http://seagull2eagle.livejournal.com/ ([identity profile] seagull2eagle.livejournal.com) wrote in [community profile] tallihensia2012-10-02 12:42 pm

Teaser

Just to assure you I'm still here and things are in the works, here's a teaser. First thousand words of the next Not A Villain story. ^^ It's currently at 13k+ and I still have a bit to go before it's done.




Conner practically bounced down the stairs next to his dad. He was so excited he barely remembered to put his feet on the steps. His dads were meeting with the Justice League. Just a few of them, true, but it was official and real and they were going to know that Dad Two wasn't the villain they thought he was.

"Conner," Clark warned with a long-suffering sigh contained in Kon's name.

With a guilty glance to his feet, Kon floated back to the ground. Then he left his father behind and ran down the rest of the stairs, leaping when he got to within five steps of each landing. He'd seen normal teenagers doing the same, and it was easier to stay grounded when he was moving fast. An odd combination, that. In normal Earth physics, the opposite was true. Kryptonian physics were definitely not Earth physics. Conner wondered if he could figure out just what laws did govern Kryptonians on Earth. The Fortress was no help – it knew Kryptonian physics all right... but only as far as they had existed on Krypton, which didn't turn out to be all that different to Earth. The effect of the yellow sun on former red sun inhabitants was something the Fortress had no clue about.

Thinking about that kept Kon occupied long enough for his dad to make it a normal human's time down the stairs.

"Conner," Clark's voice this time was laced with disapproval.

"So I'm a teenager, sue me," Kon said defiantly. He'd kept to normal human speed and ability that time, really he had.

"This is serious," Clark said. "Not a game." He kept walking through the small lobby and out the door to the city.

Kon watched after his dad for a moment, then followed more soberly. He knew. He knew it was serious. Dad Two thought that his dad, Kon's grandfather, was the devil incarnate, and Conner knew it was true. His early life had been full of evil, as he and his brothers had been trained to kill, practicing against each other against their will. The revelation that it had been his grandfather that did all that sent chills down his spine.

He wanted to destroy that evil, to make his own grandfather pay for the lives of his brothers. Truthfully, he wanted to kill his grandfather the way his grandfather had made him kill his brothers. He knew, though, that killing was wrong and he shouldn't want to. He'd killed enough, he didn't want to kill any more. As a hero-in-training, Kon fought with villains, and he intellectually realized that at some point he might have to kill one of them, but that would be in defense of others. Protecting people, innocent people who didn't know evil the way he'd known evil, was Conner's new life goal. He'd been created to destroy, but he would live to protect.

"I know, Dad," Kon said quietly as he caught up with Clark. "It's just... there's more."

As much as Conner wanted to take down his grandfather, Kon also wanted to see his Dad Two unvilified. He wanted his dads together, to be his parents and for him to live in a home with both of them, secure and loved forever. It was an impossible dream, yet Kon believed it could come true.

Already, his life had come so far, in ways that he and his brothers had never dreamed. He had a father who loved him. He had another one too. People who loved him and cared for him and would protect him. People who mourned his brothers as much as he did, though they'd never met them. Conner didn't know by what miracle he had been the only clone to survive, and he felt guilty about it sometimes, but there was no point to dwelling upon it. There was only striving to make it all worth it.

Clark didn't verbally reply, but he put his arm around Kon's shoulders and they walked together for awhile like that; a father and son, together.

At the next block over, in an area where construction created a sidewalk scaffolding and there were none around, Clark speeded up to full zoom mode, running one quick circle around Conner so Kon could also see him and come up to a similar speed.

They flew up the side of building, where they knew there weren’t any security cameras, and landed on a forgotten balcony to change into their uniforms.

When Conner had found out how many clothing caches Clark had hidden around the city, he realized there was another reason for Clark's standard garb of dorky suits – they all looked the same and nobody would notice. Conner had pouted bitterly when he thought about his variety of t-shirts and the cool jokes on most of them. When Kon had said something, Clark just laughed – apparently for a teenager, appearing in a different shirt the same day wouldn't be all that surprising, for one reason or another, so Conner could keep his different designs in the clothes catches.

They were flying west when the sound of metal crunching and a cry caught their attention. A construction scaffold had crumpled on one support end. Superboy immediately dropped down to help, only noticing after he'd rescued the first man that his dad was a few seconds behind him.

After Superman got the second person down to safety, he flew up in the sky again, not waiting for thanks. Kon blinked, then quickly made his own farewells and dashed to catch up.

"What's up, Dad?" Superboy asked as he pulled alongside.

"We have to get to the meeting." Superman grimaced as he saw a traffic accident. "Oh for heaven's sake, people, drive safer!" he muttered under his breath as he dove down to help.

A few more minutes of assistance, and they were on their way again.

"Dad, the meeting's not for another three hours! I thought we were going to patrol first."

Clark glanced wryly at him. "Kon, they're professional paranoids. I can almost guarantee that they're all going to be early. And I want to be there first."

"Three hours early?" Not that Conner didn't disbelieve his dad, but...

"Lex probably had Mercy or Hope stationed out there as soon as Oracle sent us the coordinates yesterday."

Okay, Kon had to give his dad that one as a certainty. Dad Two totally would have. But the rest were heroes.

"I mostly want to be there before Hawkman shows up," Superman admitted. "If he and Lex are there on their own... there may not be any survivors if we get there afterwards."

Superboy sped up his flying and ignored a fire that the firemen were already taking care of.


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