With a loud gasp Connor opened his eyes and sat upright in the bed…
The nightmare was intense… they usually were! They also lost their scariness over the years. But they also constantly reminded him that he was once a completely different person. A person, everyone told that he is destined to fail in everything, just for not having powers…
A cold shiver ran down Connor's back when he had this odd feeling. A feeling that something terrible is going on… as if right in this moment, someone was thinking about him…
He looked over to his pregnant wife who was laying next to him and woke up slowly, too. He checked her with his x-ray-vision, to see if she and baby Martha were okay. They were…
"Connor…" she murmured half-asleep.
"Sleep further!" he whispered back before carefully leaving the bed and sneaking out of their bedroom to check their son in his room.
On his way to his son's bedroom, he passed the dog. The grown-up white Labrador-retriever named Ace (a name he thought was much better than Krypto, like his wife once suggested) woke up and looked on his owner silently from his pillow in the corridor.
"Sit!" Connor said before carefully opening the door to his son's bedroom.
Little Joel was sleeping peacefully in his bed and luckily didn't notice any of his father's issues and his struggles. Connor had to smile whenever he saw his son. It was so great that the boy didn't was with them in the fortress when this odd event happened last month. So, nobody in these other worlds knows about his face. He looked more like his mother, but Connor shuddered at the thought when Lara always referred him as Kryptonian, too.
He might look more like his mother, but genetically he was more like Connor. And Lara said that he and Martha could most likely inherit powers, too. A shock for Connor, who knew what it means to grow up powerless in a powerful family and who also knew what it means to handle this powers all alone without any support…
Connor was torn out of his thoughts when he spotted the cat sleeping on Joel while the boy was sleeping. Mitja, a Russian-blue inheritance from a passed away neighbor, was a two year old, heavily overweight and lazy cat, they adopted six months ago because his previous owner's children didn't want him. Joel loved the second pet, but his parents didn't like it when it was sleeping in the same bed as him.
"Pss… Mitja… get here!" Connor hissed.
The cat, that was not only overweight but also deaf on one ear (according to the veterinarian) just purred while continuing dozing on his son's blanket ignoring everything around him, as usual. As long as he does not scratch the boy everything is okay, Connor thought and closed the door again to sneak to the kitchen, prepare some coffee and brood about his problems again…
Today is the day! Today is the day he faces his past… today is the day he meets his brother again!
Everyone was nervous. Jordan Kent was nervous, too. And he had nightmares, too. But after this weird 'happening' last month he was only glad that after years of spending every evening with self-talks into the air, his brother contacted him and send him this coded message where and when to meet. Lois was nervous because she was not alone on the ship…
"Don't forget our cover story!" Sam said harshly while checking his wig in the mirror while sitting in the wheelchair he actually didn't need but sat in to play his role as the weak old man.
"And you don't forget our deal! Not a Single word outside this cabin. If he even hears you nearby, or if you dare to get close to him…" Lois ranted quietly before her father cut her off.
"Lois, he is still my grandson!" Sam ranted quietly, too. "I have the right to see him again, too!"
Thousands of thoughts ran through Lois' mind. Like: Why the heck you care? You didn't care about him back then? Or: Why I haven't pushed you and your wheelchair not overboard when we boarded the ship, you darn old bastard? But Lois knew she had no other choice. She knew that he could ruin everything even more than her. And he was blackmailing her to take him with her to see Jon, too. Not knowing that Lois had other plans with him once they arrive in Ketchikan…
"Just keep your mouth shut!" Lois wailed while her father turned back to the mirror to check his disguise. Lois just thought: 'And don't dare to not take your medicine, I prepared for you!'
