trans_9 | Supervillains and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails --That's what clones are made of. [closed]

Bart smiles at him when he sees him. "They put a statue up of you! What'd you do? Infinite Crisis? Is this in the future too? Conner Kent?"

He's not sure what Kon's deal with Luthor is. Luthor's a bad guy, yeah, so it's understandable that Kon wouldn't like him, but that was like, a lot more dislike than he expected. Still, this is Kon. He'll have a good reason. "What's up?"

Yeah, see? Twenty questions. This is why he wants to tell Slo' and Bart separately.

"I guess telling you about the future probably doesn't matter much."

If their world really WAS gone, it didn't, and if it wasn't, Bart needed to know and they'd all been timeline spoilered anyway.

"In a few years, Young Justice disbands. We get in a fight, side by side with the Titans. Donna and Omen both die. Because of us--because we screwed up. We're all so upset, we wander off our separate ways. Cissie stays retired, Anita goes off to take care of her parents, Secret got changed to a normal girl a while before that, and was happy just having a chance to live her life and Slo'--well, we'd already lost Slo'."

Kon sits down on a bench.

"So it's me, you, Cassie, Robin--his name's Tim, by the way, Tim Drake--and the Titans take us in. Try to bring us back together, because we're Young Justice. And maybe we're not just us anymore, but we were all upset how we'd messed up and they realized we should still be together, so they helped us deal with it so we could be again. And they're really good to us. We butt heads at first, but they start treating us like grown ups, and hang out with us, and we're all a team. We might be Titans, but you know how we've always been with the Titans, we've gotten along--so it's like they're part of our team, and we're part of ours now. It's like we got to be Young Justice and Titans at the same time."

Bart nods and sits next to him, pulling his legs up in front of him. He tries to listen patiently. The future sounds like it sucks, but he's not gonna say it. He makes sympathetic noises and looks at Kon.

"Cissie told me his name by accident. I'd met him before, you know. Like, before I met Robin. But I hate skiing so I wasn't paying attention. What happened next?"

"Tim and I...found out something."

Something he hates.

"You know how I always thought I wasn't really cloned from Superman, just a bunch of people and they made my powers in imitation, that I just was made to look like him? Well, it turns out I really was cloned from him. At least, half my DNA comes from him. The other half is human, to keep the Kryptonian DNA stable."

Clenching and unclenching his fist, he tries to summon back the feeling he had when he was going to tell everyone, where he'd been emboldened by Speedy's courage in telling them all about her HIV. He knows Bart won't reject him for this, but it still...is hard to say.

"Okay...that's not a bad thing, right? At least Superman isn't. So I'm guessing there's more to the story?" He smiles encouragingly at Kon. "Is this where Luthor comes in?"

Kon nods.

"Let's just say... there's a good chance of going bald in my future."

Edited 2009-11-11 20:51 (UTC)

Bart frowns a little. "I don't know. Maybe your hair's got like, super strength too so it won't fall out."

Kon facepalms.

It's easy to forget with Impulse that sometimes you have to be very...specific, when talking. (He remembers the "if you could have dinner with someone alive or dead, who would it be?" question).

"The human half of my DNA is from Luthor, Bart."

Bart nods and looks over at him. "Yeah, I figured. What with the baldness and all. But what's it matter? You're the same you you were before you knew that." He looks away for a second, thinking thoughtfully. "Though I get why you wouldn't want the Luthor here to know that. I won't tell." He gave him a half smile.

The smile almost gets a smile back. Good ol' Bart. Past Bart, present Bart, whichever--one of the greatest things about him, that always made the attention span worth it, is that he's just so damn good-natured. Hardly a mean bone in his body.

But this isn't as simple as that, at least not to Superboy. He is from the era of the Angst. Those sunny Young Justice days are so far behind him, he has trouble sometimes, remembering when everything was just...fun.

"Bart, he put control programming in my brain--that's why the control programming Cadmus tried to put in never took. He said this phrase and then... I turned against you guys. I hurt you, I broke Tim's arm, I hurt Cassie, I nearly killed all the other Titans, went after the Outsiders. I managed to break free, but..."

