While the boys were still in the barn, the atmosphere at the Blake family house was exceedingly peaceful.
Conner was relaxed, soaking up the last rays of the afternoon sun on a beach chair.
Beside him was Laurel, a beautiful woman with short black hair and captivating blue eyes.
She wore typical farm clothing, but even that simple, country attire was incapable of detracting a single bit from her imposing, attractive, and dominant Kryptonian presence.
At that moment, Laurel was sitting directly on Conner’s lap.
With an expression of amused helplessness on her face, she held a small cluster of grapes.
“You really know how to enjoy life, don’t you?” Laurel commented, her tone laced with delicious sarcasm.
Despite her complaint, she delicately extended her fingers to bring one of the fruits close to Conner’s lips.
The MC, with utter shamelessness, took a small bite of the grape, softly brushing the dark-haired woman’s fingers with his lips while staring intently at her.
“Mm…” Conner merely murmured, closing his eyes again as he adjusted his head to keep enjoying the warm Kansas sun.
Laurel looked at him, arching an eyebrow and feigning frustration at his laziness.
“Hey, didn’t you say a while ago that you were preparing for something big?
That you would form a true territory for us or something along those lines?”
“Later…” Conner replied in a slow, distracted voice, wanting to squeeze every last minute out of his rest.
“You have been saying literally the exact same thing for years,” Laurel retorted, giving him a playful slap on the chest.
However, after the slap, her hand unconsciously slid down Conner’s torso, softly rubbing his chiseled abs.
Laurel couldn’t help but subtly swallow hard at her partner’s perfect physique.
Conner rolled his eyes as he noticed the Kryptonian’s obvious shift in intent, but knowing perfectly well that the boys wouldn’t take long to return from school, he gently brushed her hand away with a touch of amusement.
“Tsk, it’s not like I haven’t done anything all this time,” Conner muttered in his defense.
And it was true.
Conner had not sat idly by during all these years; he had been researching meticulously and in absolute secrecy.
Thanks to that, he first managed to confirm the latent existence of metahumans in the world and verified a crucial historical fact: in this timeline, a Wonder Woman named Diana had never existed in the past; instead, the first recorded heroine had been a totally different woman, Nubia.
He had also confirmed that he was not the only alien hiding on Earth, having tracked the existence of J’onn J’onzz, the Martian Manhunter.
Although Conner never attempted to contact him, discovering him brought great personal satisfaction, as J’onn J’onzz had been one of his favorite characters in his past life.
‘Well, actually, I was hoping the boys would graduate before officially starting the expansion,’ Conner thought as he straightened up in the chair and slowly stood up.
As a transmigrant in the DC universe, Conner felt he had already successfully passed through the three fundamental psychological stages that every reincarnated soul experiences.
The first stage was Excitement: knowing he had dropped into a world of heroes and possessed a ridiculously massive power, his first youthful impulse was to become a traditional vigilante, even imagining in his mind how he would train little John and Brandon to form a dynamic team.
The second stage was Caution: upon maturing and remembering that DC was a hotbed of cosmic and multiversal threats capable of erasing galaxies, his mindset shifted radically to one of survival, trying to follow the original plot and avoiding intervention as much as possible so as not to derail the future.
Finally, he had reached the third stage: Preparation.
Realizing that the plot was already completely torn apart from the very beginning and that staying on the sidelines was a foolish fantasy, Conner understood that the only logical option was to train to the maximum, increase his own power, and ready a fortified territory for future catastrophes.
That was where he stood right now; on the path toward that goal, even if officially the master plan had not yet begun.
“So, what exactly are you going to do?” Laurel asked with genuine curiosity, interrupting his thoughts.
“Did you say you wanted to establish our base on that magical island or something?
Are you planning to pull the boys out of school and go straight to conquering that place?”
Before Conner could articulate a response, light footsteps announced the arrival of another beautiful woman.
Karen appeared, walking calmly through the garden.
She had short blonde hair, dazzling blue eyes, and wore casual clothes that highlighted her enviable figure.
With total boldness, Karen arrived and plopped down onto the beach chair Conner had just vacated.
She stylishly put on a pair of sunglasses, stretched her arms, and, before Laurel could react, pulled her by the waist to settle her directly onto her own lap.
Then, Karen pointed to her open mouth with her finger, demanding to be fed.
The corner of Laurel’s mouth twitched at such a level of brazenness.
However, instead of refusing, she grabbed a huge handful of grapes and stuffed them all into the blonde’s mouth at once, immediately standing up from her lap in annoyance.
Karen struggled to chew and swallow the massive clump of fruit blocking her throat.
