"Salt in the Wound"
The starship had already left Earth's atmosphere, headed toward places unknown. Onboard was the inventor of the ship, the cold, calculating AI unit known as Brainiac. Also on board were his two captives: Connor Kent, the previous Superboy, and the current holder of the title, Jonathan Kent, the son of Clark Kent and Lois Lane-Kent.
Connor Kent could feel the cold, metallic hands of Brainiac around his neck as the robot carried home down the hallway. The red sun filters overhead were keeping Connor powerless as he struggled in the grip of one of Superman's greatest enemies. He couldn't talk with the cold hand closed around his throat, and he had no strength to fight back with. The only thing keeping from losing consciousness was the promise he'd given Superman before the Man of Steel had been jettisoned, and that was to keep young Jon Kent from harm.
"Of all the allies Kal-El has, you are the most expendable," Brainiac said. "Kal-El has the honor of being one of the few full Kryptonians left; the hybrid will provide me with much knowledge of how Kryptonian DNA affects other species. Even the canine possesses critical data within his DNA structure that I wish to possess. But you? The clone hybrid of Kal-El and the human worm Lex Luthor? You have nothing to provide me that I cannot get from others. To that end, you will die here, doing nothing more for your legacy than having your twisted DNA recycled for further experiments. If it wasn't apparent before, the hybrid's creation rendered you 100% useless."
Brainiac opened the door to a small room and tossed Connor in before sealing it shut. The young man quickly got up and started pounding on the door, but his cries went unheard outside of the sound proof chamber.
"Goodbye, useless clone," Brainiac said as he pushed a button. "Within 30 minutes, you will be ripped apart to the molecular level, your individual atoms being separated by order of importance. The bars on the monitor, once full, represent everything that has been ripped from your body. Now I must go prep the hybrid for his surgery."
A humming was heard as Connor felt a sharp pain in his stomach. He fell to his knees as he looked at his hands. He could already feel his body being affected by the chamber.
"No," Connor whispered. "It's not going to end like this. I'm coming to save you, kid."
Looking around, Connor saw a panel on the wall next to the door. He forced himself up and leaned a hand against the wall to support his weakening body. He reached into his pocket and found a pocket knife, a gift from Jonathan Kent when he was living on the Kent Farm.
"Every boy should always be prepared," Jonathan said as he handed Connor the knife. "Super powers or not, you never know when this will come in handy."
And from that moment on, Connor carried that pocket knife with him where ever he went, no matter what adventure he went on. Gathering together all of his strength, Connor opened the knife and forced open the control panel, seeing nothing but wires and flashing buttons. The former Superboy started ripping out the wires and smashing the buttons, hoping it would do something. He finally lost the rest of his energy as he fell to the ground. The humming stopped and the lights soon dimmed. The door slowly creaked open as Connor tried raising his head.
"I'm not dead yet, you metal son of a bitch," Connor said through gritted teeth. He forced himself to his feet and even though his body was in intense pain, he walked out of the chamber, passing by the monitor on the wall. While all the bars were less than 1% full, one was fully green and reading 100%.
# # # # # # # # # #
"I'm not afraid of you!" Superboy shouted while strapped to a table. "My dad's coming, and he's going to kick your butt!"
"You have inherited Kal-El's courage," Brainiac said. "I will teach you to fear, hybrid. I will keep you alive as I dissect you for as long as possible. The pain will be intense, and while my programming does not allow me to feel pleasure, I will get some satisfaction from teaching you what real pain feels like."
"Do your worst, I won't scream for you," Superboy told him. "I won't cry or beg for you. Because I'm not afraid of you, and I'll die knowing that my family loves me."
"We shall see, hybrid," Brainiac said as he held up a saw. "I look forward to the first tear that falls from your eye."
# # # # # # # # # #
Nearby, Connor had ripped his shirt apart to make a long rope, attaching it to various points in various rooms connected to an alarm system.
