Kal-El insists on staying on his adopted planet, and as much as it grates against Zod's instincts to leave him behind, rationally the boy is better off there than underfoot among the professionals. There will be time enough to retrieve him once the delicate work of establishing a new habitable world, and then a colony, is done.

There are two things the general insists that Kal learns before he can be left alone, though: his mother tongue and some basic fighting forms.

The first the boy is quite agreeable with. The second, not so much.

"I don't see …," he starts, before Faora-Ul swipes his legs out from under him from behind, twists his arms behind his back, painfully, and grinds his face into the floor.

"No, you don't," she agrees amiably, twitches the arm-hold from pain to agony for a second and then steps over the groaning body.

Taking her place at Zod's right hand, she continues, "You have nearly twice my weight, twice my strength if you would apply yourself, and I will wipe the floor with you any time I feel like it."

Kal levers himself back to his knees, all wounded young male pride and indignation.

"That's not …" is all he gets out before Nam-Ek flattens him again with a boot between the shoulder blades, before he also steps over the boy and comes up to his general's other side. The huge frontline fighter doesn't bother with a verbal taunt, but the smirk on his face when he crosses his arms and looks pointedly down does the trick just as well.

Kal doesn't make the same mistake twice, that much Zod has to give to the boy. After the second knockdown Kal immediately rolled aside and then to his feet, back towards a wall and scanning the room for further attackers.

"An opponent that's quicker than me and one that is stronger. You want me to learn both," the boy concludes. "Why? It's not like there's anyone like that on Earth."

The general feels his eyebrows shoot up. "And Earth should be of concern, why exactly? It's hardly the center of the universe!"

Kal balks a bit more but Faora-Ul soon puts him to rights. The commander is a very exacting teacher, and Nam-Ek also provides more input than just a target tough enough to break the boy out of his unfortunate habit of always holding back. The big man has the patience of a mountain to go with the size, as Jor-El once put it, and that is a feature Faora – for all of her numerous qualities – somewhat lacks.

Not that the former aspect isn't an important part of the training, too: control is a vital element of any technique and among squishy humans it becomes vital in a different sense as well. However, restraint must be a conscious measure, easily set aside if necessary, and not a subconscious stumbling block.

The first time they manage to make Kal snap, Zod finds out what those red glimmers meant, back on the Kent farm. Nam-Ek sustains moderate burns along his shoulder and the side of his neck before Faora-Ul knocks out the boy, and the general decides to make regular exposures to the yellow sunlight a mandatory part of his soldiers' training regimen. A ranged weapon that cannot be disarmed is a boon no soldier must ignore.

The drawbacks do not occur to the general until he sees Lara coming for him with literally flaming eyes, her temper aroused over the fact that Zod had her baby boy beaten black and blue through the course of his training.

The fact that Kal has improved in leaps and bounds once he had realized the chance to stretch out his potential, to the point where the general would no longer be ashamed to see the boy stand among Krypton's recruits – and, more important to sooth his mother's ire, where Kal has something solid to fall back on, should the lucky happenstance of the yellow sun be one day not enough to decide a conflict – is barely sufficient to save Zod from his own singeing.

Friendship with Faora-Ul has brought Lara Lor-Van a long way from the easily subdued scientist of so long ago.

SZSZSZSZSZSZS

As he has been the one to announce their presence to the humans officially, it is only appropriate that General Zod is the one to inform them of their further plans, too. Zod considered this a sound principle, but that was before he realized that this means he is supposed to deal with politicians.

Never one to admit defeat easily, he just grits his teeth and gets it over with.

This time, the general makes his entrance with Faora-Ul and Lara Lor-Van at his shoulders; an all-female escort is apparently considered less threatening among humans – nonsensical as the notion is – and the pair also represents science and military in equal standing.

Colonel Hardy awaits them at the designated landing place for the shuttle, gives a precise salute to the general and a wary greeting to Lara, followed by a greeting of the same wariness to the woman opposite her. This man at least does not seem to consider women harmless simply for their sex, and the way Commander Ul smirks at the human colonel, Zod thinks she might be quite pleased to see that.

