Chapter 283 - 3-4

Chapter 3 – The Circus

(Vought Chicago Sports Complex - Chicago Illinois – June 25th, 2004)

Clark was hating what he was wearing, the black cotton T-shirt was too tight on his skin and although it didn't actually physically irritate him, nothing did, he felt it looked ridiculous. Aunt Mary, or more accurately the people that always hung around Aunt Mary, said it was to show off his muscles and made him more Super, whatever that meant. The only problem was that he didn't have muscles, he was skinny, and his Ma said he was thin as a rake, whilst his Pa said that was an insult to rakes.

Remembering his Pa's awful joke made him smile, which apparently was something he was not supposed to do as the person his aunt had hired to help him frown at him. Clark was currently sitting on a foldable wooden chair before a vanity mirror, as a woman, he didn't actually know the name of applied make-up and combing his hair. He wanted to protest that this was all unnecessary but felt that he probably shouldn't, given that his Aunt Mary appeared to pour a lot of time into setting this up.

"Hey, there's my little superstar of nephew, how are you doing." Clark turned his head and gave his Aunt Mary a bright smile genuinely happy to see a familiar face.

"I'm doing okay I guess where's Ma and P-" Clark began wanting to know where his parents were but was cut off as his aunt lifted one hand a took a call.

"Hello? Yes, this is Mary Clark…... WHAT NO!" Clark's eyes widened as his aunt's face turned savaged and she yelled down the phone. "Look you, little guttersnipe, I don't care who you have to threaten but my nephew is going 5th in the primetime slot for the weightlifting competition, or your ass is fired understood … perfect. Sorry sweety what was that?"

Mary snapped her phone shut and threw it to her assistant who managed to catch it out of sheer practice having done the act several times a day for years.

"Oh, just wanted to ask where my parents were." Clark's voice was almost a whisper, he found his aunt scary at times especially when she was on the phone or talking to another adult who wasn't her parents.

"Well, your Ma-," Mary stopped herself as she almost slipped back into her Kansas routes whilst talking to her nephew, she cleared her throat before she pressed on. "Your Mom is chatting with the other moms and your dad is -"

"Right here." Clark almost jumped out of his seat as his dad came into view sauntering to stand right next to Mary.

"Pa!" Clark smiled up at his father, a smile that almost wavered as he smelt the liquor and cigarettes on his dad, even without his heightened senses Jonathan Kent stank.

Clark wasn't sure why, but his Pa never seemed happy at these events, and it was the only time he saw his dad drink or smoke. When it was just them on the farm his Pa was all smiles, playing catch and helping him do chores, but whenever Aunt Mary made them come to one of these events his Pa always had a bottle in his hand and cigarette in the other. His Ma was different too when they came to things like this, his mother became overly protective and was eating something. He remembered when he had to do a part in the county fair, his mother had eaten nearly 12 pies that day and his Pa had to sit down most of the time as he couldn't stay upright.

"Jesus Jonathan, it's a bit early, isn't it?" Mary whispered under her breath at her bother-in-law thinking Clark wouldn't be able to hear it.

"Get off my back, we agreed to do this fuckin circus and that Cape's for Christ shit next month at BELIEVE EXPO," Jonathan whispered back harshly taking a flask out of his inner jacket pocket and taking a swig. "So, I think I'm entitled to a little drink." 

"Um so what exactly am I doing here?" Clark asked giving a cough and turning in his seat to the annoyance of the make-up artist that was still working. Although he knew it was a sports competition for the superabled it was his first one, so he had no idea what to expect.

"Oh, sorry sweetie" His aunt Mary put on a wide smile and leaned down, she held out her hand behind her and was quickly given a clipboard by her assistant which she read off of. "So…. you're signed up for just two events, thought it was best to start light. We have the super speed race first thing, the weightlifting competition, and then…... Oh almost forgot you are doing also doing the meet and greet with the Little Miss Hero pageant winners from the Mid-west, that will be nice right?"

"Yeah, I guess so." Clark frowned slightly but quickly put on a fake smile as he saw his Pa look worried at him. "Yeah, it sounds, great, so when do we start."

"Well once Susan here is finished, we have a quick intrevi- What that on your shirt?" Mary spotted the S-shaped shield in red on her nephew's black shirt that she hadn't okayed.

Mary was almost livid, she had a whole marketing team working on her nephew's future image, it's why his current costume was a basic black T-Shirt, trousers and boots so that they could 'upgrade' him easier when he went to the big leagues. He was too young to have a hero symbol, statics showed that a hero symbol too early was damaging from a PR standpoint. As it quickly becomes associated with their early career and makes people think of young and 'sidekick' instead of proud and 'superhero'.

"It's something Clark's been drawing a lot, he says he sees it when he dreams, and he likes it. So, he wanted to put it on his shirt" Jonathan stated firmly giving Mary a slightly firm glare. "So, it's fine, right?"

"Jonathan, we haven't cleared it with marketing nor the colour scheme. What if it's a corporate logo he's seen we could be liable for -" Mary started in her usual businesswoman manner but stopped when she saw the death glare Jonathan was giving her.

"It's fine right?" Jonathan stated through gritted teeth and gave a slight gesture of his head to Clark as Mary looked at him. As she looked down at Clark properly for the first time, she noticed he seemed to be recoiling from her.

"Oh of course it is sweety, it looks really grown up., Mary stated with a large smile on her face turning to her assistant for support who quickly nodded their head in agreement. "I mean it's a Super S for our Superboy, you are going to knock them dead out there."

"Thanks, Aunt Mary." Clark gave her a genuine smile feeling better about everything and sitting back in his chair properly as Susan the makeup specialist finished.

As she stepped back, Clark looked at himself and what he saw did look good but at the same time, he could feel every chemical on his skin and every brush she had done to his hair. In truth, he felt uncomfortable and more than a little silly, and would rather hang out on the farm helping his Pa which he loved, but Aunt Mary said this stuff was important, so he guessed he had to do it.

"Ready?" Aunt Mary said with a smile offering her hand out to her nephew.

"Ready," Clark confirmed as he leapt out of his seat and gripped not only his aunt's hand but his Pa's too which made Jonathan smile and allow his son to drag him along. Allowing him for a moment to forget how much he hated all this.

It didn't take long for the first competition to begin, the super speed race, which consisted of a single lap around the massive open-air stadium, in groups of 10. There were apparently races all throughout the day, but he had been placed in the first group to run, his Aunt Mary had something about that it was the only one people watched. As he looked to his left and right as he got to the starting line, he noticed that at the tender age of 9 he was of the youngest ones there, most of the boys in their colourful costumes appeared to be around 12-17.

Whilst Clark had been dragged to a few competitions and events over his childhood in truth they had only been a few, his Pa and Ma really pushed back on Aunt Mary's constant suggestions. Most of the events he had been dragged to were small affairs like the Smallville County Fair for the town to show off its only superabled child, or else a television show on superabled children. However, as he looked around at all the other boys it was clear that things like this were all they did.

Everyone, except for him, was in bright colourful costumes with trademark logos and endorsement patches already on their backs or sleeves, whilst he was there in a black T-shirt and trousers with his S-shaped shield on his chest. He also spotted what looked like career tutors giving home-school lessons to several super children on the side-lines in between races, all of whom looked bored and entitled. The ones not in home-school lessons were either getting lectures from overbearing parents or were in intense training whilst getting lectures.

"Oh, sorry." Clark apologised to the boy next to him as he felt an elbow hit his side. In truth, it had been the other boy who was at fault for being careless with his stretching, not looking at what he was doing, but Clark wanted to be polite and put his best foot forward.

"Huh." The older boy in a bright orange costume with black sides and what looked like sliver lightning bolts smirked at him. "You're the farm boy, right?"

"Uh, I think so," Clark replied unsure as he looked at the boy who was slightly taller than him with confusion on his face.

"Well just stay out of my way, I don't want to be tripping over your slow sorry but. You got it." The boy stated bluntly turning away from Clark before he could respond.