Kon pushes a hand through his hair.

"He made me to be--"

Kon has to pause to just breathe for a moment or else he'd need to punch something. It still makes him angry, it still hurts, it still just...

"I wasn't created to be a hero. I always knew Cadmus just wanted me to be their Superman, their tool, but it was even worse with him. I was made to be...like a biological machine. A weapon."

Shaking his head, "And I know, I know, machine-machines can be people too. Look at Reddy. But it changes...everything. The programming is gone, but the goons at STAR Labs said my brain's just...wired to be controllable. Like there's a framework there, even if the control words are gone now."

The look on his face is sad, probably sadder than Bart remembers, but so much has happened between their two points in time. He's been through so much, seen his friends go through so much, put his friends through so much...

"It's different now. I'm not the same as I was before I knew, because what I thought I was, was wrong. I know I'm not a bad person or anything, and I've been dealing with it, but sometimes it feels like..."

This is something he hasn't said to Tim or Cassie, because they'd smack him for it. "Sometimes it feels like I'm not a person." He gestures wildly with his hands. "I mean, look at people. People are born, they have parents, they have childhoods that let them figure out who they are, instead of having it all dumped in their brain. They don't get...made to be things."

Edited 2009-11-11 22:00 (UTC)

Whatever else is going on. Kon clearly needs a hug. So Bart obliges. "Normal childhoods are overrated. I zipped through mine in what, three years? I mean, Rob's the closest to standard we've got, and he's way freakier than you."

Kon actually laughs, as he lets Bart hug him--and even hugs him back a little and musses his floppy hair.

"Yeah, he's still kinda a freakboy, isn't he."

Good ol' Bart.

"I gotta say, as weird as it is to see you this young again, I'm glad you're here."

Bart laughed. "We're gonna be roommates!" Which would be awesome. Even if Tim wouldn't let him play with his explosives.

He pulled away and grinned. "I'm glad you're here too. Even if you're old. But I'd be really sad if you, y'know." Died with the whole universe being destroyed. Bart frowns for a second. "Guess I'm pretty lucky so many of my friends are here."

"We'll fix this, Bart. If it's not true, if we're being lied to about it, we'll fix it. If it is true, we'll bring our worlds back. We'll stop them. We'll make it right."

The funny thing is, the way he says that is almost how Superman would say it. He doesn't realize it, but it is.

Edited 2009-11-12 04:41 (UTC)

"...yeah." Bart nods. "Wally was just being kinda down about it. I guess it was contagious." He smiles a little. "But even so. I'm glad you're here, you know? Wouldn't be the same without you guys."

Slo walks in. After the fight over Luthor, Kon and he had a lot to talk about.

"Whaddya want ME fer, Blue Boy? I Already agreed ta keep yer secret." His eyes clenched, as if the thought caused him pain.

Bart had long since skedaddled. One on one is easier.

"I wanna clear the air. I don't want you to think I'm all Captain Self-Righteous on this Luthor thing, for no reason."

"All ya gotta do, all ya ever had ta, was explain yerself and stop idiots like those Brainiac kids from hurtin' people they shouldn't when that's what yer girlfriend told me ta do from the start." Slobo paused, a rare occurance for him.

"I couldn't say any of it in front of him, and I hate him. That's why I didn't stop Brainy--not that I was fast enough after getting depowered in the fight--but I hate him, Slo'. And that makes it hard, to turn the other cheek and all that crap."

Kon sucks in a deep breath.

"After we lost you, after I become a Titan, I found out more stuff about my being cloned. Originally, I thought I wasn't like Kal at all, and just made to look like him, but I found out half my DNA did come from him."

"And?" That was all he felt he needed to say.
"What comes next? I get I was gone a while, but I gotta say, I ain't seein' where this is goin'..."

"The other half came from Lex Luthor."

He squeezes his eyes shut, looking pained.

