Chapter 11

Next day: 0600

JJ sat on the Fifth Floor of the DEO and Nia had a map of the United States of Africa on the screen. Nia looked like a human being but was actually a living machine. She was born of a race, a race of machines created by Ptah nearly a million years earlier. He created a species of robotic lifeforms to help him maintain the universe in the early days. When Nia assumed the form of Peppermint to trick JJ so Ganthet could kidnap the real Peppermint and Supergirl, he forgave her and asked her to stay on Earth until he became of age. Hank hired her and now she was an agent for the DEO.

Often, JJ used Nia's abilities to help him predict outcomes of dangerous missions, and when it came to him returning to the Celestial Kingdom without all his abilities, he needed to know the possibility of success. The Celestial Kingdom was an oddity when compared to other paradises throughout the universe because it had the ability to create its own reality outside the current one. JJ didn't have any understanding of or association with the Celestial Kingdom because he didn't have any memory of it.

Orion flew into the room and placed a digital map of the Congo on the screen; it was basically a laser projector that shot out of her video port. She placed a red dot exactly where the entrance to the Celestial Kingdom stood, and then another red dot to where the ancient, Dawdians lived. "The Neuronet resides in the Celestial Kingdom," Orion said, "The Dawdians reside between Moxia and Brion Noir on a small planet about twice the size of Earth. There's an entrance to the Dawdians world located about thirty miles from the entrance to the Celestial Kingdom."

"Orion, when was the last time you entered the Celestial Kingdom?" JJ asked.

"After the passing of Ptah, Princess Kova La placed the kingdom in an alternate reality to protect it from the Great Father," Orion said, "I left the kingdom nearly one hundred thousand years ago when your god-spark left its container. The gods normally only take a two thousand year respite from life when they're killed. It takes that long for them to regenerate."

JJ walked around the room with his hands behind his back for a minute. He looked over at Orion, and then asked, "Where did I go?"

For a moment, the room quieted, and then Orion said, "The Doraxians weren't operating at their full potential. They lagged behind the Neonodes in math and science. They were a superstitious people back in those days. We had discussed them for thousands of years before you left the natural plane and their lack of willpower disturbed you."

"So?" JJ asked with a baffled look on his face.

"So, you created a race of Doraxians called the Grays that ruled over the Blues with an iron fist. For three hundred years, you called yourself Dava T'Naga. The Doraxians called you the devil."

The young hero laughed for a minute, and then asked, "Can I create life? This is utter madness."

Orion flew by his head, and then said, "You used science to design the Grays from the Blues. You created one male Gray who procreated with two hundred Gidisons that created the race of Grays. It took nearly four thousand years to turn those two hundred Grays into forty million."

"Have the Grays learned to treat the Blues equally?" JJ asked as he sat down across from Nia.

"I'll answer this," Nia said, "No. The Grays died out from a deadly plague initiated by E'Da T'Naga. He was a young scientist, a Blue, who invented a fleet of battleships like no other. When they won the Great War against a superior alien race with those ships, the Grays still wouldn't see the Blues as their equals. When E'Da turned one hundred years of age, he revealed to his wife that he wasn't of their world. When he came into his powers, he revealed he was Luciferous, son of Ptah. He, then, returned to the Grays and gave them a weapon that would eliminate the Blues. He said, 'The day you push the red button the Blues will all die.' Within hours of him giving the weapon to the highest ranking Grays on Doraxia, they had already pushed the button. But Luciferous lied. The Blues didn't die off; the Grays did."

"I see why Perilous hates me so," he said calmly. "It appears that my family and I have committed atrocities throughout the universe." Suddenly, an unexpected calmness came over the room because nobody tried to comfort him. He looked over at Orion for a moment as she hovered in the corner.

"What?" Orion asked.

"You're not going to tell me that isn't true?" He asked with a grimace.

"Then I'll be lying. No, JJ. You and your family including me and Veo have committed atrocities throughout the universe, but it was the best decision at the time."

Orion flew directly in front of the young man, and then he said, "It seems that I won't even be JJ when my memories return. I'll be a monster."

"Not only will you be JJ, but you'll be much more. You'll be a god," she said, "You'll be Ptah."

"Of course," Nia said, "You're Ptah at the end of the day anyway, but you'll have your ancient memories restored by the Neuronet so you'll be better prepared for the future."

