Thanks to everyone who reviewed, and thanks to The Lady Isis for being my beta. Now here is chapter 2!
Now with the location of his target in mind J'onn heads to an abandoned warehouse on the edge of town. Buckland never even got out of his car, much less walked inside, so the Martian has no idea what he will find inside. Never the less J'onn is determined to find the Certa boy and all the other children who were taken. When he gets to the warehouse in question, the Martian floats down to the ground, shape changes back into a human form, and phases through a wall.
Once inside, J'onn sees the children are held in cages with one on an operating table while an elderly man in a lab coat prepares some syringes. J'onn walks up to the table and releases the unconscious girl from the restraints and begins to lift her up when the man in the lab coat turns and notices him.
"Who are you? What are you doing here?" he asks.
"I am J'onn J'onzz, and I am here to rescue the children you've abducted, and turn you and your conspirators in to the authorities," J'onn answers as he picks the child up.
"Sorry, but I'm not going to allow that to happen. Miller!" the other man calls out.
Answering the call, Michael Miller steps into the room. He asses the situation quickly and walks confidently up to J'onn. "I don't know who you are, pal, but I went through a lot to get a hold of these kids for the Doc, and I don't intend to just let you walk out with them," Miller explains, cracking his knuckles.
J'onn lays the girl down off to the side and turns to face the large man. He sees that Miller is about to punch him, and like he did before he just stands there ready to take the hit. Unlike when he was punched by a human before this blow throws him backwards and slams him back first into a wall.
"What are you?" J'onn asks as he gets back to his feet.
"Growing up people called me a freak, the Doc calls me a 'Meta-human'. What I am is too much for a punk like you," Miller answers swinging another punch straight at J'onn's face.
This time though J'onzz stops Miller's fist by grabbing it with his left hand, then he reverts to his true Martian form much to the criminal's surprise. "Or not..." Miller stammers before J'onn backhands him in the face, punches him in the gut, before finally picking him up throwing him back in the direction that he came, causing the large man to crash into and destroy the medical bed.
Alerted by the sounds of battle, several armed thugs run in. "Boss, what's...what the hell is that?" one of the men demands, before they all aim their guns at the seven foot tall alien.
"You guys get the Doc and the brats out of here, I'll keep the jolly green giant busy," Miller tells them, popping back to their feet.
"Leave the children be," J'onn orders the men as the Meta-human walks up to him.
"You've got problems of your own," Miller tells him, starting a new attack.
Even though the criminal is outclassed by the powerful shape changing alien, Miller is still strong enough, tough enough, and a good enough fighter to keep J'onn busy until his men and the Doctor are able to get away with tranquilized children. Eventually though J'onn sprouts two more arms and simply pounds the Meta-human into submission before knocking him back into the table covered with chemicals, spilling the liquids onto the floor.
As J'onn walks over to interrogate the man a spark from a broken piece of equipment lights the pool of chemicals on fire and J'onn recoils from the flames in obvious fear. Miller looks up in time to see this and laughs. "Looks like something can hurt you huh?" he asks before throwing another jar of chemicals on J'onn and setting him alight with a burning piece of debris.
Now on fire J'onn howls - an alien noise born of pure pain - before flying straight through a wall. With about half of his body engulfed in flames J'onn flies quickly through the night before seeing a pool and dive bombing straight into it.
A man comes out of his house to investigate the noise. "Anyone there?" he asks brandishing a broom like a weapon.
Then the Martian resurfaces with visible burns on his left arm, chest, and neck scaring the man, who yells in fright and runs straight back into his house. Too weak to fly, J'onn painfully pulls himself out of the water, opens a door on the fence surrounding the pool, and stumbles into the night.
…
Still at her father's place and now worried out of her mind Shelly Erdel watches the news as reporters talk about a mysterious fire at an abandoned warehouse and then about another spotting of the green humanoid creature close by. She turns off the TV only to hear a knock at the door. She walks over and opens it to see J'onn hurt and barely standing. She then removes the chain and helps her alien friend inside even as he begins to pass out due to his wounds.
