FALL OF JUSTICE: SupermanISSUE #1: Legacy
Queensland Park ♦ Metropolis
Conner Kent gave the strap around the loveseat a quick tug to make sure it was secure. Satisfied it was snugly in place, he kicked up the dolly with an exaggerated huff. The furniture was barely heavier than a baseball, truth be told, but he had to make a show of it for Tana's grandmother.
Kailani Moon was a short, grey-haired woman with eyes sharper than a hunting knife and little patience for bullshit. She was one of the first people in his life that only knew him as Conner, and keeping it that way had proven...arduous. Prior to his move to Metropolis, 'Conner' was just what his friends called him when they weren't wearing tights. He was a full-time superhero- he didn't have time for the mild-mannered life. Clark had insisted on it, however.
“We live among humanity, Kon-El. Not above it.”
Conner wheeled the dolly down the truck's ramp and up the stairs to Kailani's new apartment. For the last month and a half the old woman had been staying in a sketchy hotel in Suicide Slums while she negotiated the lease with her new landlord. The five decades before that were spent in Hawai'i with her late husband, a man Conner only knew by reputation and the several hundred framed photos he would be unpacking over the weekend. How a man that looked that happy could spend over fifty years with a woman as filled with piss and vinegar as nana the world would never know.
"If you scratch my hardwood floor I'll have your balls in a vice, Kent," Kailani called from the kitchen. She was busy unpacking enough silverware to feed a small army. He had to wonder what it was all for. From what Tana told him no one in her family had met for dinner at nana's in half her lifetime- and it wasn't just the distance from Metropolis to Honolulu that kept them apart.
Sighing, he lowered the love seat to the living room floor in front of the fireplace- just the spot she'd pointed him to earlier. "I wouldn't dream of it, Mrs. Moon.”
“Misses? God be good I didn’t spend a decade of my life earning a PhD to be called misses.”
He closed his eyes tight and took a slow, deliberate breath. ‘Patience, Conner. Don’t go losing your cool the first time you’re around her without Tana to watch your back.’
“I apologize, doctor-“
“Oh Jesus Christ.” Kaliani barked out a disbelieving laugh as she shuffled out of the kitchen, leaning against the doorframe to keep from falling over mid-laughing fit. “I can’t tell if you have the patience of a saint or if you’re just a pussy. I’m ribbing you, darling. Don’t take this old kook so seriously.”
He could feel his face turning dark red as he stood there, mouth half-open and stuttering for a response. Staring down Vandal hadn’t made him a fraction as nervous as this.
“Right,” he finally responded, running a hand through his hair. “You were testing me.”
“Damned right I was.” She grinned, stepping back into the kitchen long enough to retrieve a pair of steaming coffee mugs.
She pushed one into his hands and took a seat in the chair he’d just set down, ushering him to take the couch. Conner did so after a moment’s hesitation. He took a short sip of his coffee and grimaced.
“You have any creamer?”
Kaliani mirrored his grimace. “So you really are a pussy. No, that shit is vile. There’s sugar in a pot on the counter and milk in the refrigerator.”
Conner rolled his eyes as he moved to make the drink actually digestible. “So I take it I failed your test, then?”
“Oh, absolutely. Don’t feel bad about it, though; most people do. No one looks at a sweet old grandma and expects her to have a fucking spine. It throws people off, makes them easier to wrangle.”
“Is that what you got your degree in? People wrangling?” Conner asked, sitting back down.
“That’s an apt description of politics, I’d say.”
“Oh, so that’s where you got all the bullshit.”
“So the dog can bark!” Nana Moon smiled wryly. “Yes, I’ve met plenty of bulls who think they run the ranch just because they shit the hardest and we’re born with a cock between their legs. But my days of working with legislators is long behind me, I’m afraid. These days I’m a glorified Wikipedia search in heels, only they pay me and give me a fancy title like ‘advisor,’ ‘analyst’ or ‘expert.’”
Conner leaned back into the couch, raising an eyebrow. “You do TV interviews, don’t you? Tana’s shown me some of them.”
