Disclaimer: I do not own either Young Justice or its related characters. Such are the property of DC Comics, Warner Bros. Entertainment and Cartoon Network. I'm just borrowing them for some non-profit entertainment.

Signals

Epilogue: The Day

One Year Later…

Unknown Location, Kansas

April 12 – 1:16 am

Wally slipped on the icy floor and went sliding on his ass on a collision course with Artemis's feet. The two collapsed in a heap and would have been frozen in place by a blast from Mr. Freeze's ray had the Boy Wonder not stepped in immediately.

Two robinrangs sailed through the air, impacted on the ice-villain's fishbowl-helmet and sent spider-web cracks radiating from them.

"Hmf. Déjà vu." He commented.

The distraction gave both the archer and speedster time to regain their footing and get clear.

Kaldur came up behind the villain, his water-bearers in hand, the constructs formed into whips. Freeze wheeled around and squinted through the cracks in his helmet to aim his ray, not at the atlantian, but his whips. The pliant and mobile water instantly solidified, turned brittle and shattered.

"Really now?" Rocket couldn't help but comment. "There's seven of us and one of him, why is this so difficult?"

"Age and wisdom, my dear. Age and wisdom." The ice-villain chided.

Chunks of ice rose into the air around him, lifted by Miss Martian's telekinesis. "Oh really?" She said. "Tell us the wisdom in this!"

She brought the large ice boulders down on top of him. Or rather, she would have, had he not formed a dome of yet more ice over himself at the last second. Effectively shielding him from her assault.

"Tlem eci!" Zatanna's voice cut through the din and Freeze's protective dome melted around him.

So did all the ice in the warehouse. Everyone was now standing ankle-deep chilly water.

"Thank you, my dear." Freeze smiled behind his cracked helmet. He aimed his ray at the floor and before Dick could exclaim 'Holy icecapades Batman!' everyone was frozen in place. Their feet stuck to the ground by frigid shackles that only moments ago was nothing more than a large puddle. "Well, this has been very refreshing, children. Thank you for the exercise. But I really must be going."

Robin fished in his belt for a small torch to melt his way out or other tool to chip himself free.

Wally began to vibrate his molecules out of the ice.

M'gann shifted the shape of her feet and slithered free.

Kaldur bent the ice around him back into water.

Artemis aimed a fire-tipped arrow at her feet.

Zatanna used the same ice-melting spell as before.

Each of them freed themselves in their own way, intent to go after Freeze. But none of them got to him.

Not because Freeze was to fast for them. Not at all. As villains went, he was pretty slow and lumbering. No, the reason no one on the Team got to Freeze was because someone else got to him first.

He came crashing through the ceiling in a disorderly mess of broken stucco, bent support railings, blue and red spandex, and a leather jacket. He landed a single red-gloved punch on Freeze's already cracked dome. The ice-villain went down instantly, pointing his own ray at his face to insulate him from the relative heat of the outside world. Déjà vu, indeed.

When the dust cleared, the stranger's back was to them, but there as no mistaking that yellow shield on the back of his black leather jacket. He wore red tights below the jacket, not underpants on the outside (or 'kryptonian overpants' as Clark insisted they were called, yeah right), just strait tights that ended in black boots. Two thin leather and utterly functionless belts crossed around his waist and Robin found himself fighting between the urge to sneer at such useless looking belts or to whoop and skip and jump for joy at the realization that this could only be one person.

The newcomer turned around slowly.

There was the iconic S-shield in its proper colors of red and yellow over a background of blue. The blue of his top came down significantly lower in the front than it did in the back, coming to a sharp 90s V-waits that looked worlds better than Clark's 'kryptonian overpants' ever did. There was also a garter on his right leg (for some reason) that they had failed to notice from behind.

It was hard to believe it was him. He was wearing tights for cripes sake! But there was no mistaking that face. It was Superman's face, only two decades younger.

He looked back at them, every fiber of his body radiated self-consciousness as he said, "Hi. I'm-"

"Supey!" Everyone cried.

Well, everyone who knew him. Rocket hung back, she had never really met the Superboy. Zatanna approached, but much more slowly than the others, she had only worked with the Superboy a couple of times.

Everyone else pounced on the young kryptonian clone, throwing him off balance and sending them all clattering to the floor.

From underneath the dog-pile he said, "I'm pleased to make your acquaintance."

…

Bio-ship, somewhere between Kansas and Mount Justice

April 12 – 2:00 am

"So, how did you know where we were?"

"Totally epic entrance dude!"

"Did Batman send you?"

"Its great to see you recovered! We didn't think we'd see you again for like… years!"

Kon sat in his chair in the bio-ship blushing timidly from all the attention. He smiled a hesitant but apologetic smile. "Uh, one at a time, please."

