Superman: Man of Tomorrow

Kryptonian Father

Chapter 20

Kryptonian Father

Smallville, Kansas

Jonathan brought Clark home. He needed to be away from the hospital. Jonathan brought him to the barn, to his spaceship. There, Jonathan turned on the hologram artificial intelligence of Jor-El.

"Why'd you turn it on, Pa?" Clark asked as the hologram of Jor-El stared at him, silently.

"I- I thought it'd be best if you'd talk to him. He could give you advice I could never give you in a thousand years." Jonathan stated as he looked at the hologram, "Go on, speak."

"You usually come to me because you have problems. What is the problem this time?" Jor-El wondered aloud, staring off into space.

"I failed today, Jor-El... I have a friend, her name is Lana, I let her get hurt... You told me I was supposed to protect the people of Earth but I couldn't even protect my best friend!" Clark cried. "But I'm not here because of that. I need to learn how to use my powers, not only control them. If I really was meant to become the protector of Earth, then I need to at least learn how to use my powers and you're the only one who could teach me."

Jor-El hologram opened his hand and suddenly the room turned into a white field. There was nothing in the room but emptiness. Jonathan was standing near Clark, holding him tight.

"Remain calm, Kal-El and Jonathan." Jor-El stated, "This is only a training room."

Jor-El pointed his finger at Jonathan and suddenly, a chair appeared behind him. Jonathan then sat down in it. "You may want to take a seat, we may be here for a while." Jor-El stated.

Jor-El turned to Clark, "Kal-El, you are my son, as much as you want to deny it, it is true. And as a father, I want you to survive and be able to live on this Earth. I know it's a mean world, every world is, so in order for me to train you, you have to learn to be better than the bitterness of the world. In order to be a protector, you need to be a Symbol of Hope, a Man of Tomorrow. This S on my chest, it's the symbol for the House of El. It's also a symbol of hope. Live up to the symbol. You need to inspire them, all of them..." Jor-El paused, "You will fail, Kal, thousands of times but you need to keep doing your job after you fail, you need to learn from your mistakes or you can't help anyone."

"I'll do it Jor-El, I know I can." Clark stated, encouraged.

"Fine, let me ask you a question. Two groups of people are in a fire. One group has ten another had five, who do you save?" Jor-El questioned.

"The one with ten?" Clark said unsure.

"No, you save them both, no matter the cost. You risk your life to save theirs'." Jor-El commanded, "I'm going to be hard on you Kal, you have a lot of learning to do." Clark sighed, knowing it would be a long day.