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ISSUE #4

By Ken Hintze & Josh Krenz

 

<><><><><><> INGENTO CORPORATION HEADQUARTERS <><><><><><>

Two beings stood before J'onn.

One claiming to be his daughter.

The other claiming to be General Zod.

His brain pounded with thoughts, information, and emotion-but largely confusion. Mental barriers were the only things keeping the overload in check. Any amount of relax on his part would lead to complete physical and mental collapse. Shivering with anger, guilt, and frustration J'onn faced the Green Martian. His eyes scanned over the female Martian-his insides pulled tight, causing convulsions to ripple through his body. The tremors alone were bearable-the confusion, however, was like a leviathan. As the emotional weight bore down upon the Martian Manhunter he had to will himself away from nausea.

" This is impossible.. you cannot be my daughter."

The thoughts continued to ravish his mind. For so long all J'onn wanted was to have his family again-to be a part of a world that understood him, that was like him. He thought he had found that family again with the Justice League, but it was the League that tore that family apart. Earth would never be home-no matter what the other's said-Clark, Diana, Bruce-he was not birthed or reared here. Clark could never understand that-no matter how hard J'onn tried, he was never going to be among "people". J'onn understood this. No matter what he looked like, how he acted, and what people thought of him he would always be distinctively different. Yet, here before him, stood something entirely beyond J'onn's understanding.

"My daughter died on Mars years ago."

J'onn used to fantasize about his family. What would his children become? He would dream that his children would learn to become better than he was. Stronger, intelligent, more moral.

"My daughter died on Mars, years ago-with the rest of my family."

The confusion swelled into anger and further frustration. J'onn could see that his words were being digested with spite by the female Martian. From time to time a scoff slipped from Zod, mocking J'onn's pain. With a quivering lip, J'onn continued.

"You--you are an imposter. This disrespect to my family-to me, my wife.my daughter-will not be tolerated. "

" You refuse to believe what is in front of you J'onn," the female Martian scowled. " Scan my mind, see if my memories are false. See if the memory of my mother dying is false. See if the memory of you leaving us when we needed you most is false."

She spat the words with venom-pain and hatred flowed from her being.

"You abandoned us, J'onn-you left us behind to die."

"No!" J'onn screamed.

" Yes," the young Martian continued, " you are a coward. You are a traitor. See for yourself."

Her hurt was overwhelming, the maelstrom of emotions flowed into J'onn's mind. Accompanying the thoughts were images-the fires of Purification. M'yri'ah-his wife-ripped apart by the plague, slowly and agonizingly. The memory was familiar-one that J'onn had experienced multiple times through nightmare and reflection-yet it was different. This memory was younger, more vivid. It had not been cooled by time and distance, but encouraged by pain, hatred, and disgust.

"You did this," the Green Martian continued, " you did this to all of us. You could have saved us, but a coward cannot act on another's behalf. You are unworthy of carrying the memory of your family."

It was all real, it was all correct-even to the smallest detail. It was his house, his family, and it was his fault. The other Martian was correct-J'onn was a coward, a scoundrel, but most of all he was unworthy. This Martian was indeed real, complete with exact memories of J'onn and their family.

After scornfully laughing at J'onn's agony, Zod finally joined in. "Tell me Martian-did it feel good? All that self-pity? All that attention? Did it make you feel special? Unique? For years you have paraded about as a hero on this planet of strangers. I wonder.did you enjoy being cherished? These humans that worship you and your comrades-do you think they will continue their piety after they learn the truth? Will they continue their hopeless devotion when they find out who J'onn J'onnz really is?"

Her name is K'Hym, and her memories continue to flow into J'onn's mind live electricity through a livewire. J'onn and M'yri'ah had named her after the Martian word for "tranquility". When she was still a child, before the plague, M'yri'ah would regularly comment on their daughter's idiosyncratic behavior. When she read, her fingers would rhythmically tap against the book's surface, or the soft lilts she would add to song.

J'onn fell to his knees.