"Do you remember anything?" This question was asked so softly it wasn't so much spoken as it was radiated through out the cabin, originating from the captain's chair. Every head turned to regard Miss Martian. Her back was strait, but not overly so, it looked like just good posture, her hands rested almost casually on the ship's guiding orbs, but her face… her brows where knit together, her eyes hard, her mouth set in a line that was determined to be inexpressive. She was gravely serious.

The Superboy looked almost scared of her severe demeanor for a moment. Then he swallowed a lump in his throat and said in a clear voice. "No, ma'am. I don't remember a thing from before my trauma. Pa says I'm better off not knowing for now."

"'Trauma', is that what we're calling it now?" She asked.

"That's what Pa calls it." He said, then paused, unsure. "The way you're glaring at me I think I might've done something to make you mad? I don't know what it was, but I'm sorry." Kon bent down and fished into his boot. When he came back up, he held in his hand a thin stack of index cards. "Pa did make these for me."

Wally was suddenly leaning over his shoulder. "Ooh! Cheat sheets!"

"Yeah." Said the Superboy. He spread them out on the consol in front of him. "Just little notes and things, ya know, since I can't remember." He studied the cards for a moment. "Miss M'gann, it doesn't say anything about me making you mad here."

"What does it say?" She asked cautiously.

He picked up the card and read. "Miss Martian, real name M'gann M'orzz. We first met on July seventh two years ago when the Team was formed. You complemented me on my shirt. You like baking and watching TV sit-coms from the seventies. You often quote your favorite show when you're nervous. Wally had a crush on you for most of the Team's first year."

He put the card down and looked at her.

"Is that all it says?"

The rest of the ship was deathly silent.

"No, ma'am." Kon shook his head. "It also lists your abilities and stats. Your equipment and stuff like that."

"I see."

The tension in the room was palpable.

Then Wally said, "Ya know, I think we should all take a moment to stop and appreciate what Supey's wearing!"

"Yeah!"

"That's right!"

"Tights!"

Everyone else agreed and suddenly the cabin was full of humor and comradery once again.

"Yeah…" The Superboy said, blushing. "I couldn't find my old uniform from before my trauma. I think Pa might have hidden it. He is so crazy over-protective, you wouldn't believe."

"Stand up, Supey." Insisted the speedster. "Let's look at you."

His self-conscious blush deepening, Kon stood from his chair and walked to the center of the cabin to model his new uniform for everyone.

"Its pretty retro looking." Rocket commented. She may not know the Superboy, but she felt she was well equipped to comment on his outfit. After all, you didn't need a life story to know fashion.

"Yeah. It is." Robin agreed, but not in a good way. He put a hand to his ear as if answering his comm, but they had received no alert. "Yu-huh? Really? Okay, I'll tell him." Then, looking back up at Superboy he said, "That was the 90s calling, they said they want their look back."

"Huh?" Kon didn't get it.

On the other side of the cabin, Wally's hand also went to his ear. "Hello? I'm sorry, I can't here you over the temporal distortion. Say again? Okay. I'll tell them. That was the 90s again. They said they want their joke back too."

"Ooh, diss!" Artemis smiled. She placed a chase kiss on Wally's cheek. "Good one, baby."

This joking and teasing would have continued for some time yet, had M'gann not cut everyone off. "Arriving at Cave in five."

…

Mount Justice

April 12 – 2:56 am

Standard procedure upon exiting the bio-ship after a mission was usually to swing by the kitchen for a juice or snack (or both and then some in the case of Wally), then proceed to the briefing room to give their reports to Batman. That did not happen this time. Instead, upon exiting the bio-ship, they were greeted by an utterly panic-stricken Superman.

"Where is he!" Demanded the Man of Steel and it was impossible to tell if he were on the verge of frying them all with his heat-vision, or breaking down into tearful hysterics. "Is he with you? Please, tell me he's with you!"

"P-Pa!" Kon froze in his steps on the gangplank.

"Oh, thank Rao!" Clark sighed, every fiber in his being sagging with apparent relief. No sooner had his body relaxed, however, then he was once again pulled taught. This time with anger. "What in the name of Rao's flaming pit were you thinking, boy! Where have you been? Don't answer that! I can see. I have been going out of my mind with worry. Do you know that! If Robin hadn't called Batman when you showed up-"

"You tattled!" The Superboy's eyes shifted from his irate father to his former Teammate already at the bottom of the gangplank. Everyone was gathered there, watching the kryptonians intently as if they had just become the most enthralling daytime melodrama ever conceived. 'Like sands through the hourglass, these are public train-wreck-arguments of the Justice League and company.'

"Eyes up here, Kon!" Clark snapped.

"Yes, sir!"

Clark's attention shifted to the red and blue tights he wore as if suddenly seeing them for the first time. He took in the leather jacket, the crossed belts, the black boots, then said, "What's this supposed to be?"

"Hero uniform." Kon answered. "Since… since I couldn't find my old uniform. I've got a million Crest of El T-shirts but no actual hero-costume."

The Superman sighed. Placing both hands on the boy's shoulders, he said, "Kon, I understand you want to use your powers. You want to go out and fight crime and help people and be a hero, but you're just not ready yet."

