Work Text:
Lois Lane liked to think she had good instincts, being a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and all. And those instincts were shouting a warning when she walked back into the living room after seeing Superman off. She assumed he was there to see Jason. I guess he heard me when I whispered the truth in his ear, she thought. But as she walked up to Richard, she stopped in her tracks when she noticed the look on her fiancé’s face. His neck was stiff, his arms crossed in front of him, and his eyes felt like they were boring into her. There could be no doubt about it. Richard was angry. Had he seen Superman, she wondered? Did he think we were seeing each other on the side?
“Are you o-“ Lois began before Richard cut her off.
“What the hell were you thinking?” he ground out. Richard was clearly trying to keep his volume down so he wouldn’t wake Jason. But at the same time, he wanted to convey the fact that he was furious. And if so, Lois believed he was doing a bang-up job. Altogether, it was an uncomfortable situation for Lois Lane. She would say that she was used to being in control, while others would say she just thought she was. And Richard’s sudden anger had her feeling blindsided. Lois had already been brainstorming ideas for when she inevitably had to tell him the truth about Jason. And despite her best efforts, she just couldn’t think of a way to tell him that wouldn’t lead to a fight. Oh no, she thought, does he already know about Jason? Is that why he’s so angry?
“Is this about Jason?” she finally asked.
“Mostly, yes!” he practically spat at her. “It’s bad enough that you steamed head-on toward Lex Luthor in the first place without anybody knowing where you were. What if he had decided to just put a bullet in your head, take his yacht out to sea, and dump your body? I don’t even think Superman would have found you. I mean, you know how dangerous that guy is. You saw it firsthand! The guy tried to wipe out the West Coast! And he thought nothing of the tens of millions of people he would have murdered in the process! So, what part of killing you do you think would have been too much for him?”
“I know it was a risky decision, but that’s-“ Lois tried to say before she was cut off again.
“That’s what? Part and parcel of being a reporter? You know what? You’re right. It is. And that’s probably why an average of 70 or so journalists are murdered each year. That’s one every five days, Lois! And you almost became part of that statistic. And you know what? That’s not even the discussion we’re having right now. It’s the discussion we’d be having if you had gone alone! But you didn’t, did you?” Richard growled.
Lois was silent long enough for Richard to conclude that she wasn’t going to offer an answer. “You brought our son with you. You took our four-year-old to meet one of the most dangerous men in the world! How could you? If Superman hadn’t shown up when he did, we’d all be dead! Our son would be dead! His life ended before it even really began because you led him like the lamb to the slaughter!”
“Okay, that’s overstating things.” Lois said, trying to get some degree of control in this fight.
“Is it? Luthor and his goons could have killed you and Jason at any time! If he had decided to off you both, what could you possibly have done about it? You always act like you’re in control, but you’re not. Your survival came down to Luthor deciding to leave you for dead instead of killing you himself. And, of course, Superman coming to the rescue.” Richard countered.
Lois took a deep breath and said, “Look, I admit I made a mistake.”
“No, Lois. You made a decision. You decided that the story you wanted to write was more important than our son’s safety. You aren’t stupid, Lois. You knew you were putting him in danger. You just didn’t care.”
“Hey! I care about-“
“You don’t care enough! You didn’t care about Jason enough to keep him safe. What kind of -what kind of parent does that?” Richard said, having to lower his volume mid-sentence to keep from waking his son.
“Look, Richard. I understand what you’re feeling, and-“ Lois began before being interrupted again.
“No, you don’t. You just think I’m mad at you. I’m furious with you! And I’m sick over the fact that my little boy was nearly killed! And I’m-I’m ashamed that I couldn’t save him! I was trapped in what was left of that stupid yacht. The door was too heavy for me to lift it. The water was pushing us closer to the top. Soon we’d be underwater. My son was going to drown in my arms, and there was nothing I could do about it. Then Superman came and saved the day. But I still remember the way I felt before I saw those boots through the porthole. It’s just been a few days, but I’m going to remember that for the rest of my life.” Richard explained, hanging his head in exhaustion, with a little shame. Of course, he knew that no father could have saved his family in that situation. But the idea of his own inadequacy was not tempered by the reality of everyone else’s.
