Nobleman

Prologue

  April 19th, 2000
      Saco, Maine

Trevor Martin stomps through the steep snow, breathing heavily and wiping the snow off of his military uniform. He tries to look around, in case of any incoming hail, as he secures his goggles. He gasps as his vision clears and he sees the building. The base. The gigantic military base that he finds it hard to believe was invisible to him in the snow. Trevor steps through the gates and immediately gets welcomed with the loud, raspy, unwelcoming voice of his commander, Sergeant Henry Willis Humphrey.

"Soldier!" On impulse, Trevor stiffiens and raises his right hand to his head in a salute. Humphrey looks around to see if anyone is watching and turns back to Trevor, grinning. "At ease, soldier." Trevor gets the same goofy grin on his face and unstiffens himself, getting into a more comfortable stance. Humprey sighs. "Come on boy, let's get you inside." Trevor nods and follows him. In the night, Humphrey's features seem to brighten. His wrinkly old face seems shinier, and his silver hair basked in the moonlight. His blue eyes seemed to darken, as they always did in the night.

Trevor followed him into a brightly lit room, immediately feeling his body warm uo as the door closed. There was a large desk in the center with pictures of Humphrey recieving medals. It was obviously his office. Trevor sat down in front of the desk, while Humphrey stared at him inquisitively. Trevor sighed. "Sorry, sir. I went to get some fresh air and clear my mind, and a blizzard began and I was already too far out to-"

Humphrey held uo a hand, signaling Trevor to stop. "I don't care about that. We need to talk about something. It's Superman." Trevor raised an eyebrow. "What about Superman?"

"He's going unchecked. What if he decides to go rogue, and attacked one of our military bases, or worse, attack innocent civillians?" Trevor gave a small shrug. "Well, Commander, Superman has never really been a real threat for us. And besides, we have that stuff- what do you call it? Kryptonite? We can take him down if we need to. Also we don't really deal with extraterrestrial issues. That type of stuff is for the Department of Extraterresrrial Operatives." Humprhey scoffed. "Yeah, speaking of, the other day, the DEO marched in here without a warrant, and confiscated all of our kryptonite. Said that superman wouldn't be willing to work with them unless they deystroyed all the kryptonite. So we've got no way to protect ourselves . . . . . . Then a miracle came yesterday."

Trevor chuckled. "A mircale? Did kryptonite rain down from the skies?" He joked. Humphrey stayed silent for a moment and said, "No. Something better came from the sky. A baby."

"A baby fell from the sky?" Trevor question doubtfully. "Just follow me," Humphrey said opening the door letting the cold air rush into the room. Trevor hesitantly got up and left the room with him. Trevor followed him to the laboratory and opened the door. In the distance, he heard crying. A baby crying. Trevor ran to the sound and saw the baby, bawling its eyes out. The scientists were poking it with blunt needles trying their best not to harm it. "You said this came from the sky?" Trevor asked. A scientist turned to him. "Yeah. In a pod. We searched it but didn't find anything."

Trevor nodded and stepped closer to the baby. They suddenly locked eyes and the crying stopped. Trevor reached for the baby and picked him up, wrapping it in a blanket, ans held him close to his chest. "Why is he warm?" The scientist scoffed. "The baby is kryptonian. We tried to see if it inherited the same abilities as Superman. We sense hightened abilities in his system, so we are assumming that he's got all the same powers. So to activate them, we put him under solar energy, since that's where Superman gets his abilities."

Trevor glanced at the scientist and then put his eyes back on the baby. It didn't do anything besides lay in his arms and stare into space.

Then, Humphrey said, "He's yours."

Trevor looked up. "What? I can't take care of a baby! I'm 18, I have a life to live!" Humphrey grinned. "You don't have to get all attactched to it, just train it until he's 25. Trevor, this could be the key. We basically have a baby Superman that we can mold into our weapon. Do you know how useful that would be. And if Superman ever does go rogue, we've got him to take that bastard down." Trevor sighed. "I guess I'll have help from all the other guys on base. Well . . . . . what's his name?"

Humphrey shrugged. "That's up to you."

Trevor looked down at the baby and though hard. Finally, he took a deep breath and muttered, "Hey there little Eric. We're gonna have a lot of fun me and you. And I promise you that you are not just a weapon. You're just like me. Just like me."