Clark just widened his eyes feeling a little bit out of place he turned to look at the person standing to his left. That was one of the older boys who just looked at Clark and scoffed with a shake of his head as he looked down at the young boy. Clark was starting to really regret not asking, not to participate, feeling that despite all the talk about sportsmanship, no one here was actually interested in it.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the 56th annual Vought Youth Super Sporting Event for the Midwest, encouraging our Midwestern future heroes of America to try their best in the spirit of sportsmanship and friendly competition." A voice over the loudspeaker drew everyone's attention including the boys on the starting line that looked over to where a large stand had been erected on one side of the stadium. "Now before we start with the first event of the day, we have a special guest star for all of you today. Straight from The Seven, their newest member, your Super Host for this year's event, please give it up for the one, the only QUEEN MAEVE!" 

Clark's head snapped to the sky before anyone else's as he heard the superheroine start descending before anyone else. He watched as the tall, powerful well-built red-haired woman that was in her early 20's landed on the platform giving a wide genuine smile and waving to the crowds that exploded into cheers. Maeve moved towards the microphone clearly under the impression she was supposed or at least g allowed to give a short address but was suddenly cut off by the voice on the loudspeaker sounding again.

"Thiers a real knockout for you, right folks." The man's hardly subtle crass joke earned him chuckles and laughs from the crowd, however, what Clark saw was the strain on Queen Maeve's face. As she kept her smile plastered on her face whilst an uncomfortable look appeared in her eyes. "Well now that our host is here, please direct your attention to the track and the starting line as we commence our annual event as we always do with the first super speed race of the season." 

Clark's vision moved from the clearly irritated Queen Maeve who was still smiling and waving at her fans, to the track and field referee that moved out in front of them. He was wearing a typical referee's black and white striped top but also was wearing a significant amount of padding as well, which Clark guessed was because of the dangers associated with refereeing superpowered events.

"Okay, lads listen up, this is a standard single-track run that most of you have done before. For those of you who haven't, it's fairly simple. When you hear the shot start running, stay in your lane, DON'T lose focus, and run into a wall. It's one lap, no more. Everyone understand?" The referee's voice was clear and crisp, the type of voice that it was almost nearly impossible to misunderstand when all the boys including Clark nodded, and he gave a smile. "Okay good, let's have a clean race lad and everyone do their best."

As Clark looked to his left and right, he saw that the boys next to him had largely ignored the referee and instead had already put their feet on the starting block and were already crouched ready to start. Clark gave a quick glance to the 'team' areas each boy had and saw that his Ma, Pa and Aunt were all there ready to watch him, giving him wide smiles and waves. Feeling a bit less daunted he two set up placing his slightly small feet and spindly legs on the starting block, he must have looked amusing, as the bright orange costume boy next to let out a snort.

"You should have stayed on the farm," The orange costumed boy whispered with a smirk on his face as he clearly thought that Clark was a joke.

"Ready," The referee's voice sounded out causing Clark to look away from the older boy feeling that he was in the wrong place, everyone was so mean he just wanted to go back to the farm now.

"Set" Clark's vision quickly glanced back to his parents and aunt. Maybe after this race, he could ask to go home, it wasn't like anyone was going to miss the thin small farm boy.

BANG! 

The sound of the gunshot startled Clark back to what he was doing and pushed off with all the force he could. He moved his thin spindly farm boy legs as fast as he could and found the world around him become almost still for a moment as he blurred past everything. The race was over in an instant, and Clark had to skid himself to a stop and felt his feet were hot, as he looked down he saw that the running shoes his aunt had given him were almost in tatters.

Clark turned his head to look over to his 'team' area to give a wave to his folks but found his vision blocked by several of the other races and a few boys who had yet to race that were staring at him wide-eyed. Feeling more than a little self-conscious he gave the boys a wave, but they continued to just look at him like he had three heads.

"And that's the race folks, lets' give a quick round of applause for all these super athletes." The announcer's voice sounded over the loudspeaker. This request was immediately followed by a quick and loud round of applause, Clark was the only competitor to do as all the racers were still looking at him funnily. "Fantastic folks, now let's announce the winner of our first race, the winner is with a top speed of -"

The announcer's voice was suddenly cut off as he covered his mic with his hand muting himself to the world. The action was clearly not the norm for the event as all the spectators started whispering to each other and a few parents gave each other's looks and shrugs of the shoulder, not knowing what was going on. The muffled sound of the loudspeaker simply continued, causing the murmuring and glances only to increase, as Clark took the opportunity to go back over to his parents.

"Clark sweetie, what's going on?" Aunt Mary was the first to speak to him, a confused look on her face as she kept glancing up at the announcer's box waiting for answers, hoping her nephew could fill her in.

Clark merely shrugged his shoulders unsure himself as all he had done was run the race. "I don't know auntie, is it not supposed to take this long?"

"No, it's not," Mary stated firmly, a grimace forming on her face as she looked over to the leader board that was still not showing any results, she then half-turned to her assistant stretching out her hand. "Give me my ph-"

"Sorry about that folks," The announcer's voice returned to the loudspeaker back to its loud confident enthusiastic tone. "We were just checking our results as it appears our first-place finisher has just broken the under-21 world record set by the 17-year-old Reggie Franklin from Chicago last year. Ladies and gentlemen, please put your hands together for the new fastest boy alive, The Superboy." 

The rest of the scores and results were drowned out as the crowd exploded into noise as cheers and shouts went out. Clark started to blink as suddenly every camera in the place swivelled to point at him, becoming a stream of flashes as everyone wanted his photo.

However, at that moment Mary couldn't have cared less as her eyes went wide for a moment before a very broad and a very jubilant smile appeared on her face. She was looking up at the stadium's jumbotron that was showing a photo of her nephew, along with one name she had wanted to see tied to a success story for so long.

The SUPERBOY

Clark Kent – Aged 9

Hometown: Smallville, Kansas

Recorded Speed: 329 Meters Per Second

Manager: Mary Clark

"Great job Clark," Jonathan's smile was even boarder than Mary's as he leant down and scooped up his son into his arms lifting Clark into the air. His joy was only eclipsed by Martha who was smiling and nearly had tears in her eyes at her son winning his first race.

However, before Clark could really enjoy his private moment with his family, he suddenly found their small area of the stadium swarmed by reporters and photographers. Clark started blinking and tried to shield his eyes as the glare from the camera flashes started to irritate his eyes. Jonathan tried to move to shield his son from the camera flashes but found that he was instead shoved forward to let them have a better picture by Mary. Who herself moved forward and started taking questions and answering them as Clark just stared blankly at the cameras.

"Yes, we are very pleased with the result, but I expected nothing less from my darling nephew." Aunt Mary's voice caused Clark to focus on her which helped him ignore the glare of the camera flashes. She had moved over to stand next to him and his Pa, placing a hand on his shoulder affectionately. "However, although I don't want to spoil any surprises, we are very excited for the weightlifting competition aren't we Superboy?"

Clark blinked and was quiet for a few moments before he realised that his aunt was talking to him. His confusion was a result that no one actually had ever addressed as Superboy before and that she had asked him questions whilst still looking at the Cameras.

"Oh, uh. Yes?" Clark responded, his statement more a question than a true response as he had no idea what his aunt was on about.

His response caused a flurry of more flashes and a barrage of questions from the crowd of reports, which caused him to start looking more anxious and a little nervous. A fact that Jonathan and Martha had noticed whilst Mary was basking in the glow of success she moved to take some questions. However, before she could Martha had moved in surprising her sister, placing a hand on her shoulder and whispering something into her ear, whatever it was it caused Mary to frown slightly which disappeared as she looked over and saw Clark's face.

"Sorry, that's all the questions for the moment. I, uh WE, will be releasing a statement later and please check our team Twitter account, which Kansas-SuperBoy." Mary's voice was commanding and firm, surprising Clark as it managed to instantly silence the crowd of reporters before her. "Thank you, we look forward to talking to you later."

As Mary finished talking Jonathan moved to take his son back into their team area, as they left the crowd made a move to follow them still snapping pictures making Clark fear that he was going to be swarmed again. However, before anything like that could happen two sharp clicks sounded from Mary's hand a team of stadium security appeared forming a line in front of him and forcing the crowd back.

"You alright son?" Although Clark could smell the alcohol on his Pa's breath, it did not overshadow the love and affection that was in his father's eyes as he set Clark down on a chair.

