The Continuum Worlds

The Legend Continues

Jake H.

It had become a habit over the past few weeks. At least one hour a day he would streak north, to the Arctic, to a small isolated area of flat snow and ice, to stand before a obelisk he had built with his own hands. With its pointed top piercing the sky and its broad base planted firmly in the ground, it was a structure that would remain standing long after many other structures were rubble.

The white stone was unadorned, completely bare of decoration, with the exception of the north side. It was there, inscribed in Kryptonese that the purpose of the obelisk was revealed. It was a grave stone.

“It’s happening again, my love.” Zal spoke to the stone as he stood before it, his eyes filled with tears. “The same thing that destroyed my world, my reality.” He stepped closer and knelt down, with one finger he traced the name inscribed on the stone.

“Perhaps, if I had died with my universe, you would be alive now, my love.” He whispered. “But now it seems as if it has followed me, determined to take me any way.”

The news had come from, of all places, Dr. Strange. The sorcerer had informed him of what was approaching and what its out come would be. His expulsion from this universe. Had the news come weeks earlier, it may have made a difference. But now…now Zal found it hard to care in the slightest.

“Zal, you have to come with me!”

Zal El looked up, surprise registering on his face as he made out the form of Rogue, touching down lightly near him.

“How did you find me?” he demanded. He had thought that he had carefully hidden this place from everyone. Everyone but Kitty that is.

“The professor had me follow you.” Rogue answered after a bit of hesitation. Zal knew Rogue well enough to realize the powerhouse member of the X-men was hiding something from him. There was something she was not telling him and she was not entirely comfortable with it. “He didn’t want to trust the communicators.”

Zal sighed and, with a last look at the inscription on the monolith before him, stood. His eyes widened when he saw Rogue’s eyes wide with obvious shock as she looked at the inscription.

“My beloved Wife: Katharine Pryde-El.” She whispered the words. Zal’s eyes narrowed now.

“Rogue, when did you learn to read Kryptonese?” he demanded. Zal knew that nobody other than his wife even knew a single word of his ancestral language.

“What?” Rogue shook her self and looked at Zal. “I’ll tell you later.” She said, her voice choked with emotion. “Right now, we have to get going.” She reached out and took him by the hand, pulling gently, turning towards a shimmering that appeared in the air behind her. Zal didn’t budge. His eyes were fixed on the hand that had grabbed his own. A hand bare of gloves. Skin touching skin.

“You are not Rogue!” He snarled, yanking his hand away. “I am going no where with you!”

“Oh yes you are!” A new voice spoke. Zal whirled, his Kryptonian reflexes allowing him to turn almost fully and see the red and blue missile that struck him. He felt arms clutch him around the middle and felt himself lifted off his feet.

That quickly it was over. He was pushed backwards through the shimmering air and the next moment he was picking himself off the floor, facing a blond woman wearing the El family symbol on her chest. Behind her, the fake Rogue was stepping out of nothingness into…where the hell was he?

He bunched his muscles and started to leap forward when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Without thinking, he reacted. He grasped the hand and pulled, using his hip to flip the unknown over his shoulder and into the women before him. He was shocked to see that the woman he had flipped was none other than the She-Hulk.

The Green woman slammed into the other two, bowling them over into a tangled heap of arms, legs and curses. Completely confused, Zal didn’t press his advantage, instead, backing away and taking stock of his surroundings.

He was in a large, unfurnished metal room, the only ornaments being the light fixtures far overhead that gave off an eerie reddish light. Suspicion flared and he turned his head slightly, trying to activate his x-ray vision. No good. He was, indeed powerless. The lights over head must be red sunlight emitters.

The three women had untangled themselves and now stood facing him again.

“Very good.” The blond spoke in a voice that seemed strangely familiar. “Koh Re.” She turned her head slightly. “Jenny, I’m sorry, I should have thought to warn you.”

“No way you could have known.” The fake Rogue commented.

