What is surely to be the first in a long series of bad decisions. (Open!)

[sofresh]

Who| Superboy (sofresh) and anyone!
What| Testing his powers (or lack thereof).
Where| Observation deck.
When| Afternoon.
Warnings/Notes| N/A!

Looking for Superboy? Probably not. But if someone happened to glance up over on the observation deck, that'd be where they'd find him, floating in the air a few feet above ground (not terribly high—eight to ten feet at most), arms crossed, with a contemplative look on his face. In retrospect, he probably should have done things differently—namely, he probably should have questioned his situation more when he woke up here. He didn't.

Look, even Superman made mistakes sometimes.

But that was in the not-so-distant past, and now, Superboy was trying to figure things out for himself. That'd be the reason why Superboy, casually floating a few feet in the air, slipped off his flight ring, just to see what'd happen. Needless to say, it went about as well as expected.

In other words, he landed, with a thud and a wince, on the ground, in a pretty ungraceful (and totally uncool) position.

"I'm startin' to think I might be defective or somethin'."

There was all this talk of gaining superpowers, except Superboy already had them, so he'd just tuned the rest out. No one ever said anything about losing powers (or, at least, not that he'd heard of), and honestly, he was not happy about it.

Comments

[ringslinging]

"We're almost it. Inertia's also here. Don't mistake him for Bart Allen, he definitely doesn't appreciate it."

Hal doubted he and Thad would've hit it off even if he hadn't made that mistake - Hal's closeness to the Flash family made things awkward no matter how you sliced it - but it certainly hadn't helped.

[sofresh]

"Inertia, huh...?" he turned over the name in his head, or tried to, at least. "Doesn't ring a bell, but I'll keep that in mind."

Probably to use it against him later, because Superboy was mature and made good decisions. (But probably also because the name 'Bart' didn't ring any bells, either.)

"But it's kinda weird. If it's heroes this place wants, you'd think there'd be more of us. Not that we can't handle it or anything, but..."

[ringslinging]

"Really? Thought he had more to do with your crowd than mine." Hal scratched his head. He didn't know a lot of the younger capes that well, really.

[sofresh]

"I'm not sure I got much of a crowd," he said, crossing his arms thoughtfully. "I've been kinda flyin' solo since I escaped from the lab where they made me and all."

He wasn't even sure what kind of implications he could glean from that, since... really, he didn't have much to compare it to. He'd met people, certainly, but he wouldn't say he knew anyone well enough to be considered part of any "crowd."

[ringslinging]

"Sure, at first, but -"

Hal stopped. Actually, that made it sound like Superboy hadn't been out for long at all. "I think I might be from way down the line, relative to your time. What's been going on back home?"

[sofresh]

"Oh man, so get this," he started, animated in that sort of, 'Boy, do I got a story to tell you!' kind of way. "You remember the Cyborg Superman, right? He calls me out, says we're going to Coast City to deal with the guy who messed it up. 'Cept he turns on me on the way there? Ruins my jacket and totally tries to ace me!"

Seriously, fuck that guy.

"I managed to get away, but before I knew it, I was wakin' up here."

[ringslinging]

He sure remembered Cyborg Superman.

For half a second, the expression on Hal's face looked like someone had just punched him in the nose.

"I see."

[sofresh]

...you know, between his expression and his curt response, he kind of got the feeling that he said something he maybe shouldn't have.

"Uh... Sore spot, huh?" Superboy scratched his neck awkwardly. He didn't know the connection (honestly, he didn't even know his name), but he was pretty sure Hal wasn't sympathizing with him over his jacket, which really only left two other things it could be. "Sorry about that."

Should he change the subject? Maybe he should've done that.

[ringslinging]

The expression didn't last long, at least, before Hal got a leash back on his feelings and schooled his features back into something more neutral. "That does put it in context, though. I'm from about five years ahead, relative to you."

[sofresh]

On one hand, he was glad that he didn't hesitate to move on, but on the other, Superboy still felt bad about it. It was an accident and he couldn't even begin to imagine what his deal was, but he still felt guilty for speaking so flippantly. Either way, he wasn't about to make things worse, so he just rolled with it.

"So you're, like, from the future?" Considering where they were, it wasn't that hard to believe, but it was still kind of neat to think about. "Dude, that's fresh! Does anything cool happen in the future? Or are you not supposed to tell me?"

[ringslinging]

"You know, I...don't actually know what happens if I say something."