Kon pushed his father's hands away. "That's what you always say!" He snapped. "I'm 'not ready'! Its 'to dangerous'! 'We'll see'! 'Maybe next month'! 'Today's not the day'! I'm sick of waiting, Pa! When is it gonna be the day! When?"

Behind them, someone cleared their throat uncommonly loud. Everyone gathered, kryptonians and Team alike turned to find the Batman lurking in the corridor's doorframe. "If the Team isn't to busy, I would like to debrief them now."

The Team files out after Batman. Kon moved to follow them.

Clark placed a restraining hand on his shoulder. "And where do you think you're going?"

"To be debriefed by Batman."

"Oh, no you don't." Clark shook his head. He steered the boy towards the closest zetta-tube instead. "You're marching your butt strait home, mister. You're not a member of this Team just yet and if you keep pulling stuff like this, you never will be."

"But, Pa-!"

"No!" Clark repeated. "Today is not the day."

…

Stately Wayne Manor April 13 – 10:30 pm

"…I am not being unreasonable!"

The Dark Knight sighed as he pulled his cowl down over his face and pointedly ignored his friend's bout of parental hysterics. He would calm down in another minuet or two, then they could get back to their actual conversation. Bruce waited. When Clark realized he was not going to indulge the Man of Steel in his ranting, he stopped.

He sighed. "Things were so much easier when all he wanted was to play in the grass with the dogs and jump on hay bales in the barn."

Bruce smiled. "And ask you to take him flying all over the place after it rained looking for the ends of rainbows."

"Yeah…" Clark's shoulders slumped. Kids really did grow up to fast.

"Now he's defying his father's wishes and sneaking out of the house at night to join a gang and beat people up." An ironic smirk. "He's acting like a real teenager."

"I know. I hate it!"

Bruce pulled on a pair of gloves. "Well, get used to it. Because until you start compromising, he's gonna keep sneaking out and doing his little vigilante bit. This time the Team just happened to be in the area –relatively- and he went to meet-up with them. Next time he might decide to just go it solo."

"What do I do?"

"Like I said, compromise."

"You think I should let him join the Team?" Clark blinked in skepticism. "I'm not gonna reward him for bad behavior."

"I didn't say that. Any concessions you make would be conditional on him following whatever rules you lay down. It's the same arrangement Dick and I have. As to him joining the Team, no thank you. Until you work up the balls to tell him he's actually a clone, he'll just be a liability. I can't have him finding out on a mission somehow and becoming hysterical. Until he knows what he is for real, he's a psychological time-bomb I can't afford."

"I'd really rather not tell him. He's so happy believing his really my son –most of the time. And… I'm kinda happy with it too. Its nice –not being the only one of my race anymore."

Bruce just shook his head. "Anyway, while we're still sort of on the subject. The Team has been asking –demanding, actually- to see him. I suggest you throw him a birthday party and invite them. Its two months away, that's long enough for it not to seem like you're 'rewarding' him for this little incident."

"I'll think about it." Once again, Clark's shoulders slumped.

"And about compromising with him on fighting crime, and telling him the truth about where he comes from?"

"I'll think about those too."

…

Kent Family Farm

July 4 – 8:45 pm

The sun had long since dipped low over the west fields, leaving the sky an inky dark-blue that was almost black. A soft summer breeze caressed the tops of the still short stalks of corn. Fireflies buzzed lazily, blinking and flickering as if trying to join in the merriment that wafted frm the porch of the nearby farm-house.

Kon sat on the porch surrounded by a cornucopia of brightly colored papers and ribbons, all in varying increments of torn apart or stuck together with scraps of tape. He ripped the paper from the last gift his former Team had brought and was not surprised to find what could only be another gag-box inside (unless Dick actually thought he wanted a My Little Pony stables-castle, maybe it was some sort of joke between them from before his trauma? Kon just didn't know).

"Thanks." The Superboy muttered.

"Keep going." The Boy Wonder prompted.

With a sigh, Kon opened the new-looking My Little Pony box and withdrew, not a girly horse-themed toy but rather a game controller, followed closely by AV cables, and finally a gaming consol.

"Thanks?" He said again, not fully grasping what he had just received.

"I also got you an online subscription, so you can play with Wally and I." The Robin continued.

"Oh."

Clark gathered up the consol and all its related paraphernalia from the confused boy's lap while he explained, "It's a game. You hook it up to the TV to play."

"Oh." He said again, comprehension finally dawning. Then he turned apologetically to Dick. "I'm not allowed to use the TV."

"I think we can make an exception if it's to play with your friends." Clark assured him. "So long as it doesn't interfere with your studies or your chores around the farm… or any other responsibilities you might have."

"Thanks, Pa!"

The Superman ruffled the boy's hair before gathering up all the gifts the Team had brought him. He blurred into the house and came back a second later holding a wide flat –unwrapped- box under his arm.

