Men of Steel

Chapter 4

Dave sighed soundlessly as he reclined back in a rather comfy lounge chair. He was situated in an empty house across the street from Number Four Privet Drive, tasked with watching the occupants of Number Four. The American government had been quick to give him his mission and shuttle him out there. The reason being something about a set of searches setting off alarm bells with the higher-ups. He didn't have enough clearance to know exactly what. He simply had to shadow the family to watch for any odd behavior or see if they were involved in anything they shouldn't be, like a crime syndicate or a smuggling circle.
Just looking at the house, John didn't quite think that the nuclear family inside had anything to do with the darker side of humanity, but he refused to watch them any less intently. He had seen first-hand some of the most 'normal' families get exposed for black market deals and sex trafficking.
Unfortunately, if this family was just a cover, it was a very good one. The GPS tracker Dave had installed in the father's car told him that the obese male went off to his work every day, stayed there the entire work day with only a lunch break to a nearby diner, and came back for supper just when the stars started taking over the sky.
The mother was even worse, as all she did every day was sit in their living room and watch tv. The only respite Dave got from her was whenever she pressed her gaunt face to her window, trying and failing to secretly spy on the rest of the neighborhood.
The son was quite a bit more interesting, if not concerning. He was a very chubby and rude boy with no sign of wanting to change his attitude or his daily caloric intake. The amount of food the boy ate during every meal made Dave's own stomach clench in pain. And the way he had the two adults wrapped around his fat fingers had the Detective feeling even sicker. The 'mother' constantly gave in to the boy, and the 'father' seemed approving of it.
The boy would go off to a nearby park or his friends house every day, disappearing without a word to his parents, not that they seemed to care. Getting a tracker on the boy's phone has been child's play for the Detective, with all of the viruses already downloaded onto it. The chubby boy was just asking to get his identity stolen.
That left the fourth occupant of the house, the most mysterious and intriguing one. He was a kid who didn't look anything like the other three. He always seemed tired and solemn, with his slumped, skinny shoulders and dark green eyes. He was edgy too, and Dave would bet money that the kid had been ambushed by something several times from the way he was always checking rooms whenever he entered them.
Dave believed it was probably the work of bullying, since the chubby Dudley and his friends always picked on the smaller kid whenever he emerged from the house, free of chores.
And those chores were another odd occurrence in and of itself. The 'cousin' was constantly being yelled at and laden with chores while the 'son' got to run around and make messes without a simple reprimand.
What was even worse was what happened whenever the father got home. Dave had already dug up the old police files and determined that Harry had been abused in the past. It was all over Vernon's behavior, and the many potential abuse cases that had been mysteriously dropped or dismissed just reeked of interference to Dave. He'd already decided to include it in his final report. If the kid wasn't involved with the situation, hopefully his superiors would be able to talk to their British counterparts and get him some help.

-

It was as the days became weeks and Dave's mission deadline approached that the Detective began to see signs that pointed towards the small abused kid being the reason behind his mission. The kid wasn't normal. He didn't eat very much- not from lack of trying- and the lack of food did not seem to cause him any trouble. He hadn't seen the noirette eat anything over the last week and a half, but the kid was still going strong.
Too strong, actually. He had been breaking everyday objects with seemingly little effort. Dave was mildly scared when Harry closed a door and cracked the frame, turned a sink knob and broke the faucet, ripped out a weed and upended the entire flowerbed, and did all sorts of other feats of strength.
What really surprised the Detective though, was whenever Harry tried to secretly wave a stick. At first he had been skeptical, but now the man knew that this stick was somehow magically fixing these broken objects.
And thus it was with a little bit of guilt and a dash of confusion that Dave began writing his final report to his superiors.

-

They had come in the night.

Harry was woken up by strange sounds filtering through his noise-reduction ear muffs. He brain instantly snapped to attention as he opened his eyes and instinctively slipped one hand under his pillow to grab ahold of his wand. The Kryptonian sat up to look around his room in suspicion, using his enhanced vision thoroughly sweep the shadows. There was no one in his room, but Kad-El's eyes were drawn to the windowsill when the window creaked. The Kryptonian watched in mild shock as gloved hands pushed his window up.
Unsure if this threat was magical or not, Harry silently stood up and slipped his specially charmed ad wand holster onto his arm, his wand following not a moment later.
As an unfamiliar face appeared above his window sill, Harry was glad he had put his wand away. There was no way a magical would be wearing the type of night-vision glasses and com device this man was.
Judging the man's expression was a bit difficult with the odd glasses, but Harry believed it to be one of shock, as he had frozen and his forehead was a bit wrinkled, his entire body hanging just outside the window.
"Didn't expect me to be here then? Or are you surprised I'm awake?"
The man's trance seemed to break at Harry's words as he suddenly vaulted through the window and launched himself at the unarmed eighteen-year-old.
The teen himself frowned a bit in confusion and sidestepped the slow attack. This was not a robber then. From what Harry understood, they normally fled when seen.
The Kryptonian then spun out of the way of another man as he came charging in the small room through the doorway. They were both so noisy, and definitely not murderers.
Maybe they were secret agents? That would explain the high-tech. Did the government figure out that he had magic?!
Harry decided to err on the side of caution as one of the agents flew at him again, a needle aimed to stab him in the shoulder. Light on his feet, the Kryptonian easily dodged and tried to gently push the man away from him, though this unfortunately caused the unknown man to sail and hit one of the walls with a bit more force than normal. Harry winced at the groan the man emitted.
"Sorry mate," he said just before he ducked under the fist flying towards his head and jumped over the foot swinging at his legs. "That was an accident- honest."
The next swing the other agent had for the teen came with a wicked surprise. Kad-El ducked out of the way, but the man had thrown a feint and connected his closed fist to the side of Harry's neck with a loud 'smack'. The Kryptonian didn't see the needle in his hand until it was too late.
'Crunch'.
Harry and the other standing agent looked at the fist still touching Harry's neck silently for a moment, before the man yelled in pain and stumbled back, clutching his bleeding and broken hand to his chest. The syringe hadn't even nicked the Kryptonian's tough skin, but the glass had shattered in the man's broken hand.
Harry only managed to get out, "Yeah, I'm sor-", before he too, yelled in pain and fell to the floor, limbs spasming.
Harry could barely see the agent he had thrown still lying on the ground, holding a device that sparked brilliant yellow and blue light, as his body shook and flailed for what felt like forever. Eventually, his mind faded to black.