Little Krypton

**Little Krypton**

*by Shadar*

*Introduction*

I’ve always wanted to do an Alternate Earth story based upon a foundation of the 1970’s period of DC books, except set in the future. A Superman Family kind of futuristic story, but fully flushed out. 

The background for my story builds upon an alternate Earth that was much the same as our 1970’s Earth. Kara Zor El was college-age at the time, and as both Supergirl and Linda Danvers she was struggling to find a place in this strange world called Earth.  Kal El was both a bumbling Clark Kent and the mighty Superman. 

But instead of telling my story in that timeframe, I’ve just used that as a starting point and wound the clock forward nearly 120 years or so to imagine how things would have changed with Superman and Supergirl in the world. 

The world that *Little Krypton* is set in is knocking on the door of the 22nd century (the year is 2096), and the world has been reshaped by virtue of having Kryptonian guardians who have stopped wars and prevented uncounted disasters and stopped the worst criminals and protected Earth from aliens for a century and a half. No one else is alive who remembers what the world was like before Kal and then Kara came to Earth. The bloody 20th century now lives only in historical documents.   

But 2096 is not a utopia. People are still people in all their varieties, thoughts and feelings, some of which can be ugly and some beautiful. And in a world of superheroes, supervillains have also thrived, with some of them the offspring of the baddies of the 1970’s. Among other things, the first episode will introduce us to Harley Quinn’s great-granddaughter, a chip-off-the-old-block who now owns Poison Ivy’s little book of horrors. 

Central to the story is that after their earlier marriages and relationships, and after their spouses and friends all grew old and died, Kal and Kara have decided to put all other issues behind them to prevent the Kryptonian race from vanishing from the universe. Thanks to their very slow aging, they now have a large family — a dozen children, all born in the last quarter of the 21st century. 

The story opens with a focus on Alura, their oldest child, who is in college now, who is bringing her boyfriend (who is the initial POV character) home to meet the parents. The Els have nine daughters and three sons and Kara isn’t done yet — she’s going for an even 20 kids.  Since she’s Supergirl, and she can do just about anything, she’s decided to have lots and lots of kids. And Superman clearly still has what it takes.
 
But Kal and Kara face challenges that the comics never envisioned, including one of genetic diversity that forces them to consider future mates for their children. Mates who can carry on the Kryptonian race, or at least some hybrid semblance of it. Obviously incest isn’t the way and humans can’t possibly reproduce with Kryptonians, so they face many problems and even more awkward solutions, despite their children having their own ideas about who they might fall in love with and marry. 

There are other 20th century comics characters here as well, such as Maxima and her children (including at least one daughter fathered by Kal El after Lois died a long time ago). There is also Athena (who was called Dumb Bunny in the comics), Diana and the Amazons. Darkseid and his evil minions who play an outsized role in the future of the El family given many of his creations are part-Kryptonian. 

I’ve chosen to leave Daxamites out of this story given the Mon El angle was worked to death in the Supergirl TV show and I don’t want to repeat or compete with any of that. And frankly, that’s way too convenient.

The El family also has a central role in human space exploration given that their greatest project of the 21st century has been to help the people of Earth populate the planets and to plan for excursions to other stars. The entire El family is determined to help humans become a spacefaring race, yet without introducing significant amounts of alien technology. They want to keep the space program organic and homegrown, human-controlled and very Earthy, albeit with some Kryptonian help along the way. They know that humans have to control their own destiny if they are to be responsible for it. 

This is not a short story. It is already growing into a novella-sized tale whose episodes will run on SWM every week or two starting this weekend, and continue for a number of months.  Presuming, that is, I can maintain my focus and people enjoy reading it. 
Anyway, look for the first part this Sunday. I already have enough material ready to take me through November and part of December, and am writing more every day. 

