The Guardian: Year Two

Prologue

Celestial Kingdom: 1.75 million years ago…

The Celestial Kingdom, a large vessel that stretched over two miles, set virtually quiet after Ptah took an extended reprieve from his duties. The ship flew in Kryptonian space in a time when Ptah had just imbued the Kryptonians with great power. Orion, a disc-shaped silver saucer, about twenty-four inches across and six inches deep, carried the mind of an ancient Siren, a creature of immense power and Ptah's first wife. Her powers were the ability to traverse space with a mere thought, telepathy, healing other beings, and telekinesis-all powers Ptah gave her when he placed her mind in the powerful flying saucer made out of amazonium, an indestructible metal forged in the realm of the gods.

Orion focused her attention on three things during the early days of Kryptonian greatness: Neo Star, Krypton, and the Speed Force; Neo Star because two Kryptonian young men took over the planet with brute force and the Great Mother wouldn't allow her to intervene; Krypton because she took note how they acted since she and Ptah injected them with the Superman formula; the Speed Force because it was continuing to wrap itself around every living thing throughout the entire universe; it replicated everything throughout the universe an infinite number of times creating the multiverse.

In those days, Orion spent most of her time focusing on the Speed Force because she still had hope Ro'Dan, one of Ptah's paramours was still alive after being swept up into the entity when they brought it online. Ptah didn't anticipate the power of the nascent entity, and when he flipped the lever, it pulled Ro'Dan into its wake. It happened so fast that he didn't have the time to pull her back, and within seconds, the Speed Force snatched her into its light. Ptah looked on in disbelief, but since the Speed Force was an unstoppable energy force, he couldn't intervene in its initial launch.

A sudden thought-Ptah's illegitimate children-entered Orion's mind for a moment and caused her soul to weep because she knew what it meant for a god to bear children with lower lifeforms; it always meant death to the lowly creatures, and it was an idea that Orion couldn't fathom. But when the Speed Force stole Ro'Dan, it sent her children into a telepathic rage, and it took all of Orion's energy to suppress it and to keep their thoughts from attracting the attention of their father, Ptah.

The oldest child, Po'Darro La, longed for his mother the most, and during his weeping, he was able to contact Orion telepathically. His thoughts raged onward and caused her an insurmountable amount of pain. He desired to travel into the Speed Force to search for his lost mother, but she wouldn't allow it. She feared Ptah would find out that he had children with a lowly Trilobite if they weren't discreet in their activities. For a god to have children with a lower life form like a Trilobite was one of the greatest sins within the realm of gods, a sin that risked the life of the Trilobite and her offspring.

When the Speed Force sucked up Ro'Dan in its spiritual wake, Po'Darro La was only fifteen-years-old, a genius and a masterful shipbuilder. But when he heard what happened to his mother, he begged Orion to give him a powerful vessel like no other that would allow him to enter the Speed Force. She flew up to the young man, and said, "There's no reason to believe she made it, Po. The Speed Force is a prison for gods and your mother is only a lowly Trilobite."

Weeping, he asked, "Is Ptah my father?" It was a simple question, but it caught Orion off guard. She didn't expect such a query since she never uttered a word about his patriarchal parentage.

"Why would you ask such a question?" She asked calmly. It was obvious that she didn't want him to know for obvious reasons.

"Because I possess powers beyond that of my people," he said calmly, "I know things that I shouldn't know. I see things that others don't see. Is Ptah my father?"

She sighed for a moment, and then said telepathically, "He provided the genetic material that created you and your siblings. He loved your mother as he loves me. When he lost her to the Speed Force, it hurt his soul, but he couldn't do anything about it. Saving the Kryptonians was his main mission. If he knew you and your siblings existed, he would be obligated to terminate your family."

"Why does it concern you if we live or die?" He asked with a grimace on his face. "You've walked with the gods. We consider you as a god."

"Because Ro'Dan and I shared the same mind. My heart hurts when you guys hurt," she snapped, "Ptah took a copy of my brain and put it in a dying Trilobite, restored her life and loved her as if he was loving me. In a sense, I consider you my children and must protect you at all cost."

"Then give me a ship so my family and I can search for my mother in the Speed Force?" He asked.

"No," she said, "The only person who remotely understands the entity is no longer in the Celestial Kingdom. Once I understand how the Speed Force is growing and wrapping itself around every planet in the verse, I will pass the information on to you. Without understanding the entity, you'd fare no better than Ro'Dan."

