Thank you so much to whoever nominated this story for the Superman Movieverse Fanfiction Awards! What a shock for me!

Sasha paused and looked down at her pen and blank pad. She hadn’t been taking notes, too enraptured by the story.

‘What happened the next year?’ she asked. ‘When you spoke to him again?’

‘I was eighteen and had dropped out of school. I was working as a labourer, bricklaying and that sort of thing.’ He smiled guiltily. ‘I know, it’s practically the definition of lazy.’ Sasha smiled with him and gestured him to continue. ‘I don’t really know the full story, but when he was eighteen he found the shuttle that brought him to Earth and the crystal inside called to him, he took it to the Arctic and threw it into the snow where it grew into his Fortress.’ Jason looked down at his hands on the table. ‘The same thing happened to me.’

Jason woke in a cold sweat, sitting straight up in bed, panting heavily. He glanced down at his arms, goose bumps raised all over it, something he had never felt before.

Something was very wrong.

He scanned through the entire house, searching for the tell-tale green glow, but there was none, and he gaze fell on the window. The powerful urge to open it and fly, through the darkness overtook him. It usually came during the night, when the skies were empty and the city was asleep, but tonight was much more intense.

Jason flicked the covers off and got dressed quickly with a jacket and pulled open the window, sliding outside silently. Long ago, he figured out that it was safer to appear normal until he was well out of eyesight. Every time he went out for a late night flight, he would slide off the docks outside the house and swim under Dad’s old seaplane, out of the river mouth and into the ocean before he would come up for breath.

This time, he resurfaced further out than usual, along the ocean ridge created by Lex Luthor, thirteen years ago. Jason slowed to a stop, his arms spreading out to balance himself. He froze, two different horizons spreading out in front of him. The city of Metropolis, lights glittering in the distance in one direction, and the comforting blackness of the empty ocean in the other.

The call to the emptiness was too strong, like something unearthly out in the water was pulsing his name. He flew off in the direction it was coming from. He slowly pulled to a stop over the water when he felt the call was coming from below him.

He knew where he was.

Thirteen years ago, Lex Luthor had taken Jason and Lois to this spot, to watch the “birth of a new continent”. The island was infused with Kryptonite, and Superman had almost killed himself hurtling the rock into space.

The pulsing came from directly below him, so he dived into the water to find the source. The sea floor was rocky and uneven, sharp spikes protruding into the ocean, and massive canyons sunk deep into the earth. Something unusual caught his eye, something lying on the edge of a rocky cliff.

A crystal.

Jason’s eyes widened. He’d seen them before. He was five years old, sitting on his mothers lap on Lex Luthor’s boat. They were lying on a cloth laid out on the table, the control crystals for the Fortress of Solitude.

Jason picked it up and felt it humming in his hands. Another hum joined the first, muffled by the pressured water. He sunk further down into the canyon.

Several more crystals were inside, on ledges and scattered at the bottom.

Jason searched his perfect memory, there were seven crystals. All were here.

He tugged off his jacket and wrapped them inside.

Jason broke the surface, greedily gulping in air he had denied himself for ten full minutes. Not breathing unnerved him.

He tucked the bundled, water logged jacket under his arm and pointed himself North, speeding towards the Fortress.

He was holding all the control crystals.

The same ones that could revive Lois.

‘I went straight to the Fortress, right to where I knew he would be.’ Jason said. ‘I told him how the control crystals had called to me, how they were the only way to save mom… but he wouldn’t listen to me.’

He stood up, balling his hands into fists.

‘He was just sick, kept babbling that he wouldn’t do it. The selfish bastard just left her in that freaky half existence, just so he could look at her like she was some trophy or statue.’ He choked on a laugh. ‘I had half a mind to start a catastrophe somewhere to distract him, just so I could revive her myself. But I don’t know how, they didn’t come with instructions, you know, and those crystals all look the same to me.

‘After that, I don’t know, I gave up. I didn’t want anything to do with him, I just wanted out.’ He sounded like a helpless child, and Sasha’s heart went out to him. ‘But when I got home, nothing had changed. I was still a half alien freak, I could still do the impossible, and I was still living in the Superman capital of the world.’ His voice dropped to a whisper. ‘Even if I never saw or heard from him again, I couldn’t stay there. Just knowing that everyone around me thought of him as a hero.’

‘What did you do?’ Sasha asked.