"I'm coming, Jonny," Connor said as he gave a good yank, setting off alarms from several different directions.
# # # # # # # # # #
Brainiac was just inches away from cutting into Superboy's chest with a bone saw when the alarms started going off.
"The clone is smarter than I give him credit for," Brainiac said. "I will have to kill him personally."
"NO!" Superboy shouted. "Please!"
"Aha, so I have found something that scares you," Brainiac said, seeing a tear in Superboy's eye. "The clone is important to you for some reason."
"He's my big brother!" Superboy shouted. "And I love him! Don't hurt him!"
"In that case, I shall return with him intact," Brainiac said. "Then I shall flay him right in front of your eyes, just before I begin the dissection. You will learn fear, hybrid."
As soon as Brainiac left the room, Connor flipped down from above the doorway and silently made his way to the table.
"Hey, kid, you miss me?" Connor whispered, covering Superboy's mouth before he could say anything. "Keep your voice down, kid, we don't want that cyber-scrotum to hear us," Connor said as he started untying Superboy. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah," Superboy whispered. "I tried to be strong, Connor, but he said he was going to kill you and I got scared."
Connor just ran a hand through the boy's hair. "You were scared for me?"
"Well, you're like my brother," Superboy told him. "I don't want to lose you."
"Get on my back, kid, we're getting out of here," Connor told him. "Your dad is coming and I promised to keep you safe."
"But how are we going to stay away from Brainiac?" Superboy asked. "We don't have our powers and when my dad comes, he'll be weakened, too."
"You're right, we need to take out those red sun filters," Connor said as he carried Superboy out of the room. "But how? We can't fly and we have no weapons."
"Well, we could climb," Superboy told him as he looked up. "There's a box up there, I'll bet there's something to shut if off in there. I'm small enough to shimmy up those pipes. I can do it, Connor."
Connor sighed as he looked at his little brother. "Okay, kid, I know you can do this. Just be careful and..." Connor handed him his knife. "You might need this."
Superboy jumped off of Connor's back and looked up at the distance he had to climb. "Alright, Jon, you've climbed trees this big back home, you can do this."
Kicking off his sneakers, Superboy jumped onto the pipe and started climbing his way up as Connor kept a look out for Brainiac. "Come on, kid, you got this."
Superboy pulled out the pocket knife and opened the panel, seeing all kinds of switches and wires. "What do I do? Okay, Superboy, focus. Damien would know how to disconnect the wires and push the right buttons, but I'm not good with electronics like he is. What would Connor do?"
Superboy thought for a moment before he started ripping out wires and smashing the buttons. The red sun filters all around the ship started flickering before finally shorting out, leaving the ship bathed only in emergency lights.
"He did it," Connor smiled as Brainiac grabbed Connor by the neck from behind and lifted him into the air. "I underestimated you, clone. I won't make that mistake again."
"Let him go!" Superboy shouted as he dropped onto Brainiac's back to attack him. Brainiac tossed Connor against the wall, where the young man fell, cutting his leg on a piece of sharp metal. As Superboy struggled to fight Brainiac, the villain grabbed Superboy and slammed him onto the ground, rendering him unconscious before lifting him up by the arm. The boy dangled there as Brainiac's evil eyes glowed in the darkness.
"That should remove any further fight from you," Brainiac said. "Now we teach you the true meaning of fear."
It was then that a pounding came from the wall. Seconds later, the wall was torn open like tin foil as Superman stepped through, his eyes glowing with his heat vision.
"Brainiac, it's time we had a little talk,"
"It looks like the clone was not the only I underestimated," Brainiac said as Lois looked through the hole and saw her son hanging unconscious in Brainiac's hands.
"What has he done to our son?" Lois asked.
"Nothing permanent, yet," Brainiac said as he tossed Superboy to the side where Connor was trying to nurse his bleeding leg. Connor pulled Superboy close to him, ignoring his own wound.
