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Post by dans on Nov 2, 2023 19:36:23 GMT
Part 15 Avenger to the Rescue!
It was a tense flight to rescue the damaged escape capsule. They kept the long range sensors on high alert and the ship’s beam weapons were constantly firing to keep their flight path free of asteroidal debris. Syra Tute worked with Avenger’s computers to monitor some specific radio frequencies - ‘disaster frequencies’ reserved for K-Belt prospectors, and they discovered that the damaged escape capsule was broadcasting an automated distress call, including information about the ship and the pilot. “It’s the escape capsule from a ship named the Swarm Rider – the same ship that launched the satellite that broadcast K-Pau's’s ultimatum,” Syra Tute announced. “Telemetry shows that the pilot is a K-Belt prospector named Fion Drim, and she is still alive, though she’s in the autodoc. If we can get there before the capsule and autodoc fail, we should be able to save her.” The Level Yellow emergency allowed Avenger’s computer to bypass some of the safety restrictions built into the ancient programming, and the estimated arrival time was a few hours. A quick radio request to Sky Defense HQ, and everything the Sky Defense Force knew about Fion Drim and the Swarm Rider was downloaded to the Avenger. Nothing new was known about Fion; all the records confirmed that she had returned from a K-Belt prospecting expedition about a month ago and had then vanished, and that Swarm Rider had made 2 unauthorized launches recently – once to launch the satellite which had broadcast the ultimatum and the second which had presumably led to the encounter with the space dragon. The rescue of Fion Drim by Avenger and her crew was fairly anti-climactic. Avenger used tractor beams to separate the emergency capsule from the gastroliths that had been 'expelled' from the space dragon’s stomach, drawing the white kryptonite gastroliths into one hold and the capsule into another, and then they also onloaded as many of the endurite asteroids as they could locate into yet another cargo hold. Fion had not been injured badly; the rest of Avenger’s crew was on the bridge listening to the devastating reports about the disastrous defeats of their crewmates Vic Valor and Strobe, and Thoron’s greatest hero Apex, when Jess brought her to the bridge. “Not only were Apex, Strobe, and Vic Valor abjectly defeated, with Apex being seriously injured...” the Sky Defense communications officer was reporting, “but the moon-based Zasers were totally destroyed. And perhaps the worst news of all was that the Kryptonite-based weapons that were supposed to stop K-Pau were totally ineffective! In fact, he laughed at them!” “There must be some mistake!” burst from Fion. “Why, I managed to stop him with just a tiny sliver of Green Kryptonite!” The excited babel on the bridge calmed down after a couple of minutes, and Fion told her story. Juna was thinking furiously, and when Fion was finished, she spoke up. “Do you have any more of this Kryptonite that stopped K-Pau?” "I need to get a piece from the escape cabin of my poor wrecked Swarm Rider," she said sadly. "It's only about this big." She indicated a piece the size of a poker chip. She didn't want to give up her personal chip, so she was glad she could point them to another. "There was maybe a pound more of similar chips in the rest of the ship. I used them as night lights to save power - but the main lights are always on in the control room, so I only had one small piece in there when I ejected. Too bad we couldn't recover the rest of the ship..." She was still very sad; Swarm Rider had been her de facto home for a long time... "We can use Avenger's sensors to track down and then overtake that dragon, but that might take a long time. Would one small chip be enough for what you need?" Jess asked the scientists, offering a potential alternative to working with just that one chip. Juna and Sav Ont reassured them both that a single piece that size was more than adequate for their research. Which reassured Fion, who had not wanted to turn over the other piece of green Kryptonite that was in her belt pouch - this had become her personal good luck charm, and protection against K-Pau, and she didn't want to give it up, though she would have, if the Kryptonite experts had really needed more to work with. The universe’s two greatest experts on Kryptonite quickly headed for Juna’s lab with the green chip recovered from Swarm Rider. Meanwhile, Jess commanded Avenger to return to Thoron as quickly as possible, upgrading the emergency situation to 'Level Violet', which overrode still more of the computer's safety protocols, and the Avenger's speed was increased a bit. Meanwhile, Fion asked Syra Tute to get more news from Sky Defense via the radio on the condition of Apex. She was relieved when Syra told her that: "He's expected to live, but..." followed by some bad news "...his injuries are severe. Even with the best possible care and the most recent advances in healing technology, doctors expect him to be in a mobility suit for the rest of his life." This