She looked at Laurel with a pout of feigned resentment and muttered, “How mean…
You can feed Conner with love, but you treat me like this.
Stingy.”
Conner completely ignored the daily antics of his women and looked at Karen with curiosity.
“Where on earth were you?”
“Since the boys were taking longer than usual to get back from class, I went to take a look to see what they were up to.”
“Come on, technically you were spying on them again,” Laurel chimed in, crossing her arms with a reproachful smile.
“They are grown teenagers now, Karen, you don’t have to watch them every second.
Besides, with the strength those two possess, I highly doubt there is anyone on this planet capable of causing them real harm.” Laurel paused briefly and, as if remembering something important, looked at Conner.
“Well, unless, of course, an extremely strong metahuman appears out of nowhere…
which I doubt would happen without Conner finding out first.”
Conner only shrugged with a sly smile, confirming Laurel’s words without needing to speak.
Karen rolled her eyes, making herself comfortable in the beach chair.
“Please, do you think I don’t know that?
Heck, if Conner hadn’t sworn to me that those two kids are technically Earthlings and if I hadn’t checked them a thousand times myself with my X-ray vision, I’d swear they are pure Kryptonians.
Those two little headaches have almost the same powers we do.
Whew, I really wonder if metahumans with similar abilities will appear in the future,” she admitted, rubbing her hands together with a mix of excitement and warrior anticipation.
Laurel nodded in silence, sharing her companion’s same warlike mindset.
Conner, on the contrary, said nothing and mentally prayed that it wouldn’t happen.
Unlike his two women’s enthusiasm for battle, he valued tranquility, stability, and peace much more.
He wished to maintain a controlled environment where ridiculously powerful enemies wouldn’t pop up, even though deep down he knew that in the DC universe, that was mathematically impossible.
“I only watched them out of pure curiosity,” Karen continued with a highly gossipy and amused smile.
“This morning I saw them from afar and caught them blatantly hovering right in their little friend Clark’s face.
And I followed them back after class…
Hehe, looks like they finally confessed to each other in the barn.”
“Oh, it was about time,” Laurel commented, letting out a sigh of relief.
“But seriously, those humans from the neighboring farm did an incredible job teaching Clark how to camouflage himself and act normal.”
“Yeah, totally,” Karen agreed with a touch of sarcasm.
“If it weren’t for the fact that the boy himself practically confirmed it today, and the brothers’ obvious suspicions due to Conner’s not-so-hidden surveillance of the Kents…” At that moment, the blonde took off her sunglasses, stared intently at Conner, and asked with genuine doubt: “Hey, you knew perfectly well from the beginning that that kid is one of us, a Kryptonian.
Why the hell didn’t you go look for Clark when his ship crashed?
Wouldn’t it have been much better for us to raise him ourselves instead of letting some human farmers take charge of him?”
Conner shrugged and exhaled a sigh of genuine laziness.
“Why look for so much trouble?
With those two troublemakers we have in the upstairs rooms, it’s more than enough; I have no intention of adding more chaos to my life,” he explained helplessly.
And it was the truth; he felt a monumental laziness at the thought of going through raising a third child.
Furthermore, Conner firmly believed it was a thousand times better for Clark to grow up under the moral guidance of Jonathan and Martha Kent; only that way could he ensure he would become the kind, idealistic, and upright vigilante of the original future.
Conner knew that under his own roof, and under the direct influence of two strong-willed women like Karen and Laurel, little Clark would hardly have grown up with such an innocent moral compass.
“Well…
you’re absolutely right about that,” both women admitted at the same time.
At the beginning of their relationship, when they were inexperienced and overflowing with biological instinct, both girls fervently desired to have a massive number of babies with Conner.
However, now that they had experienced firsthand the years of upbringing, sleepless nights, and mischief from John and Brandon, that initial enthusiasm had drastically waned.
Of course, they still wished to build a large lineage with Conner, but no longer with the same desperate intensity as in the beginning.
Karen and Laurel looked at each other for a brief second and nodded in secret, sharing a silent pact.
Both had reached the consensus that they wouldn’t have more babies in the short term; of course, them choosing to take a break from motherhood was one thing, but Conner’s plan to expand the lineage was still on.
It simply meant that Conner would have to look for other qualified mothers in the future to do the labor.
Conner, completely oblivious to his women’s reproductive conspiracies, continued with his business: “Well, as I was explaining to Laurel before you came to interrupt with your antics, Karen…
I am going to officially start preparing to build our base of operations on Dinosaur Island.”
Conner had discovered that corner of the world by pure chance years ago.
In his past life, he had never read detailed comics about that place, so he possessed no prior plot information.
