Super-Whoops

Participants: Conner Kent and Chris Kent
Open/Closed: Closed
Location(s): Metropolis, Fortress of Solitude, various
Time of Day: N/A
Weather: N/A
Summary: It's not his fault, okay? He can fix it! Probably. He just needs help! ...

Metropolis

Conner Kent was a full-fledged, experienced and established superhero in his own right. He did, and had, in many ways stood toe-to-toe with his mentor. Heck, he'd debuted in this world as the new Superman, before the first came back. But there were still times when Conner felt like a kid, and an irrational, blind panic set in at the thought of disappointing Clark, or getting that look. You know. The one. The "I love you but I'm so disappointed" look that was somehow so much worse because of the "I love you" part at the beginning.

That blind panic was what sparked through his veins right now, as the world spun under him and the gleaming cluster of light that was Metropolis came to the fore. Conner muttered a stream of "Pleasebetherepleasebetherepleasebethere," under his breath, his eyes boring ahead of him, into the Kent apartment and the lone figure sitting there at the kitchen table. The smallest kernel of relief got tossed onto the panic.

With a blast of air, Conner appeared in that kitchen. "I'm glad you're here! I need your help," he gasped. He looked at Chris, whose eyes were darting between Superboy and the food an inch away from his open mouth. "Bro, there's no time, just bring the sandwich!" he added, tone an octave higher than usual. Conner sped out of the apartment, slowing down a few seconds in the air above the city for Nightwing to catch up, failing to wrangle his paranoia the whole time.

"This way! Follow me!" he yelled when Chris finally made it level with him...

- - - - -

Conner stood on a glacial jut of ice. The snowy wind whipped his jacket and hair violently. The Antarctic stretched in a clear, featureless, white expanse in all directions. Superboy had his arms crossed tightly over his chest, with one hand he scratched anxiously at the stubble lining his jaw, grimacing hard the whole time. "I didn't do it!" he stuttered, looking at Chris's stunned expression. "Okay, I guess I sort of did, but it was an accident and-" Conner threw his hands out in exasperation - not at Nightwing, but at himself - toward the emptiness directly in front of them, "-well obviously I didn't mean to make the Fortress disappear!"

Chris Kent

Chris had never really gotten the chance to get to know Conner before he'd been called to sacrifice himself in order to seal the Phantom Zone. Conner Kent was the clone of his adopted father and he was fairly certain that made them brothers - if not officially then perhaps technically. The issue was he didn't know if Conner saw it the same way. He wasn't even sure what Conner and Clark's relationship technically was - aside from the fact that it was a positive one. It'd taken a disaster to get the two young Kryptonians to meet but then again that had also been the case with Chris and Kara's first meeting. 

He heard something approaching before it actually got there but had figured it was Clark, used to his dad coming and going due to work - both caped and civilian. He'd just finished making a sandwich and had been just about to take a bite when he discovered that it actually wasn't Clark - It was Conner. Under normal circumstances Conner would have been the older brother. After all even if his actual age was quite small, his biological one had been the older of the two of them when Chris had first found his way to Earth. But the Phantom Zone had done... weird things to his body, to put it mildly, and he'd ended up in his early twenties upon returning the first time - and that seemed to be the case now as far as he or anyone else could tell - and he was fairly certain Conner was still a teenager.

Being the older brother was weird. He didn't know how to be the older brother.

Chris glanced from Conner to his sandwich, wondering if being able to fly fast meant he was also able to eat fast without getting a stomach ache. He didn't really have time to consider that much because Conner's tone added urgency to his request of help. There was either a big threat, someone's life was in danger, multiple people's lives were in danger, or all three. Either way he was putting his sandwich quickly into a Ziplock bag and throwing it into the fridge - The thought of eating it while flying knowing very well the bugs that might hit it wasn't appealing in the slightest bit. But then Conner was already out the window. Chris huffed in mild annoyance but figured that was just another sign of how urgent it must have been. He quickly got into his costume and propelled into the air to follow the teen.