good news/bad news hit Fion hard - when she heard he would live she was visibly elated, and then when she heard about him probably being disabled for the rest of his life, she started crying. As Jess and Syra attempted to comfort her, she gave them more details. "Years ago, on my first prospecting expedition, before he began his career as Apex, he and I were partners. After we made a minor strike that made me some money, I bought the Swarm Rider and then we split up. I haven't seen him for years - but he was like a big brother to me on our expeditions together - and he even saved my life a few times!" She didn't tell them that one component of their 'minor' strike had been the cape, glasses, and gloves, which her partner at the time, Halk Kar, had kept, and which now gave Apex his powers. She'd sworn to keep his secret then, and she would! Syra was a bit puzzled about this unrevealed history behind Apex. He had first appeared about 15 years ago (Earth time) and up until just now, nobody had any clues about his life before then. Certainly, there had been no hints that he had been a K-Belt prospector before becoming a super hero! Fion added an ask for Syra... "Can you arrange for me to get in to see him?" "He's in a secure Sky Defense facility to help conceal his secret identity, which even I don't know..." Syra replied. "I doubt if they would let you in." "Ask them to tell him that Fion Drim would like to see him - I'll bet he says OK!" she answered. "I can arrange that, I'll let you know!" A few hours later they had an answer - Apex was thrilled to hear the request. In fact, his doctors noted that it had energized him a bit and that new energy was helping in his recovery. ***~~~*** A day later, Avenger was approaching Thoron, and Juna called the crew together for a summary of the furious research she and Save Ont had been conducting: “We’ve discovered that the Green Kryptonite Fion used to subdue K-Pau is a different, and likely extremely rare isotope, different from the more common Green Kryptonite that was used in the Sky Defense weapons,” Juna told them. “As we speak, using a quick test that Sav and I devised, scientists and Sky Defense forces back on Thoron are frantically testing every piece of Green Kryptonite they can find, whether it is in a lab, museum, or in one of the asteroid impact craters speckling Thoron, trying to find more samples of this isotope. We have tentatively named this isotope Anti-Kryptonite, as its effects on Kryptonians seem to be the opposite of those of Green Kryptonite. Fortunately, neither variety of green Kryptonite seems to have any affect on Thoronans. Additionally, we've discovered that unlike 'regular' Green Kryptonite, Anti-K does not seem to affect the operation of Jim's glove." Jim gave a mental order, and a white hand appeared in the air, connected to his Glove by a thin white ribbon. Juna dropped the green chip and the hand caught it. "A similar sized chip of Green Kryptonite would have totally stopped the Glove from working," he agreed, then gave the chip back to Juna. She continued, “We are fortunate to have aboard samples of several different isotopes of Kryptonite – a ton of the most common Green Kryptonite, the small chip of the very rare green anti-K provided by Fion, the White Kryptonite gastroliths expelled by the dragon, and Jewel Kryptonite, which is also called ‘endurite’ on Thoron. Our experiments show the theoretical possibility of many other Kryptonite isotopes, each of which may have different colors, and the radiation emitted by each isotope is significantly different from each of the others. Our theory already predicts the potential existence of Red Kryptonite, Gold Kryptonite, and Blue Kryptonite, and also hints at other isotopes that might be silver, purple, and periwinkle.” Sav Ont added, “Now all we have to do is develop a process to convert common Green Kryptonite into each of the other isotopes we have available. That's all! To start, we are prioritizing Anti-K, but it may be years or even decades before we can convert even a small amount. As of right now, the only effective weapon we have for fighting K-Pau seems to be the small piece of Anti-K which Fion brought us. Sky Defense is figuring out how to best use this weapon; we have to hope that some one of our operatives can get close enough to K-Pau to incapacitate him using this small sample." And Syra Tute added, "We've sent Avenger's sensor and tracking data to Sky Defense - they've assigned a few ships to trying to locate the dragon, since the synthesis process for Anti-K may take such a long time. But nobody is hopeful for a quick recovery. We've discovered that the normal human digestive process will dissolve Anti-K, along with every other type we've tested so far. There is probably none left inside the dragon. For now, at least, we'll have to try to make do with what we've got." Because she'd retained her 'good luck chip', Fion now had a secret weapon! She promised herself she would give it to Apex when she visited him in the hospital - Thoron's greatest hero, secretly armed with her chip of Anti-K, seemed to her to be Thoron's best hope.
