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Last time, in "Growing Up Super (3/4)":

If he had to, Jack could grab them both and get out of the lab fast. But if they stayed here... who knew if they'd really be returned to their parents, even if their parents gave in to the drug lords' commands.

If only it was dark enough that nobody could see what they were doing...

What about the electricity? "Mozem svet ubrat?"

Emily saw Jack turn his head and scan the walls. She could tell the moment he found the electrical wires. His entire expression lit up. Then he frowned in concentration.

"What if you get hurt?" he asked, forgetting to speak in Russian.

"We'll be fine. I trust you," she said.

Emily watched as Jack stared at the concrete wall. After a few minutes, there was a burning smell and the concrete began to... well, perhaps "melt away" was the best term.

"What's that?" Nathan asked, sounding anxious. Emily realized that he was turned away from the wall and couldn't see anything.

"Don't worry," she assured him. But what else was there to say? 'Don't worry, my brother will use his super-powers to get us out of here somehow?'

There was sudden frantic wriggling from behind her.

"Nathan?" she asked. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, just... just a minute."

She felt something pull loose, and suddenly Nathan was shaking one of his wrists, newly freed from its bounds, and looking rather pleased with himself.

"How did you do that?" Emily asked, pulling at her own ropes. It was, in fact, rather embarrassing that the one non-super had gotten himself free.

"Some tricks I learned from reading mystery novels," Nathan said, pulling his other hand free and massaging them together. "Good guys are always getting tied up. I know a lot of tricks. These guys did a solid job, though."

Nathan read mystery novels? She would have pegged him as the type who would never willingly look at a book, much less actually learn things from them like getting knots loose.

As he leaned forward, presumably to untie his ankles, Emily and Jack shared a look.

"I don't suppose *you* have any lockpicking tools on you?" Jack asked Nathan.

"Nope, sorry. Ropes, I can do. But not handcuffs."

Jack sighed. Emily knew he was dying to pull them free, but it would be just a tad difficult to explain suddenly torn handcuffs.

She felt Nathan pulling at the knots on one of her wrists, and a few blessed minutes later she was pulling her aching wrist free. Between the two of them, they got her other limbs free quickly.

"Now, Jack?" she said. "Nathan, grab something for a weapon. The ropes, or a chair." She picked up the chair and stood at the wall just inside the door, on the side away from the hinges. Nathan grabbed a length of rope and joined her.

"What are we doing?" Nathan stage-whispered to Emily.

"Just be ready."

Jack went back to work on the wall. The burning smell intensified until the cement was gone. Emily focused her x-ray vision on the spot where Jack was working, and she was pleased to find that she could follow what he was doing. His heat vision bit through the wall and melted the coating from the wires. Just another moment...

"Hey, what's going on in here?" they heard Craig's voice call from outside the door. "I smell smoke."

"So do I," Nathan muttered, looking around the room for the source. Just as he focused on the place where Jack was burning through, they heard Craig at the door.

Before he managed to open it, Jack was through the wires. Sparks flew from the wall and the lights flickered and went out.

"Scott! Gregor! Get in here!" Craig bellowed as he opened the door.

Emily brought the chair over his head as hard as he could. He hit the floor without a sound.

She could feel Nathan next to her bending over to tie the man. She touched his shoulder. "Don't bother," she whispered.

She heard the slight whoosh as Jack sped past them, through the doorway and into the darkened main room of the warehouse. Chaos reigned as workers were trying to find their way to the doors in the dark.

There were sudden screams and a loud crash from one side of the warehouse. Then Jack was back at their side.

"Emily," he said urgently. "The chemicals. I think they spilled in the confusion."

"Are they going to explode?" Nathan asked, sounding frightened.

"Yeah. We gotta get out... now." Jack half-dragged Emily and Nathan behind him towards the door. The workers had all scattered, but the debris they'd knocked over in their mad struggle for the door made it difficult to maneuver. Just as they cleared the doorway, Emily felt something hot behind her...

And suddenly all three were whooshing through the air faster than Emily had ever dreamed of. If this was flying...