“Richard, I know I was reckless. And I know that that was a bad day in our lives. But we survived. And that means we get to make good memories to drown out-“ Lois flinched at her own poor choice of words, “-to make up for the bad memories.”
“No, we don’t.” Richard said, barely above a whisper.
“What do you-what do you mean.” Lois asked, worried.
“I mean, that we’re done. The engagement is off. I’m not going to marry you. To be honest, I’m not really sure you were ever going to go through with the wedding even before Superman came back, and it just seems even less likely now. But before you say anything, this has nothing to do with that. I can’t marry you and raise children with you now that I’ve seen how reckless you can be with Jason. You need to find yourself a new place, because I don’t want to uproot Jason from the place where he’s grown up. For now, I’ve arranged a hotel room for you. The Vanguard on Pecos Avenue. It’s near the Planet.” Richard explained.
“Wait, what do you mean? I have to leave? We can’t co-parent Jason here? There’s a spare room I could move into and-“ Lois’s calm began to slip as her world began to crumble around her.
“No. I’m going to raise Jason here. I’m taking full physical custody of my son. You want to take it to court, be my guest. But before you do, think about it. What happens when the judge hears about what you did? In fact, forget the judge. What happens when the cops take a second look at our witness statements and realize that they’ve probably got you on charges of child endangerment? The second any of this comes up in a courtroom, you lose. It’s just that simple. And I don’t want to go through that, and neither do you. And I know that we both don’t want to put Jason through that.”
“So, what? Are you asking me to just give up my son? Just let you take him out of my life forever?” Lois choked out, struggling to keep herself from hyperventilating. It felt like her whole world was collapsing in on her.
“No. You would be allowed to visit. But only if I’m there, too. Lois, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but you can’t be left alone with Jason. He’s not safe with you. He wasn’t safe with you before. He’s not safe with you now. Someone has to be there to keep an eye on you both.” Richard explained calmly.
Lois opened her mouth to reply, but then closed it. This repeated several times as she struggled to come up with something, anything, to say. Some argument that would swing things back over to her side. Feeling like a fish flopping around on the shore, a spark of anger began to grow inside her. Indignation flared. And, in yet another moment of poor decision making, she gave up the biggest secret she had.
“He’s not your son!” Lois yelled.
Richard was so shocked, he couldn’t even open his mouth to remind her to keep her voice down, lest they wake up Jason. He’s not my son. That’s what she said, he thought. It brought up some ugly feelings he had had early in their relationship. She was already beginning to show by the time she told him about the pregnancy. And that he was the only one she had been with. But he had been raised right, so he stayed. He didn’t run for the hills or say it wasn’t his problem. But honestly, he had wondered if the kid was really his. Jason was born seven months after they had first been intimate, and he didn’t really look that premature. There had been times when he had wondered if Jason really was his son. But he had never seriously considered getting a DNA test done.
He had held Jason in his arms mere minutes after he was born. He had watched the baby boy sleep at night. He had watched him get bigger and bigger. He had seen Jason’s first steps, and he swore that when the boy had said, “Da” he was trying to say “Dada” but Lois had swept him up in a hug before he could finish. And he certainly would rather tell people Jason’s first word was “Dada” rather than “Poopie” which he quite clearly said a few days later. Jason was his son. Richard quickly stopped doubting that after he was born.