"Now, there's one final thing you get to open before clean-up and fireworks." He extended the box to Kon.

He took and placed the plane unwrapped box on his lap. Lifting the lid, Kon found two pieces of tissue paper folded over something. He parted the paper- and froze. Lifting the garment up, it was revealed to be the costume he had worn a little less than two months ago when he'd snuck out of the house to meet up with the Team. It wasn't the costume he had worn, that one he had made out of cotton and flannel and whatever else he could find his Grammy's sewing cabinet that she wouldn't miss. This uniform looked to be made out of the same kryptonian fabric as his Pa's Superman uniform. But it wasn't his father's Superman uniform, it was his Superboy uniform. The high collar, black shoulders, 90s-style V-waist… all his design.

"This is…" Kon began.

Clark smiled.

Kon looked at him. "Does this mean…? Is today the day!"

Clark turned very serious. "Today is not the day. But it is the first step in getting to the day."

…

Bio-ship, somewhere between Kansas and Mount Justice

July 5 – 10:45 am

"Conner doesn't know he's a clone, does he?" Artemis asked suddenly.

Everyone in the cabin turned to face her. They had spent the night at the Kent residence with the boy's bunking it up in Kon's room and the girls occupying Clark's room (the Superman having vacated to his apartment in Metropolis). After a night of barbeque, presents, cake and fireworks and then a morning of stiff necks, grumbles and a large country breakfast the likes of which most of them only believe existed in movies (or Wally's house) they were on their way back to the Cave from which they would zetta to their respective homes.

"No." Dick shook his head. "When Supey woke-up he was like a child. He had to be potty-trained, taught to speak and feed himself… Uncle Supes though it would be better not to complicate the situation further by telling him he's not his real son but a clone."

"I imagine it would be difficult to explain to someone at that mental level as well." Kaldur added.

Dick nodded. "Now he's matured enough that Bats thinks he's ready, but Supes is still holding back."

"What will he do if it comes up?" M'gann asked from the captain's chair. Out of all of them she had spoken the least since arriving at the Kent family farm the previous afternoon. "If he's on a mission, with us or working with Superman, and whoever they're fighting knew about Cadmus and Project Kr? Having him find out like that could be devastating."

Again, Dick nodded. "That's why Bats wants Uncle Supes to tell him. But I think Clark is hoping Supey'll figure it out on his own eventually. I mean, it only took him a year to go from the mentality of a toddler to almost back up to our level. How long do you think it'll be before he starts asking questions about his non-existent mother, or why he doesn't have a belly button, or why he lives in Kansas with his grandparents and not Metropolis with his father, or why he's still being home-schooled, or-"

"Dude, I think we get it." Wally cut him off.

…

Kent Family Farm

July 18 – 10:16 pm

Kon didn't really play the video games Dick had given him. He usually only logged onto his online account when one of them called him and asked if he was free to play. This evening, it was just him and Wally, or rather Boyof2morrow and West1337runner, playing a little co-op. Kon was not very good at the games. Wally mostly just asked him to run to the next checkpoint or spawnpoint and wait. When Dick was also with them, he worked out a strategy that used Kon's inexperience and lack of skill to their advantage, but Dick had patrol tonight.

Using the 'find spawnpoint and wait' technique, the pair managed to complete three missions before Wally's mother told him it was time to turn the game off and get to bed.

Kon heard him groan into the voice-chat. "You're so lucky you don't have a mother to nag you like this." There was a brief pause. "Hey, Kon, whatever happened to your mother? We all know your dad's a single parent, but why?"

"Well… I, uh, I don't know." And he suddenly felt a stab of guilt. He knew he had lost all his memories during his trauma (Pa still hadn't given him details on what happened), but he hadn't realized that in doing so, he had also forgotten his mother. He must have had a mother at some point, after all, Pa certainly didn't give birth to him! "I guess I'll have to ask Pa."

…

Smallville Query - decommissioned

July 19 – 12:32 pm

"Your mother?" Clark blinked in horrified astonishment at the question. "Well, ya see… uh. I kinda prefer not to talk about this, Kon."

They sat on a ledge carved out of the old (and blissfully abandoned) Smallville Query. The day had, thus far, been spent in training. Not how to use his powers, Clark had been sure to make sure the boy learned to control his strength at the same time that he was relearning to walk. Keeping a leash on his strength and knowing how and when to use his abilities was second nature to the boy by now. No, today's training was hero-training.

Bruce had been kind enough (meddlesome enough, more like it) to provide Clark with a syllabus and several sets of drills to go through with the boy before taking him out into the field as a sidekick or trying to shirk him off onto the Team again. The entire morning had been spent doing the Dark Knight's drills, now it was break-time.

…And of all things the boy could have possibly though of to talk about on the break it had to be that! Why couldn't it have been something easy, like girls? Heck! Clark would've even been better with something shocking like boys! But no. It had to be a question about his 'mother', an abstract idea that didn't actually exist. How was he supposed to explain that?

