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a story i'm working on
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Superboy?
By R.N.B. ([email protected])
The usual disclaimers about copy right and ownership apply.
What if Lois and Clark's children gained there powers much earlier than clark did? Would L&C let them become super heros so young? Would the kids want to become super heros? Would they sneak out on there own? Yes, What if....
It was Friday, 2:20 PM and Jonathan Lane Kent walked down the street lost in his own thoughts, oblivious to the world around him. School had just let out and he was on his way to pick up his younger sister, Laura, from grade school. He could have been there in just a few seconds, he was already almost as fast as his dad, but decided to just walk. Besides his parents didn�t like it when he used his powers for everyday stuff. Sometimes that made him angry, like they didn�t trust him, or thought he was to stupid to know when it was safe to use his special abilities without getting caught or seen. The only time he could be himself is when they went to visit grandma and grandpa at their farm in Kansas. Sometimes they would all go to the farm, his father carrying his mother and sister (who was just starting to show signs of developing super powers but couldn�t fly yet) and him flying on his own beside them. Those were the best time of his life, not having to hide behind his glasses (his parents insist he wear them because he looked just like his father) but able to revel in the freedom of flying through the air thousands of feet above the ground, faster then the fastest jet, all under his own power. It made him want to laugh out loud with joy sometimes when he was doing loop- de- loops or barrel rolls. The powers and abilities that separated him from his class mates also made him think he was one of the luckiest people in the world. When they would land at the farm, grandma and grandpa would be waiting there on the front porch to give them all hugs and kisses and herd them all to the dinner table to eat the lunch set there. After lunch they would talk about all the things that had happened over the past week, like what stories his parents were working on, and how the children were doing in school. It was also a chance to talk about how Jon and Laura were handling there emerging powers and how there father coped when the same things happened to him, though at a later age for him then the children. They thought that the children developed powers earlier than there father because they were conceived and born on Earth so they started being affected by the yellow sun sooner. After a couple of hours talking Dad would take them out to his old tree house and help them to lean more about there powers and how to use and control them.
The sounds of sirens and the blare of fire truck horns roused Jon out of his reverie. Looking up from the sidewalk he saw six or seven fire trucks surrounding a large brown stone apartment with smoke pouring out of the upper story windows and flames blazing out of the lower stories, crawling up the walls towards the roof and lighting up the sky. Without stopping to think about it he started running towards the fire, unconsciously tuning in his hearing and vision powers to scan the building for anyone caught in the blaze. Seeing a little girl hiding under a bed in the second floor, Jon froze for a moment, trying to decide what to do, when he heard one of the firemen say that the building was to unstable for anyone to else enter and finish searching for survivors and just concentrate on containing the fire to the one building. He thought about telling the firefighters about the girl but knew that even if they believed him he couldn�t tell them how he knew. All the stories and lessons his father had given him just seem to take hold and he found himself looking around to see if anyone was watching him he was relieved to see no one was paying any attention to him, Jon ran to a alley a few buildings away and at super speed took off his glasses and tore a strip of cloth off the bottom of his shirt to cover his face in case someone saw him. He planned to be moving to fast to be seen but he would have to slow down to pick up the little girl and didn�t want her to later be able to describe him to anyone.
Stashing his backpack with his school books and glasses behind a convenient trash can and a last look around, he jumped into the air and flew toward the fire and the little girl who�s life fate had placed in his young hands. Entering through a back window Jon flew to the little girl and bent to picked her up, yelling for her to take his hand, when he noticed that she had passed out from the smoke. Gently moving the bed aside Jon picked up the little girl and was about to leave the same way he came in when with a roar the roof caved in on top of them sending them both through the fire weakened floors and into the basement!
Outside the crowed gasped and then cheered, unaware of the plight of those inside. Jimmy Olsen senior reporter for the Daily Planet was interviewing a firefighter, taking notes for his write up for the Friday edition of the Planet when the roof of the house caved in with a crash! Causing Jimmy to jump about a foot in the air. Quickly looking around he noticed that the firefighters hardly seem to blink before going back to hosing water back on the fire. Turning back to the fireman he was talking to he was about to resume his interview when a woman�s scream interrupted him. Looking around to locate the source of the scream Jimmy saw a young woman about twenty five years old running towards the fire screaming for her baby "Amy, Amy, where are you! Has any one seen my baby?!" Several police officers and a couple of firefighters grabbed her before she could throw herself on to the pile of burning rubble, all that was left of the home she had left just a short while ago. Clutching the arms of the firefighters, tears running from her eyes, she begged them to save her little girl. The firefighters, looking sad, just shook their heads and told her it was to late, the fire was to hot to get near. Sobbing, the woman fell to her knees, screaming her baby�s name over and over until one of the paramedics gently lifted her to her feet and hugged her. Even though it made him feel a little guilty, Jimmy took up his camera and started taking more pictures to go with the ones he took earlier for the story.