“What the hell is going on here?” Zal demanded, dropping easily into a defensive stance.

“Oh stop it!” The She-Hulk growled. Zal’s eyes widened as green energy sprang from her hand to wrap around him, lifting him off the floor. “We wouldn’t have to get close to you if we wanted to hurt you.”

“Damn!” Rogue was looking at her hands, as if a thought had occurred to her. “I screwed it up! I should have known he would be startled by me touching him. His Rogue still can’t touch without draining a person.”

“A simple mistake.” The blond responded in a distracted manner. She was keeping her eyes on Zal. Then, before his startled eyes, she lifted off the floor, under her own power.

“We’re not going to hurt you.” She told him. “But as you can see, I haven’t lost my power. The red sunlight is only affecting you. We’re going to keep you under this light until we can talk and you find out what is going on. But I’ll be damned if I am going to worry about whether you are going to attack at any moment. “ She thought for a moment and then barked a few words in Kryptonese. In essence she was asking him to give his word that he would listen to what they had to say and demanding his oath that he would not attack again.

He replied back a single word in Kryptonese, accepting and giving his word.

“Rao!” Zal rubbed his temples with his fingers as he struggled to understand all he had just learned. Kara, he shook his head. She seemed so much younger than the Kara he had known and looked up to, in fact, she was not the same person at all. Rather than being the daughter of his Uncle Jor El, this Kara was the daughter of Zor El, the man that, in Zal’s probability of origin, had been HIS father. A med scan had shown that they were, indeed as close genetically as any paternal twins would be!

And then learned that not only had this strange Kara saved his life, but that of his adopted reality….

He looked at her now and could not shake the feeling that there was something out of place…something not quite right. It was only then that he noticed that the blonde woman was wearing a Kryptonian headband! He didn’t know about the Kryptonian culture this woman had come from, but in his, a headband was a male prerogative! He had seen his Rogue wear a headband on occasion, but that was different. She was an Earthling! Kara was Kryptonian and should know better! Even his own Kara had not so blatantly rejected Kryptonian tradition, despite having been raised from a babe by the Kents! Kara noticed his look and smiled.

“Let me guess, you have a problem with the head band!” She said in her soft voice. Zal saw Rogue turn away, obviously to hide a smile.

Zal’s first impulse was to deny the charge. Instead, he shrugged.

“Obviously different cultural traditions.” He said. He would have continued had not Kara started shaking her head.

“From the look on your face, I would say not.” She said, easily. “On my Krypton, only men wore headbands. But then, I came to Earth at the ripe young age of 15. Right in the middle of a massive feminist movement! You might say it swayed my young, impressionable mind. And still does, to some degree. In fact, at the moment, I am seriously considering dropping the honorific from my name.”

“Excuse me?” Zal could not believe he was hearing correctly.

“Well look at it. You are named Zal El. My father is Zor El. My cousin was Kal El. All males are entitled to wear the family name. But me, I’m a woman. So I have to be satisfied with my father’s name. Instead of Kara El, I have to be Kara Zor-El.”

“Well that is only until you marry….” Zal trailed off; the look in Kara’s eyes telling him he was taking the wrong tact.

“Oh, in that case, I become simply Kara…just like our mother is Allura!” Kara shook her head. “Traditions are one thing. Traditions that place one sex above the other have no reason to exist other than to maintain that concept!”

Zal opened his mouth but Kara raised a hand, forestalling his reply.

“Let’s leave this for another time.” She said, “We don’t have the time for an in-depth discussion about tradition.” She stood and motioned for him to follow her out of the conference room they had been using to ‘educate’ him about the current situation.

“So what happens now?” He asked, his eyes only straying now and then to the headband.

“We make a trip back your world and get whatever you need from your fortress and then destroy it.”

“What!”

Kara stopped and turned, looking him in the eye, her own full of sympathy.