After ten years of studying the Speed Force, she gave Po most of her findings, and during those years, he built a thirty-man ship called She Ah Vog that loosely translated into "For Mother" in the ancient language of the gods. It was a beautiful vessel that was half the size of the Phantom and had the ability to travel at warp two. The hull of the ship was mixed with a metal called temporal steel, a metal that allowed the ship to open up a hole in time when charged with an electrical current. It was the same metal in Ptah's ship, the Phantom.

Current Time…

Blake Whitney, a middle-aged Channel Four News Anchor, walked up the steps of the prestigious looking building. Two, large concrete lions met him at the entrance way, and when he walked up to the door, he waved his right hand across the sensor, and then it slid open. When he walked into the chambers, eleven members of the local chapter of the Libertine Council were already seated, and then when he sat down, all twelve members were in attendance. Behind him set a statue of a bare child with a reef on its head. At the head of the table was Athena Kyle.

"Downing Chemical already paid the Vulcan one hundred and fifty million for cleaning up the spill in Freeland," Blake Whitney said with a grimace. "He plans on paying the man four hundred million dollars in total. It hurt a major contributor to our organization."

Athena Kyle scoffed at the idea of Downing paying the Vulcan. "This Vulcan has already caused our organization a sizable amount of damage," she said in a calm voice. "Do we know who's under the mask?"

"No," he said, "The video footage we have of him is scrambled."

Council member Anthony Wagner said, "He put Brad Winifred in prison. Within a week, he was killed."

"Blake, you need to start running hit-pieces on this Vulcan," Athena said, "Drag his name through the mud. Make him seem greedy to the viewership for taking money for superhero work. Compare him to Superman, Supergirl, and any other superhero who doesn't take money for services. We need to do whatever we can to shame this Vulcan into quitting."

"It's going to be hard because he paid the city of Freeland the money Downing owed them," he said, "It's going to be hard keeping this contained because it's public record."

"I don't care," she said, "The public is a bunch of idiots, and they'll believe what you tell them to believe." She paused for a moment, and then asked, "He cleaned up that mess on the same night that meta killed all those cops. He was there, but he didn't stop him."

"Honestly, the Vulcan deals more with otherworldly creatures," he said, "When the other world creature came to Earth last year, the Vulcan fought him."

"Do whatever you have to Blake. I want this Vulcan discredited."

Meanwhile…

James apartment—a large executive domicile—set across the way from Kara's apartment, and when he stood on his balcony, he could see into her living room with his x-ray vision. He had some old boxes that set directly in front of his couch with pictures of some of his relatives from Kansas. He walked out to the balcony with his apple martini, looked across the way at Kara's apartment, but didn't detect any movement at all.

Rachel-an extraordinary being-shot him with the Superman formula the previous year giving him great strength and speed like a Kryptonian, but it had one adverse side-effect: fits of rage. Most of the time, with the help of JJ, he could control the bouts of rage, but as soon as they happened, JJ and Orion appeared on the scene to calm his nerves.

Lena-a slender woman, black hair, and green eyes-sat on his couch drinking a dry martini and rummaging through the box of photos when James stood behind her with his hands gently pushing through her soft hair. He set down his drink on the left end table, and the light from the soft lamp gave off just enough illumination to make Lena's face glow. The aroma from her perfume enticed him, and as he slowly moved his hands from her hair, they eased down her blouse, undoing her top. Placing the photos back in the box, she reached over the top of the couch and gently traced her hand over his manhood. "You obviously invited me over for one thing?" She said smilingly.

Laughing, he said, "I'm happy with just your company, but.."

When she turned around on the couch, she quickly undid his trousers. He looked down at her for a moment, and she looked up at him, smiled, and then she kissed him on the front of his trousers. She slid her lips across his bulge. Moving her hair to one side, he gently kissed her on the left side of her neck, and then pulled her blouse over her head. After he removed her bra, he tossed her his old, white daily planet muscle shirt that was located on the end of the couch, and she slipped it on in almost one smooth motion. It was a white shirt with a picture of the Daily Planet on the front of it. Due to its size, it barely covered up her firm breast and allowed James easy access to all her assets. Her green eyes looked like two, perfect emeralds, but at the same time, he felt she kept important information from him, the kind of information that he needed to know.

After they had passionate sex on the couch, he rummaged through a box of old, tattered folders with black and white pictures of his family; some photos were over one hundred years old. Lena picked up one of the photos, and said, "This guy looks just like you."

