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SUP Chapter 97: Ian's Origins! The Bat's Sorrow! (Part Two)
🕑 Added 2025-08-18 10:39:46 +0000 UTC"It doesn't matter, I love showing off anyway, not pretending to be weak." Ian's completely honest answer left Clark not knowing how to respond for a moment.
"I'm glad you can think that way, sigh, if only you had come back earlier." Clark's voice lowered, carrying a somewhat wistful feeling.
"What does that mean?" Ian blinked.
He couldn't understand his father's expression.
"It's nothing, forget it, you should go back first... give me your finished manuscript, they're urging me to deliver your manuscript over there." Clark didn't give Ian a detailed explanation.
He seemed to temporarily put his worries behind him and looked at Ian's magical Hellcat, "I'll make this trip now, we can't break promises we've made to others."
Clark perhaps communicated with Batman from time to time.
He even knew to help Batman chase manuscripts.
"Here it is."
Ian opened the Hellcat and took out a small portion of the manuscript he had written during the flight. Looking at his father who flew up to the sky and had to escort express delivery to Gotham even at night.
"No wonder my upbringing is so good! Family influence is really important!" Ian couldn't help but sigh, giving his father a thumbs up. His father was truly the most perfect man on Earth.
His personal qualities were impeccable.
"At most I'll wait until tomorrow, I should probably be able to learn to fly too." Retracting his gaze that could see nothing in just an instant, Ian turned and took out the already stuffed demon skull from the trunk.
"You didn't eat it clean!"
Ian was somewhat annoyed about being questioned by his father just now.
The demon skull blinked its cloudy eyes pitifully. It was really powerless about the demon flesh Clark had discovered, "I can't lick things outside the cabin from inside the cabin!"
That made sense but the logic wasn't big enough.
"You ate so many demons and still haven't evolved a void tongue? Forget it, forget it, help me keep this first." Ian took the magic toad out of his pocket and stuffed it into the demon skull's mouth.
Charging straight toward its stomach.
The oral cavity of the demon with only a skull left indeed seemed to contain another space.
"When I need it, if you can't spit it out, don't blame me for being ruthless." Ian issued a threat. He did this entirely to avoid the risk of his family members potentially being poisoned by the toad.
No choice, too little magical knowledge.
Ian felt he needed a magic teacher who didn't like to lie, he thought of the purple girl he had met once before, wondering how he could lure her home to be his tutor.
Humming a little tune as he walked home.
Pushing open the door, warm lights and television sounds immediately surrounded Ian. In the living room, big brother Jonathan and second brother Jordan were sitting on the sofa watching the news.
On the screen, chaotic scenes from Gotham City were being broadcast live, with Batman's figure flashing by. The news said Batman had lost something, and Ian roughly knew what Batman had lost.
No wonder he was told to hurry up and send the remaining manuscript over.
It seemed like fishing for Joker had failed.
"Joker is really crazy, actually using thirty incidents simultaneously to attract Batman's attention." Ian watched the news on TV and couldn't help but sigh.
"Batman didn't stay in Metropolis, I wasted a whole night writing manuscripts, completely worthless." Lois's voice came from the kitchen, carrying obvious resentment.
Ian's scalp tingled. He quickly held up the kitten gift box and used the flattering tone he learned from TV dramas, "Dear mother, your most beloved son brought you a gift!"
Hearing this, Lois poked her head out from the kitchen. Her eyes obviously lit up when she saw the kitten, and she quickly came out to take the kitten, carefully holding the well-behaved orange cat.
This cat really didn't have any particularly stressed reactions.
Instead, it curiously looked around.
"Cats of this quality are usually expensive, right?" Lois stroked the cat's chin, her tone much softer. After receiving a gift from her son, even the biggest resentment would naturally disappear.
Even a gold medal reporter couldn't resist the temptation of something fluffy.
"Not expensive, not expensive, I directly bypassed the middleman and even bypassed the manufacturer, so it was very affordable." Ian seriously stated the modified truth.
The little cat in Lois's arms stared at him for several moments.
He stared back.
"You snatched it from the cat mother?" Lois sorted through Ian's logic.
"No, the cat mother deliberately abandoned it, then deliberately let me find it, it must have prayed to God, knowing I would give this cat to my most gentle mother."
Ian was also masterful when it came to flattering words.
Lois immediately beamed with joy.
