Chojin Patriarch
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Ah, visiting Kara In-Ze, Supergirl of Earth-50 (Specifically, the Justice Lords alternate universe.) I see the Renegade is still concerned about Kara Zor-El's behaviour. And well he should be. But this is quite the greeting.13th February 2013
17:06 GMT -5
Earth 50
I get a half-second view of her dainty fingers, then I'm flying backwards across the Metropolis skyline with my nose pancaked across my face.
Ow!
Yeah, animated Kryptonians are extra-broken.
Not wanting to waste time for it to regenerate normally, eh, Renegade? Or is it just that smashed flat that you need to reset it first?
...That's the neck section of the armour, for those not familiar. And I assume it's a fair chunk of plating, given the size of his neck.OW! Which hurts more-. And-.
I'm jerked to a stop as Kara blurs after me, her hands grabbing my gorget. "What are you doing here?"
Aw. I guess it has been a while since you last visited, Renegade."Fixing my nose, you-. Deeply rude woman. What the heck was that for?"
"What did you think I was going to do? You're still a wanted fugitive, Grayven."
...Who? Oh, right, the SHADE folks in the Anti-Life-contaminated bunker he got Lynne from. ...Was it SHADE? Been so dang long..."What? But I barely committed any crimes at all." She looks incredulous. "One little vault break in and maybe a few thousand dollars with of damage."
"And the people you killed."
Yes, they were the smart ones, leaving as soon as they could..."They were Anti-Lifed to the point of being unsalvageable." I shake my head as my nose finishes regenerating. "I honestly didn't realise that people here were still throwing such a fit about things."
"John and Shayera aren't here. They-."
Heh. Those dad-habits keeping him from getting too blue with the language, I see."They're on Thanagar. I know. I'm still in contact. I'm a friendly guy with people who don't respond to 'hello' by punching me in the f-. Flipping face."
I jerk my arms up, knocking her arms away. And yes, I know that if she was gripping hard that wouldn't have worked, but I'm happy to see that she hasn't quite learned real savagery yet.
Probably not quite as developed, being in her mid-teens and all, compared to Kara-50's adult figure.She folds her arms across her chest. "What do you want?"
"I found our version of you a while ago. Ah. Sort of. She's Kara Zor-El, not Kara In-Ze, but… Same idea. Blonde kryptonian female, survived Krypton going up…"
Heck, with their designer genes, why limit yourself to shades of black, reddish-brown and yellow?
Hey, you said it and the implied joke, not him, hon'.I feel guilty for thinking it, but I can't help it any more than I can prevent myself snort-chuckling.
"Wha-?" She blinks as she gets it. "Ugh. That's not funny, Grayven."
And technically, barring other members of their species surviving, they technically are the only black- and blonde-haired Kryptonians... In this universe, at least."If it makes you feel better, Kal-El's the only black-haired kryptonian." I exhale. "I don't find the death of your species funny or anything, but it was the juxtaposition between you just saying it like that-."
"I can go back to hitting you, you know."
Oh, that caught her off-guard nicely."If it makes you feel better-. No, let me… So, we located her and brought her back to the facility I'm using to clone the kryptonian species back into viability-."
"Y-? How do you mean..?"
And it might not be a great idea to mix and match from two different universes without some very detailed tests. Don't want to make Bizarroes or something worse..."I got a load of kryptonian genetic records from… Various places, mixed them up a bit and then used some ex-Citadel cloning machines to create more kryptonians. Hired some people to raise the resulting children… And since that was-. Actually, do you have any kryptonian genetic records here? We're doing okay for genetic variation, but there's no such thing as too much variety."
"Ah… Brainiac's database might have some medical records… He could access all of the data on krypton, but I don't know if he bothered loading it onto the database Kal captured. There's… Probably some intact bodies on Kandor. We didn't really get much kryptonite radiation, unlike krypton."
Not as such, no. 'Slave' implies they wouldn't be serving him entirely willingly.I nod. "Nifty. I'll have a look around at some point, we can include them in the next batch."
"You're not… Keeping them as slaves, are you?"
Yes, an entire army of super-men and -women. It's a pleasant thought, isn't it? Probably gives the Grayven part of the Renegade a warm tingle down low."What? No. Karsta Wor-Ul would-" Try to. "-kill me. And they're children; there's basically nothing they could do that it wouldn't make more sense to have an adult or a robot do."
"But when they grow up…"
As noted, they'll want to pay him back for what he's done for them thus far. It's positively insidious... If he intended it with any malice in the first place."They're part of my domains. If they want to work for me, I'll hire them. But their capacities make forcing them completely impractical."
