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Little Krypton, Part Six

Written by shadar :: [Saturday, 20 June 2020 07:13] Last updated by :: [Saturday, 20 June 2020 17:46]

Little Krypton

Episode Six

by Shadar

June, 2020


Given its been a while since my last episode…

Series synopsis to date:Alec Johansen has traveled out to the massive Montana ranch named Little Krypton, a place where Kal El and Kara Zor El are raising their large family, nine girls and three boys — so far. Kara is shooting for an even twenty kids. Which would be remarkable except for the fact that she used to be called Supergirl. She’s not your average mother, or wife for that matter.

Alec has been dating their oldest daughter, Alura, for the last year, the two of them studying at the University of Colorado. They’ve recently talked of getting married, so Alura has invited Alec home to meet her famous parents for the first time. If all goes well, Alex is planning to ask her father, the former Superman, for his daughter’s hand.

Alec grew up watching Superman and Supergirl fighting crime and protecting the Earth, becoming almost gods in many people’s minds, but now they are turning their iconic roles over to their children. Yet the mere thought of standing before those mighty heroes and asking to marry their first born child, the woman who had now taken on the mantle of Supergirl, was intimidating as hell. But seeking such a blessing was an old tradition that only a History major like Alec and a couple of centenarians, who’d actually grown up in an earlier time, could fully appreciate.

Given the year is 2096, there are only a handful of people alive who experienced much of the 20th Century. Yet Kal and Kara remember everything, starting with losing their own planet, and then growing up and living through more than half of it on Earth, and now nearly all the 21st Century.

So far, Alec has had an eventful visit to Little Krypton, given the El family hasn’t turned out to be what he’d expected. Better in some ways, but stranger too, with some secrets and a few unkind surprises along the way.

But now they’re in a life-and-death battle with Alexana, the daughter of Maxima, an Almeracian/Kryptonian hybrid. Kal believes she’s his illegitimate daughter, despite never having met her, the result of a moment of grief after his first wife, Lois Lane, died from cancer. He’d flirted with the idea of having a wife as indestructible and powerful as he was, and Maxima met those criteria. She was also incredibly passionate, the two of them enjoying pleasures that no human could comprehend, let alone survive.

But that pleasure had faded in Kal El’s eyes when he discovered that the Almeracian Empire was filled with despots, with Maxima the future Queen and the biggest despot of all.

Their relationship had ended badly — with Maxima nearly killing Kal El out of spite — and now, so many years later, Alexana has shown up on Earth. She’s using her mother’s ability to teleport to resist to the full power of the El family. She wants Dar, their oldest son, to return with her to help expand the power of the Almeracian royal line with children who are Almeracian/Kryptonian hybrids.

Alec has just been drafted by Lara, Dar’s twin sister, as part of an emergency backup plan to defeat Alexana. A plan that centrally involves an infamous figure from Superman’s past — the woman who used to be called Dumb Bunny. She was a minor superheroine in the 1960’s, providing muscle for the Inferior Five, a spectacularly incompetent group of superheroic hopefuls.

DB gave up that business to live under the radar in ways that the El family regard as improper.

There are also whispered secrets about her long-ago relationship with Kal El, before he met Lois, back when he was a young man, something the public does not know.

DB’s most vocal opponent is Alura herself, who thinks she’s a gold-digger with an immoral past who wants to tear their family apart. Even worse, she thinks DB is secretly one of Darkseid’s Furies.

Alec, as Alura’s fiancé, finds himself in the unenviable position of secretly working with the despised woman whose real name is Athena Tremor. He’s part of a last-ditch backup plan to save Dar from Alexana. While Maxima and Kara’s goals to repopulate their respective races are similar at one level, the El sons are the only known pure-bred Kryptonian males remaining in the universe.

Dar seems willing enough to work with Alexana at first — for she is a phenomenally attractive woman with seemingly all his own powers, which has enabled a wildly exciting kind of supersex. But he doesn’t know Almeracian history. Nor the fact that their royal women normally don’t allow the fathers of their offspring to survive once their contribution is complete. Their children cannot have divided loyalties between their mother’s Royal duties and a man whose only contribution was in the bedroom.

Like his father who faced Maxima long ago, Dar’s life hangs in the balance, with the key difference being that Alexana, with her Kryptonian and Almeracian heritage, is even more powerful than her mother. Even worse, Athena has claimed that despite Maxima having told Kal El that Alexana is his daughter, she’s really General Zod’s daughter with Maxima. Even worse, she’s been trained by Faora, Zod’s faithful but deadly assistant. How and when those Kryptonian criminals escaped the Phantom Zone to live and mate with the Almeracians is unknown, nor where they have gone since. But like any Kryptonian, they would be nearly immortal.

In the process of diving into this secret backup plan, Alec discovers Athena’s “dragon”, which is really an alien creature that Kal El long ago brought back from a distant planet. A creature that might look like the dragons of Earth’s mythology, but is in reality something completely different.

As this episode starts, Alec is trapped in a full-sized Medieval castle that Alura built when she was only ten years old, off in a distant corner of Little Krypton. She’d wanted to play Dungeons and Dragons with her friends from school and her younger siblings in the old fashioned way — with a damp, dark dungeon under a towering castle that housed a very real dragon.

It was a castle worthy of a young girl with Kryptonian parents.


Chapter 19

Athena left me standing there in Alura’s rustic, old play castle as she flew off to hunt for the Almeracian Princess and Dar. I was stunned by the depth of our unexpected bit of intimacy before she left. Her kiss alone had left me floating on air after my x-ring drew a massive surge of erotic power from her. That wild blast of Kryptonian vitality was easily as strong as anything I’ve felt when I was with Alura.

Not that I needed a magical ring to be impressed with Athena. Her red leotard bared her long, lean legs, and her high-heeled boots were cut to make her spectacular calves look amazing. She might have a vacant, almost dumb look on her face most of the time, but she was an incredibly attractive woman, albeit in the sleaziest of ways.

This was starting off as one hell of day, even by Little Krypton standards. And given my girlfriend is a Kryptonian, I’m not so easily amazed. But meeting a real flame-breathing dragon named Fyre, and then exotic Athena, had definitely done the trick.

