Tim could feel a heavy shockwave when his body was thrown ahead and crashed against the seat in front of him while only two seat-rows behind him a big hole was blown into the floor and the fuselage, followed by loud screaming and a huge flash flame shooting over the ceiling…
In the terminal, Janet let out a horrified scream when she saw her brother's plane starting to burn and to spin.
"AGHHH…" Janet screamed. Joel began to cry…
"What is that?" her friend Stacey said shocked and took her phone to film it. "There was an explosion!"
The plane stopped climbing and instead got dangerously slow while the pilots could feel all control over the plane getting lost only seconds after take-off and before they could even retract the landing-gear.
Janet could only scream, while she grabbed for her watch… to push the button that emits the signal only her husband can hear…
In San Franscisco…
Jordan wanted to not to talk about power-matters. Since it was the reason that drove them apart. But one question was burning on his tongue…
"Jon… have you ever thought about…" Jordan began to ask before Connor suddenly felt his watch vibrating before Jordan could finish his question why Jonathan does not be a public superhero.
Connor lifted from the bench and looked towards north to listen to the sound of his own developed ELT… knowing Janet would only press it in real danger…
"The plane… was that an explosion… AGHHH… Mommy, I am scared… No Hydraulics, steering's are failing… Ketchikan Tower, mayday mayday mayday... AGHHH…" Connor heard, Janet, her friend Stacey, a woman in the plane, a child, the cockpit-crew, and another man screaming. Tim's plane was in trouble…
"Oh no… Tim!"
"Who?" Jordan asked but got no response.
Jordan could feel a heavy gust of wind and suddenly he turned around to see that his brother was gone. He looked up to the sky to see that the shockwave of his departure even pushed some clouds away. Clearing the view on the bright blue sky.
"WAIT… Jon, who is Tim?" Jordan asked.
But Connor, formally Jon, was too upset to stay. Full of adrenaline he flew back to Alaska where he arrived only seconds later to see the burning Alaskan Airways Boeing flying dangerously low and in a steep angle over the Tongass Narrow, that separated Ketchikan from its airport and dangerously close over the houses at the north of Pennock Island.
With his supervision, Connor could see a big hole in the fuselage, a lot of destroyed hydraulic and electric lines and his brother-in-law who was sitting unconsciously in his seat after hitting with his head against the seat in front of him. He saw the fire in the cargo-compartment and that the plane was about to crash into a ship that just arrived at the Cruise Ship Docks…
Aboard the cruise-ship, Sam and Lois Lane stood on the promenade deck and were waiting to deboard the ship when they when they suddenly saw the burning jet airliner flying dangerously low and heading directly towards them…
"CONNOR… DO SOMETHING!" Janet's voice echoed through Connor's ears, and he realized that he has no other choice… The plane… Tim's plane… was heading directly towards a ship… a ship full of innocent people…
"…WE HAVE NO CONTROL…" a pilot in the cockpit yelled.
His father was too far away and probably still in his cell… no time for him to interfere… If it is not him… Tim and hundreds of others will die…
And so, Connor shot towards the plane…
"What is that?" Stacey, who zoomed in with her phone, yelled when she spotted a small object flying towards the plane to literally catch it…
Connor got under the plane and used both hands to grab it right between the main landing-gear that was still extracted to stabilize it and to slow it down before turning it away from the ship…
The hundreds of shocked witnesses on the ship, who all prepared for the arrival in Ketchikan were too stunned and too shocked about the scene. Some grabbed their phones to film it. Others even streamed it life when a person, that could never be Superman, cached this plane before it crashes into their ship to turn it away and to fly it across the town away. Far away from them… but still close enough for the people to clearly see the person below the plane…
Lois and Sam watched it with big eyes when they realized that the man in the brown hoodie, the dark jeans and the trekking boots below the plane could only be Jonathan…
Connor turned his head around to use his ice-breath to blow out the flames that shoot out of the big hole in the fuselage before turning ahead again to look for a place to set down the damaged jet. In the cockpit, the pilots were shocked about the sudden stabilization of their damaged plane while some panicked passengers stopped screaming and start to realize that only a certain Kryptonian could be the one who was holding them.
"Superman?" a man asked.
"No… never…" another man murmured. "… he is locked up!"
"His son?!" a woman yelled.