“I am sorry, Zal, but according to what Dr. Strange tells us, we are going to have to make sure there is nothing Kryptonian left on that other Earth. So, while he and Jenny hold a portal open, you, Rogue, and I are going to be moving at super-speed to transfer everything that isn’t nailed down to this Probability.”

“There’s not much.” Zal admitted he smiled ruefully. “In fact, the only thing that was in that world other than myself was what I had on my back or in my pockets.”

“So there is no real need to go there?” Kara asked, doubt showing on her face. “We aren’t sure, but we can’t take the chance that even a small item won’t cause the destruction we are trying to avoid.”

“Oh no.” Zal shook his head. “We will need to go there. I started up a hydroponics garden a week or so ago.” Kara grabbed his upper arm, causing him to wince at the force of the grip. Kara, it seemed, was probably a bit stronger than he was, though he was already much stronger than his Kara had been.

“You have non-miniaturized Kryptonian plants?” She demanded.

“I was carrying several packets of seeds when I was transferred to this probability.” He shook his head, smiling at the memory. “I had forgotten I had put them in the pouch of my cape. Who knows how long they had been there before I was transferred or before I discovered them afterwards.” He didn’t mention that his only wish was that he had discovered them before Kitty’s death. She would have loved the colorful, Kryptonian plants. “I just recently started them up, so there is very little growth at the moment.”

“Great, that’ll make it easier to move.”

They were standing in a cavern hastily carved out, adjacent to the Kandorian cavern. It was here, using quickly run wires and pipes, that Zal’s budding Hydroponics garden had been installed.

The operation had not taken long. And had involved only one hitch…the arrival of the X-men at Zal’s Fortress while they were cleaning it out. Rogue was understandably shaken upon meeting the alternate version of herself. A version still unable to reach out and…touch! The alternate Rogue had stared at her ungloved hands and then left, miserable, when she witnessed an unconscious caress between Kara and Rogue in passing. Rogue gave silent thanks that, after the Ripple passed, this other Rogue would have no memory of this event.

Zal had explained the situation to the X-Men, only to discover that Charles Xavier had already informed them. They had only come to wish him luck and farewell. He had blushed when Jean Grey hugged him close and kissed his cheek, tears welling in her eyes.

“Kitty will be alive again.” He told her. “That in itself will be worth it.”

“Zal, just remember that she never regretted a moment of it. She loved you with all her heart.” He had stood there as she returned to the Blackbird, it’s silent engines churning the snow. The plane lifted straight up and then banked, speeding off back to the United States and home.

“Zal?” He had no idea how long he had stood there, looking after the departed plane before Kara intruded on his memories.

“You two finish it up.” He told her. “I’ve got one more thing to do.” He was gone before Kara could reply.

Kara watched him fly off, impressed. During the move, he had demonstrated that, while he might not be as quite as strong as either Kara or Rogue, he was most definitely faster.

Zal touched down at the spot where, just a couple of hours earlier, Kara and Rogue had shanghaied him. He paused for a moment and then lashed out with his heat vision, neatly slicing the top off the grave marker. He then reached into the hollow center and withdrew a small metallic canister. He then again used his heat vision to slice and dice through the remnants of the obelisk until he had cut out a small, thin section on which the inscription could still be read. That done, he raced back to the Fortress, arriving just as Kara and Rogue had finished up.

“Are you ready?” Rogue asked him, speaking gently. She noticed the items he was holding and started to lay a hand on his shoulder, stopping when he flinched back.

“Sorry.” Zal muttered, seeing the hurt reaction in Rogue’s eyes. She hid it quickly.

“Hey, no problem. You’re just not used to a Rogue that can touch, yet.” She tried to laugh it off.

Now, standing in the cavern with the hydroponics garden and Kandor, Zal dragged his eyes away from the sprawled out Kryptonian city. Kara had told him that, shrunk to the height of an inch, Zor El lived in that city! Under the red sunlight that bathed the cavern, he was powerless, or he would have found the temptation to use his telescopic vision to seek out this alternate version of his father too great.