Then they were falling. They hit the ground, hard, a short distance from the warehouse.

Jack threw himself over Emily and Nathan just in time. Large pieces of rubble crash-landed around them, some still burning. Something hit Emily's arm, hard, and she cried out. Her arm was in agony. "Jack!" she cried, terrified of being buried.

She felt his hand on the back of her head, pushing her down into the ground. Protecting her with his own body, even though she knew he could be hurt by burning objects just as she could.

Emily coughed, her eyes streaming at the heat and smoke coming from the burning building. It felt as though she couldn't even draw a breath through her lungs.

She heard, rather than saw, Jack blow a gust of icy breath at the burning metal and wood around them. She could barely keep her eyes open against the pain in her arm.

"It's all right, Em," Jack said finally. Emily lifted her head. The warehouse behind them was... well, no more than a few partial walls. Most of the rest of it was scattered in all directions around it.

"Nathan!" she suddenly remembered.

Jack nodded to his left. Nathan lay unmoving on the ground.

"Is he--"

"No, he was just knocked unconscious when we, uh, crash-landed," Jack said. "I think you may actually be just a little invulnerable after all, not to have been knocked out yourself."

A stabbing pain in Emily's arm negated that idea. "Jack, I think my arm is broken," she said, cradling the limb.

He glanced at it, winced, and nodded. "Looks like it. A clean break in one place, though."

"My own personal x-ray service," she said, trying to smile. "Jack, did you fly?"

"I think it was more like floating at super-speed," he said with a smile. "Sorry to disappoint."

"Floating is still impressive! You've never done that before."

"Yeah. Well, the explosion definitely helped."

A sound from near the warehouse made Emily look up. One of the thugs who'd brought them to the lab was walking around the side of the burning warehouse... and right towards them.

"Jack! We've gotta get out of here!" she said, pointing.

"Right," he said. He lifted Nathan over his shoulder, then grabbed Emily around her waist. She was propelled along as he ran at normal speed until they'd passed behind a building, then continued at super-speed.

If this was what super-speed would feel like, Emily thought, Jack could keep it. It was very... disconcerting, like riding a roller coaster. She wasn't entirely sure her stomach was keeping up with the rest of her body.

"Now," Jack said as they stopped in an alley some distance away, "here's where flying would come in handy."

Emily sighed wistfully. "Flying. Yeah."

"You kids lost?" a man asked, walking into the alley with another man just behind him.

Emily immediately shrank back against Jack. The man's question was friendly, but his body language was not. He continued walking towards them until he was only a few feet away.

"We're fine, actually," Jack said. "Thanks for asking."

Nathan gave a groan and suddenly sat up. "What happened?" he asked.

Emily and Jack were momentarily distracted, and then man took the opportunity. He grabbed Emily by the arm and dragged her towards him. "That's fine, we'll just take this pretty little thing."

"Get off," she said, shoving at his arm.

"Let her got!" Jack said, taking a step forward.

"Now, now, play nice," the second man said, pointing his gun at Emily. "Unless you want her brains splattered all over the sidewalk.

Nathan, who had just gotten to his feet, took a step in Emily's direction and put himself between Emily and the gunman. "You'll have to shoot through me, first," he said.

The gunman didn't need any further invitation. He shot Nathan...

And Jack snatched the bullets from the air.

Both men stared at Jack, then turned and ran down the alleyway.

Jack stared at the bullets in his hand, then slowly crumbled them into dust and let them fall. "Uh..."

"Nathan," Emily said before Jack could say anything, "Thanks."

"What for?" he grumbled. "Almost getting us both killed?"

"Stepping in front of a bullet for me," she corrected. "Any person willing to risk their life for another... well, is a pretty decent person."

He shrugged, looking embarrassed. "I wouldn't have done it for just anyone. Anyway, as it turned out, it wasn't necessary, was it? Your super-brother had it all under control."

Emily and Jack shared a glance.

"So, were the tabloids right all along?" Nathan asked. "Lois Lane had an affair with Superman?"