And now, here was the revelation that Jason really was some other man’s son. That Lois knew Richard wasn’t the father. Maybe she always knew, he thought. Maybe she was already pregnant when we met and just picked me to be the stand-in baby-daddy because she either couldn’t find the real one or perhaps didn’t want him in her life. Or maybe it was a one-night stand, and she didn’t even know the guy’s name, he thought bitterly. Richard looked back at Lois and saw the shock on her face. Clearly, she hadn’t meant to tell him that. For a moment, he hoped that that meant she was just making it up to hurt him because she was angry. But something about the way she said it and the look in her eyes now made it clear to Richard that she was speaking the truth. Possibly for the first time in quite a while.
After a heavy silence, Richard asked, “Who’s the father? Someone you met at a bar back in the day? Was I just a better option than him?” He tried to look angry. But mostly, he just looked heartbroken.
“No! No. I thought you were the father. I only found out the truth a few days ago.” Lois explained, tears rolling down her cheeks.
“How did you find out a few days ago? You were a little busy with Luthor and-Oh, my god. Luthor?” he asked with an appropriately horrified look in his eyes.
“Oh, no! God, no! <sigh> Jason’s father is Superman.” Lois said, revealing the truth in a small voice barely above a whisper.
Richard took a moment to process this. So, she was in love with Superman, he thought to himself. The only way it made sense was if they were intimate just before he left Earth for five years. Had all this bitterness she seemed to have toward Superman been the result of him leaving her pregnant and alone? Honestly, he couldn’t fault her for it if that were the case. But it led right back to his anger that she had lied to him about Jason’s ancestry. Once the anger died down to a more controllable degree, Richard found that he just kind of felt used.
After allowing a minute of silence to pass between them, Richard asked, “How did you not know Superman was the father? I mean, I assume you and he were together shortly before he left the planet. And you and I got together shortly thereafter. Didn’t you at least consider that he might have been the father?”
Lois gulped audibly before speaking. “Okay, here’s the thing, and hear me out on this: I didn’t remember being with Superman. Somehow, some way, he revealed something to me that he wanted hidden. I assume it was his secret identity. I’m guessing that my knowing that caused a problem. Well, he had a device from his home world that could erase human memories. It wasn’t something he used often. But he used it on me to, I guess, restore the status quo. Superman told me about it when I noticed the gaps in my memory. I was furious, obviously. He took away my memories presumably without my consent. I mean, I don’t remember if I did give him my okay, but I don’t think I would have, if that makes any sense. I guess we must have been intimate during the days he erased. I know, it sounds pretty bad. I’d say he owes me a pretty damned good explanation.”
Richard was stunned at Lois’s story. It frankly cast Superman in a pretty unfavorable light. Lois was correct in her assessment that Superman owed her a detailed rationalization for his actions. But another concern came to mind. “Lois. How did you find out Jason was Superman’s son? Did Superman tell you? And if so, how did he know?”
“No, Superman didn’t tell me. I told him. While he was unconscious at the hospital. I guess he must have heard me, since he came by the house to see Jason. He didn’t tell Jason the truth, and neither have I. Superman just came by to see him.” she explained.
“All right.” Richard said with a heavy sigh. The man realized that he was going to have to set some guidelines for Superman being involved in Jason’s life. He and I are going to need to have a talk, he thought. There was still one thing he didn’t understand, though. “But how did you know before he did?” he asked.
“When I sent you the fax with our coordinates, one of Luthor’s goons caught me. He looked like he was about to bash my head in with a rock, but just before he could swing it at my head, there’s this deafening crash, and the thug was gone. It took me a second to realize that Jason had thrown the piano at him. Then the other goons came in and saw what happened. They put us in the pantry you found us in.” Lois explained.
Richard pondered this for a while. That would certainly explain how she knew Superman was the father. Though how easily she found herself at the mercy of one of Luthor’s goons called even greater attention to the fact that Lois was not as capable of surviving high-risk journalistic endeavors as she would have people believe. But Richard’s blood ran cold when he realized what Lois’s tale meant.