The dragon was the sidekick for one of the most infamous skeletons in the El Family closet — Dumb Bunny aka Athena Tremor. Strangely, despite threatening me with violence when I called her Dumb Bunny, she willingly called herself Bunny Plays, at least professionally. I tried to envision how Bunny Plays made her living as a failed superheroine, and I didn’t like what I came up with. Alura had told me earlier that Athena had collected a group of underground patrons who paid dearly for her company. Which made sense when I remembered my first sight of her. She often had a vacant look on her face, but when she spoke, she displayed the kind of gut smarts that uneducated people have from experience, and she had 150 years of that. But still, it was my initial sight of her that was permanently etched into my brain:

db

She hadn’t exactly been dressed for a night at the opera. Nothing in her appearance gave me any reason to doubt Alura’s claim that Athena provided “professional services”. Bizarrely, she played a vital role in safe-keeping the legion of girls who went to bed every night dreaming over the videos showing Dar in action. His flight uniform was a slightly abbreviated pair of tight, red shorts and nothing more. The most beautiful women on the planet were always throwing themselves at him, which is a heavy burden for an eighteen-year-old man whose physical strength and size was an existential danger to them.

Athena drained all that youthful male power. Nancy had claimed, with a sixteen-year-old’s wisdom, that the Earth tremors from Athena’s dungeon apartment were going to bring down Alura’s old castle.

For my part, I could easily imagine Athena doing all kinds of “artistic” things to thrill her patrons. Things no human woman could. I wondered if she drew lines, or would she do anything for the right price? And what was the going rate was for a night of partying with a former superheroine escort?

Based on my experience with Alura, it was priceless.

But it now made perfect sense that the Els, who ascribe to very high social values, would see Athena as a fallen woman. Lazy, stupid, selfish and even dangerous at times, and happily willing to do anything a man paid her to do.

Yet I’d just seen her fly off with a fissionable Kryptonite weapon to attack a dangerous alien that the entire El family had failed to capture. An alien who could easily kill her. That had superheroine written all over it.

Now that she was gone, I suddenly felt very alone. I was ten miles from anywhere and I didn’t have a Holo or Comm of any kind, nor any type of vehicle. Was this part of Lara’s plans to keep me safe if things turned into a shooting war? Burying me here in a stone castle with a talking dragon?

That last thought made me a grin. A talking FLYING dragon. Grabbing my fire-singed jacket, I ran out the door and up the tunnel toward the courtyard. It was ridiculously Game-of-Thrones to ask Fyre to carry me back to ranch HQ , but today was a day for firsts.

I emerged into the blinding daylight just as Fyre reappeared overhead with a beating of huge wings. Dust blasted upward to blind me as he settled into the courtyard, holding a bleating sheep in each clawed forepaw.

He waved one sheep at me. “Join me for lunch?”

I just stared at him, jaw hanging. The monstrous way he looked, and the way his toothy mouth worked, it was all completely disconnected from his words, which might as well come from an elderly Scottish nobleman.

“Ahhh… no thank you,” I croaked as my stomach turned. I wasn’t a fan of mutton under the best of conditions.

“Suit yourself. These are very tender.” He proved that by reaching down to sink his huge teeth into one sheep, pulling back to stretch its bloody innards until it tore in half. He began happily chewing the torn half as blood gushed all over his clawed hand.

The gore shocked me back to reality. “We got no time for bloody lunch, Fyre. I need you to fly me over to the Jor El tower so I can update them on what Athena is doing. She’s gone off to fight Maxima’s daughter on her own.”

Fyre roared angrily. “I remember that flaming-haired bitch, Maxima! Very dangerous. She tried to kill Kal El more than once. Almost succeeded. Broke two of his ribs the last time. She has very strong legs.”

“Yeah, and now her daughter is here and she’s trapped Dar in her web. Athena’s going to try to nuke her with a Kryptonite bomb that will stop a Krypt’s heart. We need to be there to revive Dar afterward. Athena and Alexana too. The Els won’t be able to get close enough to help.”

Fyre digested my words as he gulped down the remaining half of his first sheep. Reaching down with his other claw, he gently set the second sheep down. “Ok, little one,” he said, his voice the kind a mother uses to sooth her baby. “Run far, far away. Hope I do not catch you again.” The range of his voice was astounding, especially coming from a monster the size of an Army tank.

He extended his long tail towards me. “Climb up and dig in deep among my horns. There’s a harness there. Put it on.”

I jumped on his tail and began to climb, his scales feeling like jagged steel as they tried to tear my skin. I’d barely made it to his neck when he started beating his great wings again. The blast of air nearly blew me off his back before I found the harness. Fastening it, I wedged my lower body between several of the longer horns to hang on for dear life. The beating grew faster and faster until Fyre leaped off the ground to rise straight up. Once clear of the castle, he flew off towards the north.

I was freaking out, eyes wide, my heart nearly leaping out of my chest.I was riding a god-damned dragon!!!

But instead of the flying being smooth and sleek like in GOT, it was like like hanging onto a rusty old Army tank as it bounced over hilly terrain at high speed. His huge bat-like wings flapped slowly but powerfully, the tips nearly touching at the top and bottom of his strokes, his body rising and falling dramatically with each beat. So much so that my harness was all that was keeping me from getting bucked off.

TV show fantasies aside, riding a real dragon is punishing. I tucked myself low in the cluster of horns as I closed my eyes, clinging to the harness, trying to keep my stomach down. I tried to think of something calming, but all I could think of was flying with Alura.

Laying against her sculpted back as I always did when we flew, my arms wrapped around her well-padded chest, she always felt like a sleek, muscular Jaguar beneath me, every movement graceful and powerful, her long blonde hair flowing over me as her fantastic muscles worked so erotically against mine. That and the wonderful way her pert backside supported me in just the right way.

Not so Fyre. I gritted my teeth while hanging on as he flew fast enough to make it hard to breathe in the violent slipstream. Fortunately, I soon saw Little Krypton’s towers approaching through watering eyes. Now I had a new problem — landing on those domed tower tops. The antennas would make it impossible for Fyre to hover or land.

“Can you toss me onto a balcony on the Jor El tower?”

“Maybe,” he roared over the slipstream. “Can you climb down my tail? I’ll fly as close as I can and then toss you the rest of the way. Timing’s gotta be good though. I’m not fast enough to catch you if we miss.”

My heart was in my throat as I slipped out of the harness. Fyre dropped lower, his wings gently moving now as he slowly lost altitude, soaring more than flying. I held onto the horny protrusions down his neck and across his back as I climbed quickly toward his tail and then down it, the handholds growing smaller and smaller. I didn’t dare look down as I saw the kilometers-tall Jor El tower rapidly approaching, yet still beneath us.

Fyre gave a final stroke of his wings before folding them under himself as he flew close enough to swing his powerful tail toward the closest balcony. He threw me far enough to land in the center of the empty balcony — but unfortunately I was still moving at nearly a hundred kph. I skidded across the glass floor, bouncing off the back wall, spinning around helplessly, completely out of control, scrabbling against the featureless glass as I slid on my belly, trying to increase my friction to slow myself, but it wasn’t going to be enough. Thankfully, instead of Alura’s railing-less balcony, this one had a stainless grid at the edge, close to the building. I smashed into it hard enough to see stars. Blinking away the stars, my vision cleared to reveal I was hanging nearly upside down while staring straight down at the ground, kilometers below me. My foot had jammed in the grid to save me from going completely over.

