"I am beginning to regret my existence." J'onn muttered as he
diminished his density and moved up through the ceiling of the control
room. This place is so barren to me, so lonely he thought. The rest of
the Justice League sat at a circular table with stainless steel chairs to
match. Moving carefully through the walls he went to his quarters. Red
gleaming eyes looked about at the black walls. Plain bed covers did not
help. White was only one of two colors in the room. It seemed like a
prison to him, ever so bleak. Sitting down on a rolling chair at a desk he
slumped slightly. Placing his elbows upon his knees he held his head as he
sobbed quietly.
"So what are we going to do? We can't just deny J'onn of his feelings." Hawkgirl calmly said. Meanwhile Plastic man piped into the conversation.
"But she's one of them!" He formed his body into an outlandishly menacing white Martian. "What if she has him in some form of evil mind control?"
"Then we keep an eye on her. J'onn trusts her."
"Makes no difference." Superman said, standing from his seat. "She's our enemy, and until we can prove otherwise, she is to stay in the electrical chamber." After a moment of silence each of the league members nodded to one another. They knew she couldn't be let loose to roam free. She had to be contained.
"So how do we tell him.gently?" Batman spoke with his normal low tone voice. He had been silent until now.
"We just tell him. But should he be able to see her at all?" Superman nearly sat down once more but Batman intervened when he stood.
"We tell him she's to stay sealed but he can visit her-while supervised for his own safety until further notice." Finding his job on the matter complete, Batman went to the nearby elevator and idly waited for any others to join him. Diana, Flash, and Hawkgirl rose up as well and moved into the elevator, Flash mumbling about something that had to do with food. As the door of the elevator sealed, Superman looked to Plastic Man.
"So it's up to you or me to tell him I guess." Plastic Man said, getting up from his chair as well.
"I will, I think that we can connect better then anyone else. We have a lot in common." Superman responded before waiting for the elevator to return empty to the control room.
J'onn had not stopped his weak crying but now he had gotten up from his desk chair and sat upon the foot of the bed he rarely slept in. As Superman lightly knocked on the steel door to J'onn's bedroom, J'onn straightened up, wiped his face as clean as he could before muttering a 'come in' to the shut door. Superman strode in quietly into the dark room without turning on the lights. Sitting next to him he could easily sense J'onn sadness and distress. It was the obvious.
"We need to talk about her. We've decided as a league to keep her caged with the field in place at all times. We're going to let you see her when you're supervised if you wanted to that--" J'onn cut him off short.
"You treat her like an animal which she is not." J'onn rose without any further words and reduced his density with ease. Sinking into the floor of his quarters he didn't look Superman in the face. As he entered the holding room of the watchtower, he didn't turn on the lights. Eyes gleaming they showed that he was using other senses to locate the nearly invisible electrical field that separated him from the cell.
"Z'ia? Are you awake? Z'ia-?" Twin crimson eyes opened from behind the shield, drugged as they appeared. J'onn took a step forward, his voice as soft as possible.
"Z'ia?" The second pair of gleaming red eyes fully opened, almost as if in surprise. The eyes rose to his shoulder height and slowly came forward what appeared to be only a few steps.
"Need lights?" J'onn whispered to the fiendish eyes. They could only nod weakly, shutting slightly. J'onn turned and flicked on the fluorescent lights of the room. Turning and looking back to the cage he saw her in her full glory. Behind a fuzzy screen she stood on doubled toed feet, which lead to slender yet ever so impressive legs that were raptor-like. Three fingered, webbed hands were at smooth scaled, slim sides. Her fully white figure stood inches from the shield only a small amount shorter then J'onn's stature. Lined, sunken cheeks stood out amongst her features, bronzed ever so slightly. Raised forehead and flattened nose only further elongated her facial appearance. A spiny back and tail completed her demonic visage. J'onn intently looked at the white Martian for only a few moments. She was heavily sedated and staggered to lean heftily upon the steel cage wall. J'onn smiled softly at her.
"I've missed you J'onn, after-so many years. To see your face again. I-never thought it would happen."
"Put yourself at ease, Z'ia." J'onn slowly raised his hand, palm spread towards the white Martian. "If only I could release you." He sighed as his hand dropped to his side. Looking back up he saw her black eyelids had shut as she was flaccidly sitting against the wall in a deadened sleep. That smile did not fade from his lips. He couldn't help it. His childhood comrade was back.
He was startled though when Superman opened the door to the holding room.
"J'onn, you should get some rest now. We have that press conference tomorrow." Superman said as he upped the power to the shield and prepared a syringe of more sedative drugs. J'onn gently shook his head as Superman did so.
