trans_9 | Coping at Ke'e Beach

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Coping at Ke'e Beach

So, what do you do when you find out you're going to die? Kon's seen how thrown Kal is from his death--but Kal comes back. Even if he doesn't believe it now, Kon knows this, and he knows that he's not likely to have the same thing happen to him. He's not Kal. The world doesn't need him like it needs Kal, so why would he come back?

Heh. The Good Ship Stacy: two good-as-dead Super-guys enter, one super-guy leaves.

...Okay, that's kinda not funny.

Superboy doesn't know if he can take his mentor's tack of playing it by ear and trying his best to help everyone else. He doesn't know if he can get over the whole feeling lost part of it to get to what he needs to do, and just deal with their situation here.

Even after all his talk to Tim of not avoiding people, Kon deals at first by avoiding the others. But it's just for a bit, just a little while, not like all that time he spent on the farm, hiding, after Luthor made him hurt everyone, and the difference is, he's not hiding from coping, or repressing, this is how he copes. He just doesn't like people to see the initial anger--and it is anger, that he expresses by punching robots in the Sensorium until his knuckles start to bleed.

Heh, and that leads to his other problem. Not enough sunlight. The stuff in the Sensoriums feels like the real deal, but it's obviously not, if he can't process it so that his powers stay at full super-levels, and the light that Will kid's been conjuring up for him is weak. He's going on empty now. He can be hurt.

And it just drives it home even more exactly how...mortal he is.

But if anyone comes looking for him and poke their head in the Sensorium, they'll find him not punching robots or moping and brooding. If they peek in, they'll see him sitting on a rock on a beach bathed in the glow of a Hawaiian sunset. He hasn't availed himself of holographic clothes, but his plantsuit is stripped down to his waist, and he's writing things on one of the media pads from the Media Library, a thoughtful look on his face.

"--Have I ever been sledding? No. Better put that on there..."

Denial, anger, bargaining, depression... is he at acceptance already? Maybe his general attitude of rocketing through his life at warp speed is benefiting him for once.

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"I'm, y'know, a superhero. I got pulled from this big...crisis, I guess. Massive problems going off in a bunch of places at once. Bad guys all over. World's on the brink of destruction, kinda thing. My girlfriend got pulled from further in the timeline and it turns out so did a few others here, that were all acting...weird around me."

He goes on, "The reason they were wasn't because I had bad breath or something, it's because we win, we defeat the bad guys, we save the world--and I have a big hand in it apparently. But I'm supposed to die."

He adds, "Which, y'know, kinda sucks."

"Huh. That does suck." Dean replies mildly. "But y'know, I think I can relate. The whole apocalypse thing's familiar, and the death thing, too."

Dean pauses, and makes his way over to a nearby tree, leaning against it so he can talk to Kon a bit more comfortably.

"So maybe it's not too early for the whole list thing. You seem to be handling it pretty well, for a kid."

"Whinerboy-Prime nearly killed me before--he has a total hate-on for me. And this time, it was just me, my girlfriend, and one other hero that went in to fight for the fate of the world, because everyone else was fighting everywhere else. I knew going into it I might not make it out--and I know now that my girlfriend, and that other guy, who's my friend kinda, do survive it, even if I don't."

Kon shrugs.

"I hate it. I'm an aged-up clone, so I've only been around for five years. That's not a long life, y'know? But I knew going in, what was probably going to happen. Now I just know for sure. I'm not giving up on messing with time somehow so the world is saved, but I survive, but if we can't do that, and it's what it takes to save everybody..."

"Pretty selfless of you," Dean remarks. "Willing to give your life for a bunch of people who don't know you or don't give a crap."

No, Dean's not bitter, he's just irritated with the world at large. Of course, he's being a hypocrite, since he's doing just that, back home, saving people who take things for granted.

"Guess that's why you're a superhero, huh?"

"Hey, buddy, I don't know about your world, but mine's got a ton of people that I care about in it."

He tilts his head. "But yeah. Even the ones that don't know me, and even the ones that don't give a crap. At least they'll be alive to not give a crap, y'know? I've met a lot of people in my life, and you might be surprised at how many are worth saving."

There's something in his expression that's not naivete or innocence--maybe earnestness.

"Count yourself lucky, then, 'cause my world's full of idiots." Dean grumbles. He doesn't really mean it, honestly. He wants to save people, protect them; it's the only thing he feels he can really do right. Dean's just one of those guys who has to argue everything.

"The world's lucky to have you then, isn't it?" He remarks, shrugging. "And there's always a way around dying, y'know. I've got experience."

