Jump Chain 14 - Smallville
Part 8
Lux. Smallville Verse.
Within the lowest levels of the casino/nightclub/Stripclub/restaurant, I had set up both a workshop and now there was a full lab down here. Which I needed as I'd begun work on my ultimate form. In a past Jump, I'd acquired a normal human body and I planned to upgrade that form until I had a body more powerful than even my Kryptonian one.
The process of creating this ultimate form had started many, many years ago. I'd been acquiring DNA samples for it over the decades and even before I'd decided to make the powerful form. Since my group was exploring the DC multiverse, a very dangerous place full of people with interesting genes, it was finally time to begin the real work. To bring together years of research and collecting. But before that, I needed a few more samples.
"Ouch" complained Karen as I used a blue kryptonite needle to take a small sample of her blood "That hurt".
Having known in advance that she would not be used to feeling vulnerable like a human would at times like this I'd replicated her a lollipop to help cheer her up, which she happily took, and began to suck on very eagerly.
"How can I taste strawberry if it's purple coloured?" she asked.
Because it was a very special lollipop.
"It's psychic candy" I explained, "It becomes whatever flavour you most desire. I don't know how it works exactly, so just go with it ".
This was just one of the many strange things I'd encountered in the Halloween Verse and while I knew the candy wasn't magical in nature, since you couldn't replicate magical items, that hadn't helped me figure out how they worked. Not that I'd put much effort into it as I far more important things to concern myself with.
"What do want my DNA for?" Power Girl asked next.
She'd not been happy to give me a sample or the samples she'd taken from CADMUS that came from Supergirl. But I'd promised not to do any cloning of Kryptonians.
"I'm going to genetically engineer one of my own bodies" I informed the alien hottie "and I want it to have Kryptonian powers without the weaknesses or limits my Kryptonian body has".
My Kryptonian form while powerful was rather limited when compared to other Kryptonians, and because of the way the Jump was set up, I wouldn't receive the full powers during this Jump.
Kryptonian - like Clark Kent himself, you are a member of the "rare" species of krypton, disregarding the hundreds that show up later. You have the strength, speed and durability of your kind for free but the rest won't show up in this decade, so you don't get them.
Given the wording of this, it seemed likely that I would develop the other powers during the next Jump, aside from X-ray vision which I'd paid for already, and this did make some sense as whoever had created this Jump must not have wanted to give a Jumper on an early Jump too much power.
In case I didn't develop the extra powers, such as heat-vision, flight, super hearing, telescopic and microscopic vision, freezing cold breath and even memory wiping kisses, I wanted to my ultimate form to have them. Sure I could mimic the missing powers with magic and technology, but I would like them all and more.
"I'd like to run some more tests on you" I mentioned to Karen "I have some theories about the limits of Kryptonian powers".
While Karen was not eager to run tests, she'd had more than enough of that while with CADMUS she did seem somewhat interested in learning more about her abilities. This made sense as she was the newest member of my group and arguably the most powerful, and I imagined that she'd want to stay that way so as to secure her place in whatever pecking order my companions had going on behind the scenes.
"What about our limits?" she asked.
I'd read a few theories that Superman's powers were more mental than physical, and the evidence seemed to support it. If it was all a case of mind over matter that would explain how Kryptonian powers could be given to a human and taken away under the right circumstances without causing their bodies to break down under the strain of such rapid transformations. It was all done with mental energy which was electrical in nature so the powers being gifted to a human due to a lightning strike weren't as silly as it might seem at first.
"That you don't have any" I answered.
My Kryptonian powers came from Jump Chain and therefore had defined limits. I might be as strong and fast as the Clark Kent of this world, perhaps a bit more powerful since my Kryptonian body was more mature than his, but I wouldn't be moving planets a decade from now.
"I can't prove it yet, but I suspect any limits you have on your powers are mental rather than a matter of biology," I told Karen "So you should be able to become stronger if you want it badly enough".
Members of the dominant species of the planet Krypton were indistinguishable from humans in terms of their appearance; their physiology and genetics; however, they are vastly different. Kryptonians are difficult to clone because their DNA is so complex that human science is not advanced enough to fully decipher it, however, I had more than human technology. The cellular structure of Kryptonians allowed for solar energy to be absorbed at extremely high levels.
