She’s nice, I like her. ( at least the times he’d spoken to her, she’d been nice--ooh, but he’d protected her during the tower incident and she was a superhero? wow. that’s amazing.

he does have the decency to look at least a little ashamed, at least. )

Sorry, sir. I’ll work on it.

I sound like my father.

[ he pinches his nose. that's the last thing he wants to do, be that sort of adult in the kid's life. he takes a seat near the roof's end. ]

when I got that suit, I thought I could do anything. I found out the hard way it's more than that. Maybe you don't tech, maybe you do. This isn't your usual sort of battle here. What I'm saying is - you're Superboy not because of all these powers, but because you want to help people. Helping people also means being prepared. and that takes practice. Even Superboy needs some.

[ he flashes him a bit of a smile. ]

come on, last time wasn't that bad.

( the smile’s returned with one of jon’s own, bright and wide. he jumps up to his feet, rocks back on the heels of his feet before holding out the phone to give it back to tony. )

You sound kinda like my dad, too. ( and jon misses him more than words can describe. but it’s kind of nice, having someone around that does remind him of clark. ) I don’t mind practice! I like flying a lot. When I got here, I mostly just--jumped, and I couldn’t do it very long! But I’m getting better.

Flying, navigating, dodging, running just in case they ever take away your mojo. I heard that can happen. better be prepared. I try to train without the suit, just in case.

[ he nods. ]

try and have some fun, too. have a pizza night in your weird man cave.

Yeah, haha. I uhh. . I lost power during the tower event, towards the end. The invisible dogs took a few bites out of me, but they've healed now.

( jon raises a hand, fingers curled into a fist. for fistbumps. )

I do! I always have fun. And Robin's working on helping me learn hand to hand combat, too. I mean usually I fight with my fists but I kinda just hit instead of try to hit? But now I'm learning how to.

[ you'll get that fistbump, Jon, but tony stark is now officially worried. ]

right, okay. if you need help from someone who isn't twelve, you know where to find me.

[ erm. not that he's offering. or actually, he is. ]

Robin's a really good fighter.

( fist bumps are great. he pulls his hand back, wiggles his fingers. look, explosions. )

He was trained by the League of Assassins since he was small. He has like seven degrees. And he's thirteen.

-- do you have any idea how bad it sound? Take a minute.

[ the league of assassins, really? ]

. . well, yeah? I mean--what kind of person raises a kid with assassins?

( we don't talk about damian's sad childhood. )

But he's cool. He--uh. He lives with his dad now instead of them and he acts like a jerk sometimes but he's not really.

any other league of assassins people here that I should know about?

[ and keep track of ]

None that I know of?

( oh wait. oh shoot. )

I--I'm pretty sure I wasn't supposed to share that either!