James looked at the photo and then said, "That's my Great Great Uncle Julian Olsen. He's only about sixteen in that picture. He went missing at the age of seventeen. My grandfather died never knowing what happened to his brother."

"That's sad," she said calmly. She paused for a moment, and then asked, "What's your relationship with that tall ass kid, JJ, and his girlfriend? What's her name, Candy Cane or something insane like that?" She looked down at the picture for a moment, and then back up at James. "I mean everywhere we go that kid shows up wearing Gothic black and looking like he clawed his way out of hell. How did he even know where we were in Hawaii?"

"He's a rocker," he said, "He has a band and everything that plays music all over the country." Trying to shake off Lena's questioning about JJ, he thought back to when he and Lena were in Hawaii. The long plane ride, the busy airport, the change in climate-all had an adverse effect on him. Lena sat down on the airport bench near the food court to rest her feet, but when she was busy doing that, James absconded to the airport's bathroom because he felt the rage growing inside of him. When he screamed out in the bathroom stall, JJ appeared in front of him and looked him in the eyes until the rage disappeared.

"Where're your pills?" JJ asked calmly.

"Deep in my bags," James said, "I should've had them with me, but I forgot."

After that incident happened, JJ walked out of the bathroom with James, and when Lena looked up, she said, "What's he doing here?" She looked perturbed by his appearance, and then put on her black shades, looked down at the ground, and acted angry over his presence.

"I'm here to rock," JJ said as he held up the peace sign and stuck out his long tongue. Vera and Peppermint walked across the floor with a plate full of full, and then they sat down at one of the tables and ate. Lena looked at them with disgust in her eyes.

End of flashback.

"That didn't answer my question, James!" She exclaimed. "Why is he always hanging with you and Kara? He showed up out of nowhere with that Vera girl and Candy Cane looking like a warm bag of death. He wears more black than midnight. He then pulled out a black card, purchased drinks for the entire food court, and didn't bat an eye. Is he making that kind of money from rocking the clubs? It's airport food. That shit's pricey even for me."

"It's simple. He's good at what he does," he said, "JJ is a friend that resides in Little Africa. He has his own money, apartment, and everything now."

"With a black card?" She asked as she scratched her nose. "Is he the richest kid in Little Africa?"

"What are you trying to say?" He asked.

"First of all he's abnormally tall," she said, "When he looked at me, it was like he could see into my mind. He's creepy as hell."

JJ had cold, black eyes, the kind of eyes that penetrated the soul, and when he wore his Gothic uniform, it made him look ominous, and when it came to Peppermint, she often wore cute clothes, but she had the same kind of cold eyes as JJ. But to be honest, his eyes didn't change until Lena seduced him with the necklace made by the ancients to entrap him. She didn't know the myth of Ptah was real and that JJ was him incarnated.

Later on in the day, on a Saturday, JJ took part in a rock concert in the middle of downtown National City. The concert took up three city blocks and brought National City to a halt. More than a million people-human and alien-stood around eating popcorn, cotton candy, hot dogs, and every confection known in the area. He played a song called, "I'm Not Afraid of Your Muscles," and as far as James could tell, he was telling the people to stand up against bullying. When he sang the song, the entire crowd stood to their feet, and sang the chorus with him: "We're not afraid of your muscles. We gotta do what we can. Inside of every one of us is a Superman."

When James stood in the crowd of people, he heard a sapphire alien with black hair, scream, "He looks like Ptah." It caused him to pause for a moment because nobody knew JJ was the god Ptah except for a select few. The alien then laughed, tapped his friend on the shoulder, and said, "We could only wish he'd return and deliver us from the evils of this universe."

Chapter One

James walked into the DEO, and he knew something bad happened when JJ stood in the War Room in a suit, tie, and without any emo paint on his face. He figured it had to do with the alien ship that hovered over National City. When the concert finished up on Saturday, the alien craft moved into the city over the exact spot where the stage stood. The Vulcan and J'onn traveled to the ship on two occasions, but he didn't know why.

Peppermint had her child strapped to the front of her body while JJ briefed everybody on the current threat. When James walked into the War Room, the young kid looked over at him, and said, "Thank you for joining us, Mister Olsen." With a formal greeting coming from him, he knew it was serious business. Kara wore her Supergirl uniform, but most of the people in the room had on some kind of fancy business attire. Peppermint wore a business suit, and from what he could tell, their baby had on a pint-sized business uniform.

