Hurricane Gregory

H U R R I C A N E G R E G O R Y� Part 28

Greg and Jamie finished their breakfast. They shot the breeze, watched some TV and half-heartedly played video games as they waited for Clark to come home.

At about 12:10 p.m., Clark entered the house through the kitchen door. Jamie and Greggy had both heard his arrival even before he’d opened the back door. They met him in the kitchen as he entered.

“Hi there, boys! Did you have a fun morning?” Clark asked, as he took his coat off.

“Uhh, dad… There’s something really weird about Greggy…” Jamie said cautiously.

“Oh, really?”

“Mister Kent…” Greg asked him soberly. “I accidentally torched my bread this morning. There was nothing left but ashes and the plate was scorched; and that was without wearing a power ring on my finger or on Jamie’s. Weird, huh?”

“What?”

“Dad…” Jamie explained. “That last day before we left Gulf Breeze to come back home. Greggy, Wes and I were all outside. Greggy found this rock; said it looked like a meteorite. Well, it was! It was hunks of Kryptonite and Zyrtonium fused together into one solid chunk. Well, Greggy didn’t know what it was at first and he called Wes and me over to have a look. Well, right as we got up alongside Greggy, he got struck by lightening. He could’ve been killed!”

“Oh my God…” Clark exclaimed, while he heard this story from his son, for the first time.

“Well, Wes and I passed out from the Kryptonite and Zyrtonium. Greggy told us that the lightening had shattered the meteorite into pieces. Greggy figured out what was wrong with Wes and me. So, he pulled off my cape and used it to gather up all the fragments to get them away from us!”

Clark just stared at the boys with his mouth wide open.

“Well, HE was feeling weak and sick now, so he figured out he must be getting that through the ring, along with the powers he was getting from me. So, he pulled it off and at first it worked. He felt better right away. But, then the sickness came back. Still, he managed to get that stuff far enough away from Wes and me that we wound up coming to” Jamie explained.

“Yeah, I passed out this time!” Greggy added.

“When I woke up, I found Greggy face down about fifty meters away” Jamie continued. “He’d only managed to crawl about five meters away from the meteorite fragments, before he collapsed unconscious. This happened on the last day before we came home. We think something may’ve happened to Greggy. Can you check him out; so that we’re sure he is okay?”

Clark gazed at Greg with a grave expression.

“Are you feeling alright, Greggy? Are you in pain or anything?” Clark asked the boy.

“I’ve been walking around with a splitting headache for the last two days. Other than that, I feel OK, I guess.” Greg replied.

“Alright, give me a minute to change. I’ll fly you to the Fortress of Solitude. I can examine you there.” Clark said.

About thirty seconds later, Superman returned to the kitchen.

“Jamie, go ahead and change into your costume. And bring a blanket for Greggy. We need that to wrap over his shoulders to keep him warm. And give him some sweats, long johns and warm socks out of Wes’ locker.”

Jamie asked; “Why not just let him wear a power ring? I could wear my ring, too, and then he’d have some of my power and he won’t feel cold at all!”

“No, Jamie,” Clark replied. “I don’t think we should chance that right now. We really don’t know what’s going on with Greggy and I don’t want to muddy the waters any more than they are already.”

Jamie and Greggy went first to Wes’s room to borrow a pair of sweats, long johns and warm socks and a sweater and then on to Jamie’s bedroom, where they quickly changed clothes.

“Greggy, I don’t think you need to worry about the cold as long as you’re in contact with Jamie or me. And once we get inside the Fortress, you’ll be just fine. The interior temperature stays at 20 degrees Celsius all year round” Superman assured the boy.

As he held Greg’s hand, Superman took off, with Superboy flying right behind them. The trio quickly flew to the secluded Fortress of Solitude, which was hidden on a remote island in the Arctic, just off Canada’s northern coast.

When the arrived above the Fortress, Jamie grasped the giant airline directional marker, positioned it in the giant keyhole and opened the great door. As they flew inside, Clark asked, Greg, “Are you OK, son? Are you feeling cold at all?”

“No Sir, Mr. Kent,” Greggy answered. “Except for this headache, I’m feeling just fine. Thanks.”

Once inside, Jamie closed the giant, steel door, before the trio floated to the large Kryptonian Conversion Chamber, which was situated on the bottom level. Clark flipped on the master power switch, activating the device including all the controls and displays.

Clark asked Greg to remove all of his clothing except his shorts. The boy undressed and entered the Conversion Chamber, which doubled as a physiological diagnostic facility. Greg lay down on a cushioned exam table positioned in the center of the small compartment. Clark and Jamie remained outside the chamber, standing before the console, positioned just outside. They had a good view of Greg through the large plate glass observation port.

Clark spoke to Greg through a microphone on the master console. “Just close your eyes, try to relax and just lie still.”

Soundlessly, a silver spherical device floated down from the ceiling and hovered about 10 centimeters above Greg’s head. It drifted down his body, bathing it in a smoky, soft bluish beam, finally arriving above his feet. Then the device floated back up and disappeared, “melting” into the ceiling.

Within minutes, the large computer screen flashed several paragraphs of Kryptonese text and numbers on the screen. Clark read and reread the results; he turned to Jamie in shock.

He murmured, “Jamie, I’m going to re-run this test to verify the results, but I am already positive. Greggy is a Superboy now. His headache will subside in another day or so. And by the end of the week, I expect Greggy will be nearly as powerful as you. He’ll actually be stronger than Wes or me!”

“You’re kidding!” Jamie exclaimed.

“I’m dead serious! His physiology is closer to Zyrtonian than Kryptonian. But he still retains vestiges of his Terran heritage. Interestingly, although he is susceptible to Zyrtonium, he’s not as susceptible to it as you are or as Wes and I are to Kryptonite. And there’s something else going on with Greggy” Clark added.

“There is something else? What are you talking about, dad?”

“I’m not sure what it is. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see. But, thanks to that lightning strike, Greggy is a different breed of cat. He’s not like he was, but neither is he exactly like you or Wes or me.”

“What? What do you mean?” Jamie wondered.

“Greggy’s DNA is similar but not identical to yours!” Superman replied, as he faced his son.

“How can that be?” Jamie asked

To be continued



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