"My mother did not have an affair!" Emily said hotly. "She loves my father."

Nathan nodded. "That was my second guess. So then your father is... Superman."

Neither answered, but Nathan didn't seem to need an answer. "So my getting shot would have been for nothing, then. Bullets would have bounced right off you."

"No," Jack said. "Our powers come on gradually. Emily doesn't have them yet. Well, just super-hearing and a bit of super-vision. But she could still be killed by a bullet." He shuddered.

Nathan glanced at Emily. His expression was unreadable. Was he affronted by their revelation? Excited about telling everybody back at school? Horrified that he'd been hanging out with aliens? Mad that he'd almost been killed because of his association with their family?

She tentatively reached her good hand towards him, touching his lightly. He took her hand in hers and squeezed it.

"We've gotta get out of here," Jack said. "Obviously this is not the safest part of this city. But what city are we in?"

"I think we're still in the U.S., if that helps," Nathan said.

Jack snorted.

"We need to find a phone," Emily said. "Anybody got any money?"

Nathan and Jack both shook their heads. She sighed. Her arm was aching again like nothing she'd ever felt. Somehow she'd managed to tune out the pain while their attackers were here, but now it was back in full force.

"Can we just fly?" Nathan asked.

Jack shrugged. "Sorry, I can't fly yet. I can sort of float, and I can run at super-speed, though."

"How did you get us out of that explosion?" Nathan asked as they started off towards what they hoped was the center of town.

"I just ran super-speed out the doorway. I think the explosion lifted us into the air, and maybe my floating kept it under control. We landed pretty hard, though, that's why you were knocked out."

Nathan nodded and rubbed his head. "Still aches a bit." They headed out of the alley and into the dark street beyond.

"Maybe we could find a police station?" Emily suggested. "Or a gas station? They might be open all night."

"Maybe we could just yell 'Help, Superman!' now," Nathan said with a smile.

Jack lifted his eyebrows. "Not a bad idea. How about all of us yell, on three?"

They nodded. "One, two, three..."

"HELP, SUPERMAN!" they all yelled together.

They waited for the telltale whoosh. But nothing came.

"I guess we're just going to have to help ourselves," Emily said. "Which way do you think is the center of town?"

"That way," Jack and Nathan said at once, pointing in opposite directions. Emily sighed.

Before they could start an argument, however, the whoosh finally came. Superman, looking larger than life in his suit and cape, landed lightly in front of them.

"Emily! Jack!" he cried, pulling them into his arms. "I've been--"

He suddenly noticed Nathan.

"Uh, your parents have been worried sick."

"It's okay, Mr. Kent," Nathan said.

"He knows," Jack said. "We tried not to let it on, but when somebody shot at Emily and Nathan..."

"Actually, I sorta knew something before that," Nathan said. "Back when you two were speaking in Russian in the warehouse. You didn't bother to make sure that I didn't know Russian."

"You speak Russian?" Emily asked with surprise.

Nathan nodded. "My mother was Russian. You would have been better off with Chinese. Of course, I didn't know what you were talking about, setting a fire and such. But when I saw stuff start to melt on its own... I thought just Jack was super at first, though, since you seemed to be telling *him* to try stuff, rather than offering to do it yourself."

Their father was looking around at the dark alleyways and warehouses around them. "How about we get out of here and talk about this later?"

Emily nodded and winced as her arm gave another twinge. Her father noticed. "Are you hurt, Em?"

She nodded. "My arm."

He stared at it for a moment and she knew he was scanning it the way Jack had. "Broken."

"And Nathan hit his head. He was out for a few minutes," Jack added.

Her father nodded. "How about I put Emily on my right, then, so I can hold her without hurting her arm. Nathan, I'll carry you on my left."

"What about Jack?" Nathan asked.

"He's able to grab my shoulders. Since he's invulnerable and has super-strength, I don't have to keep him quite so close to my body to protect him during speed-flight."

Emily did her best to describe the criminals during the flight until her father at least had an idea which were the ringleaders, she hoped. Unless they'd gone underground already.