"No. She's out cold as is. Her systems cannot take such chemicals and drugs for so long at a constant rate."
"Doesn't matter. She's a danger to everyone here and on Earth. None of us want to be--"
"Doesn't matter. Do I not have an opinion here? I know her personally and since we were children living together. She's not like Protex and his armies with Z'ush. She's the creator of those martians. She's a true martian, and she's one that can show more emotions then hate." Tears strung at J'onn's eyelids but he choked them back. Turning away from Superman he looked to the collapsed Z'ia.
"J'onn I'm sorry. But the rest of us made the decision to keep her confined and sedated at all times. Without it, she could hurt someone like you."
"And I am beginning not to care what you or the league wants. Superman, I know her better then any of the league."
"Then explain yourself, J'onn." Superman took a defensive stance, arms crossed across his uniformed chest and feet were at shoulder width apart.
"Hundreds of years ago when Z'ia and I were both young, the green Martians and true white Martians lived together on Mars in peace. But as the years went on, a bacteria strand that could only be stopped by a genetic mutation-colored flesh, affected the true white Martians. Because of their lack of pigment in their skin, the bacteria killed them by the thousands. Z'ia being one of the stronger ones survived the wave of death and created a cloned copy of her brother. The result was Protex." J'onn had to sit again, he was weary simply of thinking of the horrid years during the bacteria death surge. He moved to a rolling chair located nearby the holding cage. It was also the lack of sleep got was starting to get to him. "After the new white Martians left to colonize their own territory, Z'ia was the last of her species on Mars. But she made them with faults. They couldn't produce their own energy like she can. They needed psychic energy to survive. So they sought her out. She's tens of times more powerful in both mind and body making her a literal feast for them. But she wasn't a match for a horde of them. They took her away from me in the peak of--" J'onn stopped in mid sentence, looking down to the bare floor in front of him.
"The peak of what J'onn?"
"It's nothing you could understand." J'onn rubbed his hand against his hairless head, breathing huskily for a moment. "Nothing you or anyone else but her could ever understand."
"Doesn't seem like that to me. Seems much more simple then that, J'onn. It seems like you care for her." Superman's voice lowered and darkened at the same time. J'onn said nothing, for nothing could help him to deny it. He could just hold his head as he had before when he mourned. Only a muttering from Z'ia's limp form forced Superman to straighten up and lose his defensive stance. It made him twitch to hear her quiet complaint of weariness.
"I'll watch her for tonight J'onn. No more sedatives least she fully wakes, which will be doubtful." J'onn merely floated up into the ceiling of the retaining room and up two floors into his quarters. Superman sat where J'onn was after picking up something dark and luminous from the computer desk, obviously in grave thought. The steel door opened and the frame of the door had Batman within it like a portrait.
"I take it that the conversation didn't go very well?" Batman's voice was still that obscure resonance that it always had. This kind of deep, low tone was much easier for Z'ia to detect then any other sound and a black eyelid slid open idly. The sight only lasted for a few moments however, and then she felt a docile sting in her upper arm. Superman stood before the cage, the hand held dart gun still raised at her. As her single lid shut again the image of the syringe stuck in her mind as it stuck to her flesh. A huffing sigh sounded out as her sight was lost and blackness surrounded her fully once more. Superman lowered the dart gun without any emotion. Even Batman's eyes had splayed slightly.
"No need to watch her now." Superman said, turning away, laying the gun down he left the room and Batman in the doorway of the chamber. Batman watched her for a few more moments before turning and leaving as well, shutting and locking the door too. Those twin red eyes opened slightly after she was certain she was alone again. One of those three-fingered hands gripped the syringe and pulled it free from her smooth, glossy scales. She glared harshly down at the dart before shattering the small glass tube without any glass points digging into her flesh, so tightly knit were her scales. That foot long tongue flicked out and down to lick the droplets of blood from the diminutive wound the syringe had caused. With a quick metabolism, she had been able to absorb the chemicals in the sedative within a few moments of time and regain her full consciousness. Z'ia was also a clever simulate even though she wasn't always proud of such a talent. She wasn't proud now. Sitting up she tucked her bird-like legs beneath her to hunker her torso down as if she were perching shrewdly. She sensed that J'onn was already in a dire sleep. Smiling a pointy toothed smirk she sent gentle images of Mars' landscape that she remembered as a child to his dreams.