Another person who was extremely nervous was a young man, who worked at the airport of Ketchikan and who had a lot of credit card debts. Debts he had no clue how to pay…
The little package he found in front of his door, was a little glimpse of hope. Knowing he will get five thousand Dollar for smuggling it into the plane to Anchorage today. It was no bomb, and no drugs. It were some small stones and a vial with water wrapped in bubble wrap! That much he knew! But whatever it was it was prohibited, and it had to be something serious and/ or dangerous when someone puts so much effort to smuggle it from one Alaskan town to another…
In the meantime, Connor (formally Jonathan) stood in his bedroom again to try on some clothes. He wanted to wear something inconspicuous. Something that let the people think, there is nothing to see here.
He wore a black hoodie now, with dark jeans, trekking boots like many hikers that come to this island wear and put on sunglasses. He was not about to show Jordan his face, but his voice was still quite the same as back then. When he put the hood over his head, his wife Janet came in to look at her husband who had been so silent during breakfast.
"What do you think, Jan?"
"You look like someone who is about to rob a bank!" she said headshaking.
"Aww… you are right! I look like him, in this outfit." Connor moaned, thinking about Jordan, who always wore black hoodies, too and took the grey one to hold it in front of him to see it in the mirror. "What about this one?"
"With that one you look like someone who hides something! My brother would immediately approach you to interrogate you!" Janet said, before someone knocked downstairs on the door.
"Speaking of the devil…"
"What? So early…?" Janet said and went downstairs to let her brother Tim inside. "Hey, brother… what brings you here so early? I thought you fly to Anchorage today?"
"I do! My plane departs in two hours! Just wanted to check with you if everything is all right?" Connor heard Tim saying downstairs.
Tim was, among Janet, her parents, and a few chosen ones, one of the few people who knew the truth about his past and who he once was. And one of the few who knew what Connor was able to do! And it felt good that they accepted him. A few seconds later both joined him in the room again to see him in the grey hoodie now.
"Good morning, Tim! What do you think?" Connor asked.
"If I wouldn't know you, I would think you have to hide something!" Tim said and looked over to the black hoodie on the bed. "And in the black one, I would think you want to rob a bank!"
"Aww… I just don't want to attract any attention!"
"You won't! Look at your face! You don't look like someone who is making trouble." Janet said.
Connor looked into the mirror again and really wondered if it was not exaggerated. Not even Jordan or his parents would recognize him anymore if he doesn't talk and they would only face him. Lara was very good in restoring his awfully disfigured face after his third suicide-attempt. Sure, he was still looking 'a little bit' like Jonathan Kent. But the difference was too big to see a real connection. Even if the people knew that he was having a different face now and that the was still out there in the world.
"Just be yourself, Connor! I mean, this should be a happy occasion!" Janet said.
"I don't even know what to tell him. What if he is actually still mad on me for his lost powers? If he knows too much about me and us, he would be in danger, too! You know he is watched by agents! I must be just some random guy he meets on a bench…"
"You can also be a random guy by wearing something nicer!" Janet suggested while placing herself next to him to look with him into the mirror. "Shouldn't I come with you?"
"No, Jan! I must handle this on my own! Also, I don't know how I should explain your presence! Also, you are pregnant! No flying for you!"
Connor was willing to meet his brother! But he was not willing to share everything with his brother. To protect not only his family, but also Jordan! At least for now! It also shuddered him to fly Janet around in her condition.
"Uncle Tim…" suddenly Joel stormed into the room after spotting Janet's brother there.
"Hey, good morning, big boy! Getting bigger with every day!" Tim said and took the boy in his arms, using this as an opportunity to leave the room to give Connor and his sister some space.
Once they were gone, Connor looked on his wife again…
"It is so kind of you, but I have to do this on my own!"
"Okay… but don't forget, if anything happens, I am just one call away… oh… wait, you said you don't take your phone with you…" Janet remembered. Phones can be localized and hacked. And it would look weird if his phone would be suddenly traced in San Francisco which was why Connor wants to leave it here.
