Chapter 6: When life goes on

Damian was sitting on a large couch in his Head Quarter, boredly watching the news. Several months ago, through a minor incident, he had met Jonathan Kent, or shall we say kidnapped and interrogated the boy because Robin saw him as a potential danger. Who could have guessed that their fathers would team-up as a result and put them both into the same school together? That might be good enough for the Kent boy, but him? Those Neanderthals aren't able to teach him anything even if they had a hundred years to do so. After all, he already knew everything, but he had to admit that the intellectual show-off and the stupid faces were ne quite a nice change.

Damian was not very popular at the private school of Metropolis, but it would be even more boring if that was the case. What's the point of being popular among monkeys? It didn't do him any good. He choose rather the variant where he could watch with amusement how these primates shrieked angry and threw stones at him in vain. Much funnier. *

There was one exception, however. Jonathan was by now the only one still talking to him. But that was all right. After all, Robin was training Superboy and nothing was more annoying to train than a petulant child. Even though he didn't like to admit it, he enjoyed the younger boy's company. For Damian, Jonathan was his sidekick. So it was quite a passable change.

Besides, because of their fathers, he had to somehow get along with Superboy as well as the school. The alternative would be to get taken the Robin costume from Batman and that was not an option. After all, he would be the Batman later on. The former Robins weren't fit enough for that anyway. Todd was shooting here and there around the world and Drake had taken it upon himself to patrol Bludhaven.

It had been exactly one year and two weeks since the events around Trigon took place, and since Nightwing was no more, someone else had to protect Bludhaven. Damian had tried to tell his father that he was much better suited for the job, but of course he didn't want to hear about it. So now he had to deal with Superboy.

And speaking of the devil, he immediately came out of the next room.

"D. I wish you a nice afternoon. I'm going to fly home."

The Kent boy was about to leave the underwater dwelling through a hatch when Damian's annoyed voice held him back:

"Haven't you forgotten something?"

Caught off guard, the boy looked to the back of the chair facing him and mischievously squeezed out a smile: "Um...not that I know."

"What day is it today?"

"Hehehe, Wednesday?"

Superboy gasped in shock as a throwing disc suddenly stuck just beside his hand, that was placed on the exit door and Damian now stood in front of him with his arms crossed and one brow raised:

"It's Thursday and that means?"

Superboy released an exasperated sigh: "Fine, cleaning day."

Unlike Jonathan, Damian was fastidious about keeping his surroundings tidy and didn't tolerate any ifs and buts either.

So together they now started to remove mainly Jonathan's mess and clean everything to an acceptable level.

During the vacuuming the blue-eyed boy looked again and again to the still running television. A news channel was reporting about the new particle accelerator in Metropolis, which they would test for the first time tonight. It wasn't the first one, but it was the biggest one so far, which is why many people were worried about the creation of a black hole. Damian said that it would take one the size of the entire Earth to even consider such a thing, let alone the amount of energy that would be needed to power it, but it still gave Jonathan a queasy feeling.

He knew black holes from various movies and always in the context of the worst events. Not something you wanted to have near yourself, and of all people, his father would also be monitoring the whole thing so that people would be more reassured. And this only made Jon more uneasy.

A blow hit him in the back of the head, pulling the boy out of his thoughts.

"You're supposed to be vacuuming, not watching TV!"

Annoyed, Damian admonished the taller boy, who rubbed the spot briefly. Of cause it didn't hurt, but he did this more on impulse.

To prevent the half kryptonian from being distracted anymore, Damian reached for the remote and turned off the TV.

"Sorry, I'm just worried."

Damian rolled his eyes: "I told you that something like black holes can't develop in such a small thing. So think less and clean more! Besides, you should know that being a hero always means risking your life, and your father is Superman. Remember that as a training lesson. We're not a kids' club."

Damian's wrinkles between his brows deepened as he said this. After all, he knew exactly what he was talking about. Robin turned away to pick up where he left off before adding something else, not quite as forcefully:

"You should come to terms with it emotionally. It can happen to anyone."

But Superboy wasn't about to let it stand like that. While he knew Damian was basically right, so much indifference angered him:

"First, you're not my mentor! Second, to shut me off emotionally and treat everyone like inferior beings the way you do? No thanks! I prefer to have family and friends around me after all."