"What's wrong with Jordan?"
Ian asked at the right time.
He had noticed since entering that Jordan kept stealing glances this way, more precisely, at Lois. When Lois glared back, Jordan reluctantly turned his head back.
"It's nothing, since you're so free... why don't you come help me cook dinner?" Lois pulled Ian into the kitchen, and being cautious, she peeked toward the living room again before walking back.
"Your big brother is the oldest, but he hasn't awakened his abilities yet. To prevent him from becoming psychologically unbalanced, don't let him know about you and Jordan's situation for now."
It had to be said.
This was also absolutely the most classic "protective" thinking in American families. Ian felt this wasn't actually right, but he didn't dare contradict the most powerful person in the house at this moment. Yes, there were indeed four superhumans in this house, even if Jonathan hadn't awakened yet, but only Lois could be considered an ordinary person.
But this ordinary person happened to have the most power in the house.
"Alright."
Ian nodded.
Lois smiled satisfactorily and kept teasing the kitten in her arms. Seeing the refrigerator, Ian also felt quite hungry and went forward to take out milk and bread to pad his stomach first.
"Oh, right." Lois saw Ian eating heartily and seemed to suddenly think of something, while lowering her head to play with the cat, she asked in a seemingly casual manner.
"Jordan said he glimpsed some comics you drew, said your understanding of Superman's abilities was too detailed, abnormal. He just kept asking me whether you had also awakened heat vision and steel body?"
A gentle inquiry.
Without any particular emotion.
"What!?" Ian's brain became extremely clear in an instant, his hand holding the milk froze in mid-air. He slowly turned his head and saw his mother's somewhat deliberate way of playing with the cat.
At this moment, Ian seemed to know why his father hadn't dared to enter the house earlier. Perhaps Superman's morals and personal qualities weren't so perfect either. His father also had times when he liked to lie to children.
What about keeping promises?
This was probably going out to avoid disaster!
And conveniently finding his external brain to figure out how to handle the family crisis, right?
"Cunning evil father!"
Ian was deeply shocked.
He felt he had left an indelible childhood trauma.
"Hmm? So it's true?"
Lois, seeing Ian not responding for a long time, also murmured softly with some confusion, then she saw Ian close the refrigerator door and throw away the empty milk bottle in his hand.
"Aba, aba, aba~"
Ian seemed to have become mute, moving his mouth as he walked outside.
"??????"
Lois was stunned.
"Aba, aba, aba~!"
Ian walked all the way to the living room, squeezed between his two brothers, and only then stopped his performance, of course he could explain everything clearly, but he didn't plan to explain now.
After all, his father could also help him explain together, but Clark still threw the poor little boy aside, letting the poor little boy face such a situation alone while going to find his external brain.
Shouldn't this be a little blackened?
With a cunning evil father, of course there should be a cunning evil child!
"What's wrong with you? Did you choke on something?" Jonathan indeed still didn't know anything. He vigorously rubbed Ian's head, quite puzzled by Ian's strange behavior just now.
"No, it's..."
Ian was just about to continue digging holes for his father when Jordan, who kept looking back toward the kitchen, directly grabbed him, under Jonathan's strange gaze, Jordan pulled Ian all the way to the second floor.
"Click~"
After locking his room, Jordan also went to close the curtains. Ian stood in the center of the room. In this unventilated bedroom, the strange mixed odors made him somewhat hate why he had such exceptional smell.
"Jordan, in your bedroom, I smell the breath of billions of lives perishing." Ian couldn't help but speak. He estimated that there was no place more sinful than this on Earth.
"Hehe." Jordan didn't pay attention to his brother's complaints. He even put some sound-absorbing cotton under the door, moving so fast that it could leave afterimages in ordinary people's eyes.
How to put it, a super speed.
This really wasn't surprising at all. After smartly but not too smartly doing anti-eavesdropping work, Jordan turned around, those blue eyes identical to Clark's staring intently at Ian.
"You awakened too, I know."
Jordan spoke with conviction, his voice extremely low, as if discussing state secrets.
"Ah? Yes, that's right." Ian blinked. This time he readily admitted it, mainly because he was really curious about what Jordan was being so secretive about.
And getting a positive answer, Jordan's eyes lit up.
"Listen, I've been analyzing this for a long time."
Jordan licked his lips, his voice carrying some certainty, "Dad is Superman, you're also Superman, I'm also Superman, Jonathan is an unawakened Superman, so..."
