The Last of the House of Or

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The Last of the House of Or

Post by Kytross »

1,000 Years Ago, in the High Court of Kandor

"The accused will rise."

At the Judge-Magistrate's words Ton-Or stood up in dread. The trial had not gone well.

"Ton-Or, on the accusation of murder the court finds you guilty."

"I was framed!" Ton-Or shouted. No one seemed to notice.

The Judge-Magistrate continued, "You are sentenced to 1000 years in relativistic containment under mental rehabilitation."

"No! No! That's the maximum sentence! I'm innocent! I was in my apartment that night! I'm innocent!"

Two bailiffs in powered armor stepped up and grabbed Ton-Or by his arms to carry him out of the court. He was shouting for mercy the whole way.

|+|+|+|+|+|

Ton-Or was strapped into the incarceration rocket, completely immobilized. The nurse-programmer smiled at him. She was very attractive. And she was being very kind to him, a convicted murderer. Maybe it was because he had helped her through programming his mental rehabilitation program.

"Now, what courses did you want to learn while you are being rehabilitated?"

"Does it really matter? In a thousand years I'll only be a few days older. Everyone I know will be in their old age. No matter what hypno-course you program into me will be outdated when I get back. I'm a computer-crystal programmer. It's a cutting edge technology and we probably won't even use crystals when I return." He tried to shake his head but was stopped by the restraints. "Sorry. What do you recommend?"

She smiled at him. "How about History? That doesn't change."

"No. Let's do logic, both philosophy and math and forensic science. Also a general philosophy of science."

The nurse-programmer smiled at him again. Ton-Or was getting the feeling that she wasn't being nice to him as much as humoring him. "All of those are wonderful choices. Enjoy your hypno-rehabilitation." She took the crystal out of her computer and placed it in the hypno-projector around his head.

Ton-Or took a deep breath and let it out slow. Maybe, just maybe, if the hypno-rehab worked, maybe he would be able to prove his innocence when he got back.

He had been waiting in the rocket room for well over an hour by himself. The door opened and someone he didn't recognize walked through the door.

"Hello Ton-Or."

"Hello?" Ton-Or asked.

"You don't know who I am, do you?"

Ton-Or tried to shake his head but the restraints stopped him. "No."

"Really Ton, I would expect one of the geniuses of the house of Or to recognize the man he murdered."

"Dax-Tro! You're still alive? How is that possible?"

Dax-Tro laughed as he crossed the room to stand in front of Ton-Or. "I needed to get the science trackers off my trail. After all the trouble your father gave me I figured framing his son was the least I could do."

"What does my father have to do with this? He died while I was still in-utero."

Dax-Tro laughed. "Who do you think killed him? The fool thought he could stop me, the greatest crime lord on Krypton!"

"I'll get you for this. When I return from rocket incarceration I'll see you behind bars!"

Dax-Tro laughed. "No you won't. You'll never return to Krypton. I paid off the navigator to change your course. In a thousand years you will spend out the rest of your long, long life surrounded by savage barbarian beast men."

"Why are you telling me this?"

Dax-Tro let out a deep belly laugh. "Just to see the look on your face. Proper villains always gloat. It's better than a cherry on top of a sunday."

Ton-Or took a deep breath and let it out slow, calming himself. "Fine. Then I'll reverse-engineer the rocket and fly back to Krypton. I am, after all, a genius from the house of Or."

Dax-Tro's laughter increased. "Come now Ton-Or, stop deluding yourself. I hate when people delude themselves. I am over seven hundred years old. I will be long dead before you ever make it to that savage world. You will never be able to avenge your father. You will never be able to avenge yourself. You will live a long, long life as a complete and utter failure."

Ton-Or shouted his defiance but Dax-Tro turned and left, laughing the entire time. He stopped at the door and grinned. "The house of Or ends with you Ton. Good-bye."
"Only a Sith deals in absolutes!" - Except, apparently, that one.

"And Anarchy, I think we can agree, is only fun some of the time." - Ducky
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Re: The Last of the House of Or

Post by Kytross »

Decked out in yellow and red, sixteen year old Wally West, aka Kid Flash, sat at the console in Mt. Justice, tapping his fingers on the desk as he scrolled through the quantum physics text on one of the screens.

"Bored, bored, bored, bored, bored, bored, bored," he sighed, "The League is more than happy to have us do monitor duty, but they won't let us join them. Sheesh. And worse still, they call it training for when we're Leaguers." Complaining didn't slow him down from reading or from drumming.

Superboy walked in dressed in a black shirt with a diamond shape and an 'S' in the center of it. "How's it going Wally?"

"I am so bored! I can only read one book at a time while I'm watching the other thirty monitors, and nothing is going on on the other thirty monitors an it's boring. Boring. Boring." Wally rolled his head and sighed. "How you doing Conner?"

