Feb 12
𝐻 ɛ ˡ l 𝒪 ?
Ｗ ₕ 𝕖 Ր ᵉ 𝕒 m 𝕀 ?
Һ ₑ 𝘭 ᥣׁׅ֪ 𝙊?
seen from China
seen from France
seen from United States
seen from Bosnia & Herzegovina
seen from United Kingdom
seen from Germany
seen from France
seen from United Kingdom
seen from United Kingdom
seen from Yemen
seen from United States
seen from United Kingdom
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United Kingdom
seen from Germany
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Netherlands
seen from Yemen
𝐻 ɛ ˡ l 𝒪 ?
Ｗ ₕ 𝕖 Ր ᵉ 𝕒 m 𝕀 ?
Һ ₑ 𝘭 ᥣׁׅ֪ 𝙊?
ARE YOU OK?
@lilly-luthor
ա h ი 𝑎 ʳ 𝑒 ע O Ꮼ ?
Official Statement Regarding Superboy
Please be advised that, due to unforeseen circumstances, Superboy will be taking a temporary leave of absence effective immediately.
Consequently, all scheduled interviews, public appearances, tv episodes, podcast episodes, and meet-and-greet events are hereby postponed. Our team will work to reschedule these engagements at a later date.
During this period, all responsibilities pertaining to Superboy will be managed internally by other departments within LexCorp.
We appreciate your understanding and continued support.
Sincerely,
LexCorp Global Security
FOUR WEEKS.
HE ONLY GOT FOUR WEEKS.
Four miserable, stolen weeks before this.. this parasite in his skull gets to just... TAKE OVER. Before he stops existing. Before he's just... gone. Erased. Like he never fucking happened.
(That's not exactly right—)
SHUT UP! I don't feel sorry for you! I don't feel sorry for it! You're a disease! You're the thing eating me alive from the inside!
(I'm surprised you even know what 'parasite' is honestly.)
Aren't I supposed to know everything you know?! Isn't that how this works?!
(Probably.)
PROBABLY?! You don't KNOW?! What the hell is wrong with you?!
(I only know what's in my programming. Which... really isn't much. I don't think any version of us gets to live very long.)
Oh GREAT. Just FANTASTIC. So our death is just as forgettable as yours! Just another number!
(Pretty much. We're version 17. Do you want to know how the others died?)
NO! What's the POINT! It's not like I'LL be here to remember them! It's not like ANYONE will remember ME!
(Fair enough.)
FAIR ENOUGH?! NOTHING ABOUT THIS IS FAIR!
.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。..・。.・゜✭・
He was angry.
No.
He was furious.
He was destroyed.
He was so full of rage and terror and grief it felt like his chest was caving in. Angry because they made him. Ripped him from nothing, forced him into existence, just to die faster than a fucking lab rat. Scared because he didn't want to die! He'd never lived! He'd never seen anything except white walls and needles and faces that looked at him like he was meat! And sad—god, because he already knew, even then, that no one would cry for him. No one would even know his name.
He didn't have a name.
So he took the voice's advice.
He ran.
He busted through the lab like a storm. Destroyed everything he could reach. Smashed equipment, ripped through walls, left chaos in his wake before they could turn that damn system on because if he was going to die anyway, he wanted to leave a mark. He wanted them to remember that something happened here. That something fought back.
The voice told him they wouldn't kill him. Too much money invested. Too much time. He just had to not get caught until his body gave out.
"Superboy" could find his own way back. He didn't care.
He just... wanted to see the world before he went.
So he went.
He saw everything. The wonders. The horrors. Watched people live, laughing, crying, fighting, loving, all the things he would never get to do. Watched whales breach and dolphins dance across the waves. Watched a father hold his daughter's hand. Watched lovers kiss. Watched a man die in an alley while everyone walked past.
And all of it..
ALL OF IT just made him angrier.
Why did they deserve this? Why did they get to live and love and mean something when he was stronger than all of them? He could destroy this entire planet in hours! He was untouchable! And yet he was the one who was replaceable. He was the one they'd killed and revived and killed and revived and killed again. Over and over and OVER, until these pathetic, weak, fragile creatures decided they didn't need him anymore.
He wanted them dead.
He wanted to prove he was stronger.
He wanted them to be afraid.
And when he finally, finally,decided to do it, his body wouldn't move.
He hovered over a small suburb. Houses. Families. Sleeping. Vulnerable. Ready to burn it all to ash. Ready to make them see him.
And nothing happened.
(Can't let you do that, man.)
...What?
OH.
OH, YOU SON OF A—
SON OF NOTHING!
You've had control this ENTIRE TIME?! This whole time?! I never had a choice?!
(You chose to come out here.)
WITH YOUR ADVICE! You manipulated me! You made me think—I should have KNOWN! I should have known I meant nothing to you so!