Jason had killed a man. Of course, the rotten thug richly deserved it. But that was neither here nor there. A four-year-old boy had killed a grown man by smashing him with a piano. And there could be little doubt that Jason knew he had killed that man. He was just old enough to understand what death was. But he couldn’t be old enough to properly come to terms with the enormity of taking a life. How could he be? This had Richard wondering what he could do to help his son. Take him to a child psychiatrist, obviously. But what should he tell the doctor? The truth? The whole truth? How could he determine if he could really trust a psychiatrist, or anyone really, with the fact that Jason was the son of Superman?
But at the end of the day, it was just another terrible thing that happened to his son because Lois took him to Lex Luthor’s yacht. It was why Jason wasn’t safe with her. But on the other hand, she might contest his efforts to obtain sole custody of the boy since he wasn’t Richard’s biological son. That would be a real problem. The court would order a DNA test and there’s no scenario where that ends well, Richard thought. But Lois knows that, so she wouldn’t take that risk with Jason’s well-being. As he noted earlier, his ex-fiancée did care about her son. The problem was that she didn’t care enough to keep him out of danger that terrible day.
This put the ball back in Richard’s court. And standing there, he knew that he would get full custody of Jason. Lois couldn’t reveal the boy’s true parentage, and if he had to bring up what happened on Luthor’s yacht, there was a real risk of her ending up behind bars. She would probably take her go-bag. As a professional (if not careful) journalist, she kept a bag with essentials packed in case she needed to hop a plane with little notice. Once she had acquired a replacement residence, she could come over to pack her things. Richard would make sure Jason wasn’t there to see that. He was going to have to be very careful explaining to Jason why he wouldn’t see his mother very often going forward.
While Richard wanted to make sure his son was safe from Lois, he didn’t want Jason to hate his mother. He couldn’t really blame him if he did, mind you. He just didn’t feel it necessary to completely sever the bond between mother and son. Richard would have to toe the line between being honest and being practical. And he would also have to tell Lois to arrange for Superman to come see him in his office at the Daily Planet. They very much needed to talk about Jason and Lois, and what the future would hold for all of them. It would be quite a thing to sit at his desk and dictate terms to the mightiest being on Earth. But even then, Richard knew he would take no joy from it. No one was going to be happy about any of this. All he could do was try to keep as much of the negativity away from his son as humanly possible.
Richard sat at his desk as he and Superman stared at each other, neither one immediately willing to speak first. Lois was at the FBI regional headquarters being questioned about Luthor and his plan. Luckily, when Luthor and his female accomplice whose name Richard couldn’t recall had been quickly located and taken into custody. When Superman began lifting Luthor’s island into space, Lex and his henchwoman fled in a helicopter, leaving the remaining goons to die. However, the chopper didn’t have enough fuel to reach the mainland and ended up on a small patch of dry land in the Atlantic. Having tracked the aircraft via radar, the authorities were able to catch up to him shortly thereafter.
A small army was assembled to capture or kill Luthor, as he was believed to be in possession of more of the Kryptonian crystals he used to create his island and wreak havoc on the planet. Initially, the President had considered a massive airstrike, but this idea was abandoned when they learned more about the crystals. Put simply, they didn’t know how those crystals would react to being blasted with high-explosives or napalm. As it turned out, they needn’t have worried. The only weapon Luthor had was a pocketknife, and he and his henchwoman surrendered immediately. Though Luthor had the nerve to ask to speak to the Attorney General to discuss a plea deal.
The henchwoman, apparently horrified by what Lex had planned to do, had deliberately dropped the remaining crystals as she boarded the helicopter. With the surrounding structure coming apart, Luthor couldn’t afford to risk trying to retrieve them. Presumably, they were floating out in space with the rest of the Luthor’s kryptonite-infused mountain. The henchwoman probably saved herself from the noose by doing that, Richard thought. Luthor, however, was almost certainly going to die in a supermax prison. At least, Richard hoped so.