"Aghh… Where? Where?" Connor wailed, ignoring the voices of the passengers, and looked around. The airport was too far away now. The cruise-ship dock was full of people. And he couldn't place the plane in town… and the Tongass was full of boats, ferries, and seaplanes…
A loud cracking sound tore him out of his thoughts and in horror, Connor had to witness the rear part with the whole tail fin behind the hole breaking away…
The heavy explosion weakened the planes' structure so much that it gave in. Causing it to fall off the rest of the plane. Suddenly everything turned even slower and with his accelerated perception, Connor flew into the falling tail fin, grabbed the two flight-attendants who were trapped in their seats in the rear galley, flew them into the cabin, placed them into the seats right next to Tim, secured them with the seatbelts and flew out again before the front section could tip over due to the changed balance and plunge into a fishing trawler to continue flying the plane across the town. And that only within a second. In the meantime, the tail fin plunged into the water like a stone, causing a big wave that hit several other boats but didn't hurt anyone…
More and more people looked out of their windows or stopped their cars to see the damaged plane flying slowly across the shore. Connor, still full of adrenaline and fear, got the plane lower and lower before he suddenly found a free space without any boats and seaplanes ahead of him.
"OH MY GOD… FASTEN YOUR SEATBELTS AND BRACE FOR IMPACT…" Connor yelled. "THIS IS GOING TO BE A ROUGH LANDING!"
The people in the cabin stopped screaming. They didn't even bother that their plane had no tail anymore! They looked out of the windows and saw how they ditched relatively softly in the ice-cold water of the Tongass Narrow, right in front of downtown Ketchikan, near the Ferry Terminal… witnessed by thousands of stunned and astonished people on the ground and on ships and filmed by hundreds of phones, Connor took a deep breath before he was ditched into the cold water and felt his grip on the plane get loose.
The plane made a loud splash and water sprayed all over. Even on some nearby boats. But it stopped moving quickly and even though the rear-cargo-compartment got flooded immediately, it was floating on the water surface like a raft. All over the people were horrified, astonished, and amazed at the same time when the damaged airliner got safely landed and flowed slowly closer to the ferry terminal, almost as if it was a ferry, too. In the water, but at least safe…
Inside the plane, Tim opened his eyes and felt the pain in his head where he hit against the seat in front of him. He was surprised to see two flight-attendants sitting next to him, who seemed to be as surprised as him that they were here and not in the rear galley. It smelled like burned plastic and seawater. Under pain, Tim put a hand on his bleeding forehead and looked out to see that they were in the water. He was totally wet, but seemed fine…
"What the…" he murmured before he and everyone else who was sitting on the window seats on his site, could see a person climbing out of the water and on the wing…
Connor coughed and spat out the salty seawater he got into his mouth while he pulled himself out of the water and on the dry wing. Slowly realizing that the passengers were fine and that they were safe now. At least until the plane sinks. But they are so close to the ferry terminal, they could all leave safely…
But then the adrenaline and the euphoria of his successful safe waved off…
That's when Connor suddenly realized that he was in his hometown, surrounded by thousands of witnesses and countless of phone-cameras who filmed him. Ship-horns start to roar. Cars honked. Sirens of police-cars, ambulances and firetrucks got closer. In fear he looked around to see two ferries, countless of fisher-boats, private boats, and countless of people at the shore to look on him. Instinctively he used his hands to cover his face. His sunglasses were torn off his face when he got plunged under water. But the hood was still over his head, covering his hair and most of his face. But everyone who knew him and his secret, knew it was him. One of them was Tim, who looked on him through his window with big eyes.
Connor felt like paralyzed. This was so surreal… but then he remembered that it was the best to get away from here before someone else recognizes him… especially when the flight-attendants opened the two front doors to extract the evacuation-slides to use them as rafts. The emergency-exit over the wing right behind Connor opened, too so the passengers could get out leave the plane there, too. Connor suddenly realized… he was still here…
And so, all the astonished witnesses watched the mysterious savior of the plane raising his arms and flying at high speed away and out of sight. Followed by loud cheering and applause…
"OH MY GOD… DO YOU KNOW WHO THAT WAS? DO YOU KNOW WHO THAT WAS?" Stacey, who filmed the whole 'flight' and the following 'emergency ditching' with her phone from the airport, yelled excited to Janet, who was totally pale. "THAT WAS JONATHAN KENT! JONATHAN KENT JUST SAVED YOUR BROTHER'S PLANE!"