I was now displaying Karen's DNA which was much more complex than any humans or even that of my Asgardian form, which was much more powerful than a human form, I also brought up Supergirl's DNA the samples that Galatea had been cloned from. They'd degraded somewhat, but they still showed me that Power Girl was not a perfect clone.
"Looks like there was some degradation when they forcibly matured you" I informed Power Girl "It's damaged your DNA, and slightly mutated you, which would explain why you don't look exactly like her, not surprising given how hard Kryptonians are to clone".
Karen looked worried, as she ought to be.
"It could cause a few problems as you get older, maybe even lead to some health issues" I mentioned, "I can try to fix the issue if you like".
My genetic engineering technology was well beyond that of Earth and over the decades I'd learned more about the science than even Power Girl's creator Doctor Hamilton could ever hope to learn. Not that I wouldn't be referring to his work while working on my ultimate form.
"Is this DNA been holding me back?" Karen asked, "Is this why Supergirl can beat me?".
While I didn't think that it was that simple it was part of the reason.
"Even if the theory that all Kryptonian powers are mental rather than a matter of biology then yes having damaged DNA could be the reason she can take you down, as biology can still play a role," I told her "but you do seem to have issues about being a clone and that might also be holding you back".
For a moment I thought she might yell at me, as this was a sensitive issue for her, only that moment passed.
"So can you make me better?" she wondered.
I looked over the readouts.
"First of all, I'll need an undegraded sample of Supergirl's DNA," I said.
This wouldn't be too hard to get as I'd given the version of her in the No-Men world access to my DNA so as to make a new Superman. So she'd just be returning the favour.
"And I don't want you to a copy of Supergirl so I won't reverse the slight mutations, they're the reason you have bigger boobs and why your hair grows a bit differently" I went on to say.
Her hair wasn't different than Supergirl simply due to her having a more functional style, it grew that way it did due to a minor mutation during the cloning process.
"They do make you happy" Power Girl stated while cupping her impressive breasts.
Altering her DNA wouldn't make them smaller it would just mean less chance that any female offspring of hers having an equally impressive rack.
"Once I have the DNA I can do the repair work in a few days" I informed Karen.
I also need to collect samples from the Superman and Supergirl of this world so I could compare them to Kryptonians of other dimensions. The more samples I had the better I would understand how their biology worked.
"There is something else" Karen mentioned to me "My weakness to magic. We've got shields for kryptonite radiation, but I need something to protect me from magical attacks".
That was easily done, and it was also important to do as while I could create my magical barriers to protect myself from spells she couldn't do that.
"There's something called Nth metal, it can disrupt mystical forces when an electrical current is run through it," I told Power Girl "I could make you some braces that can be charged with electricity upon a mental command and then you could use them to shield yourself from direct magical attacks like fireballs".
Why Superman didn't do something like in reality I didn't know. In comic books and movies, it made sense not to because without something to make Superman vulnerable there was no drama due to him never getting put in any real danger, but the real versions of Superman were more than smart enough make Nth metal armour for when they fought magical creatures.
"I have a few things to take care of before I can work on you," I said to Power Girl "So why don't you go exploring. If you want I can get someone to teach you to fly a ship and show you around some of the local star systems. I have plenty of spare spacecraft and I can even build you a ship of your own".
The cloned alien babe smiled.
"I can get my own ship!" she yelled, "This companion deal is sweet".
Yes, they did get a lot out of it.
(Line Break)
High School. Smallville Verse.
The Wall of Weird started out as a scrapbook that Chloe Sullivan started after moving to this town, but she eventually began to hang the articles up in the darkroom of the Torch office. Eventually, she moved it to the wall of the classroom that served as the office of the Torch.
When Clark Kent first saw the wall, he became upset because he felt he was somehow responsible for the meteor shower and all of its adverse effects. Which was silly as it was totally Zod's fault that his home planet went boom and it was Jor-El who chose to send his son to Earth. Clark never had any choice in the matter and he couldn't remove the meteorites from Smallville and say dump them in a volcano because of how they affected him, even with the shields I'd provided he still needed to avoid physical contact with the minerals.
"Hey Jack isn't it?" asked a voice from behind me "What are you doing here?".
Chole Sullivan, who'd I'd met once before, had just walked into the office of the school newspaper. I'd already scanned her wall and Cortana had the data from her rathe crude computer so I didn't need anything else from this place. I might come back later for more information, but that was a future concern.