"Come on, kid," Connor said. "Open your eyes."
"Let us finish this, Kal-El," Brainiac said. "My new body is an indestructible metal alloy that--"
WHAM!
Superman's fist plowed into Brainiac's chest, sending the robot flying through several walls, where he landed in the lab that he had planned to dissect Superboy. As the villainous robot stood up, he saw that Superman's fist was imprinted in his chest cavity. "This is highly illogical!"
"There's nothing illogical about a father's love for his child," Superman said as he flew into the room. "But you know nothing about love, do you?"
"Mama?" Superboy asked as Lois held him in her arms.
"It's me, baby," Lois smiled as Superboy started to open his eyes.
"Was I dreaming?"
"I wish it was a dream, but don't worry, we're going home very soon," Lois promised as she looked at Connor. "Thank you for keeping him safe."
"Hey, that's what family is for, right?" Connor asked. "We protect each other."
Brainiac rushed to get a punch in, but Superman blocked him and hit Brainiac with an uppercut, sending him flying back onto a table. As he reached for a button to summon the tentacles to distract Superman, the Man of Steel used his heat vision to explode the remote in his hand.
"No more games, Brainiac!" Superman said as he strolled calmly toward the table. "No more distractions, no more putting lives at risk just to spite me. You messed with my boys, the most unforgivable thing that you can do. This is where everything ends, Brainiac. This time, I shut you down for good."
"Do not make promises you cannot keep, Kal-El," Brainiac said. "I am not one your mere human threats. I am Brainiac. I am forever--"
Superman put all of his strength into a punch that knocked Brainiac's head clean off, sending it flying into the wall.
"This will never end, Kal-El, I will keep coming back," Brainiac's head said as Superman floated away. "And I will destroy the house of Jor-El, and all of its heirs."
"And I'll be waiting," Superman said as he picked up Brainiac's head, crushing it in his hands like tin foil.
# # # # # # # # # #
Lois had helped Superboy and Connor to the small blue spaceship with the 'S' shield on the front, a craft that Superman often used for deep space travel. Superman flew into the docking bay and looked in through the window.
"Brainiac's gone, for now. Go, I have one last thing to do," Superman said. "I'll meet you out there. Are they okay?"
"Nothing a little solar energy won't fix," Lois told him. "Be careful, Smallville. See you in a few."
The ship headed outside as Superman followed, before flying under Brainiac's ship, grabbing it by the tentacle and swinging it around as fast as he could before launching it into the nearest star, causing it to implode. Superman flew back to the ship and took his seat next to Lois, who was holding Superboy in her lap. Superman took the ship as close to the sun as he could, looking at his son.
"How are you feeling?" Superman asked.
"Stronger," Superboy said. "I knew you'd come for us."
"Connor? How are you feeling?" Superman asked as he looked back. Connor remained silent as he stared at the sun. He didn't feel any stronger. In fact, he felt as weak as ever. And his leg wasn't healing like it should with the yellow sun powering him.
"Uh, yeah, I'm doing great," Connor lied in barely a whisper.
# # # # # # # # # #
Several light-years away, inside of a barren, hollowed out planet
"Kal-El has not defeated me, he has only delayed the inevitable," Brainiac's said as his consciousness returned to his home base. "It would seem that this ‘love’ has increased his strength and willingness to sacrifice himself for the greater good. That will be factored into my next scheme. But perhaps it is time to finally unleash my full fury on the last son of Krypton. No, Kal-el has not defeated me. Brainiac cannot be defeated.
Brainiac is undefeatable.”
Brainiac is immortal."
Brainiac's consciousness downloaded into a new body, whose eyes started to glow a blood red in the darkness as the lights turned on around him, revealing thousands of Brainiac duplicate bodies.
"Brainiac is infinite."