Annoyed, Jonathan penetrated the floor more vigorously now. However, he didn't notice how Damian just smirked and ended the conversation with a quiet:

"Then you're an idiot." instead of a test of strength between them, as they usually did when they argued.

Superboy wondered about this a bit, but thought nothing more of it. Instead he concentrated on doing everything correctly so that Mr. 'I'm better than everyone else' would finally let him go.

Later that day, Jonathan checked every second on the news with his smartphone under his duvet. Eight o'clock in the evening was actually his bedtime and his mother would take away his cell phone if he got caught. But the matter with his father just didn't give him a moment of peace.

Again and again, Jonathan looked at the clock on his cell phone and checked the news, but it was only 9 p.m. and the experiment would take place at 10 p.m. So there was still more than an hour of uncertainty.

Suddenly something grabbed him by the shoulder. Out of fright, the boy was about to use his laser eyes, but fortunately he recognized the figure that had crept up to his bed in time.

Damian indicated with his finger to be quiet when his hand still laid on Jons shoulder. But Jonathan was too furious at the appearance of all his troubles so late at night, that he now whispered aghast:

"Damian are you insane! I already almost killed you the last time! You can't just sneak up on me like that. That was the fifth time now!"

"-tt-, as if you could kill me. You'd rather have kryptonite between your eyes before that. By the way, you amaze me. I thought you could hear me miles away by now and would have gotten used to it. Yet you still get scared like a little kid."

"I just don't concentrate on this. Besides, I'm still a kid! What are you doing here anyway? If Mom finds out you're here, we'll both be in trouble and I'll be grounded again!"

Damian pulled up the corners of his mouth: "I have a mission for us."

"Oh no! I've been through this enough times with you and your missions and I always get in massive trouble for it! So leave me out of it! There's the window. Good night."

Jonathan finished his part of the conversation by lying back down and pulling the bed sheet over his head. For him, the matter was settled, but not for Damian.

The corners of his mouth only pulled up further, knowing full well that the victory, as always, was his:

"I'm planning to invest the particle accelerator because I've noticed some strange energetic anomalies there. So think of us as some kind of backup for Superman. But of course, if you don't want to go, I can do just fine on my own."

Now curious, Jonathan pulled his head back out from under the sheets.

"How are you going to get in there anyway? Dad can hear you. He probably even knows you're here already. Now I'm going to get in trouble again because of you!"

Damian just shook his head: "Please. You really think I'm going to sneak up on Superman unprepared?"

The shorter boy snapped his fingers arrogantly before only a moment later several small drones surrounded him.

Superboy's eyes lit up with excitement at the sight of these red flying objects: "That's so cool! I've always wanted to fly one of those!"

Damian just rolled his eyes. In the End Jonathan was a 10-year-old boy through and through.

"These aren't toys. These drones neutralize our sounds by sending out an adapt counter frequency."

Damian saw the big smiling question mark on Jonathan's face. He simplified the information enough that even this Neanderthal understood it. As he did so, he held up a white Keycard:

"Superman can't hear us with these, and I created this on my way here. This is a master key. We can unlock every door of the laboratory with this."

Now more enlightened, doubt once again settled down on Superboy's face. However, considering his curiosity regarding his father, the boy strained his face and finally agreed with a deep sigh:

"Oh Man...Mom's soooo going to kill me for this."

Jonathan and Damian just landed on top of the roof of the new research building and sneaked up to the back door located there. Damian slid the card through the designated slot, whereupon it opened. Once inside, from Superboy's point of view, Robin didn't act as if they had broken in anywhere. On the contrary, he calmly walked along the corridors without even making an effort to remain undetected. Superboy pointed this out to him:

"Um Damian, shouldn't we take cover? Someone might run into us. Maybe we can move through the air shafts."

Robin just held up a small device arrogantly:

"You've seen too many movies Super Dork. I can't use the drones in the air shafts and besides, that would be unnecessarily awkward. I hacked the security cameras unnoticed and now can overview the entire building, as well as prevent anyone from seeing us. So we won't run into anyone and as long as the drones are working. Superman won't target us either. After all, he only uses x-ray vision when he's focused on it. So we should be safe. Right now, most of the employees, as well as your father, are in the basement of the building, working on the particle accelerator. The anomaly is coming from one of the side rooms for the power generators. They provide the energy for all of this. So that's going to be our main target."

Superboy was speechless at first, but then he just said:

"I understand why you don't have normal friends. You're really creepy way too often."