Then it hit him. Zal quickly turned to his newfound ‘sister’. “Kara, you said that there was a Superman here once before and that he was supposedly the son of Jor-El?”

With a bit of confusion Kara turned to him and nodded. “Yes. Why do you ask?”

“I will have to explain later. Right now I have two requests. First, do you have a portable terminal I can borrow for a while?” Zal said as he gathered himself together. “Second, is there a holo-projector that can be moved into a private space?”

Karen and Carrie just looked at each other and then spoke up. Zal had just met the two young heroines as they were setting up the garden and they were all trying to get to know one another.

“Umm, sure, we can assemble one in Logans old quarters, will that do for you?” Carrie said, still unsure of his motives.

“That’s fine Karen.” Zal said, without turning to see who was actually talking.

The twins giggled and Zal turned to see what was so funny. “I’m Carrie Zal,” she said and pointed to her sister. “She is Karen.”

Zal blushed and half turned away, embarrassed that he didn’t catch the subtleties in her voice that distinguished one from another. “I…I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to insult…”

“Don’t worry about it. But where are you going?” Karen said, following him out of the cavern.

“There is something I have to check on. I will be back as soon as I can.”

OTHERVERSE

Zal landed at a very discouraging site. In the exact place his Kara, and the exact place where he built his fortress, he found what was supposed to be here. Kal-El’s Fortress. The only problem was the fact that it appeared to have been almost completely leveled.

“Damn!” Zal said as he walked through the rubble. “My chances are slim, but it is something I must do." Kara had told him that it had been taken over by Lex Luthor and was later destroyed by someone called Lara Night, but at the time Zal couldn’t believe that. Now he had no choice.

Zal was using his x-ray vision, going over piece by piece of the wreckage. He saw what was left of the zoo, the museum, the lab, the living quarters, and the storage compartments. When he found what was left of the computer lab, Zal immediately began clearing a path to the collapsed room. When he got there, he saw the total devastation of the system. He sighed, knowing that there would be nothing here to salvage.

"Wait a second." He began to ponder what had actually happened to the system. "Ok, its been stripped and destroyed. But I wonder if that is all that happened." He began to trace the core systems back to the logic system. Stripped.

He shook his head and sighed. "Is there no information at all that I can salvage?" He was about to give up when he saw it. "Yes!!" he exclaimed aloud as he scrambled through the wreckage. "The Crystal Mind! All of the knowledge that was sent with Kara...well, in this case Kal from home." He reached the crystal and carefully removed it from it from its interface chassis. "Imbedded in this...is exactly what I needed."

Zal made his way back to the surface, attempting to cover his tracks as best he could. As soon as he saw sunlight again, he wrapped the crystal in his cape and took off towards Colorado.

OTHERVERSE

Lex Luthor was furious. “NO!!! I SAW YOU DIE!!!” he screamed into the monitor that he was watching. “IT CAN’T BE YOU!!” He paused in his rant. “Hmmm. Of course it can’t be him. So who, or in this case, what is it?” The physiological readouts just began to come across the screen when Mercy, his personal assistant walked in.

"What’s the deal boss?"

"It appears that we have a new player in the game, Mercy." Lex said as he studied the readouts taken from the young man as he tore through the rubble.

"What type of player?"

"He seems to be a Kryptonian, but there is a problem. He does not seem to be affected by the kryptonite that was planted at the fortress. On top of that, he seems to have a factor of speed that the others didn’t.”

Mercy looked at the readouts for a moment then offered her opinion. “Could he be like the other male? The one of different origin?”

Lex scanned the data until he found the differences. “No. He is definitely a Kryptonian. My theory is that he was also left here by outside forces. Perhaps from an alternate dimension.”

“So what do we do now, boss? Having someone like that running around will be dangerous. Our current production will not suffice against him.”

“Agreed.” Lex said as he pondered the situation. He would be dangerous. He could handle Kara and the other women, as he handled Kal-El. But this one could prove to be a challenge. “Mercy, I want you to get Lt. Kelly in here immediately. I have a mission for him.”