"Oh." The boy's eyes fell. "Does it make you sad to talk about? Grammy says that it's hard to talk about sad things and that's why you won't talk about my trauma either."

"It is hard to talk about." Clark agreed, readily jumping on the excuse the boy had unwittingly provided for him without beginning an outright lie.

…

Metropolis

July 21 – 9:43 am

Superman's arms closed around the screaming woman miles before she could hit the street below. Her wails instantly subsided. "Thank you, Superman."

"Good morning, Lois." Clark offered a friendly smile in return. "Isn't it a bit early to be jumping off your balcony?"

The intrepid Lois Lane gave an uncommonly awkward shrug in his arms as she said, "Oh, well, ya know…" Then she quickly averted her eyes. Looked back up at him. Looked away again. Finally, when he was about to set her on her feet and fly away she asked, with more forced casualness than Clark would have thought possible, "So, how's the family?"

The Superman paused. Looked at her for a long moment. She was fishing. He had known Lois long enough to know when her casual questions were just that, casual questions, and when they were strategically planned to make the one answering to give away more than they intended. The problem was, he really didn't know what she was fishing for with that question. Well, that wasn't true. He had an idea. He just didn't know what she was looking for specifically, or how he should phrase his answer to give away as little as possible.

Finally, he said, "They're fine."

Why did that answer seem to disappoint her so much? He decided to ask her about it as Clark when they got into work later.

As he was flying away, the Man of Steel distinctly hears the intrepid reporter mutter, "Jerk-ass."

…

Daily Planet

July 21 – 10:30 am

"I hate him!"

"No you don't."

Lois had been riled and snarly all morning (well, not all morning, just since he arrived at her place as Clark Kent to carpool to work).

"Yes, I do. I do now!" She snapped as she put more sugar in her coffee than she normally did. "I mean, what kind of man does that? Twelve years he's been in Metropolis. Twelve years we've been flirting and chatting… all those exclusives, those private interviews on the roof, the times he would take me flying just for flying's sake… I thought I meant something to him, ya know. Then I find out he's married! That rat bastard!"

"You don't know he's married, Lois." Clark insisted, perhaps a bit more passionately than timid, mild-mannered Clark Kent should have.

"Oh, Clark… Sweet, naïve, little Smallville…" She sighed. Took a sip of her way-to-sugary coffee, decided she hated it and pored the stuff in the trash. "He said 'they' when I asked him about his family. Not, 'Kon's fine' or 'my son's doing better, thank you for asking', no. It was 'they'. So he does have a wife stashed away somewhere. Jerk-ass!"

"Lois, I think you're reading way to much into what he said." Clark insisted. "The 'they' could have just been referring to the kid and Krypto. He has got a Superdog, remember. Or maybe someone else who's helping take care of the kid while he recovers. It doesn't have to be a wife. Don't give up on Superman so easily!"

Lois smiled at him. "Ya know, Smallville, you always see the best in everyone. You're such a nice guy. I wonder why I never really noticed before…" She tossed her empty cup in the trash. "The Planet's coffee sucks. Let's go to Starbucks and I'll buy you a cup of real coffee."

Clark blinked. What just happened? Did Lois Lane just ask him, Clark Kent, out on a date? Oh, hell yeah! Wait, no… If he was just her rebound after Superman... Now that was just all kinds of a tangled mess. She was on the rebound from her crush on him and was getting over it with him. Oh, the pitfalls of a secret identity!

But, what if it went really well? What if Lois decided that she really did like Clark? Yippy! But then, what would happen when she found out that Clark and Superman were the same person? Fiddlesticks! He had to reconcile her with Superman. Or else his life would just become a whole new kind of complicated and he did not want it.

"Alright." He handed her her purse. "But I still think you're being a little hard on the Big Guy. I mean, just because he has a son doesn't mean he has a wife."

"Well, then, where else could the kid have come from?"

…

Small River, Small County

August 3 – 1:16 pm

"Why do I have to be the one to ask him?" Raquel crossed her arms over her chest in defiance.

"Because, out of all of us, you're the only one who never met him before the whole mind-control stuff went down." Robin explained. "We all knew him from before. So, he'd think it's strange if one of us asks a question we –theoretically- should already know the answer to."

She did not look impressed.

But the matter was dropped abruptly when the super-teen in question suddenly resurfaced from where he had jumped into the river and it was no longer safe to discuss with his hearing no longer hampered by the water.

Kon beamed up at them. It was the start of August and they had all become keenly aware that the summer would soon be drawing to a close. So, they had decided, what better way to spend what remained of their summer than swimming, sunning and just generally having a good time (and in the case of the Team, saving the world every now and again).

This week found them once again in Smallville hanging out with Kon. He had taken them to a moderately secluded branch of the Small River to swim in. It was a wide span of water, deeper on the west side than it was on the east. The eastern bank sported a narrow gravel beach that only just allowed enough space for them to lay out their towels. An old bridge sat suspended over the river, it had long since been declared unsafe for cars, but it was perfectly fine for people and Kon had taken to jumping off of it into the water.