A few minutes later, they were landing lightly in front of a hospital. "Emily and Nathan, you'll both need to be looked at in the ER. Jack, can you go with them and help them get signed in? It will probably be a bit of a wait. I need to see if I can grab the bad guys before they escape. Then I'll go get Nathan's father and Lois and bring them over."

Emily saw that he watched them until they were through the hospital doors before taking off. She followed Jack and Nathan into the ER, beginning to feel a bit woozy.

"Jack, I need to sit down," she said abruptly. He nodded, and she walked over to the waiting area and dropped onto a chair while Jack talked to the nurse. Nathan followed her and sat down on the seat next to her.

Emily tried to use her other arm as a sling, but the slightest movement made her wince. The pain in her arm seemed to ebb and flow... and it was always worse when she let herself think about it.

"Are you going to tell anyone?" she asked Nathan to keep her mind off her arm. "About my father, I mean. And... Jack and me."

He shook his head. "Of course not. I know what it would do to your family. Besides... you're the first friend I've had in years. I don't want to lose that."

Emily smiled at him. "I'm glad."

"I guess I won't see you anymore, once you move back to Metropolis, though," he said, swinging his feet.

"Yeah. Mom and Dad will probably want us back with them, now that the case is over. *If* it's really over, that is."

"Won't Superman catch the bad guys? I thought he always did."

She smiled. "Usually. But not always. He's super-powered, but even he can't do everything."

"Hey, Emily," Jack said, walking back over. "You guys are supposed to fill out these forms." He glanced at Emily's arm. "I guess I can do yours for you," he said, sounding not exactly thrilled.

"Thanks, Jack," she said, giving him an angelic look. But once Nathan and Jack were both immersed in their forms, she regretted not having something to do herself. She stared at the clock, watched the nurse, and watched a small boy playing near his mother. Finally she closed her eyes and leaned against the wall, trying to imagine the pain away.

She opened her eyes with a start when she heard her name. "Emily!" her mother said, walking into the waiting area. "Jack!" She gave both of them hugs.

"And you're Emily's friend?" she asked Nathan.

He glanced at Emily. "Yeah, he's my friend," she said, smiling back at him. "And he saved my life!"

"I thought I did that," Jack muttered under his breath.

"You, too," she said.

"Nathan, your father is on the way. He was a little nervous about flying Superman Express, so I told him I'd go first."

Nathan nodded.

A few minutes later, Nathan's father appeared. He looked slightly shaken after his flight, but he was obviously very relieved to find Nathan in one piece. Then a nurse came out and brought Emily into a room to set her arm. The painkillers she gave Emily offered the first relief she'd had in hours. The pain lessened to a point that she could actually think of something beyond how much her arm hurt.

When she came out again, her father had arrived as Clark Kent and was talking to Nathan's father, and Nathan was sitting on the waiting bench again. Her mother and Jack were nowhere to be seen.

"Hey," she said, sitting down next to Nathan. "Did they already see you?"

He nodded. "They don't think I have a concussion, but Dad has to wake me up every two hours just to make sure I'm okay." He rolled his eyes. "Dad's really excited about that idea, let me tell you. And your dad says that you and Jack are going back to Metropolis. Apparently he got all the bad guys, or at least the major ones." He grinned. "Apparently they had mostly all gone back to the scene of the crime and were looking through the rubble to see if they'd killed us. That, or they wanted to see if any of the drugs were still viable. The one who chased us must have gone into hiding when we escaped."

"Or was off looking for us."

"Yeah. Anyway, your dad said he's bringing you and Jack back with him tonight."

"Tonight?"

Nathan shrugged. "That's what he said."

She was silent for a moment. "Guess I won't be at school tomorrow, then."

"Guess not."

They were quiet again.

"I'll miss you," Emily said, finally.

"Yeah," Nathan said. "I'll miss you, too."

"Are you ready to go home, Emily?" her father asked. He and Nathan's father had finished their discussion. "Your mother and brother are outside."

"Almost," Emily said. She reached out with her good hand, grabbed Nathan's wrist, and pulled him up. Then she gave him a one-armed hug. He looked taken aback at first, but then he gave her an awkward hug back.