"Eh, Zatanna and M'gann are having a girls' movie night." Conner sighed. "There's only so many chick flicks I can watch."

"Ha!" Wally said without looking away from the screens. "I bet you didn't make it through the first movie."

"Twenty minutes into Dirty Dancing and I had to get out of there. I was hoping you had something minor I could go handle. A bank robbery in New York or Metropolis. Something I can Zeta to, maybe get a work out, save a life or something."

"Something that looks like a job for Superboy?" Wally grinned at him, still drumming on the desk. "Let me check the police bands real quick." Wally's hands stopped drumming and flew across the keyboard and mouse. The screen with his physics text disappeared into what looked like an internet browser. Text scrolled up the screen. "Uh, let's see. Nothing in Seattle, Coast City, Central City, Gotham has a number of things going on, but you don't want to get in on Batman's turf without his permission."

"I could call Robin?" Conner suggested.

"Not a good idea. He's probably on patrol with dark and gruesome. Or doing homework. I've been his best friend for the last five years and I only call him between 3 and 4 o'clock on weekdays unless it's an emergency." Wally chuckled. "It takes a lot of training to be the Boy Wonder. You wouldn't catch me trying to be a superhero without some sort of powers, but I'd bet at 14 years old Robin could take out any one of us."

Conner laughed. "You're probably right. So whaddya got for me? Maybe there's something in Moscow or Paris?"

"You know the rules, we don't go international without permission. Fawcett had a big night but Captain Marvel took care of all of it."

Conner nodded. "Yeah, the next best thing to Superman. C'mon, there's got to be something."

Wally shrugged. "Not really. Banks don't get robbed every day. There might be an armored car robbery going on somewhere but those usually don't get reported until after the fact." The klaxons sounded and Wally switched over to the other monitors.

"What's going on?" Conner asked.

"It's just the standard alarm," Wally said, scanning the monitors. "There's a computer program that analyses the screens and detects when something is different. I have to assess how dangerous it is and send it to the Watchtower, give me a minute. You know you'd know all this if you learned how to sit monitor duty."

"I'm still learning how to read English, thanks. Maybe I'll be ready next month. Can you bring it up on the screen?"

"It is on the screen," Wally said.

"Uh, which screen?" Conner asked. Wally waved toward ten screens for about a tenth of a second. Conner walked over to them, looking at each one until he found it. "Is that a comet?"

"No, it's a spaceship," Wally said without looking at him.

"How can you tell?" Conner asked. Wally didn't answer with words, he manipulated the controls and the screen magnified, showing the ship for a few seconds until it flew out of screen. Wally zoomed out and reset the camera to track it again. "That looked familiar."

"It's definitely alien. Maybe its Martian or from the Green Lantern Corps or wherever Icon is from." Wally shrugged. "Hold on, I'm getting a text from Captain Atom."

"Not Batman?"

"I told you, Batman is busy in Gotham fighting Penguin." Wally zoomed in on the space ship again. "Green Arrow is on call at the Watchtower, but he can't intercept. Neither can Superman, J'onn, Wonder Woman, or Captain Marvel. Looks like we're taking this one. Go get M'gann and Zatanna."

"What about Captain Atom? Aqualad? Robin?"

"Captain Atom is fighting the Shaggy Man as a delaying action before the rest of the League gets there. Aqualad and Aquaman are evacuating an underwater city because of volcanic activity. Robin is fighting Penguin with Batman. Go get M'gann and Zatanna!"

"If Robin and Aqualad are gone then who's leading the mission?"

"I am," Wally said casually.

"You?" Conner snorted.

"I have more experience in the Hero game than all three of you combined, more than anyone else on the team. Now stop arguing and go tell M'gann to prep the Bioship."

"Yeah, but you? I mean, you're fun Wally but..."

"Superboy! Go get Miss Martian! Get the Bioship prepped! NOW!"

Conner shook his head. "Ok, I'm going."

"NOW!"

|+|+|+|+|+|

"So fearless leader, what's the plan?" Conner asked. They were sitting in pilot house of the Bioship. M'gann was piloting, Conner and Zatanna were sitting at two of the consoles, but between the two of them they were barely computer literate. Wally was at a terminal typing furiously. Artemis was sitting next to him at her own terminal.

"Cut him some slack Conner," Zatanna said, "Do you want to be in charge?"

"I think I'd do a pretty good job," Conner replied. M'gann laughed. "What's so funny?" Conner asked.

"Wally got us here Conner," M'gann answered.

"Personally," Zatanna said, "I admire the way he keeps his cool while we're in trouble. It's not easy to laugh in the face of danger."