Janet looked on her friend and then on her son, who looked up to the sky where his father just vanished, astonished… feeling relieved for her brother's safety, but scared for her husband's mental-wellbeing… knowing that this event was going to have a huge impact not only on them but also on everyone and everything they care about… all while Joel raised his own arms in astonishment as if he wants to fly by himself…
Two others who realized this stood on the deck of the cruise-ship they just arrived with and were too shocked and too stunned to applaud like everyone else around them…
"OH… this is not good!" Lois murmured before she saw the creepy smile on her father's face.
"He is good!" Sam said before Lois used her father's scarf to gag him in fury.
It was a huge chaos everywhere…
The ferries that operated between the town and the airport, didn't operate for over an hour. Phone and Internet were overwhelmed and broke down by the many uploads and downloads of videos of the heroic safe. The roads were blocked by people who all rushed to the ferry-terminal to see the plane, that ditched into the sea after gotten saved by a flying superhero and was evacuated by fishermen with their boats and a nearby ferry.
All 51 passengers, four flight-attendants and the two pilots got evacuated on time before the plane sank. Seven people received injuries, but nothing life-threatening. Tim had a slight concussion but would survive it without any lasting damage. Considering that he was the one who was closest to the explosion, he had a lot of luck. And the shock of the most passengers was quickly gone when they learned that none other than the infamous 'powerless and unwanted' son of Superman saved them: Jonathan Kent!
The people knew it could only be Jonathan Kent! Jordan Kent got his powers taken away by Lara after she realized that her son and her other grandson treated Jonathan bad for his powerlessness. And Clark Kent was living in a cell at the DOD and needed minutes to reach an emergency. If the DOD allows him to interfere… and even that was sometimes a lucky circumstance, depending on the location of the emergency and if the United States were involved or not.
When Janet was finally able to get back into town, she was shocked about the chaos she found there. Her friend Stacey, who already sent her video to her channel left quickly to get with her cameraman, who was waiting for her directly at the terminal of the airport-ferry, to the plane. Janet got into her car and drove to her parents' house, where her mother was already expecting them. Her father was at the crash-site to check for Tim, but her mother took Joel so Janet could look for Connor without the boy witnessing his father having a mental breakdown. Just good that her parents knew about the secret, too and about the consequences this event has for this wellbeing…
Janet rushed in her car back to their house in another part of the town while listening to the news in the radio…
"…that the plane was placed safely in the water, close to the ferry terminal after breaking apart in midair. The reason for the explosion is not known yet. But all witnesses are convinced that the disguised superpowered person that saved the plane, has to be Jonathan Kent! Jonathan Kent, who gained a tragic popularity after the reveal of…"
Janet turned off the radio when she parked in front of their house…
Janet knew that there were only two places where Connor goes to when he needs some space: When it is a human-issue, he goes to his fortress in the mountains outside the town and works on his inventions. Over the years he developed some great things, that the world truly needed and that he provided to it gratefully. When it was a Kryptonian-issue, he goes home and hides there…
"CONNOR!" she yelled worried when entering the house. "CONNOR, WHERE ARE YOU?"
Papers were laying on the floor. A clear indication that someone with superspeed rushed through the house just recently. Objects were moved by the wind blow, too. The cat was hiding under the couch scared while the dog was barking upset in the kitchen. And in the chimney was a fire burning. And Janet knew that there was no fire when she left. And in the flames, she spotted the leftovers of the clothes, and the shoes Connor were wearing before he left. Obviously to destroy them and every prove that he had ever wore them. Following that trace, she got to the slightly damaged door that led to the basement-stairs. And down there she could hear a man whimper like a scared little child, that was hiding from someone who wants to hurt him.
Janet rushed down the stairs as fast as her ninth month pregnant body carried her and she found her husband sitting in the corner. Naked and wrapped into a blanket. His face and his eyes totally red from crying. Every trace of self-confidence he build up since coming to this town many years ago being erased. On his ears rested a pair of special noise-cancelling headphones to not to hear the world out there. He was trembling and hold his legs in a nearby fetal position, and it was clear that he had a panic-attack…
"Connor… Connor, look at me!"
Connor was totally apathy. Janet was not sure if he even notices her being here. Knowing that his panic-attacks could last for hours or even days…
"What did I do… what did I do…" he whimpered.