A shrug. "I dunno. I guess. There's a lot of heroes besides me, though, and a ton of 'em are better at it." Sure, he's cocky sometimes, but he knows he's not one of the greats, like the League or Kal. Maybe someday if he'd be able to have a someday.

"Of course there is. I know people that've come back, but it's always been a freak thing."

"Course it's always a freak thing. There's always a catch." Dean says. "Giving up your most valuable possession, trading yourself for the dead person, selling your soul..."

But that's enough of that talk. "So what else is on that list of yours?"

"Ton of stuff. Kid stuff I never did 'cause I wasn't ever a kid. Movies I've wanted to watch. Some I've wanted to watch instead of just having them piped into my brain." He taps his noggin.

"Yeah? What kind of kid stuff?" Dean's interested; he wasn't ever a kid, either, and he definitely wouldn't know what kids were supposed to do. Melt silver into bullets? Sharpen wooden stakes?

"Like build a snow fort. I lived on Hawaii and then on a farm in Kansas, where you were too busy worrying about getting the cows out of the snow, so that just kinda never happened." He goes on, "I'd add 'build a treehouse' but we had the old Justice League headquarters as our base and there really isn't a cooler treehouse than that."

"I've never built a snow fort either, actually." Dean replies. "Or built a treehouse, or moved cows outta the snow. Or even been to Hawaii."

Which will never happen, most likely, considering he hates flying.

"Pfft. What, did you get grown in a tube, too?"

Dean snorts. "Nah, just had a helluva childhood."

"I kinda always wondered what those were like," Kon says thoughtfully. "Like, being a little kid."

He doesn't sound sad about it, just intensely curious.

Dean folds his arms. "Yeah. Me too, actually. Never was much of a little kid."

"I never even got to be a kid at all. I was artificially aged up to a teenager before I broke free."

"You tryin' to challenge me in who's life was worse, kiddo?" Dean jokes.

Kon snorts.

"No way, my life's been great," he says with a genuine grin. "I mean, come on, I've got superpowers, and I get to wear the S and fight bad guys all the time. I've been to outer space--I've been to the future. I've helped saved the world by beating aliens at baseball, even. I've got great friends, and I sort of picked up family along the way, even if I didn't start with any. I've got a girlfriend who's an Amazon--kinda literally--and is a total hottie. I mean, we're talking a babe and a half. Forget being a ten, she's a twenty. Really smart, too. And funny."

He looks back to his list, and the smile doesn't reach his eyes as much.

"There's just...a lot I still wanna do. That I never got to do."

He looks back up.

"Haven't you ever looked back and just...wished you could do the stuff you missed out on?"

Dean's got a grin in return through most of Kon's explanation. But he can't help but think, lucky guy, getting to do all of those things and be seen as a hero. To have a girlfriend and not a series of one night stands. Dean could be jealous, but what's the point?

And Dean's got Sam, which, in his opinion, outweighs the bad in most situations. So it's not all bad.

"No, man, I get what you're sayin'. There are tons of things I wish I coulda done. I never had the time. Wasn't ever a kid, y'know. Raised as a solider." Dean's still grinning, though. "Sounds like we're kinda in the same boat, huh?"

"Yeah." His grin widens. "Know what I really need to do? I need to get go to a bar and get ripped at some point."

He holds up his list.

"See? That's number 4."

Dean laughs. "Oh, man, count me in. I need me some booze."

Boy, he isn't kidding.

"I drank before, but it was seriously, like, only one time, 'cause, y'know, the mentors get all cranky if we do anything irresponsible," Kon says, leaning back on the rock some and kicking his feet.

"We threw the party in the Fortress of Solitude, and invited all the young heroes and sidekicks and stuff, but Robin and I were half-freaking out about being caught by Superman the whole time, so I didn't drink enough to get drunk."

He snorts and laughs, remembering something.

"Batgirl did. Total lightweight."

"God forbid a bunch of teenagers have fun," Dean replies to that, rolling his eyes. He may be thirty, but Dean knows exactly how the whole rebellious teenager thing works. Not that his dad was ever home enough to notice the drinking and drugs and cigarettes (just once, the last one, because Dean couldn't afford screwed up lungs).

"So I am talking to Superboy. Figured as much." Dean chuckles. "And I thought I'd seen everything."

Dean does raise an eyebrow, though. "Batgirl's a lightweight? Never woulda guessed."

"The one and only," he says to the Superboy bit. "And the second Batgirl. First one could probably drink you under a table."

He's still grinning. "They're not that bad about letting us have fun, but lives on the line and all that. They're always pushing us to be better. Not really in a bad way."

Coping at Ke'e Beach

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