"So did the programming. He programmed me, Slo', like the goons at Cadmus tried to. When he said the control words, the programming kicked in and it pretty much took my free will away. I was trapped in my own body, and I--I hurt the team. I hurt the Titans, I crushed Rob's arm, I hurt Cassie, I hurt Bart..."

When he looks up, all the hurt from that is in his eyes, all the hurt from what he is is in his eyes.

"He made me for that. I wasn't made to be a hero--he made me to be a tool, made me to use me to hurt everyone. I was made to be a weapon. And yeah, I broke free, but I can't forgive him for that. He treated me like a thing, and I can't forgive him, and I won't mess with this guy, but he's already talking to me the same way. He's enough like him that I at least don't trust him, and Lois said her Luthor already has cloning programs in place--and I think this one is her Luthor."

Kon shakes his head.

"Don't you get it, Slo'? He's not the same guy, but he's already on his way there, and there's a chance there was already a version of me growing in a test tube somewhere, so this one could use him, too."

Slobo thought about it for a moment.

"Seriously? Ya couldn't have told me all this before?" There was a slight scoff. "Cloned from a supervillain and made to be his puppet. Did ya think I wouldn't have understood that?"

"Look, when you first got here, I was dealing with everything. Went from being his puppet to trying to save the world to here, to finding out I was dying, then I was coming back--and then when we were in front of him, that was the last place I wanted to broadcast it."

The very last place.

"I don't know what he could do with it, or what he'd wanna do, but he might try something if he knows. They thought they got rid of the programming, but there might be something they missed, some sort of trigger words, just...something that this Luthor could figure out if he knows to look. That's why I don't know want him to know."

Slobo took a moment to think.

"Look... If we're airin' out things, then fine. When I first showed up ta Young Justice, you were the only one that kinda went with the flow. Ya always got I wasn't Lobo, an' that kinda stuck with me. Meanin', I know ya ain't him. Ya ain't gonna be our Luthor, no matter what. Which also means I know yer above treatin' a guy the way ya did fer how he looks." Slobo seemed to look down, slightly remorseful about his own actions. "I know I wasn't right about defendin' him, but I don't see the harm in what he did, or more rightly, what he didn't do. But he ain't our Luthor. He deserves the benefit ya gave me." There was a pause, as he slightly furrowed his brow to get his words together.

"I know ya, Kon. And I got yer back. But the moment ya start treatin' someone like they're sprock because o' where they came from? THAT'S when yer gonna be too much like our Luthor for my likin'."

Kon shakes his head.

"It's not the same, Slo'. You're not Lobo, I'm not Luthor--I'm not even Kal. He still is a Lex Luthor. He's not getting my trust, he's not getting me playing nicey nice with him--all he gets is me ignoring him, because he doesn't deserve anything from me."

It's too hard. He's too angry.

"I can't let this one go, Slo'; not this time. I won't go out of my way to mess with him, but he's not getting anything more'an that. I can't give it--I don't have it in me. I can't deal with being around someone that looks and talks to me like that guy that made me for something like that, that made me hurt everybody. Makes me sick just to look at him."

Edited 2009-11-28 06:10 (UTC)

"You ain't that guy. And ya sure as hell ain't Superman." Slobo seemed sullen for a moment, though his speech seemed to be gaining wind. " You're better than both of 'em. Superman hated Lobo, and I ain't gonna kid myself by sayin' he didn't hate me when he heard about me. If he ever even knew I wasn't him. And Lex... He ain't a good guy. You're supposed ta be everythin' they could never be, instead of a childish bastich. Yeah, ya hurt people. I got the memory o' the genocide o' Czarnia rattlin' around in my head." There was obviously something bigger on his mind, that he didn't want to say outright.

"Yer that guy Kon. Yer the guy we're s'posed ta look up ta. Yer kinda the pinnacle. Who do people got when yer acting this hateful?"

"He used me!"

He rounds on Slobo.

"He made me hurt the people I love! And everything I ever thought I was good for, everything I thought I was--I thought I was made to be a hero, to help people--even if Cadmus got a lot of things wrong, at least they still meant for me to be a hero!"

The yelling isn't because he's mad at Slobo. He's just mad.