Shaking in terror, I saw Fyre circle the tower, verifying that I hadn’t fallen. He gave me what looked like a wave with one wing before flying off.

I pulled myself up as I untangled my foot from the railing, and started crawling back across the clear glass floor on shaking hands and knees, concentrating on not looking down. Once I got to the door, I climbed through on hands and knees to enter someone’s apartment. Getting back to my feet, I dashed to the inner doorway to exit into the curving interior corridor. There I searched for the utility flight tube — the one I’d been told had a ladder inside. Normally, the only way up and down this tower was by flight power.

The utility tube was the third one I came to. I didn’t dare look down as I reached inside to swing my weight onto the ladder to start climbing, knowing it was thousands of meters to the bottom if I fell.

Five terrifying minutes of climbing later, I reached the level of the Control Center, and stepped out of the tube to see Amy, the Chief Controller, as she turned to stare back at me.

Floating behind her was little Anna and her sister Syl, whose fifth birthday was next week. The young girls were floating in mid-air in front of the main holo viewer, with Syl wearing what on any other child would be a Halloween costume — a small but authentic version of her mother’s old red and blues from the 1960’s, right down to the red ballet slippers and yellow ribbons, along with a short cape that was attached to a red choker. But given her long, blonde hair floated weightlessly around her, and her ballet slippers hovered a foot above the floor, this was hardly Trick or Treat.

“How did you get here?” Amy demanded. “All the Els are out looking for Alexana?”

“Not all,” Syl said pointedly as she rose higher.

I stared at the miniature Supergirl for a long moment, very aware that Syl was confined here at Control with her youngest sister, Anna, for good reason. I turned instead to Amy. “Do you have a location for Athena?”

“Athena? You mean DB? What’s she got to do with any of this?”

“Backup plan. Can you scan for her?”

“Yeah, maybe, if she’s wearing an earcom. But the Els want no part of her.”

“Just do it,” I said.

Amy crossed her arms to stare at me. “I work for the Family, Alec. Which you are not part of. You need to bring me into whatever you’re up to if you want my help.”

Amy was tough. Ex-military. She ran Control with an iron fist that the Els respected. “Look, we don’t have time for this shit, Amy. Isn’t it enough that I’m working on a backup plan of Lara’s?”

“So that’s why she pulled you away to talk earlier?”

“Yeah. She didn’t want to tell anyone about Athena because no one would agree.”

“No surprise there. DB is irresponsible and dangerous, Alec, especially for a man like you. Not so bright and possibly wacko too.”

“Don’t believe everything you hear, Amy, even around here. Athena might just be our salvation today. Can you find her?”

She hesitated for a long moment, and then motioned to the other controllers. “Search for DB. She might have an older model of earcom. Don’t know what version. See if you can find her.”

The controllers went to work, and moments later the main holo display lit up with blue dots — the locations of all the Els. There was also a red blip that appeared and disappeared whenever an El closed on it. And then a weak yellow blip began to appear over southern Utah.

“Got her,” one of the controllers said. “She’s wearing an old model 4 unit. Yellow tracer.”

“Ok, Amy,” I said in my most commanding voice, “I need you to tell the Els to form a shrinking circle around that location, starting from where they are now. We need to drive Alexana’s teleports toward DB’s location. She has a weapon that can take Alexana down.”

“What kind of weapon?” Amy asked, looking doubtful. “They’ve already hit Alexana with everything.”

“Not everything. Just tell them that it’s time for the backup plan. Lara will explain. Do it.”

Amy showed why she was the Chief Controller. She was just an employee, but she was working for Kryptonians, and that meant she had to be flexible, adaptable and most importantly decisive. She thought for a moment, made a decision, and then put my request out to the Family. Their earcoms were thankfully all in range.

After a couple of “what the fucks” while Lara explained her plan, the Els, to their credit, began to follow the controllers’ directions, who sent each of them toward a different spot. Over the next half hour, I watched as their crude circle shrank, with Alexana’s red blip flitting from one El to the next, but staying inside the shrinking circle.

“We need to shrink the circle faster. And I need to get to Athena’s location before the circle closes completely.”

“There’s nobody here to fly you. And how do you know Alexana won’t just jump past them and out of range?”

“If she wanted to, she would have by now. No, she wants a fight, but on her terms. She’s letting them herd her until she’s completely confident she can win, even against the entire family.”

“Good luck with that,” Amy muttered. “But I still can’t get you there.”

Syl raised her hand. “I can fly you.”

I stared at the little blonde girl in her bright red and blues, who barely stood waist high to me, and smiled while shaking my head. “Sorry, Syl, but I’m not taking anyone your age into battle.” Then to Amy: “Can’t we recall one of the older kids?”

She shook her head. “Not if you want to keep the circle intact.”

“I started flying those old subway cars last month,” Syl persisted. “Twenty tons plus being full of people. In and out and around the ranch each morning.” She clenched her fist and made a muscle, her girlish biceps larger and rounder than made sense given her age. “You’d be a feather.”

I looked back at Amy, eyebrow lifting. She nodded. “As long as it’s a quick drop off, can’t see the danger. I want you back here instantly, Syl.”

I turned to the young girl to emphasize Amy’s point. “Your job is over once you get me to DB. After that, you do as Amy says. I’m dead serious. What’s going to happen there is very dangerous, even for you.”

“Ok. So what’s a DB?” Syl asked.

I wasn’t going to be the one to tell her that bit of family history. Thankfully, before I could have any second thoughts about involving her, she flew over to wrap her legs around my hips from behind. They were too short for her to cross her ankles in front of me, but she squeezed me hard enough to hurt while wrapping her arms around my chest from the back. I was barely able to breathe in her tight embrace as she took off toward one of the exit tubes, a riot of blonde hair blinding me as we emerged into the cold air of the high mountains. She made several turns before heading southeast, toward the neighboring state of Idaho, headed for Utah on the other side. Clearly, Amy was directing her via her earcom.

Syl flew faster and faster until the slipstream grew painful. Still she kept accelerating as I gasped for air, unable to breathe in the violent slipstream. I grabbed her arm and squeezed to let her know I had a problem, and instantly the slipstream began to fade. At first I thought she was slowing down, but then I felt a pleasant buzzing sensation surrounding me as the scream of rushing air stopped completely. I realized with a shock that she’d expanded her personal forcefield to enclose me. Alura couldn’t do that. Nor anyone else I’d heard of.