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Post by dans on Nov 3, 2023 23:06:08 GMT
Part 16 Apex Retires
"Hey, Halk - you look awful!" Fion greeted Halk (Apex) Kar as she bounced into his hospital room and gave him a strong, long hug. In fact, though, he looked pretty normal except that he was wearing a form-fitting jump suit, and she could hear a very faint whirring sound whenever he moved - and his movements were often clumsy and jerky. It would take a lot of practice with the artificial 'muscles' of the exoskeleton mobility suit to become as graceful as he had once been - but there were literally hundreds of thousands of Thoronans whose mobility had been restored by these suits, and usually, unless a suit-wearer told people they were wearing a mobility suit under their clothes, most people never knew. "Really, it really is great to see you. It's been way too long - my fault... always in the Belt," she continued brightly. "I'm truly sorry you had such an awful encounter with K-Pau. And it's kinda my fault, too... I found him in the K-Belt and brought him back to Thoron..." That second part was not nearly as bright and cheery as the first part - in fact, she sounded so distressed that Halk was immediately worried about her. "If we can't stop him, it could be the end of the world, and my fault! I wish there was something more I could do." Now, she was just about crying... He stood up a gave her a careful hug - because of his prior experience mentally controlling the artifacts that gave him his super powers, he was more easily adapting to controlling the mobility suit than an 'average' patient, but still very cautious, especially around other people. "Hey, Fi! It is really great to see you! And it's not just you being off in the belt - I'm always busy, busy, busy. Actually, I probably look worse than I feel! I really feel quite a bit better than normal, in fact - the Purple Healing Ray has some lingering euphoric properties that pretty much mask any pain, not just from my injuries but that growing old stuff, too. But what's that you said about you bringing K-Pau to Thoron? Does Sky Defense know about that?" "I guess they didn't tell you because they don't want you being aggravated in your condition, but a few weeks ago I found him drifting in the Belt - and brought him back to Thoron. And then he brutally murdered my friend, and then he took over the Organization... and you know the rest." She sobbed again. "I spent the last day sitting in an Analyzer Beam Machine under the Mind Prober Ray recording the whole story! By now Sky Defense knows more about him than I do!" The Analyzer Machine was normally used to test student achievements when Thoronans were still in school - after each course was completed, the Mind Prober Ray read their memories to determine if they had absorbed enough knowledge to begin the next course. And eventually, before graduation, the Analyzer (sometimes called the 'Life Machine' when used for this purpose) was used to determine if they were fully prepared for the profession the Analyzer chose for them based on probing the state of the student's progress. "But I want to be the one who stops him! I've got this..." she pulled out her secret lucky Anti-K chip "and if I could just get it close to him, it might be enough to stop him. I don't know how I'll get close enough, but I'll stop him, or die trying!" Then she shook her head and tried to shake off her depression. "So enough about me - how are you really?" He smiled sadly. "Honestly, pretty damned depressed, really. Even though a mobility suit will let me continue Halk Kar's life, my condition means the end of my career as Apex. And Thoron needs Apex, now, more than ever! Not just to stop K-Pau, but also the remaining members of the Organization, who now have unknown and incredibly powerful weapons at their disposal..." He paused for a few seconds, and his next words were so quiet she had to move closer to hear him. "It feels like the end of the world..." Both were silent for a few minutes with their own worries and fears about the end of the world and their failures as part of it, visible to both of them... Then suddenly, Halk spoke up again, and there was a bit of enthusiasm in his voice, mixed with the grim determination that had made him a super hero. "Hey, kid! I've got some ideas - tell me what you think!" "I've been planning to retire as Apex anyway... but I don't want to leave Thoron without a hero. You are one of the few who know how Apex got his powers, and the only one who knows that my tools are Kryptonian - would you be interested in the Apex gear?" Fion's jaw dropped practically to the floor. "And your mentioning the Mind Prober Ray may be the clue we need to overcome all those secret weapons!" To say that Fion was intrigued with the suggestion of taking over the mantle of Apex, Protector of Thoron, is like saying an ocean is a 'big pond'. They discussed Halk's proposals excitedly for a few minutes, and then he made calls to Bita Gil, Nexa Lind, Syra Tute, Sav Ont, and the crew of the Avenger to bring the government, Sky Defense, Thoron's scientific establishment, and their new allies in on their planning.
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Post by dans on Nov 3, 2023 23:14:11 GMT
There's a lot of exposition in this chapter, and some nerdy diving into Superman canon. I 'hid' some of it, so you can skip over a bunch of the details, or reveal them and dive in yourself!
Part 17 Under The Mind Prober Ray Halk was being treated in a Sky Defense medical facility, which currently had custody of the 'Apex gear' (the belt, gloves, cape and goggles that gave Halk super powers). After Halk and Fion confirmed the 'passing of the guard', Syra quickly ordered the hospital security to turn the Apex gear over to Fion. Strobe, who not too long ago had himself received some very condensed training using his own powers from Green Lantern and other members of the Justice Society, as well as more recently teaching Jess and Juna akido, suggested she not don any of it yet and offered to help her get started. "You have to train your mind first - and there are some potential hazards!" he warned, but she was adamant about continuing - as everyone had known she would be. The two of them left; Strobe felt they should go somewhere remote to protect people and property from any super powered mishaps.
