The shopping trip took seven hours, Alex was sure the women were going slowly just to drag out his and the other two's pain.
Megan chose to model her choices to Conner; the poor teen could only look on as she changed from one set of clothes to another; his face grew redder and redder as the clothes moved to swimwear.
Clark was torn between ogling Lois and trying to not see his baby cousin or outright covering her in a towel when she also tried on swimming clothes.
Alex watched this all in amusement until he too wanted to cover Sam in a towel so other men could not see her in some of the more revealing bathing suits.
Diana and Dinah chose to tease the three males, although Diana did cause a bit of a stir when she exited the changing room topples when it came to the swimwear.
Karen and Stephanie had fun as well when the sales clerk would bring them cute dresses and other things to try on to which all of the adults agreed almost completely took the show especially when they made cute little poses.
"Ugh I can't remember any of my battles with a supervillain tiring me out so much," Clark said when they returned to the farm loaded down with bags of clothes.
Alex and Conner nodded as they set the bags down and followed Clark into the kitchen to sit at the table and all three lay their heads down with groans.
"Yeah, I fought a zombie hoard for three days straight and didn't feel this tired," Alex said, his voice muffled by the table.
"I have no comparison but I feel like I just went through a real battle and I'm not sure if I won or lost," Conner said as he turned his head to the side as the women cheerfully went through the bags in the living room.
"It couldn't have been that bad, " Jonathan said as he joined the three at the table.
"Ma you get a shopping spree next week and Pa has to join you," Clark said while sliding a debit card to his mother.
"Son I couldn't use your money to buy clothes I can easily get from the local stores," Martha protested.
"It's fine Alex sold some gold and put it on that card, it should be enough to get you both new wardrobes," Clark explained hiding a grin as his father winced.
"Yeah, money is not a problem for me if I need it can make enough gold or other precious metals to sell for cash anytime."
"Precious metals?" Lois asked as she joined them.
"Yeah, gold silver platinum, heck I can even make gems of any shape and size," Alex said while dropping a brick of said metals and several gems on the table only for them to be scooped up by Lois.
"Thank you," she said then turned to rejoin the other women in the living room.
"Uh, what just happened?" Alex asked as he looked at the table.
"Lois just took your things and I don't think you're getting them back," Clark said while watching Lois show the gems to Diana and Dinah.
"Daddy I want pretty rocks too," Karen said from above the table Stephanie at her side, both girls were giving him puppy eyes.
Alex sighed and lay his hand on the table and gems of many shapes and sizes began to flow from under it for a minute before he lifted his hand.
"Thanks, Daddy, Uncle Alex, " the two little girls said before gathering up the gems and flying to the living room to show off.
"Alexander no crashing the gems market just to make the girls happy," Sam called out from the living room causing Alex to jump.
"Make me immune to those eyes and you have a deal," Alex called back.
"Impossible that is a woman's most powerful weapon, if I give you immunity I'll never get my way again."
"Alright then next time I'll send them to you, " Alex shot back only for all of the women in the house to laugh.
"If you all have those suits that can become anything why did you all buy so many things?" Martha asked as she looked into the living room.
"We had the money and it would have looked funny to try on so much and not buy anything," Dinah said as she picked out a top she had chosen.
"What about the clothes for the men did you at least get them to try on things as well?"
"Yeah Alex has that stored away for now, they can go through it later we needed to get Dinah's and Megan's stuff sorted before they go home," Lois said as she lifted a dress that was Diana's.
"Oh then that's fine, dinner will be ready soon."
It took another thirty minutes for the women to sort out the clothes, Diana followed Megan and Dinah when they left taking hers and Stephanie's clothes to her apartment in the watchtower before returning for dinner.
"Umm, so we didn't get to talk about raising Stephanie and while I don't want to cause trouble for you and your people, I'm not going to be cut out of her life," Clark said while teasing Stephanie with a spoonful of ice cream.
"No even with the unusual birth we will share time with her, Sam spoke about friends helping other friends having children and they shared their childcare duties and that I should not try to keep her from you as even without going through the motions she is your daughter as well," Diana said smiling as Stephanie kept trying to grab his hand.
"And we can always get her big brother to babysit occasionally," Lois added watching Conner from the corner of her eye to see his response.
