Chapter 7

***Clark pov***

It is the second day of my training with Ryan, after getting a grasp of his current level of powers, it's time to try and make him unlock more.

The first thing I do is bring him to the training room again, only this time, instead of shooting targets for his heat vision, I stand Infront of him and say, "ok, Ryan, today's training is going to focus on helping you unlock your super strength and durability, so if you are ready, we can start."

He takes a deep breath, exhales it, and then says, "ok, I'm ready."

I nod my head and then say to Kelex, "Kelex, begin training."

"Understood sir." And then, the gravity in the room starts to slowly increase.

It took Ryan by surprise as he struggled not to fall face-first to the floor, then through clenched teeth, he asked me, "W-what is this?" his voice showed the alarm he felt, and I almost called off the training, but instead, I started to walk around the room, my hands clasped behind my back as I said, "on my home-planet of krypton, the gravitational force if much greater than that of earth, in this training exercise, we are going to simulate those conditions gradually, until your body adapts to them, we will do this every day, and with each new day, we will increase the amounts of pressure you'll be under, but, if it gets too much, you must let me know, I don't want to accidentally harm you."

Ryan, through clenched teeth, said, "U-understood, sir."

I nodded my head, and then, scanning his body, I noticed his muscles starting to already adapt to the conditions he was in.

'it seemed my theory was correct.' I thought to myself as we started to proceed with his training.

***Aquaman pov- New Atlantis***

I was with one of my royal engineers, we were looking at the schematics they had devised for the new infrastructure of what was now named New Atlantis by my people, we had set up a five-mile perimeter for the construction and began working.

Although manpower for such an endeavor was low at the moment, more and more people came each day, of course, after I was notified by Kal of the development with the pretender, I had let everyone in the area know of him, and to keep a watchful eye for him here in the deep.

So far, we had heard nothing from him, some of the local sea life had come close to us, and I began communicating with them, they were surprised to find someone other than the deep who could do that, and while this world didn't seem to have gods, they immediately recognized the power of the trident of Poseidon.

My queen soon called me over to see something, as I swam towards her, I saw she was pointing at something, and when I saw it, I knew what she meant.

In front of us, was a pod of humpback whales, so I told her, "Keep an eye on what's going on here, I'm going to communicate with them."

"As you wish my king." She replied as I swam away.

I approached the pod, and lifted my hand in greeting, "hello there, is this place on your migration route?"

The biggest whale came closer to me, a female by the looks of it, and then answered, 'no my lord, we just had heard rumors of an ancient power that had returned to the ocean, and by meeting you, I can sense that power from your trident.'

I looked at the trident I held in my hand and said, "I do believe you are sensing this, it is the trident of Poseidon, with it, I have command of the sea and its inhabitance."

'well then, I thank you for clarifying the source of this power, but surely, if lord Poseidon had lent you his weapon, you must be a worthy mortal.'

"I don't think it is the case, it is simply because I had fought the hardest to keep Atlantis and its people safe, that is my bourdon to bear, as the king of Atlantis and its citizens."

'ah, so this is Atlantis? I had heard tales of it over the century from sailors."

"well… a more accurate name would be 'new Atlantis' since we are all that remains of it in this world."

'oh… I see, well then my lord,' then the whale had changed the subject, 'but I must ask, why did you declare a war on the one calling himself the deep?'

At hearing the pretender's name, I start to sneer, and I then say, "he is a sexual predator, he abuses his power and have sexual relation with everybody he can, willing and otherwise, he disgusts me, on the world which we come from, we punish this sort of behavior but in here? He seemed to thrive on it, he feels invincible, especially at sea from what I can gather, so I took it upon myself to show him he is not as invincible as he thinks."

The whale seemed to contemplate what I just said, before saying, 'while I understand that this must be bothering for you, and I can not really begin to understand the matters of humans, air breathers or otherwise, I must plea before you to understand his case, unlike you my lord, he was all alone, he didn't have people like him while growing up, not even one person to teach him how to be himself, he is considered a pariah, even amongst his peers, especially because of what allows him to breath here, he is a joke to them.

But to us, the creatures of the ocean? He is our best of friends, he treats us with kindness, and in return, we help him when he asks for our aid, and even though what you describe he did was horrible, he is one of the loveliest humans I had ever met."

I was taken aback by this, and then I asked her, "I take it then that you know him?"

'I do my lord, he even gave me a name, which I have carried with me since fondly.'

"What is that name?"

'It's Lucy, my lord.'

I am quiet for a moment, then I say to her, "well then Lucy, I will most certainly take that under consideration, but it is still inexcusable in my eyes, but maybe I will be more lenient the next time I'll see him."