…
Back at the warehouse, Officer Callahan looks at the burned-out cages and various destroyed computers and equipment surrounded by other cops and the forensics team. "What the hell was going on here?" she asks no one in particular.
"Who knows?" a detective answers. "Maybe it had something to do with that green freak who decided to take a swim a few blocks away."
"Hey, enough with that. Unless something weird comes up we are going to investigate under the assumption that the perps are human, you all understand?" the lieutenant tells them.
Looking around, Callahan can't stop thinking about the odd encounter she had today with the PI, for some reason. She doesn't know why this crime scene is making her think about Mr. Jones, but she decides that she should look into him. "Hey, boss, you mind if I cut out of here?" she asks.
"Sure we got more than enough here for this already," the lieutenant tells her.
Getting into her car she grabs her phone, calls up a number and asks, "Hey Sal? I need a favor. I'm looking for a PI. He's new to town, says his name's John Jones. Get me all you can find on him."
…
J'onn awakens several hours later in a bathtub filled with ice. He looks at his wounds and sees that they are healing well and that they will be completely gone in a few more hours.
The door opens and Shelly walks in exclaiming, "Oh thank God you're awake!" She then kneels down by his side explaining, "I didn't know what to do so I did the best that I could. I was so worried you weren't going to make it. What happened, J'onn?"
"I was tracking down a child that was kidnapped. I found him and the kidnappers...and they defeated me," he answers.
She points to his wounds and says, "They burned you?"
"Yes. Fire has always been my enemy," he explains. Then he lays back and looks up at the ceiling saying, "The last time I was defeated by an adversary was three hundred years ago, I had nearly forgotten the feeling. The last time millions of lives were lost due to my failure, this time only a handful may be doomed. I guess thats something of an improvement, but it doesn't feel like one."
"You can talk to me, J'onn," Shelly tells him. "Its been forever since you have been able to spill to someone, and I can be that someone. If you need me to be."
He looks over at her and asks, "Do you really wish to know me, Shelly Erdel?"
When she nods her head he takes her hand and tells her to close her eyes. She does as he asks and he leads her through his memories.
I was born on Mars three hundred and seventy eight years ago. My people were living in a golden age, he tells her as she flies through alien cities, filled with green people like J'onn all under a red sky. Our society had recently needed to be rebuilt as a few hundred years earlier a monster had brought down countries with his own hands, murdered thousands, and enslaved thousands more, J'onn explains as drawings in a Martian history books pass before her eyes. That monster was a Martian man named Fernus and he had powers unlike others of his race. Powers that included superior strength durability and regeneration, density control, and the ability to fly and change his physical form. When I started to display those powers it caused understandable...concern.
Shelly sees memories of martians looking at him with fear, even hate, in their eyes."They were afraid of you. Your people, your family..." Shelly says aloud as she sees this.
Yes, but given the history I do not blame them. Through my actions I was eventually able to earn the trust and respect of my people as I used my powers to help them.
As he explains this Shelly sees images of J'onn apprehending criminals, fighting bizarre creatures and robots. She then sees what looks like a Martian woman and feels the love J'onn does for her. Then she sees, years later, a smaller Martian girl in J'onn's arms as the woman looks on and smiles.
"Your family?" she asks.
Yes, my wife, M'yri'ah, and my daughter, K'hym, he answers bitter sweetly. We lived well for a time and I loved them with all of my being. Unfortunately I was not an only child.
Then, in her minds eye Shelly sees a Martian man who looks a lot like J'onn, only his skin is white."Your brother," she says.
My twin brother, Mal'fic. While I was born with unique abilities, Mal'fic was born with a rare birth defect that left him without the natural Martian telepathic abilities and left his skin with no pigment. My brother would grow hateful of society, eventually finding others with the same defect, bringing them together to form a sort of terrorist group. They called themselves the Whites.
Shelly sees violent and destructive acts committed by Mal'fic and his followers, including several when he clashes against J'onn."You were forced to fight your own brother," she says.
Unfortunately my brother was not simply a misanthropic criminal, he also had a brilliant scientific mind talented in the fields of biochemistry and genetic engineering. He would often use biological weapons in his terrorist attacks, but one horrible day he unleashed something so terrible he must have thought it was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen.
In her mind, Shelly sees a Martian city street, filled with green people of all sorts. Soon all at once they all begin screaming in pain. Some look at themselves in horror, others try to roll on the ground, while others throw liquid on themselves. Vehicles crash and children cry as every Martian begins to fall to the ground in agony.
"What- What is this?" Shelly asks, appalled by what she sees.
After all this time I still don't truly know, but it spread like a plague and struck down every Martian man, woman and child (at least all who were telepathic) and it filled them with agonizing pain of being burned alive.
"Even...?" Shelly asks.
Yes, even me. She sees J'onn himself, on the ground withering in agony over the mental flames. However it appears that only true fire can destroy me, thus after what felt like an eternity the phantom inferno subsided and I lived. Very soon though I deeply wished I hadn't.
Shelly sees through J'onn's eyes as he kneels down next to the bodies of M'ryi'ah and K'hym, looks of pure agony stuck still on their faces. She feels the complete soul crushing sadness and rage well up inside the man.
"Oh J'onn, I am so sorry," Shelly tells him, squeezing his hand in an attempt to comfort her friend as tears streamed down her cheeks.
Thank you, he answers.
"What happened to the Whites?" she asks after a few moments.
I happened to them. She sees J'onn, enraged, attack Mal'fic and his followers. Blinded by pain and hate I found them and attacked. As they were not expecting me to survive their attack I caught them by surprise and killed many of them before they were able to retreat back into their base. I bashed my way inside, intent in my rage to kill my brother and the rest of those who destroyed all that I loved. I slew several others of the group before some activated the emergency destruct. I was barely able to make it out before the whole place went up, and I found no evidence that anyone else survived.
"So then you were alone," Shelly says.
Not quite.
Shelly sees other white Martians, but these are not armed and dressed like the others she has seen in J'onn's memories.
Not all who carried the birth defect joined my brother in his mad cause, a few tried to live out their lives as good upstanding people despite their disability and they survived the psychic attack as well. I found them and brought them together, the last of the great Martian race. But the same defect that robed them of their telepathic sense and turned them white also greatly decreased their ability to reproduce. Sadly I did not share my brother's talent with biological science, so after a few decades I buried the last of my people and spent the next few centuries alone.
Shelly lets go of his hand and looks into his eyes. "So along with the rest of your powers you live a lot longer then you're supposed to too?" she asks.
"Yes," he answers, "yet another one of my 'gifts'." He looks back up at the ceiling. "So now you see, Shelly, I'm not a hero, super or otherwise. I'm just a man who failed when it mattered the most and watched as his world burned."
"J'onn, you've gone through a kind of hell that I can barely imagine, but I've seen some of what you did and it seemed pretty heroic to me. In fact in the short time I've known you you have saved my father, if the news is right you saved a man from a bunch of guys who were going to kill him, and you even helped an old lady get her cat out of a tree," Shelly tells him. "On top of all of that you were going to rescue a kid just because you thought it was right, without any thought for yourself. So in my book you're a hero, J'onn J'onzz." J'onn looks over at her and sees the sincerity on her face. Then he begins to pull himself out of the bath. "Where do you think you're going?" she asks, trying to help him up.
"There are some children I still need to save," he answers.
When he gets out of the bathroom he sees a drawn picture on a nearby table. He picks it up and sees its a picture of him, only with a slightly less pointed head and with a nose, dressed in a full body outfit that is mostly black but still has the red X on the chest and blue boots, blue gloves, a blue belt, and a blue cape that ends is a large swept collar.
He looks at Shelly and asks her, "What's this?"
"I drew that today. Its you as...a superhero," she admits.
J'onn looks back down at the picture and changes his body and clothes to match what's on the page. He then hands the drawing back to her and says, "Thank you, Shelly."
"Be careful," she tells him, giving him a hug.
"I will," J'onn answers, returning the hug. Then he turn translucent and insubstantial before flying out straight through the roof.
TBC. Reviews are appreciated.