# # # # # # # # # #
SUPERMAN FAMILY ALBUM
"This is Lance Snyder," Pete said as he stood over the grave with Clark. "Why was it so important that you find a kid who died years ago?"
"The history of the Snyder house got me curious," Clark told him. In reality, he'd been visited in a dream by the ghost of the boy who told Clark to find him. "I just wanted to know the history."
"Most guys our age are into playing sports and getting rejected by girls," Pete said.
Clark just stared at the grave, using his x-ray vision to peer down into the casket, which he had been shocked to discover was empty.
"I'm going back to the Snyder house tonight, want to come?"
Pete just started laughing, before stopping to stare at Clark.
"No."
# # # # # # # # # #
Later that night, Clark returned to the Snyder place, climbing in through the window. He walked into the parlor and looked around. "Lance?"
A loud thumping was heard from far away, that sounded like it was getting closer.
"GO AWAY!" a booming voice shouted, knocking Clark across the room. He hit the wall and quickly got back to his feet.
"I take it there's more than one ghost here," Clark said. "Come on, tough guy, I'm not your normal visitor. I came to see Lance, and I'm not leaving until I do."
Furniture started flying at Clark, who just punched his way through it.
"It's going to take a lot more than that to--"
Clark was cut off as a grand piano slammed into him, knocking him through the wall He fell onto his back as he saw a white light hovering over him. "Lance?"
"The basement," the ghost whispered as the light faded. Clark stood up and looked around, finally seeing the basement entrance. Just as the opened the door, it slammed shut before he could get in.
"Uh, yeah, I can do this," Clark said as he simply ripped the door off of its hinges and tossed it to the side. Grabbing his flashlight, he slowly walked down the stairs, not knowing what to expect. The basement was dark and dusty, filled with all manner of old items, ranging from tools to toys. "Why would a ghost kid be hanging out in the basement?"
As he shined the light around, he saw an ominous dark cloud forming that slammed into him, knocking him to the ground.
"You will die here!" the booming voice said as it grabbed Clark by the foot and started dragging him. Clark used his heat vision on the cloud, having no effect. Instead, the heat blast hit the wall behind the cloud, which caused the cloud to scream in pain.
"Okay, let's go with that," Clark said as he pulled his foot out of his sneaker and jumped to his feet, aiming for the wall with his heat vision. The blast caused the wall to break apart, revealing the skeleton of a young boy behind it as a flash of white light engulfed the room.
# # # # # # # # # #
"What do you mean he's not my son!" Rick Snyder demanded from his wife.
"I had a fling with the neighbor," his wife said as she was leaving him. "We're going far away from you!"
"Mama, don't leave!" Lance pleaded as he watched the car drive away.
"This... this is your fault!" Rick shouted as he dragged Lance downstairs.
"Daddy, no!"
"I am not your father!" Rick shouted as he started building a wall around his bound son. "You will die for your sins!"
After the wall had been finished, Rick lived for years in the house, finally dying in his sleep one night, then finding that because of what he had done, he was now bound to this house as long as Lance was. No one had lived in the house since then, and it was only Clark, Pete, and Whitney's intrusion that had stirred up the ghosts again.
# # # # # # # # # #
The light faded as Clark saw the ghost of Lance standing between him and his father.
"No," Rick's ghost said as Lance angrily charged at him. "NO!"
The two ghosts collided, destroying Rick in a fiery ball of ghostly anger. Lance turned around and smiled at Clark as he started fading away.
"Thank you."
Clark just stood there, holding his flashlight as he searched for his lost shoe before finally giving up and going home.
# # # # # # # # # #
"And that's how I lost my shoe, Ma," Clark said as his parents just stared at each other.
"That's... that's quite a story, Clark," Jonathan said. "We'll go shopping for a new pair tomorrow. Now go to bed and we'll talk about this more in the morning."
As Clark rushed upstairs, Jonathan looked at Martha. "The old Snyder place. I remember me and my friends thinking about visiting that place."
