Continuation of Parts I and II ("Flashbacks" and "The Longest 5 minutes")
Hmm, this one might be a bit cheesy/corny. I'm actually more of a humor person, and I think I have some great ideas for part IV, but I also think that this part is necessary to bridge the gap between part II and what I have in mind for Part IV.
The reason I don't have the story marked as a part 1/? is because each part might have greatly varying lengths. Thanks to the Queen of the Capes for suggesting the idea of an umbrella title for the story!
Author's notes:
I guess I should nail down a description of the overall story -
First, the premise that the "clock cycle" (to use a computer analogy) of the human brain is a LOT longer than that of the kryptonian brain.
In the TV show, it kind of seems that there wasn't any "Super Activity" until Clark started traveling the world after college. (moving from place to place when people started noticing I guess) Since it's not in his character to look past people in trouble when he could help them, I figured he had to be somehow physically incapable of helping until he was 22 or so.
Since a hypothetical super-powered child of Superman's would be no more able to look past people in trouble and not help than his dad, he'd have to publicly save people. I couldn't really think of how to satisfactorily explain a superpowered kid to the media. (explanation in the story) So the secret has to come out.
But what if it came out before the kid's brain was fully developed? Then there'd be lots of interesting issues for the family to deal with. The kid would have years of a normal life left (not trying to save the world) except that everybody knows the big secret.
Less important author's notes:
Rationale:
we know that Clark could fly at age 18, and in season 3 Martha's words imply that Super-strength developed gradually over his lifetime and he was already really, really strong at age 13. I'm loosely basing the rest of the relevant powers from the Smallville show: X-ray vision at 14, Heat vision at 15, super-hearing at 16, cold breath at 18 but before flying. (in the smallville series he can't fly at 18)
Hence the brain explanation for being physically incapable of saving people until age 22 in the L&C show. So, I'm assuming Clark's brain must not have been able to sort through ALL of the information his superhearing would pick up (everything within miles!), and so his brain would subconsciously shut it out. And if he saw something on the news...he'd have to be too slow to get there on time. Hence the surroundings passing by too fast to know when to stop thing - if you or I were flying at ~2.99 X 10^8 meters per second, our surroundings would be a huge blur and we'd pass our destination many times without seeing it. Which is where the clock cycle idea came from.
Plus a human brain wouldn't innately know which direction to go like Superman seems to in the show. I mean, if you really think about it, the super brain thing is Superman's most valuable asset. There are tons of things that he does in the show which can't be explained by speed or strength but can be explained by a super-fast brain. I mean, being able to move your limbs super-fast doesn't explain how you can read a book super fast or learn 347 different languages.
Ok, anyways, story begins here:
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"I can't believe that each of these bruises was a bullet wound." a voice spoke with awed reverence.
"His mind and body were unprepared for the experience of pain - the combination of the physical and psychological shocks rendered him unconscious. All three of the bullets that hit him got through the bioelectric field, but with minor penetration depth at the skin level. The one to the forehead probably played a role in knocking him unconscious, but I suspect that it was mostly mental or perhaps emotional shock." said a different voice.
"That makes sense - my first experience of pain was when I was 27, and I passed out within seconds." The third voice sounded familiar. The other two voices murmured their surprise. "But after that, Kryptonite mostly just hurt me without knocking me out."
Jonathan tried to open his eyes to see who was talking, but all of a sudden he felt so tired...
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<<Author's warning - uh oh, touchy feely stuff. Ok, here goes nothing...>>
When Jonathan woke up, he saw that he was lying in a hospital bed. His parents were sitting next to the bed, while a familiar-looking girl was sitting in a chair farther away, behind his parents. Ah yes, it was the girl that those gunmen were going to shoot.
"Honey, he's up." Lois and Clark simultaneously whispered to each other.
"Mom! Dad! What happened?" Jonathan asked as he sat up, fearing the worst.
"The other hostages were able to swarm the gunmen, and nobody was seriously hurt. You did good, Jonathan. I've never been prouder of you in my whole life." Clark said with a smile.
"But what about keeping the secret? How are you two doing?"
Lois tried to dismiss her son's concerns. "Jonathan, now is *not* the time to wallow. You know how much I hate that! The important thing is that *you* and everyone else are going to be OK!" she said forcefully.
At Lois's remark the girl in the corner got up and started tentatively, "Um, there's something that I want to say - that is, now that you're all awake, uh, if that's OK with you of course."
"Of course it's OK. Say as much as you want." Clark said reassuringly as he and Lois both turned around to face the outsider to the family.
The girl nodded and swallowed. "Well, I just wanted to say that I can't even imagine what your family must have to give up now that - you know. I'm sorry that it had to be because of me, and I'm really grateful. I just hope that I can be a good enough person someday so that it's not wasted." she said emotionally, with a few tears.
Jonathan winced. "No, it's not your fault. I'm the one who made the decision to-" he began.
"Jonathan! How can you say that? How can you even think that? It's not your fault! Clark, tell him it's not his fault!" Lois turned to her husband as she spoke the last sentence.
"Your mother's right, son." Clark turned to face the girl, placed his hands on her shoulders, and looked her in the eye before continuing. "It's *already* not wasted. You are a human being - a unique individual with your own unique hopes, dreams, and fears. Your life is worth just as much as anyone else's, and it's certainly worth more than our comforts." he said with his most sincere Clark voice.
The girl openly burst into tears now. She nodded. "Thank you." she said simply as she left the Kents to themselves in the small hospital room.
