Jump Chain 14 - Smallville
Part 4
The Thunderchild. Sol System.
Since many versions of DC Earth had a Watchtower of some sort in space, be that in orbit or in some cases on the surface of the moon, I'd chose to have my Aurora-Class warship jump from dimension to dimension well beyond the orbit of the moon so as to help avoid detection. While the actual jump would be detected my ship had a sophisticated cloaking device so no one who picked up the dimensional jump would know that a star vessel of great power had just entered their space.
This was so good because of how the flow of time differed between realties. I couldn't rely on knowing where the moon and the Earth would be in their orbits, in fact, they might not even be in their orbits as in one verse we'd already jumped into the sun had become a red dwarf star, and that had really messed up the rest of the system. I had no idea how that had happened, but it might have something to do with neutralising Superman's powers, or it could have been the future were Vadal Savage was the last remaining human on a messed up Earth.
"This ship is amazing!" I heard Galatea say.
Like many times before I'd crewed the ship with attractive babes, these ones provided for me rather than having been grown, for a change I'd gone with fembots that looked human rather than Asari. I didn't need the eye candy so much with Supergirl's clone around. Her butt was superior in viewing pleasure to other butts.
"It comes from a civilization that surpasses even your race when it comes to science," I told the lab-grown alien hottie "and I've had technology from other advanced cultures added to it over the years".
Galatea hadn't needed Jump Chan explained to her by Jump Chan as her own intelligence combined with a Perk I'd gotten which allowed people to more easily understand and believe me when I explained weirdness, meant that she grasped the idea pretty quickly. She might come from a test tube, but she was still a Kryptonian.
As for the Thunderchild. I'd really missed my group's flagship, sure the Battlestars I'd built to explore the Halloween Universe had been wonders of technology in their outright, but when it came to advanced technology and power an Aurora-Class was in a league of its own.
Sure an Imperial Star Destroyer had more guns, and there were vessels like the Andromeda Ascendant which could fly rings around my space ship, but the Thunderchild was more than a mere vessel or a mobile base of operations. Like Lux or Pendragon Castle this ship was a home to me, and I felt safe when inside her.
"The JL doesn't even have anything like this," she remarked.
Well, they weren't the kind of people who would build warships, but if they did the vessel would be awesome I felt sure.
"So you're impressed," I said, "does that mean you'll join me?".
Galatea was more powerful than even me, at least when it came to brute force, and she was hot to boot. I wouldn't mind adding her to my harem. It had been over a decade since I'd gotten myself a new companion.
"I'll stick around for a while if you'll let me, but I need to think about it" she answered, "After CADMUS I don't want to give up my independence so easily".
While I'd given her what freedom she had the clone was still rather shaken up about finding out that her creator had put a small bomb in her skull so as to kill her if she went bad. Which made sense in a purely logical way as they'd made Galatea to deal with Superman he should fall under Darkseid's control a second time or go evil some other way, as such they knew that she could be turned against them, and while she didn't seem to want to go wreak CADMUS she was understandably mistrusting of everyone right now. Although given that she'd not flown away I had high hopes for her sticking around in the future.
"Captain we are picking up some signals" reported a fembot.
Cameron, who'd been sticking to my side even more than normal since she'd found out that Galatea had attacked me, went over to check out the signals. Not that she could stop the clone from doing anything, but I didn't mention this as Cameron might have something like pride by now.
"I'm running a search" she informed Galatea and myself "Looking for keywords".
Every time we jumped to a new DC universe we searched the local version of the Internet, if it had one, so as to find out if it matched any of our records.
"Most likely match is Earth-666" Cameron reported.
We'd gotten this number system from a database in the Halloween Universe, a copy of it at least, I didn't know where the original came from and it hardly mattered, what did matter was that it contained information on hundreds of versions of Earth in the DC multiverse. For example, the verse that acted as our home base was Earth-167 known as the Smallville dimension since the TV show of that name documented events in that universe.
"Earth-666 is the universe that serves as the setting for the TV show Lucifer" I read from a 2D hologram that ha been projected before my eyes when Cameron sent me the data "We found it because Lux is one of the words we use for our information gathering".
Made some sense as the Lucifer of this Earth was based on a version of the Devil that appeared in The Sandman comics, which were somewhat linked the DC universes and Jump Chan had warned me that DC multiverse was unlike the others I'd explored so far.
"Do they have superheroes here?" Galatea asked me.
Not as such.