"Clark doesn't lie," Martha said. "You don't think--"
The couple stared outside into the night sky, wondering if there were really were ghosts out there. But with a son that had come from an alien world, anything could be possible...
Connor Kent could feel the cold, metallic hands of Brainiac around his neck as the robot carried home down the hallway. The red sun filters overhead were keeping Connor powerless as he struggled in the grip of one of Superman's greatest enemies. He couldn't talk with the cold hand closed around his throat, and he had no strength to fight back with. The only thing keeping from losing consciousness was the promise he'd given Superman before the Man of Steel had been jettisoned, and that was to keep young Jon Kent from harm.
"Of all the allies Kal-El has, you are the most expendable," Brainiac said. "Kal-El has the honor of being one of the few full Kryptonians left; the hybrid will provide me with much knowledge of how Kryptonian DNA affects other species. Even the canine possesses critical data within his DNA structure that I wish to possess. But you? The clone hybrid of Kal-El and the human worm Lex Luthor? You have nothing to provide me that I cannot get from others. To that end, you will die here, doing nothing more for your legacy than having your twisted DNA recycled for further experiments. If it wasn't apparent before, the hybrid's creation rendered you 100% useless."
Brainiac opened the door to a small room and tossed Connor in before sealing it shut. The young man quickly got up and started pounding on the door, but his cries went unheard outside of the sound proof chamber.
"Goodbye, useless clone," Brainiac said as he pushed a button. "Within 30 minutes, you will be ripped apart to the molecular level, your individual atoms being separated by order of importance. The bars on the monitor, once full, represent everything that has been ripped from your body. Now I must go prep the hybrid for his surgery."
A humming was heard as Connor felt a sharp pain in his stomach. He fell to his knees as he looked at his hands. He could already feel his body being affected by the chamber.
"No," Connor whispered. "It's not going to end like this. I'm coming to save you, kid."
Looking around, Connor saw a panel on the wall next to the door. He forced himself up and leaned a hand against the wall to support his weakening body. He reached into his pocket and found a pocket knife, a gift from Jonathan Kent when he was living on the Kent Farm.
"Every boy should always be prepared," Jonathan said as he handed Connor the knife. "Super powers or not, you never know when this will come in handy."
And from that moment on, Connor carried that pocket knife with him where ever he went, no matter what adventure he went on. Gathering together all of his strength, Connor opened the knife and forced open the control panel, seeing nothing but wires and flashing buttons. The former Superboy started ripping out the wires and smashing the buttons, hoping it would do something. He finally lost the rest of his energy as he fell to the ground. The humming stopped and the lights soon dimmed. The door slowly creaked open as Connor tried raising his head.
"I'm not dead yet, you metal son of a bitch," Connor said through gritted teeth. He forced himself to his feet and even though his body was in intense pain, he walked out of the chamber, passing by the monitor on the wall. While all the bars were less than 1% full, one was fully green and reading 100%.
# # # # # # # # # #
"I'm not afraid of you!" Superboy shouted while strapped to a table. "My dad's coming, and he's going to kick your butt!"
"You have inherited Kal-El's courage," Brainiac said. "I will teach you to fear, hybrid. I will keep you alive as I dissect you for as long as possible. The pain will be intense, and while my programming does not allow me to feel pleasure, I will get some satisfaction from teaching you what real pain feels like."
"Do your worst, I won't scream for you," Superboy told him. "I won't cry or beg for you. Because I'm not afraid of you, and I'll die knowing that my family loves me."
"We shall see, hybrid," Brainiac said as he held up a saw. "I look forward to the first tear that falls from your eye."
# # # # # # # # # #
Nearby, Connor had ripped his shirt apart to make a long rope, attaching it to various points in various rooms connected to an alarm system.
"I'm coming, Jonny," Connor said as he gave a good yank, setting off alarms from several different directions.
