Jon Kent: Made Of Steel(Superboy Self Insert)

More advance chapters on [email protected]/Saintbarbido.

(Jon's P.O.V.)

I had long since abandoned the concept of time.

In solitary, it was meaningless. No clocks. No windows. No routine meals. Just the steady hum of the lights that never dimmed, the endless cold of my cell, and the distant echoes of Belle Reve's nightmares.

My existence forgotten by all, save Raven.

I used to count my heartbeats. Then I stopped when I realized my sense of time had become too accurate.

Now, I counted breaths.

Each one steady. Controlled.

My focus split—one half of my mind guiding my ever-growing network of rats, the other deep meditation, feeling the ebb and flow of my evergrowing psionics.

Alas, it wasn't enough. Even with my kryptonian powers and light magic.

How could it? Everytime I fell asleep, I saw 'him', Darkseid. And he was coming.

No amount of power on Earth would ever be enough against a force of cosmic darkness like that.

Just to stand a chance, I had to go the extra mile and break through barriers no other being on Earth had.

Good news, I had broken through the first—mind over matter.

But now, I needed to break through the second—body over nature.

I needed Ki.

That meant I needed to study something beyond humans, metahumans and homo-magi included.

Which was why for the past 2 weeks, my rat army which had grown to a hundred had become my eyes. Moving through the Non-human section of Belle Reve, studying the inmates.

I'd learned enough to understand, Ki or physical energy followed no established system. It wasn't like Elemental abilities that gave off distinct waves.

Physical energy was contained internally. Locked within the body. It took half a week just to perceive it.

I had to create a mental model of my x-ray vision and then impart it into my rats' eyes, basically rewiring their tiny brains to see all types of energy like the electric current behind walls or the physical energy distribution within a person.

All this increased my mastery of Psionic manipulation with the drawback of exhaustion and headaches.

A single psi-infused rat was scurrying through the mess hall of the Non-Human wing, unseen and unnoticed.

It passed by Clayface, Frankenstein, Atomic Skull, King Shark, a female Antlantean in a fishbowl helmet, all without stopping. I'd already studied them and found their Ki too complex or rather, Incompatible with my needs. At most, they'd be used as references.

Eventually the rat arrived in the cell of the first of my two targets. The Bride.

A massive, towering woman stitched together from corpses, a grotesque masterpiece of necromantic science.

Unlike Frankenstein, she wasn't driven by some twisted poetic sense of justice—she was pure, unfiltered aggression.

She didn't sleep. She didn't breathe. Didn't eat. Didn't get tired. And her strength?

It was unnatural. I want!

Through my rat's eyes, I watched as she sat in her containment cell, iron restraints binding her limbs, as she had a tendency to start fights that usually broke bones.

Her muscles weren't just large—they were dense, reinforced by something more than just physical matter.

She wasn't alive in the traditional sense, which meant her strength wasn't biological—it was a constant, self-sustaining energy.

I had assumed brute force came from muscle fibers, bone density, and raw mass.

I wasn't seeing the full picture.

Strength wasn't a product of the body—it was a projection of energy through the body.

The Bride didn't have a heartbeat, but she could crush a man's skull like an egg.

That meant there was an invisible force inside her, just like in all of the 'monsters'. Something independent of traditional muscle mechanics.

That thing was Ki.

In her case I termed it as Death Ki. The negative life energy moving within her body was black unlike the white life energy that normal people had.

It fascinated me.

If I could mimic her Ki signature, with my other abilities I would become a fighting machine that never got tired. Basically, Infinite Stamina.

My connection to the rat fluctuated as I instinctively reached out with a Psionic tendril for that energy, attempting to perceive it through Oneness.

For a single moment, I felt it.

A cold pulse. A silent vibration. A presence beyond the realm of flesh.

And then—

The Bride's head snapped toward my rat.

Oh, shit.

The rat screeched and bolted as The Bride lunged, her restraints snapping like thread.

The force of her movement cracked the walls as she roared, a deep, guttural sound that sent alarms blaring.

I severed the connection before the rat was crushed.

Heart pounding, I leaned back against the cold wall of my cell, exhaling slowly.

She felt me.

I had barely touched the negative Ki within her, and she had detected me instantly.

I grinned.

That means I'm on the right track.

-0-

My second study target was Weasel.

Unlike The Bride, Weasel wasn't a force of un-nature—he was a force of instinct, connected to a dimension of life that I suspected was the Red. Which made entities like The Bride, Frankenstein or even Grundy connected to unlife- maybe the Rot.

That's besides the point.

Most people saw Weasel as a joke—a grotesque mutant hybrid of man and animal.

His scraggly fur, sharp teeth, and erratic behavior made him look like some failed lab experiment.

He wasn't. Weasel had the brightest Golden Ki in the whole room.

And that Golden Ki made him dangerous.

Not because of raw power, but because his body reacted before his mind could even process a threat.

My rat slipped through the air vent into Weasel's cell, where the creature crouched in the darkness, eyes twitching, claws flexing. He was waiting.

Not thinking. Not planning. Just… waiting.

Then, without warning—

He moved.

One second, the rat was on the ground. The next, it was in Weasel's claws, pinned under razor-sharp fingers.

Fast.

Too fast.

My mind scrambled to analyze what just happened. There had been no shift in his muscles. No wind-up. No telegraph.

It wasn't speed.

It was pure reaction.

He moved like an extension of something primal.