"I call you over the watch if necessary!" Connor said and pointed on his wristwatch, that was not a normal one, but a special one he developed together with Lara. "And you, if there is anything with you or the baby…"
"I call you over my watch, in that case!" Janet said, raising her arm to show him her watch and the little hidden button that turned this watch into a special low-frequency-ELT only he was able to hear. A special invention that had a range of 1.700 miles and that Superman in his cell near Metropolis wouldn't notice. "I take Joel and we get Tim to the airport, together! He will enjoy seeing the big planes again! Don't be worried about us!"
She kissed him. He hugged her! Sometimes Connor asked himself what he has done to have so much luck. He knew the answer was simple: leaving Smallville!
Just minutes later, Connor said goodbye to everyone (pretending to go to an appointment to his son) and then leaving the house through the front door, before sneaking around the garage unseen, back into the yard, leaving through a hidden door in the high fence that separated them from the forest and then using his incredible 'rudimental' (according to Lara not Kryptonian) powers to depart into the air unseen to fly to his brother in San Francisco…
In the meantime, Lois wondered why Jonathan had once chosen Alaska for his exile…
Sure, she was glad that Jonathan lives in a town with other people and was part of the society and the community again. After all, everything he had to endure in Smallville and later by them was so much, it wouldn't have surprised her if her son had decided to spend his exile remote and isolated in the wilderness. In her imagination, he lived alone with a cat in a shack in Siberia before Clark told her with his 'hidden messages' that he was here in Alaska. But she also knew he could live everywhere he wants. Europe, the Caribbean, or at least somewhere warmer…
Lois guessed that Jonathan got here what he was missing in Smallville: acceptance! Acceptance for being just like himself! Maybe it was the beautiful landscape that was absolutely nothing like to compare with the plain land in Kansas that let him stay, too! Or that Ketchikan had at least thousand things more to offer than Smallville. She never risked investigating that place closer (everything she does is watched) but she could read the flyers they had aboard like every other 'tourist' on this ship.
"Up to ten thousand visitors a day!" the deep male voice below her tore her out of her thoughts and reminded her the reason Jonathan was living under a different name now. She looked down to see that her father was reading articles on Wikipedia on his phone. "No road accesses! 8.000 thousand inhabitants! Primary income is the tourism industry! I would have guessed he prefers to live in a big city again!"
"And which one? Your unit was very eager to keep sure that he can't live in any mayor city in the United States again! Metropolis, his home city, is no option for him anymore!" Lois, alias Luna Ellis, moaned. "You should be happy that he is not living in Moscow or Tehran! And… I thought I made it clear that you don't say a single word outside of closed rooms!"
"I am just wondering! What in this town keeps him here?" Sam asked, now a bit lower.
Lois knew the answer: his friends and the family that had taken him in! The friendly old lady that gave him shelter and a chance to go to school again. The home he has found here! But she didn't speak it out! Instead, she hissed on him to be quiet while they could see in the distance the cruise-ship-port, where they will de-board the ship…
Nobody was aware of the nervous airport employee who just managed to get the 'cargo' through the security control. Knowing he had to hide it among the other cargo in the plane to Anchorage… the plane, Tim was going to take. Tim showed it to his nephew on the screen of his phone while waiting for the ferry that would bring them from the town of Ketchikan on Revillagigedo Island to the airport that was located on Gravina Island…
In the meantime, 1500 miles away…
Jordan Kent wondered why his brother Jonathan wanted to meet him here, in San Francisco! He simply guessed that it was easy to reach for Jon. But Jon could be on every place on Earth within seconds, so that's not the reason. Another reason could be that San Francisco was popular for tourists from all over the world. So, a trip to this place would not be too suspicious for the people who observe him…
Yeah, Jordan might have no powers anymore and was ostracized for what his parents have done to his brother, but it didn't stop some people to see him as a Kryptonian. And living without superpowers was a painful reminder that he was a nobody without powers. Powers he would never have on Krypton! Powers that don't make him Kryptonian, according to Lara! Powers that gave his parents a reason to neglect Jon up to the point he goes for space-drugs to get powers on his own and then turn against him brutally…
At first, Jordan was mad for having no powers anymore. But after hearing all the bad things during the trial, reading his brother's diary (which was a bestseller and mandatory for every student now), realizing that his father and his grandfather would have never gotten closer with him if he hadn't gotten the powers, and seeing how much Jon suffered under his powers physically and emotionally, he didn't want them anymore. He wished he never got them. Clark Kent and Lois Lane were not his parents anymore! Sam Lane was not his grandfather anymore! Everyone turned against him! He got what he deserved! He failed this 'life-exam'!