# # # # # # # # # #
Brainiac was just inches away from cutting into Superboy's chest with a bone saw when the alarms started going off.
"The clone is smarter than I give him credit for," Brainiac said. "I will have to kill him personally."
"NO!" Superboy shouted. "Please!"
"Aha, so I have found something that scares you," Brainiac said, seeing a tear in Superboy's eye. "The clone is important to you for some reason."
"He's my big brother!" Superboy shouted. "And I love him! Don't hurt him!"
"In that case, I shall return with him intact," Brainiac said. "Then I shall flay him right in front of your eyes, just before I begin the dissection. You will learn fear, hybrid."
As soon as Brainiac left the room, Connor flipped down from above the doorway and silently made his way to the table.
"Hey, kid, you miss me?" Connor whispered, covering Superboy's mouth before he could say anything. "Keep your voice down, kid, we don't want that cyber-scrotum to hear us," Connor said as he started untying Superboy. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah," Superboy whispered. "I tried to be strong, Connor, but he said he was going to kill you and I got scared."
Connor just ran a hand through the boy's hair. "You were scared for me?"
"Well, you're like my brother," Superboy told him. "I don't want to lose you."
"Get on my back, kid, we're getting out of here," Connor told him. "Your dad is coming and I promised to keep you safe."
"But how are we going to stay away from Brainiac?" Superboy asked. "We don't have our powers and when my dad comes, he'll be weakened, too."
"You're right, we need to take out those red sun filters," Connor said as he carried Superboy out of the room. "But how? We can't fly and we have no weapons."
"Well, we could climb," Superboy told him as he looked up. "There's a box up there, I'll bet there's something to shut if off in there. I'm small enough to shimmy up those pipes. I can do it, Connor."
Connor sighed as he looked at his little brother. "Okay, kid, I know you can do this. Just be careful and..." Connor handed him his knife. "You might need this."
Superboy jumped off of Connor's back and looked up at the distance he had to climb. "Alright, Jon, you've climbed trees this big back home, you can do this."
Kicking off his sneakers, Superboy jumped onto the pipe and started climbing his way up as Connor kept a look out for Brainiac. "Come on, kid, you got this."
Superboy pulled out the pocket knife and opened the panel, seeing all kinds of switches and wires. "What do I do? Okay, Superboy, focus. Damien would know how to disconnect the wires and push the right buttons, but I'm not good with electronics like he is. What would Connor do?"
Superboy thought for a moment before he started ripping out wires and smashing the buttons. The red sun filters all around the ship started flickering before finally shorting out, leaving the ship bathed only in emergency lights.
"He did it," Connor smiled as Brainiac grabbed Connor by the neck from behind and lifted him into the air. "I underestimated you, clone. I won't make that mistake again."
"Let him go!" Superboy shouted as he dropped onto Brainiac's back to attack him. Brainiac tossed Connor against the wall, where the young man fell, cutting his leg on a piece of sharp metal. As Superboy struggled to fight Brainiac, the villain grabbed Superboy and slammed him onto the ground, rendering him unconscious before lifting him up by the arm. The boy dangled there as Brainiac's evil eyes glowed in the darkness.
"That should remove any further fight from you," Brainiac said. "Now we teach you the true meaning of fear."
It was then that a pounding came from the wall. Seconds later, the wall was torn open like tin foil as Superman stepped through, his eyes glowing with his heat vision.
"Brainiac, it's time we had a little talk,"
"It looks like the clone was not the only I underestimated," Brainiac said as Lois looked through the hole and saw her son hanging unconscious in Brainiac's hands.
"What has he done to our son?" Lois asked.
"Nothing permanent, yet," Brainiac said as he tossed Superboy to the side where Connor was trying to nurse his bleeding leg. Connor pulled Superboy close to him, ignoring his own wound.
"Come on, kid," Connor said. "Open your eyes."
"Let us finish this, Kal-El," Brainiac said. "My new body is an indestructible metal alloy that--"
WHAM!