The Memory Prober Ray
Not long after, Halk's hospital room underwent an astonishing transformation. A team of technicians installed a bulky computer with a complicated control panel and a large Visi-Screen, attached to a padded reclining chair with a half-helmet that would cover part of the head of anyone sitting in the chair and leaning back. This was an 'Analyzer-Beam' machine, also known as a Memory Prober Ray or 'Life Machine'. When they were finished, Strobe and Vic Valor entered, using their powers to carry another complicated device, which the technicians quickly mounted in the ceiling, assisted by an almost overwhelming stream of advice from Valor. This was a 'Yellow Sun Environment Simulator'. Valor (or more likely Marnu, who claimed to be the device's inventor) explained that the ancient Galactic Patrol had been comprised of a wide variety of species who had evolved under pretty much every variety of star (and some had even evolved without a star!) and a wide range of environmental simulators had been included on the living quarters decks in every Patrol vessel - and this one had been dismounted from the Tiak Avenger, which had them all! Halk Kar explained further that just before he'd left Earth in 1952, in an attempt to take some of the sting out of being weaker than his supposed 'younger brother', Superman had explained to him that some of his powers came from yellow solar radiation - including his super photographic memory. Halk was hoping that the Mind Prober Ray would allow him to remember his time on Krypton in greater detail - because he recalled hearing Jor-L talk about some of his inventions - and the weapons K-Pau's forces were using, in particular the 'super power pills', reminded him of some of those inventions. "I was super impressed with Jor-L, and he let me review some of the schematics, blueprints, and formulae for his inventions when we weren't working to fix my rocket. Maybe we can reconstruct them, figure out how they work - and come up defenses against them! And maybe a night under the yellow radiation will help improve my memory!" The next day, an expert in the use of the Analyzer Beam showed up early, accompanied by half a dozen of Thoron's top research scientists and inventors, eager to see what the Memory Prober Ray would help Halk Kar remember! Back to School!Along with still being battered and bruised from being pummeled by K-Pau, Apex (Halk Kar) currently felt ridiculous and helpless... and much younger - like 'back in high school' young! “I know it was MY suggestion. After K-Pau’s comment about Jor-L confirmed he is a survivor of Krypton, I realized I recognized all his weapons from my time on Krypton, and that maybe here on Thoron there was a way to help me learn more about them. But I never realized it would make me feel like a school kid taking his first set of finals!” he groused. “It’s like I’m just a nervous student all over again!” Thoron’s hero was sitting in the cramped chair in front of the Analyzer Beam machine. He was surrounded by dozens of eager scientists and engineers intently watching everything he did, most of them ready to make notes. Normally the Analyzer Beam was used to determine if a student had successfully learned the course material from last semester, and eventually to determine which profession a student would follow as an adult. But now, the monitor screen on the Analyzer Beam control console was flicking through the blueprints of many of Jor-L’s inventions, drawn from Halk Kar’s enhanced memories of his short visit to Krypton, long ago. “We spent several days together fixing my spaceship, and during breaks and rest periods Jor-L allowed me to study the designs of many of his inventions. He was incredibly brilliant and prolific; it is a great tragedy that his own people wouldn’t listen to him! I’m sure I recognize some of the devices K-Pau and his criminal minions are using as being inventions of Jor-L. If I can recall the blueprints, we may be able to figure out ways to counter each of them!” As he thought back over his time on Krypton, the Mind Prober Ray focused on and clarified specific memories and project them onto the video monitor, where the advanced video recording equipment attached to the console monitor screen was able to capture on tape the details of many of the inventions Halk had studied during his brief time on Krypton.
Some of Jor-L's Inventions
Here is a quick summery of the inventions that were captured by Halk Kar concentrating on his experience on Krypton, enhanced by the Mind Prober Ray. You can see more details about each invention by clicking on the Spoiler link below the list. The Cape of Flight and Speed, Glasses of Enhanced Vision and Gloves of Strength. 'I discovered these in the Kryptoid Belt and these 3 give me my own powers, and using the principles of the force fields generated by the Cape and Gloves, I built a force field belt. Lucky for me Jor put those into a vault that survived Krypton’s explosion!” "Great Rao! The sonic screwdriver, room temperature superconductors and inexpensive tabletop cold fusion. If only Krypton had not exploded, Jor would have been the driving force in transforming Krypton into a paradise!" “The super powerful lightning projector, that was used to blast Vic Valor from the skies and then destroy Zaser 2 on Donar…" "The paralysis ray, the spray-on invisibility gun, the plant growth ray, all of which K-Pau has used against us already!"