Alex entered the room with a small device and plugged it in the console that set by JJ's desk. "Take a look at this?" She asked as she put the image on the screen. It was a large alien vessel on the far side of the moon. "This damn ship might have been there for thousands of years. We thought it was an asteroid at first." She zoomed in on the ship until it came into focus. "It looks dormant."

"It must've come uncloaked," Orion said, "That's the Great Father's vessel."

"The one Ptah damaged in the Great War nearly a million years ago?" Nia asked.

"The one and the same," Orion said, "He might be using the ship to help him locate the GOD Glove."

"GOD Glove?" Alex asked with a befuddled look on her face.

"It's a god killer," Orion said, "The Great Father gave it to the Dawdians to kill Ptah about three hundred thousand years ago. In those days, Ptah loved his people but they didn't love him."

"What happened?" JJ asked.

"He treated them like his toys and sex slaves, and when he grew tired of them, he discarded them like trash," Nia said.

"What?" JJ said.

"It's true," Orion said, "The Dawdians rose up against Ptah using black magic and ancient laser rifles. He laughed in the face of their weapons until the Great Father intervened on behalf of the Dawdians. He created the Glove of Darkness so they could force you to bend to their will."

"Did it work?" He asked.

"At first, you appeared to give in to their wishes for nearly ten thousand years," Orion said, "You were peaceful and pleasant. And then one day, you started killing the chosen clan, the wielders of the glove. Everywhere they slept you killed them until you came across a warrior princess named Sekhmet. You looked her in her brown eyes as she stabbed you in the heart with her golden dagger dipped in Ambrosia. At the same time, you were making a telepathic link into her mind, and when the knife pierced your heart, you destroyed her brain."

"This really happened?" Alex asked.

"Yeah," Orion said, "Ptah fell to his knees next to Sekhmet's dying body. As his ethereal blood exited the wound in his chest, it pushed the Ambrosia out and healed on its own. Ptah looked over at me and said, 'Copy your mind into her mind.' I looked at him for a moment and said, 'No.' I didn't usually refuse his orders, but I begged him never to put my mind into other beings. 'Please, Orion? I'll make her into a god!' He said. I had never known him to lie, so I did it. I copied my mind into hers, and then she went through an apotheosis and sat by his side in the Celestial Kingdom for nearly two hundred thousand years."

"I see," JJ said, "It was during this time the Dawdians made the talisman to take me down." He placed his hands on his head and then walked over to the far end of the room. "I don't like this Ptah guy."

Orion scoffed. "You better like him. He's you and there isn't anything you can do about it," she snapped, "You're just a sixteen-year-old kid, but you'll come to the understanding of what you have to do."

JJ looked over at her for a moment as she hovered near Alex. He then looked at Nia and said, "This Ptah seemed so scurrilous and uncaring about the Dawdians. I see why they wanted him dead."

"The children always want to take the place of the father," Orion said, "The same way you stole your father's wife and destroyed our original universe in the process."

"Wait? What?" He asked with a befuddled look on his face.

"Yes, JJ," Nia said, "For a million years Ptah had carnal relations with his mother."

The news of hearing about his past relationship with the Great Mother caused him to hyperventilate. Alex quickly ran over to him and said, "Breath, JJ. It's okay."

"But it isn't okay, Alex," he said, "I'm supposed to be this god who's reckless and a sexual deviant. How can I look at myself in the mirror knowing this madness? How can Kara ever respect me? How can Peppermint ever love me?"

"Perhaps I've told you too much, JJ, but you've already repeated this timeline on two other occasions," Orion said, "The first time you grew old and gray. You wanted to see how humanity reacted to threats from beyond the stars and they failed. The second time you watched from afar to see how humanity would do if they took to the stars and they caused an intergalactic war. Now, you're allowing time to move accordingly because you've decided humanity is a plague on the verse. So, in sixty-something years, you'll unleash the Destroyer on this world and he'll eradicate the dead branches and the vestiges that's left will start anew. It is the way of things. It's the way of the gods."

"So humanity is doomed?" Alex asked with a grimace.

"Yes," Orion said, "It has already started. More and more people are starting to die and aren't being replaced. Soon, towns will start to die all across the world and won't be replenished."

"Is there any hope?" JJ asked, "It seems I've already set things into play."