"You guys coming?" He called.

Zatanna leaned over the edge. "I'd just like to comment that its hilarious you asked us to come and jump off a bridge with you."

"But all the kids in town do it." Kon replied, ever so slightly indignantly.

The Team exchanged amused smirks. Apparently, in Kon's mind, if everyone was jumping off a bridge, it did mean he had to too.

"Oh, whatever. I jump off skyscrapers all the time." Dick leapt off. "Look out below!"

SPLASH!

Everyone did give jumping a try at least once. Dick and Kon started up a jumping contest at one point with Kaldur as judge –Dick won. Artemis and Zatanna migrated to the gravel beach to sunbath, claiming that they were both 'as pale as WoW addicts', M'gann also moved to the bank, but she stayed in the shade of an over-hanging tree where it was cooler.

It had not gone unnoticed that she was trying to have as little actual interaction with Kon as possible. At his birthday party back in July she had been quiet and reclusive, now she was quiet and evasive. Artemis drew her attention with the wave of her hand, then tapped the side of her head –silently asking for a mental up-link.

/'What's wrong?'/ Asked the fem fatal archer.

Under the shade of her tree, M'gann drew her knees up to her chest. /'Its hard sometimes. Sometimes he feels so similar. Like back when he showed up on that mission with Freeze, or when he argues with Uncle Supes… he almost feels like the old Conner –like my Conner. But… but then there're times like right now. Just hanging out and playing with the rest of us and he's so dramatically different!'/

She took a long lingering gaze at him lifting Dick up onto his shoulders for a game of Chicken-Fight. Then she looked away again, her eyes falling on her green human-shaped toes. /'He's a completely different person, but every now and again, I feel a shadow, like a whisper, of who he used to be and I know he can never be like that again because the knowledge and experiences that made him that way are gone and… It's hard.'/

She began to cry. M'gann had not cried over it in a year, but today, under the shade, by the banks of the Small River, she buried her face in her knees and sobbed. /'He's not my Conner anymore. He's Kon-El.'/

Artemis and Zatanna both abandoned their sunbathing and crossed the distance between them to wrap their arms around the martian girl. The action did not go unnoticed by the others in the water and soon none other then Kon-El was on his way over, looking concerned.

"Miss M'gann, are you okay? Did a snake bite you?"

"No." M'gann sobbed.

"Get lost, Kon." Artemis looked up at him. "This is girl-talk."

"Oh." He blushed politely. 'Girl-talk'. He'd heard of that. It was the fabled secret and sacred conference of women, which men were forbidden to take part in or even learn the details of. He backed up cautiously and returned to the water with the other boys and Raquel.

"Is she okay?" The afore mentioned Rocket asked.

Kon's blush deepened. "Apparently, it girl-talk." Then he looked confused. "But they didn't tell me why she's crying."

Robin, Wally and Kaldur all exchanged a look.

Finally, the Boy Wonder said, "She lost her boyfriend last year when Apokolips invaded. She's still upset about it and sometimes just needs to cry."

"Oh."

There was a beat of silence.

The cool waters of the Small River flowed around them.

Finally, Raquel said, "Hey, so, Kon, I was wondering… why don't you have a belly-button?"

The Superboy looked down, running a hand over the smooth, well-toned and completely unblemished plane of his abdomen as if just noticing it for the first time. "Ya know, Miss Raquel, I never thought about it."

Robin gave her a prompting look, so the Rocket continued, "Does Superman have a belly-button? Maybe it's a kryptonian thing?"

"No… Pa's got one…" He said slowly –thinking. "Ah! I got it! Pa's got one because he was born on Krypton under the red sun, so he healed with a belly-button because he didn't have super-powers then. But I was born here under the yellow sun, so I healed without a belly-button."

Kon nodded, proud of himself for being able to figure it out without having to ask his Pa.

…

Bio-ship, somewhere between Kansas and Mount Justice

August 3 – 8:30

"I think making Raquel ask about his belly-button was completely pointless." Artemis commented on the way home.

"No, it was good." Dick insisted. "Yeah, he came up with a rational explanation to fit into what Uncle Supes already has him believing, but that just shows that he's thinking. That's way better than when Wally asked him about his 'mother'. Kon didn't even try to explain it; he just went strait to Supes. Now he's thinking. Eventually, he'll put one and one together and come up with a facsimile of two."

…

Stately Wayne Manor

August 14 – 9:45

Dick balanced on his terrace's guard-rail as if it were a balance-beam. He lifted one leg behind him almost as high as his head in an almost perfect arabesque. "See, Supey, its easy!"

"Uh-huh." She Superboy also stood on the terrace, but he wasn't paying attention to his friend's display. Instead he was staring intently at the index cards Clark had given him to help him remember the Team. Specifically, he was studying the Robin's card. "Dick, my Pa and Mr. Wayne are best friends, right?"