Soaring much faster now, Syl climbed nearly straight up, the sky darkening from blue to purple before she turned to fly southeast at hypersonic speed. Barely five minutes passed before I saw the red rock canyons of southern Utah spreading out far below me. She tilted forward to dive nearly vertically toward the ground, the blaze of heat from the air friction enveloping my head, yet I could barely feel it. Amazed by her unique ability, not to mention her flight power, it seemed inconceivable at that moment that her fifth birthday was still a week away.

She made a series of painfully high-G turns as she followed Amy’s instructions, and seconds later I saw Athena ahead of us, standing on the lip of a canyon. Syl dropped rapidly below the Mach as her forcefield contracted to let the desert air in, which was blazing hot. I gasped from the sudden blast of heat as she flew toward the cliff edge to land right behind Athena.

Athena turned her head, looking surprised to see me there, not to mention being carried by a Kindergartener. She was dressed in that red leotard and gold belt, her high-heeled boots floating a meter above the ground, standing so straight and tall, looking every bit like a superheroine.

“The Els are shrinking their circle, Athena, driving Alexana toward this canyon.”

“Yeah, that’s what I was guessing. This old earcom picked up a few things.”

“You need to get down there. Now. To the canyon floor. She’s likely to teleport in any moment.”

“Ok,” Athena shrugged as she leaned backward to casually fall over the cliff edge, disappearing in a trail of blonde hair. I rushed up to the edge, only to have my stomach fill with butterflies as I teetered there, staring down a thousand foot vertical wall as Athena’s body shrank. She was little more than a dot when a puff of sand marked where she landed. She hadn’t even tried to break her fall.

“Damn. You were supposed to take me with you,” I said softly. “But not that way.”

“I’m still here,” Syl said from behind me.

“No way I can climb down this cliff, Syl. Can you carry me one more time?”

“I can do almost anything,” she said with a shrug that made her look older than her years. Without another word, she grabbed the front of my jacket with her little hand to lift me off the ground and then stepped over the edge to fall fall. My stomach was in my throat until she started to slow near the bottom, finally setting my feet gently in the sand. I’ll never think of Kindergarteners the same way again.

“You need to leave right now,” I told her. “Get back to Control. Some very bad things are going to go down here in a few minutes.”

“But you’re going to be safe?” Syl asked.

“Yeah. This won’t hurt me,” I said with more confidence than I felt.

“What about her?” she pointed at Athena. “Is that the DB?”

“Story for another time. Now fly, you fool.”

Syl turned and leaped into the air, accelerating so fast that she was surrounded by a cone of mist before she was halfway up the cliff. Her sonic boom echoed loudly down the canyon.

“That was dumb,” Athena said. “Going supersonic in the canyon. If Alexana was here, that sonic boom would have telegraphed that an El was near. And what’s with you hanging out with Kindergarteners?”

“We’re making this up as we go, Athena. She was my only way here.”

“Then get over there behind that boulder and stay out of sight. I wouldn’t give a nickel for your prospects if she spots you. She could kill you with a glance. She was trained by Faora, you know.”

I swallowed hard. Alura had told me all about Faora one time. A woman with enough combat training to kick her father’s butt. “But aren’t you and Alexana old friends?”

“I wouldn’t say friends, but we have some complaints in common. But once I tell her that Dar is my boyfriend, she’ll think I’m here to get him back. That should be interesting.”

“Given she overpowered Dar, you don’t stand a chance in a fight.”

“She didn’t out-muscle him. She seduced him with her Almeracian pheromones. And yeah, I agree about not duking it out with her. She’d break me into little pieces. But given she’s Almeracian, she’ll assume I want to fight her for Dar. Which means she’ll do her best to kill me. Royal females on Almerac are all alphas who have a thing about fighting over mating rights. Very primitive and cruel behavior. Cave-man but reversed. My being here to fight for him will make perfect sense to her.”

“A dangerous game,” I said, not sure what else to say.

“Yeah, but I only need to get close enough to set off the nuke.”

Once again, Athena was proving she was anything but dumb. How could the El’s be so blind as to not see that?

I ducked behind the huge boulder to begin digging a little trench in the sand under one side that I could crawl into and still see out of. I needed to know what was going on while staying protected.

Athena lifted off to land in the exact center of the canyon floor, about a kilometer away. Several more minutes passed, and then there was a loud POP as Alexana and Dar appeared out of thin air. Alexana was completely nude except for a gold chain around her waist, and she carried Dar in her arms, either unconscious or exhausted but presumably still alive. Otherwise why fight?

The two women hovered in mid-air as they talked for a long minute, but they were too far away for me to make out any words, despite the dead silence of the canyon. Suddenly Alexana stiffened and tossed Dar to the side like he was a bag of dirty laundry. The two superwomen landed to walk closer, facing each other, circling, fists clenched. Then, in a blur that my eyes couldn’t follow, Alexana delivered a blow that send Athena flying, leaving a cloud of red confetti trailing in her wake. She hit high on the canyon wall about two kilometers away to collapse part of it over herself. The shockwave from Alexana’s blow echoed up and down the canyon, blasting sand ahead of itself as it created numerous small rock slides, even shaking the huge boulder I was hiding under.

Athena remained silent and buried. For all I knew, that single blow had killed her. I was getting seriously worried that our backup plan had just ended when some refrigerator-sized rocks began to move, several of them tumbling from the pile. Moment’s later, Athena’s blonde head emerged. She crawled out to stand shakily, wearing only her boots now. She was looking around for Alexana when the Almeracian teleported to a spot just above her with a boulder the size of a small apartment, which she dropped on Athena. Despite being so far away, the ground leaped beneath me as more rockfalls rumbled down the cliffs.

Alexana landed to stand on top of her massive boulder, resting her fists on her hips as she looked both powerful and amused. She visibly tensed her body to push down on the boulder with her bare feet, the rock crunching around her toes as she drove it deeper into the ground to further crush Athena. The massive boulder was nearly submerged when it suddenly launched upward, tossing Alexana to the side as Athena reappeared holding it over her head. Athena was stronger than I’d expected given that block had to weigh thousands of tonnes.

Alexana grabbed the boulder, her arms and legs spread wide as she crunched them deeply into the solid rock, her fingers, hands and forearms up to her elbows digging into what had to be a thousand tons of red sandstone. Alexana ripped it away from Athena and then used it to crush her against the base of the one of the canyon walls, this time collapsing a huge section of the cliff on top of both of them, dropping a million tonnes of rock.

Athena immediately exploded from beneath the huge pile to land on Alexana’s shoulders as she emerged, closing her thighs around her head, her body turning to harder-than-steel muscle as she tried to crush Alexana. Her scissors hold would have undoubtably crushed rock or steel alloy, but Alexana was made of far stronger stuff than that. She spun around inside Athena’s scissor hold to thrust her hands and arms up between the root of Athena’s legs as she blasted herself free.

