Barry Webb stared at himself in the mirror, the morning light slanting through his bedroom blinds. The red-and-blue suit clung to him like it had been waiting. The fabric shimmered faintly — old but untouched by time. The crimson cape hung behind him, proud and strange. It looked right in a way that frightened him.
He flexed his hand, watching the faint tension in his arm ripple under the cloth. He was able to hear the hum of power lines three blocks away. He'd crushed his alarm clock by accident while checking the time. And when he tried to open the door to his bathroom, the door came off the hinges, the porcelain sink broke, and he even managed to trip backwards, falling on his bed. He felt his body crack the support boards for the bed.
He made so much noise, his father yelled at him from downstairs to be careful, and if he broke anything, Barry was paying for it!
He regained control and stopped flopping around like a fish on land.
"Honey, why don't you come down so that we can talk about the day," his mother yelled from downstairs.
"Okay, I'll be down in just a minute!" He yelled back.
Now, standing in that old-fashioned suit, he felt like he was looking at someone else. Someone more.
Taking a breath, Barry carefully opened his door, managing not to send it flying or crushing the handle. Walking downstairs. His boots thudded against the wooden steps with more weight than they should have.
His parents were in the kitchen. His mother, Mary Webb, looked up from the sink. His father, Ebon Webb, folded his paper slowly. Neither of them spoke for a moment.
Barry rubbed the back of his neck. "So… I guess you're wondering about the outfit."
Mary tilted her head, not as shocked as he'd expected. "Barry, where did you find that?"
"That's just it," he said. "I didn't. It — it just appeared. Right after, I realized I can do things now — things that shouldn't be possible." He looked down at his hands. "I'm scared I'll hurt someone."
Ebon's eyes met Mary's. There was a quiet, knowing exchange between them. Finally, Ebon set his paper aside. His voice came low and measured.
"Son… It's time I tell you something we never told you before."
Barry's stomach tightened. "What do you mean?"
Ebon stood. "We weren't ever sure how to tell you. But maybe now's the only time that makes sense." He looked toward Mary, who nodded faintly, her eyes soft.
"We found you, Barry. Years ago. When your mother and I were still young. There was a crash out in the woods. A small ship, like nothing we'd ever seen, crashed into the earth. When we went to take a look, well, inside… There was you."
Barry blinked. "A ship?"
Mary's hands trembled slightly as she dried them. "We'd just lost our baby. I'd had a miscarriage that day, and we were on our way to my parents. When we found you, you were just lying there, wrapped in a strange blanket. We thought—" her voice caught. "We thought maybe it was a sign. That God had given us another chance."
Barry couldn't speak.
Ebon continued, "We took you in. Told everyone you were our own; we said the miscarriage was a mix-up. I even bribed one of the nurses to give me the birth certificate. We didn't understand the ship, and we didn't dare call anyone. We hid it instead, buried it deep under the floor of an old storage shed. Then, when we could, I bought that land just to make sure it stayed safe."
Barry stood there, stunned. "All this time… and you never told me?"
Mary stepped closer, touching his cheek. "We thought you'd grow up normal. You were normal. Until now."
Barry swallowed hard. "Where is it? The ship?"
Ebon looked toward the window. "We'll take you. It's about an hour out. But before we go—" He pointed at Barry's suit. "That wasn't from nowhere. We've had it for years. It was in a box in our closet.
The same night we found you, that was folded up inside the ship. We always figured it was… well, something from where you came from.
Maybe the fashion of the time, a gift from your other parents." Neither Ebon nor Mary could say 'from your real parents'. They were his real parents, they thought...they hoped.
Barry stared at the symbol on his chest. "Then I guess it came home to me."
The sky was overcast by the time they reached the back roads. The Webbs' pickup rattled along the gravel, the wind pushing at the trees.
Barry sat in the back seat, silent, watching the world blur by. Every sound — the whine of the tires, the rattle of the keys in the ignition — felt amplified.
When they reached the clearing, it was smaller than Barry expected. Just a rotting shed half-sunk into the earth. Weeds curled around the wood. The air smelled of old oil and wet dirt.