"Yeah…" Dick lowered his leg and sunk into a crouch, still balanced on the rail.

Kon flipped to the Kid Flash's card. "You and Wally worked together and were friends before July two years ago."

"Yeah…"

Back to Robin's card. "So… how come you and I didn't meet until my birthday two years ago when my Pa is best friends with your foster dad? I mean, I know my Pa's kinda overprotective, but wouldn't he have let us hang out a little bit?"

Dick hopped down off the railing. This was the break he'd been waiting for. Kon was starting to seriously examine the story of his life he'd been given and he was finding holes in it. "Well, Supey," he began. "That's hard to say, exactly. Why do you think that is?"

…

Kent Family Farm

August 15 – 10:30 pm

Kon sat on the living room floor, one of Grammy's family photo albums in his lap, over a dozen other such book spread out around him. He flipped through the pages, seeing birthdays, graduations, barbeques, dates with women he'd never seen before, football games, science fairs… but all of it was his father. Not him.

He combed through every single album he could find, but Kon couldn't find a single picture of himself dated before April of last year. A few times he had though high school photos of Pa were him, but they were to old, to faded, and when he took them out of the plastic protected pages he found the words 'Clark varsity game '96' or 'Clark science fair '94' inscribed on the back. They were all of Pa, not him.

He saw Grammy holding a toddler that had his blue eyes and dark hair. But Grammy looked far to young for the child in the photo to be him. He saw Pop-pop sitting in a tractor with a young boy on his lap. The boy had his high cheek-bones and was developing a strong cleft in his chin. But Pop-pop was to young, the tractor they were in to outdate for the boy to be him. Kon had to conclude that there were no pictures of him before he was sixteen.

But, why?

It was like he hadn't existed.

…Then he suddenly just popped into existence.

That didn't make any sense. People didn't just materialize out of nowhere.

…

Metropolis

August 20 – 9:00 am

Pa had dubbed Kon's training sufficient and was taking him out on a patrol of Metropolis. It struck the young Superboy then, that this was the first time was visiting the city since recovering from his trauma. It then occurred to him to wonder why his father lived in Delaware when he was living in Kansas.

Kon leapt from roof-top to roof-top while Pa flew low, keeping pace with his aerially-challenged son.

"Something wrong, Kon?" Pa asked. "You've been awfully quiet all day. I would have though you'd be excited to finally be outta training and working the streets."

"I am!" The Superboy quickly assured him. He landed on the flat tarred back-topped roof of a tenement building on the edge of Suicide Slums. A light breeze ruffled the collar of his jacket –an accessory to his costume that Pa did not fully approve of, feeling that it looked unprofessional. "Its just… I've been wondering… lately… Pa, how come you don't live at home? Or… why don't I live with you? How come there are no pictures of me from when I was little? How come you never talk about my mother? Do I even have a mother? Is that why I don't have a belly-button?"

"Wow." Clark landed next to him. "That's a lot of questions all at once. You must have been thinking about this for a while."

Kon studied his black-booted feet. "It just sorta feels like I popped out of thin air. Like I didn't exist before two years ago…"

"Oh, boy…" Pa heaved a sober sigh. He looked around them, down into the streets and allies of Suicide Slum and up at the morning sun high in the sky. "This is not the place to have this conversation. Let's finish the morning patrol and then, I promise, I'll tell you where you come from."

"Okay."

…

Metropolis

August 20 – 11:00 am

It didn't usually take Clark two hours to complete his usual circuit of the city. But he also didn't really want to have this conversation with Kon and so he found ways and reasons to stall. Taking side-trips over peaceful residential neighborhoods and sub-urbs where the most dangerous things people did was allow their kids to play roller-hokey in the streets and the biggest crime was stealing their neighbor's newspaper. Kon didn't know he was being stalled, he'd never been to Metropolis before and certainly had never gone patrolling with the Superman.

But, finally, Clark had to concede that he was running out of neighborhoods and excuses.

They ended their patrol where Clark always ended it: on the roof of the Daily Planet building. They sat on the sloping edges of the words circling the globe. It was now late morning and the sun was high in the sky. Clark really didn't want to have this conversation, but he also didn't want Kon to feel like he needed to ask a second time. He wanted the Superboy to continue to trust him and not think the Superman was keeping things from him.

After a prolonged pause, Clark began, "I had Watchtower duty the day you came into the world. That was also the day that Batman, the Flash, Green Arrow and Aquaman were going to have their side-kicks inducted into the League."

"That was only two years ago." The boy looked at him.

"I know." Clark answered soberly.

"On Watchtower, I received an alert that a fire had broken out in a gentics lab in DC called 'the Cadmus Project'. I called Batman at the Hall and gave him the alert since he was right there in DC already. At the same time, a villain named Wotan was attempting to block-out the sun with some magic something-or-other, and that took priority over the fire so the League left to deal with Wotan. You're friends had been in the room when I gave Bats the heads-up about Cadmus and so they went there instead. That's… that's when they found you."