"Bye, Nathan."

"Bye, Emily."

She followed her father out the door to take the Superman Express home... back to Metropolis, where she belonged.

******

One year later...

It felt good to concentrate on dribbling the ball. Bounce it on the ground just hard enough for it to bounce right back into her hand every time. It was harder work than it had been at this time last year. Last year, dribbling, shooting, passing--they had all come naturally to her.

This year, she had to exert a great deal of control. Suddenly, with no real effort, she'd bounce the ball so hard on the ground that it would shoot thirty feet into the air. Or she'd make what felt like a nice, easy toss into the basketball hoop... and the ball would shoot off onto the next street, or pop as it slammed into the backboard at high speed--occasionally cracking bits off the backboard as well. Dad had had to replace more backboards than he liked to think about.

Emily had already missed softball in the spring, and if she didn't learn to get her powers under control soon, she'd miss basketball this fall as well. Not only did she have to get used to her new powers, but they also fluctuated--sometimes wildly--and were increasing gradually every day.

She gave the ball a gentle toss, hoping not to overshoot the basket this time. The ball was high enough, but just short of making it in. Before it could bounce off the rim, Emily gave it a tiny puff of super-breath. The ball dropped cleanly through the basket.

"Now, that's cheating. Blatant cheating if I ever saw it."

Emily turned around. Nathan stood just outside the court, his hands in his pockets, looking excited but a little uncertain.

"Nathan!" She felt the sudden urge to run and hug him, but something made her hold back. It wasn't that she was shy, exactly. But it had been a year since she'd seen him before. He looked taller, older. His hair was longer. Superficial changes, but they reminded her that time had gone by.

"Hey," he said, smiling and stepping closer. Despite his smile, he looked as awkward as she felt.

"What are you--?"

"Doing here?" He shrugged. "Well, my Dad grew up in a big city--Chicago--and he only moved out to Smallville with me after Mom died. Seems he thought that a small town was safer for raising a kid. But he hated it the whole time. After I was kidnapped and everything, he decided that small towns were just as dangerous as big cities."

Emily frowned. "But you wouldn't have been kidnapped if it wasn't for your association with Jack and me, and we were only kidnapped because of our parents, who are journalists in a big city."

He shuffled his feet. "Yeah, well, I think it was just an excuse. And I didn't argue with him. I thought maybe it would be nice to start over at a new school. It's easier when you don't have people reminding you at every turn of what a jerk you used to be."

"Why not Chicago?"

Nathan grinned. "Dad's mother-in-law lives in Chicago. Plus, he thought it would be nice to live in Superman's hometown. Safer, maybe. More exciting. Always a chance of seeing a streak of blue and red in the air."

"So you're living here now?" Emily held her breath, waiting for his response.

"Yeah. I'll be starting at Metropolis Union on Monday."

"That's my school! I'll show you around."

"Thanks."

They stared at each other for a moment. Emily desperately wanted to keep the conversation going, to keep Nathan here, but absolutely nothing came to mind.

"How's your arm?" he asked finally.

Emily grinned. "Healed in two weeks. Super-healing and all that. How's your head?"

"Fine. Not much of a concussion, I guess." He gazed at her, then took another step forward. "I convinced Dad that Metropolis was the best place for us to move," he said. "He was thinking Washington, D.C. Or Los Angeles. But I argued for Metropolis."

"Why?" she whispered.

"Because my best friend is here."

Emily couldn't quite meet his eyes. But she dropped the ball she was holding, closed the distance between him, and gave him the hug she'd been longing to share since he'd arrived.

"I missed you," she whispered in his ear.

"I missed you, too, Em," he whispered back.

They separated, and Emily leaned down to pick up the ball.

"Wanna play a game?" he asked, nodding to the ball.

She grinned. "Better watch out. My super-strength and super-speed are coming in all at once. Plus invulnerability."

"Oh, so maybe you'll be able to keep up with me, finally," he teased back.

She passed him the ball. "Let's play!"