Jump Chain 14 - Smallville
Part 3
Lux. Metropolis.
I ignited my new Kryptonite lightsaber and the green blade sprang into existence, after taking the young Catwoman home I'd spent days, or maybe it had been weeks, in mediation within a sealed chamber that experienced the flow of time more quickly than the outside world. I'd spent that accelerated time imbuing a suitable piece of kryptonite with the power of the Force so as to link myself to the small green crystal that I'd chosen as the heart of this new weapon.
This had to be done while I was wearing a special shield that I'd created which blocked the harmful radiation as even my Asgardian form might be poorly affected if I spent days or weeks getting exposed to the alien radiation in such confined quarters.
Once the crystal had become connected to me via the Force it was transformed in a sense. It didn't change shape or colour, or anything noticeable to mundane senses, but to someone like me, the crystal had become a living thing and also bonded to me. Most Force Users never did this with more than one or two crystals, depending on if they ever needed to replace their weapon. I'd done this a few times in the past, and there seemed to be no negative effect from it.
I'd used Luke Skywalker's lightsaber, the one he'd built after losing father's weapon, as a design, with some modifications, such as a superior power cell, a little lead to contain the radiation, as well as some alterations to the emitter so that when the blade ignited some of the alien radiation leaked out, enough to weaken a Kryptonian to the point it would be possible to strike them with the blade, and since the radiation was concentrated within the beam it would kill a Kryptonian if driven into something vital. When the blade wast turned off the radiation was completely contained for safety reasons.
While the version of Clark Kent I'd met was friendly enough there were darker versions of Kal-El out there who I might run into and it would be wise to have weapons prepared in order to destroy them if needs be. Plus I might run into a version of Zod or one of the other bad guys from Krypton who were more than powerful enough to defeat me even if I used my magical powers against them.
Because of this concern, I planned to create a number of special weapons, such as Batman's Kryptonite spear which he created in order to combat Superman. In that universe, the Batman constructed several custom made weapons utilizing the Kryptonite that he had stolen from Lex Luthor. One such weapon was the spear, consisting of a metal staff and a tip shaped from green Kryptonite.
When combating the Superman of his world, that Batman also utilized his Kryptonite grenades to weaken him before utilizing the spear and almost killing him. I would look into Kryptonite grenades in the near future as they could be effective.
Now that it was time to test the new sabre and for this, I'd gone to the trouble of recreating Starkiller's training gear, only without the white shoulder pads, preferring black padding instead. With a wave of my hand, I activated the training remotes.
They were small, quick and unpredictable, and they had multiple power levels for the small energy weapon each of the probes carried, which ranged from a slight sting to lethal. They were also capable of being programmed for defensive purposes, and some of the technology used in my more advanced cloaked probes came from these training remotes.
The Jedi Order used the remotes to train Jedi younglings during the waning days of the Galactic Republic and while En route to the planet Alderaan, burgeoning Jedi Luke Skywalker practised against one of these training remotes, using his father's lightsaber. Though initially unable to block the remote's fire, he learned to rely on the Force when his mentor, Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, challenged Skywalker by blocking his sight. I just closed my eyes.
I could call upon the power of the Force while in any of my bodies despite most of my forms lacking any midi-chlorians, but my Kryptonian form didn't need to as in this body I was fast enough to dodge energy bolts without that power, but a lightsaber needed a Force-User to wield it for good reasons so I called upon the power of life as I batted aside bolts.
"Increase speed" I commanded.
The remote began to move faster and soon the green blade was moving in a blur as I batted aside bolts, and then started sending them back at the remotes, and this resulted in all the remotes soon all getting blown to little bits. Once that was done I switched the weapon off, deactivated the time dilation device, and headed for the door, but not to leave the plain-looking chamber I just used the door as a way to access the Cosmic Warehouse.
I went and placed the new lightsaber inside the Asgardian armoury so that it would be in place should I need it. I could pull weapons out of the armoury whenever I desired and I might need this sabre at a moments notice. For now, it would rest in the armoury until needed, and I had other things to care of.
Also before I left I needed to give Cortana a few more instructions and to replicate some items that would come in handy later on.
(Line Break)
Lux. Metropolis.
"Your new ID is ready" Cortana informed me as I entered the command centre.
Her 2D image was up on the screen and by the looks of things she'd finished creating identities or all of my companions, even for Ahsoka who had a human form she used when she didn't want her natural body to attract attention, I had several new identities, including Damien Manson for my Wizard body, who owned Lux.