JJ paused for a moment as he flipped through his slideshow presentation. "The timeline is way off, guys. The ship hovering overhead is from Decay, and it's the second one I've encountered in as many years. The first time I ran into a Decayan vessel was in Freeland. We were able to get Prince Carious to leave, but he swore he'd be back. Basically, the Decayans explained to me that their ship slid into the Speed Force and it caused some kind of rift in space and time over Metropolis."

Supergirl raised her hand, and then JJ nodded to her. "Have you surmised on why they're here? I know Miss Ballard warned us the timeline had been skewed, but what're the ramifications?" With the power of his mind, the young kid took all the cellphones out of everybody's pockets and placed them in some kind of force field. "What's that all about?" Supergirl asked.

"What I'm about to tell you is top-secret. It's not that I don't trust you, but we can't afford any security leaks. Nobody outside of this environment can know what I'm about to tell you. Orion, please put a protective shield around this room?" Suddenly, JJ's palm computer came out of his backpack and shot a blue, panoramic beam around the entire room. It hovered in the far left corner while it fired its concealment ray to protect his information.

"Cool," Winn said.

"I know, right?" He pointed at Winn, and said, "You haven't seen what my car can do. Anyway, as all of you know, Earth has become a home to several different alien species," he said calmly. "The royal family of Gorgonia has made a home on Earth, but they are in a secret location. Their exact whereabouts are on a need-to-know basis, and nobody needs to know. I hate that I know. Two years ago, King Carious from the planet Decay took his fleet of ships and attacked Gorgonia. The Decays are trying to locate the royal family so they can't form an alliance with the other refugees, and take back their planet. But due to the rift in space and time, the Speed Force has leaked into our reality. It only merged with our reality for a short period of time, but long enough for a ripple effect to take place. Orion, give us some details on the Decays, please?"

"Yes, JJ," she said as she hovered in front of the room. "The Decays and Gorgons were once the same race. Their race started on Gorgonia, but about eight hundred thousand years ago, the Great Mother came to Gorgonia and saw two factions of Gorgons feuding. When one of the groups attacked the Great Mother, she used her technology and changed the race on a cellular level. She terraformed a planet that she called Decay, and placed them on that world. When the Decays are off-world, everything they touch rots. This means if any of you come in direct contact with one of the Lords of Decay, you will die."

JJ looked right at Winn, and said, "Please find a suitable bodysuit for Supergirl. Peppermint's and my uniforms give us about thirty seconds of protection. James, I estimate your suit will give about the same amount of protection. In any case, we don't let the Decays touch us if we engage them." He paused for a moment, and then said, "The Green Lantern Corp cut all ties with Decay. In addition, the Federation of Planets in the Dark Corridor are holding sanctions against the planet until they leave Gorgonia."

"Are the sanctions working?" J'onn asked.

"Not according to Mister Ryan," he said with a scowl on his face, "He has a tenuous connection with several Deceivers working in the Federation of Planets, and all negotiations with the Decays ended in name calling and people storming out of the room. But since nobody is buying their precious metals, it has devastated Decay's economy." JJ looked directly at Kara and then said, "I'm sorry, Supergirl. I haven't forgotten you. According to Orion's understanding, we have no mention of him coming to Earth before twenty-twenty-two," he said, "He was killed by Michael Hall and John Stewart over Gotham. In the original timeline, Africa was one nation with fifty-four states, and their President was Brainiac Seven. Orion and I believe the tear in the Speed Force caused a ripple that has affected time in all directions. In the previous timeline, Africa had its own currency. By twenty-seventeen, the American dollar had cratered and completely devastated America's economy. The Justice Corp disbanded, but Doctor Hawkins, Bruce Wayne, and Superman turned the Justice Corp into a thriving business." JJ looked like he was experiencing some pain, and then he said, "In a few months, Mister and Misses Olsen was supposed to be getting married."

"Who was the lucky girl?" Kara asked laughingly. She slapped her hands on both her knees and chuckled sheepishly.

"You were," JJ said, "Orion showed me the pictures of your wedding the other day. It caught me completely off guard. You had three beautiful kids who grew into strong men and women." He paused for a moment, and then said, "In twenty-twenty-five, Barry Allen, Wonder Woman, Superman, and you," he pointed directly at Kara, "Disappeared off the face of the Earth. General McGinnis, the Destroyer, investigated your whereabouts for years, but couldn't find any traces of you. Your disappearance devastated James, but he eventually recovered in the twenty-forties."

"It took him that long to get over Kara?" Winn asked, "That's some serious love."