"At least she doesn't need diapers, I'd mess that up," Conner said not denying he could and would babysit.
" Hey, I can watch her from time to time too," Kara piped up as she tried and failed to tease Karen with ice-cream as well.
"Okay that's the sitters set now for the rotation on which nights she stays with which parent, " Clark said just as Stephanie's hand shot out and grabbed his and pulled the spoon to her mouth.
"Don't forget grandparent visits in your planning, " Martha stated as she pushed bowls of ice cream to each girl foiling the game Clark and Kara were playing.
The girls pounced on the bowls before the two could begin to tease them again.
"I'm thinking about visiting the watchtower tomorrow, I've got to speak to J'onn about something and maybe visit a few places then we travel on," Alex said while stirring his ice-cream softening it up before taking a mouthful.
"You're leaving so soon?" Lois asked almost dropping her spoon.
"Yeah it's part of my nature, never saying in one place for long, plus Sam wants to visit a version of the world she was copied from."
"Is that why we never stayed in an area long?" Sam asked realizing that they moved around the last world a lot.
"Yeah until I reach a certain age and level of power I'll want to move offten, it's a survival thing really, if a Plane's walker stays in a world for too long a more powerful one can find them and attack the younger ones to steal their powers," Alex explained.
Everyone seemed to understand after that explanation, " What about visiting?"
" I can return to any world I've been to at any time I want though time will be linear, meaning a week there is a week here."
"Well then visit offten then," Lois and Diana ordered together.
"I'll make sure we come by now and then, " Sam said while finishing her dessert.
"That's good to hear, so what do you plan to do tomorrow?" Lois asked.
"Get a scan of Megan's ship and see if I can upgrade it like I did for the clothes pellets, normally they would only work for a Martian but now they bond to anyone and can take in the properties of armor."
"Yeah I got to say that I love the suit, but why give them out?" Clark asked with Conner and Kara nodding in agreement.
"Uh, I'm only giving them to the League, you guys often have new armor made if you all give the upgraded armor to the suits it will integrate it into itself without losing the former armor's best features but you have to be careful about feeding them new armors too often it may hurt them," Alex warned.
"What about normal clothes," Kara asked while petting the arm of her shirt that was rippling under her menstruation.
"They don't have to absorb normal clothes, if you can imagine it the suit can make it."
"Ohh," everyone said.
"Yeah."
"Then why did we go clothes shopping today?" Conner asked.
"Diana and Megan needed to get an idea for clothes, Diana doesn't wear much other than her armor most times, and Megan for the time-honored shopping trip to show off what she looks like in different clothes in front of a possible boyfriend," Sam said while causing Conner to blush.
"Just take it slowly, you both are young and she'll still be learning Earth culture and will stumble on things from time to time," Martha said placing a comforting hand on her grandson's shoulder.
"Ahh yeah, I just remembered something, Conner. You will need to limit your power usage to strength and visual powers other than heat vision for a while."
Every person at the table looked at Alex confused.
"Remember Lex had him cloned from a mix of Clark and his DNA so he knows what powers Conner is supposed to have, if Conner uses the other powers Lex may try another clone and severely limit the next one's intelligence," Alex explained.
"How long?" Conner asked.
"Well if I remember correctly a few months after the league finishes up the headquarters for the team they are thinking of putting together for your younger heroes, Lex will contact you and offer you some patches that'll unlock all of your powers, once he gives them to you get them to Clark, they could have done what I said but you don't need them plus they are addictive."
Conner nodded, " Yeah that's not good for anyone, a super-powered person looking for their next fix."
" No, it's not," Clark said, remembering the time he used red kryptonite.
"Alright, it's getting late. Let's all get to bed; Conner and Kara start school tomorrow, and these two are almost swimming in their ice cream," Lois said, pointing to Karen and Stephanie, whose heads were bobbing just over their bowls.
"Yeah, Diana and Sam can get them to bed; Clark Conner and I need to sort out the clothes we got today," Alex said, standing and going to the living room to take their bags from his hammerspace.
Sam and Diana picked up their sleepy daughter and went into the house after opening a door against a wall; they took the two to Karen's room, changed them into pj's, and then put them to bed.