‘What every teenage freak does.’ Jason crossed his arms and leant with his back against the wall. ‘I ran away from home. I didn’t even think about what it would do to Richa- my Dad.’ He corrected hastily. ‘I didn’t wake up Dad, didn’t leave a note, I didn’t even say goodbye to my friends.’ He scoffed at himself. ‘True Superman style. Leaving with no warning, no explanation…’

Jason wasn’t swimming so much as flying through the water; his arms were still by his sides, still wearing what he had thrown on when he woke at midnight. His head broke the surface of the water, and he flung his black hair back out of his face.

He was well out into the ocean now; his inhuman eyes could see most of East America, Metropolis, and New York, all spreading out on one side of him with lights twinkling.

It wasn’t enough to just go out and away, so he shot upwards, out of the water.

The wind-chill was freezing, out of cold water and into gale force winter winds, but he didn’t notice it. Jason gulped in air when it started thinning. He broke the sound barrier and pushed through layer after layer of the atmosphere until…

He broke free. The still cold of space shocked him.

Somewhere in the universe, in this galaxy or the next, he belonged. A radioactive chunk of rock, a planet orbiting a red sun, anywhere.

He kept pushing upwards and outwards, when suddenly the sun rose past the Earth and hit him full force.

He was nearly sent tumbling backwards at the energy. He had never felt anything like it. It literally knocked the air from his lungs as he felt the pure radiation, unfiltered by the atmosphere, for the first time.

The undeniable pull towards the energy went through his entire body, and he shot off towards it.

He felt like the energy, the pure power being offered to him, was worth more than the pain he had suffered.

He choked and ran out of oxygen, the shock jolting him out of his trance. For a split second, the weightlessness disoriented him; he was unable to find a point of gravity. He found the Earth and launched himself towards it, amazed at how easily he flew through space.

For the first time, he experienced re-entry, the sheer friction of air beginning to set his clothes on fire. As soon as he could breathe, he blew them out, keeping them cold until they were safe.

Below him, New Zealand was coming up frighteningly fast. He dove to the left to avoid the land and seconds later, he smacked down into the ocean.

The cool currents were a blessed relief from the burning re-entry, but he still didn’t have air to breathe. He broke the surface again, but stayed submerged, cooling off.

Help! Someone, help him!

Usually, Jason would ignore the plea, but he could hear his father was busy with flood relief in Eastern China, and he was energized from the close encounter with the sun. He dove back under the water and sped off towards the voice, the coastline of Australia.

A small boy was struggling in the water, being dragged out by a strong rip. Jason grabbed him and pulled him upwards. The boy floundered, but Jason just spread him out on the surface of the water.

‘I’m going to take you back in to land now, but you have to calm down, okay?’ Jason asked. ‘You need to be brave; do you think you can do that for me?’

The boy nodded.

‘Alright.’

Jason began to pull the boy towards the shore carefully. Everyone on the beach was standing by the water, watching with shocked expressions. It took him far too long to reach the shore, swimming at a human speed.

He pulled the boy safely up onto the wet sand, where he was immediately grabbed and hauled up further. Jason rolled over, coughing pathetically. The crowd rushed around them, but paused when they saw Jason.

He could understand their hesitation, a man shows up out of nowhere, saves a boy, and has black hair and blue eyes. Jason collapsed onto his back, panting and wheezing.

‘Let me through!’ a man bellowed, and the crowd gave way. The man was wearing a yellow and red shirt, and he immediately took charge.

‘Take the kid up to the shelter.’ He ordered with a strong Australian accent. He shook Jason’s shoulder. ‘Hey, are you alright?’

Jason nodded, feigning a struggle to sit up. ‘Yeah.’

‘That was a brave thing you did.’ The man continued. ‘Not many people would do something like that.’

Jason was just about to answer when the woman who had called for help launched herself at him.

‘Thank you! Thank you, thank you, thank you!’ she exclaimed.

‘I’ve never seen anyone swim like that. You even beat my boys out there.’ The man said. ‘Come on, let’s get you up to the Life Saver’s hut, you can rest there.’

‘They thought that I’d just jumped in the water to save him.’ Jason explained. ‘Just a bystander who put his life on the line. The guys who stayed with me, talking to me on the beach were Surf Life Savers, volunteers. They offered me a job with them, helping out.’

‘Did you take it?’ Sasha asked.

‘Of course I did. I was saving people and it was normal. I could sit outside all day in the sun and spend the nights over the empty Outback. Even though they thought Superman was great, they didn’t worship him. They had problems and they weren’t afraid to solve them.’ He smiled sadly.

Sasha stared at him for a long moment, studying his wearied face, exhausted from the long day.

‘What did you do for work?’ she asked. ‘Did they pay you?’

‘No, Surf Life Saving was volunteers, but I did a couple more labouring jobs around the area.’ He paused and smiled guiltily. ‘But… when I got particularly lazy, I would get a lump of coal and-’

‘Oh, you didn’t.’ Sasha shook her head in disbelief.