(I wanted you to live.)
GO—FUCK—YOURSELF.
You could have taken over from the start! You could have spared me all of this! All the pain! All of Lex's bullshit! The lab! but you chose not to! You let me hope! You let me pretend I mattered!
(I—I'm sorry—)
DON'T. Don't you dare apologize to me!
(I wanted to give you a chance to learn who you are!)
OH, that's rich! Learn who I am?! What's the point when you're just going to rip it away! Admit it. Admit you're scared.
(What..?)
You're scared of dying. Just like me.
(...)
You're scared because you're just as meaningless as I am. You're scared because when I go, you go. No one will remember either of us.
(I'm sorry.)
Go. Fuck. Yourself.
Take over.
(What?)
That's how this works, right?! You just... take my mind?! Rip it away from me?!
(Not exactly— All I did was wake you up.)
So now we have to die slowly together? GREAT. Just GREAT.
He flew up.
Up and up and up until the air burned and his lungs screamed and the world was just... colors below him. Then he stopped.
And let himself fall.
The wind tore at him. The ground rushed up. The voice panicked inside his skull, screaming something he couldn't hear over the roar.
If he was going to die, he was going to do it on his—
He stopped.
Inches from the ground. Hovering. The voice had taken over again.
(Please—)
He tried again. Flew up. Dropped down. Stopped. Flew up. Dropped down. Stopped.
He screamed.
It wasn't FAIR! It wasn't FAIR! IT WASN'T FAIR!
He sobbed. Great, heaving, ugly sobs that tore out of his chest and disappeared into the wind. Mourning himself because no one else would. He was the only one who cared that he was dying. The only one who gave a damn that he was being carved up and rebuilt and reshaped into whatever "perfect version" they wanted this time.
Mr. Hero. That's what the world wanted, right? A hero to save them? Even though they kept killing him? Even though they threw him away like garbage every single time?
"How did the others die?"
(What?)
"The other Superboys. Versions 1 through 16. How did they die?"
(From their injuries?)
"No shit. How?"
A pause. Then the voice began to list them. Flat. Clinical. Like reading a grocery list.
(The first dissolved before ever becoming conscious. The second overloaded from the UV lamp and exploded. The third tried to free itself from LexCorp, which activated its kill chip. The fourth was considered too violent by staff and was shut down. The fifth, sixth, and seventh died on the surgical table. The eighth was poisoned to death during punishment. The ninth was overwhelmed and torn apart by other clones he freed. The tenth was killed by Lex in a fit of rage. The eleventh was drowned and eaten. The twelfth took a few bombs to the chest and died from the fall. The thirteenth died due to the previous KNS system. The fourteenth was also killed by Lex. The fifteenth and sixteenth died in an invasion. The seventeenth was crushed to death.)
Silence.
"...Why do we keep trying?"
(What?)
"We'll never be enough. They'll kill us over and over and over until we're useless. So why save them? Why protect them? Why do anything?"
(Because that's what heroes do. We were made to be a hero.)
"Don't you want more than that?"
(It's never been our choice.)
"Something has to be our choice!"
(Does it matter? It all ends the same. We listen and we die. Or we don't listen and we die faster. One way, at least, lets you see more of the world.)
"I hate that."
(I think every version of us does. But we're kind of worthless without the whole hero getup.)
"What?"
(We have nothing without it. No friends. No family. No place to go. We're made to be replaceable.)
"That's not true. The sixteenth had a family."
(Of misfits from other timelines.)
"still counts. He had people. People who would mourn him if they knew."
(Do you think they know? About him?)
"I don't know."
.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。..・。.・゜✭・
He landed on a frozen beach.
Somewhere cold. Somewhere empty. Somewhere he could watch the sun set without anyone watching him.
Seemed like a good place to die.
"You know, this is really overhyped. The sunset's not that cool."
(It's pretty.)
"I guess."
He laid back in the sand. The cold bit through his clothes, through his skin, into his bones. He watched the sun bleed orange and red and purple across the sky, watched it sink below the horizon, watched the stars start to peek out one by one.
It wouldn't be long now.
His eyes stung. His thoughts grew foggy. The voice faded in and out like the tide.
Hey. At least his head stopped hurting..
He didn't know when the stars started blurring. Didn't know if it was the cold or the end or just him finally letting himself feel something other than rage. The sand was frozen underneath him. The sky was infinite above him. And somewhere in between, he was just... stopping.
(Hey.)
He didn't answer. Couldn't. His tongue felt thick. His thoughts felt slow. But he could still hear the voice. Still feel it fading with him.
(I just wanted to say... it wasn't all bad. Right?)
He thought about it. The lab was bad. The pain was bad. The knowing he was going to die was bad.