"I must admit that your home is quite a convince," Diana said as they returned to the Kent kitchen.
"Yeah but I would not have liked to pay the price Alex had to pay to get it," Sam said sadly as she took her seat and pulled Karen's forgotten bowl to herself.
"Price he paid?" Diana asked as she took Stephanie's.
"What he said about never being able to go home is true, the one reality he wants to get to and he cannot get there," Sam pointed out as she scooped up some of the melted ice cream.
Lois and Diana sat there stunned for a few minutes until Alex came through the door and entered the house, "How is he not allowed to return home?"
"Universal laws see him as dead there; if he tries to go there, the universe will either kick him back out or destroy him," Sam said sadly.
"I'll be able to go home in a few hundred to a thousand years, it's a matter of power," Alex said as he stepped back into the kitchen after dropping his clothes on the couch.
"But by the time you're able to get there, everyone you know will be gone," Lois said, hugging herself, trying not to think about the same thing happening to her.
Alex looked confused, "Uh, no, until I enter a universe, I can choose a time to go. Once I get there, time locks and becomes linear."
The women seemed to relax at hearing that, "If you can do that what was that with Batman and how you yelled at him over losing his parents and going over on his paranoia?" Diana asked looking confused.
"Oh, that was me trying to force his eyes open to the fact that he isn't the only person to lose family and that he's gone too far, I've never been able to figure out how he could get that far until I realized that there was a curse on Gotham, I am guessing that it pushed him into it or his growing up in the center of the curse and he's been fighting it," Alex said with a shrug as he stole a spoonful from Sam's bowl.
"So he may calm down?" Lois asked hoping Bruce would get some peace.
"It'll take time months probably, the crime rates should start to fall, and if he sticks to The Joker Penguin and Two-face leaving normal crooks for the police the other villains should back off and leave Gotham," Alex stated while he tried to take another spoonful but Sam was fighting him off.
"You know that there are a few other villains that focus on Batman right?" Diana asked watching the two play fight over the melted ice cream.
"Riddler is a low-level villain who only pops up once or twice a year, Catwoman likes to steal from criminals give her a place in the league and she'll legally be able to do something, the Hatter is a fractured other worlder looking for Alice but only finding echoes of her, telling him that the medicine the doctors provided can help him find Alice and ignore the echoes and he'll stop kidnapping girls named Alice, killer croc just needs a job talk the city into paying him to clean the sewers and he'll stop robbing places mainly for food, Harley Ivy and Doll may need some watching but I think they are fine as long as Harley stays away from the Joker and Ivy's working on legally selling the fertilizer she uses for her plants its only her power over plants that mutates them and Doll just wants an adult body, can you imagine how it feels to be a grown woman in a child's body forever."
Diana had pulled a piece of paper and pen from beside the phone and wrote out his suggestions, "Adult woman in a child's body?"
"Yeah Doll is almost a hundred years old and in the body of a ten-year-old girl, she wants to grow up so she can get out to meet people outside using the internet and the few times she met people they were pedophiles."
"Ahh yeah I got it, but how can she be helped?"
"There is a priest who catches criminals and uses a ritual to take their youth to keep an eye on his orphanage he can get a few decades each time, I guess that if he uses Doll he can age her up to about twenty and possibly some of what keeps her from aging gets transferred as well, two birds one stone kind of deal."
"I'll make a trip to Gotham and speak to Catwoman and Doll," Diana said after finishing writing.
"Ok Doll is at Ivy's greenhouse, Go in civys and they shouldn't attack you, do you know Catwoman's I.D?"
At Diana's nod, he smiled, "Good just straight up make her the offer."
Alex gave up on stealing more ice cream, much to the amusement of the women, just before Clark and Conner rejoined them.
"Do I need to go with her?" Clark asked as he sat beside Lois.
"No, Diana will mostly be immune to Ivy's pollen and Harley while a pervert is devoted to the relationship the two are building, and Doll doesn't trust grown men after all the pedophiles have tried to get with her for her physical appearance," Alex said as Conner slumped into a seat against the wall.
"Why can't I just go with cargo pants and black shirts?" Conner asked.