In his quarters, J'onn stirred slightly with the new images in his mind. After some time his movement stopped besides a very light curve on his thin, green lips. Sensing the lack of tension Z'ia, still smiling broadly, her eyelids shut to block out the bright overhead light so she could sleep as well. The only sounds within the holding chamber was the humming of the electrical field and overhead fluorescence along with a shallow wheezing from Z'ia.
"So what are we going to do? We can't just deny J'onn of his feelings." Hawkgirl calmly said. Meanwhile Plastic man piped into the conversation.
"But she's one of them!" He formed his body into an outlandishly menacing white Martian. "What if she has him in some form of evil mind control?"
"Then we keep an eye on her. J'onn trusts her."
"Makes no difference." Superman said, standing from his seat. "She's our enemy, and until we can prove otherwise, she is to stay in the electrical chamber." After a moment of silence each of the league members nodded to one another. They knew she couldn't be let loose to roam free. She had to be contained.
"So how do we tell him.gently?" Batman spoke with his normal low tone voice. He had been silent until now.
"We just tell him. But should he be able to see her at all?" Superman nearly sat down once more but Batman intervened when he stood.
"We tell him she's to stay sealed but he can visit her-while supervised for his own safety until further notice." Finding his job on the matter complete, Batman went to the nearby elevator and idly waited for any others to join him. Diana, Flash, and Hawkgirl rose up as well and moved into the elevator, Flash mumbling about something that had to do with food. As the door of the elevator sealed, Superman looked to Plastic Man.
"So it's up to you or me to tell him I guess." Plastic Man said, getting up from his chair as well.
"I will, I think that we can connect better then anyone else. We have a lot in common." Superman responded before waiting for the elevator to return empty to the control room.
J'onn had not stopped his weak crying but now he had gotten up from his desk chair and sat upon the foot of the bed he rarely slept in. As Superman lightly knocked on the steel door to J'onn's bedroom, J'onn straightened up, wiped his face as clean as he could before muttering a 'come in' to the shut door. Superman strode in quietly into the dark room without turning on the lights. Sitting next to him he could easily sense J'onn sadness and distress. It was the obvious.
"We need to talk about her. We've decided as a league to keep her caged with the field in place at all times. We're going to let you see her when you're supervised if you wanted to that--" J'onn cut him off short.
"You treat her like an animal which she is not." J'onn rose without any further words and reduced his density with ease. Sinking into the floor of his quarters he didn't look Superman in the face. As he entered the holding room of the watchtower, he didn't turn on the lights. Eyes gleaming they showed that he was using other senses to locate the nearly invisible electrical field that separated him from the cell.
"Z'ia? Are you awake? Z'ia-?" Twin crimson eyes opened from behind the shield, drugged as they appeared. J'onn took a step forward, his voice as soft as possible.
"Z'ia?" The second pair of gleaming red eyes fully opened, almost as if in surprise. The eyes rose to his shoulder height and slowly came forward what appeared to be only a few steps.
"Need lights?" J'onn whispered to the fiendish eyes. They could only nod weakly, shutting slightly. J'onn turned and flicked on the fluorescent lights of the room. Turning and looking back to the cage he saw her in her full glory. Behind a fuzzy screen she stood on doubled toed feet, which lead to slender yet ever so impressive legs that were raptor-like. Three fingered, webbed hands were at smooth scaled, slim sides. Her fully white figure stood inches from the shield only a small amount shorter then J'onn's stature. Lined, sunken cheeks stood out amongst her features, bronzed ever so slightly. Raised forehead and flattened nose only further elongated her facial appearance. A spiny back and tail completed her demonic visage. J'onn intently looked at the white Martian for only a few moments. She was heavily sedated and staggered to lean heftily upon the steel cage wall. J'onn smiled softly at her.
"I've missed you J'onn, after-so many years. To see your face again. I-never thought it would happen."
"Put yourself at ease, Z'ia." J'onn slowly raised his hand, palm spread towards the white Martian. "If only I could release you." He sighed as his hand dropped to his side. Looking back up he saw her black eyelids had shut as she was flaccidly sitting against the wall in a deadened sleep. That smile did not fade from his lips. He couldn't help it. His childhood comrade was back.
He was startled though when Superman opened the door to the holding room.
"J'onn, you should get some rest now. We have that press conference tomorrow." Superman said as he upped the power to the shield and prepared a syringe of more sedative drugs. J'onn gently shook his head as Superman did so.
"No. She's out cold as is. Her systems cannot take such chemicals and drugs for so long at a constant rate."