The understanding I was chasing finally dawned. Ki wasn't just a projection of life energy—it was an awareness of it as well. Weasel had sensed my rat before it entered his cell and laid in wait.

The Bride's Ki had been a constant, unyielding force.

Weasel's Ki was fluid, reactive, unpredictable.

I let go of the rat's connection just before he sank his teeth into it.

I sat back, a smile forming. Finally.

Now that I could see and unravel different Ki compositions, then I could use that understanding to awaken my own.

I closed my eyes before opening them with a frown. Awakening my own Ki meant activating the second seed of potential.

And like I'd done with the first seed where I needed a Mental Model of Icicle's power to act as the base for blooming, I now needed to chose a Ki signature from the ones I'd copied from the inmates.

While most were incompatible, I had 4 that would get the job done. There was Atomic Skull's Radiation Ki, Clayface's Moldable Ki, The Bride's Death Ki and lastly Weasel's Golden Ki.

The choice was obvious. I was going with the Death Ki. Even with the risks of how it would react with my very much alive body.

First, I imagined The Bride's Ki system— brimming with a force that had no source- projected through her lifeless body, reinforcing every cell, every muscle fiber.

I focused on the feel of her Ki signature intertwining with the solar energy in my cells, which had been fueling the seed of potential on my belly.

I felt the seed stir as it changed colors from bright yellow to an obsidian black, growing larger and larger with a pressure, deep and untapped, waiting to be ignited.

Boom! The seed burst and a system of dark meridians sprang up across my body, connecting to my flesh, bones, organs and nerves.

Strange Dark Ki was already swirling within the meridians, enhancing everything down to the tips of my hair and nails.

Fortunately, it didn't replace the solar energy like I'd feared and instead seemed to strengthen my cells to absorb and hold even more sunlight.

The Dark Ki and solar energy seemed to settle into an harmonized system. The solar energy would infuse my body while the death ki would enhance it's functions.

And even if I ran out of solar energy, the Dark Ki would take it's place. And as it was formed from the Bride's inexhaustible Death Ki, I would never run low.

My hunger and exhaustion abated as a result of this. Already I was seeing the passive benefits.

For a more active test, I tensed my muscles—just enough to guide the energy. Not force it. Just direct it.

The metal bed beneath me groaned as the surface bent slightly under my grip.

Not from kryptonian strength.

From Ki.

I exhaled.

Good. I had it. Next was copying useful effects from other Ki signatures and adding them to my own.

First up Weasel's Ki—a force that was instinct-driven, shifting before conscious thought.

In seconds I was done. Oneness was truly a cheat.

I relaxed every muscle, every nerve, letting my mind disconnect from my body. An enhanced state of my Torquasm awareness. Where the Ki became my brain.

The air felt different.

Lighter. Quieter.

I twitched my fingers— my Ki stirred.

And the moment I thought about movement, my body reacted before my mind registered it.

My hand jerked up without my command, catching a falling droplet of condensation from the ceiling before it hit the ground.

I hadn't even noticed it was falling.

I opened my eyes, staring at the water droplet resting in my palm.

Holy. Shit.

I clenched my fist.

For the first time, I understood what I had truly gained.

Ki wasn't just about making the body stronger.

It was freeing it from limitations.

The First Seed—Psionics—had given me mastery over mind and perception.

Now, the Second Seed—Ki—had given me absolute control over my body.

And I wasn't done yet.

I turned my focus toward the floor, where my rats waited. There was still more Ki signatures to copy from. Moldable Ki, Radiation Ki...

The collars keeping the prisoners in check? The guards who thought they ran this place? Waller and her schemes?

They had no idea what was coming.

(General P.O.V.)

Waller's office was a fortress within a fortress.

Heavy steel walls. Bulletproof glass. A reinforced desk designed to withstand metahuman tantrums. A space where control was absolute.

Or at least, it had been.

Until Dagger.

The last week had cost her more than just a few broken cells—it had cost her something irreplaceable in a prison like Belle Reve.

Fear.

The inmates weren't afraid anymore.

Not after Dagger's ice burst through his containment cell like it was paper.

They had all felt it. The shift. The moment they realized that, despite the collars, despite the guards, despite her, they could still fight back.

That was unacceptable.

Waller steepled her fingers as she listened to Hugo Strange, the head of Belle Reve's security operations, outline his solution.

His voice was smooth, practiced, every word calculated for maximum persuasion.

"We must allow an attempted prison break," Strange stated calmly. "Not only will it lure out those who are already conspiring, but it will allow us to reassert absolute authority when it inevitably fails."

Dr. Harleen Quinzel shifted in her chair, her fingers tightening around the armrest.

"Are ya kiddin' me?" she said, disbelief laced in her voice. "Ya want 'em to riot? Ya think that's gonna bring control back?"

Strange adjusted his glasses, unbothered. "The fear of punishment is meaningless if it is not actively demonstrated."

"Yeah, yeah, classic mad scientist logic…"

"Shut up." Waller silenced the argument. "Strange is right. If any Insurrection is to happen, I will be the instigator and the punisher. It will serve as a reminder of the status quo. Amanda Waller is always on top."

(Jon's P.O.V.)

In the silence of my cell, I smiled as one of my rats relayed Waller's plan.

Not because of my newfound strength.

I smiled because I had already won.

This place had already fallen.

The prison break was coming.

But it wouldn't be theirs like she thought.

It would be mine.

And by the time Waller figured that out?

Our positions will have switched. I'd be at the top and she'd be looking up at me from the bottom.