The only thing that kept Jordan from taking his own life, too was the reveal that Jon is alive. That he is out there and lives in freedom! Unlike him! Jordan was living the life; Jon would be forced to live by their parents if he never escaped.
Jordan had just a High-School graduation he made while spending his prison term, a bad paid job in a electronic store and was living in a small apartment in a dull building in a dull part of Rochester, New York. He was not married, had no real friends, barely left to go out… hell, he wasn't even Jordan Kent anymore! He hated the name William Jefferson! But witness-protection doesn't grant wishes.
Jordan's only regular joy in life where his 'talks' with his brother: Every Friday evening at 7, sometimes at 8, he goes to the roof of his house, sits down on a camping chair, and talks to his brother. Knowing he should be able to hear him… He just talks about his life, about trivial things, weather… and about how much he misses him. So, he was surprised when he suddenly found that letter in his mail with the coded message to meet him here at the other end of the country. At least he knew know, that his brother always listened.
Thinking about it, Jordan realized that it was not only about meeting him, but also about getting Jordan out of the house. And indeed San Francisco was a city, he always wanted to visit. Also, there was a big video games convention in the city that he also visited already. And tomorrow he would make a tour to Alcatraz. His brother gave him a long to-do-list that not only had the purpose to fool the agents that observe him, but also to remember Jordan that there is a life beyond the powers. A life that was taken from both when Jordan got his powers. One more reason Jon felt so worthless in their super family. And one more thing that let Jordan remember that Jon still cared about others more than about himself. It was the same when they still lived in Metropolis. Back then, it was Jon who always convinced Jordan to get out of the house.
Jordan left his hotel very early. Asking the receptionist 'loudly' for the best way to get to Fort Point near the Golden Gate Bridge. With backpack and camera, dressed like a tourist, Jordan drove with his rental-car to a public parking-lot, and walked towards the famous landmark.
Once Jordan was there, he saw suddenly another reason, Jon probably chose this place: Instead seeing the world-famous Golden Gate Bridge, Jordan saw only fog. He barely could see some beams of the bridge and he could hear the traffic. But most what he saw was fog...
"Aww… Jon, that was so smart!" Jordan whispered before walking further over the walk path.
If someone followed him, nobody would see them through the fog. Maybe Jon made the fog? Jordan followed the path under the bridge towards the Pacific. Right in front of him was the ocean now. But even that he couldn't see because of the fog. Jordan walked until he found a bench and sat down on it. On a sunny day, he could imagine where a lot more people here. Or it was just the wrong daytime? It was early morning on a Tuesday! Most people were at work or in School. And tourists wouldn't come here in that bad weather. But for now, it was quite and lonely. Just like he usually likes it.
"Oh, Jon… I wish you are here!"
Suddenly there a swoosh and Jordan saw a man in a grey hoodie next to him. His head covered by the hood and with sunglasses that were actually useless in this bad weather…
"What the…"
"Look ahead!" his brother's voice ordered harshly, and Jordan instinctively turned away to look ahead on the 'ocean' again. "We don't know each other; we are just two strangers coincidentally sitting on the same bench."
"Right! Just two strangers… bro!" Jordan said while a tear ran down his face.
So this is it… the long awaited reunion… Jordan heart start to race. Sweat ran down his forehead. Tears ran down his cheeks…
"Have you told anyone about this? A friend, or a colleague?" Jon asked.
"No! And I kept sure that nobody followed me!" Jordan responded. "I would never do that!"