"I came here to see if Clark was around," I said, "I was told that he sometimes writes for the school paper".
Which was partly true as I had something for him.
"He raced home as soon as class was over" Chole let me know "Something about farm chores. Kara might be around here somewhere".
Either of them would do, however, I did rather like the Kent farm so I might as well pop by.
"I'll check out the farm," I said.
As soon as young Miss Sulivan turned away from me there was a gust of wind and I was gone, on the way out I snagged a few hairs from Chole's coat as she a meteor freak and might have interesting DNA. I didn't hear anything on my way out yet I felt certain that soon she'd be making some comment about the disappearing act running in the family, although in this case, it ran more in the species.
(Kine Break)
Kent Farm. Smallville Verse.
In a blur of superhuman speed, I raced onto the property to find Clark Kent doing his chores, and these involved moving large bails of hay off a truck and into the barn. The young Superman was using his super strength to easily move the hay, but he was going at a normal pace.
"Jax" he greeted "I haven't seen you for a while".
In the DC multiverse time didn't flow at the same rate in different dimensions, sometimes the difference was only minor, however since I'd been travelling to so many different universes I'd been gone from this reality longer than I would have liked. After all, I did want to keep an eye on this version of Clark Kent as I'd quickly grown fond of the future Man of Steel.
"I've been off exploring," I told him "This world as some interesting sights to see".
This wasn't a lie. I simply wanted him to have the impression that I meant I'd been checking out what this world had to offer.
"And doing a little experimenting" I informed Clark "I made a little something for you and your cousin. Where is she?".
Kal-El smirked.
"She's trying to learn how to an American teenage girl" he answered, "and just because I can't join the football team that doesn't mean she can't be a cheerleader".
Since I was in the form of a 16-year-old alien boy right now I couldn't help picturing the Supergirl of this universe as a Cheerleader. Something about those outfits had a strong effect on me, but I was able to focus.
"I can help with that," I said to young Superman.
After taking out a couple of lead-lined boxes I opened one to show the blue kryptonite rings that I'd forged.
Blue kryptonite suppressed Clark's powers, at least for a time, and it should work for Kara too. While under its effects, Clark was also immune to the symptoms of green kryptonite. I'd gotten the idea to make a blue kryptonite ring after coming across mention of Jor-El's victory ring which was presented to him when he first became a member of the Kryptonian Science Council. Clark's resurrected mother, Lara Lor-Van, gave him the victory ring while explaining that it was a Kryptonian tradition to pass the victory ring onto the firstborn son when he came of age. Unknown to her, the ring had been a trap set by a replica of Zor-El (Jor-El's brother) to strip Clark of his powers. Blue kryptonite was used to overload and kill Bizarro, but that wasn't relevant.
"Are you proposing?" he asked, "I'm flattered, but you're not my type".
So he did have a sense of humour after all. I was pleased that Clark wasn't acting all emo.
"Remember what I told you about the meteor rock and how different kinds have different effects on us?" I asked.
He nodded.
"The blue coloured rock will cancel out your powers" I reminded him "With the small amount in the ring it needs to be in contact with your skin to work so I made a ring".
He took it and examined the ring.
"Don't wear it all the time" I warned him "the blue stuff might have unknown effects in the long term, but it should be okay to wear it during football games or when you're with a girl".
He gave me an odd look and I remembered that he was only 15 at this point in the timeline and that he'd been raised in a wholesome environment.
"Best to deal with it now so you don't have to worry about it later," I said to him "Keep them secure somewhere until you need them".
He checked out the second ring.
"For Kara?" he asked, "Looks a little big".
I'd charmed both the rings to unbreakable, at least when it came to physical force, and they would re-size to fit the wearer.
"They are made from special materials" I explained, not wanting to tell him too much "the rings will anyone who puts one on and you won't break them by accident. Even if you did somehow do that I can always make you a new one. Just remember that the shield I gave you doesn't work if the kryptonite is in physical contact so don't carry the ring in your pocket. Keep it in the box when you're not using it".
Clark put the rings back in their boxes.
"Can you explain about these to my Dad?" he requested "We've been arguing about me joining the team since the school year started".
I would be able to explain it better to him than Clark whose scientific expertise was limited to what he'd learned in high school classes.