Zod continued. "Tell me Martian, did you enjoy releasing the plague? Did you know it would cause such devastation? Did it make you feel special? You were like a child playing with fire-at first it was fun to watch the destruction, but it got out of hand, right? Did you know that you would kill your own family? Did it feel good to finally abandon them?"

K'Hym's memories continued to pound through J'onn's mind. Suffering, desertion, hatred. He watched her grow and learn-he watched her become an adult. In the background of these memories was another figure, distinctly Martian but never visible. J'onn watched as K'Hym learned about Martian history, strategy, and combat from this other Martian. J'onn watched as his daughter learned how to embrace her disdain, harness the hatred towards one single goal.

"I have seen terrible things, Manhunter, but rarely do I meet a man willing to destroy his own world-his own family-just to become unique."

"No." J'onn wept, "that's not what happened at all."

"Liar!" K'Hym screamed.

"Tell the truth Manhunter-when you saw your daughter before you and tried to deny her existence once again, did you actualize your failure? You are no longer alone J'onnz-she has come to flaunt your failure. You are no longer special."

J'onn began to cry, as he realized that this was indeed his daughter.alive and well. J'onn reached out his hand to K'Hym, but her response was cold and distant. Slowly and pathetically J'onn crawled towards K'Hym, tears running down his face, jaw shaking. With one hand reaching for her, he begged his daughter for recognition.

"Please." he whimpered.

Without mercy, General Zod walked behind the broken figure and lifted a boot to the Martian's skull. With glee Zod slammed the Martian's face into the ground. J'onn's body collapsed under the force. Zod walked to K'Hym's side.

"Tell me dear," Zod asked K'Hym, " we have crushed his body, stomped his mind. What next?"

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Jemm readied for battle as Amazo and the General charged the Saturnian. Amazo struck at Jemm with a magic lasso, but Jemm stealthy dodged the enchanted rope. Jemm fired a volley of force blasts at Amazo, knocking the android across the room. Still, the effort took its toll on Jemm-who staggered to his knees in recovery as The General came rushing in and nailed Jemm with a hard left fist. The impact launched Jemm back into the corridor. Jemm slumped against the wall, feeling consciousness bleed away from him. Pulling out a large gun, The General prepared and aimed it at Jemm. The gun, a massive technological device started ringing and glowing with life as it started to fire. Before it The General could fire a shot the gun melted away, spilling on the floor and streaming down his wrist. The General hastily looked around the room with confusion. He shot Jemm a look of surprise, and then suddenly covered his face with his hands--screaming in pain. The General stumbled back and forth in agony and confusion-a thin vapor seemed to be surrounding him.

The General screamed, " How the hell is he doing this to me? "

A female voice started to laugh. "Acid in the morning, acid in the evening, acid at suppertime."

The General started swinging wildly in the air, panicked by pain and confusion. Still, his massive fists failed to connect. Finally, a large green bubble formed around the hysterical monster. Using a power ring, Amazo contained The General.

The General screamed, " SHE'S STILL HERE! LET ME OUT! I'M GOING BLIND! " Still, Amazo held the bubble. Even though The General was suffering, Vapor needed to be neutralized in that space. Soon the massive figure inside the bubble collapsed. His eyes were nothing more than milky white orbs, absent of all color. Blood oozed from his mouth as the acid ate the tender flesh.

Amazo kept the bubble concentrated on Vapor and The General. He grabbed a communicator from his belt. " Vapor contained, Jemm incapacitated, The General is down. Next move requested. "

The communicator responded, " Keep her contained, I have other matters to attend to.. Doomsday is about to have his lunch. "

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Elsewhere, Praxis was worked the computer systems--downloading the information to the starship's wireless open link. A complete list of names--everyone who was ill during the invasion of years ago--and a list of their meta-human abilities copied from the network onto the ship. Each power was broken down into color groups, sorted to the smallest degree.
Butcher looked over the information, " Color groups.. but why separate them into colors? Similar powers? Complementary powers? Why the interest in kidnapping these people and cataloging them in this database?"