Orion laughed. "There's always hope, JJ," she said, "Maybe this time humanity will see the light and change their hateful and bigoted ways to sit at the table with the rest of the galaxy. It'll take more than a little serendipity."

"Meantime, you'll have to go to the Dawdians for the cure for Lena Luthor," Alex said, "She controls too many high powered, military weapon systems to be unstable. She appears to be testing a robotic suit that shoots a weaponized, kryptonite laser beam. It could kill a Kryptonian with one, solid laser strike. When anybody of her money and power loses their mind, it can be catastrophic."

Batcave…

The Vulcan flew down into the Batcave while Bruce Wayne worked on his bat suit, an armored machine with a smart computer onboard. Mister Wayne wore a black, form-fitting suit that was supposed to allow him to have a better interface with the machine. The suit lay on the table in the supine position, and as soon as the young man approached it, he began scanning the silver suit's power structure. He knew at some point Mister Wayne would paint the suit black to go with his style, but according to what JJ knew, it was a brand new suit. "This damn thing will still overload your heart."

"I know," he said as he placed down his wrench. "For some reason, I can't find the right frequency to interact with my body chemistry." He placed his right hand over his chest and then said, "I've re-damaged my heart already."

JJ walked over to the steps that lead up to the Batcomputer and sat down with his elbows on his knees. He looked at the old man as he lumbered around the room adjusting the electrical output on his suit. "I don't think it's a good idea to wear the suit."

"I also don't recall asking you, JJ," Mister Wayne said with a salty attitude. "This is my baby and I have to get her right."

"Every time you wear that damn suit, you bring yourself closer to death," JJ said, "What good is it to repair your heart for a second time just to mess it up again?"

The old man grunted for a second. He placed his hands on the suit's chest, and then said, "I didn't ask you to fix me the first time."

"I didn't need you to ask me," JJ said, "I did what I thought I had to do."

"What does it matter?" Mister Wayne asked, "What does it matter if the human race is dying anyway?"

"Because the future is still undetermined," he said with a grimace, "I didn't realize that until Orion and I had an intimate discussion about my identity." He paused for a moment and then said, "The world is an extremely violent place right now. We have outbreaks of unrest all over the globe. We have the opportunity to bring these conflicts to a close."

"Human beings don't change that quickly," he said calmly, "We can put the Justice Corp back into place but what good would it do?"

"The Justice Corp can be a beacon of light to the rest of the world and then the entire universe," JJ said, "Humans just have to realize they aren't the center of the universe but can play a crucial part in its betterment."

Suddenly, an alert came across the Bat Computer. "Warning! An attack is taking place on the DEO in National City."

JJ tapped on his communicator and Supergirl answered it. "We need you, JJ. We're fighting three individuals in the red raider uniform."

"You better watch out," JJ said, "The Red Raiders have weaponized, Kryptonite lasers."

"Just get here," she said, "Supergirl out."

DEO…

When the Vulcan came up on the macabre scene, he saw bodies strewn about all over the area. Several of the floors on the building burned and he could hear the ambers popping underneath him. With the wave of his right hand, he sucked the oxygen out of the top floors and it extinguished the fire. The use of his powers in that manner drained his strength for a short period in time, and then he fell to the ground and rolled over on his back.

Looking up into the sky, he saw the Red Raider fire a green beam into Supergirl's chest, and then she fell on top of the DEO building. When he saw Kara tumble to the roof of the building, he immediately took flight, but the Red Raider already jettisoned across the blue sky.

He looked around for a moment when he heard something cutting through the air. The rays from the sun rejuvenated him and he felt stronger than before he fell to the ground. But when he looked up, he saw a flying disc cutting through the air that struck him in the chest. The flying weapon must have weighed about a ton and it knocked him clear across the bright, blue sky. "What the hell was that?" He screamed. It took him about a minute to shake off the pain, and then when he tried to fly back to his position, one of the Red Raiders struck him in the chin. It caused him to flip through the air, but he quickly found his composure.

The Red Raiders' helmet dissolved in front of the Vulcan's face, and the person underneath the mask was Lena Luthor. Her blue eyes were filled with tears and anger, and right before he could say a word, she said, "All you had to do was reciprocate my love!"

