Chapter 11

Spring

Location: Smallville, Kansas – Earth – 1999

Winter rolled into Spring and Apollo enjoyed hanging out with both Chloe and Skye. The rest of everyone's winter had been far less eventful. Apollo spent time with his family and his Uncle Ikaris and Aunt's Sersi and Makkari even dropped by to spend Christmas with them. Some of his classmates still had questions about that day, and it didn't help that he'd helped a few people over the winter causing some people to become curious about him. Luckily nobody had anything concrete nor did they seem to invested in figuring the saves out. Apollo didn't regret helping all those people though, he'd rather some people think he was odd than them being hurt although he could tell it was stressing out his Dad every time people would ask him about the odd things Apollo did. By the time school started up again it seemed that the questions about him had died down. Apollo went through the first few weeks of the term like he usually did, splitting time between school, Skye and the farm with the added activity of spending a lot more time with Chloe and helping her with her writing articles. Apollo even began to enjoy it.

Apollo woke up one Spring morning feeling odd. He couldn't describe the feeling; it was like his body wasn't able to do what it usually could because something was wrong. He also felt weirdly warm and not like with his heat vision just uncomfortably warm. He wanted to ask his Mum about it during breakfast but he couldn't afford to miss the bus when he wasn't up to running to school. Apollo got on the bus after saying a quick goodbye to his parents and sat next to Chloe and the two talked about an article Chloe planned on writing. The two reached school and talked with Skye bye the lockers and Apollo's head briefly hurt and he winced. Apollo didn't know what was going on with him but he shook it off.

"Are you okay Apollo?" Skye asked.

"I'm fine just feeling odd" he answered.

"Maybe you're getting sick which would be funny since we've basically never seen you sick, like never it's almost bizarre" Chloe added.

Apollo chuckled before his head hurt again and his ears started ringing. Apollo shook his head and brushed off the sensation. He looked at his two closest friends who both looked worried about him.

"I can assure you, I'm okay" Apollo said. "Now let's get to Ms. Rampling's history class before she marks us as tardy."

The trio walked to their class and sat in their respective seats and the history lesson progressed as usual except the feeling Apollo was feeling was getting worse with every passing moment. Apollo started to feel faint and the ringing in his ears was getting worse. His chest felt odd, he felt like someone had dumped a bucket of ice into it. The feeling grew and grew and soon the ringing was ceasing but it was being replaced by a different noise, it was being replaced by every noise. It was deafening The sound of the chalk on the chalkboard not just in this classroom but in every classroom might as well have been gunshots fired at point blank right by his ear. The sound of the train that was arriving at the station miles away sounded so loud it was like he had placed an ear on the train tracks and the train had passed right over him. Apollo felt like his ears were going to burst and this feeling was spreading across him.

"When Kansas became a territory" Ms. Rampling said. "Apollo are you listening, I was asking who first settled in Kansas?"

Apollo looked up at Ms. Rampling and he looked right through her and not in the metaphorical sense, he saw right through her skin to her muscle structure and then to the bone and soon he was looking at the bus driver sleeping in the bus outside of the school as he looked through several walls. He was seeing all new colours; colours he couldn't even describe. He looked away from Ms. Rampling as he began hyper ventilating. He looked at Skye and he saw her skeleton before his vision changed and suddenly he was seeing the heat her body was giving off. He looked around and all around him were streams of odd light and electricity, he reached out and touched one and suddenly he was seeing the same thing being broadcast to the TV in the TV lounge. He was seeing electromagnetic wavelengths. Apollo began to freak out even more.

"Apollo are you alright?" Ms. Rampling asked becoming concerned by Apollo's sudden hyper ventilation.

Apollo started to smell and taste things, he could smell everyone's packed lunch and the boy odour of everyone in the classroom. He could smell what everyone ate for breakfast and taste the perfume Ms. Rampling was wearing and even taste the dried blood from the scab Kyle got from playing football yesterday. Not to mention all the other gross things in the school he began tasting and smelling, it made him want to throw up.

A bug flew through the classroom and he could feel every flap of its wings like it was a giant fan being blown against his skin, he could feel the ants walking on the corridor floor right outside the classroom and Apollo couldn't take it anymore.