OTHERVERSE

Kara made a perfect landing on Thief-Neck Island on Watts Bar Lake. They had been coming here over the past few days in order to enjoy the serenity and relax. Satisfied that they were alone, they all decided to sit at the lakes edge and have a light lunch.

"This is some beautiful country, Mom." Karen said. "It’s a pity that the whole world can't be this peaceful and serene."

"I agree, but that is why we are here. To try to make things better for this world."

"Do you think that is achievable or is it just a dream, Mom?" Carrie asked.

Kara smiled sadly. "We shall see, dear. We shall see."

Rogue got up and walked a few yards away, just out of sight. A few minutes later, she walked back wearing nothing but a thong bikini. Without saying a word, she dove into the crystal blue waters and started swimming about. "Come on in the water is great!" she shouted at the others.

The twins got up and changed their mother just a step behind them. They all came back into view wearing similar bikinis and dove into the water. For a couple of hours, the four women had a load of fun. Being the first time in a while, they decided to let go and just have some fun. They had all been going non-stop for several months now, and they deserved this. Plus they knew no one could have possibly known that they were here, other than Zal simply because they left a note written in Kryptonese in his room, and all of the humans had left due to the unstable nuclear materials held just 30 miles from here. They were completely alone, or so they thought.

None of them had noticed or heard the assault squad that had been infiltrating their position. All seven men wore futuristic armor and some type of high-energy weapon. A weapon specifically attuned to affect Kryptonians.

"Hey Sarge. It appears to me that we can take them all by surprise. What do you think?"

The veteran sergeant looked at his commanding officer with a grin. "Lieutenant, you give the word, and we'll take 'em anytime."

"Well then Sgt. Riley. The word is given," said Lt. Kelly.

The sergeant nodded and turned to his men. "Baker, Peterson, you hit the blonde. Jackson, Stanton, you hit the redhead, Ferrell, you take the kid in blue, and I’ll take the one in white. Got it?"

"Got it, Sarge." the team whispered in unison.

"Then on the count of three."

The women had had enough fun for one day and exited the water together. They each spun in place rapidly for a couple of seconds until they were completely dry. They had just sensed that something was wrong when they heard "THREE!"

Six tight beams lanced out and started striking the women. Rogue was hit by two of the concentrated Green K beams in the chest. The force knocked her on her back and the breath out of her. Two more struck Kara. One in the leg, one in the forehead. The blast tore her from consciousness immediately. Carrie could hear her twin screaming mentally and vice-versa. Carrie had been hit in the throat making her double over, trying to restore her breathing. Karen on the other hand, wasn't as lucky. She had been hit at the base of her spine. It had the effect of locking all of her muscles and dropping her on her stomach.

"Yahoo, Sarge. We got 'em!" Ferrell said.

The lieutenant walked up to his sergeant. "You know Riley, you did make that look quite simple."

Without turning, the sergeant’s voice was clear in the afternoon air. "Peterson, Stanton. Go to wide angle and low power to keep them down." The he turned to the lieutenant. "And thank you sir. You might want to get on the horn to Mr. Luthor and tell him the mission is accomplished."

The officer nodded. "Good thinking Sarge. I'm gonna get you a raise for this."

"You should reward them, sir. They were the one who did the hard work." Sgt. Riley said.

"Hey Sarge!" Pvt. Baker yelled out. "Do you think Mr. Luthor would mind if we, ya know, have some fun with 'em first?"

"Oh, Rao. Not that! Please. Anything but that." Karen whispered

The sergeant turned angrily around and faced the private. "Absolutely not! That is not the way we treat prisoners of war!"

"Aw come on Sarge, no one will ever know."

"I WILL!!" said an angry voice from behind them.