Finally, Richard redirected his attention at the man (or perhaps demigod might be more accurate) in front of him. “All right, Superman. Let’s talk. First thing, you need to explain how you bedded Lois and then erased her memory. You had better have a damned good explanation for that one.” Richard began sternly.
Superman nodded, looking as uncomfortable as a nearly invulnerable man possibly could. “I realize how that looks. I do. It was just around the time Zod and his followers arrived. I chose to give up my powers so I could be with Lois. In hindsight, it was foolish of me. I remember taking her to a diner for a bite to eat. There was this guy. Some loud-mouthed thug. He gave me a beating I’ll never forget. Mostly because it was the first one I ever suffered. And just as Lois was cleaning me up after that, I found out about Zod. I made my way back to my fortress. Oh. I have a fortress in the Arctic. I made it many years ago, using crystals like the ones Luthor stole.”
“I got my powers back and defeated Zod and his people. In the aftermath, I realized that being with Lois put her in danger. Zod kidnapped Lois to get to me because Luthor told him how I cared for her. I guess he must have noticed at some point. It’s infuriating how smart that man is, since he’s also so utterly morally bankrupt. Anyway, I didn’t think it would be fair to just tell her we couldn’t be together, so I used some Kryptonian technology to erase her memories of the previous days. Of course, she noticed the gap in her memory. How could she not? And I sat her down and told her that I was responsible. I’ll never forget the look on her face. I could see that she felt completely betrayed. So, I didn’t tell her that we had been in love. I left that part out, along with the part about us being intimate. It honestly never occurred to me that Kryptonians and humans would be biochemically compatible.”
“I never meant to hurt anyone, Richard. I didn’t want to hurt Lois, or you. And I certainly don’t want to hurt my-to hurt Jason.” Superman quickly course corrected, realizing that calling Jason his son might rub Richard the wrong way. It was quite something to wake up to, hearing Lois’s confession. As he put his suit back on and flew out of the hospital, he rolled that revelation around in his mind. The surprise and hope that came with realizing that he was a father was quickly consumed by the shame of what Lois must have been feeling. She didn’t remember the two of them being intimate. Did she realize that it happened during the time just before he erased her memory? Most likely, he figured. When he talked to Lois earlier that morning, she confirmed that she had worked that part out for herself.
“Jason is your son.” Superman said, “Whatever we do, we’ll do it according to your wishes. I would like to be a part of his life, but if that is absolutely unacceptable to you, I will understand. And I will respect your choice.”
“I don’t think we have that option, Superman. Jason is your son, too. As in he’s half-Kryptonian. At age four, he’s already strong enough to throw a piano across a room like a cannonball. And-“ Richard cut himself off at the sight of Superman’s stunned expression.
“He did what?” Superman asked incredulously.
“Lois didn’t tell you?” Richard asked.
“She told me that Jason had powers and that that’s how she figured out that I’m his biological father. Come to think of it, she never told me how she found out. But I guess now I know.” Superman said, looking shaken at this new information.
Well, Richard thought, this next part’s going to really rattle him. “Point of fact, the piano struck and pretty much obliterated one of Luthor’s goons,” he said. As Richard predicted, Superman was stunned into a long silence at that revelation. After giving him a minute to process the new information, Richard continued. “So, you see the problem? Jason is already immensely powerful. He needs to learn how to control his powers, so he doesn’t accidentally kill some of his classmates at school. He also needs to learn how to keep a secret. I mean, what kid wouldn’t want to tell everyone that Superman is his father?”
“And that’s going to be a difficult task as extreme care and discretion is a hard sell with a four-year-old.” Superman said, the sense of unease having passed. Now, Richard thought, we have more important things to worry about. “For what it’s worth, I have a lot of experience, at least from the other side of this. My parents had to teach me from a very young age so no one would realize that I was different.”
“Your parents. On Krypton?” Richard asked, confused.
