Chapter 7: What To Do With Him?

"You have some explaining to do Jon because young Nova here doesn't seem nearly as incoherent as you lead us to believe he would have been."

Wonder Woman spoke first, refusing to take her eyes of the sleeping boy for even a moment. They had no idea who he was or what he was capable of, but they at least knew that he wasn't a normal human.

The blood test that they had run on him had already alerted them to the fact that he was a meta-human and while they couldn't figure out what he meta ability was, they at least knew that he had one. Whether he remembered that he had one or not however, was a different story.

"Yes, I do. I just didn't think it wise to share this information with the children present. Given their past history , I wouldn't be surprised if they somehow managed to find themselves getting into trouble with the information I have to share in some way."

The other three all nodded at his words, as they had already had to deal with three major incidents already and the team of youth had only really been acknowledged as a functioning team a few weeks ago.

"Everything that I said before about his state wasn't false. It's just that I was basing my prognosis with the belief that he was a regular human being. Meta-humans have much more resilient minds compared to most which makes most things to do with the mind even more abstract, but the real reason why he seems so coherent is because of his inherent telepathic potential paired with his current state being induced by another telepaths influence."

"His meta abilities are based on telepathy?" asked a skeptical Batman who had been typing away at a console from the moment that the youngsters had left the room.

Jon shook his head before he explained. 

"It's not that his meta abilities are telepathic in nature per say. They may or may not be, I honestly don't know. All I said was that he had potential. It's something that all telepathic beings are able to decern about others, and though all those with potential may not become telepathic, you usually need to have that potential in order to become a telepath. 

Its more like his potential for telepathy allowed for an easier time in meddling with his mind that would not have normally have been the case. Of course there were some unintended side effects as well but in the end his mind is still very much fractured. 

Its was his embryonic telepathic potential that acted as a failsafe of sorts for his mind. His memories are indeed most definitely gone, and it'll take quite some time for him to be become high functioning again, but the core aspects of his being were preserved. His name, his understanding of language, self preservation and other simply things like that. 

He's practically a newborn, if a newborn was able to fluently understand the words you spoke to them and could communicate with you verbally as well."

Superman and Wonder Woman were flabbergasted at that news, and even Batman paused from typing on his screen to look up at Jon skeptically. He thought for a moment before posing a concern of his.

"Even if that's true, it doesn't explain why he seemed so docile towards you. He was tensing his muscles when you approached him, but as soon as you touched his shoulder, his tension practically melted away. Not to mention how easily he went back to sleep after you said that he had nothing to worry about and should get some rest."

Jon nodded before rubbing the back of his head. 

"Yes well…you could say that he imprinted on me when I was in his mind. To him I'm similar to a parent or father figure in his subconscious mind. That's another reason why I wanted the children to leave. Being surrounded by so many new faces all of a sudden was to much for him to handle. He was being over stimulated by being surrounded like that and I honestly don't know what he could do if he got to stressed."

"So given what you've said, what are we going to do with him now." Asked Batman, getting right to meat of the matter. "If what you've said is indeed the reality, then it means he's most useless to us when it comes to finding out what's happening behind the scenes and may in fact be just another victim. I still haven't found any matches to his profile anywhere which rules out the idea of packing him up and sending him over to his family. Yet I'm not sure I feel comfortable with him being here among the other kids." 

Batman folded his arms as he spoke, unsure of what to do with the proverbial hot potato that had landed in the leagues hand. 

"Honestly I think him staying here may be the best thing for him." Jon said as he glanced over to Nova once more. "I can have Megan keep and eye on him, plus her telepathic abilities would be beneficial in helping him heal his mind further. I can't be there to help him all the time, and it will take a considerable amount of time and numerous rounds of telepathic therapy to fully heal his mind. I could use this as another source of training experience for Megan."

"This is still someone's life we're talking about, don't you think we should take this a little more seriously? Is your niece even skilled enough to perform the telepathic therapy that you've mention? What happens if her inexperience makes things worse instead of better." Superman spoke up, making his views on the whole issue clear. "Not to mention that this would be the second individual that would have been found hidden within some sort of research facility that we'd be adopting. Is this going to become the norm around here adopting every stay super kid we find?"

"I understand your hesitation Clark I do, but at this point there really isn't much of a choice to be made. If he is a clone like Superboy then he has no family to take him in which means the best thing for him would be to stay with us, and if he is a regular person who was kidnaped and experimented on, then who ever took him did a hell of a good job scrubbing him from any and all records. Even if we did find his family, what's stopping the people who took him in the first place from taking him again? This is the best course of action for the moment. Besides, it's not like we can't eventually send him to his family once we're absolutely sure that there's no risk to him or his family."

"Well if he is going to be staying here, then he needs to have some sort of identification. We can't expect to keep him locked up here hidden away from any and everyone like some sort of caged pet. We would be no better than the people we rescued him from." Said Wonder Woman as she leaned up against one of the hospital beds in the room.

"I'll deal with that as well. I've been doing the same for Miss Martian and Superboy anyway so adding one more to the list shouldn't be to much of a hassle." Batman looked at Jon and asked with a smirk on his lips "Should I give him your last name Jon or does he have one that I can use instead"

"Give him mine for now. If he remembers a last name that he'd prefer then it could always be changed, but for now I think its best to keep things simple."

"If you say so. Well I guess I better head back up to the watch tower and get his identification sorted out now then. I'll leave his introduction to the others to you Jon. Good luck" 

With that Batman made his way out of the room followed closely by Wonder Woman and Superman, leaving Jon and a sleeping Nova behind. Left alone with his thoughts Jon simply sat back onto the bed opposite Nova's and watched on his slept. He was tempted to enter his mind to see what he could be dreaming of, but decided against it. The poor boys mind had been violated enough as it was, an it would have to be violated further in order to help him heal. The lest he could do for him would be to give him privacy.