He covered his ears and rushed out of the classroom not caring about everyone calling his name in concern. He needed to be somewhere quiet, somewhere he couldn't smell, taste, feel, see or hear. He ran to the janitors closet because the smell and taste of all his cleaning liquids was strong enough to block out everything else and he could see inside it that it was empty. He quickly shut the door behind him and started trying to control his breath as he continued to hyper ventilate and his chest felt chilly like his lungs were coated in ice and that feeling moved from his lungs to his mouth every time he inhaled and exhaled. Apollo soon noticed that he was feeling a chill in his breath for a reason, he was somehow exhaling frost and ice with every breath. Apollo began to hyper ventilate more and the frost and ice he was exhaling grew as every breath he had was bigger than the last. He heard and saw the class walking to the door to try and reach him but he didn't care. Ms. Rampling reached for the door and Apollo used his vision to heat up the door handle and soon Ms. Rampling let it go in pain.

"Apollo please let me help you" Ms. Rampling said desperately.

"You can't just leave me alone" Apollo shouted back.

"Apollo we've called your mother; it's going to be alright just let us in" Ms. Rampling informed him.

Apollo looked up and he saw the crowd of kids outside the door, he could hear them whispering to themselves. Skye and Chloe were worried. He felt bad for making them worry but he also didn't want to see and hear them. No like this, it was agony. He could hear their heartbeats, their muscles constricting and moving and see their body temperature, their skeletons and muscles… and it wasn't just them but everyone outside in his class standing in the hallway waiting for him to come out. Apollo buried his head in his lap and covered his ears tighter and prayed the pain would stop especially since he wasn't coping with it well. His hyper ventilating had caused the entire inside of the closet to be covered in thin sheet of ice and his senses were overwhelming him completely.

"What's wrong with him?" Apollo heard one of his class mates whisper.

"He's so weird, remember how he wasn't allowed to play with other kids" said another.

"What about all the weird stuff he's done, Whitney said he swam in a frozen lake and wasn't even cold and my Dad said he stopped a robber by pushing him and the robber flew backwards like he was hit by a car" one kid added.

"My Mum said she saw him stop a car from hitting someone once with his bare hands" another kid tacked on.

"He's such a freak, I wonder if he's even human"

Apollo heard enough and began to cry. Tears fell down his face as he sat in agony from sensory overload in a now frozen room. Until Apollo heard footsteps and soon a being with golden insides like a merge of complex machine and a skeletal system with golden energy constantly flowing through them was at the door. It was his Ma.

"Apollo I'm here, will you open the door?" Ajak asked her son.

Apollo wanted to open the door but he couldn't go back out there, to all the noise, the smells, the tastes and sights.

"Sweetie how can I help you if you won't let me in?" Ajak said in a comforting tone.

"The worlds too big Mum" Apollo finally said his face wet with tears.

Ajak paused for a second and remembered the words her and Jonathan shared years ago.

"Then make it small. Just focus on my voice." Ajak told him and Apollo closed his eyes and listened to her words.

"Pretend it's an island…. out in the ocean" Ajak instructed him and Apollo imagined it. The island in the ocean. He focused until there was nothing else except the island in his mind. The smells, tastes and sights began to ease and his breathing did too. His breathing slowed until it was completely normal and his senses dulled until they were completely normal too.

"Can you see it?" Ajak asked.

"I can" Apollo answered temporarily happy his senses and breathing were normal now.

"Then swim towards it" Ajak said as Apollo promptly melted all the ice he'd covered the room in before unlocking the door and hugging his Mum. His classmates all stared at him and Apollo felt heartbroken again.

"What's wrong with me Mum" Apollo said softly through tears and Ajak shook her head and cupped his face while looking at him with nothing but love and adoration.

"Oh my sweet Apollo. There's nothing wrong with you" Ajak told her son lovingly as she hugged him once again.

Ajak took Apollo from school early and Apollo tried to ignore all the weird faces he got as he left the school with his Mum. Skye and Chloe were very concerned and sympathetic but everyone else looked at him like he was a freak. Apollo sighed to himself, it seemed like he was never going to escape that title, no matter what he was always going to be the freak. He thought being half human and half Eternal meant the best of both worlds but it just meant he wasn't able to fit into either. He was a freak no matter who he was with.