"The matter-radio, which Jor-L only used twice, and the dimensional traveler, which he never actually built…" "His most famous invention, the flying personal vehicle that came to be known as the Jor-L. Almost everyone on Krypton had one!” “I’m glad this stuff is being recorded – the process is painful and I wouldn’t want to do it again!” he mentioned to the attending technicians, then returned his attention to his visit to Krypton. “Ah – here’s the ‘human magnet’ he used against the Sky Police when he stole the endurite! And the missile projector that can throw anything at any target at superspeed, which his minions used to destroy Zaser 1 on Thunar with warheads laced with Kryptonite…"
"FINALLY!!" he shouted in satisfaction. "The ‘temporary super power radioactive capsules’ that K-Pau used to overpower me! Discovering how to duplicate or counter those may be the most important of all!”
He and the scientists who were watching and taking notes spent almost half an hour discussing these, diving into the formulae and extrapolating primary effects, weaknesses, and side effects. "A more concise description of the way the 'super power' capsules work would be 'Proton Energy Pills," one of the researchers for the Thoronan Institute of Technology and Science commented. "I remember Jor-L telling me that they were supposed to be used in emergencies in case something deprived Kal-L of his natural powers, and the effects would last for several hours." Halk contributed to the discussion. He frowned as he brought up an anomaly. "They appear to be designed to work under a yellow star, not a red star like Rao - why did they work for K-Pau?" Another of the researchers had been trying to figure out that very point, using some compact, very advances analytical instrumentation. "It appears that the protonic components of the capsule actually interact with yellow solar radiation, which greatly increases the potency compared with the effects under a red sun. They are much more powerful, and last longer, when used under a yellow star - and they confer powers for several hours, while under a red star, they wear off in only about 20 minutes."
Another spoke up: "While we would have to do some actual live testing, I think there are some potentially devastating side effects after the powers wear off, regardless of the sun's color. So K-Pau DOES have some weaknesses, even when he is actually using a Proton Energy Pill - on Thoron, at least. I hope he hasn't figured out a way to counteract them!'
Finally, he moved on to the next memory, “a crystal for emitting iron-destroying radiation… “ and then the screen stopped showing new memories of inventions. Either Halk hadn’t seen any other of Jor-L's inventions, or the enhancing power of the Mind Prober Ray wasn’t adequate to reconstruct any more of these distant and fragmented memories…
More details: Click the Spoiler link below to see more details about each of Jor-L's fantastic inventions mentioned above! As Halk was mentally reviewing each of Jor-L's inventions, in most cases, the Mind Prober Ray enabled him to remember abundant details: blueprints, schematics, diagrams, and Jor-L's notes about each - and these were captured on the video tape. As well, he dictated everything he knew about each invention from his discussions with the inventor. A room temperature superconductor - This was one of Jor-L's most useful inventions. He had used it to overcome the effects of gravity via magnetic repulsion. It involved exotic matter, which Jor-L had only recently discovered, and he would have utilized superconductors in dozens of other inventions if his work had not been interrupted by the explosion of Krypton.
The cape of flight - a green and yellow cape emblazoned with a globe of Krypton. Using a woven room-temperature superconductor and magnetic repulsion, the cape gives the user the ability to fly, and the flight is mentally controlled. It also endows the wearer with super speed, allowing the wearer to move at speeds approaching the speed of sound on Earth (about 700 mph). Plus it surrounds the user with a force field that protects from the buffeting of wind and the heat of air friction when moving at high speeds. The gloves of strength - green gloves trimmed in the same yellow as the cape that provide the user with enhanced strength. The theoretical basis behind the gloves was still unknown to Thoronan science, though Jor-L's notes indicated that it produced some kind of force field that wrapped around the wearer's body and which duplicated the movements of that body, acting to supplement the strength of the wearer. The glasses of enhanced vision - they originally looked like standard 1950's era male glasses with thick lenses and a heavy frame, but the pair Halk Kar wore had been modified to look like swimming goggles. The glasses provide the wearer with telescopic and microscopic vision, as well as heat and x-ray vision. (When adapting the original glasses to his own use, Halk had added a miniaturized long range communicator of his own design). The sonic screwdriver - one of Jor-L's earliest inventions. A handheld device that could be voice-programmed to duplicate the functionality of almost any hand tool (screwdriver, knife, pliers, clippers, hammer, wrench, saw, drill, pry bar, flashlight, laser, radio scanner, compass, etc) which also has some basic medical capabilities (thermometer, scalpel, pulse oximeter, sphygmomanometer, etc). Jor-L was constantly adding functionality to this tool, and used it to work on virtually everything he invented after the sonic screwdriver. An inexpensive tabletop cold fusion reactor - this invention also utilized room temperature super conductors, and would have provided virtually endless supplies of electrical power. But Jor had just begun development on it when he was forced to turn his attention full time to completing and testing the escape rocket for baby Kal-L. The super powerful lightning projector - could direct lightning thousands of times more powerful that the strongest natural lightning bolt at a specific target. It required a stupendously powerful super capacitor to store the electricity require for the lightning discharge and then a fairly long time to recharge. It would have become a much more useful weapon once the cold fusion reactor had been