They all turned to see a man who wore a suit similar to the hated and feared Superman. In an instant, his hands lashed out, grabbing the rifles from Stanton and Peterson, and smashing them into their helmets. They crumpled to the ground unconscious. Jackson tried to bring his weapon to bear but found that his armor had been welded at the joints. He could not move. Ferrell rolled towards the man, jumped up and struck the Kryptonian in the head with butt of his rifle. Without even flinching, the Kryptonian grabbed him by his breastplate and threw him, HARD. The Lieutenant drew his pistol and fired just as he saw this mans foot lash out at him. The Green K bullet hit the man in the shoulder and promptly richoched off to the officer’s surprise. He then felt the man's foot impact his jaw. He didn't stay conscious long enough to feel it shatter into hundreds of pieces. The Kryptonian turned his attention to Baker, who was trying to unsafety his weapon. A quick burst of heat vision and Baker felt his genitals vaporize. He dropped his weapon and fell to the ground screaming. After a second, he slipped into a coma. In another blink of an eye, the Kryptonian held the sergeant up in the air by his breastplate.

"Since you are an honorable warrior and were following your 'rules of war', you may walk away unscathed." the man said with an icy tone. "Consider it common courtesy. If you choose to continue this battle, tell me now." The sergeant swallowed hard and exhaled carefully.

"No, sir. I have no wish to continue fighting. But I cannot walk away, my life would be forfeit."

"Then I advise you find someone else to work for. I have been told that General Raines is looking for good people. Like you."

"Thank you, sir. I believe I will look into that."

The Kryptonian set the man down. "What is your name?

The sergeant with drew his pistol slowly and laid it on the ground. "Riley. Sergeant First Class Bill Riley."

"Well, Bill. I will be seeing you around. You may go now."

Riley nodded and pressed two buttons on his gauntlet. A pair of metal wings deployed and a rocket pack ignited, allowing the man to fly away. The Kryptonian turned to where the four women had been lying upon his arrival. He saw that all of them were standing.

"Uncle Zal!" the twins cried and rushed to give him a hug. Rogue and Kara simply walked up to him.

"That was a very honorable thing you did Zal. Do you think he will go see Buddy?" Kara questioned.

"Yeah Kara. Honorable men keep their word." He looked his family over, noticing the bruises where the lasers had struck them. "Are you girls all right?"

Rogue came up to him and put her hand on his shoulder. "What I would like to know is how you managed to bounce Kryptonite off of your arm.”

Zal looked puzzled at her words for a moment. “That was Kryptonite? It looked green to me…” he said as he began to look around for the bullet.

Kara was staring wide eyed at Zal as he searched around on the ground. “What do you mean?” she said, curious.

“Is that what I think it means?” Carrie said, understanding some of the implications. She was about the say more when Karen spoke up.

“Zal, what color is Kryptonite supposed to be?”

Without turning to answer, Zal stopped, picked up a small glowing bullet. “Found it.” He turned around and showed the women. “See? Green. Kryptonite is supposed to be blue.”

The women all backed off, feeling the effects of the small stone. “Amazing…” Carrie said finally. “Why is he not affected if you two are practically twins?” she said to her adopted mother.

Zal, finally realizing what was happening, stared are the small stone in his hand. “You’re telling me that you all are affected by this ‘Green’ Kryptonite?” When Karen nodded, he continued. “In my reality, there was no such thing as Green K. It was all blue, red, white, gold and black. And Blue K does to me what this is obviously doing to you.”

Kara shook her head in awe. “Zal, in our probability, Blue K was a terran-made substance that did not affect us. I am assuming all but the Black K has the same properties as what you knew.”

After a brief confirmation of each color, Rogue asked the final, obvious question. “Zal, what is Black K?”

“Well, Black K is simply Blue K that has been energy depleted. It was actually something I discovered after draining all radioactivity off of a small piece of Kryptonite. It no longer affected me, but I did not have enough time to study it further. It could have more properties that I didn’t see immediately.”

Kara and Rogue turned to each other and smiled. “Lex doesn’t know. He may come to the conclusion that he is like Lar. That may well work to our advantage.” Kara said to her lover.