"He never got over Kara, Winn," he said, "Another Kara came from an alternate universe with nearly two thousand Kryptonians. They enslaved the Earth for five years." He paused for a moment, and then said, "The Kryptonians on the alternate Earth are currently flying blindly through their universe."

"Damn! Why did they leave when they ruled the Earth in the future?" J'onn asked.

"The Destroyer asked them to leave," JJ said. "He brought the nomadic Kryptonians to a planet called Praxis. It's a planet under a red sun."

"This Destroyer must be pretty powerful if two thousand Kryptonians obeyed him," James said.

JJ laughed. "Tell him, Orion."

"Oh. There was one Kryptonian who stood up to him," she said.

"Who?" Kara asked.

"Your doppelganger. When the Kryptonians came to Earth, they were dying from gamma radiation poison. James held Kara in his arms as she lay dying. The Destroyer knew James couldn't stand to lose Kara twice, so he cured her. He then used his powerful warship to cure all the Kryptonians. When the Destroyer told Kara she had to live on Praxis with the other Kryptonians, so the race could grow strong, she said, 'No. James is my husband, and I will spend all my days with him on Earth.'"

James looked over at Kara for a moment, and she wiped the tears from her eyes. "He held me while I was dying?"

"That's right," Orion said, "He stayed by your side as you drifted off, and then the Destroyer brought you back.

"In twenty-eighty-two, James had developed fast-growing cancer, and didn't have long to live," JJ said, "When you lost consciousness, the Destroyer cured you of your cancer, and turned back the clock on you. You looked like a twenty-year-old man when he was finished with you. About ten years later, you took a trip to Praxis with Kara and all your kids, and the Destroyer was there. You sat down with Kara, the Destroyer, and all your kids, and said, 'I love you all, but I've lived longer than any human should be allowed to live. I am one hundred and ten years old, but I look like a thirty-year-old man. Even though I have this young body, my mind is tired. I'm tired. When my time comes to die, please let me die."

"What did I say?" Kara asked.

"Your Doppelganger sobbed for a long time, and then said, 'Okay.'" JJ paused for a moment, and then said, "I don't think any of this will happen now. You two barely like each other," he said as he looked at Kara and James. The United States of Africa doesn't have their own currency yet."

Later in the day…

James sat in his office at Catco, and the alien vessel continued to hover over the city. When he looked out the window at the large ship, the information that JJ told him wouldn't leave his mind. He thought about his feelings for Kara, and he didn't have any at all. In addition, he wondered how the Speed Force had so much control over everything. The idea that an entity wrapped itself around the universe confused him. He didn't quite understand its power.

But at the same time, he thought about why Kara broke up with him a few years back; he did everything in his power to forget about her and he continued to struggle with his thoughts. Often, he wondered if she had any empathy or compassion for him because she didn't feel anything when she broke his heart. She had chased him for an entire year, and then when he relented to her affections, she threw him away like a bag of garbage.

James sat at his desk, pulled up a video of the alien craft, and watched it. About two hours earlier, JJ went into the ship with J'onn, and when they returned, they looked somewhat upset about the situation. He thought for a moment that National City would always have an alien problem, and that disturbed him. James looked up, straight out the window, and watched the alien vessel. It wasn't the first time that creatures from another planet paid Earth a visit.

It was about two o'clock in the afternoon on August eighteenth when the first transmission from the alien ship happened. It was a Monday, a warm day, and the people moved about the city cautiously. James slowly ate a bowl of soup while he studied the notes JJ sent him on the alien craft. He had been working for the last few days on the ship's strengths and weaknesses. On the far end of his office, he had the image of JJ with several darts in his head. He had a strong dislike for the precocious teenager, but at the same time, he cared about the young man. Meanwhile, he had to hire a slew of scientists to deal with the rise of unexplained deaths in most European nations. At first, they thought the uptick of deaths happened across the globe, but it appeared to only be in European nations and Japan.

A sudden burst of light-a radioactive laser beam-frightened James. It was a steady beam of light that hit in the center of downtown National City, but he didn't know exactly what the aliens were doing. As the laser shot down to the ground, a sudden release of electrical energy shot up into the craft, and it turned bright blue. At first, James thought the ship would explode, but it didn't. When the light show quit, JJ flew back up into the ship, and James didn't know what was taking place. For nearly four hours, the young teen stayed in the alien vessel, and then about six o'clock in the afternoon, he exited the ship. The alien vessel flew away, and JJ left the area.