"Yeah, can we go home now? I miss the farm." Clark said hoping that he could avoid the rest of the events in light of apparently how well he had done, just wanting to go home, away from all the noise and run through the fields of corn like he always did in the afternoon.

"I do too," Jonathan chuckled, before releasing a deep sigh and running a hand through his hair as he knelt in front of his son. "I know you don't like this but unfortunately, we have to stick it out for a few more things. I promise the moment we can, we will, okay."

"Oh honey, your shoes are wrecked." Martha's voice sounded out next, as she spotted her son's tattered shoes that barely clung to his feet. Without waiting for a response she knelt down and took them off, or more precisely peeled what was left off of his feet. "I thought Mary said these were supposed to withstand super speeds?"

"They are." Mary's voice responded as she walked into their team's area typing away on her phone before hitting send and tossing her phone to her assistant again. "However, when you said he was fast I wasn't thinking near the speed of sound, I am seriously how is he so fast. No what, it doesn't matter we already have several dozen brands lining up to offer him new ones as part of an endorsement deal, I'll make sure they are up to standard. At the moment, which do you guys like more, Nike, Adidas or Skechers?"

Jonathan looked at his son and made a funny face raising his eyebrows at Mary's ridiculous question which caused Clark to laugh slightly. It also earned a chuckle from Martha who playfully slapped her husband on the chest for making light of her sister's business question. Jonathan was the one to respond turning around and giving Mary a grin which if one didn't know Jonathan Kent better was almost a smirk.

"Well seeing as we get our boots made by Harry in Smallville, I'm going to say…." Jonathan finished his playful sentence with a shrug of his shoulders earning him more chuckles from his son and another slap from his wife.

Mary however just released a deep sigh and rubbed her eyes for a moment as she recomposed herself not wanting to let her brother-in-law ruin the great mood she was feeling.

"Never mind, don't know why I asked." She stated as she sighed before fixing on a smile. "I'll decide and get them to put the money into Clark's Trust Fund. I will never understand why you won't take a cent to help that farm of ours."

Mary's last whispered statement earned her a glare from both Jonathan and Martha that caused her to raise her hands in couple had already discussed the matter and bar the expenses needed to feed, clothe and transport Clark around they refused to take any money from these good, awful pony shows. Instead, they had convinced Mary to set up a trust fund for Clark's winnings and endorsements which he could access when he turned 21, which she had dutifully done and made sure was iron tight as requested.

"So I am done for the day?" Clark piped up as he put on new shoes, this time the farm boots that he liked to wear when doing chores, which clashed slightly with his look but Mary was too happy to care at the moment.

"No, sweetie," Mary said softly crushing his hopes at a subtle attempt to try and get out of more. "You still have the weightlifting competition and the meet and greet with Little Miss Hero pageant winners. They sound fun right?"

"Yeah," Clark said with a barely concealed groan his mock enthusiasm fooling no one. Even Mary grimaced at that, she made a note to try and make this more fun. Maybe a Vought VS2 console for in-between events?

"Okay, well your event is not until 5 so you a few hours to relax and maybe talk to some of the other kids?" Mary offered a friendly smile which Clark tried to return knowing his aunt was just trying her best. As Mary made a move to leave, she stopped herself and turned back her eyes suspicious for a moment. "Wait, you also said Clark's pretty strong too….how strong are we talking?"

Jonathan and Mary gave each other look, not actually sure of that answer, they had never really measured their son's strength, but Clark had never not been able to lift anything, and he routinely lifted some heavy things. They made a move to answer but found that it was Clark's voice that sounded out first.

"I moved Old Man Johnson's grain silo for him once," Clark said his statement with the certainty of a child who believed that the statement would be answer enough.

Mary didn't respond she just gave Clark a polite nod as she then turned to deal with the corporate side of things that her sister's family hated. However, as she left a very broad smile filled her face as she was already picturing the look on Madlyn Sitwell's face at the next annual Christmas party.

(Vought Chicago HQ and Complex – Central Chicago – June 25th, 2004) 

Maeve was standing at the entrance to the massive reception room, trying her best not to but her head through the wall as she crouched down again for the 100th time to take a photo with the Little Miss Superhero pageant winners. Maeve remembered when her own dad used to drag her to events like these, she had fucking hated it then and suspected most of the little girls with bright smiles did as well. However, she suddenly found something interesting to listen to when a slender curvaceous and attractive black-haired woman came almost running out of the reception room with her phone pressed to her head.

She ducked into the small area behind where Maeve was set up wanting privacy from prying ears, which she largely got except from Maeve. Her slightly superior hearing allowed her to pick up one-half of the conversation. She was also quickly able to gather who the conversation was about, the little skinny boy that had shocked everyone for the two events he had competed in.

"Yes, Mr Edgar…..." The woman sounded almost jubilant, and Maeve could almost hear the grin on her face. "…. Yes, I was just as surprised as everyone else by the results…. Yes, sir two world records. He is now the Strongest and fastest boy alive …... Well sir I can't take all the credit, Clark and his parents do their fair share …. Sorry, what was that? ... Of course, sir I'll give him your best. Sir, Hello?"

Maeve let a small genuine smile appear on her face as she heard the woman try to get the CEO of Vought Stan Edgar back knowing the man well enough to know he had hung up the phone a few minutes ago. It took a few moments before the black-haired woman finally clicked that the CEO had hung up on her, but that still hadn't diminished the joy that the woman was feeling. As she passed by Maeve on her way back into the reception the woman was practically skipping like a schoolgirl.

As she left Maeve discovered that she was able to follow the woman as the pair of twins she had been taking a photo with was the last one that wanted a photo with her and so was now free. Maeve was following the woman mostly out of curiosity as she found these things terribly boring, and the woman was hot too which didn't hurt. She managed to slip into an impromptu greeting of a couple of her fans, who eagerly greeted her whilst she watched the black-haired woman go over to a couple that was trying and failing to blend into the background.

"Martha, Jonathan. You will never guess who just called me on my private number?" Maeve heard the woman speak to the couple that looked like a pair of farmers. As the woman moved in she also shooed away the small group of other parents and local business people that had been trying to talk to them.

"Um, Jerry?" Jonathan guessed the name of Mary's husband looking confused at Mary's question, thinking that his bother-in-law had called to congratulate them.

"What? No," Mary stated equally confused her husband had called hours ago. "Stan Edgar, THE Stan Edgar the CEO of Vought called me, ME, to talk about Clark. Today was a huge success, if we play our cards right at the BELIEVE EXPO month, we could even land a TV show deal or maybe even a junior sidekick role."

Maeve rolled her eyes upon hearing Mary talk finding the woman immediately less attractive and feeling sorry for the little Kansas farm boy. She had hoped that maybe things were different for him, but no just like every other super kid, he was surrounded by people who just wanted to milk him for all he was worth. She shouldn't have been surprised, her dad had been like that, everyone Supe she knew parents was the same, as she cast a glance at the farmers, she did not doubt that they were using their son to make all the money they could.

"No." Maeve had to prevent herself from turning around in shock at the word she hardly ever heard when people talked about making money. Her shock was further increased as it was coming from Martha who was glaring at her sister.

"What do you mean no?" Mary asked in a quiet whisper as she moved in casting a glance over her shoulder at the crowd, confused at what her sister was saying. "Martha this is everything we have been working f-"

"NO IT FUCKIN ISN'T" Martha whispered back fiercely also casting a glance across the room which when Maeve followed saw it was directed at the small skinny farm boy, who had shocked everyone.

Clark was currently at the buffet table that had been laid out, piling his small plate high with food, mostly chocolate and cany that were there for the kids. He was the only one there as all the adults had already eaten and the other Super children were clearly under instructions not to eat junk food. The sight made Maeve smile glad to see there was one person present acting like a kid and not a show pony.

"We agreed to this dammed event and the BELIEVE EXPO because you said that Clark needed the exposure for the future and not doing it would be seen as weird" Martha was impressing Maeve as she pressed on not letting Mary get a word in. "However, my son is a fucking show pony. We are not going to let you or anyone else turn him into okay. So no TV show ever or side kicking not until he is old enough to make the right decisions."