- - - - -

Chris stared at what was in front of him - or rather what wasn't. His eyes were wide, eyebrows arched upward, mouth partially open in shock. He knew very well what was supposed to be here: The Fortress of Solitude. He'd been there plenty of times both as a child and as an adult so he knew this was where it was supposed to be. Except... It wasn't. The Fortress very clearly wasn't there. He looked around for rubble first - any signs of an attack - but didn't find any. This explained why Conner had been so frantic: Someone had clearly done something with the Fortress. He assumed the younger man had been looking for Clark, found Chris, and settled for his help over no help.

But then Conner blurted out that he hadn't done it and Chris' shocked expression turned to him. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what Conner had somehow been the cause of it. That explained why Clark wasn't there. It also still explained Conner's worry and fretting. With their limited interactions prior to this, Chris had admittedly never seen Conner so worried. And this seemed like the different type of worry than when they'd seen Lex and the government turn the sun red, knowing Clark and Kara were stranded in space.

Chris knew this worry too, of course. It was the worry of a child who knew they were going to get in trouble with their parents. He looked back at where the Fortress should've been when Conner gestured. It took him a moment to find his voice, the shock having silenced him quite well. "Did... I... How?" he asked, his own concern growing because this was not good and Clark wasn't going to be happy - To be honest, Lois probably wasn't going to be happy either and he wasn't sure whose unhappiness he cringed at more.

"Weren't you told what not to touch?" he couldn't help adding, eyes swiveling to Conner again. "I was here as a kid and I never did this!" He honestly hadn't even known this was possibly. "Please tell me it's not destroyed..."

---

779 words
Conner Kent

Chris's expression somehow made things better and worse all at the same time. Conner had worn the same exact face for thirty seconds straight after the Fortress had disappeared, so seeing it mirrored in that way was kind of reassuring on some bizarre level. But the shock meant Chris didn't understand - at least immediately - what Superboy had done any more than Superboy did. Conner had hoped Chris would've just chuckled and shook his head, knowing exactly what happened and how to reverse it in a second.

No luck there, then. Conner's skin crawled with even more anxiety.

Conner opened his mouth to answer Chris's question of "how," but the other Super went on, and Conner's lips snapped shut, puckering in a scowl toeing the line of petulant. "Okay, first off," Superboy said, holding up his index finger, "I don't appreciate the tone." Sure, he was irritable, but he felt like he had every right... Maybe. "If I wanted a talking to, I would've gone straight to Clark."

Superboy realized, then, that getting prickly and pouty wasn't going to help anything. He sighed dramatically, reaching up to drag fingers down his face. "I was stopping by, and an alarm-type thing started going off while I was there, coming from the trophy room. When I went to investigate this.. purple-y, round thing was glowing. It started to fall off its display and I went to catch it, and when I touched it-"

He trailed off, again gesturing, but this time much more defeated, at the empty snow ahead of them. He flopped onto the icy cliff under them, throwing his legs over its edge and putting his head in his hands. "So I guess you don't know how to fix it," he mumbled, his words muffled, spoken into his gloved palms.

Chris Kent

Chris knew he'd messed up - not as much as Conner had clearly messed up but still to a degree - the second Conner held a finger up to him. Had he learned that from Lois? It seemed like a very Lois thing to do. Still he couldn't help shooting Conner's scowl right back at him because while he'd aged rapidly, that hadn't meant he'd matured rapidly as well. He still had some child-like tendencies for someone who had missed majority of those young years.

He bit back the urge to point out that his tone was mostly surprise - He didn't think pointing that out would help Conner stress any less. He frowned thoughtfully as Conner started explaining what had happened. When was the last time he'd been in the trophy room? Admittedly he hadn't been to the Fortress since finding himself on Earth once again. Whatever artifact Conner was describing didn't ring a bell. Thankfully it also didn't sound like a Phantom Zone projector.