"There's something else" the future Superman mentioned as we walked towards the house "I've started seeing through things".
This didn't surprise me. Kryptonians developed x-ray vision after becoming exposed to an environment with a yellow sun, allowing them to see through physical matter, I'd had that power for weeks since it was part of the setup for this Jump, but for Clark, it had been rather unexpected.
"Is it like "see-through vision" or do you see people's skeletons?" I asked.
So far I'd not used this power much so I wasn't sure of its limits.
"It's both," said Clark as we entered the house "I can see through walls and see people's bones like I'm firing x-rays out of my eyes, and other times its more as if I can peel away layers".
A rather odd power.
"I can do that too," I told the farmboy "It's how I found all the meteorite I needed to make those rings".
Mr and Mrs Kent heard that last part so I took the time to explain how the rings would allow any Kryptonian who wore them to do things fairly with the mere mortals. Like play sports.
"We'll need to test it first," said Mr Kent after I'd explained about the properties of the ring "But if it works then I don't see why you can't join the team".
Hearing this made Clark very happy.
(Line Break)
Watchtower. No-Men DCAU.
"How are the repopulation efforts coming along?" Wonder Woman asked.
During the time that men everywhere had been dying off due to her sister's plague, Princess Diana could have wallowed in pity, blaming herself for the deaths of her friends, and while she still blamed herself at times, she'd refused to be consumed by her grief. Hawkgirl had reminded the Amazon Princess that she needed to honour what her friends had stood for.
With that, in mind Wonder Woman had taken charge and with Shayera's help, they'd built what was sometimes called the Legion of Superheroines, although official they'd kept Justice League as their name, with the world falling apart they'd needed every woman who could make a difference to go out and make a difference.
While there were some deadly female supervillains still out there, most of the more dangerous crooks of any kind had been men, and they'd died too so crime hadn't been the real issue after the plague had run its course, not counting the looting, and while new world leaders had risen up to replace those lost the real problems had come from losing the good men, like the doctors, firefighters and police officers, and those ran important things such as nuclear power stations and hospitals.
The new Justice League had spent most of its first few months of existence getting run ragged putting out fires, some literal, others less so. Over time things had begun to calm down as women all over the world stepped up to take the place of men who had fallen and things had started working again.
Power stations were up and running, water entered people's homes, food was grown, the garbage got taken away. In many places, life returned to some sort of normalcy, and this could not have happened without the tireless efforts of the Justice League.
Of course, this hadn't happened worldwide, some nations simply ceased to exist, their populations of women either dying out due to a lack of any infrastructure to support them or because they'd moved elsewhere. For a change, the more developed nations welcomed these immigrants into their cities and they needed a bigger workforce and old rivals between countries didn't seem to matter anymore.
On more personal levels there had been a massive increase in people taking their own lives, due to having lost so much so quickly, the sheer amount of bodies around had lead to other diseases running rampant, and many had died due to starvation, and exposer to elements.
In the end, Humans were able to adapt and once they'd begun to do that, and things began to work again, it was only natural that the women of this brave new world looked for someone to blame. Aresia, hadn't lived long enough to see the results of her work so the Amazon nation as a whole had been blamed, and they did share part of the blame as Aresia had been raised by them.
The Amazons who had always kept themselves distant from the rest of the world because of the past actions of men were now isolated from the rest of the species because there were no longer were any men. There was a sort of horrible irony about that.
"So far so good" reported Shayera Hol, or Hawkgirl as she was otherwise known "the UN has agreed to let us handle where the men will go and we're finding secure places to house them. Amanda Waller is not happy about this, but the President supports the plan we've put in place for repopulation".
Amanda Waller, the head of CADMUS, had gained a lot of support since the men had died off by placing the blame for it on uncontrolled superhumans, she had her own team of superpowered women who were supposed to keep the League in check, but they spent most of their time helping keep the US in power and secure.
"I'm surprised the UN is cooperating," said Wonder Woman.
At this point, someone new spoke.
"I had words with some of the delegates and made it clear to them that if they didn't cooperate that they would be getting nothing, or in this case no-one," said a woman Diania did not know "and I promised that their people would know who to blame for them not getting any men".
Shayera gestured at the dark-haired woman who was wearing some sort of bodysuit. She didn't look like someone who could make diplomates do whatever she wanted, but Wonder Woman knew never to judge a book by its cover.