Barry had loaned him that stupid book about the time machine like eight times and he'd never cracked it open. This probably would've been a great time to be a little more of a nerd, because time paradoxes were absolutely not Hal's forte. (A little more Parallax's, but he couldn't quite wrap his mind around a lot of what he'd been thinking back then, and he didn't really care to try.)

[sofresh]

"Me, either," he shrugged. "All I know is from movies I haven't even seen."

Which, you know, probably wasn't too helpful in this situation. But he wasn't taking this terribly seriously, anyway.

"I'd say I'm pretty good at keeping secrets, but maybe it's better not to risk it. Even though I am pretty curious."

It wasn't like there was anything he desperately needed to know.

[ringslinging]

"If Barry ever shows up here, I'm sure he can enlighten us on the finer points of time paradoxes."

Hey, it could happen.

(And Hal would almost certainly fall asleep listening to Barry try to explain it, but at least he could say he'd tried.)

[sofresh]

"Figures the guy with all the answers ain't around when you need 'im."

Thanks, Barry. Although, to be fair, Superboy would also probably fall asleep during that conversation. Very little would be accomplished.

"But that reminds me. You've been dropping all these names, but I don't even know yours yet." Normally, he probably wouldn't have asked, because he gets the whole secret identity thing. But since he mentioned Bart and Barry... "Unless you just wanna be GL #1 or something."

[ringslinging]

"Ah, right. Secret identities aren't really a thing in this era, you might've noticed."

Hal tended to be slightly more flexible about them than the average cape in his time anyway; he needed to keep it quiet on Earth, but in space nobody cared. He was just another Lantern (albeit a fairly infamous one) and real names were commonplace.

"I'm Hal Jordan."

[sofresh]

"It's nice to meet you, Hal. I mean, properly this time." Superboy offered him his hand. A handshake was probably better than toppling him over. (Not that he planned to do that again.) "I'd return the favor, but I don't really have a name, so I guess you can call me whatever you want."

It was a little awkward, but he spent more time being Superman than being anything else, so it usually wasn't a problem.

[ringslinging]

Hal met the handshake - firm grip, didn't try to hang on awkwardly long or make it into a pissing match.

"You did pick a name up later. I doubt I'd be breaking history if I told you what it was, but if you'd rather figure one out in your own time, I don't have to tell you."

[sofresh]

There definitely weren't any issues with that here—Superboy hadn't really shaken enough hands to know about all the nuances, and he thought Hal was kind of cool anyway. He might even be a little less obnoxious when it came to teasing him. (But only a little.)

"I... never really thought about it," he admitted. He technically hadn't existed for long, and he certainly hadn't given much thought to the future. "But you can't just say something like that and not tell me, you know?"

[ringslinging]

"I can absolutely say that and not tell you, but I'm not that big of a dick."

Usually.

"It's Kon-El."

[sofresh]

"Well, that sure sounds promising. If I ever have to introduce you, that's how I'm gonna do it. 'This is Hal Jordan. He's only kind of a dick.'"

There was no way that could go wrong. Teasing aside, though, the mention of his name turned his expression more thoughtful.

"But 'Kon-El,' huh..." he repeated the name. Hm... "Sounds kinda foreign. But it's unique. I think I like it."

[ringslinging]

"Kryptonian, if you want to get technical. Can't remember for the life of me if it means anything specific, though." The ring would know, if he had it here, but really, if he had it here, he'd have a long list of things to use it to look into before that one came up.

[sofresh]

"Aww, are you kiddin' me?" he said, smiling a genuine, grateful smile. "I don't even care what it means. Just knowing it is like, the coolest thing ever. A real Kryptonian name? That's seriously rad."

Maybe it was just a name, but for him, it was kind of a big deal. As cool as it was to be Superman, he didn't have much, if anything, that was uniquely his. It almost made him feel better about his powers being messed with, even.

"I mean, I never thought I'd be called anything besides Superman. So, ya know, thanks."

[ringslinging]

"Don't tell anyone you got this from me, but you should always make time to be someone other than Superman. The superheroing is great, but there's more to life than that."

Not that Hal was all that great at taking his own advice, but he tried.

[sofresh]

"Not sure how much of a life we can have in a place like this, but I hear ya, GL." Having a name, a real one, was a pretty good start, he thought, but he was definitely going to miss the kind of freedom he had back home. "I wonder what future TV is like."

In other words, when he wasn't being Superman, he was probably just going to be really lazy. This would likely be for the best.

[ringslinging]

There were probably worse things a guy could be than lazy.

"Wait until you see the crap they say about us on the news."