"Variety, if you only wear that, people will think you're in a gang. Plus, Megan looked to enjoy seeing you in those other types of clothing, " Lois said with Sam and Kara nodding.
"Ahh, I'd not thought of that," Clark said, then looked to Conner, " I used to wear only jeans and flannel shirts until Lois got her hooks in me. I still have some, but she won't be seen in public with me, like that outside our days spent here in Smallville."
Lois nodded with a smile, "I may have messed up on that one; getting him out of jeans and flannel, I have to fight off the women flocking to him."
Conner looked confused for a second, "But cargo pants and black shirts are functional, and I won't have to pick out stuff to wear. Just grab a pair and go."
"Yeah that's one of the reasons I wore flannel and jeans, grab and go, but that's not good enough for women, I'll not tell you to chase after Megan but do be a friend and see where you two go from there as you two will be starting from the same point, " Clark said while looking at the teen who nodded.
Conner nodded, "Umm yeah we can be friends."
"Conner, I know you have an aversion to telepaths; please remember it is in her nature to form at least minor bonds with people. I'll be seeing her tomorrow, and I will remind her to ask before she tries to peak into your mind" Alex called out to the teen.
"Uh, thanks, " Conner said while thinking over what Alex just said, " I'll try to remember that. I think part of that was from the programming Cadmus did, but I don't feel them in my head anymore. "
"Yeah sorry I forgot, you are full-on Kryptonian now and not part genomorph, Clark you and the Bat will want to keep an eye on Cadmus."
"Genonorph?" Clark asked.
"Yeah, part human alien creatures Cadmus made to be telepathic to program others. They slipped my mind. Eventually, they will try and break away from Cadmus and build an underground city."
"We'll keep it in mind, will we need to prepare for them to cause trouble?"
"Nah, they'll be peaceful for the most part. They will defend themselves but try to remain apart," Alex stated while trying to remember what else he may have forgotten.
"Okay I will bring it up in our next meeting," Clark said pulling Lois to his side.
Alex looked from one to the other in the room stopping for a few seconds at Jonathan and Martha, "We'll be leaving in two days if something else pops into my head I'll let you all know."
The others nodded before getting up from the table to get to bed, "Goodnight all." they said before going to their rooms and homes in Lois and Clark's case.
Alex and Sam went to their room as Diana looked in on the girls, they had kicked off their blankets and cuddled up into a bundle of limbs.
Diana went to pull the blanket over the girls when she found two sets of armor on the foot of the bed with a card tucked between them.
"Happy Birthday little ones," it was signed by an elaborate H.
After recovering the girls she left the room with a smile on her face, entering the room she used for the last three nights she willed her clothes to become a gown lay on the bed, and fell to sleep still smiling.
"DADDY I got a great new suit lookit," Karen burst into Alex and Sam's room wearing a version of Wonder Woman's outfit with pants instead of the star-covered bikini bottoms. (Lookup Justice League war, you'll get an idea of how I picture the suits Karen and Stephanie received.)
"That's nice sweetie, did you show it to Mommy yet?" Alex asked as he pulled the blanket over his lap ensuring he was covered.
"Nope, I wanted to show you first," Karen giggled as she swooped around the room.
"Well I like it but can you go show it to Mommy so I can get dressed?" he asked while trying not to laugh at her.
"Okay, Mommy where are you?" she yelled out.
"Bathroom," Sam called back.
"Lookit my new suit," Karen said as she moved to the bathroom.
"Pretty, strip out of it you need a shower, and can join me," Sam said while getting the shower going.
Alex sighed and got up pulling the sheet around himself as he went to the second bathroom through Karen's room and knocked before opening the door to find it empty.
After his shower he took the sheet to the hamper and found that Stephanie as well had a suit, "I thought they said three days?"
"Hephaestus got excited and being that she is so small and has a friend he made the first set and didn't like it so made another set and sent them both, Karen got the first set with more blue while Stephanie got the set that matched mine with leggings with stars, " Diana said wrapping Stephanie in a hug.
Alex nodded, "Alright well at least they are protected."
Sam and Karen joined them in the living room and smiled at the two, "So now what?"
"Breakfast and I go to the watchtower and talk to J'onn and Megan if she is there and not at school yet," Alex said opening the door to come out against the barn.