Near the shed was an old car, a Mercury from the look of it, long abandoned.
Ebon parked, cut the engine, and turned to Barry. "We buried it under the floorboards in there. But before we dig it up… maybe we should see how you handle this new strength of yours."
Barry nodded uncertainly. "All right. What do I do?"
"Try lifting the Mercury near the shed," Ebon said simply. "But carefully. It's probably pretty rotten with how long it's been abandoned."
Barry frowned. He walked over to the old Mercury and bent down beside the bumper, trying to find a grip. Every place he put his fingers, the metal gave way or slipped. "It's… harder than it looks," he muttered.
"You've got the strength," Ebon said. "You just need to use it smart."
Barry grunted, shifting his hands. He managed to tilt the car onto its side once, but it fell back with a thud that made his mother gasp. "Sorry!" he called, brushing dirt off the suit. He crouched again, this time sliding under the rear axle. "Maybe if I—"
The car lurched, rising a few inches before groaning under its own weight. Barry strained, his arms shaking — not from weakness but from trying not to crush the thing outright. Then, with a sharp metallic crack, the undercarriage gave way, and the car slammed down, collapsing around him.
Mary shouted, "Barry!"
But when the dust settled, Barry was crouched unharmed, the car bent around him like a shell. Only the top of his head stuck out. He groaned, pushing the wreck off and standing. "Okay… TV and movies always made lifting things look easy."
Ebon chuckled softly, though his eyes were wet. "You're strong, son. We'll figure out control later."
They pried open the old shed, revealing a dirt floor layered with years of dust. Ebon found the old boards and pulled them up. Beneath them, half-buried in earth and time, was a dull silver, dark gray, and blue shape, smooth and alien.
Barry crouched down. "It's real."
Mary whispered, "We never touched it after that night."
Barry thought to himself, "It looks like this is all part of the legend of Superman, as best as I can remember. For some reason, I remember general details, but a lot of specifics are blurry."
Barry reached out, running his fingers along the cool surface. There was a faint hum — a vibration that seemed to recognize him. He tried to find a seam, a button, anything that would open it. Nothing happened.
He sat back, exhaling through his nose. For a long time, he just stared at it, thinking.
The familiar sound of the computer's voice sounded in his ears:
[Identified: Escape Pod from Krypton.
Owner: Barry Webb (Human Name), Jax Zod (Kryptonian Name)
Escape Pod Status: Missing Key
Solution: Redeem key for 3,652.5 credits]
To say the least, Barry was shocked. Saying more, he was confused, "I'm from the house of Zod? I thought Superman was always from the house of El...am I supposed to be a bad guy? I don't feel like a bad guy. Maybe the House of El is the villain. General...Jor El... and the great scientist Zod? That doesn't seem right."
Another thought occurred to him after calming down: Didn't Superman have a Fortress of Solitude? It was a crystal or something.
[Computer: Inquiry.
Does my Kryptonian ship come with a backstory relevant Fortress of Solitude crystal?]
[Negative. To possess a backstory relevant Fortress of Solitude crystal, Host must pay five years' worth of credits, 1,825, whether by natural accrual or by earning credits through completion of missions.]
[Computer: Follow-up inquiry. How do I get missions?]
[Host has not met all criteria to access missions."
[Computer: Third inquiry. What additional criteria must one meet to access missions?]
[Unable to answer. The host's system authority is only at the Crewman level. Must have rank of Crewman Apprentice to access information.]
Barry sighed in defeat but gathered his determination and nodded to himself. "All right," he said quietly. "I'll wait. I'll learn. I'll earn the right to open it, whatever that means."
[Computer: Time-Lock check in points for fifteen years or until I reach the necessary credits to purchase the key and the Fortress of Solitude connected to the Jax Zod character background story.]
[Confirmed. Daily check-in points time-locked for fifteen years or until equivalent points are reached.]
Mary stepped beside him and put her hand on his shoulder. "Barry… whatever's inside there, you're still our son."
He smiled faintly. "I know."
Outside, the clouds began to break, sunlight glinting through. Barry stood, for the first time, he didn't feel like a boy in a costume. He felt like a promise waiting to be fulfilled.