'I would very much appreciate that my lord.' She said as she and her pod began to swim away from us and continue on with their journey.

***Clark pov***

After the first hour under heavier gravity, I noticed that Ryan's muscles were adapting to it, and then I had him do many other physical exercises while under still set gravity, we would run, with me advisably keeping my speed lowered, then we started tossing a durable ball between each other, the first five times, Ryan still had trouble reacting fast enough to catch it, but with more and more tries, he had adapted and caught it.

I had to remind myself that this was still only a small fraction of krypton's actual gravitational pressure, but, thanks to the compound V in his D.N.A. he seemed to be slowly unlocking his durability, and, judging by how hard he threw the ball, his super strength.

In the end, he was panting and sweating, and that is when I called off the simulator and called it a day.

He was suddenly feeling a little relieved to have the wait and pressure lifted off of him, but, he did say that towards the end, he almost forgot about it.

He still was nowhere near his father's power level, let alone my own, but this was certainly a promising direction.

Before he went back to his mom I told him, "Before you go and hug her, you should know that if you are not careful, you could kill her, crush her even, so from now on, until you have unlocked your abilities and gained full control, you will be as gentle as you would be with a fragile glass, understood?"

He looked at me, and only then did he seem to grasp the consequences of his actions if he is not too careful, and then nodded his head while saying, "yes sir, understood."

"Good, now go take a shower. Then get your mother to the kitchen."

He nodded and ran off, and with speedier movements than before, super speed was not too far off as well it seemed.

I went to the panel, pulled out his D.N.A. file, and looked at it, I scratched my chin in contemplation, and pondered out loud, "if he is reacting this way to the increased gravity, maybe I could introduce him to solar energy? I wonder if the compound V in his blood will help him adapt to it and let him absorb it?"

Then I felt someone was staring at me, and as I turned my head towards them, I noticed that it was Becca, she quickly apologized and said, "Oh I'm sorry, I didn't mean to disturb you."

I shrug and say, "it is quite alright, I was simply going through the possibilities of what can happen with Ryan and his powers, did you want to talk to me about something?" I inquire.

She then nods her head and says, "Yeah, I wanted to talk to you about something that Ryan had told me just now, that he can't hug me anymore? And that you said that if he will kill me?"

I immediately understood what was going on, and held my hands in a placating matter, "I did, but, he didn't tell you the whole thing." And then I proceeded to repeat exactly what o said to Ryan to Becca, when I was done, she nodded in understanding, then said, "well, I understand what you meant, still… I wish I could have gotten a heads up before you started training him."

To that I reply, "you saw his father, his current power is only a fraction of his, and Homelander's power is barely a fraction of mine, and if he is going to be stronger than his father, he needs to practice control, and I can't well begin to teach him control until he at least had reached a certain level, otherwise, it would be a waste of time and effort."

She relented, and then said, "alright, but you better not make him a sociopath like his father."

I smile at her, and then say, "why don't you come and watch us next time we train? After the first hour, you'd see how we train, and I am sure you'd have a change of heart."

She nodded at that, and we both went to the kitchen, I had her make us a protein-rich meal, it was more for Ryan than myself, with his new training regimen, I didn't want to take any chances with his progress, especially that he was still a human child, so, therefore, human diet.

He soon came back, now wearing his normal clothes, and we sat down for dinner.

***The Deep pov***

I was now alternating between swimming lessons and fighting lessons, they had brought weapon exports from Hawaii to train me, why Hawaii? Well, after examining his fighting style, they had deduced that Aquaman was fighting in the Mouri style or at least a very close variation of it.

I was blocking an upper strike from my teacher, first one I managed, I had an expression of glee, and then he said, "don't be cocky." And proceeded to hit my leg with a spear and make me fall on my ass.

I groaned in pain, my body covered in already semi healed bruises, but still sore nonetheless.

My teacher came close to me and asked, "does it hurt?" I half nodded in response, and then he said, "good, remember how this feels, and try to avoid this, now come on, there is something else you need to see." He added as he started to walk off.

I groaned as I got back up to my feet, muscles sores from the abuse, but I made myself continue to go after my teacher, he pulled out a phone from his pocket, then after searching in it, he finally played a video feed on it.

I quickly recognized it, it was my fight with Aquaman, the one I'd lost, so I turn to him and start asking, "I don't understand what-" but I was cut off as he said, "look." He said as he pointed to his phone, and at that moment I saw it.

He was twirling his trident, pulling the water particles under the docks, and making a shield that he could utilize at any moment.