The five entered the house to find just Martha and Jonathan at the table, "The kids are getting ready for school."
"Ahh yeah, I'll eat and go I want to get to Megan before she pops over to get to school.," Alex said fixing a plate and eating it before getting Diana to get him teleported up.
J'onn met him at the teleportation pads, Megan at his side, "Good morning, I was about to join Conner and Kara for school," Megan said cheerfully.
"Morning, I hope you enjoy your experience with school, but I felt I needed to remind you that Conner may react badly, he said that as long as you ask him before entering his mind he will try and control his behavior just remember it not your fault so don't take it personally and I know sometimes your people form lingering connections give him time to grow accustomed to your presence before you form one, Kara may not mind it but ask first with her as well most people are not as open as your people are," Alex said quickly as he stepped off the pads and Megan stepped up so she could see her friends.
"Okay I'll keep that in mind, see you later uncle," Megan said before disappearing in a flash of light.
"You're here to scan the ship?" J'onn asked.
"Yeah that and to barrow a communicator, there are a few places I would like to visit before we leave tonight or tomorrow morning," Alex said as he followed J'onn through the watchtower to the hanger bay.
"I'm sure we can see about it, I have to ask where you wish to go?"
"Various towns and cities to sell gold and jewels to have some money for a few things, plus it is a surprise, " Alex said looking around the place and seeing many heroes going about their business.
They entered the hangar bay and he saw many ships that looked like the Javelin, and one off to the side that looked like a very large egg floating a few feet off of the floor, ' No wonder I didn't pick it up when I scanned the place,'.
"Will 'she' let me touch 'her' or do you need to contact 'her' first?"Alex asked as he looked over the ship.
"I believe I should contact 'her' first so if 'she' can feel your scan it may cause 'her' to act defensively," J'onn said before looking at the ship for a second before nodding.
" 'She' wants to know why we were referring to the ship as if it had a gender."
"It is an Earth thing we call vehicles 'she' or 'her' if we like them, I think it helps form sentimental attachments so we take better care of them, " Alex said with a shrug.
"Ahh yes I can understand that," J'onn said while gesturing to Alex toward the ship.
"Alright 'girl' you let J'onn know if I accidentally harm you and back away from my touch," Alex said while lifting his hand to touch the ship.
" 'She' will do as you said," J'onn told him.
Alex touched the ship, his eyes widening almost comically as he began to understand the makings of the ship, he would easily be able to make copies of the ship, its intelligence was that of a small child but learning quickly.
" 'She' can feel your scan but it is not harmful to ''her'."
"Can you contact Megan from here?"
"I can but just barely, why?"
"I can upgrade 'her' and being Megan's ship I need her permission to do it."
J'onn was silent for a few minutes before nodding, "As long as 'she' agrees and it won't hurt 'her'," J'onn said before looking at the ship in concentration and nodding after a few seconds.
"Alright 'girl' let's get you a fresh new coat of paint," Alex said while focusing on the ship and using knowledge from the zombie world in technology and changing it to match the biological format of the ship and let his concept flow into it.
The ship began to glow brightly, its form shifted and swelled for a few seconds until it shrank to be just a bit smaller than it was before Alex started.
When Alex removed his hands the ship was now shining in places and it also wobbled a few times before settling.
"Thank you, wow this is new, I can verbally speak to people now and my mind is much faster and clearer than before," a female voice spoke up from the area that the ship was in.
"Well that was unexpected," Alex said looking over the ship.
"Yes, can you explain what you did?" J'onn asked a little stunned about the ship speaking.
"Well I gave her a weapons system and the ability to absorb materials that she can use to increase 'her' armor I may have also increased 'her' intelligence and learning abilities but 'she'll' still have to have a captin," Alex said while going over his second scan of the ship.
"Wepons? we don't normally have weapons on our personal ships."
"Uh you but they default to nonlethal," Alex pointed out as the ship shifted to its flight mode.
Weapons grew over the hull only to be reabsorbed and grow in other places, "Yes I am unable to attack with lethal force, but I have EMP capabilities and stunning," the ship said before resuming rest mode.
"Yeah you can only use the heavy hitter weapons on asteroids and the like," Alex announced to let J'onn know that the ship couldn't be used to attack people.