"Okay, I understand the TV show," Mary conceded on that front only because she wanted to win on the other point."But side kicking, come on, that could be a great for his chances when he goes -"

"JESUS, Mary he is Nine!" Martha hissed at her sister her eyes again glancing at Clark who having finished pilling his plate was now funnelling food in his mouth so that he could have as much as possible before heading back. "He can barely control his powers at the moment, he needs more practice, training and to learn right from wrong. I mean God, what if he hurts someone because he doesn't know what to do? I am not letting my son run around with a stranger until I know he can protect himself. NO SIDE KICKING."

Maeve didn't hear Mary's response as the group she had been pretending to talk to was suddenly joined by her Vought-appointed manager who all but dragged her away. However, as they left that part of the reception hall for the stage, she saw that Clark had managed to balance his very full plate and make his way over to a small child-sized table near where his parents were.

Clark for his part was finding this part of the evening equal parts fun and boring at the same time. Whilst the music, free food and drink were a lot more fun than the sporting events he had been forced to participate in, he was still bored. The room was just full of boring adults talking about boring things he didn't understand, it was like a room filled with Aunt Marys, and to make it worse still, no one wanted to talk to him. Well, that wasn't true people did but no one he wanted to talk to, where before all the other kids had looked at him like a joke, he now found that they looked at him as competition.

"Eww ." Clark's statement of disgust was accompanied by his face grimacing as he tried to subtly spit the offending candy bar he had just taken a bite out of.

"Not a fan of Almond Joys?" Clark turned his head and saw a blond girl around his age wearing a gold and white costume with a large golden star on its chest.

"Not really, you want them?" Clark offered, as he looked at his pilled plate, a look of complementation on his face as he tried how to figure do such a feat.

"I'm not allowed processed sugar." The blonde girl said sullenly as she looked at the plate in front of Clark with awe before she leaned in and whispered. "Do your parents really let you eat stuff like that?" 

"Ummm. Yeah." Clark said confused, "Well not all the time, my Ma doesn't like me eating candy so late, but I think she's letting me tonight for some reason."

"I wish my mom did, my dad use to get my doughnuts after things like this but….." The girl trailed off as she mentioned her father a sad look on her face.

"Oh sorry, my name is -" Clark decided to distract the girl from her unhappy thoughts, as he also realised, he didn't know her name. However, the girl cut him off.

"I know who you are, everyone does. You're the Superboy. I'm Starlight" The girl beamed at him thinking that he would be pleased that she knew who he was.

"Clark, I'm Clark. Clark Kent." Clark finished his original sentence feeling very awkward at the moment.

He wasn't sure what he found more unnerving that a total stranger apparently knew him or that they knew him as The Superboy, not Clark. However, his moment of awkwardness was suddenly removed when the girl just gave him a bright smile.

"Oh sorry, I'm Annie January, from Des Moines." Annie said offering her hand that Clark took and shook "I'm just so used to people calling themselves by their hero names. So where are you from Clark?"

"I'm from Kansas," Clark replied with a genuine smile on his face glad to have finally one nice person so far. "A town called Smallville, I'm glad some- HEY!"

Clark's last statement came as he gave a laugh at Annie who somehow was suddenly holding an open Almond Joy with a bite taken out of it. Annie tried to look innocent but the small smearing of chocolate on her lips defeated that.

"What? They're my favourite, oh my god I have so missed chocolate." Annie gave Clark a small smile as the two laughed and fell into talking.

Neither noticed that several dozen Vought personnel were watching the two interact out the corner of their eyes. Some were even brazen enough to start making notes about the two, listing about their shared Midwestern roots, similar age and the fact that one had just one the Midwestern Miss Superhero pageant whilst the other had just destroyed world records in his first real debut. The corporate gears and wheels were already turning, imagining the merchandise, tabloid articles and everything else they could sell.

However, the two interactions came to an erupt end when a blonde woman, whom Annie bore a striking resemblance, suddenly appeared behind her. She wasn't an overly tall woman, actually, she was fairly short compared to most adults Clark had met but she had a commanding and controlling air about her. Annie actually squeaked when she felt the woman's hand come on her shoulder and tried her best to shove the Almond Joy wrappers behind her as she turned to greet her mother.

"Annie, there you are! I've been looking all over for you. You know not to wander o-." Donna January paused as she saw the chocolate and the wrappers on her daughter's face. "What is that on your face?!"

"Oh, it's nothing." Annie suddenly became quiet as a dormouse compared to the bright happy girl Clark had just been interacting with.

"Oh no it's not. I've told you processed sugar will make you blo-." Donna stopped herself as she suddenly noticed Clark behind her daughter. Her eyes widened as she immediately recognised the boy everyone had been talking about all day. "Oh hi there. Sorry, I'm Donna Starlight's mom. You're the Superboy aren't you?"

"Um Hi, I'm -" Clark felt a little nervous and uneasy, especially given the look Annie's mom was giving him like he was some sort of prize.

"This is Clark, mom. He's a friend and just wanted to share a snack." Annie piped up recusing Clark and seeing her own chance to get out of trouble. However, Clark didn't mind the latter bit just smiling at having made a friend.

"OH a friend. That's just…" Donna suddenly looked so overjoyed that she was about to explode, as she cut herself off and started to fish in her handbag for a camera which she then pulled out. "…just great. How about a picture of the two of you together?"

"Okay." Clark smiled looking over at Annie who just nodded as well, happy her mom liked her new friend.

As she moved to stand next to Clark each wrapping an arm over the other's shoulders, neither noticed the small crowd that had started to gather to watch and take note of the event. Neither did Donna notice the small tapping of high-heeled shoes that suddenly caused a hole to appear in the gathered crowd.

"Okay, that's perfect now just get a little bit closer and -HEY!" Donna yelled as her vision of a prized photo of her daughter with an up-and-coming Super child was ruined, by a large hand appearing over the lens.

As Donna looked up she felt her blood go cold as before her was a woman that every stage mom on the Miss Hero pageant circuit knew, the Vought Regional Manager for the entire Midwest, Mary Clark. The woman was a force of nature in the local heroing community, able to make and break careers with a phone call, she even had some pull on the national level. Donna went quiet and let Mary take the camera out of her hands.

"Thank you," Mary said with a smirk at the stage mom who seemed to cower before her and take a step away from her. Mary then turned and directed her full attention at Clark completely ignoring the blonde girl next to him. "Come on Clark we have our own photos to take. They are about to start handing out prizes."

"Okay, Aunt Mary," Clark said casting a nervous glance at Annie's mom who looked terrified of his aunt a reaction he had worryingly seen before when his aunt talked to adults, not his parents.

"Aunt," Donna whispered going even paler and feeling like she had just destroyed everything, she, THEY, had worked for trying to get Annie noticed by ticking off Mary Clark by trying to profit off of her nephew.

"Um, Aunt Mary are you going to give Annie's mom back her camera?" Clark asked as he moved to walk away with his aunt, back to his parents that she had abruptly left.

"Oh, I don't think they mind if I keep it." Mary gave her nephew a kind smile before she looked up at Donna her smile now cold and condescending. "Do you?"

"No, no, no. Not at all keep it, it's all yours." Donna suddenly hastily agreed, fixing a clearly fake smile on her face as she all but picked up her daughter and started moving away.

As they left Mary's eyes lingered on them, and then sharply turned to the crowd that had watched the spectacle. Her icy cold glare caused the crowd to immediately break up and the noise level of the room to grow louder as people returned to conversations. Mary smirked at her triumph feeling vindicated at having crushed a pitiful attempt to try and tie her nephew to an inferior product.

Clark was silent as they walked back over to his parents, leaving behind the plate of food that caused Annie to walk over to him and away from possibly the only friend he had made so far. He glanced up at his aunt as he reached his parents and saw that she had her thinking face on as he called it. His aunt was always thinking, and always seemed in control, which Clark supposed was good he just didn't know why everyone was scared of her.

"Aunt Mary?" Clark asked summoning the courage to ask what was on his mind.

"Yes sweetie?" Mary asked coming out of her thoughts about their next step to capitalise on their recent successes.

"Did I do something wrong? I don't want Annie to get in trouble." Clark asked worried that he had broken one of those adult rules he was starting to learn about.

"Oh, no sweetie. You did nothing wrong." Mary quickly assured her nephew not wanting to feel bad on a day where everything had gone so right. "Was Annie the girl you were talking to?"

