trans_9 | Melting Clock: Quarantine

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Melting Clock: Quarantine

After Sam Henderson's announcement, the Contagion Containment and Treatment lab was going to get busy. Anyone suspected of being affected by the mysterious affliction would be brought here, and put into one of the large bubbles that would keep any potential contagious diseases in - and the patients themselves. Once in inside, they wouldn't be able to get out again until the Medical staff had cleared them.

And before they could do that, they needed to find out what was causing this - and why.

They had a lot of hard work ahead of them.

[[ooc: Just start your own sub threads under the main threads, guys! And if you're happy to have anyone tag in, put "Open" in the subject line. If you've already got plans for who you're threading with, put "Closed" instead.]]

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Rory's face went still again, moral outrage at war with professional training that said he had to listen to and not judge the patient. It was very hard not to judge the patients situation, though.

"Ah-Newsboys? How'd that work out, exactly? Did the government approve of this?"

So there had been a plan to keep him under control, and even if they hadn't been able to implant it, they had still formed the person he was from the ground up. That mean he was still the sort of person who would listen to them, who would have no choice but to listen to them. It was disgusting, what had been done.

No, he had a choice. That was the miracle of the whole thing, wasn't it? He'd chosen to run away from Cadmus, he'd chosen to come back to make sure they didn't create others like him. If it had gotten bad, he'd have chosen to run again. In the end, though he couldn't remember it, they'd left him rather than the other way around, but still, that was the miracle of the thing.

He chose. That's what the Newsboy Legion had given him, a chance to leave when he could still choose to.

"Well yeah! It was a secret government project. Probably like a bazillion taxpayer dollars went into making me."

The sinking feeling in his stomach solidified into a hard knot of disgust and tension.

Someone had written off on this, someone had signed something to make this ok. No just a private citizen, a mad-man, but an elected official. Someone people had trusted to look after their interests had done this. "That's...Wow."

Disgusting.

"I didn't think places like that could exist." And he had seen enough that he should know better than to expect the best of humanity.

Superboy tilted his head at Rory curiously.

"Well, it was a secret government project. That's just what the government does. Bad stuff that it covers up all the time and pretends isn't there."

It was said so matter of fact, like it was simply the way the world was. Didn't you know, Rory?

"That's why I ran the first time. That's also why I went to the news and blew the lid on the whole project, which is why they're not secret now and part of why they can't do anything illegal. I only came back 'cause--"

You know, he didn't want to talk about that. About having nowhere else to go.

"Uh, you know, to keep an eye on 'em," he finished lamely. "But the first time, I ran and I didn't look back. They would'a totally cramped my style with that whole mind control thing."

"Not a proper government. Not one that actually is doing what it ought. That's..." He shook his head. "That's the sort of thing that governments come down over. A gross miscarriage of justice."

He shook his head again, listening intently and trying to keep his voice even as he responded. Conner didn't...there were no words for how...the depth of the disgust he felt. That wasn't how the world worked, not a proper one. Not a world where anything approaching the best of humanity had a say in what was done.

"It's big of you, coming back. Most people wouldn't have been able to deal with them again. I'm shocked your populace stood for the continued existence of the group, once the information was leaked."

He tried not to think about the mind control thing, tried not to think of how much it would have changed.

There was just a shrug.

"What they did wasn't exactly kosher, but hey, if they hadn't, I wouldn't even be here, right? So they did something kinda good by accident, creating me! I've saved the day a buncha times already!"

The next part was said without him even really thinking before he said, like much of what he'd say at this stage. "'Sides, it's not like I had anywhere else to go."

Wait, did he just admit that out loud?

"Not that it bothered me my friends all booked it from Hawaii, anyway," he amended quickly. "Who needs to be tied down to any one place? For now, I'm at Cadmus, but after that, I'll go wherever the wind takes me, free as can be!"

Rory tried very hard not to flinch but knew he wasn't entirely successful. "Right. Right. I'm sure you did great." And how much better would he have been done if they hadn't just created him to fill a role and packed his head full of all they thought he should know?

He shifted, automatically intending to offer some reassurance. Like he would with any abandoned teenager coming into the hospital. Talk about homes and places where no one would hurt him, safe places where he could grow into his own person. The words died on the tip of his tongue. He wasn't home. No matter how much he wanted to help him, to give him something beyond the whims of his creator, he couldn't.

It was one of the most helpless moments of his life, that realization. "I'm sure there was somewhere. Even if it doesn't seem like it right now, I'm sure there is somewhere for you to go."