Superman's fist plowed into Brainiac's chest, sending the robot flying through several walls, where he landed in the lab that he had planned to dissect Superboy. As the villainous robot stood up, he saw that Superman's fist was imprinted in his chest cavity. "This is highly illogical!"
"There's nothing illogical about a father's love for his child," Superman said as he flew into the room. "But you know nothing about love, do you?"
"Mama?" Superboy asked as Lois held him in her arms.
"It's me, baby," Lois smiled as Superboy started to open his eyes.
"Was I dreaming?"
"I wish it was a dream, but don't worry, we're going home very soon," Lois promised as she looked at Connor. "Thank you for keeping him safe."
"Hey, that's what family is for, right?" Connor asked. "We protect each other."
Brainiac rushed to get a punch in, but Superman blocked him and hit Brainiac with an uppercut, sending him flying back onto a table. As he reached for a button to summon the tentacles to distract Superman, the Man of Steel used his heat vision to explode the remote in his hand.
"No more games, Brainiac!" Superman said as he strolled calmly toward the table. "No more distractions, no more putting lives at risk just to spite me. You messed with my boys, the most unforgivable thing that you can do. This is where everything ends, Brainiac. This time, I shut you down for good."
"Do not make promises you cannot keep, Kal-El," Brainiac said. "I am not one your mere human threats. I am Brainiac. I am forever--"
Superman put all of his strength into a punch that knocked Brainiac's head clean off, sending it flying into the wall.
"This will never end, Kal-El, I will keep coming back," Brainiac's head said as Superman floated away. "And I will destroy the house of Jor-El, and all of its heirs."
"And I'll be waiting," Superman said as he picked up Brainiac's head, crushing it in his hands like tin foil.
# # # # # # # # # #
Lois had helped Superboy and Connor to the small blue spaceship with the 'S' shield on the front, a craft that Superman often used for deep space travel. Superman flew into the docking bay and looked in through the window.
"Brainiac's gone, for now. Go, I have one last thing to do," Superman said. "I'll meet you out there. Are they okay?"
"Nothing a little solar energy won't fix," Lois told him. "Be careful, Smallville. See you in a few."
The ship headed outside as Superman followed, before flying under Brainiac's ship, grabbing it by the tentacle and swinging it around as fast as he could before launching it into the nearest star, causing it to implode. Superman flew back to the ship and took his seat next to Lois, who was holding Superboy in her lap. Superman took the ship as close to the sun as he could, looking at his son.
"How are you feeling?" Superman asked.
"Stronger," Superboy said. "I knew you'd come for us."
"Connor? How are you feeling?" Superman asked as he looked back. Connor remained silent as he stared at the sun. He didn't feel any stronger. In fact, he felt as weak as ever. And his leg wasn't healing like it should with the yellow sun powering him.
"Uh, yeah, I'm doing great," Connor lied in barely a whisper.
# # # # # # # # # #
Several light-years away, inside of a barren, hollowed out planet
"Kal-El has not defeated me, he has only delayed the inevitable," Brainiac's said as his consciousness returned to his home base. "It would seem that this ‘love’ has increased his strength and willingness to sacrifice himself for the greater good. That will be factored into my next scheme. But perhaps it is time to finally unleash my full fury on the last son of Krypton. No, Kal-el has not defeated me. Brainiac cannot be defeated.
Brainiac is undefeatable.”
Brainiac is immortal."
Brainiac's consciousness downloaded into a new body, whose eyes started to glow a blood red in the darkness as the lights turned on around him, revealing thousands of Brainiac duplicate bodies.
"Brainiac is infinite."
# # # # # # # # # #
SUPERMAN FAMILY ALBUM
"This is Lance Snyder," Pete said as he stood over the grave with Clark. "Why was it so important that you find a kid who died years ago?"