Kara walked into James' office, and said, "I'm not sure what JJ did, but the aliens left." She looked out his window at the empty sky. "Every since he battled the Red Raider, he hasn't been the same with us. He's been sneaky. You know? Like a rat."

James tapped his pen on his desk, and then said, "When the Raider hit you with a kryptonite beam, you scolded him for punching her too hard."

"He killed her! It was Lena, James," she said, "He hit her so hard that it smashed the metal helmet into her face. She died instantly."

"But he was able to administer the potion and brought her back with his healing machine," he said, "She doesn't remember any of the events."

"Still! He killed her," she said with a grimace. "We don't kill. Ever! At the same time, rumor has it the Vulcan didn't intervene when metas killed cops in Freeland."

James looked at Kara with a grimace on his face. He walked over to her as she was visibly upset over her protege and his recent actions. "All I know is JJ went to the extreme to protect you. That kryptonite was weaponized, and it came close to killing you."

"But Lena is my friend, James," she said, "Protege or not, we don't kill."

Later in the evening…

James drove his Jaguar to his penthouse apartment, sat in his hot tub, and looked up into the blackened sky. He feared something had changed with his friend, but he didn't know what was going on with him. He did kill Lena with a devastating blow to her face, and he didn't have to do that. He had already damaged the telepathic field that kept him from neutralizing her with his mind, but he chose to punch her in the face instead. After he ripped off her suit, he took the technology out of it.

"What are you doing with that tech?" James asked with a grimace.

JJ looked up at him, and said, "Her helmet blocked my telepathy and I found that interesting." He paused as he quickly dissected the helmet. "I'm going to have to learn everything about this tech so I can circumvent it. Orion measured my abilities and rated me at a level seven telepath. In time, I will ascend to a level ten. "

Kara lay by him, but she was deathly weakened by the kryptonite. She was barely able to speak when she saw her friend's face caved inward. "You killed her! You promised you wouldn't, JJ."

"I can bring her back," he said in a strong voice. He took the elixir out of his suit that broke the spell of the crystal, poured it down her throat, and then her entire body glowed silver. Vera, his best friend, walked over with a black box that had a lock on it. JJ put in the combination, and when he opened it, it contained two devices: a large, electronic half-circled looking device that adjusted to the waistline and a smaller device for the head.

"What are you doing?" James asked.

"This device will restore her," he said calmly. "I'm going to erase her memory of me. She'll never know she wore an ancient necklace that allowed her to seduce me."

"Just bring her back," Kara said as she stood to her feet in her Supergirl uniform. When the young teen placed the device on her head, he began to program it with several algorithms. He must have spent ten minutes programming the device, and Kara wasn't trying to be patient about it. She stood to her feet and started tapping her right boot loudly.

"Okay," he said, "It's best that you leave."

"I'm not going anywhere," Kara snapped.

"Supergirl, please?" He said with a grimace. "You're acting like you don't trust me."

"I trusted you once, Vulcan, not to kill my best friend," she snapped, "But you failed."

"She was about to kill you," Vera said, "What did you expect him to do?"

Kara snarled and then flew up in the air.

"Guardian, pull off your helmet," JJ said.

"What about my identity?" He asked.

"We're in the middle of the desert," JJ said, "Vera already knows who you are."

"Did you tell?" He asked.

"No. Kara mentioned it," Vera said.

"Ugh! Figures," he said.

When James removed his helmet, JJ said, "I mean put on your civilian clothes." Suddenly, JJ donned his regular clothing, and then his car appeared out of nowhere and landed directly in front of them. Lena's red raider suit floated into the trunk of JJ's car. "When she wakes, I want your face to be the first face she sees."

"Why's that?" He asked.

"She won't know me," he said. "I don't want to spook her."

He gently placed the device on her crushed-in forehead, and then it began to reconstruct her face like magic. It took about three minutes to fix her visage, and she looked more beautiful than ever. After that, the device spoke, "Narcotizing the patient." After a few seconds, the machine spoke again. "Restoring life."

"Okay, James," JJ said, "Lean over her."

"Alright," he said calmly. He looked her directly in the face, and then she opened her eyes.

"James," she said with a smile. "What's going on?"

"You passed out," he said as he gently removed the device from her head.

JJ, Vera, and Orion hopped into the car.

"What about us?" James asked.

"Assholes walk," JJ said with a grimace. He took off down the road, and James couldn't believe he done that to them.