“Agreed. But we really don’t know what Zal is capable of. Could he handle Lex and his armies?” Rogue said, trying to cover all possibilities and avenues.

Zal dropped the stone, walked over and butted into the conversation. “Ladies, if you don’t remember, I did grow up as Superboy. I do have 11 years experience with my powers, and I have handled Lex before. He wasn’t quite as politically powerful as he is here, but I handled him.”

Kara laughed. “Apparently you handled yourself well enough to have your Kara allow you to take the name Superman.”

“Allowed?” Zal said with a bit of aggression. “It wasn’t her choice. It was mine. She changed her ‘public’ name from Supergirl to Superwoman when she became of age. I did the same. He gazed deep in Kara’s eyes. “Kara, I am not Kal. I am not the Superman who was here. But I AM Superman. And I was raised knowing what my destiny was. Remember that always.”

Kara, after overcoming the initial shock of his words, grinned. “I know. It’s just hard on me to see another person wear that name. And I am sure you qualify enough to honor those memories.” She reached around his neck and gave him a hug. “I won’t doubt you again.”

When they broke, Rogue turned the young man around and gave him a kiss. When they broke, Zal looked at her in mild shock. “What was that for?”

Rogue looked past him and grinned at Kara, who was smiling back and shaking her head. “Oh, just trying to make my lover a bit jealous.”

With a smirk, she put her arms around her family. “Well, it’s working.” And with a laugh, the five of them flew towards the sunset, never noticing the cameras that had been cleverly concealed in the men’s armor.

OTHERVERSE

Meanwhile back at Metropolis, Lex sat smiling at the live video feed from the confrontation. He was both pleased and upset. Pleased that in fact his overall plan of reconnaissance was achieved, but upset at the fact he lost one of his strike teams doing it, including one member betraying him.

“It makes not a difference anymore. I have you now, Zal-El. I have finally ascertained your weakness, and your death will soon follow. Along side of those accursed females!”

OTHERVERSE

Back at the Colorado Fortress, Zal had sealed himself in the room that Karen and Carrie had installed the terminal and holo-projector. The women had all respected his right for privacy, and had also realized that he may need some time to adjust. So they confined themselves to the upper portion of the fortress and left him to his own devices.

After carefully interfacing the Crystal Mind to the terminal and projector, Zal crossed his fingers and said a silent prayer to Rao. He had extensive knowledge about Kryptonian technology, but this was something that was totally different. He flipped the power switch and watched the entire contraption hum to life. The holo-projector lit up and began to form an image. Zal watched with satisfaction as a familiar face came into focus.

The man looked around taking stock of his surroundings and of the only occupant of the room. “Who are you and why have you removed the Crystal Mind?”

“Jor-El, I am Zal-El of Argo City, Krypton…in another dimension that is. I would have been the son of your brother Zor-El. I have come here because my home dimension was destroyed, and I sought you out because I believe you have answers that I need.”

“Welcome then to my dimension Zal-El. What can I help you with?”

Over the next week, the two Kryptonians had very informative conversations that ranged from what happened to Kal, to the fortress, to Lex and finally to Argo City here in the Otherverse. “So you are telling me that Kal never went to check on the probability that the city survived?”

“Perhaps he knew of the effects the Shard might have and he didn’t want his fellow Kryptonians to suffer the fate that was his.” Jor-El said to his newfound nephew.

Zal sat back in thought. “I need to know. I just need a way to get there and back. I know that there will be red stars on the way that I might not be able to avoid,” he said to nobody in particular.

“I have a solution that might work Zal.”

Broken from his contemplation, Zal fixed his attention to the projection of his uncle. “What might that be?”

“Underneath the fortress was a lab undefiled by that monster, Luthor. Nor was it destroyed by Kara when she leveled it. In there is a hybrid Kryptonian Battlesuit. It will sustain you for your journey.” After a few more moments relaying information, Zal said goodbye and shut the power down.

