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"Hank, what's going on?" Jean asked, pushing Charles forward in his wheelchair. The rest of the students, including Rogue and Bobby, were so terrified by the display that they could barely stand, let alone explain.
"Clark woke up and said his powers could be restored by sunlight," Beast explained quickly, "but I never expected this was his method."
Everyone was worried. They were not only concerned about Clark's health, but also about the immense amount of energy he was absorbing. If it went out of control, it could level the entire academy. As more and more students were drawn to the spectacle, Charles could feel their panic rising. He decided to use his psychic abilities to enter Clark's mind and make him stop.
But just as he was about to act, the golden light vanished. Instead of radiating outward, it was all instantly absorbed into Clark's body.
Clark slowly floated back down to the ground. He looked at the shocked faces around him and finally understood how alarming his actions must have been.
"Um… hello, everyone?" he said.
Clark's composure and the fact that his power hadn't harmed anyone quickly calmed the students' fears. As long as he could control his abilities, they had no reason to be afraid.
"That was so cool! What is your power? How did you do that?" a student shouted. Soon, Clark was surrounded by a crowd of curious students, all with their own special abilities. Many of them read superhero comics and quickly made a connection.
"Your name is Clark, and Superman in the comics is also named Clark. Could you two be the same person?" a student asked.
"Haha… maybe," Clark replied awkwardly. He couldn't just reveal his identity like that. The Superman in the comics had to use super-hypnosis just to keep his identity secret. Clark, at only eight years old, was in no position to be so high-profile.
Seeing Clark's discomfort and intrigued by his powers, Charles rolled his wheelchair forward. "Alright, everyone. Stop bothering Clark. You'll have plenty of time to talk to him over the next few days. For now, he just came out of surgery; let him rest."
Charles was like a father to every student at the academy. They were all young people who had been rejected by their communities or abandoned by their families because of their powers. Charles had given them a new life, and in return, they respected and listened to him. The crowd quickly dispersed, and Clark let out a sigh of relief. He didn't want to lie to them, but their guesses were too close to the truth for him to simply deny.
"It's great, Clark, that you can control your powers," Rogue said, walking up to him.
"It's okay. My ability is like an instinct; it's not particularly hard to control," he replied.
Rogue had never shared her past with Clark, so he didn't realize how much his innocent answer would hurt her.
"Well, I wish you a happy life here," she said, her mood suddenly turning sour. She quickly walked away, with Pyro and Bobby following her.
"Rogue..." Clark said, not understanding what he had said wrong, but he could feel her sadness.
"Clark, could you please come with me?" Charles asked.
Clark decided to talk to Rogue later and followed Charles to the basement, where almost all the X-Men, including Logan, were waiting.
"Kid, you never told me you had super powers," Logan said, a hint of frustration in his voice. If he had known Clark had powers, he wouldn't have been so worried.
"I'm sorry, Logan. My powers were restricted because of some problems, and I couldn't use them all the time. I'm just recovering now," Clark explained.
Logan didn't think too deeply about it. The fact that Clark was from New York but appeared in Kansas was already proof that he wasn't a normal kid. He just accepted the explanation.
Then, Charles spoke. "Kid, you're very aware of your abilities, so can you tell me, are you a mutant?"
The world had other super-powered people, but not all of them were mutants. However, society didn't care about the distinction, as mutants made up the largest population of super-powered individuals. Charles wanted to know the truth. He didn't want to use his psychic powers to get the answer unless he had to.
"I'm sorry to disappoint you," Clark said. "But I'm not a mutant… I'm not even… a human."
His words shocked everyone, but they waited for him to continue.
"I only found out the truth a while ago. Before that, I always thought I was an ordinary human, just a little bit special. Have you ever read the comics? The series called Detective Comics?"
Scott nodded, remembering reading them as a child. He suddenly put the pieces together. "Could it be…"
"That's right," Clark confirmed. "Detective Comics isn't entirely fiction. There really is a world with Superman, Batman, and other heroes. And I am… the Superman who hasn't grown up yet."
To prove his point, Clark demonstrated his powers. He precisely focused his heat vision on the ground, creating a thin, controlled beam that wouldn't cause any damage. He blew a breath that instantly formed a layer of frost on a nearby wall. He even used his biological force field to float in the air. As the X-Men witnessed these feats, they had no choice but to believe that the boy in front of them was a little Superman.