Hardy, and a handful of human soldiers which the Kryptonian general decides to consider an honor guard, if tragically sloppy in the way they hold their weapons, accompany them for the last steps of the way.

The meeting place of this 'UN' is dominated by a blocky construction of glass and concrete with a row of colorful scraps of cloth suspended in front of it, so different from the austere elegance of the Council's tower on Krypton. Still, Zod holds little hope to find a fundamental difference in the assembly of politicians inside.

The assembly hall they are led to looks more familiar, but this only adds to the instinctive dislike. Even if the general had not already decided to keep this as short and blunt as he can manage, he would do so now.

Zod doesn't know what to call the few hundred humans before him, having left the minutia of organizing the meeting to Jor and Kal-El[1]; but as they are only the representatives of the group he actually means to address, it doesn't really matter.

"People of Earth," the Kryptonian general starts accordingly when he steps up to the lectern in front of the hall. "There have been rumors that we have come to conquer this planet, that I intend to rule all of humanity or to destroy it. That is untrue. I have no interest in ruling humanity, nor in ending its existence – if I considered it a threat, I would remove it, but it isn't one."

There are murmurs rolling through the assembly at that, and glares of outrage from some pompous-looking guys in gaudy uniforms, but Zod ignores them all.

"In fact, we have no interest in this planet, at all. The fourth planet from the sun is suitable for colonization, so that is where we will establish our new base."

The murmurs double in force, and the general feels his limited diplomatic patience fray.

"This is mere curtesy informing you of the fact," he reminds the humans sharply. "Your input is irrelevant in this decision as you have neither a presence on that planet nor the means to put one there – though my chief scientist assures me that your rovers will be a source of fascination for generations to come."

Zod has rolled his eyes at the giddy enthusiasm Jor-El displayed for something that looks like clumsy children's toys in the general's eyes, but that is neither here nor there. Lara thought that adding the tidbit would be a nice gesture towards the humans, an acknowledgement that they have made their first (toddling) steps towards the stars already. Judging by the speculative looks growing on some of these politicians' faces, Zod doesn't think it worked out quite like that.

"And before you try to be as 'generous' as to gift it to me," he continues, "remember that you do not have the means to stop me, either, should I decide that the third planet is more to my liking, after all."

There is a moment of dead silence following that statement, which is probably as smart as any assembly of politicians is ever going to act, and the general would quit now, while they are ahead. Lara is clearing her throat, though, softly, and so Zod throws the humans a final bone.

"Once the new base is established," he bites out, "there might be some exchange between our people. But that will be some time in the future, yet."

More murmurs erupt, and then quickly fall silent when Zod sends a final glare across the assembly before he turns on his heel and marches out. He is done with politics for now, and if he keeps an ear on the room behind him, well, that is only good sense.

The silence holds just until the doors have closed behind the general and his entourage, and then the plenum explodes into a riot of fearful indignation. Zod is almost convinced that this council is as incapable of sensible decisions as the one on Krypton was, when a piercing whistle cuts through the din.

"Thank you," a soft, accented voice says in the sudden quiet. "Now that I have your attention, I would like to mention the following: we are not alone! There is no denying the fact that there are other civilizations capable of interstellar travel out there, and likely with a technology that can destroy or at least depopulate whole planets, by accident or intent. Should any of those enter our solar system one day, I for my part would be very relieved to know that someone on their level is living in this system, too. If the dossier I read this morning is correct, General Zod is very protective of his own people, and anyone who wants to get to Earth will have to get past his planet first …."

The decision is pretty much made after that, but politicians being politicians, it still takes most of the rest of the day until everyone has said his or her piece about it, too.

Not that Zod cares, one way or the other.


[1] There had been plans for him to address something called the 'Security Council' at first, Zod gathered, before the younger El jumped in and told his father to refuse, as this was a matter that concerned all of Earth. Since the general would have rather done a simple global broadcast as in his very first address to the planet's populace, but was turned down for some obscure diplomatic reason, he stayed out of the squabble from thereon.