He paused slightly, immediately reaching a major conclusion.
"Mom must be the Superwoman who's been active in recent years!" Yes, this was the conclusion reached by Jordan's underdeveloped super brain based on logical reasoning.
Ian's jaw almost dropped.
Jordan seemed to take this as agreement and continued eloquently: "But I asked Mom several times and she wouldn't admit it, even slapped me, right here."
He also showed the back where Lois had hit him, completely unharmed.
"I feel like she must be disguising herself, wanting to make Jonathan, who hasn't awakened yet, feel better." This "shocking yet reasonable" imagination made Ian couldn't help but praise highly.
"Jordan, your talent is above mine!"
This was heartfelt admiration.
Jordan took this as encouragement and excitedly rushed to his computer. After 300 seconds of the main unit fan running frantically during startup, he directly logged into a forum called "Superhero Popularity Center."
"Look, it says here that only Superwoman can live together with Superman." Ian leaned in to look. The post title clearly read "Superman and His Earth-Shattering Fertility."
The author was "Superman Must Die."
Before Ian could ask Jordan to click in and see the author's other posts.
"There's also this early news." Jordan had already switched to website information. He had bookmarked dozens of netizens, many of which were news about Lois encountering danger when she was young.
"Every time Mom encountered danger, she could turn danger into safety. She wasn't together with Dad then. Is this normal?" Jordan's criticism was well-reasoned and evidence-based.
"..."
Ian didn't want to play with his second brother who had never been in love.
He turned to leave.
"Ian, you have to work with me to find the answer. Maybe we can make a plan to make Mom show her true form." Jordan grabbed Ian's arm.
Ian shook off his second brother's hand.
"If you really make any plan, I feel like we'll only get beaten into showing our true forms..." Seeing Jordan still stubbornly holding his opinion, Ian quickly chose to escape.
"Damn! I can make a good plan myself! Ian! You'll see that I'm also very smart!" In the bedroom, Jordan was obviously planning to activate his super brain.
Knowing his second brother's superpower characteristics, Ian thoughtfully helped him close the door.
...
Meanwhile.
Gotham.
The Batcave.
"Motherfucker!"
Bruce Wayne yanked off his headphones.
As if they were some toxic item. On the monitoring screen in front of him, audio waveforms were still jumping violently, accompanied by sounds that shouldn't be played in public.
Alfred came in carrying a tea tray. Seeing his master's rare loss of composure, he raised an eyebrow, "What shocking thing has the youngest Kent boy done now?"
He obviously knew what Bruce was monitoring.
"It's the pubescent restlessness of the Kent family's second son." Bruce rubbed his brow. He felt this was Ian's way of retaliating against him for blacklisting Ian.
Actually throwing his phone under Jordan's bed.
"This shouldn't warrant your alarm, should it?"
The butler was slightly confused.
After a moment of silence, Bruce used Batman's low voice.
"I heard the roar of beasts~" He rubbed his brow again, using very literary words. After all, Master Wayne still needed to maintain some personal cultivation.
"??????"
Alfred's smile froze on his face.
"That's really..."
The butler couldn't find any way to comment either.
"Alfred, please bring Damian back." After thinking for a moment, Bruce seemed to make a decision, and this decision also surprised Alfred greatly.
"Didn't you say you wanted to temper the young master?"
The elderly butler sounded extremely surprised.
"Look at the Kent family... I suddenly realized that Damian could actually be a good child, I can't be too harsh on him." Bruce directly turned off the monitoring function for Ian's phone.
Hearing this, Alfred's eyes widened slightly.
This was probably the most tender thing he had heard Bruce say in decades.
"I'll arrange the plane right away."
The old butler nodded imperceptibly and left. Bruce threw himself back into work, his hands switching rapidly between multiple keyboards. The dozens of fake riot incidents today had left him somewhat tired.
However, with more than ten screens running simultaneously, Bruce remained methodical. Suddenly, his movements paused because he saw a tall figure reflected in the briefly black screen behind him.
"Where's the manuscript?"
Bruce didn't turn around.
Clark emerged from the shadows and placed several sheets of paper on the desk.
"How long have you been here?" Bruce asked.
"I've been here all along."
Clark's voice carried some annoyance.
"..."
