now broken into pieces.