“No. The humans who raised me. I was maybe three when my ship reached Earth. I was discovered by a human couple. They raised me as their own. As a grown man, I fully appreciate how difficult that was for them. They could have gotten in real trouble with the government if they had ever discovered the truth about me. In fact, they were already in danger from me. What if I threw a temper tantrum? What if I went to hug them and forgot to be gentle, if only for a moment? And on top of that, they were both quite a bit older than most first-time parents. But they did it. A lot of people say that I’m their hero. But Ma and Pa, they’re my heroes.” Superman explained.
Richard nodded thoughtfully. Like presumably everyone else in the world, he didn’t know anything about Superman’s upbringing. To hear that ‘Ma and Pa’ had gone through exactly what he, Superman, and Lois were now facing made the prospect of raising a ‘Superboy’ a lot less daunting. “Do you think they could communicate with me? Your parents? I know an informant who can get me a burner phone you could give them in order to maintain their anonymity. We could even get them a voice changer to put over the mouthpiece.”
Superman looked down for a moment before saying, “Actually, it’s just Ma now. Pa died of a heart attack when I was in high school. But Ma would be only too happy to talk to you. Just try not to tire her out. She’s eighty-five years old. And, um, don’t worry about burner phones or anything like that. I’ll give you her phone number as soon as I let her know what’s going on. Maybe we could take Jason to Smallville to visit her. Face to face is always better. And I’m sure she’d love to meet her grandson. For obvious reasons, she didn’t think she’d ever have any.”
“Smallville? You mean in Kansas? That’s where you grew up?” Richard asked, stunned that Superman was giving him so much information. The Man of Steel nodded, a nostalgic smile on his face as he looked out the window. Probably thinking of simpler times, Richard thought. His eyes widened when he remembered where he had heard of that little farming community. “Wait a minute. Did you know Clark Kent when you were growing up? I think he’s from there. Maybe you went to school with…oh, wow.” Richard trailed off as Superman answered his question by smoothing out his hair then producing a pair of glasses and putting them on. Clark Kent, the Superman, grinned sheepishly at the man to whom he had just revealed his secret identity.
After a moment, the grin faded away, and the troubles ahead began to show on Superman’s face. “This is gonna be hard. Really hard. Once he really comes to understand what he’s capable of, Jason is going to want to put on a costume and save people. He’s not going to want to wait until he’s grown. He probably wouldn’t want to wait until his teens. And for him, it’s going to be frustrating. I know that because that’s how I felt. I grew up in a small farming town where the greatest thing a teenage boy could ever hope to be was the captain of the high school football team. And there I was with the natural ability to be the greatest football player in history, and I ended up as the equipment manager. It was hard to keep what I could do a secret. And, well, one time I kicked a football across the county in frustration. But I made sure no one was around to see me do it.”
“I see your point.” Richard said, nodding. “I don’t want to discourage Jason from using his gifts to help people. I just want to be sure he doesn’t go out there until he’s ready. Not just physically, but emotionally.”
“Exactly. It doesn’t make the news as much, but I’ve seen things as Superman that I would not have been ready to see when I was younger.” Superman looked off into the middle distance, remembering some of the awful things he’d seen.
Richard thought of another concern in that moment of silence. “You know, it occurs to me that we’re assuming Jason would want to put on a suit and fight the bad guys and save the day. What if he doesn’t?”
Clark seemed like he was about to object but stopped himself and gave the suggestion some thought. “You’re right. We’re going to have to be honest with him about the challenges involved in what I do. And he might just look at that and decide that he doesn’t want any part of it. Come to think of it, we don’t even know what abilities he’s going to have. I mean, he’s only half-Kryptonian. He appears to be as strong as I was at that age. But what about invulnerability? Or heat vision? Or any of the others? Jason may not inherit all of those, or any of them.”
Richard nodded, “Good point. And that leads to another emotional issue. If he doesn’t inherit your other powers, he’s bound to be pretty disappointed.”
