How To Make A Superhero

No Place Like Home

When we arrived Bellad had taken to landing near the back of the complex next to the dumpsters. The drone detached himself from my back and said, "I will cloak myself. It is best if we maintain a cover for your week long disappearance." The robot turned nearly invisible. He looked transparent but you couldn't see him if you weren't looking.

"Right," I said with a growing headache. How was I going to explain all this to Denise and Anders? Once the coast was clear we snuck into my apartment and I proceeded to change into a pair of normal clothes. I stuffed the blue uniform into a box under my bed. Bellad reappeared next to me.

"Do you have a computer?" he asked.

"Uh, yeah." I searched for my laptop that was nearly dead, plugged in the charger, and showed it to Bellad. One of the oval shaped protrusions on the robot opened up and a metal wire shot out and plugged itself into the computer. My computer which had been password protected unlocked itself and then began to flash images of several different web browsers, I caught a brief glimpse of Metropolis General Hospital's homepage. "What are you doing?" I asked.

Bellad didn't respond until he was finished with my laptop. The wire unplugged itself and retracted back into him. "I've established a medical file at the nearest hospital. You were found in the rubble by Lex Corp, unconscious, and brought to Metropolis General for care. Lex Corp has already given free medical attention to the victims of the surrounding carnage of their building. I managed to input your own name and record into those files."

"Seriously!" I said impressed. If Denise wondered why I didn't call I could just say that I didn't have my phone while I was bedridden at the hospital. She knows I could never memorize phone numbers. My laptop's internal fan turned on louder than I've ever heard it before. "You didn't, like, break my laptop?" I said worried.

"No, but you should let it cool down for a few minutes before using it again." Bellad started floating around my home going into each room. I went to sit on my couch. I was mentally exhausted from all this mayhem. What was I now? Am I like Superman? Did this mean I have his powers? The powers of a superhero? I asked myself those questions, but I knew deep down that no normal person could deflect bullets and shoot lasers out of their eyes. I also felt stronger, but not in the physical sense. I didn't suddenly gain abs and the muscles of an Olympic athlete. It was more like everything else in the world became lighter.

"This is insufficient," Bellad's voice rang out from behind me.

"Sorry, it's only a one-bedroom."

"No. These are adequate living quarters. I refer to the genetic code inscribed into your DNA. Eventually we will need to find a more suitable base of operations and a higher functioning computer."

I nodded in agreement, "Right once we find that for you, I get to be human again."

Bellad was silent.

A wave of worry hit me like a ton of bricks. "Right, Bellad? You can make me human again?"

"The procedure you underwent. Is irreversible."

"What." I whispered in shock. A wave of different emotions hit me. I couldn't stay a kryptonian! I needed to be human. To be normal. That buildup of heat around my eyes I felt when we exited Lex Corp came back to me. "That pod changed me without my permission and you're saying it can't be undone!?" I yelled.

Bellad hovered back a few inches at my outburst. "I am truly sorry, Miss Blake."

"Are you though! You're just a drone! Not a person!"

"True, but I know that what you have been through is more than the average human can bare. But you are not human anymore Miss Blake. You are kryptonian. You are more than human now and you possess the will of the house that has gifted you your abilities. You can wallow in your self-pity or you can overcome this challenge before you." Bellad spoke with a commanding tone that I didn't expect could come from an artificial being. "You may have lost your humanity, Miss Blake, but you are still you."