I Will Bring Clark Back

"A game?"

Jeremy laughed as if he'd heard a joke, raising his palm.

In the center lay a gruesome scar, a steel nail driven clean through.

"After Jesus was nailed to the cross, he bore all the world's sins and ascended to heaven."

Crackle!

As he spoke, his palm erupted in blinding, writhing electricity, making the worker's eyes go wide with terror.

"Seventeen years later, I return to the mortal world. God gave me this power to wash away your sins!"

"Since you love games so much.

Now, let's play another one!"

Jeremy stepped forward, one pace at a time, like death closing in.

"Aaaah!"

Electric light flashed through the window, accompanied by bloodcurdling screams.

Over ten minutes later, a gaunt figure pulled up his hood and walked away coldly.

Inside the repair shop, a charred corpse—tortured and electrocuted into cinders—lay still on the floor. No more arrogance, no more contempt. Curled up tight, like a baby returning to the womb.

Creak!

Jonathan pulled open the barn door.

The stale, rotting scent of damp grain hit them head-on.

A classic scene. David already knew what was coming.

"Clark's about to learn who he really is."

He rarely dropped his casual demeanor, glancing at the bewildered Clark beside him. A flicker of worry stirred in his chest—uncertain if Clark could handle the truth.

Because of David's existence, especially since he'd just been born, Jonathan and Martha had no good reason to adopt another child. The couple had secretly taken Clark in, telling everyone the two were biological brothers.

"What are you talking about, Father?"

An inexplicable dread seized Clark's heart. He began to regret losing his temper at his parents earlier.

Father and mother only wanted what was best for him. They wanted to protect him.

He knew all that. Why hadn't he held back just now, Clark?

"This is what your parents left for you, Clark."

Jonathan pulled something from an unremarkable old box. His expression was heavy, tinged with sorrow. His voice low, he turned and handed it to Clark.

It looked like a long, stone-like seal, pitch black, with an embossed "S" at the top.

"Parents?"

Clark couldn't believe what he'd heard. His face went pale. He stared at the black object, afraid to reach out and touch it—like facing a fragile bubble, terrified that one move would pop it, and something would be lost forever.

"Father, this joke isn't funny."

Why, why was Father's heartbeat steady even though he was clearly lying?

"The key to the Fortress of Solitude?"

David frowned, pulling his gaze away from the key.

Watching Clark's reaction, he worried the sudden news might crush him.

For an ordinary person, learning in a single day that the parents who raised you aren't your biological parents—that there's no blood tie—is already unbearable.

"And if he finds out he's an alien..."

David suddenly recalled a line from some pale, raving lunatic.

To drive a man mad, all you need is one bad day—Joker.

"That shouldn't happen, right?" His eyelid twitched.

If a Joker-Superman hybrid ever came to be, that would be one deadly joke.

Creak.

Jonathan opened the cellar door and led his two sons down. He pulled back a tarp covering something.

Dust flew. A small spaceship came into view—streamlined, cradle-sized, barely big enough for a single infant.

"No."

Clark stared at the ship, something that had no business being on a farm. It hit him like a thunderbolt. He stumbled back two steps.

"Father, don't do this to me."

His face went rigid, almost pleading, like a child about to be abandoned, looking up at Jonathan.

"Clark, the truth is that you are the adopted son of Martha and me."

Seeing his son's reaction, his heart ached terribly, but since the words had already been spoken, Jonathan couldn't stop now. Better to endure the short pain than the long one, so he gritted his teeth and revealed the truth.

"You're from another planet. We found you during that meteor shower over a decade ago."

Clark felt as if he were treading on clouds, his head spinning, as though everything before him was slipping away.

"What about David?"

Suddenly he spotted David, clutching at him like a lifeline, and asked urgently.

Please don't tell him...

"David... is Martha's and my biological son."

Seeing almost no shock on David's face, Jonathan was puzzled, thinking he still believed it was all a lie. But with no time to dwell on David, he hesitated and then spoke the cruel, hurtful truth.

"No, no!"

"This is all a lie. I refuse to accept it."

Gritting his teeth and roaring like a wounded beast, his eyes bloodshot, Clark turned and fled as if possessed.

He had to escape this lie, escape this heart-wrenching reality.

Whoosh!

At speeds far exceeding sound, Clark fled the cellar like his life depended on it, vanishing from sight.

"Son!"

Jonathan desperately tried to chase after him, but as a mortal father, how could he ever catch up to the Son of Krypton? He could only stand helplessly by the cellar door, staring at the empty barn, as empty as his heart.

"Clark will come around, Dad."

Seeing his father's dejected expression, David felt a stir. He had never seen the stubborn, iron-willed Jonathan look like this.

He stepped forward to support his father and comforted him.

"I don't believe he'll abandon this family."

"David, why aren't you surprised at all?"

Jonathan turned back, exhausted.

"We only have a few houses in this family, and Clark was always so unusual..."

In truth, David didn't understand why Clark had never discovered the spaceship in the cellar over more than a decade, especially as a kid who loved to explore and climb everywhere.

He himself had sneaked in here to check it out when he was just a few years old.

"After all, it's a real spaceship."

"I see." Jonathan seemed to have aged several years, doubting whether his actions had been right. He let himself be helped to sit on the steps and, to his surprise, patted his son's shoulder.

"David, my son, you've done well."

His voice was hoarse, his eyes filled with relief as he looked at the son who had always been so sensible, never showing any strange reaction to all this.

"Where Clark comes from, whether he's an alien or not, doesn't matter. What matters is that he's family, a brother you grew up with."

"Don't blame him for reacting so strongly. He just can't accept it right now..."

"I'll go find him." Seeing his father rambling in such a daze, David frowned and stood up to leave.

"If, I mean if..." Jonathan paused, then cautioned, "If Clark doesn't want to come back for now, don't force it."

Two devastating revelations in a single day, with his entire past life as a Kent son overturned—he could imagine the impact on his eldest boy.

"I will."

David nodded to his father.

But in his heart, he thought differently, silently vowing.

"If I can't talk Clark around.

Given the situation, I'll just have to knock some sense into him with a fist to the face and calm him down."

Signed the contract. Starting today, Purple Potato will update twice a day. Thanks for the support, dear readers.