"There are some angels and demons around, maybe some other fantastic elements too, like immortals," I told her "But I don't think it has any superheroes".
According to the data I had before me they only existed in fiction here.
"So can we go check it out?" Galatea wondered "That's what you do right? Explore strange new worlds".
Right now nearly all of my group were off somewhere exploring so I might as well too.
"Normally I'd avoid getting mixed with anyone called Lucifer Morningstar" I was now saying "But from what I know about the guy as long as you don't threaten anyone he cares about he won't bother you".
And he wasn't allowed to kill humans so I'd stay in my human form for this trip.
"We could go on a quick away mission if you're eager to go stretch your legs," I said to her "But you'll need to change".
In her current outfit, she might get arrested for indecent exposer, and while that would only be an annoyance at worst I didn't want to cause trouble with the natives.
"If you're hoping to see me naked then you'll need to show me a good time first," Galatea told me "I'm no lady, but I need a little romance in my life".
A night out on the town seemed like a good idea. I could have Cortana get into this world's computer system so that I could replicate a valid credit card, then we'd got out for dinner, followed by a few drinks in a nightclub, before I'd get us a room a nice hotel. Better to have Cortana book that sort of thing well in advance as I didn't want to risk not having a luxury room ready for when I made a move on the super-powered babe.
"If it's a good time you want then a good time you'll have" I promised.
(Line Break)
Lux. LA.
While I'd styled the casino I'd gotten from the Fallout Jump on Lucifer's Lux I'd expanded upon the original and made changes over the Jumps so that now the original Lux and mine looked rather different. For example, my place didn't have a demon bartender or a fallen angel playing the piano, it didn't have a piano at all.
"I like this place," Galatea said to me "The restaurant you took me to was a little stuffy for my taste".
Getting in here hadn't been hard. When you had replicators it was easy to dress for anywhere and getting past the bouncers was easy when you knew the old Jedi Mind Trick. I'd put Galatea into a little black dress that she'd put on without complaint or comment so I figured that she was used to doing as she was told. If so that worked well for me.
"This place is too noisy for my liking," I told the alien babe "but if it makes you happy we can stay".
I was over a century old by this point in my existence so I disliked all these kids and their loud music despite having spent some of my youth in mosh pit, which were even louder and involved more physical contact than at least some of the dancing going on here.
Despite the demoness at the bar and the lord of hell here, this place didn't feel evil, it was a riot of noise, sights, and other things that simulated senses, but I detected no evil presence here.
"So is that Satan?" Galatea asked me while we took seats "the guy at the piano?".
That was him Lucifer Morningstar, formerly known as the Angel Samael, the titular protagonist of the show Lucifer. From what the database we had on this world, which mentioned Lucifer in detail, going so far as to mention that he made deals, he was one of the younger angels and the infamous ruler of Hell. He was more commonly known as the Devil or Satan by humans, and in this reality at least he didn't deserve all the negative press he got.
Why he was here and not in Hell had to do with him having grown tired of ruling the Underworld since he'd been cast out of Heaven. In recent years Lucifer voluntarily left his position in Hell to become a nightclub owner in Los Angeles, operating this establishment.
His closest friend, personal bodyguard, and longtime servant was the demon Mazikeen, who I could sense over at the bar. At some point during his life here on Earth, Lucifer started working alongside L.A.P.D. homicide detective Chloe Decker when he witnessed the murder of a close acquaintance of his. This position gave him a new outlet to punish sinners.
I reached out my senses, just for a moment so I could get a read on Mr Morginstar, and while there was a darkness within him it was less than what I'd sensed in others that were mere humans. He didn't seem to notice my mental probings, which didn't surprise me as while he had many powers he was no mind reader or maybe he was simply too distracted by the ladies he was talking to.
That distraction didn't last forever and when the Devil himself came over to our table I was caught between fight and flight, both of which were options for me, but I sensed no danger so I stayed put, and let him join us without making a scene.
"Never seen either of you two before," he said, "and I get the feeling you're not from around here".
Since I knew that Lucifer wasn't a fan of lying I told him the truth even while keeping my answer short.
"We're travellers from other dimensions" I let him know.
He spent a moment studying us.
"You're not Planeswalkers," he said "You blend in too well, and they tend to be an arrogant bunch. You're not Sliders either. I'm picking up too much power from the both of you".
He paused for a moment and then smiled.
"One of you is a Jumper!" he realised, sounding very happy to have figured it out "But we're only supposed to have the one".