Praxis seemed disinterested in the question. Instead he looked over to where Velvet Tiger stood. For some reason she continued to move extremely fast, jumping from one place to another. Irritably Praxis motioned to Butcher for him to do something about it.

" Lani.what are you doing? Why are you using your. " at that moment, Snapper Carr fell to the ground unconscious in front of Praxis. Velvet Tiger stopped moving, and walked up to Praxis.

" J'onn told me that my job was to keep moving in and out of my temporal portals, keeping regular time moving in slow motion for me. A second to you was 30 seconds for me, so I could keep an observant eye on the group in case someone-like Snapper Carr showed up to teleport you guys away. I watched Snapper when he showed up to remove Praxis from the computer. I decided to do something about it-so I grabbed a chair and nailed him over the head with it. I think it only took about 1/100 of a second in your time to do this. Teleporting is fast.but time stands still for me. "

Praxis looked to Velvet Tiger and nodded, "You talk too much, but thanks. " Velvet Tiger smiled at Praxis, as Butcher checked out Snapper. " I have all of the info downloaded to the starship and I implanted a virus to erase everything off this system. There are tiny electrical synapses in people's brains.let me reprogram Snapper-disable him--until we can figure out what's going on. "

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

J'onn felt the life leaving his body. His crumpled form was giving up-he felt parts of his body starting to shift and lose shape.

He thought of his wife, his children, his world.

Zod and K'Hym walked over to the massive machine. Zod helped the young Martian into the device, positioning her on the center chair. As K'Hym readied the device, Zod started adjusting its settings.

Slowly J'onn mustered the will to stand. Resisting the urge to gasp and wheeze at the pains ripping through his shattered shell, the Martian Manhunter staggered towards the abominable device. His mind was wracked-confusion and distrust swept through his consciousness. All these things he had been told, about his family, the plague-about leaving Mars.it was all too much to take in.

J'onn walked up behind General Zod and placed his hand on Zod's shoulder. As Zod spun around J'onn gripped hard into Zod's attire setting the Kyrptonian off balance. J'onn hit Zod as hard as he could, lifting Zod off the ground. Zod fought back, but J'onn would not let go. The two figures became a flurry of fists as Zod tried to pry J'onn off with one hand-while striking and defending with the other. Still, J'onn was all offense-the pain ravaging his mind had quashed his inhibitions. Zod tried to throw J'onn off, but the Martian Manhunter held fast. The two smashed into equipment and walls as they attempted to toss each other through the room. Finally J'onn landed a solid hit into Zod's gut-disabling the Kryptonian long enough for J'onn to lift Zod into the air. With every ounce of strength he could muster J'onn rocketed towards the ceiling. Using Zod's body as a shield, J'onn propelled through the roof and into the atmosphere. With a rapid swinging motion J'onn lobbed the disabled body of Zod into the open air, throwing the tyrant into the abyss.

J'onn returned to the room where he had left K'Hym. The chair was now empty and he could not sense her presence. He brought himself to one knee, lowering his head. Slowly, he began to speak.

"I did not know."

Without warning appeared before J'onn, landing a knee square in his face. J'onn fell backwards. He looked upwards through the hole in the ceiling, remembering his home as K'Hym grabbed J'onn and threw him into the wall with an incredible force.

"I.did not know."

J'onn staggered to his feet, pulling himself out of the rubble caused by the impact. " K'Hym.I did not.know you were.alive.I swear.I will not fight you.. you are my daughter! "

With malicious power, K'Hym struck J'onn flat against the wall with another powerful kick. Walking over to the slumped form of her father, K'Hym placed a foot across J'onn's throat and applied pressure. " I am you daughter? You abandoned me.left me for dead. You teleported away to Earth as I watched my mother die. If it wasn't for my true father, then I would be dead too. You.. you're dead to me Manhunter. I have no use for you in my life. Soon my life will be the most important one on this planet. My father-my true father--has a plan. This White Martian scum--the only ones left in existence--provide the telepathic power my father and I need for the machine you see in front of you. With this machine, I control almost 8,000 meta-humans in the lower level of this facility. I am controlling their minds as we prepare an assault.. an assault of epic proportions on the Earth. This is my father's army.and he will use them to wipe clean the Earth of the weak human race. We will repopulate the Earth.. with our baby! "

