The Emergence

Chapter 12

He didn't know where he was running, and before he knew it, he had ended up in the far corner of the barn. His vision was still blurry, and he raised a hand to wipe them. When his hand came back wet, he realised the source of the blurriness. He was crying.

Jon was annoyed. He didn't like crying.

He pushed the annoyance to the back of his mind. He was still concerned about what was happening to his body. Was he developing another power? Ice breath or something? He had never felt like this before. No matter how hard he tried, he could not get a proper, solid breath in. All of his senses were also dulled. He thought he could hear someone. Was someone else with him? He didn't think so. He struggled to force another breath in, and his vision darkened in the corner of his eyes.

It was clearer now. Someone was definitely calling his name. His breathing was still getting shallower. He couldn't respond.

Someone appeared in his hazy vision suddenly. Throughout the blurriness, Jon could make out a mop of dark curls.

Jordan.

His brother shook him, and reached out to grab his hand. Jon whimpered.

"Jon, Jon, come on bro." He shook Jon a little harder. "You're having a panic attack, okay? You need to relax and try to take a deep breath."

"I-I c-can't." Jon sobbed.

"Yes, you can, okay?" Jordan spoke calmly. "I've been where you are right now. You can breathe, but you just have to calm down first." He brought Jon's hand up and placed it on his own chest, before taking a deep, meaningful breath. "Copy my breathing, alright?"

Jon nodded shakily, and when Jordan took another deep breath, Jon tried to copy. The first breath hitched, which sent Jon into harder sobs, but after Jordan had calmed him down, and repeated the breathing exercise, Jon seemed to slowly get it. The first few breaths were still shallow and laboured, but after 10 or so, the panicking boy's breathing became normal again.

When Jordan left go of him, Jon stumbled, falling down onto a hay bale that lay in the corner.

"I don't think I was ready for grandpa to come over." Jon chuckled wetly.

"Neither." Jordan laughed, sitting down heavily next to his brother. "But the thing that shocks me the most was that you just had a panic attack."

"I did?" Jon inquired.

"Yeah, a bad one, you looked like you were about to pass out." Jordan responded. "I was really worried for a minute. You weren't calming down." He paused. "My panic attacks never used to get that bad."

"You never saw yourself when you were in the middle of a panic attack." Jon pointed out.

"Yeah, and you didn't see yourself." Jordan rebutted.

"I'm pretty sure whatever just happened to you was worse than what happened to me." It was quiet for a moment.

"I'm scared, Jordan."

"I know, I am too Jon."

"I don't want to be placed into a research facility, I want to live a normal life without having to look over my shoulder every time that I do something." Jon wiped his nose.

"I don't want to either. But we can't change what has happened in the past year. We can't change our DNA. Even if we didn't have powers, we would never actually be safe. Dad's DNA would betray us."

"Do you ever wonder what would of happened if neither of us had developed powers?" Jon asked, looking at the ground. "Do you think he would of even told us who he really was?"

"I don't think so. I mean, you've seen how guilty and afraid he was when I developed powers, and then you did. He didn't want us to carry the burden he had. He probably thought that if neither of us developed powers, he wouldn't have told us, and then there would be a really slim chance of anyone finding out that Superman had kids. And a smaller chance of one of us slipping up." He paused. "He said to me a while back, that the less people who know, the safer our family will be. I guess that is what he thought."

"Yeah, I wonder how our lives would have been different if neither of us had powers and we didn't know about dad." Jon pondered.

"I wondered that too for a long time, but I realised after a while that pondering over what could have been was making me feel worse and honestly just a waste of time. Don't think about any what if scenarios, we can't change anything so the only thing it will do is annoy us at what we could of had." Jordan offered, placing a hand on his brother's knee. Jon looked up at him with shining eyes. Jordan opened his mouth to speak.

"Boys?"

Jordan immediately recognised the voice. It was his mum.

She continued to call out for them, but Jordan knew that Jon wouldn't want him to answer. He knew what the few minutes after a panic attack were like. He knew that Jon probably wanted a few minutes just to gather himself. So, naturally, he stayed quiet.

"There you are." Lois spoke, after walking past the support beams blocking the twins from the rest of the barn. "Jonathan, honey, are you alright?"

"Yeah, just tired I guess, of everything."

"Okay, you're allowed to feel like that." Lois confirmed.

Jon changed the topic. "Is grandpa still here?"

"He left, we made up an excuse that your sickness freaked you out so much, and you don't like talking about it. It is a lame excuse, but we also added that you have been feeling overwhelmed with school and stuff. It is not complex but it is viable given the situation."

"Okay." Jon sniffed. Jordan kept his hand on Jon's knee, trying to give some comfort to his twin, who he knew was definitely suppressing tears.

"You guys want ice cream or dessert?" Lois asked.

"I didn't finish dinner." Jon mumbled.

"I thinking that I am going to let it slide."

Jordan turned to Jon, and with his other hand whacked Jon lightly on his arm. "C'mon dude, let's go, who cares if you're not ready to tell grandpa? Tell him when you actually feel comfortable. Mum has literally just offered us dessert even though we haven't finished dinner. We need to take the offer while we still can." He took his hand off Jon's knee and pulled his brother up by his bicep, leading the way back to the house as he dragged Jon with him.