completed. As it was, it was a terrific weapon but was vulnerable while charging. The paralysis ray - produced a ray that instantly paralyzed any living thing even partially inside the cone of the beam. Paralysis ended instantly as soon as a target was entirely out of the beam. In most cases, the paralyzed victim was not even aware of being paralyzed after being released from the beam's effects - it was as if time stopped/started again for that target for the duration of the exposure. A spray-on invisibility gun- produced a stream of ultra-refractive sub microscopic particles which aligned on contact with a solid surface in such a way as to capture incoming light, carry it instantly to the other side of the sprayed object, and release it on the same vector with identical energy. In essence the light beam was not interrupted by the solid object coated with the spray. However, the particles are not highly adhesive and it is fairly easy to 'blow them away' revealing the untreated surface beneath. A ray that causes plants to grow at fantastic speed to fantastic sizes, as much as a hundred times their normal size, in only seconds. Unfortunately after about a second of exposure the plant will die. The matter-radio was an invention that would break a person down into radio waves, beam them to a designated location, and then reassemble that person in the new location. Jor-L had once beamed an Earth scientist to Krypton and back through a temporary space warp using this device. Unfortunately radio waves travel at the speed of light, and disperse as they travel. Once the warp was closed, it would have taken upwards of 30 years for a person from Krypton to reach Earth, and the radio waves would be so dispersed and weak that reconstitution on Earth would have been impossible without a specially-built receiver. So Jor couldn't save himself and his family that way. He had no way of knowing that another temporary warp would open after the destruction of Krypton that would save his son many years of travel time... The dimensional traveler moved a person, and the device itself, from a planet in <this> dimension to a planet in the 'same location' in another dimension. The displaced device could then be reversed, returning both person and device to the original dimension and planet. Jor had devised a fail safe so the device would not transport into a dimension that didn't have a planet in the right spot - but other than the existence of that safe landing planet, nothing about the target was known. The target could have been a super-Jovian planet or something the size of Pluto. This was all theoretical, however - Jor-L had never actually built even a prototype.
The flying vehicle that became the most popular personal vehicle on Krypton and eventually came to be known as the Jor-L - used the same superconducting magnetic repulsion principle as the Cape of Flight. It was simple to operate and virtually maintenance-free - and by the time Krypton exploded, there were only very few families who didn't own at least two.
‘Levitation bombs’ which also used magnetic repulsion, and could be programmed to fly to anywhere on Krypton. They were the equivalent of killer drones - but fortunately Krypton was generally peaceful and these flying bombs were never actually used. Jor-L worked directly for the Kryptonian government before Lara was pregnant, but when government scientists had adapted his invention to become a deadly weapon, he quit and worked on his own for the rest of his life. If Thoron industry could ramp up to build these in bulk, they might be useful fighting against the forces of K-Pau - they were small, hard to shoot down, and deadly! The ‘human magnet’ ray - was also a result of the room temperature super conductor. This ray attracted iron, the way all magnets do, but it was 'tunable'. It was tuned to only attract iron that was included in an organic compound - and could be finer tuned to actually attract only specific compounds. As an example, it could be tuned to attract only the Kryptonian equivalent of human hemoglobin - so it would attract Kryptonian humans and not apes, dogs, cats, snagriffs, rondors, or thought-beasts. The missile projector that can throw 'anything' at any target at super speed. 'Anything' was an exaggeration, the 'ammunition' for this projector was actually limited to being approximately the size of a bowling ball or smaller. The object to be fired would be placed on the 'launch stage', then a beam would throw it at hyper-sonic velocity along a very specific vector. Generally the vector was obtained via a 'line of sight' 'bomb sight', though it was possible to 'type in' the vector components when line of sight was not available. The projectile would move at relativistic speeds, so even a small object could case massive damage to the target. Temporary super power radioactive capsules, now renamed 'Proton Energy Pills' - that gave the person using them powers and power levels similar to a Kryptonian under a yellow sun for several hours, or somewhat more limited powers for about 20 minutes under a red sun. The pills could produce serious side effects when used too often.
A crystal for emitting iron-destroying radiation, that was mounted on the outside of baby Kal-L's rocket to dissolve any iron-bearing meteorites in the capsule's path. ***~~~*** “I know he invented other things, but I must not have studied them. I only hope K-Pau didn’t either!!!” Halk summarized the session. Then something occurred to him – “If we’d known earlier that the missiles used on Thunar had Green Kryptonite in the warheads, we would have realized that K-Pau must have helped his crew develop and test the devices, and already discovered that he wasn't vulnerable to Green Kryptonite. Knowing that going in to our fight might have saved me from an awful beating! Oh, well – we know it now. And now we have Anti-K!” With the knowledge gained from the Mind Prober Ray and the Anti-K and the new supply of endurite found by Avenger's crew, things were starting to look a little more hopeful! Now, Juna, Sav Ont, and the team of scientists and engineers from the Thoronan Institute of Technology and Science had their work cut out for them, figuring out how to counter or neutralize all of these inventions. They got ready to dig in and get to work.