Jax-Om had become Jack Smith, or Jax as he was simply known, a 17-year-old British teenager whose parents had passed away leaving him a small fortune that allowed him to travel. My new identity was that of a child genius so as to explain why I was so smart when compared to most teenagers. I also had a distant relationship with the Kent family so as to explain why I'd be visiting the farm.
"Did you get the patents sorted?" I asked.
The screen changed to show that several technologies that Damien Mason had invented. These were harmless inventions, renewable energy sources, and recycling. Nothing people would care much about since having clean air to breath didn't seem to be important. I intended to use them to help improve things for the future of this world, assuming I could find a suitable investor.
"Do you have Kara's ID too?" I asked.
She was about sixteen and since she was would be playing an American teenager she'd have to go to school unlike me as I would not be returning to High School in anything less than a coffin. Kara needed to blend in and since I'd woken her up I was a little responsible for her.
"I did those as well" the AI let me know "All the computer records are in place and you replicate the paper records whenever you want".
This I went ahead and did, and Kara now had everything she needed to go to school, get a job, drive a car and all that jazz. As did I, not that I intended to spend much time as Jack Smith, but it was good to have options.
I did have to wonder how long my cover story with the Kents would last, it shouldn't be easy to figure out because I'd written a backstory for the Jax-Om character and from past experiences when a good backstory was written for a role it worked in the world I got inserted into.
An example of this was that no one had Hogwarts had ever figured out by themselves that Damien Pendragon wasn't all he seemed to be. This was partly due to having defences that prevented people from reading my mind, as well as Harry Potter getting the attention, but mostly it had to do with Morgana having created a family home and even an extended family that people accepted. All of which had become real once the Jump started so that it was possible now that the House of Om had really existed on Krypton before it went boom.
Still, they would wonder where I kept vanishing off to and how I was fixing stuff like IDs so easily. I'd have to find an apartment and pretend to live there as for the ID stuff well I was a genius. At least getting money was simple enough, when you had X-Ray vision, scanners, and super speed it became easy to find and dig up precious metals, then it was just a matter of finding something willing to trade bits of gold for cash, not much of a problem here in Metropolis.
"In other news, the exploration has gotten started" Cortana informed me "Everyone at Pendragon Castle has started checking alternate dimensions and everyone else left in Seven's Science ship to check out local space. Well nearly everyone. As you know Black Widow is taking a turn running Lux, and Cameron is in your penthouse".
The business ran itself, it had been made by Jump Chain to do that, but some of my companions took charge of Lux so as to practice certain skills, and to give themselves something to do. For many Jumps, it had been Miranda who'd run business for me, but she'd started directing her energies into other things, like being a mother for Violet Parr. It sounded as if Miranda had decided to take Violet with her to Seven's ship for some space exploration, something none of us had done since the BTVS Jump back in the Halloween Universe.
As for Cameron, she didn't need to perform her role of bodyguard much and since she was an adaptable AI she could entertain herself, not that she got bored, but she did develop interests in things. Most of the time I barely noticed if she was around or not as she was very good at not being noticed, and given phase cloaking technology she could be behind me right now I'd never know.
"I'll go see what's happening at the Castle after I stop by Kent farm," I said to Cortana.
No doubt my girls who were more magical talented were up to something fun. They'd had a decade to research all the information and materials we'd gathered so far while I'd been pretending to be Santa, and this meant that they would be eager to get their hands on new sources of knowledge. I would lead small teams to DC verses so as to acquire those materials and some bits of technology that I'd never gotten from the Halloween Verse that they did have in DC verses, like freeze rays, I'd never gotten my hands on one of those.
After grabbing the paperwork I got up from the workstation and teleported myself to Smallville.
(Line Break)
Kent Farm. Smallville.
I found Kara and Clark in the part of the farm's barn that could be thought of as the Fortress of Solitude, it was clear from looking around that the young Superman spent much of his time here. Right now he was peering through a telescope despite it being daytime, and it was pointed up so I assumed that he wasn't perving on his neighbour's house, that was where Lana Lang lived.
"Jax!" Kara called out.
She was happy to see. Not so surprising since I'd been the one to recover her from that body of water.
"Kara I see you've settled in," I said while handing her a folder "This should help you blend in as well. Birth certificate, dental records, everything you need to exist as an American citizen, you even have an online presence so if anyone checks up, you'll exist in the system".
Clark looked at me puzzled.
"How did you get all that?" he asked.
I had to explain this carefully.
"Human-computer technology is very primitive compared to what's out there," I said, "I hacked into the records and created it all".
Kal-El did not look pleased by this.
"Isn't that illegal?" he said.
Very much so I would imagine.