"Or be a goofball," Conner said.

"Wally's getting the job done," Artemis cut in, glaring at Conner from her terminal, then quickly looking back at it.

"Shut up guys. I got the analysis done," Wally said. All eyes were on him. He took a deep breath and continued. "From what Artemis and I could pull from the JLA databanks the ship has all the flight characteristics of an unmanned, long range vessel. It broke atmosphere a few minutes ago and deployed a force field that seems to be providing heat protection and negating some of the wind resistance. Because of that, I think its a cargo vessel, not a missile or weapon. Also, this thing has a hyperdrive equipped on it. It doesn't make tactical sense to send an interstellar weapon that would be very easy for a space equipped planet to knock out of the sky. Just to be cautious we're staying about a mile out from the expected touch down point. Any questions?"

"Why don't we just knock it out of the sky?" Conner asked.

"We don't know what the cargo is," Artemis answered. "It could be important."

"Or alive," M'gann said.

"Or a bomb," Conner countered.

"No. Since it hit atmosphere it's begun maneuvering, slowing down, getting ready to land. It's probably not a bomb." Wally shrugged. "It might be an invasion force, but from the size of the vessel it's an invasion of one person, or an army of midgets. Our job is to observe and report."

"That's it?" Conner asked, "While the League handles the Shaggy Man? They give us a scouting mission?"

"What if it's another Shaggy Man?" Zatanna asked. "Or another Superman, but evil?" Everyone else on the ship stared at her. "What?"

Wally shook his head. "Uh, I guess I get to answer that. You're new to the whole hero thing so it's not surprising that you didn't know. Krypton exploded."

Zatanna looked confused. "The element?"

"The planet," M'gann answered. "Superman's homeworld. He's the last survivor. The only survivor."

"But Conner-" Zatanna started.

"I'm a clone," Conner answered. "Mostly Kryptonian with human DNA spliced in where Cadmus couldn't figure it out."

"Oh." Zatanna blinked. "Sorry Conner."

"It's alright." Conner shrugged. "I am what I am."

Everyone else laughed except M'gann. "What?" they asked simultaneously.

"It's Popeye's catch phrase," Wally answered. Surprisingly, he was the first to stop laughing. "Let's get focused. The ship just came up on visual."

"Who's Popeye?" Conner asked. "Superhero or movie star?"

"Cartoon character," Zatanna answered.

"Focus!" Artemis growled.

"What?" Conner asked. "It's a space ship! I saw it on the monitors in the cave!"

"Would you be acting like this if Kaldur'ahm was here? Or Robin?" Artemis asked.

"But they're not here Artemis. Wally is leading the team!" Conner said, unable to get the disgust out of his voice. "He's a goofball!"

"It's not about Wally," M'gann said quietly. "It's about our attitude."

"Exactly," Artemis said. "We're here to do a job. A job no one else on the planet can do right now. Get your head in the game!"

"You're new to the Hero business," Wally said, "I don't need a leader to stay focused. Artemis doesn't either because we've been trained. This is a lot of fun, but it's not a game Conner. People depend on us to keep them alive."

"I know that," Conner said.

"Then act like it," Artemis growled.

"What if he screws up?" Conner asked.

"Then we should be paying attention so we can catch his mistakes before he makes them," M'gann said, "Like Wally does for Kaldur."

"You do that for Kaldur?" Conner asked.

"So do I," Artemis said. "Though Robin's better at it then both Wally and I put together."

"Don't feel too bad," Wally said, "Robin's better at it than Kaldur'ahm. He really is the Boy Wonder. M'gann, keep us cloaked and bring us in to a half mile. While you guys were talking the ship landed."

"You didn't tell us?" Conner asked.

"He told us the ship was on visuals," Zatanna said. "If Kaldur had said that, our eyes would have been glued to the screen."

M'gann moved them in closer. The ship had landed on its thrusters, standing vertically, the whole thing embossed with alien sigils. As they watched the ship opened up, panels unlocking and moving aside, revealing a human looking man who was completely restrained. The restraints pulled away on their own and the man stepped out. He stood there, looking around. He was wearing a black, skin tight outfit with a red crest on it.

"He's human," Zatanna said.

"Or Thanagarrian. Or Rannian. Or a shapeshifter," Artemis said. "I want to know why he was restrained."

"The way the restraints pulled away under their own power," Wally said, "I'd guess they were for his protection. Seat belts against re-entry, that sort of thing. Bring us in closer M'gann, to the limit of psychic range, see if you can read his mind."

Miss Martian flew them in closer. Her eyes glowed green as she activated her psychic power. They finished glowing and then she spoke. "I can establish a psychic link, but I can't understand the language. It's so different from human or even Thanagarrian. There are a few images, mostly looking at the surroundings, but mostly he's thinking in language. Symbols and script I've never seen before."