But after visiting it by flying in secret dozens of times, he confirmed that no human government had it registered and that he was the first to claim it.
He decided to name it Dinosaur Island because, to his absolute astonishment the first time he stepped onto its shores, he found live, gigantic prehistoric specimens roaming the jungle.
“Alright, sounds perfect to me,” Karen nodded, turning serious for once.
“So do we pack everything and the five of us move at once?”
about that,” Conner scratched his chin, pondering his words.
“At first, my original idea was to wait for the boys to grow up a bit more, formally graduate from school, and then all go together to colonize the place, hunt dinosaurs, and build the facilities.”
Both Karen and Laurel widened their eyes with enthusiasm, excited at the wild idea of subduing a prehistoric island.
“However, I’ve been thinking that it’s best for the two of them to stay here in Smallville for now,” Conner continued, shifting the direction of the plan.
“It is vital that they keep living within human society and interact with people their age at school.
Meanwhile, only the three of us will go to the island to lay the foundations of the base.
It’s not like we’re going to leave them abandoned to their fate either; we’ll take turns watching over them.
After all, with our speed, going to and from the Pacific takes us barely a few minutes.”
“Huh?
Why do you want to leave them here?” both women asked, visibly disappointed and confused by the decision.
“Girls, I think it is highly healthy for them to keep interacting closely with Clark.
That boy has a noble heart and is going to be an excellent influence on them.
Well…
more specifically on Brandon.
John has always been an exemplary, mature, and focused child; he only stays in that school to watch over his brother and prevent him from ending up in trouble with his powers.”
“Seriously?
Here we go again,” Karen said, arching an eyebrow with a grimace of incredulity, while Laurel shook her head with evident helplessness at Conner’s crystal-clear favoritism toward the older son.
“Come on, Conner, we already know John is an excellent and very responsible boy,” Laurel defended the younger brother.
“But Brandon is a good kid too.
It’s true he rebelled and started having those strange thoughts of grandeur once, but that was solely because he was going through an immature stage of his youth.”
“What youth?
That happened barely two years ago, he hasn’t changed that much!” Conner shot back immediately, shaking his head in frustration as he remembered the headaches the boy had given him.
“Who knows if at any moment he’ll feel like going off the rails again.
Damn it, and don’t think I don’t notice that you think I’m too strict with him and soft on John.
I’m just telling the truth: John is loyal, focused, and has never shown the slightest hint of wanting to rebel against my rules.
Unlike Brandon…
Seriously, it still doesn’t fit in my head how the hell he ever came to think he wanted to rule humanity and conquer the whole world.”
Conner sighed deeply.
In his past life, he remembered reading theories that the race Brandon’s powers came from was a species of parasite or alien wasp with a conquering nature, which would explain that biological aggressiveness.
However, this Conner had not yet found any scientific proof of it in this world; Karen and Laurel had used their X-ray vision on Brandon’s body thousands of times and never detected any strange anomaly in his anatomy.
Either that theory was false, or Rob had modified the boy’s genes to make him look like an ordinary human.
“Well, whatever, you already know the basic plan,” Conner continued, brushing aside the doubts and beginning to ramble out loud as he walked in circles on the grass.
“We will prepare to raise the fortress on Dinosaur Island.
We need to design a schedule to take turns and visit the place without neglecting the farm.
The boys are already big enough to stay by themselves for a few weeks; plus, I took it upon myself to teach them combat techniques.
They already know perfectly well how to discreetly incapacitate or finish off anyone who tries to get clever with them, inflicting enough damage without raising the slightest suspicion about their true powers.”
Conner continued to mutter under his breath, completely immersed in his logistical domination plans: “Now we have to plan how to conquer the entirety of Dinosaur Island…
It’s a real shame that place doesn’t have aboriginal tribes or any ancient native civilization; if it did, we would have gained loyal subjects immediately upon defeating and conquering their leaders.
Although…
thinking about it, later on we could seriously evaluate the possibility of expanding into the oceans and subjugating the Atlanteans.
That way, we would gain an immense amount of advanced technology, massive labor for underground constructions, and perhaps access to secrets of magic…
of course, assuming they know how to use it.”
Karen and Laurel stared at each other out of the corners of their eyes behind Conner’s back, shaking their heads at the same time with amused smiles on their faces.
Conner always spent his time complaining that the boys were troublemakers because of their coddling influence, or that Brandon had developed a rebellious personality and delusions of conquest out of nowhere.
However, both Kryptonians felt deep down in their hearts that all that dominant, calculating, and expansionist attitude was the direct result of Conner’s own influence.
Brandon, far from being a rebel without a cause, had simply been the son who had best learned to imitate his father’s true nature.