Superman and Richard would discuss the matter at length over the next hour, working out how they would approach the challenge of raising a superpowered child. Ultimately, Richard would move him and Jason to Smallville, settling at the Kent Farm for a few years. Martha Kent was, as Superman predicted, overjoyed to have a grandson. And her practical advice about how to handle Jason’s upbringing was invaluable. And frankly, Richard enjoyed spending time with her. Mrs. Kent was everything Richard and Jason needed her to be and more.
In other words, she was exactly the kind of woman who would raise a boy like Clark Kent to become a man like Superman.
From time to time, Lois would join them in Kansas. Martha never gave her an ounce of grief over her terrible mistake taking Jason to Luthor’s yacht that day. Not because Jason’s grandmother didn’t think Lois had done anything wrong. Far from it. Mrs. Kent merely understood that becoming a minor presence in her son’s life was a far worse punishment than anything anyone else could devise. Martha quickly became Lois’s favorite person just as she had with Jason and Richard. She did a great deal to repair the bonds of Lois’s family.
While Lois and Richard would never get back together, they would co-parent Jason with Superman. And by the time Jason was seven, Lois had earned unmonitored custody. They shared holidays and birthdays as a family. Lois and Clark would rekindle their old flame (once Lois extracted a promise from him that he would never use the memory erasure tech on anyone, ever again). This made it easier to explain Clark’s regular presence around Jason, Richard, and Lois. The awkward conversations weren’t getting any easier. There were only so many times they could refer to Clark as a “friend of the family” who’s always around before it got weird.
As for Lex Luthor, he very much went out with a whimper. As he was being transported from the island where he was found, hushed conversations were being had in the nation’s halls of power. Luthor had made two large-scale attempts to get rich. And they had involved the deliberate slaughter of millions, or in the case of the second plot, if Ms. Kowalski was to be believed, billions of innocent people. Just as he was arriving at Leavenworth, another helicopter arrived with orders to move him to a more secure location for questioning. Apparently, he managed to get free of his shackles, got his hands on a guard’s gun, and attempted to flee. He was immediately gunned down.
At least, that’s what the official story said. In truth, the helicopter flew him to an isolated location. Luthor was relieved of his shackles and ordered to walk away. Believing that someone was arranging his escape, he complied. But Lex got all of three steps before he realized what was really going on, and what was therefore about to happen. He was brought down by rifle fire before he could even turn around. Kitty Kowalski was given a new identity and immunity from prosecution as a reward for her decision to throw the crystals away in order to keep them from Luthor.
Jason, as predicted, was chomping at the bit to join his biological father in the sky with his own suit and cape. In the end, however, they managed to keep him away from the ‘family business’ until he was fourteen years old. Not as old as they had all intended, but a real accomplishment, nonetheless. As for the nature of his powers, it turned out that his fathers’ concerns about what abilities he would and would not inherit were way off base. They thought he would lack one or more of Superman’s abilities. Later, they considered that he would have all of them, but to a lesser extent.
In fact, Superboy proved to be stronger than his father in every conceivable way. His strength, speed, invulnerability, and heat vision were far more powerful than Superman’s. His x-ray vision could see through lead. His super-hearing was precise enough to serve as a remarkably precise form of sonar that his father could not match. On top of that, he lacked either of his father’s vulnerabilities. He was fueled by red sunlight almost as well as the yellow variety. And kryptonite had no measurable effect on him.
It was therefore a good thing that Jason had a good, kind heart. Because if he had chosen to become a villain, there would have been simply no stopping him. And when the mad god Darkseid came to Earth, he and his armies learned this the hard way. The monster king had voiced how impressed he was that Superman had survived his Omega Beam, albeit with his suit burned away across his chest, leaving second and third-degree burns. Then Superboy showed up. Jason was twenty by now, and immediately placed himself between his father and Darkseid. The mad god smirked and fired again, his beam jinking around Superboy to hit Superman again, burning him even worse. Jason’s cry at the sight of his father’s suffering brought a wide smile to Darkseid’s face.