"Hey… hey hey hey… look at me… take a deep breath! Nobody is hurt… and nobody knows it was you…" Janet said calmly.
So far nobody called her. Everyone (expect those who knew the secret) believed it was 'Jonathan Kent' and not Connor.
"I fucked up… I fucked up so much…" he continued whimpering. Janet realized that he couldn't hear her with the headphones and took them off so he could hear her. "Now they come after us… they take you… they look up Joel in a lab… it is all my fault… I fucked up…"
"Connor… nobody saw that it was you! They only saw Jonathan Kent! And you are not Jonathan Kent anymore! You are you… and you have no reason to be scared. Breath… breath with me… In… and out…"
Connor obeyed and used the breathing technique he once learned for his brother's panic-attacks, that he still used when he helped troubled children at work and that he once taught Janet and some others, too. It took a few minutes, but finally his pulse calmed down, his headache got less, and that terrible feeling of fear and horror got weaker…
"Better?"
"Better!"
"Okay… come on… let's go upstairs again!" Janet said and together they walked up the stairs again to sit down on the couch in the living-room.
Janet thought about giving him some clothes. Below the slightly slipped down blanket, she saw the scars on his back… these scars he hid from everyone, since the whole world knew that these scars, could be used to identify him as Jonathan Kent. The reason, her husband always keeps sure to never show himself in the wrong clothes or even shirtless. Janet pulled the blanket up to hide the scars again and they sat down on their couch.
Once they sat, Janet continued talking. "This is not the end of the world! We get you into some clean clothes, and then we talk about everything!"
"Jan, I used my powers! In front of everyone! Here! Everyone has seen me! All of Ketchikan has seen me!"
"Yes… you used your powers in public, but nobody saw it was you, Connor! They expect Jonathan Kent, and not you!"
"What if someone recognized me? Jan… there were cameras all over. With the modern technology it will be easy to improve it and identify my face… I can't… I can't…"
"Hey… shhhh… you are not alone!" his wife said and hugged him. "You are not alone!"
"I am so sorry… I am so so sorry!"
"No need to…" Janet said. "Everything will be okay! We get through this together! You are not alone!"
Janet knew it, her parents, her brother, all their close friends and Connor's parents and his brother knew it! They all knew the reason why Connor didn't use his incredible powers to do what his father once did before he became DOD-property! They all knew that the constant emotional pressure was too big. And then there was the public scandal, following his arrest after the X-K… The lab… the horrific things he went through… Janet read his diary… everyone in the world read it. She even wrote an essay about it in her senior year in High School. Every student in this country has to read it in Middle or High School. Even some elementary schoolers have to read it already. Even through some people say that it is too hard for such young children. Everyone knew that this event today tore open old wounds and not everyone was going to give Connor the space he needed…
In all the chaos in Ketchikan, the terrified and deeply ashamed airport-employee made a call when his phone finally had service again…
"…I swear I have nothing do with it. I don't even know how this could happen. The package was in the rear compartment! But I couldn't see any other stuff… you said it is harmless stuff…"
"Don't worry! Nobody is mad on you!" the male voice at the other end said surprisingly calmly.
"What? But…"
"I said don't worry! It might not have like we wanted… but it opened up to us a whole new perspective! And we have suddenly a new reason to take a closer look on your island." the voice said before the call suddenly ended. Leaving a scared and stunned man behind…
Lois and Sam meanwhile, needed some time to be able to leave the ship. It was too chaotic on land to get out. And getting a taxi to their hotel, which was located on a hill over the tourism-district of Ketchikan, took even longer. Lois was disgusted to have her father with her. She was in panic because her son just showed himself in public, revealing that he was here. Or at least was here! And she was annoyed that she had to push her father around in his wheelchair, that he actually didn't need but only used for his disguise as 'Luna Ellis' disabled father after a stroke'. The only good thing was that he kept his promise and didn't speak until they were alone in their suite.
"I never dared to think that he decides to be a hero!" Sam moaned.
"Shut up… I know that face… He is not going to be your weapon! You are out of the DOD! You are not a soldier anymore! And you are not… his grandfather anymore! You have made it clear back then when you trained Jordan. So don't even dare to make plans!" Lois ranted while turning on the TV to watch the news. "And it is not sure if this was an act of heroism! He might had no other choice?"
