The amount of radiation that James absorbed was just enough for him to become stronger quickly without overloading him after all the Earth's Electromagnetic field was still there to scatter most of the energy sent in the direction of the planet.
James had done this for several months as he kept on getting stronger and stronger each day.
With his ability to absorb many more types of energy than just the solar energy, Kryptonians were used to.
James got stronger just as fast as he learnt things or you could even say he did it faster. Most would say that James was rushing to become more powerful but thinking about the Universe he was in, James felt it appropriate.
James was getting ready for anything after all he too had read a lot of fanfiction about this universe.
The main characters of those worlds were supremely powerful even from birth but somehow they would be put in a situation where the author still has to pull some nonsense out of his ass to make it work.
James on the other hand wasn't so sure that he had such levels of plot armour to save him. Clark was the main character here, their escape had proven that.
Last he checked, those close main characters always suffer... he didn't want to suffer.
When the two brothers were fully dressed, Martha went on to prepare their lunchboxes as Jon made sure to feed them properly.
The entire household worked like they were all part of one giant organism creating a harmonized and peaceful atmosphere around the house.
Minutes later, James and his brother, Clark were bouncing and playing around in the backseat of the old Kent truck.
James felt like the truck had probably seen WW1. Wonder Woman was probably acquainted with the truck, it was so old yet the couple liked it very much.
James didn't know if this was a sentimental thing or just that they had no choice because they didn't have the money.
"James, I want you to take care of your brother in school okay, I don't want your teacher calling me again," Martha said from the front seat and James nodded
"No fair, why does James have to be in charge all the time?" Clark whined immediately
"Don't worry dear, when you grow a little bit older then you can be in charge ok?" Martha said as she looked at him with eyes that just seemed to convey a special type of emotion.
Those eyes were the reason many babies had fallen victim to fraud, Clark would never be in charge.
"Okay, Mommy" Clark replied then returned to his thing
Meanwhile, James just sat there trying to figure out how to fix a Lego toy he had broken by accident.
James and Clark went to the local public school for kids their age and through Jon's persuasion, they managed to stay in the same class.
They had done this because they too knew that James could fly, it wasn't like he was exactly hiding it as he sometimes hovered into the air to grab something from an upper table or hide something there.
They had seen this in action with their own two eyes, so they expected Clark to one day do the same so they made the school agree to having them both in the same classroom so that James could help if anything wrong were to happen.
After dropping them off, the couple left, leaving the two to face whatever they encountered alone…. But together.
James being who he was preferred to have no friends but damn! Did these children have stories to tell so Clark and James each had their group of friends.
As one-year-olds, they didn't care about anything except playing which was basically all they did in school and the occasional learning of the alphabet but apart from that, it was all about playing.
=======
Smallville,
Playground.
Clark and his friends were playing around the playground and Clark was 'it'. Oh, imagine the frustration when he couldn't catch anyone.
Clark may have a slightly enhanced physique compared to these kids but in reality, he was only a little bit faster than they were. James didn't know the reason why Clark awakened his powers at a much slower rate.
As always James tried to guess the reason as to why Clark awakened his powers slowly but the only reason he could find was that Clark was subconsciously holding himself back because he thought himself to be human.
Every other Kryptonian he could think of gained Superman-level strength and speed on their first week on Earth.
Though Clark was still a kid, his level of power was pathetic for a Kryptonian.
Even Jon(Clark's Kid), had power levels greater than him when he was just a kid so James only concluded that Clark was subconsciously reducing his power level to live amongst others.
The theory was made even better when you realize that Kryptonian powers are somewhat psionic so it was plausible that Clark was holding himself back subconsciously.
James watched the group play around as he sat on the swing, he had his own group of friends but he was and still is an introvert.
He enjoyed staying alone and this just happened to be the best choice he made today as a few seconds after he sat on the swing.
The group he was watching started slowly losing their skin as their insides became visible to him.
At first, he was freaked out by this but since he knew what was going on, he just sat there and bore the pain as he tried to focus solely on the group that was running around.
The voices were excessive, the smells unbearable and what he saw was extremely disgusting but he just sat there bearing it all. If little Clark could do it then a grown-ass man like him could too and he will do it.
Slowly but surely, the voices and smells started reducing as only the voices of the group could be heard, the smells were still unbearable but he could manage it and though he was disgusted by the insides he saw, he took solace in the fact that he knew they were alive and well.
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