What followed, was awkward silence…
In Ketchikan, Connor's wife Janet could feel that the moment had come, while saying goodbye to her brother before he was about to go through the security-control to get to his gate. The airport of Ketchikan was small. He could go to his gate in a minute and decided to stay a bit longer to talk to his sister while Joel was playing on the playground.
"I have this terrible feeling!" Janet confessed. "Almost as if we should all be wary!"
"In that case he would have already called you!" Tim said.
Janet looked on her watch. "They should be sitting on that bench already!"
Suddenly there was an announcement…
"All passengers booked on flight Alaskan Airways 5491 to Anchorage are requested to come to Gate…"
"Oh, that's my plane!" Tim said and gave his sister a final hug. "Bye, sis! Call me if you guys need something!"
"And you, have fun at this seminar, Officer!"
And with that Tim left to go through the control and get to his gate to get to his police-seminar in Anchorage. Little Joel winked after his uncle.
"Janet?" suddenly a female voice called. Janet turned around to see another old friend from High-School, who works for a regional TV station now.
"Stacey, hi! What are you doing here?"
"Just coming back from my job-interview in Seattle… Come, let's have some coffee together…"
And so, Janet and Joel stayed longer at the airport… Everyone still unaware that the airport-employee with the debts loaded the 'cargo' he was ordered into the rear cargo compartment of the Boeing 737-700 that was about to depart to Anchorage soon before closing the security-nets and climbing out of the bay to close the cargo-door…
Far away in San Francisco, the two reunited brothers, who both avoided eye-contact and had only bad memories about their last encounter, had no idea how to start.
"I am sorry!" it blurted out of both of them at the same time. "What?"
Nervously, 'Connor' looked over to Jordan, who was wearing his hair so short, that he almost looked like a soldier from their grandfather's unit. Jordan wanted to look to his brother, too. But he knew it would be better to not to know too much about him. Especially not his face…
"Why do you apologize?" Jordan asked. "I ruined your life! I turned you into the towns and into the world's laughingstock! And because of me you… you…"
Jordan stuttered and gasped when he thought about the terrible events that led to everything.
"No… I must apologize, too! Because of me, you got disgraced, disowned by Lara, set powerless…" Connor said. "You have all right to be mad on me!"
"I admit, I was in the first few moments! But I had enough time to think about it and enough people to scold me to remind me that all is my fault. I mean… everything I reached was on your cost! I didn't achieve anything; I just took it from you! And I was too stupid to not to see that the General only spend time with me because of the powers and that deadbeat father was really only able to bond with me over the powers… I mean… this was so embarrassing…"
"What? The fact that he didn't even know your favorite color or your favorite movie, but every date and exact clock time when your powers kicked in?"
"Yes… among other things… Our parents might taught me how to handle the powers but they didn't teach me how to handle life itself. And while I got all the good things about Krypton, you only experienced the bad! I mean… without my powers, I was really not able to handle the simplest things. You have always worked so hard to achieve everything! And suddenly I came and took and got everything only because of the powers! I was only selfish."
Jordan flinched and rubbed his arm. And he could see that Jon was doing the same…
"Our whole life was a lie!" Jon said abashed.
"But you had at least a life outside of the powers! And if I hadn't used mine to interfere in your life, you might had gotten a chance to prove it to me, too! And I hadn't lost track on everything."
"Let's just agree that we both suffered under the powers. Just in our own ways! I mean, our parents were the ones who let us think different."
"Yeah… And… after everything what happened, the people wouldn't accept me as a superhero anyway." Jordan murmured abashed. "I mean… you know what they said about me: He can only be a hero when someone else gets destroyed or sucked out of hope! That I just got everything because I had the powers first! That I should have never gotten them! That I was the wrong one!"
"Hmmm… I have never been jealous of your powers! But it sucks… when everyone in the family and even in school tells you that you are worthless without powers!"
