July 5th, 1997

General POV

Creed hovered over his home, debating how to handle the situation with his family. When he got kidnapped, he assumed he would only be gone for an hour or two, which would have been perfectly reasonable given his current status, despite his age. Instead of having a fun time beating up bad guys, he ran into the worst of the worst. In his rage, looking over the kidnapper's memories, he disappeared for 6 hours. Trey could only imagine how his family must be feeling.

He still wondered if he made the right choice. Trey had ordered the brotherhood to kill before but never did the deed himself. The mind control life sentence he gave them was in line with what the law would’ve done. Despite that, he still questioned if he made the right choice.

He sighed, putting his thoughts to the back of his mind. Trey made a clone of Creed, along with changing back into his original form. His clone knocked on the door as he prepared himself for the waterworks.

“I believe this belongs to you,” His clone said as his father opened the door. A bundle of curly hair bolted into Trey, holding him tight. Tears damped his suit as his sister cried on his shoulder. Not even a moment later, his mother crouched down, joining them in a hug. She was forever grateful she had her boy back.

“Thank you!” Tyson yelled to Creed as he flew off, giving the family some alone time. Tyson then rushed to join the rest of his family. He swore he would do more to protect their boy. The Carters stayed conjoined for a long while before Trey coughed.

“Guys your hurting me more than the kidnappers.” Trey explained with a pained voice. His parents reluctantly let go but Kyla refused. She clung to him like a monkey.

“No.” She mumbled out in a huff. Trey smiled at her defiance. He started tickling her sides. Kyla tried to hold on for dear life as she started cracking up from his tickle assault. She finally got off him after five minutes of his attack but refused to let go of his hand. Trey decided to let her get her way, walking back inside with his family. They all gathered in the living room. Trey knew he was in for a serious talk with his family.

“Honey, can you tell us what happened to you?” Alexandra asked softly.

“To be honest, mom, I don’t want to talk about it. Cause if I do I’ll have to tell the truth.” Trey said with a pained look on his face.

“Son, we're here for you. You can tell us anything without fear.” Tyson said, putting a hand on his son’s shoulder. He was dying to know what happened to his son for the last six hours.

“Dad, it's not as bad as you think…” Trey started to say.

“Bro, your lying. Trey-Trey looks scared.” His sister said, squeezing his hand to comfort him. He looked around at his family. They all had concern in their eyes, worried if he was going to be okay.

“Would you all still love me if I wasn’t who I said I was? Would you love me if I was different?” Trey said quietly. His mother came over to him with tears in her eyes. She flicked his forehead before wrapping him up in a hug.

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“Of course, we’d still love you. We’re family. Didn’t I promise you I’d be here for you?” Alexandra said to him.

“But this is different …..” Trey tried to explain.

“Son, there’s nothing you could ever do or say that would make us not love you,” Tyson promised, looking into his eyes as Alexandra let him go.

“All right, before I get to today, I have to go back to the beginning. I have to tell you about my last life.” Trey said, shocking his family at the revelation. He spent the next hour recounting his entire story up till now. Telepathically sharing all his memories, leaving almost nothing out. He had to make certain parts more family-friendly because Kyla was listening. His parents understood the hidden truths as they watched his story. By the end of the explanation, he was tired from using his powers for such a prolonged period of time. The rest of his family sat in silence, processing the information they learned about Trey.

“When you said different, you were really underselling how different you were. Telling us you were Superman secretly would’ve been more believable than this.” Tyson mumbled trying to come to terms with everything he had heard.

“I tried to warn you,” Trey said with a sigh. He looked over at his mother, who was still in a daze. Turning to his sister, she kept holding his hand with no problem.

“Sis, do you have anything you want to say?” He asked her. She tilted her head in thought before responding.

“Tell me if I have it correct. I have two bros now. Your, bro one who’s older mentally from your last life. Bro two is older in size & of a different race. Both have superpowers & can give other people powers. You, both along with Artemis & other people, run a business. You’re also the masked hero who fought the aliens with Superman. Today someone tried to kidnap you. You read their mind & saw all the bad things they did. You were going to hurt them, but Superman & Batman convinced you not to. Do I have it right?” Kyla asked. Her brother nodded his head, surprised at what she said. He was amazed a ten-year-old could keep up with most of his explanation. Before he could praise her, his ear was twisted by his mother. Who apparently was upset with him.

“You went & risked your life-fighting aliens. That’s the thing you were working on before. Preparing to fight a group of people that can hurt Superman, for Christ sake. Today you knew those men wanted to take you & you went with them!” Alexandra yelled out.

“Oww sorry I was wrong.” Trey cried in pain. His mother let him go but still had fire in her eyes.

“Honey don’t you think it’s noble our son wanted to use his powers for good.” Tyson tried to defend his son. His wife redirected her ire at him.

“And where do you think he gets that from? It was bad enough when you were serving I worried every night if you come back to me safe. If it wasn’t for me getting pregnant with Kyla back then, there’s no guarantee we would have made it this far. Before that, you were still eager to serve another tour. Even growing up with my dad, I had to worry about him all the time. He was always fighting a new villain every other week. On top of all that, I now have to worry if my son will come back in one piece from fighting LITERAL GODS!” Alexandra screamed in sorrow & frustration. Trey got up and consoled his mother.

“Look, mom, I know you're worried. You wouldn’t be my mom if you didn’t but I still have to do this. I can’t promise you I’ll never get into trouble, but I promise you & everyone else in this room I’ll always come back. I want to use my powers for good. Didn’t I come back from my fight with Darkseid? That was me at my weakest I’ll only get stronger.” Trey pleaded to her.

“What happens when you face someone too strong for you? What then? Am I supposed to just watch as my son gets hurt?” Alexandra fired back. Trey smiled in response.

“That’s when I get help. I’m not alone in this world. I have you all & my team. Also, I’m pretty powerful. It’ll take a lot to take me down. Why don’t you meet my team & see what I can do before making a judgment on me?” Trey suggested.

“Honey, give him a chance. I want to get to know the people that our son decided to work with. ” Tyson said, winking at his son. Trey got the signal to use his special technique. Alexandra, faced with her son’s puppy dog face, caved.

“I’ll agree to meet them but I’m not promising anything,” Alexandra said with a sigh.