"The history of the Snyder house got me curious," Clark told him. In reality, he'd been visited in a dream by the ghost of the boy who told Clark to find him. "I just wanted to know the history."
"Most guys our age are into playing sports and getting rejected by girls," Pete said.
Clark just stared at the grave, using his x-ray vision to peer down into the casket, which he had been shocked to discover was empty.
"I'm going back to the Snyder house tonight, want to come?"
Pete just started laughing, before stopping to stare at Clark.
"No."
# # # # # # # # # #
Later that night, Clark returned to the Snyder place, climbing in through the window. He walked into the parlor and looked around. "Lance?"
A loud thumping was heard from far away, that sounded like it was getting closer.
"GO AWAY!" a booming voice shouted, knocking Clark across the room. He hit the wall and quickly got back to his feet.
"I take it there's more than one ghost here," Clark said. "Come on, tough guy, I'm not your normal visitor. I came to see Lance, and I'm not leaving until I do."
Furniture started flying at Clark, who just punched his way through it.
"It's going to take a lot more than that to--"
Clark was cut off as a grand piano slammed into him, knocking him through the wall He fell onto his back as he saw a white light hovering over him. "Lance?"
"The basement," the ghost whispered as the light faded. Clark stood up and looked around, finally seeing the basement entrance. Just as the opened the door, it slammed shut before he could get in.
"Uh, yeah, I can do this," Clark said as he simply ripped the door off of its hinges and tossed it to the side. Grabbing his flashlight, he slowly walked down the stairs, not knowing what to expect. The basement was dark and dusty, filled with all manner of old items, ranging from tools to toys. "Why would a ghost kid be hanging out in the basement?"
As he shined the light around, he saw an ominous dark cloud forming that slammed into him, knocking him to the ground.
"You will die here!" the booming voice said as it grabbed Clark by the foot and started dragging him. Clark used his heat vision on the cloud, having no effect. Instead, the heat blast hit the wall behind the cloud, which caused the cloud to scream in pain.
"Okay, let's go with that," Clark said as he pulled his foot out of his sneaker and jumped to his feet, aiming for the wall with his heat vision. The blast caused the wall to break apart, revealing the skeleton of a young boy behind it as a flash of white light engulfed the room.
# # # # # # # # # #
"What do you mean he's not my son!" Rick Snyder demanded from his wife.
"I had a fling with the neighbor," his wife said as she was leaving him. "We're going far away from you!"
"Mama, don't leave!" Lance pleaded as he watched the car drive away.
"This... this is your fault!" Rick shouted as he dragged Lance downstairs.
"Daddy, no!"
"I am not your father!" Rick shouted as he started building a wall around his bound son. "You will die for your sins!"
After the wall had been finished, Rick lived for years in the house, finally dying in his sleep one night, then finding that because of what he had done, he was now bound to this house as long as Lance was. No one had lived in the house since then, and it was only Clark, Pete, and Whitney's intrusion that had stirred up the ghosts again.
# # # # # # # # # #
The light faded as Clark saw the ghost of Lance standing between him and his father.
"No," Rick's ghost said as Lance angrily charged at him. "NO!"
The two ghosts collided, destroying Rick in a fiery ball of ghostly anger. Lance turned around and smiled at Clark as he started fading away.
"Thank you."
Clark just stood there, holding his flashlight as he searched for his lost shoe before finally giving up and going home.
# # # # # # # # # #
"And that's how I lost my shoe, Ma," Clark said as his parents just stared at each other.
"That's... that's quite a story, Clark," Jonathan said. "We'll go shopping for a new pair tomorrow. Now go to bed and we'll talk about this more in the morning."
As Clark rushed upstairs, Jonathan looked at Martha. "The old Snyder place. I remember me and my friends thinking about visiting that place."
"Clark doesn't lie," Martha said. "You don't think--"
The couple stared outside into the night sky, wondering if there were really were ghosts out there. But with a son that had come from an alien world, anything could be possible...