"You landed in the 1980s as a kid, this is 2001, she needs computer records," I told Clark "She can't get paperwork like this legally so I had to break the law, and now she can go to school or get a job rather than just hide out here".
There was little point in me having woken her up if she didn't get to do anything.
"Kal, please try to be nice" encouraged his cousin "You were worried that someone might go online and figure out that I don't exist, and now thanks to Jax we don't have to worry so much".
There was a moment of silence.
"Kara Kent" she read out "So I'm Clark's cousin on his adoptive father's side, raised in Minnesota, my parents passed away and I was able to track down my one remaining blood relative who's taken me in. I've got records from a school so I can even transfer to Smallville High".
The adventures of a certain group of teens in this town would be a lot more interesting with another super-powered alien around.
"So where are you staying?" Clark asked me.
Before coming here I'd instructed Cortana to find me an apartment. Once she'd found one and I started renting it then I could have somewhere for the two alien teens to be in when they wanted to come to visit me. Plus I could install some computer equipment there so as to make it look like I'd created records from the apartment.
"I've got a place in Metropolis" I answered.
That didn't end the line of questioning.
"How are you paying for it?" Clark asked next.
He would make a good reporter. I could already see it.
"Have you developed X-ray vision yet?" I asked.
I knew it happened early on, but not when, and when they both told me no I informed them that Kryptonians develop x-ray vision after becoming exposed to an environment with a yellow sun, allowing them to see through any physical matter that wasn't lead. While I'd not tested it yet I suspected that materials with equal or greater density than lead would also block X-ray vision, but this was something to experiment with later on.
"You'll get that power in time" I promised.
Before long they'd both have heat vision, something I wouldn't have for this Jump, but that hardly mattered as by then they wouldn't be needing my help so much.
"I've been using the power of X-Ray vision and super speed to cover large areas quickly while trying to find bits of gold," I said.
Which I had done a bit of on the way here so I was able to show them some gold ore.
"There are old gold mines all over the country that still have a few nuggets left in them if you know where to look," I told the two alien teens "Not enough to make me rich, but I can pay the rent and buy food".
To distract from that I took a couple of things out of the pocket of my long black coat. Now that I had mystical protection and a body that was very hard to damage I wasn't worried so much about protection as much, not now that I'd found a way to protect myself from the alien radiation.
"I also made these for you," I said while handing out two watches "These will signal me if in the city and you need my help. I might not be around all the time, but if something drastic does happen and you need to talk to me then just signal".
There was more.
"These also contain the radiation shielding I promised" I was now saying "Won't help if you make physical contact with the meteor rocks, but it protects against them otherwise".
Clark must have warned her about that as Kara didn't question any of that.
"So you're not coming to school with us?" Kal-El asked.
He sounded happy about that despite having been pleased to have me around in the past. I suspected he was just worried that his cover would be blown for sure with two more of his kind around, it would ruin his life here if the truth was discovered. Plus unlike Kara, I wasn't his cousin and she did like having me here. Clark might be a bit a tad bit jealous.
"No I'm way beyond on that level of education" I replied "and I have some exploring I want to do, there's a whole world out there. Besides having all three of us in one place seems risky. If I remain apart and get discovered it won't link back to you two, and if somehow you two are found out then I might be able to do something about it if no one knows I'm also an alien".
Chole Sulivan might figure something out, but I could erase her computer files and her memory if needs be. I'd rather not as see seemed like a sweet girl.
"I have a few things to take care of," I told the two alien teens before I vanished at super speed.
They seemed to be getting along and with the paperwork, they would need to deal with getting Kara into school. Something better handled by the Kents than me.
(Line Break)
Pendragon Castle. Smallville.
When I arrived at the castle, after dropping off the paperwork to the Kent farm, I found that my mystical girls had done a good job of fixing up the place up and setting everything up for our explorations. While on the outside the castle looked like the base of operations for the Dawnguard back in Skyrim, on the inside it looked very different. With all the modern technology, magical equipment such as enchantment and alchemy tables, and liberal use of space expanding charms, so that we'd have room for potions labs and workshops. I doubted that any of the vampire hunters would recognise the fortress.
"I'm not too old for this outfit am I?" I was asked.
Hermione Granger was in the library, no surprise there, and she was taking books out of a bigger on the inside chest so as to make the new library look more impressive. She wore her sexy Hogwarts uniform outfit, which aside from shoes and knee-high white socks was made up of a checkered skirt that was far too short as well as a white shirt that was unbuttoned enough to show that she was wearing a lacy white bra.
"Of course not," I told her "I still like you in that. I'd be sad if you stopped wearing it".