J'onn's eyes widened with shock as he listened to his daughter's words. K'Hym removed the booted foot from J'onn's throat. As she stood aside J'onn realized that Zod had returned. Zod launched another assault at J'onn, who was virtually helpless to the attack. K'Hym moved over to the middle chair on the machine, as she placed a helmet on her head.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Doomsday reached back to strike at Starman, Reverb, and Echo. Starman quickly reached to Echo and tossed her in the path of Doomsday. Echo screamed in horror, as Doomsday nailed her with a punch that could have leveled an entire city block.but Echo just stood there.

"Are you out of your flipping mind! He's killing her!" Screamed Reverb.

Starman replied, " J'onn had this plan ready for me from the start..Echo's powers are based on simple action-reaction, whatever force she is attacked with.. "

Echo then hit Doomsday back with a punch that pushed the monster to his knees, as Reverb yelled " SHE CAN GIVE IT BACK EQUALLY IN RETURN! "

Doomsday got to his feet-once again striking out at Echo, but again she absorbed the blow. The pain was visible upon Echo's face, but she maintained her position. After another hit, she lashed back with an extreme amount of force, knocking Doomsday across the room.

Flit teleported into the room and grabbed Starman, then teleported him away. Reverb got to his feet and started to make the ground shake under Doomsday's feet, making him stagger.

" Get ready!" Reverb shouted, charging up an attack. The ground around him started to shake as he shot the largest blast of sonic-projecting power he could summon directly at Echo. Echo received the blast, then turned to Doomsday and sent the force at the monster's knees, making him buckle.

" Again!" yelled Echo.

Reverb started to power up, when the sound of a gunshot interrupted his concentration.

Above, a large man in an Armani suit stood on a catwalk holding a smoking Kruger in one hand. Reverb sprawled across the ground in a pool of his own blood. Not knowing what else to do, Echo screamed in horror. As the man in the Armani suit started firing upon Echo, Doomsday came in and leveled her with a massive right hook. The multiple forces overwhelmed Echo and she lost her concentration. She forced the bullets back to the man in the Armani suit, but the were unable to hit the target as Doomsday hurled another claw-fist at her. The blow landed square across Echo's throat, slicing the vertebrae clean across. Echo fell to the ground, instantly dead.

Doomsday looked up to the man in the Armani suit and said, " I rather enjoyed this, but my attention is required elsewhere. Let's cage up this beast while I still have control-maybe give him the girl as a snack. "

The man in the Armani suit shook his head "no" and walked away. Doomsday lurched through an open door, barely fitting his hulking form into the confined space. A door slid shut in front of him.

Flit teleported back to the scene. The room was now empty but for the carnage. Reverb and Echo were pale and lifeless as blood continued to flow into the room. Flit grabbed the bodies and teleported them back to the starship.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The starship was loaded with the fallen team. Jemm sat in a corner trying to recover from the battle with The General and Amazo. Vapor started sealing the bodies of Reverb and Echo as Will Payton gazed through a window. His face pressed firmly against the cold treated glass. Tears ran down his face and smudged the surface of the window-his fist slowly pounded against the inner shell of the shuttle.

Flit teleported to J'onn's location. Zod continued to rail on the Martian Manhunter, who feebly defended himself against the flurry of blows. Flit noticed another figure--K'Hym--sitting in the middle machine. Clearly this other Martian was in control of the device. Not knowing what else to do, Flit picked up a chunk of broken plaster and lobbed the piece at K'Hym. The detritus bounced off the young Martian's face, awakening her from a concentrated state. K'Hym removed the helmet. K'Hym floated before Flit-looking her opponent up and down.

" Who are you supposed to be?" K'Hym asked, "J'onn's savior?"

K'Hym started scanning Flit's mind.

