#1
SECRET YEARS #1: It was Clark's junior year at Metropolis University. Lana Lang had been a student there but transfered to Hudson University. Lex Luthor escapes from reform school as Officer Soames contacts Superboy. Meanwhile, Superboy is somewhere over the Pacific Ocean, attempting to save a jetliner until he sees Ma and Pa kent piloting the craft. They mock him, which disturbs Superboy--then the craft explodes.



Superboy wakes up from a bad dream in his University dorm screaming "No!" His roomate, Tommy tries to soothe him. Clark had been the victim of reoccuring dreams lately. Deciding to watch some T.V., he sees a news brief about Luthor's escape. Later, Clark gets an unexpected visit from a boy from Smallville. He claims that he and Clark are great friends, eventhough they had never met. Clark decides to go along with it, for the sake of being a nice guy.



Meanwhile, Clark's other roomate Ducky (who is a bit on the wild side) is spotted drinking and driving by Superboy while he sets out to find Luthor. Superboy decides to scare him into re-thinking his "ideas" about drinking and driving. He has no luck finding Luthor, but the following morning at school he bumps into Billy who treats him as if Clark was his best friend.

That afternoon, Clark joins in on a inter-dorm football game. He was elected the cheerleader, but gets called into the game itself. When he performs a fancy touch-down, he embarresses the star football player, Steve Power. Later, Police Inspector Henderson reaches Superboy and tells him about a large sum of money that is missing from 9 bank branches. Superboy uses this as a link to track down Luthor. Following the phone lines, he finds Lex at the Metro station in a disguise. But it doesn't fool Superboy. He takes Luthor to prison this time, instead of reform school.



The next day, it is "Parent's Day" at Metropolis University. Billy introduces his parents to Clark and in result Clark is overcome with sadness, for Ma and Pa Kent had passed away after he graduated High School (in Smallville). He had to soothe his heart somehow, so he traveled into the past (using his great speed to break the time-barrier) to visit his parents. When they were still alive, that is. Of course, he could only visit them as a phantom, one down-side to traveling in the past. But at least he could see and hear them as if time had never progressed. And that he did.

Upon returning into his own time, Superboy discovered that he was too late to save Ducky from drinking and driving...again. Somehow, Superboy just wasn't there to save Ducky from spinal cord injury; now Ducky would be in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. It seemed to Superboy that he just couldn't save the ones he loved the most. Not even with all his extraordinary powers.

Superboy doubled over in sadness with great grief.






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