She stares at me searchingly, and I shrug.
Probably safer than trying it the old-fashioned way with a human man. A reversal of the 'Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex' meme, if you will."Okay. So-? Wait, are you asking me to… Contribute?"
"Ah. No? I mean, you can-. And I can manufacture kryptonian sperm if that's something that you want, but-. We're getting away from my point."
A sarcophagus with an Eradicator protocol installed. Which I now realise he may not even have thought to check for."Which is?"
"Our Kara was severely injured due to having been in a malfunctioning pod ship which was trapped in a kryptonite asteroid. We fixed her up with a daxamite medical sarcophagus, and she seemed… Fine-ish..? But she's a lot more… Socially vicious. And… Loudly devoted to Kryptonian nationalism in a way that I wasn't… Expecting."
Different universes, different histories and cultures, Renegade."Okay? She's not me. I don't really… I mean, aside from Jax-Ur, that wasn't really part of kryptonian politics. We didn't have any contact with aliens and no one really wanted to leave."
"No vrangs on your parallel?"
And depending on Rao's colour at the time, that must have been a feat.She frowns. "No who?"
"Vrangs? An alien species that invaded medieval krypton before eventually being kicked off by the natives. That didn't happen on your krypton?"
Yes, putting all your culture's knowledge in the hands of an AI with what turned out to be untrustworthy goals worked so well.."Not that I remember. I never really bothered studying ancient history, and if Brainiac didn't think it was important, he might just have got rid of the records." She relaxes her arms. "So, okay, she's acting weird. Why do you want to talk to be about it?"
"Because you're both young kryptonian women and I don't know any kryptonian psychologists. I'd like to you try talking to her, find out if there's actually something wrong with her."
What, you haven't earned a little vacation time in the last few years?"I can't just disappear from my job."
"I could kidnap you? I mean, it's not like I ran out of gold kryptonite."
Ooh, clever girl. The DCAU always did have a Superfamily willing to break out the lead suits, if nothing else."And it's not like I ran out of radiation shields." She looks away, thinking. "How long will this take?"
"I don't know. How good at psychology are you?"
I mean, it's not like he could do you any harm if he got angry about it..."Why don't you ask Kal?"
"Your Kal-El?" She nods. "Because I don't want him near the children. Or near me. Did you tell him I'm the one who dosed him with gold kryptonite?"
I do hope she isn't wearing the same blue-black and white styling, at least."No, I left that out. He's actually… Talking to me now. He approves of…" She glances down at her 'S'. "This."
"I imagine he wasn't entirely displeased to learn that Batman died either."
Mind filling us all in? I'm drawing a blank. It has been a while since I've dived that deep into the archive. I'm assuming it was a 'heroic sacrifice' thing... <@Agumentics posts> Ah, I see. Yeah, that'll do it."I'm not sure. He wasn't happy when I told him, especially when I told him how." She shrugs. "They were friends for years. I don't think his… Feelings about Batman were that… Simple."
"So is that a hard no from you?"
Too bad it's not like he can return to his life as Clark Kent... That probably got burned during the events that sent them into 'superhuman dicators.'"I'll see if I can get the time off work, but I'd like to get Kal out of the Fortress. It's not healthy."
I sigh. "Okay. I'll give him a try."
At least the Renegade is smart enough to have an inkling that maybe he effed up somewhere with Kara Zor-El. And seeking aid is probably the best way to get started on fixing it. And a little bit of quid pro quo for Kara In-Ze's aid, I see. I wonder what would happen if Superman-50 met Superman-16R? Mutual disappointment? A sad admittance that the former wished he could be the latter again? I suppose we'll see eventually.
It's possible, as I noted in my commentary, that he didn't even know it was installed in the pod. His metaknowledge is a bit spotty, after all he's been through.You sorta forgot to mention the fact that you basically put the brain of a Nazi robot into her head.
So you forgot the Nazi robot?
Delete 'with'..."One little vault break in and maybe a few thousand dollars with of damage."
"Ah… Brainiac's database might have some medical records… He could access all of the data on krypton, but I don't know if he bothered loading it onto the database Kal captured. There's… Probably some intact bodies on Kandor. We didn't really get much kryptonite radiation, unlike krypton."
Two occurrences of 'krypton' where it should be 'Krypton'."Vrangs? An alien species that invaded medieval krypton before eventually being kicked off by the natives. That didn't happen on your krypton?"