Apollo stayed silent on the ride home and when he got there he immediately went to the barn and locked himself there. He just wanted to be alone right now. He closed his eyes and breathed slowly, trying to make sure whatever happened to him in school didn't happen again. Apollo stayed in the barn effectively meditating for what felt like hours when suddenly he heard the barn doors.

"Ma please I just want to be left alone" Apollo said hoping he would be given more time to cope.

"I'm not your Ma and we can't always get what we want" Sprite said in response her voice pulling Apollo out of his meditation.

"Sprite? What do you want?" Apollo asked as he got up and looked over the railing on the upper part of the barn to see Sprite standing below him.

"Believe it or not to help, Ajak told me what was going on with you and I think for the first time I'm probably your best bet at getting this power under control" Sprite told him sounding far softer and gentler than she usually did.

"Lord help me it that's true" Apollo quipped.

"He should help me, I'm the one who has to deal with you until you master this power" Sprite retorted.

Apollo laughed a little and then walked down the stairs to stand face to face with Sprite.

"So what's your brilliant plan to help me with my power?" Apollo questioned.

"This" Sprite said before she promptly disappeared.

Apollo started looking around frantically.

"What exactly is the plan here" Apollo said loudly.

"Ajak said your power is basically enhanced senses right? You can hear and see things others can't. Well I make illusions that could fool almost anyone's senses. So let's see if you can control your power enough to beat my illusions" Sprite spoke her voice now coming from the upper floor.

"You want me to willingly use this power? I can't do that. It's too painful, I sense everything" Apollo told her.

"And if you don't want it to be painful you need to get it under control. Only hear and see what you want to. So stop being afraid of yourself and use the power. Find me" Sprite instructed.

Apollo super sped to where Sprite just talked from only to collide hard with a wall. He heard Sprite laugh out loud her voice now coming from the other side of the barn.

"I'm glad my humiliation is bringing you joy" Apollo shouted out.

"I wouldn't have humiliated you if you had used your senses" Sprite said to him.

Apollo wanted to say something in response but he couldn't because he knew she was right. He could hear a train from across the town and see through people. He should be able to find Sprite no matter what illusion she cast. Apollo shut out everything around him and slowly let himself sense everything. He immediately collapsed in agony, everything was too much again. He was seeing colours and things he'd never seen before, hearing every conversation happening throughout Smallville at once, smelling every scent on the Kent Farm from the crops, to the manure, tasting everything around him and feeling everything from here to the next farm over. And the power was only growing, he was sensing more with every passing moment and his brain and body couldn't handle it. Apollo collapsed and immediately started convulsing, the sensory overload completely overwhelming him.

'Focus on my voice' Apollo remembered. Ma, he needed to find his Ma, he frantically searched for her as his senses continued to overwhelm him and he found her. She was in the kitchen making dinner. She was making a pie for him. He could taste the apples she was cutting, smell the cinnamon and feel the heat from the oven as it was preheated. Apollo could hear her heartbeat and he focused on that and only that. Soon everything else fell away and Apollo could only sense her. Apollo stopped convulsing and stood back up slowly. He saw Sprite looking at him concerned. With his enhanced senses he could see she looked like his Mum, her insides looked like they were synthetic but also human and she glowed with golden energy. It pulsed through her constantly. Apollo finally turned off his power completely dialing it down until his senses were regular.

"I can't do it" Apollo said feeling defeated as he looked at Sprite.

"Yes you can" Sprite insisted.

"I used my power for one second and it made me fall to the ground and start shaking!" Apollo exclaimed.

"Because you're letting the power dictate what sensory information it feeds you instead of the other way around" Sprite told him.

"What does that even mean, I can't control what I see and hear" Apollo replied an incredulous note in his voice.

"Clearly you can because you're not sensing everything right now. Apollo everyone's brain regulates what it senses but not to the level you've displayed. The control necessary for that means you have conscious control of your senses and the fact that the reach of your senses is as far as it is means your brain has the processing power of a supercomputer to be able to take in all of that. So use that supercomputer brain of yours and control your senses. Think of them like a dial and turn them up slowly so you're not immediately overwhelmed and then absorb what your sensing. Don't let it cripple you let it enhance you, let yourself sense things in a way you could've never dreamed" Sprite said hoping that her spend and the analogy would help guide him until he had his new power completely under control.