"This is Miranda Lawson" Hawkgirl introduced "She's a member of the Gothic Constoruim. Miranda and her daughter will be helping to organise the repopulation project here in our world".
Diana and Miranda shook hands.
"My daughter Violet will be helping out as well, but on the hero side of things," said Miss Lawson "This seems like a good chance for her to learn how to use her powers responsibly".
Wonder Woman did know a little about the new recruit. She was able to turn invisible, move things with her mind, create force fields and fly, and while there weren't that many super crooks around these days, there was always plenty of work for members of the League to do. Besides training, this Violet was part of the deal with the Consortium, and there was talk of more of the Constoruim's superpowered young women coming here for training.
"Are you going to need a workspace?" Wonder Woman asked.
That had already been taken care of.
"I found a space for the Quantum Mirror and small office," Shayera told her teammate "Miranda can move between here and home easy enough and she'll be here to greet any men that come through".
Wonder Woman was pleased to hear that things were progressing well with the repopulation project. She'd never forget the men she'd know that had been lost, but it was good to know that the future was looking better.
(Line Break)
Watchtower. No-Men DCAU.
From up in orbit, looking down on the Earth it was easy to imagine that everything was fine down there. That the human race which called the planet below their home wasn't in danger of going the way of the Dodo. Yet with a little more examination, it was easy to be reminded of the truth.
One of the many things they didn't up was monitor news stations. This made sense since the female heroes who guarded this world needed to know what was happening and the news station even reported on how well the efforts of the heroes were received by the general public.
You'd think that the news stories with some archive footage with men in them, but they seemed to avoid showing any males at all, I didn't think this had to do with anyone wanting to forget that the human race had a male population. I figured it had more to do with no one wanting to needlessly remind other people that they'd all lost a son or a husband, or a brother, due to that Amazon woman.
On the subject of Amazon women, it made a certain amount of sense that Wonder Woman had taken over the command of the League once the male founding members had died, from what I'd been able to piece together so far she and Hawkgirl had rallied a load of females superhumans together so that they could stop the world from collapsing into total anarchy.
That must have been a lot of work, and you'd think it would be impossible to prevent the human race from dying out in this universe after it lost more than half its number (many women died as well due to out of control fires, disease outbreaks and famines caused by a lack of proper food production) yet the League had helped make things stable. Doing the impossible and not for the first time.
"Hey there," said a voice.
I turned to see Batgirl, in her suit, walking up to me.
"Fancy meeting you here" she then said.
I hadn't even known that Batgirl ever joined the League, in the canon verse perhaps she never did, but it made sense that she had in this version as the League needed all the help it would get.
"Some of my people are here to help get the repopulation project going" I explained, "I figured that I'd come along and check out your Watchtower".
Things were moving at an impressive pace.
"I opened up Wayne Manor to the project," Barabra Gordon told me "It can comfortably house a few men and the support staff".
The manor was also outside of the city, had really good security and I didn't doubt that Batgirl would mind having some blokes around.
"What about the cave?" I asked.
Since the whole point of my group handing over the men to the League was so that they didn't end up getting treated as lab rats I knew that Miss Gordon would have trouble keeping the cave secure.
"I'm having most of Batman's crime-fighting stuff transferred to a secure site," she told me "I don't use much more than my bike these days so I'm planning to seal up the entrances to the cave, well two of them I don't want to trap all those bats".
Crime must be a lot more manageable in Gotham these days if she was downsizing her operations to that extent. Perhaps I could take advantage of this.
"Any chance I got buy some of that stuff from you?" I asked.
She seemed to struggle for an answer.
"I don't think Bruce would approve," she said, "I don't know what you'd be using it for".
Most of it would have just ended up in a capsule as part of my ever-growing collection of cool stuff, but I wanted more of the League's stuff all I had to was find some dimension were there was no one left at all to stop me from taking whatever I wanted.
"I was also hoping to get some DNA samples" I informed Batgirl "I'm not going to clone anyone I just want to see what sort of genes can give people different talents and powers".
Barbara Gordon gestured to were a small group of female heroes were no so subtly checking me out. To be fair even if there had been other men around my Asgardian form would have still been worth a look.
"They might agree if they can get some samples of their own," said the red-headed crimefighter.
It didn't take me long to figure out what she meant by that.