Chapter Four
Planning Ahead
Donna opened the door to the large apartment.
“This is where Clark lives?” Kory said in awe as she looked around the apartment.
“Yup,” Dick said as he took a seat on the large couch. In front of the couch was a closed laptop. He lifted the cover and waited for the desktop to load.
“Unless you plan on writing an article about the recent rat infestation in Buckingham Palace,” Came a voice from one of the rooms down the hall, “You won’t need to open that Dick.”
Soon out walked a tall man in a white button up shirt and dark blue pants. His hair was slicked back and his sapphire eyes were covered with a pair of old glasses. His sleeves were rolled up and his hands were casually in his pockets.
He walked over to Kory.
“Hi,” he said with a soft smile, “I don’t believe we’ve met yet. I’m Clark Kent.”
“Hi,” Kory said with a smile, “I’m Kory Anders.”
“It’s nice to finally meet you Kory,” Clark said before giving a small chuckle, “Diana and Donna can’t stop talking about you.”
Kory gave a small laugh.
Who would’ve ever thought that Clark Kent was Superman. Clark slouched a little, making him look a little shorter and his eyes were a little more open than Superman’s. His voice was also lighter and less serious.
“You can all take a seat,” He said looking at the others with a smile, “You hungry or thirsty?”
Most of the teens shook their heads but Garth spoke up.
“I could actually use a water.” He said softly.
Clark nodded before walking over to the kitchen a few feet away. He looked at Garth from over the counter.
“Salt or regular?” he asked the teenage Atlantian.
“Salt.” Garth said with a soft smile. Clark nodded.
He handed Garth his salt water over the counter and looked to the other teens.
“You all sure you don’t want anything?” He asked politely one last time.
They shook their heads no.
He walked out of the kitchen and took a seat across from Dick.
“So,” He said adjusting his glasses, “What are you planning?”
Everyone turned to look at Dick.
“Intergang is up to something,” Dick started, leaning back, “The six of us are only here for the week and you and Diana will be leaving for your honeymoon on the sixth. The other Titans will be leaving for home on the eighth. The way I see it, we only have five days to take them down.”
“Yeah but most of the JLA is here,” Wally said after Dick finished, “With their help we can solve this little case by lunchtime tomorrow.”
“No we can’t,” Kory said looking at him, “The whole reason the JLA is even here is because of the wedding. I know for a fact that the day after it’s over Bruce and Selina are heading back to Gotham. I’m sure that’s the way it’s going to be for the other JLA members too.”
“She’s right.” Clark and Dick responded at the same time.
“If you ask Barry, Ollie, and Arthur,” Clark continued, “They’ll say they’re leaving after the wedding as well.”
There was a beat of silence before Dick turned his eyes to Clark.
“I’m not gonna give up the case.” He said as if reading the Kryptonians mind.
“I figured as much,” Clark said with his farm boy smile, “When it comes to fighting crime, you’re just like Bruce. You won’t give up.”
“Thanks,” Dick said leaning back on the couch.
“So when’s your family coming, Clark?” Garth asked, changing the subject.
“They should be heading over now,” Clark said with a smile, “Ma and Pa didn’t want to burden me with picking them and my cousin up. They said they’d see me at the apartment. I tried to talk them into letting me bring them over but…”
He trailed off as the others just nodded in understanding.
“Who’s your cousin?” Kory asked curiously.
“Well, he’s not really my cousin,” Clark said a little uneasily. Before he could continue, Dick cut in.
“When we were ten years old,” Dick started telling the story to Kory, “Clark found out that Cadmus Labs was trying to make a clone of him. It was about two months after he and Lois got married.
“He went to check it out and saw that the place had been ransacked and practically abandoned. He went around and destroyed any of his DNA that they still held. As he walked down to check, however, he saw that Cadmus had partially succeeded in their mission. They made a hybrid clone of Superman and one of their doctors or something. The clone was already about five months old and a living, breathing boy.
“Clark couldn’t kill him, so he brought him back home with him. He planned on either adopting or passing him off as his son. Lois didn’t like the idea of raising a kid so soon so she told him to get rid of him.
“Clark couldn’t do that. He decided to give the boy to Jonathan and Martha Kent, his parents. He probably figured, ‘after raising me, raising the boy should be a piece of cake.’ Before he gave him to them, however, he thought he should give the boy a name.
“He gave him a Kryptonian name first. Kon-El. From that he picked the name Conner. Clarks’ parents said that he was a cousin that was just born a few months ago and his parents had died a few months after his birth.”
“He’s five years old now,” Clark continued from where Dick left off, “And he’s going to be the ring bearer during the wedding.”
At the end of Clarks’ sentence, Roy looked at his watch.
“I gotta go,” He said looking up from his watch and getting up, “I promised Ollie I’d be back by eleven. It might be nine now, but one time I missed curfew by like, five minutes and he told me if I ever missed it again, I’d never be able to date again. There ain’t no way I’m gonna stop dating! Especially when I’m in my prim!”
He went and shook Clarks’ hand.
“I’ll see ya tomorrow,” he said before leaving the apartment.
“I gotta go too,” Garth said as he finished his glass of salt water, “Drinking water’s great and everything, but it’s almost been five hours and I have to take a swim before I start drying up. That’s the bad part about living in the ocean at my age. You can only stay on the surface for about five to six hours before you start to really dehydrate. I’ll see you all tomorrow. It was great seeing you again Clark and it was great meeting you Kory.”