" I think you're a scared little girl who can't think for herself. Don't worry little girl.. after he finishes with J'onn, you'll be next. "

Flit watched in horror as J'onn was being badly beaten by Zod. J'onn gasped for air to speak, but his body could barely hold form. "Fli.Flit.get out now." J'onn's body had a near liquid form now and stretched whenever Zod struck at the Manhunter. Zod reached down and started tearing at J'onn's flesh. The Martian Manhunter screamed as Zod ripped him like fabric.

Flit started shaking her head back and forth in a panic. Her body started shaking with rapid intensity as she convulsed back and forth. K'Hym swopped toward Flit and grabbed her wrist, " Stop what you're doing little girl. " Flit kept shaking her head faster and faster, until her hair turned pure white and her face became extremely angry.

K'Hym's wrist grip broke away as the new form in front of her screamed, " WHAT DID I TELL YOU ABOUT STAYING UP PAST YOUR BEDTIME? WHAT DID I TELL YOU THE CONSEQUENCES OF YOUR ACTIONS WERE GOING TO BE? I TOLD YOU TIME AND TIME AGAIN.. BUT YOU REFUSE TO LISTEN TO ME, TO YOUR DADDY! WELL THIS TIME I HAVE HAD IT! YOU'RE AN EVIL LITTLE GIRL WHO CAN'T BE GOOD. DO YOU REMEMBER WHAT HAPPENS TO BAD LITTLE GIRLS? DO YOU? MAYBE THIS TIME YOU'LL REMEMBER.NOT EVEN YOUR MOTHER CAN HELP YOU NOW! "

K'Hym stepped back, as she watched in horror. Images of guilt flashed before her eyes, making her feel completely powerless. " How do you know.how do you know what happened in my past? How do you make me remember what my father has done? HOW? "

Daddy, the personality of her impression of Jane's father within her mind, had gained control of Crazy Jane as she stomped towards the young Martian. K'Hym dropped to her knees and started to cry. Daddy continued to scream, " WHO THE HELL ARE YOU? I WAS TALKING TO MY DAUGHTER.AND YOU'RE OVER HERE CRYING LIKE A BABY! DO YOU HAVE DADDY ISSUES TOO? HMMM.. MAYBE DADDY WILL GET A TASTE OF TWO LITTLE GIRLS TONIGHT! GET OVER HERE YOU LITTLE SWINE! "

Daddy grabbed the shocked K'Hym and dragged her over to the doorway. K'Hym's entire body went limp in fear. Zod ceased his attack on J'onn and walked over Daddy and K'Hym.

Zod said, " Release K'Hym and prepare for your death. I will not tolerate any further interference in my plans. "

Daddy dropped K'Hym and turned to Zod. Daddy said, " AND SINCE WHEN DID YOU START CALLING THE SHOTS AROUND HERE? "

Zod floated in the air " Zod always call the shots little girl. "

Daddy started to twitch and shake again. Crazy Jane's head started to balloon outwards-growing in size and shifting in shape. Her fingernails got longer and sharper. With a deep smile and dark eyes Crazy Jane taunted, " Zod calls the shots, huh? Well allow me to introduce myself...my name is Black Annis. But I didn't come alone.. No One and Sun Daddy came out to play with me too! You may be able to resist my claws.. but No One tells me that you don't like fire.so let's have some fun, shall we? "

Crazy Jane's head started spinning as she spew flame in every direction. The flames struck K'Hym and Zod--the two collapsed in pain. Crazy Jane then took her claws and drove them right into the stomach of Zod, who fell in a heap before Crazy Jane. Zod tried to crawl away, but Crazy Jane's three personalities continued their assault. More fire spewed coated Zod as Crazy Jane straddled the fallen body, slashing violently with her claws.

J'onn had regained consciousness and his body had partially repaired itself. Slowly he inched to the doorway, witnessing Crazy Jane using more than one personality at a time.

"Stop." J'onn mumbled.

Crazy Jane looked up from her perch on Zod. The bath of flames halted. Crazy Jane walked over to J'onn changing form once again-returning to Flit.