"Yeah, she called Starlight and she's like me." Clark said smiling loving that his Aunt was taking an interest in his personal life instead of just his powers.

"Oh no sweetie, she's not." Mary corrected her nephew as a look Clark had never seen before came across her face.

"She's not?" Clark asked confused, he was superabled and she was superabled.

"No, she's…..well super yes." Mary explained slowly stopping before she reached Martha and Jonathan not wanting their views to confuse her nephew who needed to understand his place in the super pecking order. "But you are so much more, she's just going to a be a superhero at best whilst…you're going to be…...an ICON."

Mary smiled to herself a feeling of pride and success washing over her as she continued over to Martha and Jonathan. Whilst Clark just thought about what his aunt had just said a pensive look on his 9-year-old face, as one thought stuck in his mind.

'…what does Icon mean?'

Chapter 4 – Young America

"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!" 

The unseen announcer's voice sounded out clearly over the quiet, yet packed massive auditorium, causing the crowd to go even quieter as the lights went off. A single intense spotlight then focused on the very centre of the stage, as dramatic and patriotic music started sounding out.

"We want to welcome you all to VoughtCon 2011 and thank you all for your continued support of our brave Superheroes that protect and save us every day." There was a brief pause as the crowd broke out into a smattering of applause and cheers, at the announcer's statement before quieting down again. "NOW. We have a special treat for all you platinum members, so please welcome to the stage…"

The music that had been sounding out became more intense before it suddenly cut as a small laser light show enveloped on the stage, red, blue and yellow drenching the stage as the rest of the auditorium became pitch black. The room was primarily silent except for a few excited murmurs from the crowd, the most intense were from the first three rows seemingly all made up of young girls and teenagers. The girls and teenagers edged forward in their seats almost ready to pounce on the stage, as a brass trombone sounded out starting off a signature piece of music.

"…. He's faster than a speeding bullet."

The laser right show began to intensify, the bright white spotlight shifting to match the colours of the laser, filtering between red, blue and yellow as the announcer spoke.

"More powerful than a locomotive,"

The crowd started to get louder as the murmuring started turning into shouts, yells and whoops as people began to stand up. The crowd became so loud that the fanfare music actually had to be turned up, to keep the atmosphere of the event going.

"Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound"

The stage started to fill with smoke as the trapdoor in its centre opened up, and the multi-coloured laser of the light show suddenly converged on it. The crowd was starting to get to their feet and the first few rows suddenly lifted large placards and signs, declaring everything from simple admiration to requests for marriage.

"The leading member of the teen supergroup YoungAmericans…...The Might of the Midwest. The Heart of Heartlands. The World's most powerful boy. The one they only…... SUPERBOY!"

The crowd who was already going wild exploded into cheers and shouts as the silhouetted figure of Clark rose from the trap door, wearing his black T-shirt and red logo. The loudest noise in the room and one that almost made him wince was from the first few rows as the girls around his age pressed forward only being held back by the height of the stage and the security guards present. Clark maintained a friendly smile on his face as he wavered to the crowd and kept his eyes sweeping over the room not really wanting to linger on any of the crazed fanatics before him.

Suddenly caught a glimpse of his Aunt in the wings who was literally holding a script of the event in her hand and was counting off with her hand until the next part was supposed to begin. Clark had to repress a sigh and a grimace as she reached the end of her countdown as his 'theme tune' that she had paid John Williams to compose reached its zenith. Clark then took a deep breath and made sure that his face was a picture of confidence and happiness, as he pushed off the ground and started hovering in the air.

"Truth, justice and the American way." Clark's mouth formed the words that his aunt and the marketing department had chosen as his new 'catchphrase' going forward.

The crowd exploded into an even greater frenzy as Clark hovered in the air a fake smile on his face as he looked over the crowd of screaming people feeling sick at the sight.

(Kent Farm, Smallville – Kansas – July 28th, 2013)

"Pete will you please shut that off," Clark yelled over to his friend as he moved several dozen hay bales over to the barn on his shoulders.

Pete Ross, Clark's oldest and truest friend in the world pressed pause on the video he had been watching of his friend's VoughtCon act a smile gracing his face. Pete shut his laptop as he leaned back on the hay bale he was sitting on and gave Clark a chuckle, still finding it funny how much his friend hated his fame.

As Clark moved the last of the hay bales, Pete couldn't help but remark on how much his friend changed over the past years. His friend had always been skinny, spindly and at times looked fragile despite being the most powerful boy in the world, not that that many people believed that when they meet him. However, those days were quickly receding, as over the past year, actually really the summer, his friend was no longer that spindly kid adults raised an eyebrow at.

The Clark Kent that stood before him was nearly 6 feet in height and was so muscular that the plaid shirt and work jeans he wore looked ready to rip at any moment. Clark however much to Pete's liking was still Clark despite his new looks making him look every inch the superabled boy people knew he was.

"So, have you met the other members of your superhero team?" Pete asked with a smile on his face as watched Clark walk over to him.

"Yeah, I've met them," Clark said in a tone that Pete knew all too well when his friend talked about the superhero industry.

"What's up?" Pete asked leaning forward a look of friendly concern on his face, his question caused his old friend to release a sigh.

"It's all bull," Clark said placing his hands in his pockets and leaning on the same hay bale that Pete was sitting on. "The team doesn't really exist, it's all marketing gimmicks to sell us to the public. We've never saved anyone as a team, all we do is stand and look good for the cameras."

"Oh, come on. I've seen YOU save lots of people, when we were kids you saved the school bus when we ran off the road." Pete stated not believing for a second his friend wasn't a hero not after seeing all the lives Clark had saved first-hand. "AND just last month, you saved all those people in Wichita, when you ran to help when that freak tornado hit. You telling me those were what fake?"

"No, not at all," Clark spoke in genuine surprise that Pete seemed able to recall his saves so well. He then released a sigh taking his hands from his pockets and picking up a small stone from the ground. "But I didn't do that as part of the Young Americans, I just ran over to help and the next thing I know is that they are flying in most of the team to help with the clean-up. Then suddenly it's all Superboy leads Young Americans to save the city from Tornado.

"Wow, really? I'm guessing your Aunt wasn't happy they made you share the credit." Pete said remembering Clark's aunt well, she was a scary lady who always seemed to worry about numbers and how things looked.

"You know I don't care about the credit," Clark said giving Pete a sideways look that made him chuckle. Clark then threw the stone he was holding launching it so fast that Pete couldn't even track it as it rocketed towards orbit. "She was actually okay with it, something about me looking like a leader was good from over 30's point of view."

The two were silent after Clark's statement for a few moments with Pete looking at Clark and his best friend just looking out towards the horizon. Pete then released a chuckle wanting to improve the mood and gave Clark a playful grin that made him look at his friend.

"Your aunt is one weird lady." Pete's joking yet true comment on Clark's aunt caused him to start chuckling and a smile to appear on his face. Pete then leaned back contented that he had made his friend smile before asking another question. "So, what are the other superabled teens of Young Americans like? Starlight and Holy Mary look hot."

"Pete." Clark groaned at his friend's statement over the two female members of his 'team', shaking his head at the question only Pete Ross would be brazen enough to make to Clark.

"What! They are" Pete stated with mock conviction leaning forwarded and pretending that this was a serious discussion. "Starlight has that whole girl next door thing going for her, and Holy Mary well that's just forbidden fruit. Think you could introduce me?"

"To which one?" Clark asked raising his eyebrows at Pete wondering if his friend really wanted him to set him up with a teen superhero.

"Both." Pete gave him a grin that caused Clark to laugh and shake his head at his friend before slapping Pete on the back. After a few moments of a good laugh, Pete looked at his friend and tried to be more serious. "But seriously what are they like?"

"Annie is alright, you'd like her, she's been a great friend. Actually, it's crazy you to have never met." Clark spoke honestly, a look of curiosity on his face as suddenly realised that his super life and his Smallville life rarely overlapped. However, he pushed that to one side as he tried to recall the other members of the Young Americans that he had met. "Alex is actually quite nice, despite that boyband persona they make him do, but I think he is struggling with everything. The rest I don't know that well, we only interact during photo ops and there isn't much talking."