"Doesn't matter. She's a danger to everyone here and on Earth. None of us want to be--"
"Doesn't matter. Do I not have an opinion here? I know her personally and since we were children living together. She's not like Protex and his armies with Z'ush. She's the creator of those martians. She's a true martian, and she's one that can show more emotions then hate." Tears strung at J'onn's eyelids but he choked them back. Turning away from Superman he looked to the collapsed Z'ia.
"J'onn I'm sorry. But the rest of us made the decision to keep her confined and sedated at all times. Without it, she could hurt someone like you."
"And I am beginning not to care what you or the league wants. Superman, I know her better then any of the league."
"Then explain yourself, J'onn." Superman took a defensive stance, arms crossed across his uniformed chest and feet were at shoulder width apart.
"Hundreds of years ago when Z'ia and I were both young, the green Martians and true white Martians lived together on Mars in peace. But as the years went on, a bacteria strand that could only be stopped by a genetic mutation-colored flesh, affected the true white Martians. Because of their lack of pigment in their skin, the bacteria killed them by the thousands. Z'ia being one of the stronger ones survived the wave of death and created a cloned copy of her brother. The result was Protex." J'onn had to sit again, he was weary simply of thinking of the horrid years during the bacteria death surge. He moved to a rolling chair located nearby the holding cage. It was also the lack of sleep got was starting to get to him. "After the new white Martians left to colonize their own territory, Z'ia was the last of her species on Mars. But she made them with faults. They couldn't produce their own energy like she can. They needed psychic energy to survive. So they sought her out. She's tens of times more powerful in both mind and body making her a literal feast for them. But she wasn't a match for a horde of them. They took her away from me in the peak of--" J'onn stopped in mid sentence, looking down to the bare floor in front of him.
"The peak of what J'onn?"
"It's nothing you could understand." J'onn rubbed his hand against his hairless head, breathing huskily for a moment. "Nothing you or anyone else but her could ever understand."
"Doesn't seem like that to me. Seems much more simple then that, J'onn. It seems like you care for her." Superman's voice lowered and darkened at the same time. J'onn said nothing, for nothing could help him to deny it. He could just hold his head as he had before when he mourned. Only a muttering from Z'ia's limp form forced Superman to straighten up and lose his defensive stance. It made him twitch to hear her quiet complaint of weariness.
"I'll watch her for tonight J'onn. No more sedatives least she fully wakes, which will be doubtful." J'onn merely floated up into the ceiling of the retaining room and up two floors into his quarters. Superman sat where J'onn was after picking up something dark and luminous from the computer desk, obviously in grave thought. The steel door opened and the frame of the door had Batman within it like a portrait.
"I take it that the conversation didn't go very well?" Batman's voice was still that obscure resonance that it always had. This kind of deep, low tone was much easier for Z'ia to detect then any other sound and a black eyelid slid open idly. The sight only lasted for a few moments however, and then she felt a docile sting in her upper arm. Superman stood before the cage, the hand held dart gun still raised at her. As her single lid shut again the image of the syringe stuck in her mind as it stuck to her flesh. A huffing sigh sounded out as her sight was lost and blackness surrounded her fully once more. Superman lowered the dart gun without any emotion. Even Batman's eyes had splayed slightly.
"No need to watch her now." Superman said, turning away, laying the gun down he left the room and Batman in the doorway of the chamber. Batman watched her for a few more moments before turning and leaving as well, shutting and locking the door too. Those twin red eyes opened slightly after she was certain she was alone again. One of those three-fingered hands gripped the syringe and pulled it free from her smooth, glossy scales. She glared harshly down at the dart before shattering the small glass tube without any glass points digging into her flesh, so tightly knit were her scales. That foot long tongue flicked out and down to lick the droplets of blood from the diminutive wound the syringe had caused. With a quick metabolism, she had been able to absorb the chemicals in the sedative within a few moments of time and regain her full consciousness. Z'ia was also a clever simulate even though she wasn't always proud of such a talent. She wasn't proud now. Sitting up she tucked her bird-like legs beneath her to hunker her torso down as if she were perching shrewdly. She sensed that J'onn was already in a dire sleep. Smiling a pointy toothed smirk she sent gentle images of Mars' landscape that she remembered as a child to his dreams.
In his quarters, J'onn stirred slightly with the new images in his mind. After some time his movement stopped besides a very light curve on his thin, green lips. Sensing the lack of tension Z'ia, still smiling broadly, her eyelids shut to block out the bright overhead light so she could sleep as well. The only sounds within the holding chamber was the humming of the electrical field and overhead fluorescence along with a shallow wheezing from Z'ia.