Shadar

like the sound of this one

Nice to see the parallels between the WW universe and Aurora Universe.    Both Velor and  Thymiscira have some process for selecting female warriors to represent their society to the outside but otherwise they are closed off to visitors.    www.vulture.com/2017/06/wonder-woman-ori...eminist-history.html

Any superpowered heros would need plenty of discipline to overcome the tendency to be corrupted by great (super) powers.
Otherwise the natural impulse of anyone with superpowers and invulnerability might be extreme narcissm. or unstoppable shopping frenzies with no credit limit,  unless there were supercops with kryptonite restraints.

slim36 wrote: Nice to see the parallels between the WW universe and Aurora Universe.    Both Velor and  Thymiscira have some process for selecting female warriors to represent their society to the outside but otherwise they are closed off to visitors.    www.vulture.com/2017/06/wonder-woman-ori...eminist-history.html

Any superpowered heros would need plenty of discipline to overcome the tendency to be corrupted by great (super) powers.
Otherwise the natural impulse of anyone with superpowers and invulnerability might be extreme narcissm. or unstoppable shopping frenzies with no credit limit,  unless there were supercops with kryptonite restraints.

I'm operating under the premise that Kal and Kara are exceptional in that they have an internal code and a way of acting as a check on each other, and have been doing that for nearly 150 years. And this is what they are trying to teach their kids, with varying degrees of success as you'll see going on.

Kal especially has the heart of a Kansas Boy Scout that he's somehow maintained all his life. Which is why he's the greatest superhero of all time. He's basically incorruptible. 

Kara can push the boundaries sometimes because she was raised Kryptonian, and we've seen how power-drunk Kryptonians can get. That's why she built Little Krypton, which is something Kal would never have done given it sets them apart from humans and makes them look like gods living above the clouds. But thankfully she has Kal to ground her. 

But as you will see going forward in the story, her kids are growing up under completely different conditions than either of their parents. And as you indicate, human nature is for great power to become greatly corrupted. Humans and Krypts are very much the same inside. Which says that their kids, as is always the case, don't always (ever?) wind up exactly the way parents intend. 

By the way, here's a pict of the lighted statue that you will see in Episode 2 floating in the clouds in a holographic alcove in Alura's bedroom. While the ancient statue isn't a perfect likeness of Kara, it is dressed in one of her actual Kryptonian outfits.  

She undresses the statue to retrieve her old outfit from the 70's  and wears it when they go to a contest in Seattle. All in Episode 2.

Remarkably, after 120+ years, it still fits perfectly. 

She's also handing out a bunch of her other old indestructible outfits for her daughters to wear. Everything from 1960's outfits to 1990's outfits. 

I mean, its not that you can order indestructible Kryptonian fabric from Amazon. Recycling is the only way. 



Shadar

Kara and Kal having kids is an interesting idea.  How long does the pregnancy last?  What is the recovery time before having another child?  How many kids do they have?  If pregnancy and recovery time last as long as humans.  They could have a lot of kids.  Are any of the kids Irish twins?  How many are male vs female?  Seeing humans get from stress during the pregnancy, I read.  What type of stress could Kara be under to do that?

Raa wrote: Kara and Kal having kids is an interesting idea.  How long does the pregnancy last?  What is the recovery time before having another child?  How many kids do they have?  If pregnancy and recovery time last as long as humans.  They could have a lot of kids.  Are any of the kids Irish twins?  How many are male vs female?  Seeing humans get from stress during the pregnancy, I read.  What type of stress could Kara be under to do that?

I'm not going to give it all away here. You'll have to read the Episodes (especially Episodes 2 and 3) to get more details, but I'll mention a few things here.

As far as Kryptonian pregnancy goes, Kara (who was 15 when she left Argo City) knew about a "Song of Thousand Joys", which was a story mothers told their young daughters. Kryptonian ovulation and resulting fertility is not a function of day of the month or phase of the moon or anything else. Fertility results from singing the "Song of a Thousand Joys", which is to say, experiencing a very great deal of the proper kind of stimulation by the father-to-be, literally resulting in a "Thousand Joys". In other words, it's a big deal and it takes some time, but obviously Kal El, who has seemingly aged very little, is still Superman enough to "get her singing". 

As far as number of children, Kara wants to have 20. She's well underway. You'll meet them in Episodes going forward. 

I will speak of Episode One briefly (given its published) to say that it starts with a focus on Alura, who is 20 years old and "has musculature more like her father than her mother". My character notes for her say "Think PowerGirl" 

We also meet Nancy, who is both younger and very "spirited". We first find her under Harley Quinn's influence. You also briefly meet Lara, who rescues Nancy from Harley, and is half of a pair of fraternal twins who is halfway between Alura and Nancy's age Lara is very unusual in that she has a rarely seen trait (Kara knew only of one girl back on Krypton who had it) of being so beautiful that "no man can look upon her without forgetting his soul".

To make it possible for her to interact with normal people without stunning them to the point of drooling, their brains frozen, she normally dresses like a conservative Muslim, hiding all her features. Yet in deliberate contrast, her only clothing when she's "being super" is a very large cape that she can hold closed around herself when necessary, a few tiny strips of silver fabric (which she'd rather not wear), and a great deal of long, blonde hair.

Her mother has started sending her in to resolve hostage situations, given that the bad guys forget what end of their gun to hold when she shows up, but Kal El is not happy about this. But it works to save lives, so he grudgingly goes along. 

To your other questions, they have mostly girls so far. Kryptonian gestation is only seven months and very easy for Kara, who was still flying around as Supergirl while carrying Alura, her oldest. Until the last month, she doesn't show much. Kryptonian babies are born very small, but thanks to the yellow sun rays, are super from conception. 

Here's an amusing memory about first-born Alura, before Kara and Kal figured out how to be new parents: 

"Her mother had told her a story about how she’d floated out of the arms of a nurse on the day of her birth. The astounded nurse had chased her down the S.T.A.R Labs hallway (several hallways, depending on the telling) with baby Alura bouncing along the ceiling like a helium balloon. The nurse barely managed to grab her tiny foot before Alura made it out the doorway, likely to disappear into the sky. All this during the first minutes after birth."


Shadar

Suicide squad Harley is a good choice. But I always felt like Harley sorta kinda liked the ELs. She certainly likes Power Girl a lot from what I've seen.

Klaus wrote: Suicide squad Harley is a good choice. But I always felt like Harley sorta kinda liked the ELs. She certainly likes Power Girl a lot from what I've seen.

Don't forget that the Harley Quinn of the Little Krypton story is the great-grandniece of the original Harley Quinn. The year is 2096, not the 1970's.  And while this Harley has inherited her great-grandmother's intellect, she's also inherited the same thread of insanity that had first drawn her ancestor to the Joker.  So she's both a different person, but also the same in some ways. 

And she's inherited Poison Ivy's book of potions and poisons, and she is now an expert in using them. In many ways, she's as much Ivy as she is a Quinn. 

And she absolutely hates the Els, but she sees a thread of something she understands in young Nancy El and is determined to work on her, hoping to win her over to her side. With luck perhaps she can be to her what the Joker was to her great-grandmother. 

Shadar

shadar wrote:

Klaus wrote: Suicide squad Harley is a good choice. But I always felt like Harley sorta kinda liked the ELs. She certainly likes Power Girl a lot from what I've seen.

Don't forget that the Harley Quinn of the Little Krypton story is the great-grandniece of the original Harley Quinn. The year is 2096, not the 1970's.  And while this Harley has inherited her great-grandmother's intellect, she's also inherited the same thread of insanity that had first drawn her ancestor to the Joker.  So she's both a different person, but also the same in some ways. 

And she's inherited Poison Ivy's book of potions and poisons, and she is now an expert in using them. In many ways, she's as much Ivy as she is a Quinn. 

And she absolutely hates the Els, but she sees a thread of something she understands in young Nancy El and is determined to work on her, hoping to win her over to her side. With luck perhaps she can be to her what the Joker was to her great-grandmother. 

Shadar

Harley also seems to be quite strong, literally fending off berserk super soldiers with a stick, and acting like it's no big deal. Some sorta concoction she found in Ivy's book of potions or is her strength from being a metahuman? And if she's trying to win Nancy over to her side by drugging her into a stupor then offering her up to be gang-raped by a bunch of super soldiers while still too out of it to think of fighting back, then Harley has a very strange way of doing it.

jumperprime wrote:

shadar wrote:

Klaus wrote: Suicide squad Harley is a good choice. But I always felt like Harley sorta kinda liked the ELs. She certainly likes Power Girl a lot from what I've seen.

Don't forget that the Harley Quinn of the Little Krypton story is the great-grandniece of the original Harley Quinn. The year is 2096, not the 1970's.  And while this Harley has inherited her great-grandmother's intellect, she's also inherited the same thread of insanity that had first drawn her ancestor to the Joker.  So she's both a different person, but also the same in some ways. 

And she's inherited Poison Ivy's book of potions and poisons, and she is now an expert in using them. In many ways, she's as much Ivy as she is a Quinn. 

And she absolutely hates the Els, but she sees a thread of something she understands in young Nancy El and is determined to work on her, hoping to win her over to her side. With luck perhaps she can be to her what the Joker was to her great-grandmother. 

Shadar

Harley also seems to be quite strong, literally fending off berserk super soldiers with a stick, and acting like it's no big deal. Some sorta concoction she found in Ivy's book of potions or is her strength from being a metahuman? And if she's trying to win Nancy over to her side by drugging her into a stupor then offering her up to be gang-raped by a bunch of super soldiers while still too out of it to think of fighting back, then Harley has a very strange way of doing it.

I see Harley's "teaching moment" with Nancy as her attempt to help a powerful Kryptonian girl to see what it's like to be helpless and exploited, if only for a short time. Just as the Joker wasn't always "nice" as he related to the original Harley, this future Harley Quinn believes that Nancy El needs to experience life in ways that she never will as long as she lives up in her towers in the clouds. 

And don't forget, Harley is completely fucking insane, criminally so, so she's not exactly going to be nurturing in the ways we might think. She knew that those Berserker Super Soldiers couldn't truly injure Nancy, but they could seriously mess with her head given she would be too helpless to fight them off thanks to whatever potions, poisons, drugs she dosed her with. 

And given Harley's insane laugh at the end of that scene, after Lara rescued her younger sister, I suspect that was also part of the plan. Insanity creates its own rules, and even as I write Harley Quinn the character, I'm not at all sure what she's going to do next. She is chaos personified. (I am, by the way, open to ideas from Harley Quinn fans.)

Relative to Harley's physical strength, yes, she has been enhanced, much like the Super Soldiers. While the SS are each twenty or so times stronger than any human man when high on Tri-S, and difficult to kill even with guns, those bullets do penetrate and they do have to be dug out afterward. They are very robust and heal extremely quickly thanks to the Tri-S drug, but they would turn into pink mist just like a human if a Kryptonian delivered a full-power punch.

But as far as Harley goes, a young woman with 20 times normal human strength (or whatever) is still pretty formidable when facing ordinary humans. And she's got that Good Night bat which is anything BUT the ordinary chunk of wood it appears to be. And her great-grandmother's oversized hammer is still around somewhere. Combined with Ivy's potions and her insane genius, she's formidable, even when facing members of the El family. 

Shadar

Episode Two is up, and it turned out longer than Episode One. 

We see a new worry with Nancy, who Harley took advantage of in the first episode, and this time in regard to a hint of  Faora Syndrome. 

Alec's journey to the tall towers that Els live in now begins, but as usual with Alura, their flight there is uniquely interesting. . 

And Alec meets Alura's mother under unusual circumstances that turn out to be embarrassing, along with some blatant costume fan service from the last century. 

And finally, a charity contest begins where the world discovers who really is the strongest woman in the universe. 

All part of fleshing out the world of Little Krypton and Alec Johansen's increasing foothold into it. 

I used the picture below to imagine the scene where Alec first meets Alura. While the woman pictured isn't as dramatic as Alura, this picture of a top Dutch field-hockey star suggested the scene. 

 

Shadar

I really like Alura being more power girl then super girl, but I also hope that it was Shader's choice to go with that and that you don't feel obligated to have a muscle girl as a central character because part of your audience has the muscle lust.

Mid air super femme sex and no mile high joke?



nah its okay, I'm glad it didn't turn out like that.

Klaus wrote: I really like Alura being more power girl then super girl, but I also hope that it was Shader's choice to go with that and that you don't feel obligated to have a muscle girl as a central character because part of your audience has the muscle lust.

Mid air super femme sex and no mile high joke?

nah its okay, I'm glad it didn't turn out like that.

Alura was intended from the earliest conception of this story (two years ago) to be a "Powergirl" kind of character, and unlike so many artists that emphasize PG's inflated figure and not her muscles. I've always seen PG first and foremost as an very muscular young woman... who happens to also have some bodacious boobs. 

But Alura isn't PowerGirl. She's instead something that doesn't exist in the DC universe (to the best of my knowledge)... the daughter of first cousins Kal El and Kara Zor El.

I figured when it came to saving the Kryptonian race from extinction, cousins mating to raise the next generation is a small tradeoff in terms of risk. And lets face it, that's how high-born families in Europe operated until not so terribly long ago.

And as far as the rest of the kids in the El family go, while there are small differences in powers between each of them, and a few downsides from their too-close genetics, the other eight daughters tend to favor their lovely mother more than their hyper-muscular father. And the sons are spitting images of their father. So Alura is special. 

As I see it, she and Alec, her boyfriend, are both elite athletes, one from Kryptonian genetics  and one from Earthly genetics. 

And as you see in the Seattle charity contest, Kara, despite being about a century and a half old, is still amazingly strong. The title of Strongest Woman in the Universe has just now shifted to Alura.

And while there is no picture I've ever seen that accurately captures Alura's combination of beauty and physique, the two picts below are more what I think of when it comes to a muscular Kryptonian girl who takes after her dad:

When relaxed, all smooth but dense curves:



When exerting those muscles at Kryptonian levels:

 
Shadar

As far as Rocky Mountain High (or Mile High Club) comment goes, after having lived for a couple of decades in Colorado during the John Denver era, and having traveled across the Pacific innumerable times in First Class (where I've observed people getting it on), I'm hopefully never doing another Rocky Mountain High or Mile High Club joke. 
 
<GRIN>

Shadar

In Episode Three, you finally get to meet the whole family, not to mention Kara and Kal. And then some family frolicking in a pool that only a Kryptonian could love, doing things only they can. Family contests and challenges. 

And then the first Red Alert. The entire El family springs into action to deal with a threatening disaster.

And then on to a very personal tour of the ranch with Alura as we see some of what really goes on behind the scenes. 

This episode takes you to the heart of the El family. 

Shadar

I made a few tweaks here in a recently posted image to represent my mind's-eye vision of Nancy El in my Little Krypton series. She's seen here wearing one of her mother's outfits from years before. 

Thankfully, her mother, Kara Zor El, has saved every outfit she's ever worn, and she's passed them on to her nine daughters, a few of whom (Nancy, Lara and Alura) are already old enough to properly wear them. They swap them around, sometimes mixing and matching, often without the boots or cape which look a little odd in the year 2096. 

Of course, no clothing remains on Lara for long. She prefers to just wear one of her Dad's old capes - and just the cape. 

Nancy, as shown here, is a bit more conservative in her clothing choices. 

 

Shadar

Part Four of Little Krypton is up, and it's the most action-oriented episode yet. 

Alura is keeping up relations with the ranch's neighbors, which gets out of hand the way most things do when her sister Lara gets involved, and then Maxima's daughter arrives in Metropolis. If you've ever wondered what a half-Almeracian and half-Kryptonian girl might look and act like, I begin to answer that in this episode. Her name is Alexana, and she will prove to be incredibly dangerous, even for Kryptonians.

And yes, she's Kal El's daughter, step-sister to all his siblings, and she's come to Earth on a mission that pushes the boundaries of ethical and decent behavior, not to mention genetics. 

The end of this episode begins a rescue mission where the Family, along with someone most of the family despises, band together to save Dar from Alexana and Dar's own worst impulses.

But that's in Episode Five, coming next week.

Shadar. 

Someone told me that "as you know" can be directly replaced with "unfortunately" and it makes for a better bit of writing. Just a small thing that I'm not sure how useful it might be to you Shadar.

Great episode this week!

Klaus wrote: Someone told me that "as you know" can be directly replaced with "unfortunately" and it makes for a better bit of writing. Just a small thing that I'm not sure how useful it might be to you Shadar.

Great episode this week!

Sometimes it can, but it depends on what you are trying to say. In this case, "unfortunately" could work, but it doesn't fully convey what I wished. I went with "as you know" because Kara wanted to emphasize something her kids should remember about their oldest brother, given they might be chasing after him before this is over. 

Glad you liked the episode. 

Shadar

Mery christmas, I like litle kripton. 
ESpero ansioso el next episode.

Thank you shadar 

guimachajo1 wrote: Mery christmas, I like litle kripton. 
ESpero ansioso el next episode.

Thank you shadar 

I've got four story series that I've been working on the last few weeks:

A continuation of Little Krypton in a episode called Zod's Daughter. Turns out Maxima's daughter, who has run off with Dar, isn't the daughter of Kal El like everyone in the Family thinks. Instead, the title says it all. And like her real father's exploits long ago, she hasn't come to Earth with peaceful intentions. She's formidable given she's got a hybrid power set that includes Kryptonian and Almercian abilities. The Family has to save Dar from her, given she wants to mate with him and then bring him the usual Almercian "black widow" ending. 

A continuation of EarthShine where the very young Arion Prime who Anja was trying to remove from Earth, and whose older sister tried to blow up with a nuke along with herself, survives to track Anja back to the Velorians mountain stronghold to exact revenge for her family's death on anyone she can find. If she's allowed to connect up with Scarlet and the Arion command structure in California, which she currently knows nothing about, very bad things will follow. 

A completely new serial story called Embassy Brat about the teenage daughter (Jennie Val'spar) of the local Velorian ambassador and the trouble she gets into. Setting is on a distant Terran-settled planet. Jennie just wants to escape her mother and her destiny inside the Velorian Enlightenment, using a cobbled-together derelict warship that crashed on that planet during a long-ago war. She and her very tecchie Terran boyfriend (Jon) have put the junk pile back together from spare parts -- minus the hopelessly destroyed engines that she replaces with her own flight ability -- to hopefully travel through a wormhole to a solar system that Jennie thinks is the most beautiful in the known galaxy. Jon thinks its lark that will occupy his off-year between high school graduation and college, but Jennie plans to keep going -- all the way out the ragged fringes of civilization, the uncivilized and primitive Rim, where she hopes to live by her wits and her powers without anyone telling her what to do. Jon has no idea what he's getting into, but what teenage boy would turn down flying off with a beautiful Velorian girl in a ship that he alone knows how to keep running? 

Also another new serial story called War Powers about modern-day Valkryies during the WW2 air war over Europe. Some Valkyries fight alongside the German airmen, and others called Angels fight alongside the Allied pilots in England. The two groups and the airmen they live with fighting in the skies over Europe. Valkyrie versus Angel, fighting beside the men who love them, at least until they make some startling discoveries during the bloody air war of late 1943 in the Alternate Universe. 

Not sure what serial episode will make it out the door for next Sunday’s publishing, but one of them will. But all will progress forward in my usual jerky fashion. 

Does any story line sound more interesting to you than the others?

Embassy Brat sounds like it has the most potential for exciting stories, honestly.

aunque me gustan las 4 series. pienso que primero sigue little kripton. y luego continua con earth shine. pero estaria bien que fueses alternando las dos primeras, y a cuando vallas acabando sigue con las otras. pero tu eliges, yo espero ansioso todas tus historias

. although I like the 4 series. I think first follow Little Kripton. and then continue with earth shine. but it would be nice if you were alternating the first two, and when you finish, finish with the others. but you choose, I look forward to all your stories.

Looks like you're on a roll, Shadar! I prefer Little Krypton, Earthshine, Embassy Brat in that order. Not very sure about the the last one of WW2 conflict though.