Superman's log: Day 1
The creature we found at STAR Labs pulled me through a portal. In my time here, I've found that the portal led to a completely different world. It's familiar, but not.
I met some of this world's heroes. Some of them are like the Justice League. I helped two of them save a plane. There was one who seems like he might be Kryptonian, they call him Homelander. He's a strange case, seems juvenile and inexperienced, and wears a suit more padded than Batman's actual body armor. Tried to squeeze my hand when we shook hands. Not sure what his big idea was, seems like he was trying to get one over on me, or assert dominance. Have to keep an eye on him.
Went to Best Buy to get a computer to record my thoughts and attempts to get home. They handed me the best model they had and said they'd bill it to some company called "Vought." Have to look into them.
Borrowed a suit and accessories from an antique store. They were at the bottom of a dusty old trunk that looks like it hasn't been touched in years, so they likely won't be missed until I can pay them back.
Recovered the case of Kryptonite from initial point of entry at bowling alley. No trace of the tentacle I severed. Don't think Yl'geth returned for it, based on reporting. Wish I'd gotten back sooner, but there was too much to do. Too many people need help on this world, maybe even more than back home. Strange, considering there seem to be at least as many heroes as back home, and not nearly as many supervillains.
I've set up shop in the North Pole, like back home, but since there aren't any power outlets up here, I need to create something to keep things powered without having to waste time flying around for batteries.
I've managed to scavenge together the material for a microreactor between doing everything I can to help around the world. I don't want to steal anything if I can help it, but I'll need a lead radiation suit and other materials. Everything I need I can replace once the reactor is built, but I'm not going to steal fissile material. Fortunately, since Kryptonite is radioactive, I won't have to. All I'll need to do is concentrate the energy from the crystals, but that means I'll need the suit for an extended period of time. I should be able to accumulate the cost of everything I'll have to steal with a cryptocurrency miner, and since I'm generating the electricity, it'll be clean.
I wish I could get rid of the Kryptonite, but it's probably the only thing I can use to lure Yl'geth out of hiding long enough to get home. And if I'm here for a while, it'll be my ticket to setting up shop to make my job a hell of a lot easier. I'm already planning on building a satellite internet uplink so I can get access to emergency calls from around the world while I'm here.
Day 2:
I've gotten the reactor working, and the miner set up. With a little bit of work, I've got enough to pay for everything I've taken, and everything I should need, including civilian clothes.
I bluffed my way into a religious superhero convention to try and get a feel for the locality, and talked my way into an interview with Homelander. From what Homelander said, and what I saw on the website for his "management agency" Vought International, he seems like another Kryptonian, just weaker, and with some kind of superiority complex. I guess if this... Other universe has another Earth, where things are similar, but different, it would make sense they'd have another Krypton, but different. Strange he didn't mention the name of his home planet. Maybe he never learned it, it seems like whatever knowledge he has about it is incomplete. I'll have to look around and see if I can find any other Kryptonian or equivalent technology and maybe steer him onto a better path with some messages from the homeworld, if they exist.
Yl'geth made an appearance at the show. I had to change into my costume for the first time in a while. Took longer than I wanted to, but I didn't want to blow my cover to Homelander with him X-raying through my clothes. He seems quite self-conscious and erratic. He took off after Yl'geth left. I stuck around to help with cleanup. Overheard shouting from nearby, about Homelander raping someone's wife. Scruffy-looking guy in a Hawaiian shirt and black overcoat was the one saying it, he was with some other people I didn't recognize, and a young guy who was with one of the heroes at the expo, a girl who calls herself "Starlight."
I'll play it cool with Homelander for now, but I'm going to publish the interview online, and look into anything I can find out about this. Fortunately, is available, and not particularly expensive.
Day 3:
I've got the uplink working, and I'm tapped into every emergency system I can. When the creature shows up again, I won't have to be looking for it to know.
Scruffy guy appears to be one William Butcher, former British SAS. Trail runs cold a while back, the kind of cold that comes with working for a three-letter agency in the international intelligence sphere. His wife disappeared eight years ago. She worked for Vought as Homelander's assistant, it seems. She disappeared into basically nowhere. Nobody ever found a body. Suspicious, to say the least. Will keep investigating. Homelander's character is starting to come into a sharper focus, and I don't like what I see. At least he's not exactly the strongest Kryptonian I've ever met. Either Conner or Jon would be able to beat him handily.
Day 4:
These "Vought" characters seem like they have their hands in everything, from news media, to entertainment media, to almost everything you'd need to live your daily life. They're like Lexcorp on steroids. Everything that touches them seems squeaky-clean, and everyone they cross or who crosses them seems to get dirty or disappear. If you're a hero, you're either signed to Vought, or your hoping to get signed to Vought. There aren't many independent heroes, it seems. Unsettling to say the least.