He helped Lena to her feet, and all she had on were some black shorts, a black bra, and no shoes or socks. She was almost nude. James took off his shirt, placed it around the young woman, and it pretty much looked like a dress.

Jame's received a text message from Winn that stated he was on his way to pick them up.

End of Backstory…

James sat in his warm and soothing hot tub while he drank his apple martini. He thought about his vacation with Lena and how fast their relationship blossomed. He asked JJ if he had something to do with her abrupt and immediate attraction to him, but he gave an ambiguous reply. After JJ used his device on her, she became clingy. For almost an entire month, she barely let him breathe, and when he asked the Vulcan about it, he asked, "Is she satisfying you?"

He looked at him for a moment, and said, "Yeah."

"Then shut up and enjoy yourself," he snapped, "You need to learn to live a little."

James hung up the phone on him because he knew he wasn't going to get a better answer from JJ. He had a way of saying everything except what needed to be said. When James and Lena went to Florida, they spent more time having sex than enjoying the beach and other attractions. He thought they had sex like teens who discovered it for the first time, but at the same time, he felt a tad apprehensive because she was the younger sister of Lex Luthor, a diabolical enemy of Superman. He had a multitude of interpersonal thoughts about how his relationship with her came into existence, and from what he knew, it had to do with whatever JJ did with his machine.

She lay in the bed next to him in the nude. Her hair was wet from all the sweating, and she laid her head gently on his massive, muscular chest outlining his pectorals with her index finger. He tried enjoying the moment, but he had a hard time because he didn't know the motive behind Lena's affection. As she lay on his chest, he delicately massaged her scalp, and then ran his fingers down her back. He remembered she smelled like strawberries and sweat because they had been having sex on the floor, the bed, the couch, the coffee table, and just about on every flat surface in their luxury suite.

"Why are you attracted to me?" He asked as she rested her head on his chest. She had been sliding her left hand down the front of his body, to his crotch, and then finished her travels by stroking his penis to an erection. But when he asked what she saw in him, she stopped stroking his manhood and sat up in the bed.

"You're strong, intelligent, and I feel that you care about me," she said with a serious look on her face. "You're the first guy I can recall who can actually see me as being more than a Luthor."

James smiled. "Do you want to take this relationship to the next level?" He asked.

"You mean a serious courtship that may eventually lead to wedding vows?" She asked.

"Exactly," he said.

"So, are you saying you see me as the girl you want to marry?" She asked in disbelief.

"Well, I'm saying let's work towards that goal," he said, "I consider our relationship at the beginning stages, but I'm willing to water it, cherish it, and ensure it grows in a healthy direction."

Suddenly, he heard a knock on his front door, and he thought it was JJ, but then again, JJ doesn't usually knock. He just lands on the balcony and makes himself at home. When he answered the door, Lyra stood on the other side. Her blond hair was a little longer than shoulder length. She was a refugee from the planet Starhaven. She held a bottle of wine in her right hand. The ridges on her nose were prominent, but it didn't lessen her beauty.

Winn walked out of the elevator, and said, "Forgot my phone." He held it up, twirled it in his right hand, and then placed it back in his back pocket.

"Come in, guys," James said with a smile.

"Where's Lena?" Winn asked with a serious look on his face.

"She's overseeing a special project," he said.

They all sat in the hot tub, and Lyra had all the parts of an Earth woman, but her facial structure was a little different than a human female's.

"I'm worried that Lexcorp is developing a system to track metahumans," Winn said, "This means they'll be able to track you."

"Most of the Little Africa metas have been registered in the government database, but for some reason, JJ and Peppermint don't show to be meta because another type of technology imbued them with their powers."

"But they took the brunt of the radiation on Nigga Night," he said.

"What they took in were the god-sparks of ancient deities," Lyra said, "Somehow the god-sparks allowed them to go undetected."

"Will Lexcorp be able to detect JJ's godlike abilities?" James asked.

"Doubt it," he said with a smirk. "But if they test you, it's going to show in your bloodstream because Doctor Ballard used the Superman formula on you."

"The Superman formula causes me to rage out sometimes," he said, "I'm afraid that Lena might see me when I'm at my worse. If not for the special medicine from Cadmus, I'd be insane right now."

"I hope you don't snap on anybody," Winn said, "They're looking for reasons to brand metas. I remember that teacher, Karen Nater, killing all those cops and school administrators last year. "

"She's in Gotham," James said with a grimace. "JJ and Peppermint visited her when they visited Mister Wayne." James paused for a moment, and then said, "I think Earth needs metas."