"Definitely alien then?" Artemis asked.

"Yes," M'gann replied.

"He's a Kryptonian!" Conner said.

"That's impossible," Wally said. "Krypton exploded. Where are you going?"

Conner had moved over to the exit portal. "He's a Kryptonian. I need to talk to him!"

"No, a full blooded Krypto - Conner, NO!"

It was too late. Conner was already gone.
"Only a Sith deals in absolutes!" - Except, apparently, that one.

"And Anarchy, I think we can agree, is only fun some of the time." - Ducky
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Re: The Last of the House of Or

Post by Kytross »

"Eight protons, eight neutrons and eight electrons combines with two atoms of one proton and one electron. The molecule is magnetically bipolar and has a multitude of unique properties."

The mental rehabilitation program stopped speaking. In his suspended animation Ton-Or recognized the silence only as something different. The computer slowly brought him fully awake. The door to the rocket shot open and light flooded the chamber. Ton-Or blinked a few times, trying to adjust to the light. It was far brighter than he was used to. No, not brighter. But different. Hues. Different atmospheric composition.

The restraints released suddenly and Ton-Or staggered out. He hadn't moved in a thousand years; or only a few days, the wonders of relativity. He looked up at the sky. Rao was yellow. No, that wasn't right. It wasn't Rao. Dax-Tro had told him the truth. This was a barbarian planet. It really was a thousand years later. There was some solace to be had in the knowledge that Dax-Tro was long dead, even if Ton-Or didn't get revenge.

There was something about the yellow sun picking at the back of his mind. Something from the hypno-learning. He took another two steps, still staggering. The gravity was off. Low. Incredibly low. He would be a god among beasts here. Hopefully they would be humanoid like the Khunds. He could even handle them if they were like the Dominators. If it was a world of xenomorph parasites then Ton-Or was in trouble and Dax-Tro's revenge against the House of Or would be complete.

He took another few steps, getting used to the low gravity. It wasn't that low. Maybe 1/3 of Krypton's gravity. Maybe 1/4. He would need to measure it if he wanted to know. If this world had the technology. Or even technology he could access. No other species the Kryptonians knew of had any kind of information technology that was within millenia of Kryptonian Crystal Technology.

As Ton-Or looked at the sky he noticed a shimmer. He focused his vision on the shimmer and his vision shifted over to X-Ray spectrum. There was a ship there. Ton-Or didn't recognize the design, but he'd been relativistic for a thousand years. For all he knew it could be a Kryptonian ship. Whatever it was, it was cloaked against the visible spectrum. Interesting. It was probably watching him. There was nothing else here but grass. And the rocket.

Ton-Or sighed. They weren't getting his rocket. He was a crystal programmer, not a warrior, but this ship was his only way back to Krypton and he wasn't giving it up.

Something was happening on the ship. Something dropped out of it. Interesting. Ton-Or's eyes went large as the object launched toward him. It landed and launched itself toward him. It was humanoid. Was it leaping? It landed and launched again. It was finally close enough that Ton-Or got a good look at him. He looked Kryptonian. The clothes were quite strange, but styles change. He switched back to the visible spectrum. That's when he saw it. The crest of the House of El. The House of Or and the House of El were enemies. Political enemies. Jal-El had been a character witness against him at his trial. Violent enemies. Under certain, specific circumstances duels to the death were legal on Krypton. It was one of the reasons he was the last of the House of Or.

"Oh no," Ton-Or said, "I'm not prepared to fight with a Scientist-Magistrate-Enforcer."

The El landed one last time and leapt at him. Ton-Or focused on him, squinting. Red lasers shot from his eyes and hit the El in the face. The El dropped from the sky.

"How did I..." Ton-Or's memory flashed and the hypno learning came back to him, like opening up a web page on a computer. He became aware of the powers Kryptonians gained under a yellow sun. And if the El was here, the El had those powers too. More really,the longer a Kryptonian was under the effects of yellow sun radiation the stronger he got. Which meant the El was going to kick his ass. "Oh good."

|+|+|+|+|+|

"Conner, NO!" M'gann screamed, standing up and stepping away from the controls of the Bioship.

"Sit down M'gann," Kid Flash said calmly. He was standing perfectly still and staring at the main monitor which Artemis had focused on Conner.

"No, I have to go after him," she stepped over toward the portal in the Bioship.

"Sit down M'gann," Kid Flash said again, firmer, turning to face her.

"Conner's hurt!"

"No he's not M'gann. Conner may not have all his powers but he is as invulnerable as Superman." Kid Flash paused, letting that sink in. "Sit down M'gann." M'gann walked back to her seat. "Bring the Bioship in closer. We're going to drop down on the Kryptonian and take him by surprise. Zatanna?"