And then my teacher said, "this martial art, it is unlike anything I had ever seen before, it matches so well with his abilities underwater, but, I want you to try and make your own variation of it."

I looked at him, eyes wide, and asked, "you're kidding right? This guy is on a whole other level than me, how the hell am I supposed to start?"

He smiled and said, "well I'm glad you asked…"

At the end of the day I was so bruised and sore, just thinking about breathing hurt, but, the good news was that I was slowly picking up the lessons from my teacher, and I did manage to make my spear twirl just once before it fell to the floor, but I did manage to attract some water particles from the pool near me as well, I was getting close to having my revenge.

As soon as I hit the mattress, I was out, I was so physically drained from training, it felt as if I had just received a new muscle group I needed to train, and it was exhausting, but I needed to keep with it, especially if I wanted to stay in the seven, and if I wanted to be able to kick his ass.

***Annie pov***

It was the afternoon when I was going through the hallway on the 99 floor, making my way to the room of the seven, all the while thinking about the amazing night I had with that Clark Kent.

He was decent, the first real decent guy I had met since coming to New York, and even though he could have used the opportunity of him having some familiarity with me to his advantage and gain a lead story, he didn't, instead he was actually a gentleman and behaved himself, not even trying to kiss me at the end of the night, just giving me a hug, which was nice for a change.

But there was also something else about him, I can't quite put my finger on it, but it was as if he knew something and held himself from sharing, but maybe that's just my imagination.

I entered the room, and I noticed everyone was there, well, everyone except Deep and Translucent, not that I was sorry to see that Deep was gone after what he had done to me, and Translucent has been known to go on deep cover missions before.

Homelander saw me entering the room, gave me his wide smile, and said, "well hello there starlight, glad you could join us for this meeting."

"Glad to be here sir," I answered him as I made my way to my sit.

"Good, now that most of us are here, we can start the meeting." He said, and then straightened his back while saying, "as of yesterday, a U.S submarine had given us several photos of this Aquaman making his base, but it seems he is not alone." Then one of the monitors shifted to show a photo of Aquaman talking to someone as they were looking at a tablet-looking thing.

"Where was this?" I asked.

"well, the logs show it was somewhere in the Bermuda triangle, but they can't exactly say where, since the devices were jammed by something, captain thinks it was some sort of magnet judging by the large amount of interferences they were experiencing, so data is kind of sketchy at best, but deep is already informed on the situation, and if they won't change their position, he would make a plan of attack."

I was still in a bit of a shock at seeing this Aquaman in this photo, it meant that there were a whole bunch of people with underwater abilities, Atlanteans most likely.

"and where is deep anyway? Isn't the water usually his department?" asked A-train, he was barely focused on the situation at hand, instead just checking his social media all the time.

Then Homelander answered, "undergoing special training to combat this new threat as we speak, he should be ready within the week."

'no amount of training could help this cowered against this Aquaman.' I thought to myself, as I looked at the photo of Aquaman still on the monitor.

***Clark pov***

It was after dinner with Becca and Ryan, the drones took the dishes to be washed and we all went to our separate rooms.

I was in my room, when all of a sudden, I remembered the night I had with Annie, it was fun, and I felt like I wanted another one.

So without hesitation, I took my phone out, and found her number, before texting her:

~hey It's Clark,I had a great time with you last night, I would like to do this again sometime soon, how about you?~

I sent it to her, and then waited for one minute, then a text came in:

~hey had a great time as well, I would love to do this again, I would have to check my schedule, but how about next Tuesday?~

~sounds great, it's a date :)~ I texted smiling to myself, although I had to remind myself I still needed to be careful around her, since it could very much get to Homelander's ears, and for her sake rather than my own, I needed to be on his good side, which I was defiantly not to at the moment.

Then something else happened, my phone began to ring, but when I looked at it, instead of Annie, I saw it was Billy.

I answered and asked, "Billy? What are you-" but was cut off when he said, "Mate, you asked, and it has been received?"

Now I was confused, so I asked, "what are talking about Butcher."

"well, we had mange to nab us Translucent, we got one of them." He said, and I was so shocked, I nearly dropped my phone.

A.N hay guys! I'm back with another chapter!

Sorry, I didn't update sooner, I was alternating between other fanfics I am writing, which I highly recommend you would read. Especially my story called 'A Superman of a different kind' and if you had read it and liked it please leave a review.

Well on to reviews:

Reddj3012: while it is possible in theory, it won't happen right away since he had just received those powers and still learns to wield them, but maybe in the future, that is a good idea.

Now if you liked the story, let me know by reviewing it in the comments section, and as always, you guys are awesome!

Bookwormjohnny2 out!