But they weren't going to get any research in today - at that instant, a red alert siren blasted through the building, a warning from Sky Defense that K-Pau was attacking again!
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Post by dans on Nov 4, 2023 22:40:47 GMT
Part 18 Apex II in Training
Halk Kar had spent some time describing how to use his power-giving artifacts to Fion Drim before the memory probing began. Jor-L had designed them to be incredibly simple to control - you put them on, thought about what you wanted to happen, and bingo - they carried out your orders. He did mention that when he had initially donned the gear, it had taken him some time to learn to control his powers and use them safely. Because Jim's artifact of power, the Glove of the Galactic Patrol, worked similarly, he was pretty sure he might be able to help Fion learn to use her own artifacts of power... So, while Halk Kar was reliving final exams, Fion Drim was also going back to school... But Fion was already thinking ahead. Before they even started, she had a suggestion. "Say, Jim... Apex has been around for 15 years and he has a really good reputation. People trust him. And right now, we're in a situation where people are close to panic because of K-Pau. If people all of a sudden realize that someone has replaced their trusted hero when we are all still facing the most dangerous foe in history, it might tip them over the edge. I think that, at least until we vanquish K-Pau, we shouldn't let them know that I'm not the Apex they know. What do you think?" Strobe wasn't sure about this. "If you're somehow outed, wouldn't that make things worse?" They discussed it for a while - if Apex, Sky Defense, and their new allies, Avenger and crew, were unable to defeat K-Pau, it wouldn't matter anyway. Fion suggested that after they defeated K-Pau, she would convince Halk Kar to have Apex make an official public announcement about his retirement and 'passing the torch' to his replacement, who would also be known as Apex. And during the battle with K-Pau, if any of their allies felt she wasn't up to the job, she would return the 'Apex gear' to Halk Kar and he could find another successor. But she also insisted they get started with the training as soon as possible - "K-Pau is NOT going to wait on US!" So their first stop was a high end costume store in Thoronopolis, where they purchased a padded 'Apex' costume and full head mask. Fion was happy because it had some internal pockets, where she could store her secret weapon, her good luck Anti-K chip. If the belt of invulnerability could protect both Fion and her Apex costume during training, hopefully the disguise would last until one side or the other won the upcoming confrontation. If the costume became unstably damaged during training, she would just discard it. And then, they got on with the task at hand...
They trained on the super vision goggles first, which was pretty simple, followed by the gloves that provided her with super strength. It took a while, but she finally got used to picking things up without crushing them, and completing other everyday tasks such as opening a door, or even pressing a button, without disasters. They spent a little time getting her used to hearing him speaking to her through the communicator in her goggles, and then he conceded that it was time to learn to fly.
"The training slogan of the Galactic Patrol was 'When wearing the Glove, to think is to act!', and the goal of your training is to train your mind, and your gear, to recognize your commands as separate from your normal thoughts," Strobe told the new Apex as she was donning the cape, which Jim had insisted she leave for last.
"For example..." he mentally commanded the Glove to be prepared for instant high speed flight. "...you have to learn that whenever you think about flight..." suddenly Fion, and an instant later Strobe, were rocketing high into the air at rocket speeds, but Jim never stopped talking calmly. "...you don't necessarily want to suddenly be zooming away." His tone changed to a command. "Think about hovering right in this spot and not moving!" Even though he was ready for her to stop, he still overshot by at least a mile, but he was quickly back at her side, still talking calmly. "If it's OK with you, I'm going to put a force field around you for a few minutes to try to keep you from zooming away," he suggested. "Then we are going to fly some patterns - but wait until I tell you what to do before trying anything." She was OK with that. "So, fly slowly in that direction," he pointed. "SLOWLY!" Even with his force field dragging on her, she was shooting away, then instantly slowed on his command. "Could you feel my field trying to restrain you? From now on, try to give commands that don't cause you to bump into it. Every time you can actually feel it, think about slowing down a bit."
So they began flying simple patterns across the sky, with him giving her directions - 'slow down' 'go faster' 'turn that way' etc, until they both became fairly confident with her ability to control her flying power with direct mental orders. By now Jim's directions had led them well away from Thoronopolis, above one of the ubiquitous asteroid craters scattered all over the planet.
