"I wanna go outside."
The request was to be expected from a child his age who had been cooped up inside of planes, automobiles, and offices all day. Slouched down in his seat, Lor's feet swung freely as he gazed lazily out the window of the private jet that he and Dabney had been ushered into by more of the men in black suits. Except with them now was that same lady who had argued with Dabney back at the lab a few days earlier. She sat next to Lor and kept trying to make conversation with him. For his part, Dabney Donovan sat across from the Superboy with his head in his hands. "Not now, kid," the man uttered, irritation showing through his voice in uncharacteristic tone that slightly worried the boy. Lor didn't understand what all was going on. Apparently neither did Dabney.
"The plane will land in a little while, then you can go outside," Fionna Ross said, speaking up from beside the child as she reached over to gently brush a strand of his sandy brown hair out of his face.
With a loud huff of a sigh, Lor sank down further in his seat. He was bored! And this was worse than a thousand Starro-thingies.
"Why can't I just fly myself?" the child asked plaintively.
"Dammit, I said
not now!" Donovan snapped, locking an angry gaze on Superboy with such an unexpected fervor that the boy actually jumped in surprise.
Fionna's hand landed atop his head in a gentle pat. "Do you promise to stay with the plane?" the woman asked, eliciting a reluctant nod from the boy before she turned to one of the men in black with them and said, "Jerome, tell the pilots to lower our altitude and then let him go play."
It was another minute before the door to the private Gulfstream was opened and Lor had leapt into the wild blue yonder. Closing his eyes, the boy let himself be immersed in the feeling of total
freedom as the whip whipped his clothing around his slight and small frame. It was almost like being back in the Phantom Zone. Like being back
home.
A second later the passengers inside the bizjet heard the echo of the sonic boom created by the Superboy's passage through the air, as the child went rocketing far beyond the clouds.
"YA-hoooooooooo!" Throwing out his arms and legs, the boy just let himself freefall back toward the Earth, before taking control of the glide and performing loops around the plane.
"So what's your game?"
It was Dabney's voice. With his hearing, Lor could still hear the conversation inside of the plane. He could hear the anger and bitterness in the man's voice. He was upset, not just at the woman but he wasn't happy with her either.
"Are you sure you want to know? I mean, it's obvious now that you have no idea just how the game is played," the woman answered calmly. Lor was beginning to get the message that whatever was going on, Miss Fionna was in charge.
"Let's start with where we're going. That's the eastern seaboard below us, but we're headed south. Metropolis is north of DC, Miss Ross."
The comment was the first time that Lor had realized there was an ocean beneath them. But it was on their left when it should have been on their right. And the climate was warmer than either Washington or Metropolis. Dropping several hundred feet in mere moments, the young Superboy skimmed along the surface of the Atlantic as he continued to listen in on the adult's conversation.
"Don't you know? It was your suggestion, Doctor Donovan. We're going to Sweet Home Alabama, home of the U.S. Space Camp."
"Camp?" Lor echoed, trying to recall where he'd heard that term before. Then he remembered Albert Michaels telling him about this camp thing and that kids went there to play together. Looping through the air again, Lor arced his back and allowed a smile to wash over his features. He'd never met another kid before. He was pretty sure that he'd been the only one in the Phantom Zone. And he hadn't met any kids since he'd come to Earth either. Of course, human kids would be weak by definition but even a weak playmate was better than no playmate.
And whether humans were weak or not... Lor suddenly found himself overcome by a desire to play with other kids.
"Why?"
"Because I can, and because you obviously don't know what you're doing. You wanted the United States government to endorse a metahuman and had absolutely no idea what politics would be involved. Superman gives the entire Joint Chiefs of Staff penis envy. He's the soldier they dream of being."
That comment almost stopped Lor dead in the air.
"Superman? A soldier?" the boy uttered, before breaking out in a giggly-laugh. Superman was barely adequate as Kryptonians went. He'd have never made it in Dru-Zod's army, of that Lor was certain. If humans thought that Superman was a soldier, and were scared of
that, then General Dru-Zod would more than terrify them.
"No, I mean... why are you doing this?"
"The Department of Metahuman Affairs has a lot of interest in keeping the growing population of metahumans in check. Registration, for example. It might be repulsive that we want to treat Superboy and others like him as though they were sex offenders, but its in the public interest to know who and where these people are, and what they can do. Congress hasn't bought off on the registration idea yet though."
Lor began to slow down, trailing behind the chair as he nervously grabbed a hold of his t-shirt and fidgeted slightly. He wasn't really understanding the conversation, but he didn't like the way that Miss Fionna talked about him.
"But using a child for animal testing to develop some kind of silver bullet to bring down Superman? If anything the DMA has a vested interest in preventing that from happening."
The Superboy's faun brown eyes opened wide at the turn in conversation.
"Testing?" He didn't understand what they were talking about, but something about it made him nervous.
"I'm not sure I understand."
"The DMA was create to enforce regulations and recommend policy changes with regard to increasing our understanding of metahumans and their place in American society. If the public found out that the U.S. government were experimenting on metahumans, especially metahuman children, that would cause irreparable damage to human-metahuman relations in America."
Experiment... on him? That idea did stop the Superboy in mid-air. The plane had turned away from the seaboard, flying over a city whose name was 'Atlanta' from what the boy could pick up on the streets below. Maybe he could find that Keystone place and get Flash to help him make sense out of what the adults were talking about.
"So what are we doing here?"
"A press conference."
"A press conference?"
"The DMA flew in the crew of the Space Shuttle Excalibur just a few minutes ago. They're excited at the prospect of meeting the individual responsible for the shuttle rescue, as well as the rescue of Micah Flint."
"But the Pentagon said..."
"**** the Pentagon. This is politics, Doctor Donovan. Once the public knows about Superboy, we'll have let loose a genie who isn't so easily put back into the bottle."
Lor could at least understand enough to realize that Ross and Donovan weren't doing anything bad for the time being. And it wasn't like he had any place else to go. What was he supposed to do, find Superman and live with him? Lor would just as soon go live on the moon. So the boy began to follow after the plane again, but the wind had been taken out of his sails. They wanted to
use him.
One thing was clear: Lor-Zod was alone on this world.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
"Ladies and gentlemen..."
Dabney Donovan's boomed over a crowd of parent and child campers that were flanked on either side by media from throughout the United States and international outlets. A large American flag draped the back of the stage, upon which sat the commander and crew of the Space Shuttle Excalibur mission that Lor had assisted with. Minus of course Micah Flint, whom Lor hadn't seen since leaving the man at Pike Island with Doctor Michaels.
"...members of the press..."
Behind the crowd, Fionna Ross stood with her arms around Lor as the two were flanked by the ubiquitous men in black. "When I tell you to, I want you to fly over to the stage beside Donovan," the woman remarked quietly.
"...crew of the Space Shuttle Excalibur..."
"What is this?" the boy asked, bewildered. Was this what a press thingy was?
"...on behalf of NASA and the Department of Metahuman Affairs..."
"You'll see," Fionna said, withdrawing her arms and gently shoving the boy off."Go, go!"
"...I give you, your hero..."
Soaring above the crowd, the young Kryptonian flipped through the air to land on the stage beside Donovan.
"SUPERBOY!"