Vought has a number of facilities across the world with inconspicuous exteriors, but Vought International logos plastered all over the inside, doing a lot of insane things. Testing drugs on people to give them superpowers. Seems to work more on the kids than the adults... Almost every aspect of what they do is inhumane. How long have they been doing this, and how many of this world's heroes are made in labs like this?
Searching this world's internet, I found that the first major superhero was someone they call "Soldier Boy." They admit to him being artificially created. After that, there are a lot of heroes with varying origins. Lots of them seem like they were randomly born with their powers, like back home. Some of them are technology-based. Homelander's not the only one with an allegedly off-planet origin, as information about Jack From Jupiter will attest. There are a handful of conflicting reports about official origins versus what apparent actual origins were. Must keep looking. For now, hardly anything I see about these people can be taken at face value...
That aside, Homelander's either telling the truth about where he comes from, or he's just a damn good liar. I didn't notice any of the typical tells people have when lying, even with him being superpowered. His powers are too close to mine for him not to be Kryptonian, I think. His anatomy and physiology is essentially the same as mine, he's just... Weaker, for lack of a better word.
There's a particularly large facility owned by Vought. Seems like it's an entire town. They don't hide that they own it, but they say they use it for "training purposes," despite the fact that it seems to just be a private town with a giant wall around it and armed guards at the only gate.
Day 6:
Homelander... Didn't exactly break into the "Fortress," since I don't really have a door, but he barged in uninvited and unannounced, and threatened me to stop saving people and interfering with world affairs. He actually tried flashing his heat-vision at me. I'd have done more, but I got a 999 call from England (High-speed car chase, crook nearly ran over a little boy.) and I couldn't stick around. I almost hoped he'd open up the reactor and expose himself to the Kryptonite, but when I got back, the reactor appeared untouched, thankfully. If he had opened it, I would've had to fly away and get another radiation suit before I could save him, and I don't know what his resistance level to K-rays is. Probably low. I think he's probably beyond any sort of help, but I'd at least like a chance to try and show him how to do good in the world... Rao knows this world could do with some good.
Went to a support group for victims of superhero collateral damage in New York City. Found shocking number of people wounded by negligence or outright malice.
I guess that's why this world has so many problems, despite having so many "heroes." Most of them aren't.
Saw Butcher and the guy who was with Starlight at the support group. The younger man is Hugh Campbell. His girlfriend was killed in an "accident" involving a speedster called A-Train.
Butcher went on a rant about the state of the world and how people see this world's so-called "heroes."
Butcher seems like a rough character, but he's clearly no fan of Vought, which means him and his group are probably the best chance I have of making any allies on this weird planet. I might be able to work with him as Clark Kent, but he'll be suspicious of Superman. Hell, I can't blame him, he's got plenty of reason to be, with the way people present themselves here.
Day 7:
Homelander and his team, The Seven (Currently at five member) went hunting for Yl'geth, and destroyed a bridge. Homelander's definitely trying to patch up his bruised ego, from what I can tell. He got a boost in his precious popularity numbers from that encounter.
Day 8:
Yl'geth showed up at an unmarked facility. I think Vought found a way to activate the severed tentacle. It stayed open for a while, but it was a small portal. I think activating the portal is what tipped off Yl'geth.
Yl'geth was weakened, until someone sent in a nuclear device. If there was ever any doubt this thing is powered by radiation, the fact that it literally ate the explosion and powered up from the radiation would've dashed it.
Butcher and his people were there. They know how to fight Yl'geth. Something they used on it made it weaker, so weak it was afraid of anything that looked like it. I got stabbed helping Butcher, but I heard Jon's scream, and he severed the tip of Yl'geth's Kryptonite tentacle with a Batarang.
Butcher's people helped me after Yl'geth left. I gave them the Kryptonite piece from Yl'geth, and explained it to them. No harm in it, they already saw the Kryptonite hurt me. They're not likely to turn it over to Vought or Homelander, so it should be in safe hands. The last thing I need right now is Vought to know what can hurt me, especially with Homelander trying to start some kind of trouble. I'm not sure what'll happen if they find out Homelander is weak to the crystal as well. Homelander might get more erratic, or he might even have some weird reaction to it, like I do to the other shades of Kryptonite. The last thing I need right now is to find out what this will do. Can't take any chances.
On the bright side, I know I can go home, and that they're looking for me. Now I just need to find out how to get that tentacle and power it up enough to get home, after I deal with Yl'geth. The only question is how? Maybe I can put the two problems together and create a solution.
"Alright, mister Kunt."
"Kent."
"Whatever. Cut the bullshit, and tell me what you've got, and what you want for it."
Kent set his briefcase down on Mesmer's coffee table, opened it, and retrieved a handful of large, apparently satellite photographs.
"Vought International has several facilities that are isolated from the outside world." He said, laying the photographs out in a pattern on the table. "Most of them are smaller testing facilities, or training compounds, or somewhere else they do their nefarious deeds."