He didn't want to have to deal with the Phantom Zone again.

But he also didn't know how to deal with this. The first time Conner came to him for help and he had no clue how to help. He almost thought he should have gone to Clark instead. He watched Conner flop down and lightly bit his lower lip. He'd be a terrible brother if he didn't help - and he wanted to help, he just didn't know how. He moved to sit down next to him, easily catching his muffled words thanks to his own heightened hearing.

"It was an accident, wasn't it?" he asked, looking from where the Fortress was supposed to be to Conner. "I don't think Dad will be upset - uh at you at least." There was still a good chance Clark wouldn't be happy at the overall situation. He looked back to where the Fortress had once stood, quizzically adding, "Are you sure it's not just invisible?" As soon as he asked it, he shook his head. That wouldn't make sense. Conner would have found that out when he'd tried to leave to get help earlier. He sighed and fell back, hitting the soft snow and staring up at the sky.

He'd gone to the Fortress multiple times but mainly as a kid. The last time he'd been there, that he could recall, he'd been a teenager - shortly before he turned into an adult... Which was a weird thing to think about. - and he and Thara had been attacked by his biological mother. He preferred thinking about the times Clark took him here as a kid over that.

A thought struck him and he sat up quickly, eyes staring widely at Conner. "Do you think the Justice League's computer can track it?" he asked, though there was a good chance Conner wouldn't know any better than he did. "I have League clearance - kind of." He'd joined their cosmic team after all. "What if we go to the Watchtower and just subtly use their computer to track the Fortress?" Admittedly with both Conner's mannerisms and fashion choices, he wasn't sure if subtle was in his vocabulary, but surely it was worth a shot?

---

530 words
Conner Kent

Conner wondered if his pitiful turn was what guilted Chris's turn toward the more compassionate. He went from the "I-told-you-so" tone of voice to a more soothing one, at least. Conner appreciated it, not having enough fire left in his veins at that moment to prickle or some other childish auto response. His head hanged lower when Chris asked if he was sure it wasn't just invisible.

"We have x-ray vision, Chris. Plus a whole crapton of other ones. It's just not there."

The soft squeak of dry snow from Chris falling onto his back beside Conner stirred him to peek between fingers. Some choice words that he'd learned from Ravager strung together in his head, because that deflated way Chris collapsed more than anything else just proved how totally screwed he was.

Superboy's face started to heat up at the thought of looking like a total invalid in front of Clark, having to fess up to misplacing a whole damn Fortress. He reached out, snapped a handful of glacial ice from the ridge's edge, and pressed it to his forehead with a groan. Another squeak of snow and Conner side-eyed Chris, who'd sprung back to a sitting position.

Conner stared, face entirely inscrutable, for a long, long moment after Chris pitched his new idea. "You mean... Sneak into the Justice League's top-secret headquarters and use their tech?" Superboy's tone of voice made the idea sound totally ridiculous, probably even to the point of making Chris doubt doing it in the first place. A beat after he finished rephrasing the plan, though, Conner's face split in a broad, bright grin.

"And here I thought you were boring! Let's do it!" He clapped Chris on the shoulder with one hand and crushed the ice chunk into powder with the other.

Chris Kent

Chris couldn't help wondering if Conner was always this pessimistic or if it was just the stress. They admittedly hadn't talked much the last time they'd had to team up. Of course he had a point. Even if something was invisible, their x-ray vision was still able to see it. He didn't want to say that they were screwed - It certainly wouldn't have helped - but there was a good chance that they were. The more he thought about it, the more Conner's pessimism at the situation made sense.

Conner's quiet stare had Chris doubting his idea. It was probably stupid. Conner was probably going to tell him it was stupid. Their best bet was probably to fess up and tell Clark and get his help. Once the Teen Titan spoke, his tone didn't help make Chris feel any less stupid. "I have clearance," Chris corrected when Conner specified sneaking in, "Technically." He wasn't sure how far that clearance could get him before some Leaguer would mention something to Clark, but he had clearance... Technically.