"I was found! In a lab!"

Clark could see the wheels in the boy's head turning. He wasn't quite there yet, but he could see the boy starting to reach a conclusion.

"Tell me…" He began. "Tell me I was taken from you and my mother at birth and that this lab was running experiments on me because I'm an alien." There was a beat of silence. "No… don't say that. That sounds sad…" He looked desolate. "I'm not really your son, am I?"

"You are my son!" Clark insisted. "You just didn't come into being through conventional means."

Some of the desolation in his face melted away and was replaced with a forlorn smile. "Thanks, Pa. But… tell me what I am for real."

Clark wrapped an arm around the boy's shoulders, pulling him closer. "You're a clone. Of me."

Another beat of silence passed between them.

"Well." Kon muttered. "That sure explains why we look so much alike. Was I… did the lab create to be… one of the bad guys?"

Clark opened his mouth to speak, closed it again, looked away when he said, "Kind of…"

"Kind of?" The boy echoed.

"That doesn't matter, Kon. It was two years ago and we wiped all your programming clean. Don't worry about what you were made to be and just think about what you want to be. That's all that matters now."

"I wanna be a hero. Like you."

"I would be honored if you followed in my cape-swooshes." They shared a lingering hug.

Then Kon pulled away. "One other thing has been bothering me." He said. "Miss M'gann always seems upset whenever she's around me. A couple weeks ago Dick told me that she lost her boyfriend around the same time that I had my trauma. Was he… Did I… kill him? I mean, if I was a bad guy…?"

Now it was Clark's turn to smile desolately. "No, Kon, you didn't kill him." He assured the boy. "…I did."

"What! Pa!" The Superboy was mortified.

"In my defense, I didn't know that we'd loose him. I though he'd be down for a few hours and then bounce back with a headache and spotty memory. I was wrong."

There was a long silence between them after that. The sun climbed higher in the sky, reaching its zenith and bathing them both in the energizing noon glow. Almost in unison they both tipped their faces up to appreciate its invigorating heat.

Finally, Kon said, "That's something I never imagined of you, Pa. I… I'm not sure how I feel about that."

"One day you'll learn the whole story." Clark assured him. "But I'm not the person to tell it to you."

"I… see…" There was another beat of silence. This had been probably the single heaviest conversation they'd ever had in his short life and Kon really was not sure how he was supposed to feel. Finally, for a lack of anything else to say or do, he asked, "Are you gonna fly me back to Smallville now?"

"Not yet." He smiled hesitantly. "There's still someone I want you to meet while you're in town. Wait here."

He hopped down off the Daily Planet globe and darted into the building.

…

Daily Planet

August 20 – 1:16 pm

"…so you see, Lois, I couldn't tell you the truth about Superboy until after he learned it on his own." The Superman explained. "I couldn't risk him reading something about it in the paper before he was ready and freaking out."

The intrepid reporter, Lois Lane scrutinized the Man of Steel with a piercing, unforgiving gaze the likes of which he had only ever seen on General Lane and Clark quickly decided that on Lois it was much more terrifying by far. "So…" She said slowly. "He's not really your son."

"He is my son!" The Superman insisted. "He just did come into the world in a conventional way."

"And you're not married."

"Never have been."

Her piercing gaze was turned to the Superboy. She took in his appearance from the leather jacket over his red and blue tights to the useless looking crossed belts around his waits to the black boots. "And what about you, Super… boy? What do you have to say about all of this?"

He was startled by her sudden shift and intimidated by her scrutinizing glare. Finally, he stammered, "I think Pa explained it pretty well, Miss Lois. I don't really have much to add."

"Miss Lois?" She echoed. "Oh that is so cute! Where'd he have you stashed this past year? Middle Tennessee?"

"No, ma'am." He shook his head. "I'm from Ka-"

Superman placed a hand on his shoulder and gave a quantum of a head-shake to warn the boy against giving away their identities.

…

Mount Justice

September 3 – 5:30 pm

Wally did not stumble and fall this time as he came jogging out of the zetta tube. But then again, neither was he weighted down by beach umbrellas, towels, boat-bags or other such paraphernalia. He had learned that after his school semester started he just wasn't going to be able to make it to the fun beach events the rest of the Team had. Damn time-zones! Curse you!

When he arrived it was to find everyone in uniform and gathered together in a huddle. The young speedster had a sudden bout of déjà vu. "Hey guys." He said. "What's going on?"

"We got a new Team member!" Artemis informed him.

The group parted.

"Supey!" Wally cried. "You're joining! Superman's letting you join!"

"Yep." He beamed proudly. "Today's the day!"

…

END

(A/N: -huff- Finally. Its over. I'm done! Ya know, after the last chapter, I thought the Epilogue was gonna be a small-dunk. But it wasn't. Sorry to keep y'all waiting. But its over! I hope you had fun! Was it worth it?)