Apollo took in what she said for a moment then slowed his breathing and closed his eyes. He focused completely on his senses and then imagined a dial and turned it up. Apollo let out a breath and then opened his eyes as his senses immediately went up. He wanted to collapse again but he fought through the pain and stayed focused, he needed to be able to control this ability he couldn't afford to live his life afraid of his own senses. Apollo breathed through the pain and let everything he was sensing wash over him. He stayed like that for a few moments, teetering on the edge of agony as he let all the sounds, sights, smells, tastes and feeling course through him. He nodded at Sprite to continue and moments later he was hearing new sounds and seeing new sights.

"Find me Apollo" her voice said to him blending in with the cacophony of sounds he was hearing.

Apollo started to move around and turned the dial in his mind higher. He winced as his senses were assaulted again but braved through the pain. With every step he let his senses increase until he was sensing everything. The pain was still there, just as much as before. It was immense and he fell to one knee once again unable to cope with everything he was sensing, it was still too much. He remembered how Ikaris told him to search for the heat inside him to control his heat vision and how Makkari taught him to accelerate his whole body and feel movement so he could accelerate his perception. He needed to find his sensory center, the conscious part of his mind that dealt with what he was sensing and then let that absorb all that he was sensing so his mind could adjust to it.

However, that was easier said than done because the pain continued to overwhelm him, it was immense and Apollo felt like if he didn't shut it off he might pass out but he couldn't let himself succumb to it not when he knew what he had to do now. Apollo concentrated powering through the pain until his body began adjusting to it. All the noise suddenly wasn't just loud sounds but actual sounds he could understand, everything he was seeing didn't make him feel like he was being blinded by new colours and sights he couldn't understand but instead it was all a new way to see the world, every feeling wasn't a massive tremor but rather a specific vibration and every taste and smell weren't an overpowering blend but rather unique.

Apollo felt something click within him like a switch had been flipped. Apollo stood up slowly as he continued to let everything he sensed come over him. He stood out with both his hands outstretched and felt, he took a deep breath and smelled and tasted, he opened his eyes and truly saw, it was beautiful. Apollo smiled to himself small tears forming in his eyes as he controlled his power and began to sense the world in a whole new way. The world was vast but somehow small like his Mum said and they were all in it, in here, together.

"We're all we've got" Apollo whispered to himself becoming emotional at what he was sensing was revealing to him.

Everyone, everything truly was connected. It was beautiful.

Apollo then pulled himself away from his thoughts as he remembered Sprite's challenge to him. He couldn't let her win so he searched for Sprite, right now she was his island and he needed to swim towards her. The other noises began to ease and fade into the background and soon he could hear her. She was whispering 'catch me if you can' over and over again. Apollo smiled and rushed towards the sound but the moment he reached there he realized he was tricked; it was an audio illusion. He smirked at how clever she was. He looked around and decided to see if he could spot her but she had made herself invisible, he would see through her even if he wasn't seeing through things.

However, Apollo didn't just see through things, he could perceive the entire electromagnetic spectrum. His vision warped and soon he was seeing the various electrical signals around the farm, all the broadcasts both television and radio. Seeing new colours that he still didn't know how to describe but most of all he could see heat. He started looking for Sprite's thermal signature but the illusions Sprite created (and she was making quite a few right now of herself, of doors, animals and even of various loud sounds) were made from cosmic energy and they made everything trapped within her illusionary field glow. He still couldn't see her, this thermo-visual field made spotting her easier but it was still difficult.

'You have more than two senses' he mentally reminded himself.

Apollo let his other senses reach out for Sprite and soon he felt her, she was stealthily running throughout the barn, while projecting sounds and illusions to lead him away. Not staying in one place so he couldn't find her and while she could mask the sound she was making the vibrations of every step she was taking were something he could feel. He could feel the heat radiating off her body and the air she breathed out. Apollo could smell her unique scent, she smelt how he always imagined a real life fairy would smell like. Like forest and green while being sweet but not cloying. Apollo sped behind her and then touched her shoulder. Sprite flinched out of shock and then all of the illusions were dropped as she turned to face him.

"Well done" Sprite said proudly and Apollo smiled as he turned his super senses off.

"Thank you, turns out you were exactly what I needed and I may not say this enough but I'm really glad you're in my life. You mean more to me than you know" Apollo sincerely told her.

Sprite smiled awkwardly not sure how to respond to everything Apollo just emotionally said to her.