He swallowed, knowing this defense mechanism too. It wasn't something he wanted, so it didn't hurt so badly that he didn't have it. Lone wolves, one of the residents used to call them, tough guys. Lonely kids who had nowhere to go and hadn't had anyone to rely on and pretended like they didn't need them, or the help of any adult, because they could do it themselves. "Sounds like you've got it all figured out. What do you want to do, after Cadmus? Any careers you're looking at? Goals?"

Superboy squirmed.

"That's a long while off anyhow, and I'm stuck at sixteen for a while."

He was now from before he could age again.

"Maybe I have it all figured out already! I probably just forgot it. I'm losin' time, that means losin' all the stuff I figured out while I was older. 'Sides, what's it matter now? Got a multiverse to save!"

No plans, no career goals, no intention to finish school. Not at this age. Maybe not at any age.

"Stuck? Why would you be stuck?" He frowned, zeroing in on the medically relevant statement. "If you have a point of time where your time is frozen, it might help."

He nodded, trying to keep from frowning. Losing time, yes. Losing time and becoming younger, but unlike the rest of the crew, he didn't have a childhood to saunter through and relive memories. If the memories were implanted, even the ones that had taught him vital developmental things like walking and talking would fade as well? They might not have time once he started going through the stages of rushed development.

Who said anything had to make sense when essentially the programing was what was unraveling, independent from the body it occupied?

"Right, but it won't always need to be saved. You deserve a life of your own. Something that's yours."

"I got my genes unzipped by this other secret org called the Agenda. They're bad guys, even worse than Cadmus, and instead of working for Uncle Sam, they're private, all set on cloning soldiers for the highest bidder!" Superboy said. "They used me as a template for their super soldiers, so I went unstable and nearly melted into the puddle-that-was-formerly-known-as-Superboy. Only, dig this--Cadmus was able to stabilize me, using my friend Roxie's DNA as a base, kinda making us like sibs. Problem was, I got stuck at this age ala Peter Pan, so I could never grow up. But I remember being older on the ship, so I guess never came sooner than I thought!"

This was the stage he was talking about before, of being stuck at sixteen for a time.

"Your genes unzipped? How did that work?" His scowl deepened, but if he had been a puddle at some time in the past, it was better to know about it so that they could be prepared for it. Really, some of this was just gathering medical history in a predictive sense of 'What we may be dealing with in an hour.'

"They stabilized you how, exactly? Do you know the process?"

He sighed, shifting to study Conner for a long moment. "Earlier, you refereed to yourself as Kon-El, now as Superboy. And your friend, the one with security, called you Conner. Those are all names on your file. Which would you prefer me to continue to use?"

"Somehow they spliced me with my friend Roxie's DNA to patch me up. Don't know how they fixed it, and don't really know exactly what the Agenda did to mess it up. That DNA talk's for science dorks, not Superboys like me."

The name thing confused him. "And wow! I got more names than Prince! You mean I get called things other than just Superboy?"

He'd gone back past being named.

"'Cause that's the only one I remember right now. Just Superboy."

He jabbed his thumb to the "S" on his chest. "And I earned that one! My friends usually call me SB. Or sometimes people call me 'Kid.' I guess you can just pick one and call me it, though, if they're all mine. Never had a name before! Slammin'!"

"We'll need to look into it, might take a sample and look at how it looks now, just in case that happens. No sense in taking chances."

His heart sunk, and for a moment he didn't have the words. Just utter and pure hatred for the people who had done this and hadn't even bothered to give the kid a name of his own.

It was sick, and evil, and wrong. He'd dealt with abused children before, and it had broken his heart every time, but at least those parents for the most part had the decency to give their children names. To acknowledge that they were people.

"Conner, I think. It sounds like a proper name, not just a few made up words strung together."

"Conner it is then!" Kon said, and with a laugh, as if caught up in the sheer novelty of it, he went on, "You were sayin' how I should get a life of my own earlier? I bet I got one I don't even remember now, if I went and got me a couple names!"

He looked thrilled with the idea. "Not even one name. I get a couple! How fly is that?"

"You probably do." He hoped so, anyway. Hoped that this kid had found all the resources he needed to get out of the shadow of the people who had created him.

He wasn't sure if he should smile or rage at the almost gleeful expression on the teen's face. Not sure how to react to the excitement for possessing something he should have had all along.

"It's pretty impressive, having a couple. Most people can hardly live up to one. You must have done a lot, to earn so many." Something to look forward to, something to get back to, even as they struggled to fix him.

"I'll bet! I think I even save the world once. 'Least I remember on the ship people talkin' about it. That Beetle guy."

Of course, they also talked about him dying but that other guy, Static, talked about him getting better, so he wasn't going to think about that.