It was already on all channels and in all news! Jonathan Kent's 'heroic safe of a passenger plane'. And countless of discussions if he finally decides to become a hero after years of hiding. While listening to the TV, Lois opened the mini bar, got a small bottle of Scotch, filled it into a glass and discreetly pulled out a blister with pills out of her pocket. She took out three of them to fill their content into the drink…
"The boy has so much potential! Why he wastes it by hiding it?" Sam moaned.
Lois felt the urge to slap her father for this sentence. She knew exactly why her son hides himself and his powers from the world. She played a major part in it. Like her father, her husband, and her other son she destroyed him. She taught him that he can't be a hero without powers instead of being an extraordinary human, like she once promised. And now that he had powers, he would think they will only accept him for them. They had spent too long with teaching him a wrong worldview, that he despises his powers rather than using them to help others. Wordlessly she filled some Scotch into a second glass before handing the spiked drink to her father.
"I thought you are not allowed to drink; due to the medicine you have to take?" Sam said.
"After this huge shock, everyone can make an exception!" Lois said. "It's not common to see your son, you thought he hates Krypton and his powers so much suddenly being a Superhero! Or that I don't even manage to make a cruise without getting in trouble…"
"Yes, I guess you are right! The infamous Lois Lane and her bad habit to get in trouble…" Sam said and drunk the spiked drink. "Ughh… Scotch isn't the same anymore!"
"Guess so…" Lois murmured and just had to wait for the pills to work…
Jordan in the meantime wondered why his brother suddenly stormed away before he could ask him if he made the fog for them to hide in it. Indeed, the fog start to dissolve the moment Jon flew away freeing the view on the Golden Gate Bridge. But Jordan had no eyes for the famous landmark now. His eyes were fixed on the screen of his smartphone where he read the latest news about the plane-crash in Ketchikan and saw how his brother saved it…
"Oh my god… Jon…" Jordan murmured before suddenly a terrible thought came up in his minds. "Ketchikan?! Oh… Lois…"
Jordan suddenly remembered how his mother contacted him some time ago! Asking him if he wants to go on a cruise with her to reconnect and to visit 'some old friends'. And so, Jordan used his phone to check for the location of a certain ship…
In a former DOD-facility, that was still a prison (at least for him) Clark Kent sat on the old couch from the farmhouse and glared on the TV-screen where he watched the footage of the plane rescue in Alaska…
Clark knew he messed up and ruined everything. He knew that if he had made some things different, he wouldn't be here. That he would be still married to Lois, that his sons wouldn't hate him and be forced to hide and that everyone would have a better life. That they could be the family, he wanted them to be when he moved with them to Smallville. Instead, the move to Smallville was the indicator for them to fall apart beyond any chance to reconnect.
If Clark had taken Jon to the fortress, too instead of sending him to school where everyone rejected him only for being Jordan's brother, the boy wouldn't have felt left out. If he had given both his sons a life beyond the powers and focused more on the human side of both of them, he would have seen that he turned Jonathan into the Metropolis version of Jordan and Jordan into an arrogant and selfish 'role-Kryptonian' the people expect Kryptonians to be, thanks to Tal-Rho's eradicator-mess.
No surprise Tal-Rho abandoned him, too and left with Jonathan's inverse-doppelganger to his world. Taking the body of his bizarro-self, with them, too… Calling him a shame for Krypton, too…
After the scandal, Jonathan's getaway from the lab, the trial, and reading and studying every book, every movie and every documentary that was made about their family, Clark could say for sure that he was a total failure as a father. He was before and he was after the move to Smallville. He didn't get closer to Jonathan and to Jordan he was only able to bond over his powers. No surprise that Jordan didn't want to have anything to do with him, too since his powers got taken and he got humiliated in public.
And now this incident in Alaska… Clark knew, Jonathan would only use his powers in public if someone he really cares about is in danger. So, what happened? Was his wife aboard? A member of his family? She is pregnant, so they wouldn't allow her to fly, but did something happen?
But Clark was torn out of his thoughts when suddenly the heavy metal door opened, and a man walked into the corridor next to his 'apartment'…
"Who could have ever dared to think that after all those terrible things you did to your son, that he decides to be Superhero?" the man asked sheepishly. "Or is there maybe more about it?"
Clark shuddered at the sound of this voice… always wondering how this man managed to get back into the army after all the bad things he has done by himself…