"Well, that sucks." Pete's comment made Clark look at him confused, but his confusion was answered when Pete grinned at him and spoke again. "I really wanted you to introduce me to Holy Mary."

Clark laughed again shaking his head at Pete and opened his mouth to say something but suddenly snapped his head over to the main house. He then let out a deep sigh as his vision narrowed down and saw a bright pink car coming towards the house. Pete noticing Clark's sigh turned around and stood up, although he didn't possess supervision he could spot the car and immediately knew why his friend was sighing.

"You know you're the only guy in Smallville I know that doesn't look forward to seeing Miss Teen Kansas herself, Lana Lang," Pete smirked at his friend's distress at seeing his girlfriend's car, knowing full well why. "You two still in a fight?"

"What fight? We actually have to talk to have a fight" Clark scoffed, feeling irritated that Lana was again just showing up out of the blue again. He released a deep sigh and turned to look at Pete as the two started to slowly walk back over to the house. "I mean, I've liked Lana since I was 5 and everything was great, but now, she's all guest appearances and tabloid stories. She talks about our relationship with everyone but ME."

"Sorry CK," Pete looked genuinely sad for his friend, knowing what Clark was on about.

Clark and Lana had seemed like the perfect match and on the surface were. She was the queen bee of Smallville high, the head cheerleader of the cheer squad, Miss Kansas Teen USA and runner-up for the Miss Teen USA competition last year. Whilst Clark was the Superboy, the most powerful boy in the world, the heartthrob of a teen heartthrob, and Kansas' favourite son. The two both coming from Smallville meant that it all seemed natural the two would be the ultimate teen power couple. However, under the surface, nothing was perfect.

Lana had increasing become a media whore, desperate to stay in the spotlight alongside her more famous boyfriend, whose fame many suspected was why she won so many beauty pageants. She was also willing to do everything including selling personal secrets to the tabloid to stay relevant and was constantly convinced that Clark was cheating on her with other superabled teen heroes. Clark for his part was just tired of the relationship, he tried to make it work but he only saw Lana when she wanted him to boast her image or she wanted to yell at him for apparently cheating on her with whatever super teen a tabloid placed his photo next to that week.

As the two reached the edge of the field next to the main house, they saw the incredibly attractive and tanned figure of Lana get out of her car. Her red hair contrasted perfectly with the skin-tight pink crop top she was wearing and the very short daisy dukes covering her waist. She took off her sunglasses as she spotted Clark and gave him a perfect smile and waved at him whilst blowing a kiss.

"Oh, Clark baby, I've missed you," Lana said in a tone that would drive most 18-year-old boys wild but just made Clark feel tired, as she walked over swaying her hips suggestively. "I've come to give you a lift, your Aunt is in town and wants to see you, she's at the agency. Apparently, something big has come up."

The agency was what everyone called the small Vought office branch that his aunt had set up in town for him, it's official use was it was supposed to be something like Superboy's HQ. In truth, however, he hardly visited the place, and its only real purpose was a place for his fan mail to go instead of his house. On occasion when his aunt came to visit she would stay at the agency building having converted one floor of the 4 storied building into an apartment, for her to sleep in when needed.

"Thanks, Lana but you know you could have just called to tell me, I'm faster than your car," Clark said giving Lana a strained smile as she sauntered over to him and placed a kiss on his.

"Of course, you are baby, but I just wanted to spend time with you. We haven't seen each other in ages." Lana said batting her eyelashes at him and giving him an almost sickening sweet smile.

Clark turned to look at Pete who just smiled and nodded indicating that it was alright for his friend to go and that he would be fine. Clark just gave a small sigh and gestured for Lana to get back into the car. She gave him a small squeal of delight and raced back into the car quickly followed by a reluctant Clark, who quickly took out his phone and messaged his parents where he was going.

As they drove back to town Clark gave Lana a glance trying to figure out which Lana he was dealing with today. Was it the fame-obsessed overly affectionate Lana that would do anything to keep him or the super paranoid jealous Lana that sold fake stories to the tabloids and tried to control him?

He didn't have to wait long as three minutes into the car drive, he felt a magazine thrown at his head. Looking down at it as it landed on his lap he saw it was one of those trash super teen magazines, which had his, Annie's, and Alex's faces on them under their superhero names with the title, Love Triangle in Young America?

"You want to explain this?" Lana looked at him with almost a snarl on her face.

"Lana." Clark sighed, not wanting to have the argument again that Annie was with Alex and that he was just friends with Annie.

"DON'T LANA ME!" She shrieked out as if Clark was being unreasonable. "I know you and that little slu-"

Lana's voice was cut off by Clark's sudden disappearance from the Car. She only felt a rush of air and the car jolt a little to know that her boyfriend had just super sped away from her, and not for the first time. As he departed she let out a small scream of anger and grip the wheel tightly putting her foot down trying in vain to catch up with him.

(Vought Superboy Hero Office – Smallville, Kansas - July 28th, 2013)

Clark's arrival in the office was heralded by a small gust of wind that caught most of the staff off guard as he was so rarely there they had never gotten used to his arrival at superspeed. However, there was one exception to this, having felt the breeze a split second before the rush had hit her, Mary Clark had simply placed one had on the papers next to her and lifted her cup off the table. She gave her nephew a kind smile and couldn't help but admire the man he was turning into, Clark was getting taller, and more handsome every day.

He would be the face of the next generation, she thought with pride, and was eager for him to do so, Vought had too many fake heroes in it solely for the fame that cost the company millions in damages every year. Clark however, she noted with pride was the real deal, he was genuinely kind, and moral and really did believe in helping people. Despite her arguments and disagreements with her sister, Martha had raised Clark well and despite being famous Clark didn't seem to care for that side of things at all.

"Hi, Auntie." He said releasing a deep sigh as he looked at her, however, being a mother herself Mary knew that Clark's sigh was not truly directed at her.

"Trouble with Lana again?" Mary guessed, knowing full well the issues the couple was having.

She had initially supported the relationship as it scored high with the teen demo and Clark initially seemed to care for Lana. However, recently Lana's behaviour was making it too much of a headache and Mary was spending more time than she wished crushing tabloid stories, Lana was trying to sell to those rags than she wanted. Despite that, she was unconcerned for the moment as Clark's growing fame and soon debut as a full hero would be enough that they could drop the whole high school sweetheart phase for something more substantial.

Her nephew's response was just giving her a deep sigh and a pointed look that told her everything she needed to know. The look also told her that it might be worth dropping Lana sooner rather than later, in all honesty, she had never liked Lana anyway and knew that the Kent parents had gone off the girl as well.

"Well, that's something we can discuss, as there is someone very important that has come all the way from New York to talk to you." Mary gave Clark a genuinely pleasant smile as she then gestured to the nearby stairs that lead to the rest of the agency. "He's upstairs I think you are going to like hearing what he has to say."

Clark gave his aunt a curious look but decided to trust her and followed her upstairs, to his surprise they didn't stop until they reached the top floor that his aunt had renovated into a small yet luxury apartment. As his aunt opened the door Clark was greeted by the sight of an African man seated on the couch, his hair had a tinge of grey around the edges but what surprised Clark was how still the man was.

"Ah, Mrs Clark and you must be her nephew the Superboy." Stand Edgar rose out of his seat rebuttoning his suit as did so before moving over to Clark offering his hand. "However, I understand that you prefer Clark in private, correct?"

"Um yes sir." Clark took the man's hand a little confused, as he tried to place the man's face before realisation dawned on him. "Sorry, but aren't you Stan Edgar, the CEO of Vought?"

"I am indeed, a very astute young man you have Mary just like you said." Stan Edgar gave an impressed smile at Clark as he withdrew his hand and gave a nod at Mary who looked almost ecstatic with the praise. "How's your father doing, I understand that Doctors are still worried about his heart? If you want, I can get him seen by some of the best Cardiologists in the world?"

"Oh thank you, sir, um I'll talk to my parents," Clark said surprised at the offer or that the Vought CEO knew about his father's declining health.

"Oh please you Clark, you can drop the formalities. Why with how often your aunt talks about you I feel like we are practically family. So please call me Stan or Mr Edgar if that makes you feel better" Stan Edgar offered, gesturing for them to return to the living room where Clark saw that the table had been laid out with his favourite food or drink.