"Yes Kid Flash?" Zatanna asked.

"Kryptonians have no special resistance to magic. You're our ace in the hole. I want him contained. Stay back and stay out of the fight until you're ready to cast. Artemis and I will distract him. Hopefully Conner will join us. M'gann, once we are clear of the ship, send it to a safe distance and then join us, cloaked. You're the back-up plan. I want you working on the psychic end, try to communicate with him. If we can communicate with him we can bring this to a peaceful conclusion."

"Got it boss," Zatanna said. M'gann nodded.

Artemis nodded, her face grim. "I copy Kid Flash."

Wally nodded. "Let's go."

|+|+|+|+|+|

Goofball or not, Conner was pretty sure he should have listened to Wally.

The heat vision barely hurt, but it threw him off balance, which knocked him out of the sky. Landing didn't hurt either, but he was still off balance. It took him a moment to clear his head. He realigned himself and took another leap. Just as he was about to land in front of him the Kryptonian wasn't there. He side-stepped into superspeed and grabbed Conner's ankle a foot before he landed. He swung Conner around and let him fly like a hammer throw. Conner was disoriented. He didn't realize the Kryptonian had aimed him until he collided with the Bioship.

|+|+|+|+|+|

"Well that's one way to get Conner back," Zatanna quipped.

"Having Conner crash into us as we're about to land probably isn't helping," Artemis replied.

"It's not," M'gann said, the strain of controlling the Bioship evident on her face.

"Do what you can M'gann," Wally said, "None of us are invulnerable."

|+|+|+|+|+|

The ship decloaked when the El collided with it. Ton-Or had only tossed him a few hundred feet, but it had taken all the strength he had. It wasn't the level of super strength the El had displayed, in fact it wasn't much more than he should have gotten from the gravity difference. Between that and the super speed burst, it took him two deep breaths to get his wind back, during which he watched the ship lose what little altitude it had left in a controlled crash. Decent pilot. He would have kept the ship in the air, but Kryptonians learn to fly shortly after they learn to walk, and the winds on Krypton were legendary.

The El rolled off the ship before it landed. Smart move. Jumping would have created an equal and opposite reaction against the hull of the ship, making it harder on the pilot. The El lept at him again. Ton-Or did some quick mental math and launched himself on a collision vector with the El. He felt gravity whirling about him, pushing him through the air. Flight. Without a ship or a bird to ride. Amazing.

Ton-Or brought his hands up into fists in front of him. He corrected his aim slightly and rammed into the El's stomach. Even on this barbarian world, physics would have it's due. The equal and opposite reaction sent the El flying just like it sent Ton-Or crashing toward the ground. He'd never flown this way before, but he had plenty of experience flying. He slowed his descent and used his thrust to put himself into something of a hover about ten feet above the ground. Why didn't the El do the same?

Unless the El started flying he was out of the fight for a few dozen seconds. It was time to deal with his compatriots in the ship. Ton-Or gained a bit of altitude and refocused on the ship. A portal in the ship's wall opened and a man dressed in red and yellow stepped out. Ton-Or didn't take a chance. He hit the man's thigh with his heat vision. He dropped to the ground as his uniform burst into flame. The red and yellow man was writhing and shouting while swatting at his thigh with his hands. A woman wearing black, white and gray stepped out, wiggled her hands and said something. The flame went out on the red and yellow man's suit as Ton-Or fired off two more blasts of heat vision, one in each of the woman's shoulders. She fell to the ground too. These allies of the House of El were surprisingly weak for Kryptonians living under a yellow sun.

A woman in green stepped out with a weapon and fired. As the projectile approached Ton-Or took a deep breath and blew on it, coating the projectile in a thin layer of frost and knocking it off course. When he looked back at the ship he saw the woman helping the other two he had injured back into the ship. Fair enough. If they were going to retreat he wouldn't attack them.

While he was dealing with the ship he wasn't paying attention to the El. He realized his mistake when the El tackled him from behind and held on, crashing them to the ground and knocking the wind out of him.

|+|+|+|+|+|

Conner had him in a sleeper hold. It was surprisingly easy. This guy may have access to all of Superman's powers, but he wasn't nearly as strong as Conner was. Not even close. The Kryptonian was screaming at him in what Conner had to assume was Kryptonian. "Stupid idiot. We didn't attack you. Stop struggling and just let me put you to sleep."