"And you're too often really ignorant."

"Well, I'm only 10."

Damian didn't look up, but continued to inspect his little wrist screen as he spoke:

"And I'm 13, but I could do something like this much earlier. I successfully carried out my first hacking attack to steal government information when I was 6."

Egged on by this, Superboy only replied arrogantly:

"Pah! I don't need that, I have super powers unlike you."

Damian stopped for a moment, to look over his shoulder with raised corners of his mouth:

"And yet, they're of no use to you right now."

With that, he just kept walking towards an elevator, ignoring the other's annoyed face.

Damian briefly typed a few last commands into his computer and the steel doors of the elevator opened.

Curiosity flared up in Jonathan when he saw the open shaft. He walked past his partner and looked into the abyss, while he revealed his thoughts: "Wow, I've never seen the inside of that thing before. That goes down pretty deep."

Damian didn't share his interest though: "Can you fly us down there quietly?"

"Sure, that's not-...oh now I guess my powers are quite useful huh?"

Outraged at this, Superboy folded his arms in front of his chest. This guy really was unbelievable!

Robin's brows drew together in annoyance:

"I never said they were useless. While I could also glide down there with my grappling gun, the risk of being discovered is lower with you flying us down quietly. After all, neither of us wants our fathers to know about this."

Petulant that he had no other option, Superboy turned his head to the side:

"I hate you!"

"I hate you even more!" Robin spat back.

Arriving at the last level, Damian looked at his display again: "It's 22:00. They should start accelerating the protons by now. Let's hurry."

Together they ran through the empty hallways. All the employees were in the experiment hall, eagerly watching the practical results of their research. That made it easy for the two boys to get to their destination point quickly. Two turns further on, they were already right in front of it. Robin pulled the card through the scan slot again and the metal door to Energy Sector 5 opened. Superboy took an interested look at all the cylindrical machines, which together noisily supplied the accelerator with energy. He gave a first review: "And you really think there is something wrong here? It all looks pretty normal to me."

Damian looked strained at his computer: "It is the aggregate B3."

Without further ado, the boy, followed by Superboy, stepped into the room and took a closer look at the corresponding energy supplier. Apparently everything was fine with it but energetically not. Damian carefully put his hand on the machine, only to pull it immediately back again. It was boiling hot!

Alarmed by this, he looked behind the cylinder and went through all the connecting cables.

Superboy, meanwhile, was getting more and more restless. He knew these deep wrinkles on his Damian's forehead and had learned over their time together that this was never a good sign. It only meant more trouble.

"The cable that carries the power to the particle accelerator is faulty. These units are designed to produce and store electricity. Normally, they shut down as soon as they can't get rid of the energy. But this one doesn't and keeps producing."

Damian jumped up and ran past the perplexed Superboy, out of the room. Immediately the latter ran after him and, thanks to his speed, also promptly found himself next to Robin, only to be even more bewildered to learn the reason for his quick action:

"What's going on?"

"They need to shut down the engines immediately! I can't fix the power unit like this. It's coupled to the others. If it continues to build up energy, it will overload and perhaps explode. That could start a chain reaction and set the whole building on fire. We need to get to the control panel now!"

Jonathan's eyes got wide and fear rose up inside him: "Isn't that where Dad is?"

Annoyed, Damian just hissed:"-tt- I'm not amused to get caught either, but we have no other choice in this case!"

Superman stood smiling between all the scientists behind a glass pane, through which they could observe the accelerator, as well as control it. He was already not even listening anymore to his counterpart. One of the researchers had started about ten minutes ago to tell him everything about this project like an excited schoolboy and shared his enthusiasm with the kryptonian. But Clark didn't understand much about these specific protons, electric fields and any physical interactions. He wasn't stupid or anything. He just wasn't interested in this stuff. He had Bruce for that, but unlike him, Superman didn't just brush people off. That's why Clark only nodded now and then with the corners of his mouth raised, to give the excited scientist the feeling that he was listening, even though the Man of Steel wasn't interested in the whole thing at all.

The man in the coat was about to move on to the big bang when the door to the hallway burst open and Damian yelled angrily: "Shut down the machines now!"

Surprised, everyone in the room looked in the kid's direction. It was especially written all over Superman's face. He hadn't heard the boy at all, but the adult quickly regained his composure: "Robin?! What are you doing here?!"