He clearly saw my confusion and so took some time to explain, his voice easily reaching my ears despite the noise level of the club.
"You must have accidentally wandered into someone else's Jump," he said while some waitress served us all drinks "The girl Jumper we have here chose to be an Angel cop. I mean its one thing to help out the LAPD, but she's going around helping people all the time and because she's an angel well that makes her a sort of sister to me, so I can grumble too much about her taking up so much of the Detective's time".
So another Jumper had come here to play cops and robbers as an angel with Detective Decker, I would so read that fanfic.
"We're just passing through," I told the Devil, who was turning out to be nicer than expected "I promised this young lady a night on the town".
Lucifer turned his attention to my date for the evening.
"I wonder if this works on aliens. Tell me what do you desire?" he asked.
This was one of Lucifer's powers, he could bring out people's desires, to find out what they really wanted. I had to wonder what Galatea desired.
"I want to be better than Supergirl," she told the Devil "To be more than her".
Well, that was something I could help with. Supergirl might be a member of the Justice League and the Maid of Might, but I could make her clone into somebody who could traverse the multiverse and alter the fates of entire dimensions.
"Oh interesting," said the Devil before he turned me.
He repeated his trick, but it had no effect on me I could defend my mind against such things.
"Even more interesting," Lucifer remarked, "You didn't even lie you just brushed it off".
It was no big deal.
"I've picked up a few tricks during my travels," I said.
With that out of the way, the Devil started to talk about other matters and I figured that we'd be here for a while.
(Line Break)
Streets. LA.
"How much do you need to drink to be hungover when you're both immortal and invulnerable?" I asked of myself as Galatea and I walked out of Lux the next morning "Maybe its best not to know".
I reached into my jacket pocket for my special sunglasses and selected a vision mode that made my headache more tolerable.
"What I want to know is how did that guy make us join in that orgy" Galatea wondered.
Yeah, that had been strange. We'd entered the club for a drink, and to maybe spot Lucifer, then there had been drinking and more drinking, followed by some drinking, and then came the nudity.
"I was going to make you wait before you got to handle the merchandise" Galatea admitted to me "I didn't want to seem too desperate to join your group, because I really don't have anywhere to go, but I might as well just admit the truth and tell you that I want to be your girl, it seems like an amazing experience, travelling to different worlds and seeing so many things".
The alien babe turned to look at the nightclub that was down the street from us.
"But we never talk about this place or what happened last night, ever" she insisted.
Given that I barely remembered more than the start of the fun-packed evening, and feared to recall more, I decided to take that deal while it was on the table.
"Terms accepted," I said, "Now let's go find some coffee".
Thankfully this was LA so they had coffee everywhere.
(Line Break)
Pendragon Castle. Smallville.
"You must be the new girl," Dawn Summers remarked as Galatea entered the room "I'm Dawn and this is Faith".
The clone didn't really understand where she was or who these people were, and she knew that she wouldn't be here for long as Gothic had only come here just to check up on the progress the rest of his group was making, but Galatea saw this as a chance to met with some of the women she'd be spending a great deal of time with in the future. Assuming things worked out.
Both Faith and Dawn appeared to be normal young women who were dressed in dark clothing that would not draw much attention on the streets of American cities if not for the fact that the two girls wearing the clothing were very attractive. Cleary the Jumper liked to surround himself with pleasant to look at females, but Galatea was wise enough not to assume that these young women weren't also dangerous. After all, she didn't look like much of a threat.
"That's me," she said, "I'm Galatea, your boss brought me here from my home dimension".
Which was not something she'd ever imagined herself saying.
"Gothic is more our father than our boss" Dawn explained, "We were adopted by him, but some of the girls in the group see him differently".
The Supergirl clone was a little confused.
"He doesn't seem much older than you," she remarked, "Have you been with him long?".
Gothic had mentioned that he was over a hundred years old, and Galatea knew not to judge people by appearances so for all she knew these two girls were even older than him.
"Ten years and some change" Faith answered, "I was only fifteen when he took me in".
This Faith couldn't be more than 22, something Galatea pointed out.
"He doesn't let age much" Dawn explained, "Not that any of us mind".
Miss Summers went on to tell her about the technology they used to reverse the effects of ageing and that it worked on a variety of humanoids.
"I can see why he likes you" Faith commented as she cupped her own breasts, which were a big enough size "Those natural?".