The Kryptonian fired his heat vision, but Conner just moved his face toward the ground. The Kryptonian started to fly, getting them a few inches off the ground, so Conner tightened his hold. The Kryptonian started to choke and stopped flying. The Kryptonian was elbowing and kicking Conner, and Conner was letting the blows land. The Kryptonian was significantly stronger than a human, but he was no where near as strong as Conner, let alone Superman. Conner didn't want to break the Kryptonian's windpipe, but he did need to put him down, so he kept tightening his grip until the Kryptonian was gasping for breath.

That was the situation when the rest of the team showed up. Wally and Zatanna were patched up with gauze and tape. Conner could smell the burn salve applied to their wounds under their bandages. M'gann rushed to him but stopped herself short. Before she could say anything Conner asked, "Have you been able to communicate with him yet?"

"Oh, right. Sorry, I was busy." M'gann replied, "I'll do it now."

"Good call," Wally said as he limped up to them. "He's not full powered is he?"

"No, he's not," Conner said. "He's only a few times stronger than Black Canary. These glancing blows are about as hard as her strongest hits. Strong enough to do us some damage though."

Artemis was the only one who wasn't with the group. She was inspecting the rocket. "I think he was some kind of prisoner. There are no controls in here."

"Well, I'm glad he's not a murderer," Zatanna said.

"He shot me in the face!" Conner exclaimed.

"That was likely the first time he ever fired heat vision in his life," Artemis replied, still inspecting the rocket. "He wouldn't have had heat vision on Krypton. After that he picked disabling shots for Kid Flash and Z."

"True," Wally said. "Zatanna, do you have a sleep spell?"

"Nainotpyk peels!" she said, waving her hand with a wince. Both Conner and the Kryptonian fell asleep. Zatanna grimaced. "Whoops."

Wally laughed out loud. "Hehehe." Everyone turned to look at him. "Sorry, threat's neutralized. All we have to do now is get him back to Mt. Justice and I don't have to be in charge anymore. Zatanna, make sure he stays asleep, M'gann, load them both up on the ship with your telekinesis and we're done."

"Don't forget the rocketship," Artemis said.

"Well poo." Wally said. "I guess I don't get to be a goofball again just yet. How about this: M'gann, you take the Krypts and Zatanna and head back to Mt. Justice. Zatanna, you stay with them to keep him secure. Artemis and I will guard the rocket."

"M'gann should be able to get back here in under an hour. I can stand guard all by myself," Artemis objected, "You're wounded."

"I can still run Baby," Wally replied, "And I can guarantee we're not the only ones who know about this rocket. If the Light shows up you will need back-up. I'm staying."

"Why don't we call the watchtower?" Zatanna suggested. "If they're done with the Shaggy Man maybe they can spare Superman or Captain Marvel to come pick this rocket up."

"Let's do that," Artemis said.
"Only a Sith deals in absolutes!" - Except, apparently, that one.

"And Anarchy, I think we can agree, is only fun some of the time." - Ducky
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Joined: Sun Dec 17, 2006 3:42 pm

Re: The Last of the House of Or

Post by Kytross »

Ton was flying over Kandor on the back of a four-winged H'Raka, just like he did everyday as a child going to academy. Rao was setting like it did while he was courting Fiora Vor-Zod. It didn't work out, but those were some of the best days of his life.

It was the first dream Ton-Or had in days. Or a thousand years. Relativity is a wonderful things.

*Awaken Ton-Or.*

Ton-Or's eyes slowly opened. The man he was looking at was green, mostly naked with some strategic covering and a blue cape. Where the hell was he?

Right, the barbarian world that was now a Kryptonian colony where no one spoke any Kryptonian languages. Except perhaps the Green Man.

He looked around. There were nearly two dozen people in the room. Most of the people in the room looked Kryptonian. Closest to him there was a woman, also barely dressed with a golden ice bird on her chest and a star-spangled skirt. She was far prettier than Fiora ever was, more beautiful than any other Kryptonian he'd ever seen. Next to her was a man dressed in a dark grey body suit with a black cape and cowl. Ton-Or didn't recognize the yellow and black crest on his chest. Next to him stood a man who looked a lot like the El from the field. He wore a red cape and blue body suit with red accouterments and a red and yellow crest of the House of El emblazoned across his chest.

Ton-Or heat visioned the Green Man, kicked the woman in hip, punched the grey & black man in the arm and launched into the air, taking flight. He couldn't outfight the Science-Magistrate-Enforcer from the fields, a full cape meant this one was a Enforcer-Magistrate-Scientist trained in combat from birth to defend the House of El and all of Krypton. In less than a second, long before he reached the ceiling, the Enforcer had his arm locked down and another Kryptonian in red with a lightning bolt crest emblazoned on his chest had him by the other bridge.

"Release me you dogs of El! You have no right to touch my noble personage!" It was a gamble, but Ton-Or could feel them almost crushing his arms.

The El Enforcer said in broken Kryptonopolese, "Peace. We mean you no harm."