"Don't mention it" she decided to say. "And since we're being genuine then you should know that I am really glad you're a part of our family and you mean a lot to me too. Although never expect me to say that to you again"

"I'm shocked you said that now" Apollo said just as the two of them broke into laughter.

"Best two out of three" Sprite playfully challenged as the two stopped laughing.

"Okay" Apollo accepted as Sprite put up another illusion and run off. Apollo playfully laughed and then activated his super senses again and the two spent the rest of the afternoon playing around with one another.

Jonathan Kent watched the two of them, he saw Apollo smile and heard he and Sprite laugh and it bought him joy that his son was able to find moments of happiness like this even when his life threw him curveballs. However, another feeling also bubbled within him and that was inadequacy. When Jonathan and Ajak got together Ajak had told him she couldn't conceive and Jonathan went into their marriage okay with potentially never having a child of his own. Then they got Apollo and Jonathan became a father and just like his father had done for him Jonathan wanted to be there for his son, help him grow into the fine man he was destined to be, protect him, teach him and guide him. Give him the answers to the questions he had and help him whenever things got difficult for him but the last few months had made it clear to Jonathan he wasn't equipped to do that. He had to sit back and watch other people be there for his son in his times of crises. That feeling like he wasn't able to be the father his son needed hurt him more than any injury he'd ever sustained whether it was when he played football back in high school or when he was working in the fire department. Jonathan knew the feeling was irrational and he was very glad that his son didn't have to suffer but he couldn't help but feel inadequate as a father at times like this.

Apollo saw his Dad standing by the porch watching him and decided to end his games with Sprite and go talk to him. Going from looking at Sprite to his father with his enhanced vision could be a bit jarring. Sprite looked so inhuman, her insides were gold and looked almost synthetic and she constantly had golden energy flowing through her whereas his Dad was completely human. Even though they both looked human one peak under the curtain so to speak and a very different story was told. Apollo looked down at his hands to see if he was more like his Mum or Dad, if he was more Eternal or more human and to his shock he was neither. His muscles and bones were human enough but his bones had strange glowing carvings throughout and his skin cells looked more like crystal when looked at on a microscopic level and he didn't have energy flowing through him the way his Mum or Sprite did. No his body looked like it was exploding with energy, every cell constantly generating immense amounts of energy. Apollo started having questions but decided to ask them later instead he switched his vision to normal put his glasses on and then just went up to the porch and hugged his father happy that despite everything that's happened to him in the last few months he still looked at him with love.

"What's this for?" Jonathan asked shocked by the sudden display of affection.

"No reason, I'm just happy that no matter what you and Ma are always here" Apollo replied simply.

Jonathan chuckled to his son before crouching down and cupping his face.

"Your mother and I are always going to be here. No matter what. You could start growing extra arms and we'd still love you" Jonathan told him lovingly.

Apollo smiled to his father, he never doubted his Ma and Pa loved him but hearing them say it always brought him joy, especially on days like today when he knew he was difficult to deal with because of his powers.

"I love you too Pa" Apollo said as a butterfly flew by them. Apollo activated his super senses and tracked it as it flew, transfixed by the colours on its wings, he reached out to touch it with his finger when he heard something that sounded like an explosion downtown. His eyes grew wide and Apollo immediately honed in on that sound; it was at the old convention center and people were screaming inside.

"What is it son?" Jonathan said as he noticed the sudden change in his son's demeanor.

"Dad call the fire department and an ambulance, there's a fire at the convention center" Apollo said clearly concerned.

"What? How can you- "Jonathan started to question.

"I can hear it call the fire department now" Apollo interrupted.

Jonathan nodded not doubting his son as he rushed to the phone and start dialing emergency services.

"Dad… I've got to go" Apollo told his father.

"Apollo wait, the fire department" Jonathan began to say but he was cut off once again by his son.

"Won't make it in time. But I will." Apollo said determined as he took off his glasses.

Apollo looked to his father for approval and Jonathan nodded understanding that this is something his son had to do.

"Apollo remember be safe and stay hidden" Jonathan instructed and Apollo nodded back at his father a slight nervous smile on his face before he ran off.

"Hello. You've reached the Smallville Fire Department. How can we help" Jonathan heard a voice on the phone say as just as his son took off at super speed and disappeared from his view.

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