Kryptonite and Scooter Ankles ||J. Kent ||

Part 19:

A/N: Small trigger warning again for the same thing as last chapter. Sorry.

Sending good vibes my dudes.

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ONE DAY AGO; JUMP CITY, TITANS TOWER:

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"Rachel, I need a favour."

Kon cursed himself for the tenth time that minute, and drove his fist through the wall. He glared at his reflection in the full length mirror. No matter how he put it, it all sounded ridiculous.

He composed himself again, straightening out his shirt, and cleared his throat. But the moment he met his own eyes in the mirror again, he lost it. Kon crumpled to his knees in a mix of distress and uneasy laughter.

'Drop the Rachel part,' he stressed, near tears, now running both hands over his face. 'She doesn't like being called Rachel. Only Damian and Kori get away with that.'

He sat back, crossing his legs, and leaned his head against the glass.

"Raven, I need help," he recited under his breath. "Yeah, that works. I need help. Good. Good. Okay, now just do it. Ask for help, not as hard as you're making it out to be."

He took another two minutes to steel himself, before getting up and leaving his room. He'd retreated to the Tower the moment Clark and Lois were off his back to drill Kara on the situation, though they didn't get anymore details than Kon was able to give. The truth was that while they were horsing around, they didn't think anything of that sharp ringing that impaired their hearing. Kon remembered brushing it off as being hit in the head repeatedly during their snowball fight. Neither of them red flagged the ringing until every batkid present heard a gunshot and they didn't.

He knew he shouldn't, but Kon blamed himself. There really wasn't anything else to hold responsible. Clark told them not to leave the farm without each other, and somehow Jon was, not only shot, but kidnapped from right under his, Kara's and half the Batfam's nose. It was definitely his fault.

Jon was his little brother, and he was supposed to protect him. Just when Kon was starting to think that maybe being a big brother was the only thing he didn't stink at, he had to let the kid be kidnapped.

It didn't help that everyone suspected Luthor to be behind it. It made the most sense, but Kon would be lying to himself if he said he didn't want him to be. The idea of that man being innocent in anything instilled rage in him, but that didn't mean he liked playing the blame game with Lex Luthor every second of every day.

Why couldn't it be cyborg assassins just this once? The League had made finding Jon top priority.

He'd ditched his phone back at the farm out of pure shame. He didn't want the others trying to contact him, and to make sure he didn't have to see or talk to any of them, he made sure the other Titans knew he was flying under the radar for a while; meaning he never came back to the Tower at all. No one outside was supposed to know he was there.

It wasn't the first time he'd pulled that specific card. They called it the Running from the Authorities protocol. Tim invented it in their early Titan years for when he had his signature major fallouts with Bruce and wanted to cool off for a day or ten. Those were the good days; when fighting crime meant fast food on the long ride home, or taking precarious selfies in the middle of getting a butt whupping from Brother Blood.

Now it was just evil bio dads kidnapping your little brothers, organ liquifying drugs, and a whole lot of hurt.

Kon reached Raven's door much sooner than he'd anticipated, and caught himself backing out. The door swung open before he could turn tail. He would never admit to jumping a whole foot off the ground.