Ton-Or replied in Kryptonopolese, "Where are we Enforcer, and who are you?"

"I am Kal-El, son of Jor-El. This planet is Earth."

Ton-Or snorted. "That's a lousy name for a planet."

*I have re-established our psychic link,* said a disembodied voice in Ton-Or's head. "We can all speak normally now," the Green Man said in the same voice.

"Why don't you come down and talk to us," the Man in red holding his arm said. "If I wanted to hurt you I could have broken every bone in your body, but I didn't."

"You make sense," Ton-Or replied. They released him and the three of them floated down to the floor under their own power. "When did Krypton establish a colony here?"

"There's a great deal we need to talk about," Kal-El said. "Before we do introductions, tell me, how did you survive Krypton's destruction?"

Ton-Or's jaw dropped. "Krypton was destroyed? Impossible!"

Kal-El shook his head. "I'm afraid not. Before you arrived I thought I was the only survivor."

Ton-Or glared at him. "Our houses may have a blood feud Kal, but I never knew the house of El to be liars!"

"Blood feud? What are you talking about?" Kal-El asked.

"The Science-Magistrate-Enforcer from your House that assaulted and captured me on the field!" Ton-Or spun and pointed at him. He was still wearing the weird clothes with the red crest on a black shirt. "Him!"

"Me?" Conner asked.

"Conner?" Kal-El asked. "He's my clone."

"Impossible!" Ton-Or shouted, poking Kal-El in the chest. "He is a Science-Magistrate-Enforcer! You are an Enforcer-Magistrate-Scientist! You could be his clone but he could never be yours!"

"What are you talking about?" Kal-El asked him.

"Your raiment!" Ton-Or spat. "It determines the order of your historical titles. Your cape means Enforcer, a blue body suit means you serve all of Krypton, not just your House, and the crest on a yellow field declares you a Magistrate. Conner, which is an familiar name and inappropriate in this situation, wears a black body suit with a red crest." Ton-Or pointed his thumb at his own chest. "Like mine. That signifies he is the leader of his house. The black field under the crest signifies his devotion to science!"

Yellow and Red dressed man from the fields snorted.

"What's so funny?" Conner demanded.

"You a scientist?" Yellow and Red man laughed, trying to stop. "You can barely read!"

"Hey, I'm a high school senior!" Conner shot back.

"Kaldur'ahm," Grey & Black man said quietly.

A brown skinned man with white stubble on his head turned and glared at Conner and Yellow & Red man. They quieted down immediately.

Kal-El sighed as he turned back to Ton-Or. "Conner come here." The Science-Magistrate-Enforcer walked up to them. Ton-Or needed to take a breath and let it out slow to keep from flinching. Kal-El continued. "Use your x-ray vision. Compare my genetic code to his."

Ton-Or inspected them both, then shook his head. "It is an abomination that should be put down! What mongrel breed did you mix with your code to create it? Khund?"

"What?" Conner exclaimed.

Kal-El put his hand on the clone's shoulder. "Calm down Conner." He turned back to Ton-Or. "I didn't clone Conner. Some humans stole some of my DNA and did their best to copy me. I consider Conner family."

Ton-Or spat at Kal-El's feet. "You sound like a Green Lantern. Next you'll tell me that the rest of these creatures are our equals."

Kal-El shook his head. "I didn't expect this, but I should have. Why don't I explain the situation and then you tell me how you came to be here?" Ton-Or nodded. Kal-El continued. "Let's sit down. Let's clear the room folks. Conner, Batman, Icon, J'onn stay here. Everyone else, we'll fill you in."

The room slowly cleared until the Green Man, the Grey & Black Man, a dark skinned man in a red suit with a green cape, along with the two Kryptonians and the clone remained. The Yellow & Red Man stopped at the door and turned around.

"Superman," the Yellow & Red Man said, "I found him. I should be here for this."

"He has a point," the Grey & Black Man said.

Kal-El nodded. "Very well Kid Flash. Join us at the table." They all sat down around the table. "What's your name?"

"I am Ton-Or of Kandor, capital of Krypton."

"I am Arnus of the Cooperative," the man dressed in red with a green cape said, "On Earth I am known as Icon."

Ton-Or looked at him with his x-ray vision. "Terminan?"

Icon smiled. "Indeed. You know of the Cooperative?"

Ton-Or nodded. "It is part of the 27 known galaxies. You've altered your genetic code."

Icon smiled. "A necessity. I am one possible ultimate of the human genome. They have a surprising amount of genetic potential."

"I see that," Ton-Or said. He opened his mouth to speak then stopped. He refocused on Icon. "Amazing."

"I am J'onn J'onz, of Mars," the Green Man said. "I am known here as the Martian Manhunter."