Butcher snickered. "Is that what the kids are calling what they do now?"
Kent just looked at Butcher through his horn-rimmed glasses, raised an eyebrow, and continued.
"This facility is different. This is a small town, complete with residents, utilities and fire department, inside a forty-foot tall wall topped with barbed wire, and armed guards at the entrance. Everything this compound requires is either generated inside of it, or comes through the gate."
MM took one of the photos off the table, and scrutinized it.
"If this place is so secret, how do you have high-resolution satellite photos of the area?" Marvin asked. "Google won't photograph Area Fifty-One, where the hell do you get pictures of some top-secret Vought facility?"
Kent smiled, and pushed his glasses up as he retrieved a state-of-the-art camera from his briefcase, and set it down on the table.
"With this." He said. "I have friends in high places."
"Who?" Hughie asked, incredulously.
"Superman." Kent replied. "I think you've met him."
"What's your connection to Superman?" Marvin demanded.
"You could say we're old friends." Kent replied. "Grew up together."
"In Kansas?" Butcher asked. "Sure. What kind of corn did they feed you out there?"
"Golden Sterling." Kent replied, earnestly.
"Look, corn aside, what's your point?" Hughie asked. "What's in this facility?"
Kent retrieved a picture of two people in the backyard of a house, and presented it to Billy.
"I have reason to believe that woman is Rebecca Butcher."
Butcher's eyebrows shot up, and he switched his gaze from the picture to Kent and back.
"Alright..." He said after an uncomfortable pause. "Let's say I believe you. Why are you telling us this?"
"Because Superman and I could use your help." Kent replied.
Butcher let out a barking laugh.
"Oh, you have to be fucking kidding me!" He said after he caught his breath. "What the fuck could someone like him need from us? He's the most popular superhero on the planet, strongest man in the fucking world!"
"We'd like to get home."
"What, Kansas?" Billy asked, sarcastically. "Just catch a ride on his fucking cape."
"Not that home." Kent said, patiently. "Like I said, we're not from around here. More appropriately, we're not from this Earth."
"Stop fuckin' around."
"That monster that attacked Hugh and Annie at the bowling alley, the one you guys ran into at the facility?" Kent asked. "It brought us here."
"Superman was the only one it had that I saw." Hughie interjected. "When did it bring you through?"
"The day before. It left me in the ocean next to the Statue of Liberty, and left right afterward."
"Alright, what's Superman's deal then?" Butcher demanded.
Kent looked directly at Butcher.
"He's from the planet Krypton. His parents sent him to my Earth, our Earth, before he was born. He just wants to help people and make the world a better place. No matter what world he's on."
Butcher scoffed, and shot Hughie a disbelieving look.
"Alright, how do we know you're not setting us up? This could all be some line of bullshit for all we know."
Kent looked at Mesmer, and offered the mind-reader his hand.
Mesmer looked at Kent's hand, then back up at his face.
"I promise I won't bite." Kent replied with a grin.
"Do it." Butcher instructed. "Or I'm gonna break your arm."
Mesmer hesitated, then grabbed Kent's hand tight, and closed his eyes. He jolted with shock, and opened his eyes wide. Kent looked at Mesmer with one eyebrow raised.
"Spill it, Mesmer." Marvin demanded. "He tellin' the truth?"
"Uh, yeah." Mesmer said, his face and lips trembling. "Yeah, he's... He's telling the truth, they're not from this planet."
The Boys exchanged mutual looks of disbelief.
"When Superman arrived, he cut a tentacle off of Yl'geth." Kent continued. "That tentacle is what Yl'geth uses to travel through universes. Vought activated it at the facility you met Superman at. We need your help to steal it, and maybe activate it."
"You want to steal a giant-sized octopus arm from Vought?" Frenchie asked. "I am not so sure you are not as crazy as us."
"Superman and I would rather not have to cooperate with Vought." Kent said. "We think you guys have the best chance of helping us execute the plan from start to finish. If everything goes as we've worked out, you can help us get rid of Yl'geth and send us home all in one go, all while sticking it to Vought."
"Alright, anything to get rid of another superpowered fuckhead." Butcher said. "We'll help you and Krypto-Kansas get home if it'll get that squid off the streets."
"Couldn't have said it better myself." Marvin said. "Anything to get another shot at that bastard."
"Should we be discussing this in front of..." Hughie asked, glancing at Mesmer.
"Oh, Charles won't tell anyone what we're planning," Kent said as he gathered up his photographs and camera. "Right, Charles?"
Mesmer took an uncomfortable swallow, and nodded in affirmation.
"Butcher..." Hughie whispered to Billy as they left Mesmer's house. "You sure we can trust this guy?"
"Hughie, I'm glad you're catchin' up to the situation, but there's such a thing as bein' too paranoid." Butcher said with a toothy grin. "Kent's too gosh-darn naive to be tryin' to put one over on us."