"Okay, Mr Edgar." Clark moved over to sit on a chair next to the table, casting a hesitant look at Edgar and his aunt who took their seats on the same couch across from him.

He eyed the food with suspicion whilst many thought Clark was a simple farm boy and some called him a hitch because of the persona his aunt had created, he was anything but simple. He had been dealing with Vought and the same people his Aunt Mary dealt with and whilst he was not as good as her, he wasn't a novice at the game being played.

"So Clark you are likely wondering why the CEO has come out all the way to rural Kansas just to see you." Mary started giving Clark a smile he knew well it was the same one she gave everyone she was trying to sell something to, which was usually him.

Clark gave a small nod, not wanting to speak yet in case he said the wrong thing and also wanted to get the tone of the meeting before he started addressing anyone.

"Mary I think your nephew deserves the respect of dropping the formalities and getting straight to business." Edgar interrupted his voice was almost perfectly controlled, and for the first time ever he saw his Aunt let someone else take charge of a meeting. "It's quite simple son, in a few years, you will be the number one draft pick of future heroes every city will be bidding to have you. What I want to offer you is a chance to effect real change and a measure of control. Would you be interested in that?"

"What kind of deal?" Clark finally spoke he cast a quick glance at his aunt but saw that she was taking a backseat for this meeting.

"Well put simply we will arrange for you to be stationed somewhere on the West Coast I'm thinking Los Angeles personally for your first few years. No Superhero team, no subordinate rule, just you. Full PR support, branding and merchandise are all handled by an exclusive team, 'the whole nine yards' as it were. We will make you into THE hero of the west coast." Stan Edgar presented his offer in short concise points not continuing until he knew Clark had both heard and understood his words.

"And what would I have to do?" Clark asked feeling like such an offer had to have strings attached to it.

"Not much, we are all happy with what you are currently doing. However, we would expect a slightly more active media presence than you have now. Branding, TV show appearances and a couple of movies, nothing too extreme." Mr Edgar gave Clark a delicate business-like smile as he leaned forward and took a small plate placing several pieces of food on it before retreating back. "The only real prevision would be that you keep yourself to the West Coast as much as possible, and with that, you will get Vought's full support."

"Why do you want me to stick to the West Coast?" Clark asked confused although he didn't care where he was stationed as long as he could help, he did find it odd. Nearly every major superhero from Homelander to Nubian Prince was positioned on the East Coast. He then turned to his aunt who had always regarded the West Coast Hero scene as a collection of B-listers. "I thought you wanted me to go to Chicago or New Orleans then head to New York."

"I did…..." Mary stated carefully looking at her boss first and when he gave her a nod, she became more confident, returning to the confident woman her nephew was used to. "But things change, the East Coast is oversaturated with heroes now, and we don't want to waste your potential. I mean Homelander operates out of New York and as the greatest hero he covers nearly all of the East Coast anyway. So, we believe the place you can do the most good is the West Coast."

"Okay," Clark looked at his aunt with hesitation in his eyes, whilst Stan Edgar's vitals revealed nothing, Mary's heart rate was elevated and her pupils had dilated. There was something that she was clearly hiding from him.

"It will be great for the brand as well, just think America's favourite boy hero, the Might of the Midwest becomes the Warrior of the West." Mary jumped on Clark's apparent agreement, starting to lay out her vision of the future, as she always did with marketing slogans. "Saviour of LA, the Avenging Angel of the city of Angles, you are going to be the next Hom-"

"Yes, the opportunities are endless." Stan Edgar cut off Mary before she could mention Homelander giving her a quick look that Clark caught but didn't mention as the man pressed on. "However, all I wanted to do was come in person and tell you that your future is very important to Vought. Anything we can do to make it easy, just let us kn-"

"CLARK JOSEPH KENT!" Lana's voice suddenly sounded out as the door to the apartment rattled as she banged on it with her fist trying to get in. "YOU OPEN THIS DOOR RIGHT NOW! HOW DARE YOU RUN AWAY FROM ME! I WAS RIGHT WASN'T I YOU ARE CHEATING ON ME WITH THAT SLUT!"

Clark's face fell as he stood up to go and deal with his irate girlfriend again, feeling embarrassed that the CEO of Vought who was offering Clark a deal of a lifetime was now subject to teenage drama. However, as he stood up Clark found himself stopped by Stan Edgar who merely raised one hand and stood up himself. The CEO placed the small plate he had been eating from back onto the table and then casually walked to the door, opening it with a blank expression on his face.

Lana just blinked up at the slightly taller man who had opened the door clearly not excepting to see a middle-aged African American man in a suit. Her shock however did nothing to dispel the anger in her voice. "JUST WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?! WHERE'S CLARK."

Stan Edgar merely stepped forward causing Lana to back out into the corridor allowing him to step out as well and close the door behind him. Clark blinked himself surprised at the sudden action and gave a look to his aunt who just seemed smug at seeing Lana having to deal with the Vought CEO. Clark was about to reach out with his super-hearing to see what was happening when the door suddenly opened again, revealing Stan Edgar who looked calm as ever.

However, what drew Clark's eye was Lana who was no longer angry nor shouting, but for the first time ever she was pale-faced quiet and looked a little scared. She quickly glanced up at Clark and then suddenly turned around and left without saying another word, all but running for the exit.

"What did you say?" Clark looked at the CEO a little wary now as he had never met anyone that could do that to Lana especially not in under a minute like what had just happened.

"Nothing much, we just came to an agreement, Miss Lang will no longer be bothering you or us with her attempts to sell gossip. Apologise if that was a bit presumptuous of me but I had a feeling that the relationship had run its course." Mr Edgar walked back over to him and pulled a card out from his jacket pocket offering it to the young superhero. "My personal number, please call if you need anything, especially regarding your father's health."

"Um I ur, thank you, sir." Clark took the card feeling ironically a little rushed off of his feet for once, as he looked down at the CEO's personal card.

"I must say if that is the worst of what we have to deal with for you. I foresee a very profitable and mutually beneficial relationship." Mr Edgar gave Clark a small almost fatherly pat on the shoulder before moving back to the table with food on it. "Come let's eat something, and we can discuss a choice of Colleges and Mary's new position as the Senior Director of Hero Management."

The trio talked for about three hours with Clark feeling like he was less talking about something that might happen and more like he was listening to an already formulated plan. Whilst everything they said about placing in the best position to do good and spreading out heroes across the country, made sense, he kept feeling like there was more to it. However, the conversation eventually shifted to other things, mainly his brand, with Mr Edgar and his aunt giving him options for his future costume, cape or no cape, red or blue as the main colour scheme.

Eventually, Clark noticed the time and politely excused himself as he still needed to finish up his chores and his homework for the day. As he left Stan Edgar waited a few minutes before turning back to Mary releasing a sigh.

"He seems accepting if a little reluctant." The CEO said as he moved off of the couch and over to the liquor cabinet, pouring himself a single malt scotch.

"I'll work on it. I have a couple of years, and I promise you, sir, your faith in me will not be misplaced." Mary sat up straight and projected an air of confidence believing she could convince Clark to agree with the plan.

"It is imperative that you do." Stan Edgar sighed as he took a deep sip of his drink almost draining the glance in one go. "Otherwise, managing this situation will be impossible."

"Is Homelander really that threatened by Clark?" Mary asked slightly hesitant to broach the carefully kept Vought secret, that the world's greatest hero was a loose cannon and egomaniac. Who had straight-up murdered god knows, how many people when he felt threatened.

"Who can tell with that oversized man child," Edgar replied bitterly, as he drained the last of his scotch before pouring himself another. "Sitwell has him under control for the time being but given how strong your nephew is getting I can't imagine Homelander will stay happy for long. Especially when Clark is no longer a boy and the whole you are still the strongest man thing isn't going to work."

"Do you think Clark can take him?" Mary asked knowing full well the reason Edgar was so invested in Clark was that he saw him as a stable alternative to Homelander. A super that wasn't a hedonistic self-obsessed child, that Vought wouldn't have to clean up after.

"Hmmm, currently I'm not sure. Clark for all intents and purposes is still a boy and still developing, whereas Homelander is still in his prime and has decades of experience on the boy." Stan Edgar spoke thoughtfully as he nursed the drink in his hand taking a small sip as he calculated the odds. "So, at the moment it could go either way. However, in a few years if Clark keeps developing then things might be very different indeed."