"I always wanted parents, and Kal never saw me like that--with good reason, because he always was afraid I was made to hurt him and I was--and Luthor just saw me as a tool!"

His eyes would be flaring red if he still had his heatvision.

"Parents are supposed to care about their kids! They're not supposed to hurt them! He made me call him 'dad,' even as he did that to me. I'm not hateful--I'm angry! I'm allowed to be angry! I'm allowed to not trust this guy when he's already acting weird and controlling towards me!"

Trying to calm himself down, he takes a few deep breaths.

"I'm not perfect, Slo'--I never was. I get mad sometimes--sometimes I even hate people, like Amanda Spence. What matters is what I do with it, and I'm gonna leave him alone unless he tries to hurt somebody. That's what makes me different from him, that I won't let how I feel stop me from doing the right thing. But I'm allowed to think that stuff, I'm allowed to be mad, I'm allowed not to trust him for having the same face, for talking the same way, for acting like a creep towards me."

Turning away from his friend, he crosses his arms.

"I'm not Luthor, right? The reason I'm not is 'cause even though I'm this mad I'm still not gonna hurt anybody, and that includes him."

It was Slobo's turn to round on his friend.

"YEAH! Yanno what, yer right. Obviously, ya never have been better than me. Ya live in what ya did, or may have done, or remember doin'. Ya don't care aboput the good ya do, or can do, ya just care about where ya came from." This was it, the supposed secret was coming out. Slobo couldn't help it. His rage and envy got the best of him.

"I'm becomin' Lobo, whether I want ta or not! Ya at least have the choice ta be somethin' good! So yell at me all ya want! Stacy cured me o' the things that made me weak, and now I gotta fight against the guy I DON'T WANNA BE!" He paused for a moment and caught his breath.

"At least YOU get the choice... Ya ain't a direct clone o' either... no matter what..."

"Slo'..."

Aw, crap. That's...rough.

"You have a choice, too, Slo'."

He does believe that.

"You know why? 'Cause you're the toughest guy in the freakin' universe, and can frag whoever the hell you set your mind to fraggin'--that includes fraggin' what you're afraid you're gonna be. I know you're tough enough to take that on."

Kon opens his mouth and closes it again, then finally speaks:

"See, that's the part that scares me. We met our future selves, Slo'. With the Titans. I was exactly what I'm scared to be. I know I can fight it. I'm kinda scared that even with fighting, even now that I know how bad I can be, that I'm gonna choose that someday, anyway. That's twice over, I've met a version of me that's gone rotten."

He's terrified of it.

"It wasn't the weaknesses that made you join up with us and do the right thing. They just made you stop long enough to think about who you really wanted to be. Where you came from doesn't make you rotten--and that's just it, bud. I've always had this...edge of something, and it was just what Luthor tapped into. What if instead of coming from him or bein' from being made to bad--what if that's just part of who I am? You? You're too damn stubborn to ever be anything you don't wanna be."

Slobo stopped his own rant, for just long enough to grin widely at his old friend.

"Ya really think that, don'tcha?" The grin almost seemed wider.

"So how about a pact. You an' me. Ya stop me if I become... HIM... And I do the same fer you. We're the only two who can do that for eachother." He almost seemed happy at the prospect of knowing he had someone who could honestly fight him to that point.

"I ain't lettin' ya hurt bow-girl or Impulse. And I KNOW ya ain't gonna let me hurt anyone. Even if I do turn inta him. And me? I ain't lettin' ya do anythin' I know ya don't wanna do. As clones o' badguys, we should watch eachother's backs, an' maybe take a lesson from Batman..." He paused for a second, and took a deep breath before he spoke his next sentence.

"Me and Lobo got the same weakness, Blue Boy. Gas. Takes us down easy. I kinda wnat ya ta know that."

"Kryptonite. Red sunlight. And magic. We got some magic-users on the ship. Get one of them, and they could take me out like that."

He looks over at him.

"It's a deal."

He holds out his hand to clasp Slobo's.

Supervillains and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails --That's what clones are made of. [closed]

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject