The Other Kryptonian

Chapter 10

Zar's white eyes blinked open. The world swam before slowly coming into focus.

He was in an eight by ten metal room. A solitary lightbulb swung back and forth casting shadows on the walls. Wind rattled through a metal grate up near the ceiling. Inhaling deeply, the scent of dirt, rust, and mold filled his nose.

Closing his eyes, he strained his ears, hundreds maybe thousands of footsteps pounded in his ears, along with a male's grunts and a woman's moans of pleasure. He quickly shut off his hearing. There was nothing he could learn from that except that he was in enemy territory, and there were a lot of enemies.

By the smells, he was either somewhere very old, or somewhere underground, maybe both, he shook his head. He wasn't going to find the answers staying in here.

Glancing down at his body, he found that he was shackled to the wall with both his arms and legs outstretched.

Movement caught his attention, his gaze snapped to the large metal doors at the far end of the room, a shadow moved in front of the rectangular wire screen covered window.

"Well, this is embarrassing." Flexing his wrist, the shackles holding him in place began to buckle. His lips split in a smile. 'Good if my strength is returning so quickly that means they didn't perform a blood test to find out about my kryptonian heritage.'

If they performed a blood test and found out about his kryptonian heritage, then they would have probably used kryptonite. While it didn't affect him like it did his mother, it did nullify his powers, well that was the theory provided by the fortress computer during his training anyway.

Closing his eyes, Zar wrapped magic around the shackles. A pale purple aura shone around the metal, pushing the shadows into the far corners of the room. With a flick of his wrist, the shackles tore free, silently dropping to the floor.

Dropping to the floor in a crouch, he positioned himself cross-legged on the floor. He was in an unknown building, facing unknown opponents. He couldn't afford to go rushing off like he did before. He needed to remember his mother's training. "Be precise, be fast, don't waste a single movement, and most importantly be deadly."

Letting his eyes drift shut, Zar felt his consciousness drift through the floor merging with the rivers of magic that crisscross the planet.

The kryptonian gazing technique not only connected one to the magic of the planet, it also allowed them to review their past memories in a third person perspective.

Also, unlike normal kryptonians, Zar's body absorbed solar energy, transforming it into magical energy which powered his abilities. This meant if he was away from the sunlight like he was now, he could absorb magical energy from the world itself to replenish his strength.

–XX –

Opening his eyes, Zar found himself standing in the heart of London, another Zar kneeling in the intersection his hands clamped over his ears. "Alright, since Coldcast and Menagerie are probably somewhere in the building. I need to try and find a weakness."

He watched himself swing the Minotaur at the bat creature in an effort to drive it away from Susan. His brow furrowed, "The sonic scream was painful, but why didn't he run to Susan? He could have, he could have powered through the pain, so why?"

Slowly he moved forward, it was odd moving through a wrecked city and not hearing civilian screams, or rubble shifting under his feet.

Kneeling in front of himself, he stared into his own white eyes, absentmindedly noticing the blood trickling down the palms of his hands as they were clamped over his ears.

Staring into his own face from the outside, Zar saw something he didn't expect, or realize was there during the battle, fear.

"I was afraid, it was my first battle outside of the simulation and I allowed fear to cloud my judgment, I allowed it to make me forget all of my training and fought by pure instinct," he shook his head, "no wonder I lost. Mother would've been so disappointed."

Rising to his feet, Zar turned his attention back to the battle. With a wave of his hand, time sped forward until Coldcast arrived. He watched the battle his eyes narrowing on Coldcast as his arms launched forward, sending streamers of lightning from his fingers.

"Coldcast seems straightforward in his attacks. He only fires electricity in a direction he can see, or feel. The best way to take him out would be to use my speed to disable him before he can draw in enough electricity. It took exactly four seconds for him to draw in the amount of lightning he would need to actually harm me, so that is my window," his hands curled into fist and he focused his attention on Coldcast, "Even though this is only just a memory, next time we fight our battle will end differently."

Raising his hand again time sped forward. With a flex of his fingers, he stopped it just as he captures Coldcast in the bubble of fire, but this time instead of focusing on Coldcast, his gaze locked on the street behind him.

He watched as Menagerie moved through the streets with a silent feminine grace. She raised her arms, green fungus oozing from her pours before taking on the shape of the dark greenish brown worms that drained his abilities.

They plopped to the ground, their red eyes locked on his back. They slithered forward, with incredible speed their bodies moving with a serpentine elegance.

"She's going to be the one I'll have to watch, she doesn't seem to be a hand-to-hand combat fighter, but her insects form silently, so my only chance to dodge them would be when they're traveling."

Releasing the gazing, Zar floated upwards the world around him fading away to a black void with streamers of multicolored energy. Pausing in the void, he inhaled, drawing in the magic. Raw mystical power of the earth flowed into him, red from the animals, green from the plants, and a pale almost see-through white from the clear, the representation of the sea.

Strength filled his body, along with visions of the African plain where a lion ran down a gazelle, its golden fur just a blur with its graceful feline movements.

The image shifted, he found himself floating in the ocean a school of fish swirling around him. A massive whale moved forward, scooping up half the school. Zar's hand brushed against the whale, its immense hunger filled his mind, causing him to jerk his hand back.

The moment he jerked his hand back, he found himself in a rain forest watching new leaves emerge from a small tree.

His fingers curled into a fist, "so this is the natural mystical energy that is produced by the planet," his gaze shifted upward, watching as multicolored birds soared through a hole in the dense forest canopy, "it's incredible."

–XX –

Eyes snapping open, Zar rose to his feet, the shackles that bound him to the wall breaking down into their atoms and flowing over him. He strode towards the door, the atoms solidifying into his three-piece suit. Wiping a hand over the shoulder of his dark blazer, he smoothed out his white button down shirt.

Drawing back his arms, he slammed his palms into the door, the door exploding out words with the screech of tearing metal. It slammed into the far wall, sending puffs of pulverized plaster into the air.

He stepped forward, dark dress shoes materializing on his foot by the time it touched the linoleum.

He spun sideways, dodging a punch from a man in black combat fatigues. Thrusting his hand forward, his palm slammed into the man's Kevlar vest, the force of the blow sending him end over end down the hall.

He impacted the floor, sinking into it like quicksand. He got off one cry for help before the floor solidified, trapping him beneath its shining white surface.

Shoving his hands into his pockets, he moved down the hall, his glowing pale white eyes flicking back and forth, the pale white walls around him fading away, only to show him a line of piping hidden behind a thick layer of concrete. "Damn, too much lead in the pipes to figure out where I am."

Rounding a corner, he paused as the door three feet away from him opened, the stenciled black letters on its glass window announcing it as storage.

Coldcast stepped out, his head moving from side to side. His gray eyes widened when he caught sight of Zar, he raised an arm. The lights began to flicker as electricity curled around his fingers.

Zar moved just as the lightning jumped from Coldcast's fingers.

Appearing off to the side, he slammed his elbow into Coldcast's jaw, driving his head into the wall and an explosion of plaster.

The sound of fluttering wings reverberated in his ears.

Spinning around, red beams flew from his eyes, incinerating the beetle like creatures menagerie launched from her arms as she emerged from the room. Blurring forward, he grabbed her by the arms throwing her at Coldcast just as he pulled himself free of the wall. She slammed into him, knocking them both to the floor.

Bringing his hands together, the floor buckled upwards in long strips, forming a stone sphere around the couple. Stopping on the ground, he thrust his arm forward, launching the stone sphere through the ceiling.

Pale dust exploded into the narrow space as bits of tile rain down from the ceiling, wires now hanging down like vines. The bracket holding a luminescent long tubular lightbulb flew towards his face.

Dodging around the light, Zar moved forward, his enhanced hearing picking up the sounds of stomping feet on the other side of a set of double metal doors at the end of the hallway.

Pushing the door open with a thunk, Zar found himself in a large circular room with glass walls taking up half of it. The other half was made of white stone with flecks of gray in it. Square columns stretched to the ceiling on the stone half of the room, their edges sitting flush against the smooth white ceiling.

Chandeliers with glass teardrops dangling from them were the only opulent things in the room. They stretched the shadows of the room's occupants, making them look otherworldly.

Zar's gaze flicked to the glass windows, through the darkness beyond he could make out the curved gray walls of a tunnel.

His attention snapped back to the room as more men in combat fatigues raise their weapons. There was a simultaneous click as safeties were switched off.

Standing in the middle of the soldiers was a woman with short blonde hair. Dark sunglasses reflected the light of the chandeliers. She stepped forward, her black trench coat flaring out behind her like a cape.

She raised an arm, splaying out the fingers of her metal hand, "Stop!"

Zar let his eyes trail up her body, from the boots covering her feet to the black combat fatigues that hid most of her curves. His gaze lingered a little on the Violet T-shirt half hidden by her trench-coat.

Shaking his head, he stared into her sunglasses, "I don't want any…"

The stone sphere crash through the roof, crushing a few soldiers before bouncing once and settling back onto the bodies.

"Trouble," Zar finished lamely with bits of plaster raining down from the ceiling.

Glancing at the new circular skylight into a building, dirt, small gray rocks, and metal shavings fell through the whole. Vera turned her attention back to Zar, "You should've thought about that before you started a battle in the middle of London."

"That was not my intention, I was only trying to save the girl the Minotaur was after. I meant to carry it away," he looked away, "but I dropped him."

"You dropped it?" Vera repeated.

Zar ran a hand through his crimson hair, "I wasn't expecting it to breathe fire okay?" He looked her in the eyes, "I mean who ever heard of a Minotaur breathing fire?"

Vera opened her mouth to say something, but Amelia cut her off emerging from the crowd with a baton length wand clutched loosely in her hand, her crimson robes a speck of color in the sea of black. "How did you know my niece was going to be attacked?" She asked two strands of carrot colored hair falling down to frame her face.

Zar paused. How much should he tell them, how much could he tell them without giving himself away? He shook his head. "A friend of mine contacted me and showed me another one of those creatures. He wanted me to look into its origins. I couldn't find much other than Nanites had been used to mutate wizard's body…"

"Nanites?" Amelia interrupted.

"Small microscopic robots," Vera answered, before turning her attention back to Zar, "but that still doesn't explain how he knew about your nieces attack."

"Having gotten all I could from the machine used to transform them," Zar continued as if he hadn't been interrupted, "I performed a technique called the gazing. This technique allows me to connect to the magical energies of the planet and view of events of the future connected to a person, or object. Using the object I saw your niece being attacked by the Minotaur."

The soldiers shifted nervously.

Zar thrust out his hand, his eyes flaring white, "Peels."

The soldiers fell sideways, their guns clattering to the floor. They hit the ground with a thump, ropes shimmering into existence around their limbs.

Vera tensed, and Amelia raised her wand, "What did you do?"

Zar raised his shoulders, "Your men were getting twitchy, and I didn't want anyone shooting in me," he glanced at Amelia's raised wand raising both hands in a placating gesture, "relax, they're just sleeping. Why would I tie up dead people?"

Vera glanced at Amelia without turning her head, "you know about this magic stuff, is he telling the truth?"

Amelia's eyes swept over the bodies. Now that she was paying attention, she noticed all the soldiers' chests rising and falling.

Slowly, she nodded. "Everyone except for the people who had a giant stone ball land on them, are fine. The people who had the ball land on them are dead."

Zar winced, that was certainly going to make a bad impression. However, considering he buried one guy in the floor and fought one of Vera's agents in the middle of London, there was probably no hope of him making a good one.

Vera looked down, her sunglasses sliding down the bridge of her nose to reveal closed eyes, "They were good men and women. They will be sorely missed." She opened her eyes, revealing light blue eyes that had hardened into chips of ice.

"Who was the man that contacted you about looking into these mutations, and what can you tell us about the device that mutates," she hesitated, "magical people"

Zar shook his head, letting his eyes wander to the square columns lining the stone half of the room. "I won't tell you who my contact was, for his protection and my own. The technology to mutate the starfish came from Luther Corp. and Wayne enterprises."

"Are you telling me that two Americans are mutating British citizens?" Vera asked her eyes narrowed

"I would have to say no, Luther Corp. and Wayne enterprises very rarely work together. More than likely it is someone with knowledge of magic and technology building the starfish is for their own purposes," he shook his head, "what I don't understand is why someone is attacking just magical's. If the person doing this is already magical, what does he or she gain from performing these attacks?"

Vera crossed her arms behind her back, "you said you've looked over one of these creatures, did you not find anything that could point you to their master's goal."

"The starfish rewrite their hosts DNA to match that of a sample put inside it. That gives them a variety of abilities, but like I said before I don't understand the goal. They're not attacking the institution. The attacks seem to be too random for that. That's why I think I'm missing something. I think the starfish has another function that I didn't discover."

Amelia slipped her wand back into the sleeve of her robe, "Well I doubt whoever is doing this will continue to attack wizards, now that both the government and the ministry of magic are aware of their presence."

"There are other alternatives," Zar moved over to the stone ball, where Coldcast and Menagerie were trapped inside. Slipping his hands under its edges, he smoothly lifted it off the ground. Turning sideways, he placed it gently on the floor.

Kneeling before the bodies, his eyes swept over them, taking in the broken spines, and the crush skulls. He could fix this, he could bring them back. However, once he did, he would never be able to do it again. Did he really want to waste the power of resurrection on people he didn't even know?

Images of laughing children flash through his mind before changing to weeping families as caskets were lowered into the ground.

His hand curled into a fist, he couldn't do that to the children. He knew what it was like to grow up without his parents. Lily and James were great, but there was no substitute for his parent's guidance when practicing with his powers. Besides, if these people were going to trust him, he had to be the one to take the first step. Moreover, these people were just doing their jobs, they didn't deserve to die.

Dipping his finger into the blood seeping out of the bodies, he drew a circle of rectangular runes on the floor. The moment he completed the circle, the runes burned with crimson light.

Amelia stepped forward, her hands slipping back into her sleeve, "What are you doing?"

Ignoring her, Zar reached towards the circle, the floor rippling like water as his hand passed through the tiles. Drawing it back, he pulled the chain from the floor, dangling from the end of it was a rough cut golden stone.

Rising to his feet, he flicked his hand sideways, causing the bodies to flip over and form a straight line. Twisting his free hand, the soldier who he trapped beneath the floor when he escaped rose out of it. He slid across the floor like he was being pulled and joined the row of the dead.

The philosopher's soul had the ability to break the laws of magic. That included bringing back the dead. However to bring back the dead, it cost every soul that has ever been eaten by a Dementor and the Dementor's themselves. It also required the person or persons being brought back to have a flesh and blood body.

Zar had already used, or tried to use the stone for this once, to bring back Lily and James, but whatever magic they absorbed from the veil of death made sure they stayed in the eternal sleep.

"Answer me!" Amelia shouted, "What are you doing?"

"Correcting a wrong," Zar replied letting his eyes drift closed.

Holding the jewel out in front of him, he slowly forced his magic into it.

The moment his magic touched the jewel, it blazed with the light of the sun. Reality seemed to ripple like water.

As the light washed over the soldiers, bones popped back into place, flesh knitted together, and blood was pulled like a magnet into the proper bodies.

One by one, soldiers sat up with a gasp, their hands instantly flying to their injury

Amelia watched with wide eyes as the white fog of souls appeared reentered the respective body and rose to its feet as if it had never died. This was a type of necromancy she had never seen before.

Vera stepped forward, her mouth hanging open. With a shake of her head, she turned to Zar, "Why?"

Throwing the jewel up, it rotated once in the air before disappearing, "I told you before, I'm here to help the world, these men and women died as the result of an accident," Zar's gaze drifted to the floor, "I'm just sorry I couldn't bring back the cabdriver."

Vera cleared her throat, "Thank you. These are good men and women."

Zar's eyes narrowed, his gaze flicked over to the stone sphere. "Not all of them, your boy Coldcast drew power from a block and a half yesterday without regard of how he was affecting the people that lived in that area," he turned his narrowed eyes on her, "that was after he had the gall to lecture me about collateral damage."

Vera cleared her throat, "Yes, well Coldcast is a good soldier, but he has a tendency to get a little overzealous in battle."

Zar's eyes burned red, causing Vera to take a step back, "Well rein him in, he took me by surprise the first time. If he acts that way again, the next time we fight it will be his last."

Amelia moved beside Vera, a gray aura wafting around her body, "I thought you said you were here to help people. Now you're threatening us?"

"I'm not threatening anyone. I'm stating a fact. Coldcast is a danger to the public. What would've happened, if he would've fought your niece instead of me?"

Amelia looked away, a chill running down her spine.

Before anyone could say anything else, the lights in the chandeliers dangling from the ceiling began flashing red, and a feminine mechanized voice echoed through the room, "Meta-human activity detected."

"Bring it on screen," Vera ordered.

The windowed half of the room flashed showing a purple haired man with green eyes standing in the middle of the street, his hands in the pockets of his long black trench coat, the British flag displayed proudly on his T-shirt. The lips of his thin face curved upward in a confident smirk.

Zar's gaze flicked to the bank behind the man, it was a moderately large building made of brick. Two brick columns held up the slight overhang protruding from the building. People stood at the large rectangular windows stretching the outer walls of the bank, their eyes locked on the confrontation taking place.

"First Royal," he muttered to himself.

Opposite him wear a pair of bank robbers, their faces obscured by ski masks, their guns belting fire.

With his enhanced vision, Zar saw the bullets freeze in midair, "Another magnetic?"

Vera shook her head, "No, that is my brother, Manchester Black."

Zar raised an eyebrow. No wonder she was so hard on meta-humans.

Keeping her eyes locked on the screen, Vera continued. "My brother is a very powerful telepath and telekinetic. He believes that the only way to deal with crime is with deadly force, but that line of thinking is taking him down a path that makes him no different than the people he fights."

As if to prove her point, the bank robbers turned on each other, the fingers squeezing the triggers of their automatic weapons.

Blood flew into the air as the bullets impacted the bodies. In what seemed like slow motion they fell backwards a steady puddle of blood growing beneath their bodies.

"So, what do you want me to do?"

Vera's head snapped to him, "You're willing to help me?" She asked incredulously.

Zar raised his shoulders his palms facing up, "Well since I incapacitated your people, I feel it's my responsibility to do something."

For a moment, Vera just stared at him then she inclined her head, "Thank you."

Zar moved forward, offering her his hand, "I told you I'm here to help."

Slowly, Vera stretched forth her hand. The moment there hands clasped together. Two searcher beetles disguised as part of the raised oval belt he was wearing sprang to life.

They phased in between dimensions, sliding like a ghost through his clothes and quietly slipping into Vera's.

Pumping her hand once, Zar let go, "So, how do you want me to deal with your brother?"

"If you can manage it, don't kill him."

Turning, Zar eyed the hole in the ceiling, "I'll try, but I'm only willing to put up with so much." Bending his knees, he launched himself into the air.

–XX –

As he rose out of the hole, Zar closed his eyes against the warm sun bathing his skin. Energy flowed into his body like a cool River washing away the tension his meeting with Vera black and Amelia Bones had caused.

Looking around, Zar found that he was in an old train station. The vines grew up over the stone platform. Grime covered the cracked window of the platform's single office, and a heavy scent of rich earth mixed with mold permeated the place, reaching Zar from where he hovered three feet in the air.

Looking down, Zar found his large Boulder sized hole in the middle of the rusted tracks just before they reached the station.

"Well, no one would expect to find a government agency hidden here." Turning towards the east, Zar angled his body perpendicular to the ground and shot off, his crimson hair squashed flat to his head.

–XX –

The moment the sonic boom of Zar's departure faded, Vera turned to Amelia, "I assume you're going to watch the fight?"

Amelia inclined her head, "Someone has to keep an eye on him. I take it you're moving your operation?"

Vera gestured at the stone sphere, "As soon as I get my best agents out of there," she raised an eyebrow, "I don't suppose you could help me with that?"

"Not without the possibility of hurting them."

Vera exhaled pinching the bridge of her nose, "I thought not." She locked eyes with Amelia, "pleasure meeting you Amelia Bones."

Slipping her wand into her sleeve, Amelia inclined her head, "You as well Vera Black." With a crack, the minister of magic disappeared.

Vera looked around at the bodies of her sleeping soldiers, "I should've had her wake these guys up."