As they were leading her towards the ambulance there was a rumble from the house. The fire chief, fearing an explosion, yelled for everyone to get back, just as something came shooting out of the middle of the fire and rose almost a hundred feet into the air before starting to fall towards the street in front of the fire. The screams of the crowd turned to gasps of surprise when instead of falling faster it started to slow down and revealed itself to be a figure of a man, landing by an ambulance in front of the sobbing woman.
Murmurs arose from the cheering and applauding crowd with some shouting out "Look it�s Superman!"
"No, that�s not Superman."
"Yes it is!"
"Then who is it?"
"Look how short he is."
"Hey, it�s a kid. And look, he has the little girl!"
At this the crowd starts cheering, seeing the boy giving the small child into the care of the paramedics. There�s a wooosshh, and the boy is gone without saying a word. The EMTs quickly placed Amy, the little girl, on a gurney and started administering oxygen and artificial respiration. As they move to place the gurney into the ambulance, the mother runs up and tries to hug her daughter but is prevented by the EMTs who are lifting the gurney into the ambulance. Soon the ambulance has left with Amy and her mother, going to Metropolis General where Amy will be treated for smoke inhalation and released two days later.
Jimmy stopped taking pictures when the masked figure disappeared in the smoke, lowered his camera and picked up his chin from his chest.
" The Chief is going to love this!"
Jon landed in the alley after making sure there was no one around and took off his impromptu mask, grabbed his book bag and ran to pick up his sister from her school. That felt GREAT" he thought, slowing down now that he was getting closer to Metropolis Elementary. Now I know why dad�s always smiling when he comes back from helping someone. I can�t wait to tell Mom and Dad what I did!" He was still smiling and feeling like a million bucks when he picked up his sister when her class let out.
"Hi Jon," she said when she met him outside her third grade class," guess what happened in gym class today."
" What?"
" We were playing Kickball and every time it was my turn to kick I got a home run! " Laura said so fast that he thought she was talking at super speed for a second.
"Really? That�s pretty good," Jon said. She�s starting to get stronger and faster then other kids her age just like I did. Soon she�ll be so much stronger then them she wont be able to play any type of contact sports without giving herself away or hurting someone. I hated when I had to stop playing football and baseball and other stuff, but when I started hitting the ball so hard it would break the bat, or when in football, everyone I tackled no matter how gentle I tried to be would get hurt I was afraid to play anymore! Any other sport I tried was just so easy it felt like I was cheating and winning became meaningless.
" Jon, you smell funny, like smoke" Laura said, holding her nose. "Have you been smoking? Mom�s going to kill you if she catches you smoking!"
" I haven�t been smoking! There was a big fire a few blocks away from my school." Said Jon, then started to tell her what had happened.
" Wow Jon, that�s awesomely cool. I wish I could�ve seen it. But what if someone saw your face or took your picture?"
" That�s why I covered my face you know, so no one would recognize me, plus I was moving really fast."
" Mom and Dad are still gonna kill you though. You know how they are about keeping our powers secret from every one ."
" I know, but I couldn�t just stand by and do nothing while that little girl burned to death right in front of my eyes no matter what happened. I had to save her."
" Why didn�t you just yell for dad?"
" I didn�t think of that." He said, chagrined. "It happened so fast I didn�t have time to think much of any thing."
" Is the little girl alright?"
" I think so. I covered her with my body and tried to extend my aura around her but I don�t know if that worked. Dad says he does it instinctively to protect people he rescues but he�s never told me how to do it my self. I left her with the ambulance and her mother and then took off before any one could get a good look at me."
" Oh, that�s good. I hope that little girl is alright."
" Me to."
When they got home they each got an orange out of the fridge for a snack and went to sit in front of the tv to watch cartoons and start there homework. One of there parents would be home around 5:30 to start dinner or if they were going to be late their parents would call one of there neighbors to look in on them and order a pizza or some other kind take out for them to eat. A year ago they would had to take a bus to go to the daycare center that the Daily Planet had for it�s employees but since Jon had gotten almost as strong as his father, his parents decided let him come home instead as long as he promised to look after his sister and follow some basic rules. So they were surprised when both their Mom and Dad came home at 3:30 and not looking very happy.
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