"But hey, we've been doing all this talking about me, and I haven't even gotten to know you all that well. From the sound of you, you've seen tons of stuff like I have! So how's a nurse get to fightin' fish-people with brooms?"

His lips twisted quietly, sad, because the time was still drifting away and there was nothing he could do at the moment but listen and try to figure out how and why. And how to fix it.

"I wouldn't be surprised, sure seems like you've got the skill set for it."

He laughed, a little strained. "Ah, Time Travel, mostly. It's a bit strange. I travel around in this blue box with my fiance and the Doctor, I don't know if you've met him or not. Seems like everywhere we stop something is out to get us. Or him. Or him through us. It's pretty complicated. There were fish-men and lizard-women and some homicidal old ladies. Never a dull moment with him around."

"Cool! Sounds like something from a sci fi show," Kon enthused. "Do you travel to fight bad guys or just to explore?"

Or both?

"I met that Doctor guy, I think. He was in earlier. Dr. Doctor?" Hey, he said that was his name, and he was a doctor, so he was now officially Dr. Doctor. "Weird guy. Gave me a candy cane."

"He did come, then? Good. Hopefully he got enough readings to figure out what is causing this. He's brilliant, really. A little insane, but brilliant." He wasn't sure if he was under estimating the Doctor there, on either side. But he trusted him to help his patient.

"It's just "The Doctor" I think he has a proper name, but he likes being mysterious. Won't tell anyone what it is. I think the intent is just to explore, but we normally end up tangled int whatever the local riffraff are up to, dust up with the locals, save the kingdom. Or he does, mostly I try to stay out of the way and keep Amy from getting herself eaten or stabbed or shot. It's very...terrifying at times."

"Insane's right! At first, I wondered if the guy was two fries short of a Happy Meal, and for a second I thought he might be a supervillain with a name that's just 'The Doctor,' but he seems alright. After that candy cane, I slowed down a little bit. I think."

Kon leaned forward. "With all the rest of that stuff, though, sounds like an adventure! But why do you still do it if you think it's terrifying? Me, I'm not scared of nothin', just like Superman. That's why I do the whole superhero thing."

Total bold-faced lie about that fear thing.

"You get used to it. Pretty soon it's just a thing. He's really..." Not harmless, wrong word. The Doctor was anything but harmless. "I'd trust him with my life, with Amy's life. There aren't many people I can say that about. I'm glad he could help, I hope he can help us find a solution."

He smiled. "I may be scared, but that doesn't mean I can just go home. Anymore than the rest of us can. Amy wanted to go, and I couldn't let her go alone. It's interesting, I've gotten used to it. Sometimes it's even fun."

He paused, studying the youth in the bubble quietly. "Not afraid? Everyone's afraid. That's what tells us when it's time to run, I guess. Or that's what I think anyway. Helpful, too. If we're afraid for other people, it gives us the courage to fight."

Kon listened with rapt attention to Rory talking about the doctor. Traveling all over the place, having adventures? He was used to that. But what was fascinating to him was that Rory said he trusted him with his life.

What a life that was! Someone taking you along to see all kinds of amazing things, that you could always trust to have at your back. It sounded exciting. Superboy was often that person for other people--the exciting character in someone else's life that took them by the hand and got them involved in a ton of excitement. The idea of someone else like that, someone that he got the distinct feeling would be even more interesting than he was, was, well...interesting.

But the fear stuff, that--

"Superman doesn't get afraid. Ever. So I don't either." He squirmed a bit, his body language revealing the opposite of his words, "Like, for instance, I'm not afraid right now about this age thing. Not at all."

It was somehow both sad and heartwarming, to watch Conner get wrapped up in his stories. He was very rarely the center of anyone's attention, the easiest one to forget. The less attractive and interesting one, it was almost flattering.

"Have you ever asked him? I'd bet he does. Everyone is, sometimes. Some people just have a harder time showing it. It's ok, you know. To be scared. No one thinks less of you, it just makes you human."

Normalcy was overrated. Overwhelming normalcy in the face of adventure and fear, that was...

Kon skipped right over the subject.

"So you do all that stuff when you're afraid? Like, go out and see the universe, fight monsters, when you're scared the whole time? And you still just do it anyway? You're a normal guy with no powers, right?"

He shrugged, data pad on his knee. "What choice do I have? I won't be any less afraid if I freeze up, will I? Monsters don't just...go away because you're scared. There's something profound in that, I guess. The people you love will still be out there risking themselves, even if you stay home and hide. You'll just be waiting and never knowing if the worst happened to them. And yeah, I'm just a guy. A nurse. No powers. Not the top of my class or anything like that."

Melting Clock: Quarantine

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