"The problem with this invasion of privacy is Superman backs it," Lyra said as she took a sip of her whiskey. "I'm just amazed at a nation so eager to protect the Second Amendment, but shit all over the First and Fourth."

"We're only practicing democracy," James said as he took a sip of his drink. "If the events are right, we could become a dictatorship overnight."

"That's a horrible thought," Winn said. "About ten percent of Little Africa ended up with some kind of metahuman powers. Most of the powers aren't anything to worry about, but the people closest to the particle accelerator are like gods."

"A force registration won't tell the government the meta's powers," James said, "What if a metahuman can bend time? How would the government be able to tell that?"

"I don't know," Winn said, "It would take years of study. I guess they'd have to search the world for metas with like abilities and do a comparison. But that reminds me. I think Vulcan intentionally tried to kill Lena due to an anomaly in time."

James paused for a moment and looked over at Lyra in her nice bikini. He then turned to Winn, and said, "About five years ago, Superman battled Lex in Lena's apartment in Metropolis. I was filming the whole scene. During the melee, Lena fell over the side of her balcony. She must have held on for about a minute before I grabbed her, and pulled her to safety."

"I just know Orion said she died in twenty thirteen. She didn't give any details. That's why Vulcan wanted her dead." He paused for a moment, and then said, "Orion told me something else."

"The Vulcan's friend talks to you a lot," James said.

"Mostly about tech stuff," he said, "But there's another problem. I'm not going to share this with Kara."

"What's that?" James asked.

"When you and Kara married in twenty-nineteen," he said, "Superman wasn't happy about it. It caused a rift between you two.."

James sat back in his hot tub for a moment and tried his best to think over the possibility of a relationship with Kara, and he couldn't fathom it. In his heart, he felt their time had passed by, and now when he looked at her, he only saw her as a friend. JJ told him earlier that everything had changed, but he didn't know how to take it. He didn't like her the way he used to like her before she abruptly broke it off with him. He didn't feel she had the ability to empathize with him on any level. They could be friends, but nothing more because she didn't know how to protect his heart. Empathy wasn't one of her best qualities, at least not for him.

"Do you think the Vulcan will try to kill Lena?" James asked Winn.

"No," he said, "He realized afterward that it was a step into madness to try to preserve the future because everything was already out of whack."

Next day…

It was the next morning, and Lyra and Winn slept on the foldout couch. It wasn't the first time they drank too much wine and whiskey and had to sleep it off at his crib. He stepped out onto the balcony when he saw a gigantic monster on the edge of National City. At first, he thought he was dreaming until he slapped himself in the face. The gigantic creature was about a mile outside of Little Africa, but he didn't see the Vulcan on the scene. Usually, if anything went down on that side of town, the Vulcan moved on it quickly, but the creature had free reign.

"Winn, wake up!" James exclaimed. "We have a fifty-foot monster on the scene."

"The Vulcan and Supergirl are in DC discussing the New Justice Corp legislation," Winn said, "It's just you today."

James pushed a button on his wrist communicator and donned his Guardian uniform. It happened so fast that he barely had time to brace himself before he was covered from top to bottom with the protective suit. It almost looked like the synthetic material came out of his skin, but it didn't. It all came out of his wrist communicator that Winn created. Instead of riding his motorcycle, he flew from the balcony like Superman or any other hero with the ability to fly, headed towards the monster, and realized he was the only person available to fight it. When Rachel Ballard injected James with the Superman formula, it gave him similar abilities to the Man of Steel. Due to National City's need for a human hero, JJ asked him to never let the world see him do unhuman like things. But due to the massiveness and power of the creature, he had to reveal his other abilities to save the city.

The creature was approximately fifty feet in height with a head that looked similar to that of a dragon. Sage feathers grew from its head. In addition, he had a large emerald body with a wingspan of over two hundred yards. Taller than most of the buildings in the area, he waddled into Little Africa without a hero in its way. The streets were chaotic as the monster chunked thousands of vials of some kind of liquid on the ground. They shot out of the creature's mouth and the white colored vials flew all over the area.

James flew up to the creature's face, looked it in its eyes, and immediately realized it was some kind of large robot. With all his strength, he punched it in the face, and the monster tumbled backward, but when it went to fall over on a portion of the city, he flew around to the other side of it and kept it upright. The monster tried to swing at the Guardian, but he caught it by the fist, flung it into the badlands, and then tore it to pieces. He continued to tear the metal off of the vile monster until he saw all the vials in its belly area.