Galatea looked down at her own chest, which was barely covered by the outfit she wore while on missions, she wasn't naive, she knew that the view distracted man and that was useful for her.
"This is all me" she answered, "I'm bigger than the person I was cloned from because I was made to be more mature, but I think I still somehow lucked out in the chest department".
Faith let go of her breasts.
"Gothic had mine enhanced a little as he'd put it" she informed the new girl "Not that I ever complain".
Dawn, who was rather petite compared to the two more curvy women in the room, smirked at them.
"I'd feel sorry for you about the back pains, but I guess you don't have those problems," she said.
Faith was a Slayer and had supernatural toughness, as for Galatea she had her alien superpowers to deal with such things.
"Do you enjoy your lives with Gothic?" the clone asked.
The two other females in the room smiled at her.
"It's awesome" Faith stated.
Dawn went into a bit more detail. About how fun it was to explore whole new worlds, and about the things she'd seen out in space, and all the cool stuff she got to have. She also spoke about that while she was a total freak do to her being something called the Key, no one in the group treated her badly for it, her powers were accepted and she encouraged to learn how to use them responsibly.
"We've been out scouting a lot of different Earths" Dawn went on to say "Later we'll revisit a few of them to pick up some stuff".
While Galatea had no trouble grasping the existence of a multiverse, she lived in a world made up of magic, advanced technology that might as well be magic, aliens and other weirdness, so accepting the existence of other realities was no problem, she'd never imagined that there was a group of people out there who explored the multiverse for fun and profit. Yet that did seem to be what Gothic and his girls got up to, and she starting to understand what this would involve.
"So I get he's the boss" the clone was now saying "and that you do stuff for him while having fun, but is that all you do?".
She was curious about if they ever went out and saved the day. Which was she spoke about next.
"We do help people sometimes," Dawn told Galatea "But we're not superheroes, we don't want to interfere with every dimension we come across or all we'd ever do was try to solve other people's problems if we did we'd never get anything else done. We have saved a lot of worlds and I think that adds up enough to make us the good guys even if we don't follow their rules".
To the alien babe that made sense. She liked the idea of belonging to something bigger than herself and this group would most certainly separate her from the girl she'd been cloned from.
"So what do you do for Gothic?" she asked the girls.
This was something she was going to need to learn about in great detail if she wanted him to accept her fully into this group.
(Line Break)
Luthor Mansion. Smallville.
I'd not expected to have a message waiting for me upon my return to this world from Lex Luthor, who had invited me over in order to offer me a chance to make some money. He hadn't put it so bluntly, but I knew how to read, or in this case listen, between the lines.
After calling back one of the Luthor minions had arranged an appointment for me and Lex had even sent a car to my Lux so as to ensure that I would have transport. This wasn't the kindness it might appear the younger Luthor had done that to make sure I'd arrive on his time table.
The Luthor Mansion could be found near the outskirts of Smallville in a heavily wooded area, affording Lex a great deal of seclusion. I'd heard from the locals that the castle was transported across the Atlantic from Scotland to its present site in Smallville in 1989, where it was painstakingly reconstructed stone by stone. That seemed like a needless waste of time and energy to me.
When I got inside I found that the Luthor home boasted an impressive looking library, an armoury that was filled with medieval weaponry, which was the kind of thing you could find in my castle only my weapons were magical and not made from mere steel even if they did look primitive.
While I got the tour I was also shown an exercise room, several servants' quarters, a wine cellar, a full basement that was about two full stories high, a grand ballroom, a formal dining room, and a natatorium. Which as it turned out what just a fancy term for a room containing a big indoor pool.
The interior of the mansion was adorned with priceless art pieces, paintings, and ancient artefacts that had been collected from around the world. Many of the rooms have oak and rosewood panels on the walls and teak floors, along with antiques and tapestries.
Again this reminded me much of how Pendragon Castle was decorated, although the interior style of the castle changed with every Jump as the castle began every Jump as a mess that needed to be sorted out. My castle had once even been the ancestral seat of the Pendragon Family back in the world of Harry Potter, and I had to wonder if that version of the castle had just vanished or if was still there and I got a fresh castle every Jump. One day I'd got and find out.
Looking around the office that contained Lex Luthor, who was sort of a good guy at this point in the timeline so I no desire to kill him, I saw that the room was well furnished. I liked the look of the glass table-top desk and revolving chair as well as the lounge furniture that was situated by the fireplace.