This basic look of hers hadn't gotten boring in all the years I'd known her, which was a few decades by now.
"I've already got a few teams out" reported Hermoine, changing the subject rather rapidly "We're just scouting out some worlds. Once we have some idea of what is out there we can start gathering research materials".
While I'd prepared well for the ten years in the Santa Jump by ensuring that we had plenty of magical stuff to study after a decade of doing so little it made sense that my girls were already spreading out. They'd wisely kept one companion at each base, Widow at Lux and Hermione here at the castle, so that they had someone to check in with and someone to keep me informed of what was going on.
"I just popped by to see how things were going," I told the witch.
"You mean you didn't come here for sex," Hermione asked with a cute pout.
I chuckled upon hearing that
"Of course I did," I told her while placing a hand on one of her breasts so that I could squeeze it through the material of her shirt "But I need a progress report first".
The witch began to undress even as she told me about what little the teams had found so far.
(Line Break)
CADMUS Lab. Alternate Universe.
One of the great things about having so many different DC dimensions was that if I found one that had something I could take that and then avoid anyone coming after me by simply never going back. The DC multiverse was so vast that even if parties with the ability to traverse the dimensions did go out seeking me out to get back what I stole they weren't likely to find me. Even if they could track me down I was well hidden and there were always more dimensions to visit.
With this in mind, I'd decide to raid a CADMUS base for any data they might have on Kryptonian DNA and since I'd seen enough of the DCAU to know what a CADMUS base looked like I simply appeared there and started taking out the guards while a device drained their computer banks.
I wanted information on Kryptonians for many reasons. I was planning on giving myself a perfect form that would contain elements of Kryptonian biology, I needed to understand what genes would be needed to give my perfect form the abilities of a Kryptonian without the weaknesses, and rather than spend years studying I could greatly speed things up by stealing other people's data.
Plus the version of CADMUS in this reality, which was one of the first my group had scouted, would have other kinds of useful information in their databanks that could come in handy for future projects. They were working on ways to make the US government an equal power to or greater than that of the Justice League, and that most involved a lot of advanced technology and stuff involving magic.
All was going well until a white blur rammed into me and I found myself pinned to the wall by Galatea of all people. She couldn't hurt me as I had magical protections and other defences, but she could pin me down and while in theory, I was immune to all physical harm if anyone could overcome that it would be a Kryptonian
When Supergirl attempted to stop Superman, who was attacking Earth while under Darkseid's control, they were caught in the blast radius of General Hardcastle's Kryptonite missile. Supergirl was taken to STAR Labs to be cared for by Professor Emil Hamilton, who secretly took some of her DNA.
CADMUS, who existed in some form even back then was worried about rogue Metahumans, so they had Nuvo-Gen use Supergirl's DNA to create a cloned version of her. The clone was named "Galatea" and artificially aged to her physical prime. Indoctrinated in Cadmus's philosophy and rigorously trained to develop her abilities to the pinnacle of her potential, she was also more ruthless and deadly with none of the moral conscience that made Supergirl hold back from killing people.
However, Galatea shared a psychic link with Supergirl who, while asleep, lived through Galatea's training and missions in the form of dreams that seemed so real that she felt as if she'd carried out. These included the murder of Nuvo-Gen scientist Gilbert Halstrom who had objected to Galatea's creation, and the process worked in reverse, that Galatea also saw parts of Supergirl's life.
Finding these "dreams" all too real, Supergirl investigated with the help of Green Arrow and The Question. Galatea sent troops to attack the trio and equipment left behind by the soldiers led them to General Hardcastle who told them about a secret organisation which saw even the heroic metahumans as a potential threat to mankind. Galatea later murdered Hardcastle.
The clone, who was having an affair with a TV reporter called Lasser, told him about the disappearance of Gilbert Halstrom which he reported on the TV network, along with pictures of Halstrom. Supergirl, recognising Halstrom from one of her dreams, went to Nuvo-Gen where she was ambushed by Galatea.
Galatea had lured Supergirl into a trap because the latter's dreams were leading her to uncover the truth. She had also been troubled by Supergirl's moral conscience which often caused her sleepless nights and sometimes interfered with her work, though she remained ruthless enough to kill people, such as Halstrom and Hardcastle, whom she perceived as enemies.
In battle, Galatea and Supergirl proved more than a match for each other, which led a Cadmus operative to destroy the building in a major explosion. Supergirl escaped the explosion but Galatea was left seriously injured. She was taken to STAR Labs to recover under the care of Professor Hamilton who, by order of Waller, had been the one to artificially accelerated her ageing process up to her physical prime. Something that gave her a noticeably more developed figure as I was noticing right now.