The two superwomen began wrestling wildly now, arms and legs wrapped around each other as they tried to crush each other, their fight sending them flying from one side of the canyon to the other, each time crashing into and collapsing more of the canyon walls. Each time they exploded out of the resulting mountain of shattered rock, still locked up with each other, their violent canyon-bashing wrestling match grew more fierce. Their fight went on until Alexana used some kind of special move to get an arm free. She used her fist to deliver another incredible blow, blasting Athena across the canyon once again, this time crashing barely a hundred meters from me. The shockwave from that mighty punch arrived a second later to shake the entire canyon, filling the air with flying sand, the BANG of her sonic boom nearly bursting my ear drums despite being mostly buried under my rock.

That was following by an actinic glare of unholy light that would have dwarfed a hundred arc welders. Alexana was using her heat vision on Athena, whose skin turned red and then white hot. Alexana’s blinding glare etched shadows on the canyon walls despite the bright sun.

I dug deeper under my boulder, hoping to avoid getting burned by pieces of molten rock, peeking out just in time to see Athena still fighting. Desperate now, she buried Alexana’s face in her boobs to shut down her heat vision, her arms wrapped around Alexana’s head to hold her with every ounce of her strength. For one long moment, I thought she had the Almeracian, only to have Athena’s chest flare like a tiny sun as Alexana blasted her with everything she had. Athena somehow managed to hang onto her despite her white-hot boob, only to have Alexana’s fingers search for the pressure points on her neck. Faora had taught her well.

Athena passed out as Alexana cut the flow of blood to her brain. Alexana looked triumphant as she flew upward while swinging Athena’s limp body around by one hand to throw her into a canyon wall at what had to be several times the speed of sound. Between the sonic boom and the incredible CRACK of her body hitting the rock, my ears were assaulted yet again, leaving them ringing badly.

Athena now lay half buried and motionless, buried to her waist in the red rock cliff. Unfortunately, Alexana was now hovering near my sheltering boulder. I slowly wormed my way deeper yet into the sand, hoping to stay hidden beneath the rock, but Alexana must have heard something, maybe my racing heartbeat. There was a sudden loud crunch, and the massive boulder began to lift, showering me with falling sand. Turning to look up, I saw Alexana give my boulder an upward flip to catch it over her head. With one hand. She was just showing off now.

I found myself staring up at her, her only clothing that gold chain around her waist, which was now half melted. She was a shockingly attractive woman, what with her flaming red hair, those intensely green eyes along with a tightly-muscled figure that could easily match Alura’s. She was a superwoman in all the ways. But most certainly not a superheroine.

She smile at the terrified but amazed look on my face. “What do we have here? A puny little human, dug in like a desert rat? How about if you just fucking die.”

She dropped the massive boulder directly over me. I barely had time to put my hands up, an obviously useless gesture, only to have the rock explode with incredible force, the chunks flying to the side to miss me. I looked up just in time to see a little girl in a Supergirl costume flying off.

Syl was still here!

Alexana just laughed. “You must be really desperate indeed if you resort to using children for your protection.”

I was gulping air, fully aware that Syl had just saved my life. Athena was still out cold, laying half buried in the rock wall fifty meters away. The last thing I wanted was for Syl and Alexana to tangle. Thankfully, Alexana ignored Syl as she dropped down to kick away the larger rocks before ripping Athena out of the wall to drop her in the sand. She dropped over her to her tightly with her knees, her fingers closing around Athena’s neck to strangle her. I knew you couldn’t kill a Krypt by cutting off their air, but someone with Faora’s skills could deprive her brain of blood long enough to cause damage, possibly even death. And if that failed, likely she’d try to twist her neck enough to break it.

Thankfully, before any of that happened, Athena woke up to desperately fight back, lifting her long legs to wrap them around Alexana again, the two of them again rolling across the canyon floor. Alexana looked like she was actually enjoying herself as Athena fought for her life, unable to pull Alexana’s steel-sinewed hands free of her neck. The Almeracian was clearly stronger. Which made me wonder what Athena was waiting for? She was more than close enough to Alexana to detonate the nuke — except that it was still safely hidden inside her — and she had no hand free to try and retrieve it.

Instead, Athena struggled to move the fight further away from me, the two of them wrestling their way across the canyon floor as Alexana amused herself by twisting and breaking one of Athena’s arms. The loud TWANG of breaking bone made me wince. Even worse, from what I could see, Alexana was getting turned on by it all. Moments later, she had Athena pinned on her back as she slowly crushed the life from her, her one good hand pinned beneath her as Alexana used her unimaginably powerful legs to squeeze her ribs the same way her mother had broken Kal El’s. Even worse, her fingers were digging into Athena’s neck again. It was now or never to use the weapon.

I dove behind another large boulder to cover my eyes with my arm as I dove for the sand, praying I was far enough away to survive. I’d no soon hit the ground when an incredible green flash seemed to penetrate sand and rock and flesh.

I woke to the sound of dozens of rumbling landslides as the walls of the canyon collapsed inward from one end of the canyon to the other. I crawled to the edge of my new boulder to see a green fireball shrinking and then disappearing in the middle of the canyon floor, the sand all around ground zero now a glowing green. I saw no sign at first of Athena or Dar, or Alexana for that matter.

Rising, I stumbled forward, knowing I had to somehow find them and get them far beyond the green sand that now filled most of the canyon. I ran on rubbery legs as the air and ground grew hotter and hotter. I was running directly toward ground zero of a small nuke that had detonated only moments ago. It was crazy, but this was syn-Kryptonite. The rads weren’t supposed to hurt me, but the glowing-hot glass in the small crater where it had detonated was another thing. It was still liquid.

I found Dar’s body just outside the glass zone, his heart stopped, his eyes wide open and fixed. I ran past him to find Athena, whose body was glowing a sickly shade of green, her left arm twisted in a horrible way. But just the fact that she was still in one piece after being at absolute ground zero seemed impossible but wonderful. I felt her good wrist for a pulse, only to burn my fingers. Yet in that moment I’d felt her heart beating!

She was too hot to touch expect for her foot, so I grabbed her big toe to drag her over toward Dar. His body was cold and deathly silent as I grabbed his big toe as well.

I felt ridiculous heading down the canyon dragging two nude people by their toes, not to mention stupid for not having the forethought to have Syl fly me here in an ATV or Jeep or something. Thankfully, my x-ring was drawing a little energy from Athena, and that gave me the strength to begin running. I ran and ran for kilometers, my endurance artificially augmented. I ran until the canyon narrowed at the far end into a narrow channel barely wide enough to get through. I went deeper and deeper down that channel until it narrowed to a mere crack in the rock.

I couldn’t go any further. Craning my neck to look upward, the walls over me were vertical and crumbling from the detonation, with more tons of rock threatening to fall any moment. I doubted I could climb those cliffs on my own, let alone with Dar and Athena, x-ring or not.

My only hope was that Athena would recover soon to fly us out of here. I tried not to touch her badly broken arm as I pulled her limp body against mine as I leaned my back against the rock wall. Her head hung limply on my shoulder, her back tight against my chest, her body still blazing hot. But my x-ring had drawn enough power to keep her from burning me. I looked up and prayed for deliverance, hoping she’d awake before Dar died. I still didn’t know what had happened to Alexana.

Thankfully, I kept getting stronger and stronger as time passed, much as I was used to in Alura’s arms. I began to wonder if I could accelerate the power draw from Athena enough to climb out of here with the two of them? I knew how to draw energy from Alura, but I wasn’t about to start fucking an unconscious woman. I reached around instead to cup her breasts, hoping I could something a bit less dramatic going. Her boobs proved to be way bigger than my outstretched hands and softer than Alura’s, which ensured I was suddenly sporting a very inappropriate erection. Boobs are boobs. Soon enough, I felt her nipples stiffening. That was a good sign, signaling that her metabolism was increasing, or so I hoped. I put my fingers to work on those firming nipples, hoping the extra stimulation might bring her around. It was crazy, but my x-ring had rewritten a lot of the rules. All I knew for sure was that more and more energy rushed into me as her nipples engorged, and soon she began to move softly against me.

This technique most certainly wasn’t in the Red Cross First Aid manual, but Athena wasn’t really human either. She was an amalgam of Amazon and Darkseid's New God genetics, so her rules were obviously different. Her nipples rapidly huge astoundingly hard as she began breathing hard, and then she began moaning very softly. The flow of energy from her became a tsunami now as I started getting way too much into my odd form of resuscitation. I used my new strength to hold her as tightly as I could, knowing from experience that Alura enjoyed such attentions. Being invulnerable, she had different needs than most women.

Thankfully, Athena’s good arm and her legs were aimed away from me a minute later when she suddenly took a huge breath, and then started thrashing around, her fingernails tearing into the red rock wall in front of her as she clawed her way back to her feet. She grabbed her broken arm and screamed, her eyes wide from pain,the whites glowing with a green light as she backed away from me. She crossed her good arm over her chest to preserve what was left of her modesty.

“Did… did we do it?”

I shook my head. “Yeah, we got Dar, but I couldn’t find Alexana’s body. She was either blown too far away for me to find, or she teleported away at the last moment.”

“No way. I was holding onto her too tightly when it went off.” She looked down at the glow between her legs. “God that burns.”

“I… I don’t even understand how you are alive? That thing went off inside you?”

“Not really. I have extremely talented Kegels."

"Extremely talented…?" I repeated. I'd never heard pelvic floor muscles described as being talented.

"Lets call it a last second ejection. Otherwise I’d have been Granny Goodnessed.”

“Granny?” I was starting to sound like the idiot.

“Darkseid’s sadistic torturer and trainer of his Furies. She liked to tear apart anyone who defied her — explosively. From the inside out. That’s the only time I heard her laugh.”

“So you really were a Fury?” Just the word sent a sliver of fear through me.

“Was born to be, the first one in fact, but Darkseid had other ideas.”

I shook that thought away for later as I tried not to stare at the green glow. “I think we need to get you away from Dar until you stop glowing.”

“Is he dead?”

“By humans standards, absolutely. But I was told that resuscitation is possible. It was said that Krypts can live a long time without breathing or even a heartbeat.”

“How long is long?”

“Don’t know. Hours at least.”

Athena stared back down the widening crack toward toward the canyon floor. “Then I’m going for help. The Els must be buzzing all over the place, unable to come down here. I’ll also see if I can find Alexana.” She took a few steps forward before pausing, gasping with pain as she held her horribly broken arm. “Shit. Everything out there looks green.”

“Yeah. I think the blast irradiated the sand and rocks. This canyon might be off-limits to Krypts forever.”

“I’m not taking Dar out there.”

“Right. But in here, you’re a danger to him. Green glow and all.”

“Then we go up to the top of the canyon so I can leave him in your care.”

“Crack narrows quite a bit overhead. Not enough room to climb through. Already thought about that.”

“Then I’ll make some room.”

She leaped upward until her body jammed into the narrowing crack, her breasts flattening against her chest. She pressed the palm of her good arm against the rock wall and began to push. Moments later, the red rock began to crack as I realized with a shock that she was widening the crack by literally pushing the walls of the canyon apart with one hand. Her back was now a maze of fantastically-defined muscle, her triceps and shoulder wildly defined. The ground began to shake as the vertical crack widened slowly, chunks of rock falling painfully on me. And then suddenly Athena was gone. She’d done it!

I was even more turned on now.

Athena returned seconds later to grab my foot to flip me upside down to dangle from her good arm. Smiling, she looked down at my overblown erection, the head of which was brushing her boobs. “Wish I had time for enjoying that, but duty calls. You need to grab Dar’s foot to dangle him beneath you, keeping him as far from me as possible while I pull you both up. Once we get through that tight spot above, it’s easy going.”

I reached over to grab Dar as Athena lifted us both, my body fitting very tightly in the widened crack. Thankfully I was still dressed in my tough jacket and Jeans or I would have lost skin. Or worse.

Amazingly, the rock at the choke point was shattered on one side from her hand, and an impression of her muscular back had been crushed into the other side. I had no idea how much strength it had taken to push those walls apart, but I was just glad when she managed to pull me through. Unfortunately, Dar’s thicker chest and steel muscles jammed tightly.

“Climb over me,” she said. “I’ll pull Dar up once you’re out of the way.”

I squeezed beside her as she helped me climb, and I eventually got past her to stand on her shoulders. She reached down to grab Dar’s extended arm, and her body turned to steel as she pulled hard enough to shatter more rock. And then suddenly Dar was free. She hugged me to her side as I hung onto Dar, and up we went, flying vertically up the ever-widening crack until we emerged hundreds of meters later at the top of the canyon.

Staring across the canyon rim, I saw a mushroom cloud rising from the canyon floor, pushing above the rim, all green and black malevolent looking. It seemed impossible that I’d survived being down there during that detonation. Even more that Athena had survived having the device jammed between herself and Alexana when it went off. Kryptonian invulnerability is the wonder of the universe.

Athena began flying northward with us, putting about ten klicks behind us before she set us down near some widely-spaced trees where there was some shade. The entire area was red rock.

“You going to be Ok here with Dar?” she asked. “I want to get out of here before the Els show up. Bad blood and all.”

“I guess. I mean, what can I do? He’s technically dead. But I’m sure Fyre is worried about you. Do you have someone who can set your arm?”

“Fyre is pretty handy with such things.”

“Amazing. But I just want to thank you from the bottom of my heart before you go. I owe you my life.”

“No thanks needed. We came for Dar, and we got him. We’re a good team. Come see me sometime. I’m still fascinated by your magic ring. I want to take it for a test drive.”

And with that, she leaped into the air, her calves flexing with fantastic definition. Seconds later, a girdle of mist marked her supersonic transition, and she was gone.

I stared after her for a long moment, and then sat down next to Dar to arrange his arms and legs so he at least looked comfortable. Leaning my back against a rough, scrubby desert tree, I allowed myself to smile. Surely the Family would arrive soon to get Dar to S.T.A.R Labs where they could revive him. And Athena was well on her way home by now, seemingly safe and sound, not to mention highly radioactive to any Kryptonian. Even little Syl had played a critical role, saving my life, not to mention getting me here and down the canyon floor in time to contribute my bit.

I was damned proud of that bit. I’d done something not even Alura could do. With any luck, I’d earned a permanent place in the El family. Talking to her parents about marriage was going to be a lot easier now. Even if April was somehow involved now.

April. Alura. Thinking of them both made me smile. I wasn’t sure what role April was going to play in our future, but Alura had sure seemed to enjoy our threesome. And she’d hinted that plural marriage was legal again in nearby Utah.

I laughed at that thought. The upcoming discussion with Alura’s parents was likely going to be very interesting — but I was no longer afraid.


Alura arrived first, her sonic boom echoing across the red rocks a few seconds before she landed to hug me as I leaned against my old tree. It was so wonderful to see her after everything that had happened the last day. We were hugging when when she suddenly turned to the side and vomited. That wasn’t so great. If you’ve ever seen a Kryptonian get sick, its not pretty. The words “explosive vomiting” doesn’t do it justice.

Turns out that I was contaminated enough with syn-K that she couldn’t remain near me.

Kal and Kara showed up acting like any other parent with a desperately ill child. Except that they’d brought a lead tube large enough to fit Dar. I had to shove him in and fasten it closed given everyone else got violently ill when they got close to either of us. They finally flew off with Dar in his tube, heading toward S.T.A.R Labs, looking very worried.

Nancy showed up a few minutes late to land the Millennium Falcon replica near me, and April ran down the ramp when it opened to nearly tackle me. Alura hung back, looking a bit envious of April’s immunity to my greenish glow.

Dressed in a pair of shorts that showed off her slender legs, along with a simple t-shirt, April’s long, red hair seemed to glow in the red-rock desert light. She helped me into the cockpit of the Falcon as Nancy lifted the 50 tonne replica spaceship to fly us toward Montana and the ranch. Most of the rest of the Family clustered around the ship as we flew, dressed in their various adaptations of red and blue flight outfits. That was quite a sight as they took and underneath, my radiation sufficient to weaken and sicken them slightly even then. Alura ended up pushing the ship into a sub-orbital path that allowed the Falcon to coast a bit once out of the atmosphere. That gave everyone a chance to keep some distance until aero-braking started. The fact that the ship had been certified by NASA for spaceflight was surprising, given its a hand-made replica of a fictional ship to begin with.

April seemed to enjoy having me to herself, and the warmth in her green eyes matched the heat of re-entry as we came blazing down to land at the small hospital on Little Krypton.

Decontamination wasn’t fun at first — a bunch of medics scrubbing me with course brushes on long poles while naked in a shower. April finally sent them away as she stripped down to join me in the soapy shower — to make sure that “I was properly purged of any green ejaculate”, or so she claimed the Doc had instructed her. To protect Alura. I’m not sure I buy that story, but given my expected reaction to her soapy hands all over me, I was just glad the lead-lined Decontam shower didn’t have any windows. My x-ring was still charged up from being around Athena, so it took a while to make sure I was cleaned out.

I have my doubts that anyone has had sex during radioactive decontam before, but it wasn’t a record I was willing to submit to the record books.

After that, the Doc took over, and had me swallow and them vomit up a couple of gallons of activated charcoal slurry. Then some potent laxative-induced pooping to clear out my intestines. That wasn’t so great.

A few hours later, while my body tried to absorb a half gallon of Gatorade to restore my electrolytic balance, Alura joined me in my room, using her body as a sensitive detector of any remaining Kryptonite residue. She convinced the Doc to release me in her care, and flew me to her apartment and her bed, where she fed my x-ring lots of her personal energy to help me get back to my usual self.

She’s always horny after she’s had an adventure, so she was very passionate and very, very physical, something she’s better at than anyone else. I’d long ago decided that sex was her way of dealing with anxiety, and I was absolutely 100% thrilled to help put her fears to rest. But more than anything, it was just wonderful to be alone again with the woman I loved.


Breakfast the next morning was a family affair, with everyone telling their tales, starting with little Syl. Kara and Kal were still at S.T.A.R Labs with Dar, but Athena showed up with her arm set in a cast that was made of half-inch titanium alloy. Setting a broken bone had been hard enough given her nearly invulnerable physiology, but keeping the broken bone aligned long enough to heal given her strength was even more challenging.

Amazingly, everyone seemed mostly Ok with Athena sitting at that big round table with all the El siblings, telling her part of the tale. Even Alura looked impressed after she heard her story and mine in great detail, starting with my meeting Fyre.

Little Syl was the proudest person in the room given the role she’d played getting me to the canyon and then saving me from having that boulder dropped on me. Despite Amy’s and my orders to stay clear of that area. I was alive because she hadn’t listened. Something I’ve learned is an El family trait.

Everyone was interested in how she’d expanded her personal force field around me given that no one else knew how to do that. Alura was especially interested. Apparently up to that moment it had been Syl’s little secret.

Breakfast ended and a wild pool frolic began on the level below, with everyone trying to get their heads back together after chasing Alexana and worrying about Dar. April looked mighty good in a green bikini, and her athleticism and grace, while far closer to human than Kryptonian, was still impressive on the high diving board. She briefly looked as if she really could fly.

And then word arrived from S.T.A.R that Dar was awake and apparently healthy after a much more involved decontam than mine.

Kal El returned soon after to report that he’d searched everywhere during the night, but had found no trace of Alexana. His guess was that she’d teleported away during the detonation, but whether that was before her heart stopped from the syn-K burst or after was the big question. If it was after, she might be out there somewhere, in some remote corner of Earth or even on the Moon, slowly dying. There would be hell to pay if we’d killed Maxima’s daughter, despite our plans to resuscitate her along with Dar. Maxima in her grief and anger would never believe that we’d tried.

After the pool fun was over, we all flew out to frolic a bit with Fyre, who was happy to see that I was unharmed, and incredibly relieved to see Athena, despite the giant brace on her arm. He really enjoyed our company and the resulting games with the kids, which quickly turned into fire and flying contests that April and I had to stay well away from.

Alura, April and I ended up sitting huddled together as we laughed at the antics of the younger kids. Alura frowned when I waved Athena over to join us. They might never be friends, they might never trust each other, but Alura was at least willing to be friendly for the moment. I was really looking forward to sharing the story of the last century and a half of Athena’s life with everyone, once she was willing to sit down with me to discuss it. Perhaps Alura would think better of her then.

In the meantime, Alura, April and I were now some kind of threesome. What had been an open secret was now acknowledged, although I was still a bit confused about how this was supposed to work. I’d come here to ask permission to marry Alura, but now I was supposed to marry both of them? I was still a little unsure why Alura was so keen on the idea, but I was learning to give her a lot of latitude when it came to relationships.

Kal and Kara eventually showed up to hover overhead, hugging as they smiled down on their huge family and friends as they played. I’d never seen such a happy look on Kara’s face, not in all those years of photos and videos that filled the archives of Earth. Their family had come together to overcome a major threat, and she could ask for nothing more.

Strangest of all, Athena was here now and everyone was happy at the moment as they looked at her in a new light. Who knew what tomorrow would bring, but for the moment, all was well in Little Krypton.


The artificial planet Apokolips

The steel-skinned monster named Darkseid hovered in front of his viewing portal, with a dark-haired man and a blonde woman floating in mid-air on either side of him. They were watching the same scene through one particular pair of eyes.

“Your q-wave images are impressive, Darkseid,” the man said. “And she doesn’t know she’s sending them out?”

The monster grunted. “I implanted the neural transmitter long before she crawled out of her birthing tube, General,” he said in a loud, gravely voice. “It’s undetectable by human and Kryptonian tech. Only I have a receiver.”

“Then we are finally ready to make our attack. We now have our spy in the midst of Jor El’s spawn. This is the time, when they think they are strong and triumphant, but are not.”

“No,” Darkseid said, his voice lashing the air like a whip. “You have work yet to do preparing the Almeracians for invasion, particularly Alexana once she recovers. She and her mother are arrogant and impulsive. They must be shown the true way of war. Find some other planet to invade and destroy for training first. Leave none alive. We will get to Earth in due time.”

“So we just leave the Els alone to breed in meantime?”

“Hardly alone. Now that Faora has settled into her new disguise, she will infiltrate Little Krypton along with Athena. In time, she will gain control of Athena so as to refocus her on her true destiny. Perhaps Athena will yet become the greatest of my Furies.”

He turned to run his massive hand down the silky softness of the woman’s newly blonde hair, which instead of being short and black was now grown to nearly waist-length, the color a pale gold. Her Kryptonian blue eyes, darkened with eyeshadow, were her only concession to her previous form. Dressed as she was only in an unzipped black leather jacket that was originally from Earth, she looked both exotic and dangerous.

faora disguise

“Once you consent to sharing my bed, Faora dear, I will give you greater power than any of the Els.”

Faora pulled away from his touch. Darkseid had never asked anyone for permission. The fact that he was asking now told Faora everything she needed to know about his perception of her power. She glared back at him, fire glowing in her eyes. “I already possess the skill and strength to kill any of them. You as well. And if you want to live, keep your hands off me.”

Darkseid laughed, his voice booming through the halls of Apokolips. “You could become a goddess if you opened yourself to me, true and strong. The greatest and strongest next to me.”

“Yes, and then I’d gradually morph until I was a monster like you,” Faora said disgustedly. “I consented to wear this disguise of yours, knowing I can return to my true form whenever I wish, but I will never submit to any man, other than for my own purposes.”

“I am no man, you ignorant woman. I am a god. I could give you power beyond measure.”

“Do not force my hand, Darkseid,” Faora shot back. “I need none of your so-called power. I have killed New Gods before.”

The monster laughed. “Kill me? Not even the Son of Jor El could not do that, and you failed to defeat him the last time you fought.”

“I defeated him in fair combat. I would have killed him if allowed the time.”

“You may have your tricks and your skills, but you will never be as strong or resilient as him. Or as me.”

Faora was opening her mouth to continue her argument when the General slowly shook his head to silence her. Faora had long been his most faithful supporter and greatest weapon, an assassin with enhanced Kryptonian skills.

She lowered her eyes and her voice at the General’s request. “Command me, great Darkseid, but do not think this body will ever be yours.”

The monster laughed again. “Then go. Join the spawn of Jor El on Earth. Find a way into their confidence, if you can. Time is not important, only the destruction of the El family matters. It has taken me a century and a half to position Athena in her ignorance to gain their confidence. I’m sure that you, the last true daughter of Krypton, will be eagerly welcomed by Kal El, given how intent he is to rebuild his failed race. He will see the opportunity of genetic diversity for his sons. He will believe his heart, not his head.”

“It is our race too, Darkseid,” the General reminded him.

“Of course, General. But you have grown beyond it.”

“I will prepare the seeds of their destruction, Darkseid,” Faora added. “And then, having achieved your goal, I will have my fun, starting by killing Kal El and all his sons. Think better of me when I return.”

And with that, she flew off, her newly blonde hair streaming behind her, leaving the two voyeurs staring at the screen, following everything that Athena saw.

“And you, General, as Maxima’s chief consort, you will debrief Alexana to learn what you can of this Earth. I expect you to convince the Queen to forcibly bring Earth into their domain after we first deal with the Kryptonians.”

Zod held his tongue for a long moment before replying. He was not used to taking orders. “That has been my goal since before I met you, Darkseid. Earth will someday bow at my feet.”

The monster laughed again. “You mean, at your little wife’s feet. Maxima is Queen of Almerac, and only women can rule their Empire. Your role is limited to giving her more children with your shared bloodlines, and train her children to not fail the way Alexana has done. She went to Earth to become pregnant, and she failed.”

“The Kryptonian males will not survive Faora’s fury. Once she is there, she will be outside my control.”

“Then you must ensure that your sons are more successful at planting your seed in the daughters of El. There are so many of them, but the oldest two, the ones called Alura and Lara, are ripe enough now. Pray your sons are more successful than Alexana if you wish to remain in my favor.”

With that, Darkseid turned his back on the Kryptonian survivor . He suspected it was only a matter of time before Zod would try to sink a blade into his back, and then he’d have to kill him. Just as long as his work was done first, then so be it.

To be continued in Episode Seven…

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