“Oh, God.” She groaned. “Unfortunately so. Being a talking head pays better than actually working for a living these days. I actually have a debate lined up with one of President Luthor’s goons on Godfrey’s network later today. We’re going to ‘discuss’ Luthor’s policy on the meta-human population. On today of all days!”
Today was the fourth anniversary of the disbanding of the Justice League. Conner felt the weight of that day on his shoulders every day- but it was never heavier than today. He tried to not let the anger show on his face, nodding to show Moon he was still listening.
“It’ll be a damned massacre. I can’t fathom why Luthor’s team would take me on if they’ll done an ounce of research. I’ve been studying meta-humans like you since the president was still pissing his diapers.”
Conner’s face twitched. Had he heard that right? Did she misspeak? He shifted uncomfortably in place, gripping his mug a little harder. “Oh yeah?” He asked as casually as possible.
Kaliani leapt from her loveseat with an athleticism fit for a woman half her age. "Ha, I knew it!" She jammed a finger toward Conner, her smile twisting with a triumphant glee, as if she'd won a game that he didn't even know they were playing. "You've got to work on your poker face, boy. You couldn't have been more obvious if you tried." She cackled.
Confusion and panic warred in his chest as Conner tried to clamp down on his emotions. He had no idea what the hell had given him away. "I'm really not sure what you're talking about," he laughed, failing to keep his nervousness from leaking out of every pore in his body.
Playing dumb didn't do anything to alleviate Moon's jubilant mood. She was practically dancing around the living room, coffee threatening to spill from her mug with every jolt and jump. She was supercharged, now, talking faster than her mouth could keep up. "You really did put quite a lot of work into your alter ego. Most people just forge a birth certificate and an I.D and call it a day. But fabricating a relationship with a former Daily Planet journalist? Getting yourself retroactively enrolled in three different schools? And a C.V as long as my arm- you almost got me."
His heart fell into his stomach. All that work he'd put into covering his tracks and it had already been undone by the first person that went looking. Kent let his anger and disappointment show in his falling posture and deepening frown. "Sounds like you did your research. What tipped you off?"
The old woman shrugged playfully. "I've been around a long time. Made a lot of friends that owe a lot of favors. None of your graduating class knew a Conner Kent, your social media accounts were all bought and edited within the last year and one of your old jobs is an ARGUS front. I'm guessing they helped you set all this up?"
Conner put his head in his hands. "A little, yeah. They told me it was bulletproof."
"ARGUS couldn't bulletproof a fucking kevlar vest if they had three trillion dollars and twenty years to do it." Kaliani said after she finished blowing a raspberry. "It doesn't help that you fly around in your tighty-whities with your whole, actual face showing. I'm honestly impressed nobody's taken a shot at 'Conner Kent' yet."
"Nobody ever goes looking," Conner admitted with a shrug. "Why would an indestructible alien choose to live as a normal person?"
Kaliani finally finished her victory lap and returned to her seat, still positively beaming. "Does Tana know?" She asked, and Conner responded with a hesitant nod. She continued: "She must've found it out for herself, too. I'm not half so good at this sort of thing as that girl. My darling baby practically lives and breathes this spy-detective shit."
"Yeah." He scoffed. "When I finally got around to telling her my big secret she just flicked me on the nose and told me 'I know.'" The two shared a laugh together and the tension finally drained from Conner's stomach. They spent the next half an hour talking about everything: her move from Hawai'i, his choice to take up the Superman mantle, and Conner and Tana's relationship. It didn't take long for Kaliani to interrogate Conner about when they were getting married and giving her great grand children. It was almost strange to hear a woman so...unorthodox as her ask about something so ordinary. There was a lot more to the old, cranky woman than Conner first assumed. Now he understood why Tana liked her so much, and insisted Conner spend time with her.
Just as Kent was standing up to continue unpacking the moving truck he heard something in the distance. He turned his head toward it, his eyes glazing over as he searched through layer after layer of buildings, roads and people for the source of the thunderous noise. An explosion. There was trouble.
"I gotta-" He started, but Kaliani had already waved him off.
"Go, already! If you stop to give me the 'this is a job for' speech I'll spit in your eye."
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