“You too Garth,” Kory told him with a soft smile.
They others just nodded and said goodbye to Garth as he walked out the door.
“So Donna,” Clark said after Garth left, “Do you have your camera ready for tomorrow?”
“Are you kidding?” Donna said with a grin, “I’ve been ready. I just hope Jimmy is too. Don’t forget that before you and Diana leave for your honeymoon you have to go to Themyscira for mothers’ version of the wedding.”
“How could I forget that?” Clark said while chuckling softly, “If I don’t go your mother will probably kill me.”
“Where are you two going to be honeymooning?” Kory asked Clark.
“We’re going to Hawaii for a few days,” Clark started off as he got up and headed toward the kitchen, “And then we’re going to the Fortress of Solitude for the rest of the vacation. It’s a little out of the ordinary, I know, but Diana and I aren’t really that ordinary.”
He went back to the kitchen and opened the fridge.
“My parents and cousin are on their way,” he said as he pulled a bottle of water out of the fridge. As soon as he stepped out of the kitchen there was a knock on the door.
“I’ll get it, Clark,” Dick said while getting up.
He walked over to the door and opened it. The moment he did a little boy zoomed right past him and over to Clark.
“Hey Clark,” Conner called as he jumped into his cousins arms.
“Hey Conner,” Clark said giving the little boy a hug and shifting him over to his left hip, “How’re you doing, buddy?”
Dick turned back to the two older Kent’s.
“Little ball of energy, isn’t he?” He asked Clark and Conners’ parents with a smirk.
“Yeah, but he’s a good kid,” Pa Kent said as he entered the apartment, “Isn’t he Martha?”
“He’s just like Clark was at that age, appearance and behavior, only with a few powers.” Ma Kent responded as she walked in as well.
When she saw the other three teenagers on the couch she smiled softly.
“Hello Donna,” Ma Kent greeted the young Amazon, “Who are your and Dicks’ new friends.
“I’m Wally West, mam,” Wally said as he quickly got up to shake her and Pa Kents’ hand, “I’m also Kid Flash.”
“Nice to meet ya Wally,” Pa said as he shook the teenagers’ hand, “Read a lot about you and Barry in the paper.”
“I’m Kory Anders,” Kory introduced herself as she shook Ma’s hand, “I’m also the Teen Titan known as Starfire.”
“It’s very nice to finally meet you sweetie,” Ma said with a grin, “Diana and Donna have told us a lot about you.”
Kory just smiled in response before looking over to Donna who was staring at the floor.
Finally the older Kents turned to their son.
“Clark,” Ma Kent said before bringing her son into a big hug. Conner shifted out of the hug and floated in the air a little before softly touching down on the ground. The moment he touched down he rushed over to Dick.
“Who’re you?” The little boy asked innocently as he looked up at Dick.
“I’m Dick Grayson,” Dick said looking at Conner through his dark sunglasses.
“Why are you wearing sungwasses inside?” Conner asked, his sapphire eyes wide and full of innocence.
“I don’t like people to see my eyes.” Dick answered him shortly, trying to at least be a little kind to the boy in front of him.
“Didn’t stop me.” Kory whispered to Donna who giggled in response.
“I heard that.” Dick said looking up at Kory.
“You got to see his eyes?” Clark asked disbelievingly.
“Yup,” Kory said with a little pride, “I caught him by surprise and took off his shades.”
“You totally rock.” Wally said with a grin, “Did he knock you out after?”
“No he-” Kory was cut off from her response by Dick.
“I just took my shades back.” Dick said sternly.
“I’ll tell you later.” Kory whispered to Wally.
“We better get going,” Dick said as he opened the door once again, “It’s been a long night and tomorrow’s going to be a busy day.”
“He’s got a point.” Donna said with a sigh.
The four teenagers said goodbye to Clark and his family before walking out of the apartment building.
“Tomorrow night we’ll meet up at the ice cream shop again,” Dick told Kory, Donna, and Wally as they took the elevator down to the ground floor, “We still have a lot of work to do.”
As they exited the elevator Kory turned to Wally.
“We kissed.” She whispered to him before quickly falling back into step with Dick and Donna.
Wally just stood there shocked for a moment.
“That sucks.” He finally said before running to catch up with his friends.
“We’ll see you at the rehearsal tomorrow Dick,” Donna said as they started to split ways, “And we’ll see you at the shop tomorrow night Wally.”
With that, the two girls walked away.
“How do you do it?” Wally asked as he walked down the street with Dick.
“How do I do what?” Dick asked, turning his gaze to Wally.
“Get the most beautiful girls in the world to kiss you,” Wally said like it was the most obvious thing in the world, “What do you have some kind of love potion or something? If you do, would you mind giving me some?”
“I don’t have a love potion,” Dick said strongly as they kept walking, “The only reason Donna and I kissed was because she was under a spell. If she wasn’t, we wouldn’t have kissed.
“Kory and I just…got caught in the moment. End of discussion.”
Wally suddenly grinned wickedly.
“You like her,” He said, pulling on Dicks’ shoulders to stop him from walking.
“Of course I like her,” Dick said coolly, “She’s one of my best friends and one of the few people in the world that understands me and the way I feel.”
Wallys’ grin grew wider.
“You love her, dude,” He said looking Dick directly in his shades, “You are in love with her.”
“I’m fifteen years old, Wally,” Dick said, his voice wavering a little, “How the hell should I know what love is?”
With that he kept walking, with his friends words running through his mind.