He watched her every move as she hovered above the earth in her red and black suit of destruction. When he analyzed the weapon system on her uniform, he could see the kryptonite based weapon system and it had some green residue around the nozzle. "I swear to all that is good I'll kill you if you hurt Supergirl?"

"It's funny how she's the first person on your mind," she said with a grimace. "How long have you been fucking her, Vulcan?"

He paused for a moment, and then asked, "Why would you say something like that, Lena? You're so crude. You disgust me."

She began to seethe and huff loudly, and then screamed, "I have every right to be rude and disgusting, you piece of shit. You broke my heart, JJ!" When she called out his name, he realized he hadn't done a good job with keeping his identity safe. But then she said, "I should've known Kara was Supergirl in the very beginning. Why else would she be hanging out with you, a god?"

"What do you mean?" He asked, "What makes you think Kara is Supergirl?"

She laughed, "Cause right before I killed her, she told me." Suddenly, a stream of fire shot out of the Vulcan's right fist and burned Lena's face. Quickly, he realized the power drain he experienced earlier was actually a growth spurt. The new energy flowed through his veins and he was ready to tear Lena into pieces. When the powerful beam hit Lena, she flew backward and screamed loudly. When he egressed from his position to her location, she flew off, back toward her home in Metropolis. At first, he wanted to follow her but then he received a radio call from James. He didn't quite know what the Guardian was going to say, but he wasn't prepared for what he heard.

"JJ, get back to the DEO. It's Supergirl," he said in a somber voice.

"What's wrong with her?" He asked immediately.

"She's gone, bro. She's dead," he said in a brittle voice.

The young Vulcan screamed so loudly that his voice shook National City. In an instant, JJ stood by Kara's body as he looked at her wounds closely. He didn't even realize that he opened up a portal and stepped through it like the Ptah of old. He looked her over for a moment and began to sob for his mentor. She had one laser burn near her right temple, and from what he could tell, it could have been the fatal shot. When James walked into the room, JJ screamed, "Get out! Let me fix this."

"She's gone, man," James said, "You don't think we're all hurting."

"Leave, Olsen!" He exclaimed, "Let me do what I do? Okay?" He stood by her body with tears streaming down his face and slobbering. "Where're are you, Orion? Damn!" He picked up Supergirl's dead body and headed out of the DEO with it.

"Where are you taking my sister?" Alex screamed.

"Let me do what I do, Alex!" He exclaimed. He stood in front of the DEO with Kara's body and then took off at nearly light speed. In a matter of half a second, he was in his apartment when Peppermint and Vera ran into the front room.

"What's going on?" Peppermint asked.

"It's Kara. She's dead," he said, "Lena did this. I need the machine to heal her."

"I got it right here," Vera said as she placed the device on Kara's stomach. "I'm adjusting the setting to Kryptonian physiology right now."

"She's been shot several times with that deadly kryptonite ray," he said, "She had more than a lethal dosage of radiation."

"It's unfortunate," Peppermint said, "You should've let me kill that privilege bitch on Thanksgiving. It would've alleviated a lot of heartaches."

"Amen to that," Vera said, "Now, step back and let the machine do its job."

"Narcotizing the patient," the computer said as it started working its magic on Kara. It took about forty-five minutes before JJ saw any signs of life in her. The machine hummed for so long that he had to walk around the living room and then into his back bedroom to try to de-stress.

"What's wrong?" Peppermint asked calmly.

"I have to travel to Africa tomorrow," he said with a grimace. "If I don't get the cure from the Dawdians, we'll have to repeat this process. It's taking so long for the machine to work on her."

"Guys, I'm attaching the logical brain piece right now!" Vera screamed. When the couple walked back into the living room, Kara lay on the ground looking up at the ceiling.

"Did anybody get a picture of that bus that hit me?" Kara asked as she lay in the supine position. "My head is killing me."

"It's a result of restoring your logical brain," JJ said calmly. "Kara, we're fighting against people with Kryptonite base weapons. It is what it is."

"I know," she said, "But it doesn't negate what needs to be done."

"All I'm saying is you need some armament for such an occasion," he said, "Or we'll be repeating this." He helped her off the ground and she wiped off her uniform.

"I'm heading back to the DEO right now, but we have to stop Lean before she strikes again," she said, "What time are you leaving tomorrow?"

"First thing," he said, "I have to meet with Captain Hall and he'll guide me on this trip."