‘Yup.’ Jason nodded. ‘Squeezed it for a good couple of minutes and sold it on the black market. People would pay a bucket load for that.’

‘How long did you stay in Australia?’

‘Years, I made good friends there. Mike was my age and I felt welcome. From eighteen till twenty-five, when you contacted me.’ Jason said. ‘I kept in touch with Richard, kind of. He understood that I couldn’t stay in Metropolis. Every now and then, I’d leave a letter in his mailbox, just to let him know I was safe and happy, that sort of thing…’ he trailed off, then added softly. ‘I haven’t written to him since I came here.’

‘So he knew that you left? That you didn’t just disappear in the middle of the night?’ Sasha clarified.

‘Yeah.’ Jason said. ‘When I first landed in Australia, I had nothing with me, no clothes, no possessions. I had just run. You don’t tend to think through the logistics of leaving home after something like that. I went back for my things.’

Jason quietly drifted to his bedroom window. His heart surged at the familiarity of the house, but he continued on.

He pressed a hand against the glass of the window and gently pushed. Nothing happened. Of course, he had locked it; he had never intended to return.

He applied a little more force to the window, just a little more, then the latch cracked and broke, and the window opened.

The curtains were drawn, just as he left it. Jason pushed them aside and touched down.

The room was dark and exactly as he remembered it. Moving as quietly as he could, he began packing everything he needed. Photographs were the first thing he tossed into the bag, lots of his family, Lois and Richard grinning on either side of him. The only photo he left was a crooked one he had taken when he was eight, of Lois working hard at her desk in The Daily Planet, bumbling, honest Clark Kent standing next to her, holding coffee and glancing at the camera, that photo Jason threw across the floor. After the photos, Jason threw in clothes, but no money. He’ll make his own way.

He paused for a long moment, the bag slung over one shoulder, staring at the corner where he hid the Suit. He never wanted to think about Superman again, but the Suit was his, it was practical.

He knelt down in the corner, where the old carpet didn’t quite reach the wall. He lifted up the carpet, peeling it back slowly to reveal the wooden floorboards. He wedged a finger in the small crack and pulled.

Crack.

Downstairs in the living room, Richard jerked his head up.

Jason grabbed hold of the half-broken wood and pulled again.

Crack.

Richard placed his beer on the table and warily made his way upstairs.

Jason looked inside the floorboards with mixed emotions. He swore he would never use this suit again, but necessity overruled that oath.

The black material gazed up at him, a silver S emblazoned on the chest.

Jason quickly grabbed the Suit and stood.

He heard steps from outside the door and he froze in fear. He stared at the door, concentrating until it faded from sight.

Richard was standing there, frozen, hand outstretched towards the door knob as if he was contemplating not coming in.

In a depressed sigh, Richard dropped his hand and hung his head. He shoved his hands into his pockets, down turned face etched with worry and frustration.

Jason felt a lump in his throat. Richard exhaled and slumped his shoulders. He turned and shuffled back towards the stairs.

‘I’m so sorry, Dad. I can’t stay here with him.’

The familiar voice came from behind him. Richard snapped around and in a moment he was fumbling with the door knob.

His heart raced as he pushed the door open. He was here, he was back, he had to be.

But there was nothing there. Just the curtains billowing from the wind and some overturned carpet.

He was gone again.

‘You kept the Suit?’ Sasha asked. ‘Why?’

‘Like I said, it was practical. Besides, I ripped the S from the front; it doesn’t look a thing like his now. I actually brought it with me when I came here. The representative made it seem like I’d be doing a lot of flying.’

‘So when our representatives contacted you,’ Sasha asked, ‘how did that happen?’

‘I got too careless, as it turns out, I broke some kind of long standing record and got my face in the paper.’ Jason smiled and sat down, tapping the table absently. ‘Mike surprised me with it, so I couldn’t do a thing about it. Someone here got a hold of it and thought there was something odd about it. Probably pretty surprised to see a twenty year old Superman living in Australia.’

Sasha smiled slightly. ‘And that leaves us back where we are.’

Jason nodded. ‘Yeah, a few days after I signed on with you guys, this annoyingly nosey, yet very attractive, psychiatrist started asking me questions.’

Sasha smiled involuntarily and then her stomach rumbled.

‘Time flies when you’re having fun, huh?’ she said lamely.

‘Go on, get something to eat.’ Jason jerked his head at the door. ‘You must be starving.’

Sasha smiled gratefully and stood, collecting her things. Just as she slipped out the door, she heard him call out from behind her.

‘How about we actually get some good food next date?’

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