"Jonathan, you did the right thing. In fact, you wouldn't be a Kent if you didn't do what you just did." Clark said, clasping one of Jonathan's hands in his own.
"But, to answer your question, so far it hasn't been that bad actually." he said in a lighter tone. "I've been using shock tactics so far - pretending that it's the most natural thing in the world to have powers like ours. I spun into the suit when I left the office to come here, and once your mother and I landed I spun back into these work clothes and immediately started asking to see you. Basically acting as if we had never even bothered to hide the fact that I'm Superman."
Lois put on a self-satisfied smile. "So far, it's kept everyone slack-jawed enough that they've pretty much done as we asked without saying too much of anything. The longer they act like awed moony-eyed cheerleaders, the longer it'll take for them to start asking questions about the past 18 years." She shot a glare at Clark as he raised his eyebrows at the beginning of her last sentence, but the smile didn't leave her face.
"Ok, so what should I do? I mean, I'll have to face this at school pretty soon, right?" Jonathan asked as he looked to his parents for guidance.
"Jonathan, that's something only you can decide for yourself. You don't have to live up to anyone's expectations but your own, not even mine. Be your own person." Clark said, back to his soft, sincere voice.
"Thanks, dad. I just wish...I just wish that it didn't have to be this way." Jonathan said as he smiled ruefully.
"That's something else that I wanted to tell you about. Let me tell you about a conversation your mom and I had shortly after you were born..."
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<A little over 17 years ago>
Clark held Lois's hands in his own as they stood next to the crib where their infant son was sleeping peacefully, oblivious to the world around him. As they smiled down at the newest member of the Kent family, Clark spoke. "Lois, I looked at him at the molecular level. He's going to be 'super'. I think we should talk about what this will mean for his future."
Lois reluctantly ripped her gaze away from her baby to look up at her husband. "His future? What do you mean?" she asked, worried at her husband's somber tone.
"I mean, once he's old enough - he's going to want to help people. He's going to *need* to help people." he replied.
"What? Wait, now hold up - shouldn't he eventually make that choice for himself? When he's not just a baby?"
Clark sighed self-deprecatingly. He closed his eyes, took a deep swallow, and opened his eyes again before answering. "Lois, honey - there *is* no choice."
At her look of confusion, he continued, "My being Superman isn't all about helping other people - a lot of it is to help myself."
Lois opened her mouth to protest this declaration, but Clark cut her off.
"I couldn't sleep at night if I knew that I had done nothing when there might have been a chance that I could have helped somebody. I know that everybody thinks that my motives are purely unselfish, but the reality is that you or Jimmy or just about anybody else would do the *exact same thing* with my powers. It would take - I don't know, some kind of *monster* to be able to see or hear people calling out for help, knowing that you could make a difference, but still do nothing!" he spoke emphatically.
"Clark," Lois said with downcast eyes, "you always believe the best about other people, even when the evidence that suggests otherwise is staring at you straight in the face. If only you could understand how different - how special you are. It's what made me fall in love with you." She leaned up to kiss her husband passionately.
When Lois had to come up for air, Clark looked at her tenderly and squeezed her hands lightly. "But we still need to talk about this. If Jonathan turns out to be anything like my father, it would destroy him to have to restrain himself from using his powers to help people, and I can't ask him to do that."
Lois slowly nodded. "And you're worried about how we'll handle it together when the time comes?"
"Yeah - when he starts flying around saving people, is Superman going to have to explain how he suddenly has a 22-year old son? Or do we go for a different explanation?" Clark asked.
Lois considered the question for a moment before answering. "What about Ultrawoman? He could be Ultrawoman's son - that wouldn't be a lie."
"I'm not sure we should use that, though - we're lucky enough as it is that everyone seems to have forgotten about Ultrawoman. If her son suddenly shows up, we'll have all sorts of questions to answer, like where has she been, what has she been doing, and who is she exactly? And if someone finds out the truth, we'll have even more problems!"
"Maybe he could be a New Kryptonian?"
"But people don't trust the New Kryptonians, not after what happened around last year. And I don't feel comfortable lying to everybody like that."
Mother and father discussed options well into the night. It was concluded that there was no way to avoid acknowledging Jonathan as Superman's son - they would just have to hope that the media could be talked into respecting the mother's privacy. They both knew, however, that there was absolutely no chance of that happening. But, they would just have to cross that bridge when they came to it.
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"So you see, we knew that this would happen - it just happened a few years earlier than we thought it would." Clark said as he finished explaining. "So don't feel too depressed about it."
"So, are you going to be ready to go back to school tomorrow?" Lois asked in an upbeat tone.
"I don't know, mom - I was just thinking, hey, what's the point of going to school? I could just kick back for a few years until the brain thing kicks in, then take a weekend to read all of the books at the public library and the University Bookstore..." Jonathan began.
His parents shared an appalled look before Clark protested, "But Jonathan, school isn't just about learning! It's about making new friends, meeting new people, going through one of life's biggest growing experiences-"
"Dad, I was just kidding! But man, I bet I'm going to get some weird looks at school tomorrow." Jonathan said as he broke into a grin.
At that, Clark mace a face and looked down at the ground. "Well, if you ever find *yourself* feeling embarrassed, just think about your old man making an appearance at a children's hospital opening in Australia dressed in blue tights and a cape because he promised the kids Superman. Now that everyone knows that it's me, I'll never live it down!" The last sentence was in a whining tone.
Lois smirked and patted her poor husband's arm. "Oh, do it for the kids, dear."
<to be continued in "A Day At School">