“Wonderful! Then I will go as soon as I retrieve it.” Zal said as he quickly wrote a note and left it for Kara explaining where he was going and why. He rushed out of the fortress and back to the arctic.

When he arrived, something immediately caught Zal’s eye. Fresh footprints. With closer examination, he saw the reversed print of the Lexcorps symbol. He sighed, knowing that Lex was but a step behind him. With the directions that Jor-El gave him, Zal dove through the ice determined to find the hidden lab. Within a few minutes, he had found what he was looking for. He entered the room and stood in awe.

There, sitting in the middle of the room, was the suit. It was nothing more complex than a pair of boots, gloves and a chestplate with shoulderpads. “Wow. This is cool.” Zal donned the suit and turned on the containment field. “This will work just fine.” He began to make his way to the surface and found himself going through his original tunnel that he had carved out just days earlier. When he emerged, Zal felt a sudden dizziness come over him.

“What the hell is this?” he thought to himself. “I don’t think I have ever felt this sensation before.” Shrugging off the feeling, Zal took to the sky, preparing himself for the month-long flight to the last place he knew his Argo City to be.

OTHERVERSE

Weeks later, Zal did not find what he was hoping for. In this probability, Argo City had crashed into an asteroid, with apparently few survivors. He landed in the middle of the city that had been used recently, but something was wrong. He traced the most used paths back to a large structure. Upon entering, he broke down. The entire room was filled with his people, all beheaded in an execution style manner.

“No. There were survivors! But how did this happen!?” Zal said in a hurt voice. He looked around, and saw it. In the congealed blood on the floor, he saw an ominous symbol he recognized from snow around the fortress. The symbol of Lexcorps.

“You son-of-a bitch!” Zal hissed. “That was the last straw. You killed Kal, you have tried to kill Kara and her family, and I imagine a feeble attempt at me. But with this, you have made an enemy forever!”

Saying a prayer over the bodies of his fellow Kryptonians, he slowly began the work of laying his brethren to rest.

It took Zal over 40 days to search the city and gather all of the remains of the residents, including what would have been his own parents. What he found with them was unbelievable. He found the remains of two children. One male, one female. With careful investigation, he discovered the names of the two children. Zal-El…and Kara Zor-El.

“Rao…we were meant to be siblings in this probability.” Zal said as he carefully extracted the bodies from the rubble. He had been vaporizing the dead and entombing them each in the traditional ways. With this family however, he made a very special obelisk, similar to the one he left behind just a short while ago.

“I hope this is an adequate memorial, father. It’s the best I can do for now.”

After completing the task he had set for himself, Zal had a problem. He couldn’t leave the city where it was. All it would take is a stray asteroid to destroy this massive memorial to his long-lost civilization. But in his search, he had found something so well hidden that is was blind luck that he had seen it at all. Several of the odd shaped buildings actually fitted together to form a long-range transport! Only a person well versed in Kryptonian technology would have had a chance to reassemble the pieces into a usable spacecraft.

Utilizing this ship, Zal towed the derelict city back to its origin. Back to the very spot where Krypton was destroyed. He put it back in orbit, back to where it should have been the entire time. Using the tractor beams on the ship, he searched out every remaining piece of Kryptonite in the solar system and tossed them into the great red sun. He wanted this memorial to be seen by Kara, and any other Kryptonian who may come here in the future. Satisfied that he could do no more, he turned the controls back towards a small blue planet called Earth.

End of The Legend Continues

-- and may not be reprinted without permission.

-- The Continuum Worlds Concept is a joint creation of

-- Dylan Clearbrook and Eldric. Otherverse, Dark Earth,

-- and Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes, as depicted in the

-- Continuum Worlds, are original creations of Dylan Clearbrook.

-- Alterverse and The Inheritors, as depicted in the Continuum Worlds,

-- are original creations of Eldric.

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-- are original creations of John P. and Jason G respectively.

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