Superman's gaze slid past Damian and there, with his head bowed, he spotted his own son looking up at him as innocently as he could. Sighing in exertion, Clark rubbed the bridge of his nose:

"Not again."

But Damian ignored this and was about to run to the control panel to prevent the worst. However, Superman grabbed him by the arm beforehand and held him in place. Without even granting the adult a word, Damian now quickly turned directly to the researcher standing next to the emergency stop:

"Unit B3 in Room 5 is defective and is now producing uncontrolled energy without being able to dissipate it. You must stop the experiment immediately or it will explode!"

Perplexed by this, Superman used his X-ray vision and went through each room until he found what he was looking for. A cylindrical machine, its cable connections now lightly flashing and hissing in his ears. Alarmed by it, he let go of Damian:

"He's right. Shut it down now!"

In disbelief, all the scientists present looked at the three heroes. They were supposed to stop their work so close to the finish line just because some kid running around thought something was wrong?

The researcher who was monitoring the energy readings asked in disbelief: "Excuse me, but according to the energy readout, everything seems fine and we are already within the speed of light. So nothing should happen."

Superman now became more energetic and even more serious: "I said turn it off!"

Reluctantly, one of the scientists was about to turn the shut off lever. However, it was already too late. Just as he began to make the move, the aggregate overloaded and sent out a powerful burst of energy that moved through all the connected machines and into the active particle accelerator. The sudden excess caused it to start flashing behind the glass panel and glow brighter and brighter. Clark had a bad feeling about this.

"Everyone take cover immediately!" Even as Superman said this, he pulled the two children in the room to him protectively. Not a second too soon.

The accelerator shorted out, causing the excess energy in the form of a blast wave to shatter the glass, knocking everyone present off their feet with a loud bang and causing a blackout.

In this silent darkness, it was not possible to tell exactly whether people were injured. Only through painful groans and occasional after-flashes that illuminated the room could one guess. Quickly, Superman addressed the two children:

"Robin, Superboy, are you hurt?"

At that moment the lights came back on and he could now get a closer look at the two boys. Damian answered him first:

"No, I'm fine."

"Me too Dad."

Relieved at this, Superman exhaled and then rose to see how bad the damage was. Some of the scientists apparently hadn't been able to get to safety in time, so they had been hit by the flying glass shards and now both, shards and blood, decorated the floor. But as far as Clark could tell, it was mainly the arms and legs surface that were affected, which in any case meant no acute danger to life.

Strictly the father put his fists in his hips and turned now again to the two children. One timid silently and the other only annoyed rolling his eyes:

"You two are in big trouble! This will have consequences for both of you but we'll talk about that later. Right now, we need to get people to safety and since you're here anyway, you might as well help me with that."

Resignedly, both replied in sync: "Yes Superman."

Suddenly, however, the accelerator groaned behind them. It was a metallic creak that grew louder and louder, causing the three heroes to look more closely with suspicion. Something was not right.

The creaking turned into a rumbling coming from inside of the large metal tube, but Superman's x-ray vision could not detect what exactly was causing it because of the special alloys. However, he was not taking any risks:

"All those who are uninjured, help the injured to leave the building immediately!"

A blow from inside the tube, bent the otherwise sturdy metal outward at one point, destroying it's perfectly round shape. This only alarmed Superman even more:

"And by that I mean now!"

Panicked, all the scientists left the room. Only Damian remained standing, as well as Jonathan, because he was unsure of whether the request also applied to him and oriented himself on Damian. Clark noticed this: "I told you to get to safety. It's too dangerous here!"

Damian just folded his arms: "You're not my father and I can take care of myself quite well. Besides, there should be someone present who knows about the technology of this thing."

This boy really was a pest on two legs. Not only did he refuse orders and constantly put himself in mortal danger, but he also had to drag his son into it. Clark was beginning to doubt that it had been a good idea to bring these two together in the first place.

Superman was just about to give this kid a lecture when the metal shell of the accelerator behind him rattled again, attracting the attention of the three heroes. Clark had expected many things, such as a second energy blast or something similar. However not with the situation, in which several black claws drilled themselves a way out from the inside and tore the thick metal now open, like a cutting can opener.

Superman realized that something alive was just tearing its way out and with surprise only two words left his mouth:

"What the...?!"

Notes:

*In short, that's how Damian and Jon met in the Comics.