Ton-Or looked him over. "Interesting. You are both genetically fantastic. Which of the 27 galaxies am I in?"

"The Milky Way," Kid Flash said.

Ton-Or looked at him now. "Baseline human?"

"I'm super fast," Kid Flash said.

"I'm not familiar with the Milky Way. What is the dominate species?" Ton-Or asked.

"There isn't one," the Grey & Black Man said. "I'm Batman. I'm the baseline human."

Ton-Or looked at him with his x-ray vision. "Interesting use of lead foil in the mask."

"I like to keep my identity secret," Batman replied.

"Odd world," Ton-Or said. "If I could study Icon's physiology and yours, as well as access to a decent computer, I think I could help you in your mission."

"Our mission?" Kal-El asked.

"To rebuild Krypton, and conquer the 27 known galaxies with these humans, of course." Ton-Or shrugged. "I had no intention of joining the military, but when your people need us no one can say the House of Or has ever failed Krypton."

"What?" Conner exclaimed.

"That's insane!" Kid Flash said.

"That's not what we do," Batman said.

"Then why have you gathered all this power in one room?" Ton-Or asked.

"We defend the Earth, from all threats, planetary and interstellar," Kal-El answered.

"So you are an Enforcer," Ton-Or said.

"Something like that. We're the Justice League," Kal-El said. "My father, Jor-El, sent me to Earth as an infant to save me from Krypton's destruction. I grew up here. Now, how did you escape from Krypton's destruction?"

Ton-Or snorted. "You're going to want a mentello machine or whatever J'onn is using for the psychic translation to verify my story. On the day I came of age I was framed for murder by Dax-Tro."

"You're a murderer?" Kal-El asked.

Ton-Or shrugged. "I was convicted of the murder of Dax-Tro, yes, a disintegration."

There was a general clamor but Batman held up a hand and got silence. "This Dax-Tro, he was a criminal that set you up to throw the police off his trail." Batman wasn't asking. "How did you find out?"

"He showed up to gloat after my hypno rehabilitation programming was done. I was already strapped into my penitentiary rocket. And he confessed to murdering my father and reprogramming my rocket to come to a backward world so I would live out my days among you savages. I promised revenge." Ton-Or sighed. "Rather a stupid promise. Well, rash anyway."

Kal-El shook his head. "Now it's your story that doesn't check out Ton-Or. Kryptonians used the Phantom Zone to punish criminals, not penitentiary rockets."

"I've never heard of the Phantom Zone. But then, this all happened a thousand years ago." They all stared at Ton-Or. "The rocket is relativistic. It was a new policy, to send the most awful criminals to the future after mental rehabilitation. As a murderer I qualified."

Batman looked over at the Martian Manhunter. "J'onn?"

"He believes his story," the Martian said. "He was in his apartment the night of the murder, working on what we would call his doctorate in computer science. He believes the apartment was beneath his stature."

Ton-Or nodded. "It was. Or is a royal house with the strongest genetic claim on the throne. It was a political decision to abase myself by living in that apartment. I was donating the use of my estates while I was undertaking my education to prove my dedication to the sciences."

Batman nodded. "You needed to protect yourself from political reprisal without giving up your claim to the throne."

Conner shook his head. "Is anyone else having a hard time following this?"

Wally chimed in, "I'll explain later."

Ton-Or stared at Conner until the clone demanded, "What?"

"I was scanning your brain for abnormalities. As a Kryptonian, even a failed clone should be able to process information far faster than these aliens." There was no hint of passion in Ton-Or's voice.

Nevertheless, Conner was offended. He jumped to his feet and slammed his hands down on the table. Before he could speak Batman cut him off. Batman didn't stand up or posture. He spoke, quietly and calmly. "Sit down Conner."

"But he said..." Conner started.

"I'm well aware of what he said," Batman replied, cutting Superboy off, "and you have far less reason to be offended by what he said than the rest of us." He turned back to Ton-Or and said, "You were explaining the political ramifications of the apartment. "

Ton-Or nodded. "I had no intention of claiming the throne. It had been empty for ten generations before I was born. There was bloodfeud between the House of El and Or. I was protected, as a minor, but I would be achieving my majority shortly and would be fair game. I needed to show myself as a non-political entity. If I had chosen a political route or a military one it would open me up to the machinations of the House of El. By choosing a scientific route I was protected until I took my rightful place in the assembly. I needed a strong marriage to a powerful house with historic ties to the throne, and a series of favors owed to me. I chose crystal programming for just that reason. Everyone used crystals, but there were only
"Only a Sith deals in absolutes!" - Except, apparently, that one.

"And Anarchy, I think we can agree, is only fun some of the time." - Ducky
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