"You really grabbed the jackpot: getting bullied for not having powers, nobody even knew about!" Jordan murmured. "I would have killed myself, too! But much earlier."
"Don't say that!" Jon said. "We just made the mistake to get born into the wrong family!"
"I am sorry… I know… you agreed to this to not to talk about the past…"
"Yes… I hoped… we could just talk about ourselves again… like… we used to do before… ehm… Kansas!"
"But there is one question still burning on my tongue… What was that, last month?" Jordan asked. "I… suddenly felt as if I was in another world?"
"You felt it, too?" Jon asked shocked…
In Ketchikan meanwhile…
Connor's brother-in-law Tim sat in the rear part of the cabin, just behind the backboard wing and looked out of the window when the plane got pushed back from the gate before taxing to the runway, listening to the security-instructions of the flight-attendants. His sister, Connor's pregnant wife Janet, and her friend were in the terminal drinking tea together while Joel played on the playground. Through the window they could see Tim's plane rolling away…
"I don't think, I get the job!" Stacey told while they sat there in the café.
"Why not… You would be perfect!" Janet complained.
"That is a nationwide show. And I am just a small-town reporter with barely enough experience…" her friend moaned. "…but it would be so nice!"
"Plane!" suddenly Joel said and pointed towards the plane that passed the window. "They fly!"
"Yes, sweetie! Uncle Tim is in there! He flies to Anchorage today! Let's wink!" his mother said happily, and they all winked…
Tim couldn't see them, since the plane was taxing in the other way, and he could see the mountains at the other side. He looked on his watch and saw that they had 10 minutes delay…
In San Franscisco…
The two estranged brothers talked and talked and talked… and expect some awkward breaks and other moments when they decided it was better to not to know too much about each other…
"…I had this odd vision of being back in the farm and a young girl that looked like mom cut my hair to let me look like Clark and I complained that I wanted to look like Chris Hemsworth!" Jordan told. "And she said, he wanted that, too!"
"That girl was another Earth's Natalie! Our sister, that was born after another Superman from another another Earth took my doppelganger from that Earth to put me into a human family to protect me! That one really killed himself. One of many Earths where our parents failed to be good ones!"
"I don't get this picture of your face out of my head…" Jordan confessed. "…how you were laying there… your face… awww… like in a horror-movie… Just glad that Lara was able to help you… Did you… tell her that you meet me, today?"
"Yes! And she is fine with it! That incident last month let her become pensive, too!"
"You don't live in your fortress, do you?" Jordan asked. "I mean… there are these rumors… about you… living on a remote island… or in Siberia… alone and lonely…"
"No! I… I live with other people… and… I've gotten… taken in by a great family… I went to school again… to college… I have a normal job… Yeah, I live finally a normal life… well… aside from these powers…"
In Ketchikan…
Due to some incoming traffic, the plane of Tim had to wait even longer before it could finally depart. After taxing to the end of the runway, the plane made a U-turn and, in the cockpit, the first officer pushed forward the thrust levers to let the two engines bring the plane faster and faster…
Tim leaned back and expected a normal flight… unaware of the dangerous piece of 'cargo' below them. The plane was not even that full. Out of the 122 seats maybe only 50 were occupied. The rows behind Tim were completely free…
In the cockpit the pilots focused on their instruments. Ready to depart towards south, to make a U-turn in the air and then fly directly towards northwest to Anchorage for its one-and-a-half-hour flight.
"V-one… Rotate!" the first officer said when they reached the departing-speed and the pilot pulled on his control horn to let the nose of the plane lift and let the jet depart into the windy and cloudy sky over Ketchikan.
In the terminal Janet, Joel, and Stacey watched the plane departing and winked…
But nobody could see or prevent a heavy suitcase, slipping of the stack in the rear cargo-compartment in the belly of the plane by the g-forces of the take off and the heavy turbulences and crashing directly on the secret 'cargo' that was hidden in-between the other loaded goods… shattering its contents and causing a chemical reaction… and a heavy explosion…
