Chapter 35: Clark’s Existential Doubt

"No, both of you are heroes."

Peter ruffled Clark and A-Zu’s hair, glancing toward the few girls wrapped in towels not far away. The looks they cast toward Clark and A-Zu were filled with nothing but fear.

"But... sometimes, being a hero requires losing something." He told the two young boys with a complex expression.

"Dad." A-Zu looked conflicted, his grip on his water cup tightening. "You said Clark and I shouldn't reveal our abilities. I'm sorry, I... I think I made a mistake."

Unlike the sense of accomplishment Clark felt, A-Zu felt uneasy. He believed he shouldn't have exposed his powers. But at that moment, Clark was in danger; if he hadn't intervened to help push the school bus to the shore, Clark would likely have stubbornly tried to push it alone. He had changed his mind to save Clark, but that didn't mean he thought Clark was in the right.

"No, you saved Clark, didn't you?" Peter had already heard the two boys recount what happened underwater. "Although I believe you should keep your abilities hidden, since it has already happened, we shouldn't dwell on it with regret or frustration."

Peter placed a hand on A-Zu’s shoulder. "Sometimes, John, we have to make choices at critical moments. We can make any choice—whether it is right, wrong, evil, or righteous—but you must understand that every choice you make will eventually come with a price."

While he disapproved of them exposing their powers, he understood the circumstances. If they had chosen to stand by and watch, he would have felt he had raised them poorly.

"A price?" A-Zu, not noticing his father had fallen into deep thought, repeated the word, though he didn't quite grasp its meaning.

"Mr. Patrick." Martha MacConner, having finished bandaging her minor injuries, walked over to greet Peter. She looked at Clark and A-Zu beside him with a strange expression. The image of the two boys pushing the school bus kept replaying in her mind, though the thought that they were Peter’s children made it seem slightly more plausible. After all, this was the man who had single-handedly taken down a group of gangsters.

Adjusting her demeanor, she spoke to Peter with as normal a tone as possible. "I’m sorry, I didn’t manage to protect Clark and John." She decided to keep what she had seen a secret for them, especially since Peter had previously saved her from those gangsters.

"No, I know this has nothing to do with you, Ms. MacConner," Peter said. "None of us wanted to see a bus accident happen." Since she was playing dumb, Peter followed her lead.

After a few words, once Martha MacConner had left, A-Zu whispered to Peter, "Dad, Ms. MacConner's heart was beating very fast earlier." A-Zu’s hearing had become increasingly extraordinary with age; he could now easily catch the sound of a human heartbeat.

"Uh-huh, I know," Peter nodded. "Maybe Ms. MacConner hasn't recovered from the shock of the accident yet."

Before A-Zu could say anything more, Martha and Jonathan Kent arrived by car.

"My God!" An emotional Martha hugged Clark tightly. "Are you hurt, Clark?"

"I'm fine, Mom."

Jonathan breathed a sigh of relief as he looked at Peter. "Peter, what happened?"

Meanwhile, Old Holey, standing by an ambulance, was taking a towel from a paramedic. As he thanked the medic, he cast a grave look toward Peter, Jonathan, and the others in the distance.

...

That night, at the Kent farm, Clark was eating dinner with his parents. The atmosphere at the table was heavy. Before dinner, the mother of one of the girls who had witnessed Clark and A-Zu pushing the bus had come to the Kent home, demanding to know if it was Clark who had pushed the bus up. The Kents, of course, had flatly denied it.

"Clark..." Jonathan set down his knife and fork, looking at Clark, who was keeping his head low. "Remember what we said before? You must... keep that side of yourself hidden. You cannot let people see your abilities."

Clark bit his lip and looked up. "Then what would you have me do? Just watch them die? Like little Terry?"

"Who is little Terry?" Jonathan paused, but didn't press the issue, continuing, "If everyone finds out about your abilities, everything will change. Did you see Claire's expression?"

"She was terrified."

"I don't understand." Clark didn't grasp Jonathan's concern. He asked his father, "I saved her, so why was she afraid?"

"Because people are afraid of what they don't understand."

Clark’s mood sank further. "Am I not human, Dad?"

Hearing this question, the couple froze and exchanged a look. Jonathan said, "No, of course you're human, Clark."

"I'm not human, Dad," Clark said excitedly. "Neither am I or John. I'm not your son, Dad—I've always known."

The couple was stunned. Jonathan assumed Clark had found out about the alien spaceship hidden in the barn, but Clark’s next words left him feeling a mix of amusement and helplessness.

"I know, I must be the Godfather's son, because he has the same power I do—power that no one else has." Ever since the incident at the auditorium, having witnessed Peter slice through zombies with a katana and block an explosion with his bare arm, Clark had suspected he was actually Peter’s biological son. After all, the Godfather, like him, possessed extraordinary strength and skin as hard as steel. Clark, prone to overthinking, even suspected he had been switched at birth in the hospital, leading to his current father becoming his "dad."

"No, absolutely not," Martha quickly denied, worried that if she didn't clear this up immediately, her reputation would be ruined.

Jonathan coughed. "Clark, you are Mom and Dad's son. You always have been."

Clark lowered his head, muttering to himself, "If it were the Godfather, he wouldn't think I was wrong."

Hearing their son’s mutterings, the couple exchanged a look of shared resignation. Jonathan asked, "Did the Godfather say you weren't wrong, Clark?"

"No. He said that in that situation, my choice wasn't necessarily right or wrong, but that if I made that choice, I might lose something."