"Wait." J'onn pleaded, "take her first. Bring my daughter back to the ship."

Taking hold of K'Hym, Flit teleported back to J'onn's starship. A second later Flit returned to rescue J'onn. Zod was gone-not a trace remained.

"The next room." J'onn wheezed through gritted teeth. "Check the next room."

Flit then ran into the adjacent room. The device connected to K'Hym's chair was aflame. The White Martians connected to the device bellowed in agony as scorching liquid belted forth from the machine, engulfing them in flame. Quickly Flit tried to remove the closest White Martian from the device, battling off the violent flames. Wrapping her arms around the form she teleported back to the starship. The White Martian convulsed on the floor of the ship as Flit dropped him off and attempted once again to blink back to the room. By the time she got back the screaming had stopped and the remains of the White Martians started to crumble as ash. The last White Martians in all of existence were dead-burnt alive by Zod.

As the flames continued to spout from the machine the device itself started to melt. As the machine fell apart the room filled with more chaos. Vapors and gases flowed freely from broken pipes and tubes, occasionally flowering out in a plume of fire. Flit returned to J'onn and teleported back to the starship only moments before the room and the machine exploded.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Back at J'onn's starship, the assembled Manhunters assisted the injured heroes onto the ship and into the medic bay. Gypsy tried her best to help the fallen J'onn while treating Jemm.

Starman quickly strapped down the body, as the White Martian spoke, " I...am.not.dead. Please.help me. I was.a member of.the Hyperclan. I.was named.Armek.and I understand now.that we were wrong. They tried to.capture all of us...but one other remains. " Armek passed out.

"He's still alive, but his vitals look like.well, they've seen better days." Said Payton.

Butcher, Velvet Tiger, an unconscious Snapper Carr and Praxis appeared out of nowhere, jumping through one of Velvet Tiger's gateways.

"The building is collapsing," Butcher lamented, "we saw it crumbling as we flashed back here. I don't know if anyone got out."

The sick bay was full. J'onn, Jemm, K'Hym, Armek, and Snapper Carr; Reverb and Echo covered with sheets. Starman, Flit, Gypsy, Velvet Tiger, Vapor, and Praxis were all on board, so Butcher started the engines.

As the ship readied to rocket forward Butcher recognized a form in the distance. Traveling at beyond-human velocities, Amazo attempted to ram the vessel. His outer skin had been damaged, revealing his electronic body below.

"Ready for impact!" shouted Butcher as he attempted to evade the speeding android.

Before the impact came, however, the momentum of Amazo suddenly halted. Before the ship Ultra, the Multi-Alien floated into view. Using his magnetic powers, he started disabling Amazo's systems. Eventually the two forms-Ultra and Amazo-floated calmly beside the ship. Butcher electronically opened the side door and let Ultra in. Immediately Praxis worked to shut Amazo down.

In the sick bay J'onn glanced over at the two dead teammates. " We have brought media attention to the Ingento Corporation; incapacitated Psi-Phon, Dreadnaught, and Amazo; but we certainly did not win." J'onn thought to himself, "Doomsday and The General are still unaccounted for, we did not rescue the 7,500 kidnapped people, and we lost two teammates in the process. Today we lost the battle.."

At the front of the ship Praxis glared at the two covered bodies. His body started to shake, but he bit down on his lip to contain it. As blood filled the space below his tongue he looked over at the broken body of J'onn J'onnz.

 

NEXT ISSUE : The Manhunters have uncovered many things so far, but the connections just aren't made yet. How are the Ingento Corporation, the Hero Hotline, Claire Montgomery, Zod, Amazo, the General, Psi-Phon, Dreadnaught, White Martians.and K'Hym connected? J'onn's daughter is alive. Will J'onn keep up the good fight, or will he retire to be with family? Will K'Hym even accept J'onn in her life? Who has been her "father" all of these years? What happened to her? Big reveals to come in the future.and this story is just getting started. Check back next issue in Manhunters #5!