"Where is my Captin?" the ship asked while drifting close to J'onn and stopping a few feet from him.
"Like you, she is young and needs to learn, right now she is with friends in a learning facility called school, she is there to learn to blend in with humans," J'onn told the ship.
"Ahh yes she was speaking about school and friends before she left this morning?" the ship asked.
"Yes, I am looking for a home on Earth for us to live, once I find one you may move to the home so you can be able to contact her," J'onn announced while patting the ship.
"I would enjoy that, being unable to contact my captain feels wrong."
"Well I think that's about all I can do here and I still have a few things to do," Alex said as he patted the ship as well.
"Can I eat one of those ships over there?" the ship asked.
"No please don't," J'onn almost shouted.
"Ohh OK it's just that they look so sleek, I know I can shift forms some but not to be like them," the ship almost sounded like it was pouting.
Alex looked at a Javelin then to J'onn, " You know I can copy one for her to absorb right?"
J'onn looked at him for a second, " Oh right I forgot."
Alex walked over to touch a Javelin to not give away that he already had a scan of the entier satellite.
"May want to warn who ever is in overwatch that I'm going to make a ship for her to absorb," Alex told J'onn as he rejoined him.
"Yes that is prudent," J'onn said before looking off into the distance then gave a nod.
Alex stepped away held up his hands and focused on creating a Javelin, he made it look like it took some time and energy to make but once it was done he tiredly smiled and gestured for the Martian ship toward it, "Enjoy but it is the only one you get."
"Thank you," the ship said before hovering over the Javelin then covering it with its body and seemed to wriggle as it shank back into its resting state.
"Wow that's yummy and filling, neat I'll now have a wormhole drive and so many more functions once I've finished integrating it all," the ship said joyfully.
"We'll let you get on with that, I'll let you know when I have a home down on the planet," J'onn said as he and Alex left the hanger.
"Uh what happens when she is ready to spawn offspring?" Alex asked as they walked down the corridor.
J'onn stopped and stared at Alex in confusion, "Spawn offspring?"
"Yeah well, she is a biological lifeform you know?" Alex asked.
"Well yes I knew that but normally they don't spawn until they are at least fifty or so years old, " J'onn announced while looking back toward the hanger bay.
"Yeah I may have changed that, also I think she is asexual, Megan will need to watch over her and if she spawns on her own you'll have to find a trustworthy captain," Alex stated while scratching his head.
"I'll talk to her about it but the ship is about two years old, 'she' knows me I'll keep watch on 'her' until we get a home on Earth, " J'onn said while they continued to the control center.
"Yo you the new guy?" Guy Gardner ask when they entered the center.
"No just a visitor passing through," Alex said while watching Flash running around Central City.
"Oh okay so what can I do for you?"
"Need a communicator for a day or so, I'll be giving it to Superman when I am done."
"Sure thing," said opening a drawer with blister packs with earpieces in them, popping one out he passed it over, "Put it in your ear tap it twice and stat a name to go by."
Putting the earpiece in he tapped it twice and said, "Traveler."
"Alright that's done, you can contact the tower and through it just about anyone in the league," Guy told him after the computer added the name to the roster.
"Thanks I'll mostly be using it to contact a member if I'm going to be going through their citiy to let them know that the flying person isn't a criminal."
"Yeah that's happened to us a few times, before we got the bugs worked out a few times a newbie attacked a senior member cause they didn't know ahead of time," Guy said with a smile.
"Okay are the Titans active or on downtime right now I'm planning on starting in Jump City, " Alex stated while looking over the monitors.
"They should be in the Titan Tower," Guy answered.
"Who are the members?"
"Nightwing, Raven, Starfire and Cyborg."
"Ok I'll start at the Tower I need to speak with Raven," Alex said his face going tight.
"Yeah be careful with her she's been given a raw deal, good kid bad parents," Guy said pulling up the profiles.
"Bad father her mother was a saint of a woman, " Alex informed the two before walking to the teleport pads.
Tapping his ear alex spoke, "Traveler to Nightwing."
"Nightwing here, is this a new member needing a place to crash?"
"Nah it's the guy that told off the Batman, I'm going to pop in I just wanted to give you a heads up."