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

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"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."

"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."

"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.

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."

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?"

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

Usually.

"It's Kon-El."

"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."

"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.

"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."

"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.

"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.

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

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

"I'm looking forward to it. I always wanted to be involved in a scandal."

That probably wasn't something he should joke about here. But hey, it probably happened to all good superheroes at some point.

"They've been speculating on love triangles among the Legion, based on such compelling evidence as seeing some people standing close together. You won't even have to do anything that crazy to find yourself one."

Was that encouraging him? That was probably not being a responsible elder superhero.

(Good thing Hal rarely tried to be one.)

"Nice. Maybe being stuck here won't be as boring as I thought."

Whether it was good attention or bad, it didn't matter too much to Superboy. He would embrace it either way. Someday, he might have a little more discretion, but today was not that day.

"I think I should get back to figuring out my powers, though, and let you get back to... whatever you were doing before I rudely interrupted," he said. "But you've been a big help. Once I know what I can do, I've got your back."

Kon tended to think of himself as more of a solo act, so he wouldn't be quick to admit it, but it was actually kind of nice to not be stuck here alone, even if it was technically with someone he'd never actually met.

"Good luck." It wasn't sarcastic. "It goes both ways. You need anything, I'm around."

Hal was probably not at the top of the list of good older examples in the Justice League. He doubted if most people would even put him in the top half. But he was here, he had plenty of experience, and if nothing else, he could offer plenty of good examples of what not to do.

"Gotcha," he said with a nod. "I'll see ya around, Hal."

He gave him a wave before turning around and briefly contemplating his flight ring. He was still kind of bitter about his powers, but it didn't seem like he had any choice but to get used to it. So Kon slipped the ring back on, and (hopefully) wouldn't be abruptly taking it off again anytime soon.

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

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