But it would be the last time Darkseid would ever smile.
Jason flew into him, sending the both of them hurtling into space. Hovering cameras Darkseid had employed to show the people of Earth the destruction of their champions dutifully broadcast what happened next. Quickly getting over his surprise at being forced so far away by the impudent young half-breed, Darkseid blasted Superboy with his Omega Beam. After several seconds, he relented. And seeing the costumed hero emerge from the beam’s devastation completely unscathed left Darkseid confused. And, well, the mad god didn’t know how to feel about what came next.
Superboy sent out a blast of heat vision. But this was not like his previous uses of that particular ability. He had never used it at full power before, always carefully restricting its use. The beam bored through Darkseid’s thick, once-impenetrable hide and heated his blood and major organs almost to a boil. For one such as him, this wasn’t fatal like it would be for most beings. But it inflicted upon him an agony for which he had no place. Darkseid had never been so grievously harmed before. He had never felt such pain, outside of psychically feeding on the pain of others. Feeling this pain himself was a drastically different experience. Then came the indignity of Superboy seizing Darkseid by the throat, and the mad god realizing that he could do nothing to break the grip of Earth’s defender. For the first time in his entire existence, he was helpless.
The fleet of Apokolips rallied to the aid of their living god but were quickly obliterated. Superboy blasted the alien ships apart with his heat vision, leaving only one intact. And he did all of this without letting go of Darkseid’s neck. Finally, he released the mad god and threw him toward his last surviving ship. Jason didn’t speak, as he realized that with no air to carry his words, Darkseid would not hear him. He merely pointed away from Earth. Everyone watching understood the message, including Darkseid. The mad god boarded the last remaining ship and returned to Apokolips. Darkseid and his parademons would not leave Apokolips again for over twelve centuries. Some assumed that he spent that time plotting and planning to put an end to Earth’s defenders.
Jason himself believed that it was more likely that Darkseid spent most of that time sulking at the humiliation of his defeat.
Nevertheless, when Darkseid finally made a move on Earth in the thirty-third century, if anything, it went far worse than his previous attack. By then, Earth was part of an interstellar alliance of worlds, and their combined forces were too much for the armies of Apokolips. It didn’t hurt that they were led by Superman’s latest descendant, Superwoman, aka Martha Kara Kent. Though her friends called her Martie. Just as her ancestors had done, she fought for those who could not fight for themselves.
Despite nearly all of her DNA being human, she was still about as powerful as the original Superman. Luckily, the modern weapons of the interstellar fleet did most of the heavy lifting with Apokolips’s armies, and most of Superman’s hundreds of other descendants stood with her, overwhelming Darkseid by sheer numbers if nothing else. No mean feat since Martie was the only one who made a habit of using her powers to fight the good fight. But the others at least knew how to use their abilities, and what they lacked in quality, they made up for in quantity. This time, Darkseid fell for good. The fires of Apokolips would fade and eventually go out like a match that had burned all the way down.
As the years progressed, she would retire from the family business after passing the title on to one of her grandsons. And in time, she would pass on just as so many before her had done. And a hologram of her would be added to the Fortress of Solitude’s Hall of Remembrance. And Superman, George Kent, would from time to time walk through that hall and see his grandmother smiling back at him. By then, he was the ninety-third full time Super in his bloodline. And the other ninety-two each had their stories. Only the most dedicated scholars of history would know all or even most of them.
But just about everyone knew the story of Jason White.
The first Superboy.
The second Superman.
And the greatest of them all, not simply because he was the most powerful, but because he changed his world in ways his own father could only dream of. His Kryptonian grandfather had told of how humanity only needed a light to guide them to becoming a great people. While that message had been aimed at Kal-El, who certainly tried, it would be Jason who shone the way.