The Justice League soon discovered the existence of Project Cadmus. When the feud between the two organisations reached its height, Lex Luthor hacked into and fired the Watchtower's Binary Fusion Generator at CADMUS's headquarters. In retaliation, CADMUS unleashed Galatea on the Watchtower with an army of Ultimen clones at her command.
Although the odds seemed overwhelming, the Justice League, even with its powerful founders in custody, was able to hold its own in the battle with the clones. However, this was primarily a diversion while Galatea made her way to the station's reactor to cause an explosion powerful enough to destroy it.
While there she was confronted by Supergirl and Steel. Galatea relished in the opportunity to kill her counterpart so much that she ignored a recall order from Amanda Waller, who had discovered that both sides had been manipulated by Lex Luthor.
In the end, the entire attack was thwarted and Galatea was overcome when Supergirl attacked her with a power coupling which was hooked up to the Watchtower's generator. Following the massive surge of electricity, she was left twitching and catatonic.
All this information and more got dumped into Galatea's head in a second as I used one of the many tricks I'd learned to force-fed her the knowledge. Knowing how she'd end up if she carried on down the path she was on should lead to her reconsidering her life choices, at the very least it got her to stop pinning me down so that I could grab the special device, and open up a portal that would allow me to leave this world.
(Line Break)
Lux. Metropolis
This had been a very strange day for Galatea, and when you were the clone of an alien superhero, and you were raised as a government operative, you had a lot of strange days. It had all started when an alarm had gone off and she'd been sent to deal with the intruder.
She'd found him easily enough, a man in black clothing under a long black coat who stood around in a lab that contained people who wore labs coats and were lying on the floor, he was rather hard to miss, but he'd seem normal enough until she'd tackled him.
At first, she'd done well at this task, easily pinning down the man who'd dare to break into the base, and then he'd done something to her, something that made her see herself in animated form, doing things that hadn't happened yet, and she somehow knew that it had been the future. He'd managed to put that into her head.
When he'd fled, or well really he'd just started walking away after taking some device, she had gone after him, wanting more information about what she'd just seen, and ended up going through a portal of some sort. Now she was in another universe and didn't really know what to do.
Thankfully the intruder, who'd turned out to be more than capable of harming her, hadn't resorted to violence when he'd found that she'd followed him. He was going to send her home as soon as Galatea got the data the man, he was called Gothic, had stolen.
He'd drained the databanks of the CADMUS base and Galatea didn't want to go back without the information so he was just going to make a copy for her. Since he was based in a different dimension the clone didn't think it was worth fighting over to have the only copy, not when Gothic had proven how powerful he was, and she did have some questions for him.
"I had a look at your file," the dimensional traveller said as he re-entered the room that Galatea had agreed to wait in "Turns out you have a small explosive in your head".
Galatea was puzzled until she read the file, and then she vanished to a nearby bathroom for a few moments so that she could very carefully scan herself with her X-Ray vision. It made sense that she'd missed it when she'd scanned herself before as it was a very small lead ball that was inside her skull.
"Kryptonite" she muttered.
She read the file some more and found that Doctor Hamilton a man she saw as a father figure had surgically implanted the small explosive while she been maturing. Its purpose was clear, to kill her if she got out of hand, and Galatea realised she'd been betrayed by everyone she'd ever trusted. This was something she ended up crying about and when she felt emotionally strong enough to face people again she found Gothic waiting for her in the room she'd just left.
"We can remove the device" he offered "I assume it's triggered by a radio signal, but you're well out of range here even if the signal could penetrate the lead".
If she hadn't been so emotional right now she would have realised it sooner. Radio waves can't pass through lead and the small ball that must be a tiny explosive with a trace amount of kryptonite within had to have been incased in lead. So unless it used something other than a radio trigger as an activation it would never go off. However, should it having it go off inside her skull would be lethal even if there wasn't much kryptonite involved.
"Why should I trust you to take it out?" Galatea demanded to know.
Gothic made a motion with his hand and a portal appeared that led to the outside of the CADMUS base.
"Stay or go it's up to you," he said.
It didn't take her long to consider her options since she didn't exactly have much in the way of choice and getting back within range of the explosive in her skull seemed like a very bad idea to her.
"What about you get this bomb out of head, if you even can?" she wished to know.
"You can stay here until you decide what to do with yourself" he offered "I can send you to a dimension you'd be stranger in and you can start over or you can see what my group is up to".
Gothic wisely left her alone, giving the clone some time to think.