He admittedly couldn't think of any other way to try to find the Fortress. If the Justice League's computer couldn't do it, perhaps the one in the Batcave could but Batman would probably rat them both out to Clark fast. Chris sighed, shrugged, and looked at the snow. "Right, it's stupid, sorry..." He trailed off as his eyes fell onto Conner again and noticed his grin. Was... Was it not a stupid idea? He felt like he was getting some form of whiplash, trying to figure out what Conner was feeling, what he was thinking.

He blinked, utterly confused as Conner clasped a hand on his shoulder and crushed that ice, taking a moment to process what had been said. So his plan wasn't stupid, that was cool. But Conner had also thought he was boring? Ouch. Chris couldn't help a ping of hurt flashing across his face at that, despite logically knowing the two of them barely knew each other so of course they would each have assumptions about the other. But rapidly aging from child to adult didn't get rid of all of his childlike tendencies.

"Right," he said again, trying to cover up any disappointment he'd had at that revelation. He told himself to focus on the plan - If it could even be considered a plan with how little of it they had. "If Dad's there, though, you have to distract him."

- - - - -

Taking Conner to the Watchtower hadn't been hard. Chris blamed Conner's phrasing - "sneak into the Justice League's top-secret headquarters" - for any nerves he felt rattling around. He kept having to remind himself he was allowed at the Watchtower. If anyone asked, he could say Conner was his guest for the day... Right? That's how it worked right? He didn't need permission from Wonder Woman for that... Right?

He blamed Conner for his anxiety.

"Hopefully we can find... It," he said, voice low but still all too aware of how many members of the League could easily overhear them - whether close by or from an entirely different room - if they wanted too. "And then go get uh - It." He paused in his walking and looking to Conner, anxiety only rising as a thought he definitely didn't need occurred to him. "What uh - What if it's gone? Like... Gone gone?" He grimaced and quickly added, "Nevermind. I don't want to know."

He picked up pace, knowing Conner could easily keep up with him. He resisted the urge to sigh in relief when they finally reached the computers - Thank Rao, he'd remembered where they were. It would have been embarrassing if he hadn't. Also much to his relief, no one else seemed to be using the computers.

"Um - Keep a look out?" he suggested, turning to Conner because technically only one of them had the clearance needed. "I'll uh... I'll figure out what to search for and um - Search for that?"

This was a horrible plan.

---

662 words
Conner Kent

Not his first trip to the Watchtower, but Conner could never suppress the surreality whenever it happened. Seeing space spread out of every window they came to, and the glow of the sun bouncing off of Earth charting the craggy contours of the moon's surface, which the Watchtower was anchored in? Superboy was a genetically engineered creation of a Kryptonian alien and the smartest egg on the planet; he could fire lasers from his eyes and made blizzards if he sneezed too hard. Even still, he was a little starstruck.

Conner might have been a little more cautious or nervous, but Chris had that more than covered for the both of them. To try to counterbalance the meekness of Nightwing, Superboy dialed up his air of nonchalance to eleven. Strolling through the Watchtower like he owned the place, he even did a mock salute to a passing Leaguer, who looked confused, saw the S-shield on his chest and Chris beside him, and kept on their way.

"If it's gone gone, then we had nothing to do with it. Zod or Brainiac did it, obviously." Conner had a backbone of determined steel under the lacquer of ease that showed the thought had definitely crossed his mind. Once at the room they were looking for, Superboy studied Nightwing for a long moment. "Dude. Pull it together. I'm the one that's supposed to be sweating. Technically you've not done anything wrong..."

Conner pursed his lips, chewing on thoughts and letting that unbothered facade flake away a little bit. "Just... Please find it. And thanks... Again." Superboy turned and leaned, arms crossed, against the wall next to the door to the room Nightwing was going into, shooting one last encouraging thumbs up his way.

Chris Kent