(The Seven Tower- Homelander's Apartment – New York – August 1st 2013) 

Homelander was staring at the front cover of a superhero magazine and felt his hand contract as the paper ripped from the pressure. He threw the remains of the magazine down onto the table only to see the offending front page was still glaring up at him. The entire front cover was a single image of a boy in a black T-Shirt standing in the rubble of a town, lifting up a house with one hand and offering his hand to a trapped family he was rescuing. The title of the article although ripped in half was also still visible.

A Super Save by the Superboy

Homelander's eyes flashed red and saw the magazine turn to ash before his eyes he let a small, satisfied snarl appear on his face wishing he could do it to the actual boy.

'How could people be so stupid to compare that, that…pup to me!' Homelander thought in disbelief, he was THE HOMELANDER, for heaven's sake the world's greatest superhero. This 'Superboy' was a fucking farm boy from who the fuck cares middle of nowhere, they weren't even in the same league let alone the same ballpark.

What was currently making himmore irritable than usual was the fact that Ashley Barrett, Madelyn's newest assistant had just suggested a mentorship. The very thought made his skin itch, him THE WORLD's GREATEST HERO mentoring the fucking mongrel from fuckin nowhere. It was only Madelyn's quick shooting down of the idea that stopped him from putting a fist through the stupid assistant's head.

"What's the matter?" The voice of Madelyn of Sitwell caused him to immediately perk up.

As he looked up and saw her standing in the doorway of his apartment, he realised he had been more distracted than he thought as he had completely failed to notice her arrival. He quickly swallowed the lump in his throat that always formed when he saw her and also tried to brush the pile of ash off the table.

"Nothing, nothing at all. Why would anything be the matter?" Homelander quickly responded standing up in her presence, fixing a strained grin on his face.

Sitwell just raised an amused eyebrow at his attempts to hide anything from her giving him a small seductive and manipulative. She moved forward to the table and leaned down giving him a quick glance down her top before she stood back up and held one of the other magazines Homelander forget was on the table. It was a superhero Athletic magazine that had a picture of Clark lifting a pair of train engines one on each hand, under the title Most Powerful Boy Alive. 

"What did I tell you he is nothing to worry about." Madelyn tossed the magazine away emphasising her point before moving around the table and placing her hands on his chest. "You are the world's greatest hero, you don't need to worry about a fucking super boy, because you are the man every man wants to be, you are HOMELANDER."

"I know." He whispered quietly as he breathed in Madelyn's scent trying to make sure his body didn't respond too obviously. He then released "It's just everyone is talking about him, saying that I should MENTOR HIM like I'm what some fuckin has been, some senior citizen superhero, that needs to pass the fuckin torch to some whiney snot nose prat that I could tear in ha-" 

"Hey, hey, calm down. Okay, he's not worth this, he's not a tenth of the man you are." Madelyn quickly moved to calm the unstable superhero before him. Her hand slid lower on his body causing him to stir and focus on him. "Just forget about him okay, I've already sorted it, he'll be shipped off to the West Coast, far from you or the real action and soon he'll be another former famous child Supe who nobody remembers. Now just relax and let me take care of everything."

Homelander let himself be pushed to the couch and Madelyn moved around to the other side to start giving him a gentle massage. Homelander was practically rapturous at the attention and Madelyn saw him stir below the waist causing her to shiver slightly. Although she was terrified of the man and found him repulsive despite his good looks, she still forced herself to continue on knowing it was needed to keep him in place.

"Your right." Homelander eventually whispered after feeling himself almost at the climax of the sensation he was getting from Madelyn Sitwell's touch opening his eyes to look up at her. "He is really nothing to worry about because I'm Homelander." 

"Yes, you are." She agreed with him fixing a smile on her face as she looked down at him.

It was several hours later when she was back in her office finishing her day that she looked at the files and emails that her boss Stan Edgar had sent over. Madelyn despite her dislike of Homelander's unstable side was still feeling blinded-sided and more than a little irritated at recent events over the last few years. Homelander was her golden goose, the very thing that made Vought so successful as well as herself, she had gotten in on the ground floor of Homelander and built his brand herself.

She had sacrificed, threatened, and done some pretty unsavoury things to get to where she was now.

Yet, now there was another Supe out there that could challenge her shinning American icon for his title of the world's most powerful man. What infuriated her the most was this 'apparent miracle' super child just also happened to be Mary Clark's nephew. Who just so happened to be the product of a regular Compound V injection into Mary's pregnant sister, that Mary knew nothing about until after it had happened.

'Yeah, right and I'm the bloody Queen of Egypt.' Madelyn scoffed thinking it insulting that Vought that she or anyone would buy that story.

She knew what this was Vought had made a contingency plan, they saw where they had gone wrong with Homelander, and this time had corrected the mistakes. A real childhood with real parents, controlled exposure to the media to make him ready for his true debut and keeping just off the radar enough that their current Homelander would go out and destroy his replacement. Yeah, she saw through the scheme easily enough, all Clark Kent was Homelander 2.0, the true red, a white and blue hero without the kinks Homelander had.

Then of course there was also Mary Clark, now there was a name that Madelyn thought she was never going to hear again. She remembered the presumptuous little bitch from the cousin-fuck-hick middle of nowhere Kansas, who had one time thought herself Madelyn's rival. In truth, there had never been a contest Madelyn was Vought born and bred, practically raised to be in her position, and knew the game like the back of her hand.

Whilst Mary Clark had been that over-eager little bitch, that was kept around because she looked good in a pencil skirt and was eye candy for the older executive boys to look at. She had proven to be good enough and must have gotten in bed with the right executive as well to land a management position in Vought.

However, where before Mary's name invoked a smirk from her, Madelyn now formed a grimace as she thought of the woman. Mary had played the long game and much like how she had coasted on her success with Homelander and the Seven to get to her position, Mary was obviously planning to do the same with her 'nephew'. Mary had even managed to get Stan Edgar to promote her to Senior Director of Hero Management, placing her just under Madelyn and with a directive from the CEO himself that she had free range of the West Coast hero scene.

She also grimaced at the email she had just received from one of her contacts that Clark's girlfriend Lana had broken up with him and had gone media silent. Madelyn had found the girl as a useful pawn and had been the one through various agents using her to try and discredit Mary's golden boy through tabloid stories. It seemed as though someone had got to Lana and that particular route of smearing Clark was no longer going to work, Madelyn needed to think of another way.

'Or maybe, don't' The random thought that went through her head made her smile as an idea suddenly came to her. 'Don't fight change, be the one in charge of it. Yes, that was it, let Mary do all the work build up Clark into something, out west and then swoop in. Dazzle the boy with the glitz and glamour of the bid leagues pry him away from Mary and then bring the next icon to the east coast, as a member of her team.' 

Yes, Madelyn liked that plan, Clark from what she understood was like most people and admired the Seven thinking them the world's greatest heroes. What super kid didn't grow up dreaming of being in the Seven. So it should be easy once he was more established to swoop in and convince him to come to work for her in the Seven, although it might take a few unsavoury things she could convince Homelander to go along with it.

The only question was which one of the idiots on the Seven would they drop for Clark when the time came. Maeve and Black Noir were out, one because they needed a female in the team and the other because Stan Edgar wanted him there. A-Train was also likely a no as the team still needed diversity unless he lost his position as the fastest speedster alive and got slower, then Clark could easily take his spot as the fastest man alive. So, she was thinking, Translucent or the Lamplighter, both were arrogant pricks, whose messes she could do without, one was a perv and the other was a colossal idiot, both of whom really offered little in the way of power.

Yep, she liked this plan for a few more years and then she could clean out one of the rotten apples for the next golden goose. The future was looking very bright indeed for Vought, the Seven, and Madelyn herself. The icing on the cake was that when she whisked Clark off to the real Superhero show, it would leave the bitch Mary Clark on her own in the B-list rodeo that was the West Coast scene.

Madelyn let a great big grin settle on her face as she looked down at the file that had Clark's picture on it, and where before she had felt annoyance, she now felt opportunity. She had wrapped Homelander around her finger in no time, how hard could a farm boy from the stick possibly be.