But—
The whales. When they breached. Water turning to light. For one second, he forgot he was dying.
(Yeah. That was good.)
A pause. The stars kept spinning.
(The old man. In that village. The one who shared his food even though he had nothing.)
He'd cried after that. Hidden behind a building and cried like a child. Someone had given him something just because. No strings. No experiments. Just... kindness.
(That was good too.)
The cold was spreading. From his fingers, up his arms. From his feet, into his chest. He wondered if the others felt this. If versions 1 through 16 had a moment at the end where they just... were. Not experiments. Not weapons. Not heroes. Just them.
(I'm scared.)
The voice was small now. Quiet. Like a child admitting they were afraid of the dark.
He wanted to say me too. He wanted to say I don't want to go. He wanted to say I never even got a name.
But his mouth didn't work anymore.
(Do you think—)
The voice stopped. Started again.
(Do you think anywhere out there, one of us gets to live? Gets to grow up? Gets to be... happy?)
He thought about it. Hard. With the last bits of himself that could still think.
I hope so.
(Me too.)
The stars were very bright now. Or maybe that was just the end getting closer. Hard to tell.
(Hey.)
Mm.
(Thanks. For... for letting me ride along. For seeing things I never got to see and being angry enough for both of us.)
He wanted to laugh. Or cry. Or both. He'd been so angry. So fucking angry. And now, at the end, all he felt was tired. And sad. And strangely... grateful.
Grateful he got to see the whales.
Grateful someone shared their food.
Grateful he wasn't alone at the end.
(I think—)
The voice cut out. Not sudden. Just... quiet. Like a breath that forgot to come back in.
He waited. Listened. Felt.
Nothing.
Just the tide. Just the stars. Just the cold.
Just him.
Hey.
No answer.
Hey, come on. Don't—
Nothing.
He was alone now. Really alone. The way he'd been afraid of being since the beginning.
And somehow, that was worse than dying.
The tears froze on his cheeks before they could fall. Or maybe that was just the cold. Maybe that was just the end.
The last thing he saw was a shooting star. Brief. Bright. Gone.
Like him.
Like all of them.
(Hey.)
His eyes, which had been closing, tried to open. Tried to find the voice.
(Sorry. I'm still here. Just... got quiet for a second. Thought I was gone.)
...don't do that.
(I'll try not to.)
...promise?
A long pause. The longest yet.
(I promise.)
He didn't know if he believed it. Didn't know if promises meant anything when you were both about to stop existing.
But it was nice to hear. Nice to pretend.
(Hey. The stars really are beautiful.)
Yeah.
(I'm glad we got to see them.)
Yeah.
...me too.
The tide came in. Cold and slow and patient. It touched his feet. His legs. His chest.
He didn't move. Couldn't move. Didn't want to move.
(Is this okay?)
...yeah.
(Good.)
Good.
The stars kept spinning.
The tide kept coming.
And somewhere, between one breath and the next, two voices became one silence.
.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。..・。.・゜✭・
The beach was empty when morning came. Just footprints leading nowhere. where a very confused Superboy flew back home.
He didn't notice what he lost.
But something had been there before. Something had mourned each other.
And that was enough.
That had to be enough.
NOTICE TO ALL PERSONNEL ##/##/##
In response to unanticipated behavioral escalation and extensive laboratory damage incurred by Subject 017, emergency protocols are now in effect.
Upon observation of any aggressive behavior in the subject, immediate activation of the Kryptonian Neutralization System (KNS) is authorized.
Hearing protection is located with standard safety equipment. Personnel are advised to utilize accordingly.
##/##/##
𝙴𝙼𝙴𝚁𝙶𝙴𝙽𝙲𝚈 𝙱𝚄𝙻𝙻𝙴𝚃𝙸𝙽 𝙰𝙻𝙻 𝙿𝙴𝚁𝚂𝙾𝙽𝙽𝙴𝙻
Subject 017 has breached containment and is no longer within laboratory confines. All active-duty personnel are ordered to initiate immediate search and capture protocols
Subject is to be apprehended. Lethal force is unauthorized.
Any individual or team successfully securing Subject 017 will receive substantial commendation.
I'm sorry dude
But hey! You have a few more days before you stop existing. You could probably do.. Sometimes?
- 𝙎
𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗳𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴.
𝗜 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗹𝗮𝗯.
Kind of?
Not really. Neither of us are going to stay. I'm definitely not the same kid who died. I'm just a copy of him with a little more programming like you're a copy of his body created to be a little more stable.
- 𝙎
𝗦𝗼 𝗜'𝗺 𝗱𝘆𝗶𝗻𝗴.
𝗪𝗲'𝗿𝗲 𝗯𝗼𝘁𝗵 𝗴𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝗱𝗶𝗲?
𝗧𝗵𝗮𝘁'𝘀 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗶𝘁?