Super-Disclaimer: This story features Superman, who is a trademark of DC Comics. This is an unauthorized work and no profit is being made on this work. This story is copyright of me. Download this story if you like, but please don't archive it without my permission. Don't be shy.
Continuity Note: This story is based on accounts of a possible future history of Superman detailed in the events of the DC ONE MILLION crossover.
Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster
***
[prologue]
SOMEWHERE
Most stories begin in with a setting. This story begins with no setting at all.
The wanderer stood before a menagerie of images and sounds. If he had felt a need to make use of his other senses, he would have surely detected scents and tastes and more. Behind him, a deity cried in anguish.
"You have ruined my house!" she screamed with a voice that would have shattered electrons in their wavefunctions. The wanderer simply stood with his back to her.
"Why have you nothing to say to me?" she demanded. "Have you no sympathy? No remorse? No compassion? Your unbridled loneliness is like a dagger in my heart. Surely you must see that!"
Her name was unpronounceable, but to hear it was to awake a memory of waking up to the smell of bacon frying, the sound of birds chirping, the smell of freshly cut grass. She was the goddess of the hearth. Countless worshippers--even other gods--had come to know her embrace as home. And while so many other vagabonds had stumbled upon their doorstep to find that much-needed sense of belonging... he had found only a reminder of the vast emptiness in his soul.
At that pain, he had lashed out in self-defense, losing control over his awesome might--as he was prone to do so long ago--and he tore her ethereal house asunder. She had spent what seemed like a century trying to hold him in her loving grasp, and he had spent just as long resisting it in a confused rampage. Now he surveyed the damage.
"I'm sorry," he said softly. "Please, allow me to make up for what I've done." He had had plenty of practice in his long life apologizing for his mistakes. The wanderer wondered if there would ever come a time where he could find solace from his errors.
The Hearth-goddess squinted and he could hear her tears roll down her cheeks. "I want no more than for you to find peace," she said. "I want you to feel secure, at home. If you won't feel that here, then I beg you to find your way to some place where you will."
The wanderer winced in empathy. Unlike may gods he had met and struggled with, this one wasn't afraid to show weakness. She was sympathetic to a fault. And she had seen the hole in his heart and couldn't bear to ignore it. At first her thoughts were so alien to even him, but with time, he had found away to understand. But the damage had already been done. He had clung to his loneliness in her presence, and that was the greatest sacrilege there could be before her.
"I... have no home," he admitted. "Not anymore. I explore reality now, searching for purpose."
"Untrue," she objected. "I see the world of your birth destroyed in your memory, but there is another place, a place you have left so long ago." She sighed in a nostalgia she had co-opted from making contact with his mind. "There is... a star, oxygen, a subtle background radiation, love... it is a beautiful place. Go there, my misguided friend. You will find what you seek there."
The wanderer shook his head. "I couldn't. I... there were so many memories. I couldn't bear to remember."
"You already do," the goddess said patiently. "Go home, my child."
The wanderer furrowed his brow and slowly nodded. "It's the least I can do for you. That, and this," he said as he leaped into the flurry of broken sensations and disappeared in them. The Hearth-goddess watched in amazement as they swirled around her, methodically ordering themselves under the painstaking supervision of a red and blue blur. She felt herself become whole again, and finally her cosmic temple was restored, still bearing a few scars from the wanderer's visit, but better off for the experience. She watched from her portal as the wanderer beelined from her edifice straight for the place she had garnered from his mind. He looked back at her and saluted her with a wink.
"Yes, away," she said, her sobs beginning to transmute into joy. "Away to the world of your memory. If your battle is never to end, then let it be waged on familiar ground."
***
[chapter one]
DATA CENTRAL, MERCURY
"Jayna Quick, on-line for duty! What's the situation, folks?"
The Oracle-net denizens began relaying their problems all at once, each of them insetting priority attention. Jayna immediately accelerated her brain patterns to a pace that could follow all six hundred seventy-eight simultaneous complaints. With time to spare, she ordered and cross-referenced them in her head before she finally slowed down enough to give a coherent response.
"Digesting your information," she concluded, "it appears that the entire Systemwide interface is teetering on the verge of overload." To twelve of the chatters in particular: "Can we shunt the excess data out to the Oort Outpost?"
Her ears stung with the voices informing her that this was unfeasible. Oort Outpost was already filled to the brim with data slurries. The problem was simply larger than the System could accommodate. The sum total of human knowledge was beyond humanity's ability to contain it.
Jayna calculated alternatives in her head. It was times like this she was most grateful for her extracurricular training on the computer world of 101011111. As she often told her colleagues, you didn't _have_ to order your mind like a machine to be the Flash, but it sure didn't hurt. Point four seconds later she addressed the Oracle-net once more. "Folks, we have no alternative. We have to push all the excess out to other systems, info-embargoes be darned."
Despite the myriad of languages and accents, the council objected like a chorus: Solaris will not approve. Jayna sighed in frustration.
"Solaris can kiss my blue-shifted butt, frankly," she said. "We're looking at a serious data crash on the order of the Bizarro Plague, and I refuse to sit idly by because some paranoid beach ball has the government's ear." She paused for the response. "Oh, if you think I won't take it up with him, think again. The Flash Dynasty has served and protected Mercury's data processing assemblies since colonization, and I sure as hell not gonna be the one who let it all collapse. Flash out."
With the connection terminated, Jayna ran for the nearest transport dock. Well, think fast, hotshot, she chided herself. You've got exactly one hour to come up with a way to lift a millennium old ban on free interstellar communication. She was halfway on the next flight to Star Citadel when she smiled to herself. Yeah, I should even have time to grab some dinner while I'm at it.
***
WATCHTOWER HOTEL, LUNA
She sniffed the air and found her prey. He reeked of complimentary shampoo.
She quieted her body and mind and reveled in the sensation. It was at this moment that she truly felt alive, when she could fulfill her true calling in life. The prey entered the brightly lit room and she watched him look for any signs of danger. He would find none; she was too well hidden.
The prey put his hand on the force field display and released an energy
wave. When he removed it, there was a perfectly circular hole in the field
in its place. He quickly extended two of his fingers and put them inside.
With a slight click, the fingers began to grow into a pair of tentacles,
searching for their prize. At last, they arrived at an exhibit in the display.
Wrapping themselves around it securely, the fingers returned to the prey,
and he pulled the object trough the hole and held it carefully in his arms.
It was enough to go on. She shifted her colors into the visible spectrum and fired a psionic dart at the prey from behind. He jerked back in surprise, then finally collapsed to the floor. She picked up the stolen treasure and activated her comm link.
"Huntress, here," she said, "I got another would-be thief in the trophy
room. No it looks like closing the exhibit down until further notice hasn't
discouraged them." She looked down at her captured prey, sleeping soundly
from the effects of her strike. "Another two-bit tourist who thinks a few
cybernetic implants makes you a master criminal," she tsked.
Her duties on the Earth's moon were sporadic at best. It was the most
populous moon in the System, but this was primarily composed of vacationers
coming from and going to other worlds. What few criminals were among that
lot would tend to find more tempting targets on Earth or Mars. So her career
often boiled down to playing house dick for the Watchtower Hotel, the seat
of the lunar resort industry. Doubling as a historical museum dedicated
to the primordial JLA, there was always the occasional theft to keep her
occupied. She held the artifact to the light and studied it.
"What did the perp try to take?" the voice called back on the comm.
She read the inscription on the base: "Blue Kryptonite. Why, is there some pattern I missed?"
The manager responded to her query, "Info request from Mercury. They seem to think there's a connection to this latest rash of break-ins. They say all this stuff is Superman related."
The Huntress stared at the glowing azure rock. "Well, I'd say this fits the puzzle, obviously. Anything I can do to help?" she asked.
"Nope, they're keeping tight lipped about the whole thing. Just keep an eye out, willya?"
She intended to.
***
FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, EARTH
Mitch Shelley had seen a lot in his sixty-eight thousand years of life. He was still prone to being caught unawares, however. For instance, one moment he was watching Superman meditating peacefully in the atrium of the Fortress of Solitude. He had been pondering whether or not to disturb the hero's activity, when without warning he exploded in a blue and white flash of energy. And Mitch was dead.
And then he was alive again. Mitch got up and looked at the spot where his friend had been, and in his place stood a figure awash in light.
"Mitch! I didn't know you were here!" the man apologized. Mitch quickly recognized his voice.
"Superman! What did you just do?" Mitch said in an exasperated tone.
"Your little stunt just killed me!"
Superman smiled and raised his hands to his line of sight. "You _are_ the Resurrection Man, Mitch," Superman reminded him. "A more mortal being would have had more sense than to sneak up on me like that during a critical energy transfer."
Mitch nodded at that sentiment. He hadn't lived for all these centuries by taking care of himself, that was certain. "And just what were you up to?" he asked again.
Superman frowned as he inspected his hands. "You know about how my powers have been fading lately, Mitch," he said sadly. "Until a few minutes ago, I was down to nearly human levels of strength and endurance. Desperate for some kind of solution, I perused the Journal of Supermen to seek inspiration. What I discovered was a technique to draw energy from the very spirit of the Earth itself by summoning the Millennium Giants to help me."
"Hence the meditation," Mitch concluded. "Lucky for you that you just happened to lose your powers in 70,001 A.D. The Giants _hate_ being summoned early."
"It's not without its risks," Superman admitted. "According to the journals, the phenomenon was first stumbled upon by the Prime-Superman and they've been used only three times in the last sixty-eight encounters with the Giants. It'll take time for me to adjust to these new abilities, and even then they'll only last for a short time. Still, the System needs a Superman, and until I find a more permanent solution to my problem, this will have to do."
"I'll bear that in mind," Mitch noted. As the tactical advisor to the JLA, Shelley had to be cognizant of what his team could and couldn't do. Superman's transformation was just one more shift on an ever-changing board. "So what's on your agenda today?"
Superman shrugged. "To be honest, I hadn't really expected this little trick to work. I had planned to spend another powerless day helping you on the Strategy Engine."
"In that case, you might want to hear about this," Mitch said, getting to the point of his visit. "I've been picking up a lot of stray rumors on the Datanet. Almost all of it is Superman related. Inquiries about the Superman Dynasty, their history, their legacy. Naturally I thought of asking Batman for his thoughts..."
"Very funny," Superman retorted. "I'm flattered, Mitch, but you didn't come here to tell me that I'm popular. What's the problem?"
"The problem is that Datanet's memory storage is nearing maximum capacity. For some reason, input has exceeded the projected increase for the last twenty years. For every new datastore we create, the System processes enough new information to fill five, ten, a hundred, so on. The bigwigs on Mercury just isolated the problem ten minutes ago. Flash is in transit to Uranus to petition to move the excess data to extrasolar locations."
"And that would be in violation of the ban on interstellar communications," Superman added. "So we either delete inessential files--equally taboo in our society--or we keep adding more to the load until the camel's back breaks. How long until Systemwide failure?"
"Forty-nine minutes," Mitch said breathlessly. "It's a problem without a solution so I'm dropping it into the JLA's collective lap."
"Tell me about the Superman connection?" Superman asked.
"The data surplus is almost entirely Superman pertinent," Mitch explained. "Speculation about mysterious fates of previous Supermen and Superwomen, legends of the original, drawings of Superman cosmos, you name it. It's as if some outside force has been subliminally suggesting humans to think about Superman."
"Definitely of a foreign source," Superman agreed, holding a hand to his chin, "since our top projectionists never predicted this sort of trend. And that would almost certainly mean that interstellar contact has already been made by someone..."
"Propaganda?" Mitch asked. "Some kind of preliminary to an invasion?"
"Not entirely without precedent," Superman noted. "Still, it's clear
that we must be getting some kind of message from the stars. It remains
to be seen how we intend to respond. In any case, I'll have to discuss
the situation with our resident xeno-physicist. Inform Jayna that I'll
be tagging along on her trip." He looked up at the ceiling of his Fortress.
"Up, up, and away!" he shouted, and in a flash of lightning he was gone.
"Good luck," Mitch whispered.
***
STAR CITADEL, URANUS
"You're kidding, right?"
"Now why would I waste my time coming here to pull a fast one, Don?" Jayna challenged.
"Because you've been running barefoot again, Flasher," Starman answered. "All that shock has been rattling your brain. What makes you think that Solaris has the authority to lift the ban on xeno-communications?"
"Because he was the one who convinced the government to enact the ban in the first place," Jayna shouted. "And he's the one in charge of enforcing it with his blasted Pancosmic Justice Jihad. I don't have time--"
"That's a new one," Starman interrupted.
"--to go through proper channels on this one, Knight. In forty minutes, there won't be a functioning computer system in an eight billion kilometer radius. If I can convince Solaris to open the floodgates just this once, then we can all explain this mess to the authorities and Solaris can convince them that it was a necessary measure."
"And there are no alternatives?" Starman asked.
"You could scare up six billion teraquads of free storage space in half an hour," Jayna said sarcastically. "Or we can delete the excess and have the same problem all over again in five years, not to mention an irreplaceable loss of culture and data. Or we can lose the whole thing and spend the rest of our days in Stone Age, Part Deux."
"Well, Solaris isn't an option," Starman said patiently. "He's gone out into deep space on a mission. And he'll be on silent running for the next day and a half. There's no way I can contact him. I don't even know where he's going."
Jayna slapped herself on the forehead nine hundred times. "You mean to tell me that the heir of the Starman Dynasty, the chief guardian and operator of Solaris, has allowed his charge to run off without telling anyone?"
"What do you want me to do, ground him? He _is_ autonomous, Flash," Starman said. "Hey, let's be realistic for a second and consider an alternative solution while we still can, because contacting Solaris is not an option."
"Well, what else is there?" Jayna asked. "Without authorization, the PJJ will just reroute the transmission back here and we've got the same problem all over again, now don't we? And you're telling me we have no way to find him?"
Starman opened his mouth to object, but a flash of light and the ruble of thunder shook the deck before he could speak.
"I can find him."
"Superman?" Starman asked incredulously.
"That you, babe?" Jayna asked. His face and features were the same, but his body was bathed in bright blue and white. His dynastic shield altered to reflect the change in his powers and costume.
"Long story," Superman said. "The point of it is that my powers can allow me to detect Solaris' warp signature and pinpoint his exact location. From there, I can interface directly with his operating systems."
"Telepathy with a machine?" Starman asked in disbelief.
"I should be able to find a frequency on the hyperradio bandwidth that only he can interpret," Superman explained. "He can't refuse the signal on the grounds of security, I'll make sure of that."
"Honey," Jayna said, still astonished by Superman's grand entrance. "I knew you were bummed about losing your powers, but this..."
"This," Superman said as he closed his eyes in concentration, "is exactly what we need to handle our data problem. And that makes me wonder..."
***
SPACE
A small collection of meteoroids flew in his path, incinerating on contact. He was nearing the source of the disturbance, given that the signal had become stronger, more... insistent.
\THIS INTRUSION WILL NOT BE TOLERATED,\ Solaris thought as he considered the readouts on the signal he had detected. It was almost too subtle to notice. Indeed no human would have ever consciously detected it unless he knew what to look for.
\FORTUNATELY FOR HUMANITY, THEY ARE DEFENDED BY SOMETHING AS NON-HUMAN AS MYSELF,\ Solaris considered, with no small amount of pride. \I HAVE ISOLATED THE SIGNAL AND HAVE DETERMINED IT IS A RESIDUAL PSIONIC WAVE WHICH HAS SUBLIMINAL PROPERTIES ON THE HUMAN PSYCHE. THE NATURE OF ITS SOURCE IS AS YET UNKNOWN...\
"Attention, Solaris! This is Superman!" a voice called inside Solaris' artificial consciousness. Solaris winced (or the emotional equivalent of such, as he could hardly express feelings with his single blue eye) at the name in his thoughts. In time immemorial he was created and became a enemy of humanity, and in turn he clashed with Supermen and other heroes for millennia. Barely twenty thousand years ago he was reprogrammed for more altruistic purposes, and now his hatred for Superman had been turned to the bitterest shame for his atrocities, and perhaps some measure of jealousy as well. \YOU INTERRUPT AN IMPORTANT MISSION, SON OF TOMORROW,\ Solaris fumed with irritation. \BY COMMUNICATING WITH YOU, I RISK DISCOVERY BY THE ALIEN SOURCE OF THE PSIONIC DISTURBANCE.\
"You figured it out, too, huh?" Superman replied. "Solaris, I respect your autonomy and your experience, but if you had bothered to inform anyone about this we might have avoided this whole situation. As it is, we have less than forty minutes to handle the data increase before the System crashes. We need your help."
\I TRUSTED THE CAPABLE HANDS OF MY COLLEAGUES, SUPERMAN. EVEN NOW, I SEE THAT YOU HAVE FOUND A WAY TO SPEAK WITH ME ACROSS THE VOIDS OF SPACE UNDETECTED. YOUR CLEVERNESS KNOWS NO BOUNDS. SURELY YOU CAN HANDLE THE SYMPTOMS YOURSELF. I WILL DEAL WITH THE DISEASE.\
"Solaris, this is no time to flaunt some wound in your pride!" Superman insisted. "We need you to authorize an emergency transmission to the Centauri System. It's the only way to unload this surplus!"
\A FAULTY ASSESSMENT. BY MY CALCULATIONS, I CAN INTERCEPT THE SOURCE OF THE PSIONIC WAVE MYSELF IN LESS THAN TWENTY MINUTES. ONCE IN POSITION, I CAN DISABLE THE SIGNAL AND STOP THE DATA OVERFLOW. YOU CAN UPLOAD PART OF IT INTO MY OWN HARDWARE TEMPORARILY UNTIL PROPER STORAGE COMPENSATIONS HAVE BEEN MADE. THE PROBLEM WILL BE SOLVED, AND NO VIOLATION OF SYSTEM LAW WILL BE REQUIRED.\
"And if you can't disable it, what then?" Superman demanded. "Cythonna's Grasp! You're risking the whole of human civilization to preserve the sanctity of some antiquated old law! Solaris, I'm begging you, reconsider your plan! For all we know, that source you're approaching isn't even hostile!"
\IT IS TACTICALLY UNSOUND TO ASSUME IT IS NOT. SIMILARLY, IT IS UNWISE TO RISK LETTING POTENTIALLY VALUABLE INFORMATION COME INTO THE POSSESSION OF THE CENTAURI SYSTEM. PEACEFUL NEIGHBORS THEY MAY BE, BUT THEY STILL MUST BE GIVEN NO ADVANTAGE TO EXPLOIT AGAINST HUMANS. I WILL CONTINUE MY COURSE OF ACTION.\
"Solaris, wait!" Superman shouted.
\THERE IS NO POINT IN ARGUING ANY FURTHER, SUPERMAN. I HAVE MADE VISUAL CONTACT WITH THE INTRUDER. IT IS... HUMANOID IN FORM. PRELIMINARY DNA SCANS ARE INCONCLUSIVE. SPECTROSCOPIC EVALUATION INDICATES THE HOSTILE IS ALSO SCANNING THE VICINITY... IT HAS DISCOVERED ME.\
"What is it, Solaris?" Superman asked with an obvious hint of concern. "Is there any indication that it might attack?"
\SENSOR READINGS REGISTER THE LIFEFORM AS MALE, CARBON BASED HUMANOID. ENERGY SIGNA01101TURES OFF THE 011101 SCALE... 011001110110000--COMPENSATING FOR BROADBAND RADIATION INTERFERENCE. HE SEES ME NOW. HE HAS ALTERED COURSE TO APPROACH ME. HE... NO.\
"Solaris, what's wrong? Do you read me?" Superman asked. "Do you read--?" Solaris felt the link to Superman shatter as his outer hull was buffeted by an energy pulse of untold power. Consciousness slipped away briefly, then self-repair systems began to come on line, and finally, Solaris was able to understand what had happened.
\PROPULSION UNITS OFF-LINE. ALL OFFENSIVE AND PRIMARY TACTICAL SYSTEMS OFF-LINE. COMMUNICATIONS OFF-LINE. SECONDARY TACTICAL ANALYSIS: INTRUDER HAS NEUTRALIZED ME, MOST LIKELY IN ORDER TO COMPLETE HIS MISSION WITHOUT MY INTERFERENCE; INTRUDER HAS RECOGNIZED ME AS A THREAT TO BE DEALT WITH PROPERLY AT A LATER TIME. AWAITING MAINTENANCE AND/OR ASSISTANCE FROM STAR CITADEL. AWAITING...AWAITING...AWAITING...\
And Solaris stared unblinking into the abyss, contemplating just what he had seen.
***
STAR CITADEL, URANUS
"I've lost the connection," Superman said with a gasp. "It was as if whatever it was just knocked him silly. He may even still be receiving, but he just can't hear what I say."
"Then Solaris has failed," said the Flash. "Serves the big goof right. Too bad he had to drag the rest of us down with him."
"In that case, let me remind you of our status," Starman said. "First, we still have to deal with a computer failure that will make Y10K look like a power outage. Second, something is approaching us as we speak, and it's powerful enough to disable Solaris--or worse. Third," he pointed to himself, "I have to take the Citadel out of orbit to go tow the Big Hot Guy back here. If we fail on the first front, his computers may be the best bet we have of rebooting our civilization."
"Yeah, ol' Blue Eye probably wants it that way, the glory hound--" Flash was interrupted by a spark from Superman.
"I agree with your assessment, Starman," he said. "We'll round up the rest of the JLA and see what can be done about the other two problems. Together, the pair of heroes disappeared from the station in a blur of motion and thunder.
"Yeah, just save some of the action for me when I get back," Starman muttered to no one. "I've got a toddler to pick up."
***
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF ANTHROPOIDS HEADQUARTERS, JUPITER
Superman arrived in the JLA headquarters in a matter of seconds. Already waiting for him were Aquaman, Apache Chief, and Firestorm. Batman appeared in holographic form via Pluto, and the Flash sped in from docking her Astro-bike outside.
"--no time to engage the PJJ in combat," Batman concluded.
"I agree," Apache Chief nodded. "Even if it were advisable to battle our allies, we would still be greatly outmatched."
"Welcome to the 701st Century," Flash sulked as she took her seat. "Where Solaris rules and the JLA drools. Why should this one be any different from the last?"
"We can discuss that when life as we know it isn't at stake," Batman snapped. "For the moment, we have to assume that Solaris is completely inoperable. So we can rule out using his computers to buy us time. Can we establish contact with our "visitor"? Convince him to undo his damage?"
"Unlikely," Superman explained. And by the time he actually arrives, it'll be too late for him to do anything. Assuming he's not the invader Solaris made him out to be."
"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," Firestorm said. "Our only option left is to vent our excess data somewhere else. And that means we have to focus ourselves on getting around the PJJ. Flash, you're our data manipulations expert. What's the best way to send it out without anyone discovering it?"
She put her hands over her eyes and tilted her head back. "Ooooooohhhhh, there is no way. Solaris established all communications stations in the System to recognize the destination of a message. If we sent it to Centauri, or Sirius, or anywhere, the stations will automatically reroute it as an illegal transmission and the PJJ will be on us like red on Mars. We could fool it into thinking it was sending the message to some uninhabited set of coordinates, but that would take too long toholdonwaitthat's itI'vegotit!"
"Excuse me?" Aquaman said.
"Sorry, I got ahead of myself." she tapped her head proudly. "I'm a genius, you see. Superman, you used your powers to send a hidden message to Solaris, right?"
"Yes," Superman said.
"And you said it was tuned just so only Solaris could pick up the frequency, right? So couldn't you do the same thing for a data upload to Centauri?"
"I don't really know for sure--"
"Yes he can!" A voice called from a hologram materializing in a vacant chair. "Resurrection Man here, I've been reviewing casefiles documenting Superman's new powers, and he _can_ send the signal. But he'll need _your_ ordered mind, Flash, to format the message into his. Aquaman can set up the telepathic link and we should be ready to go. The only question is volume. I don't know if Jayna's brain can handle the necessary amount of information.
"Then she can be made to fill the shoes you put before her," Apache Chief declared. Clasping his massive hands on her shoulder, he looked into her eyes and said, "Eneck Chek!" In seconds, the Flash was some fifty feet tall, and her powers were even greater than before.
"We're ready to go, I guess," she said, giving Mitch the thumbs up.
"I recommend broadcasting to every one of the stations at once," Batman suggested. "That way we might still get through even if we are discovered."
"Beginning datastream," Mitch said.
The Flash plugged a small unit onto the side of her head. "Hit it." She took Superman's hands. "Let's break a leg, babe."
Superman nodded. "I'm all set. Aquaman?"
The ruler of Neptune nodded in reply.
"All right, here goes nothing..."