In the pitch-black basement, Slade watched the projection of Clark's family and nodded with a smile, seeming deeply gratified.
"Ah, this is what a family should look like. It really warms the heart. I did another good deed today."
"Eee."
Strangle agreed completely. Looking at him this way, Superboy-Prime really was still like a child, entirely different from how he acted outside. That was the effect of family.
"It also gives him more weaknesses, though. I wonder if it's worth it." Slade found a sofa and sat down to rest. The empty house was very quiet, though he could hear the neighbors outside on the street moving as well.
Emotions, blood ties, interpersonal relationships—they were all too easily exploited by enemies.
"Eee." The Symbiote felt it did not matter. Given Supreme Superman's situation, he trusted and respected his host greatly. There was no need to use these new weaknesses to control him indirectly.
"True." Slade lit a cigarette. A red point of light flared in the darkness, accompanied by the sound of him drawing in smoke. He seemed to be considering something. "Adjutant, arrange a satellite-crash scenario for their family."
"Understood, Sheriff."
There were templates for this sort of thing, and the results could be seen immediately. On the largest projection on the wall, the script began to play out.
Simply put, for some unknown reason, a satellite came crashing down after the Kent family's pickup truck. Little Superman flew up to hold the burning satellite aloft, but some kind of radiation aboard it weakened him. In the end, after saving his family, he was pinned beneath the satellite's wreckage.
Then the family used branches and stones from the roadside, along with all sorts of tools they had brought in the vehicle, to rescue Clark before the satellite exploded.
The