There was even tall glass-top bar from which alcoholic beverages are served from, ferns and plants were growing in large plant boxes, alongside tall porcelain floor vases, and a billiard pool table. I recalled that at times there was a piano in here as well.
The chamber featured an ornate sandstone fireplace the full height of the room, marble tile and parquet flooring, a square-shaped skylight in the direct centre of the ceiling, built-in bookcases, sconce light fixtures and numerous stained glass windows complete with different coloured panes.
Lex sat at his desk which itself sat in front of a large stained-glass panel featuring the Luthor family heraldry and further up the panel, a capital "L" in the Old English typeface: the entire window, which faced west was brilliantly illuminated by natural light.
"You need to give me the name of your interior designer," I said to Lex Luthor "I need an office like this".
I had no intention of hiring anyone I'd just spoken those words so that Cortana, who lived inside my hidden omni-tool as a sea creature lived in a shell, would subtly scan the room for me I recreate it at Lux. If I used a good space expanding charm on my command centre and put up a wall I could have an office like this set up directly under the penthouse.
Already I was imagining one or more of my girls reading over by fireplace while I worked, and then after work she'd be bent over the billard table as I took her from behind. But that was something to think about later, and of course, I'd make some changes.
"Mr Mason, welcome to Smallville" greeted Lex Luthor.
We shook hands, and I noticed that his grip was strong, but in a firm way, he didn't seem at all slimly like other older versions of himself, none of which I'd met, but I'd seen enough portrayals of the character that I expected to feel repelled by the man, but this Lex Luthor seemed quite likeable and I was not an easy person to fool. Perhaps he simply was a nice guy at this point in his life with his inner darkness under control. Alas, that wouldn't last.
"Thank you for having me" I replied while taking a seat.
I'd dressed for this meeting, and I'd made plenty of business deals before so I knew how to act as well as how to get through the polite conversation that civil people were expected to have before getting down to brass tacks.
"So why am I here?" I asked.
My sixteen-year-old Kryptonian form had never been seen by Lex Luthor and this body should look different enough so that people would think we were related. All my bodies had blue eyes, dark hair and caucasian complexion. There was nothing about me that drew attention.
"It has to do with two patents you just filed," Lex told me "I'm interested in making the Luthorcorp planet here in Smallville more productive and more profitable. So I've been on the lookout for ways to be decrease costs and I think your environmental technologies can help with that. I'm no environmentalist, but having the plant go green will be good PR, and if I buy the patents from you I can develop and then sell the technology to other companies that are looking to go green".
Ah well, that made sense. Lex wanted to make himself look good. As if he cared for the planet.
"Okay I'll sell," I said, "Make me an offer".
He seemed mildly surprised.
"Just like that?" he asked
I acted casual.
"Mr Luthor I own a successful casino but I'm no position to develop this technology" I replied, "You are, it is really that simple".
My history as the owner of the Lux of this world labelled me as a young genius who could design stuff, but I didn't have the means to build any of it. The casino got its own backstory, and that involved it having been designed by its owner and it was a remarkable feat of engineering and design so it wasn't unreasonable that its owner, who was me, could design other things.
I was passed some paperwork, which I read over, it was pretty straightforward considering that it was a legal document coming from Lex Luthor. I'd hand over all rights to my patents in exchange for a lump sum now and a small percentage of later profits.
For a moment I did wonder if Lex wanted to own the technology in order to keep it off the market because he was invested in current means of energy production for industries in this country, but I suspect that this had more to do using the tech to make himself look good. That would appeal to his ego more.
While I felt certain that if I waited and took the tech to Queen Industries I might get more money, I didn't need anyone else to help me make money so I signed the deal. If nothing else I could take future inventions and sell them to Lex as an excuse to check up on him.
There was even a Wayne Enterprises and Gotham City in this world, but no signs of Batman as of yet, which made sense since Bruce Wayne spent a good long time wandering the Earth before returning to Gotham to become Batman and at this point he was still in High School. This world's version of Gotham was much like the one in the live-action series called Gotham, but it was a different dimension and in this universe, all the important stuff was centred around Smallville so it made no sense to go there when there were much more interesting alternate versions of Gotham to go see.
"I won't hold you to any promises," said Lex after I'd signed and gotten a copy of the contract "But I would like the first look at any future environmental technologies you have to offer".
Since he wasn't asking for a commitment to sell I saw no problem with that and was soon on my way out of mansion having taken an offer to be driven back in the limo. The drive would take time, but I could use that for some mediation.