Bruce's typing speed had the slightest stutter. The air was filled with a subtle awkwardness, and the entire Batcave seemed to only echo with the sound of machines running.
Quiet.
Still quiet.
Bruce felt he needed to break this atmosphere.
"I have to say, your speed of becoming stronger somewhat exceeded my estimates, and not just by a little... Based on my current assessment, you have at least doubled in strength."
Saying this, he displayed an abnormally curved chart for Clark.
This indeed successfully changed the topic.
"Your judgment is correct, as precise as always... Ever since that incident, I discovered power growing within my body. It belongs to me, yet doesn't belong to me."
Clark raised his arm that had long since recovered.
His eyes were confused.
"I remember that time Ian and Kara helped you together." Bruce didn't need to consult his files, since this was something that had happened just a few days ago.
As long as it didn't exceed twenty years, all event details he could find afterward were in his brain.
Not temporarily removed.
"Well, I suppose it was the two of them together?" Clark's tone suddenly became uncertain. He seemed to recall the scene of Ian holding Kara, looking like he was about to duel with evil creatures.
Bruce didn't pursue the matter, just looked deeply at Clark, then brought up a satellite video.
"Clark, we need to be completely honest."
Saying this, he began playing the satellite video. In the footage, Madison was leading Ian running down the street, and then Ian stopped, closed his eyes as if praying.
"Crash~"
The video was suddenly interrupted, showing a snow screen.
"This..."
Clark realized that the scene shown in this video might be the one demon-related incident he hadn't noticed when Ian went out today.
"What happened?"
He looked at his omniscient external brain.
"My satellite turned to ash in an instant. That's not the power of you Kryptonians." Bruce's voice was low as he switched the computer screen to another image.
That was footage from another satellite.
It was filming the satellite that was filming Ian. In just one frame of the image, you could clearly see the satellite filming Ian being instantly disintegrated by some invisible force.
No process of collapse.
The satellite directly became dust in space.
"What do you mean? What are you trying to express?" Clark's pupils contracted slightly. He knew how high-frame Bruce's videos were, yet they still couldn't capture the satellite's destruction process.
This was indeed very unbelievable.
"Of course I hope you can be more honest with me about that baby from back then, the current Ian Kent." Bruce stood up, facing Clark who was slightly taller than him.
The two looked at each other.
The lights in the Batcave cast long shadows between them.
"What exactly is he?"
After a brief pause, Bruce asked without reservation.
"Are you sure you found him in a spaceship, and not at some evil magic ritual?" Being able to ask this question already proved Bruce didn't believe Ian was also brought by spaceship.
In fact, this was indeed a lie.
Clark's expression became complex.
"This is something I cannot tell you."
He spoke in a deep voice, his momentum also weakening somewhat.
"Why?"
Bruce continued to press aggressively.
Clark opened his mouth but in the end, he just shook his head.
"This is a secret that cannot be mentioned... And I also need to protect my child." Clark's voice suddenly became ethereal, as if coming from very far away.
"A secret?" Bruce's eyes narrowed slightly.
"You know I'll find out, right?" He spoke in a low voice.
"You can try, but I think you'll taste failure once again."
Clark was quite certain. He didn't even plan to let Bruce strategize anymore and directly chose to leave, his figure quickly disappearing from the Batcave.
And watching Superman's departing figure, Bruce didn't withdraw his gaze until long after.
He turned and walked toward the depths of the Batcave. The cold light reflected bluish shadows on the metal walls, and finally the man's footsteps stopped in front of a huge sealed chamber.
The sound of unlocking mechanisms was particularly clear in the silence.
The chamber door slid open, revealing a transparent container preserved at constant temperature inside, a jar of flowing golden energy, like imprisoned lightning, restlessly agitating within the glass.
It was the Speed Force!
"I need to see that day."
Bruce weighed the pros and cons, murmuring softly. And just then, in what should have been just an underground laboratory Batcave, a pale lightning bolt appeared out of nowhere and struck the bottle in Bruce's hand.
The container shattered to powder.
All the Speed Force escaped.
Bruce, startled and uncertain, retreated several steps. Super-alloy armor directly covered his entire body. He looked toward where he had been standing. On the scorched ground, a line of burning holy flame had been left.
"This is a warning."
The words were clear.
The edges even glowed with light not of this world.
As his pupils contracted violently, Batman's low, hoarse voice softly read the text on the ground.