"OK - now I want you to continue to fly slowly and straight ahead, and talk with me about flying at the same time. We want to train you so your surface thoughts don't interfere with what you want to be doing with your powers. So we'll talk about flying maneuvers while we're flying straight ahead, and then about flying low and straight and slow while we are actually flying fast maneuvers way up high - until you are able to easily fly the course you want, and your surface thoughts won't interfere with your flying."
Once again they flew ever more complex patterns across the sky, while they conversed about flying faster or slower or higher or lower. Initially, whenever they talked about flying maneuvers that were different than their current plans, the cape kept trying to take her all over the place, but eventually, she started getting better at it. "It may take some time, but eventually it will become second-nature," he reassured her. A while ago, she wouldn't have believed it, but she was starting to regain some of her confidence. Finally, the tried to see how high she cold go. The rocketed upward until they were high enough to see the curve of the planet below them, staying close together. Strobe quickly turned it into another training exercise. "No air here, but you're still breathing!" he noted. "Must be something in your force field that protects you from cold and vacuum. We'll need to get more information from Halk when we're done - it wouldn't do to depend on it and then have your air run out after 15 minutes!" Fion was on the verge of being overwhelmed by her new powers and the almost constant near-disasters her inexperience was causing. "I need a break! Then I'd like to spend some time refining my control..." But they weren't going to get back to training today... at that instant, each received a red alert from Sky Defense, Strobe through the Glove and Apex through a communicator built into her goggles. K-Pau was attacking again! The location was nearer to Thoronopolis - Jim pointed the way, and they zoomed off in that direction!
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Post by dans on Nov 6, 2023 2:24:15 GMT
Part 19 K_Pau Attacks... Again
Sky Defense forces were scrambling and emergency shelter warnings were blaring throughout the Thoronopolis District of the Planetary Council as K-Pau and his own forces attacked the House of the People, where the elected representatives of Thoron were working on emergency plans to defend their planet from the newly unleashed 'Menace From the Skies' - the slow but steady 'rain' of Kryptoids from the K-Belt - a rain that had been largely under control before K-Pau had destroyed the Zasers on Thoron's moons. (as much as any natural phenomenon can be 'under control' - at least the danger had been somewhat mitigated...) All of the elected representatives were terrified of K-Pau and his raiders, but they needed to leave stopping them forces to Sky Defense and their planetary hero Apex, and concentrate on civilian issues. Once again, gravity-based mass detectors had noted an invisible flying vessel, this time a mile high over the Peoples' House. Instantly, a large number of missiles carrying unusual warheads were launched from the ground. They were not aimed at a specific target, but the general area of the flying anomaly, and when they all reached a designated height, their warheads automatically detonated, blasting thousands of gallons of water and vapor across the sky, a large amount of which washed over the invisible invading spaceship. The random streaks of solid visibility revealed a large boxy shape which gave the impression of hasty construction, perhaps from crudely welding the shells of several junked spacecraft and ocean ships together with super strength and heat vision by someone who didn't really care about esthetics. As the now-visible invader circled over the city, millions of seeds were spewed out of vents in the bottom of the box. But Sky Defense was ready for this as well - and a dozen flying vehicles carrying tanks filled with powdered White Kryptonite raced across the city, spraying the dust behind them, which killed most of the seeds before the super-growth ray could activate them. Instead of totally preventing travel in the city, instead there were some scattered giant plants that could well become tourist attractions - once this invasion attempt was thwarted! A couple of squads of Sky Knights on fliers scrambled to intercept the invader, heartened by the news that Apex and the alien heroes were on the way as well. Their sky sleds (personal fliers) had been pre-programmed for evasive action in the case that their pilots became paralyzed, as victims of the paralysis beam immediately regained their mobility as soon as they were out of the beam. Then the human magnets were launched in missiles, drawing the Sky Knights irresistibly along in their paths. Sky Defense had also prepare for this - every sky sled was equipped with two small homing missiles tipped with powerful warheads, while the homing mechanisms contained small 'guidance capsules'. Each capsule contained a Thoronan tissue sample, produced by cloning, kept alive by a small life support system, surrounded by delicate pressure sensors. The samples were pulled toward the magnet; the pressure sensors guided the missiles unerringly to the human magnet generators, and then exploded! Within instants, a whole wave of K-Pau's advanced weapons had been wiped out or rendered useless. Before Avenger had returned with White Kryptonite, Sky Defense had been baffled about combating the plants, but the other tactics had been developed after intensive review of the records of the earlier attacks, and had not depended on the information gathered from Halk Kar's 'interview' with the Mind Prober Ray. It remained to be seen if Thoron's defenses could deal with the 'missile projector' which threw objects at hypersonic velocity, or with K-Pau himself. Hopefully, after more than 50 years of 'evacuate to an emergency shelter instantly' warnings related to the constant bombardment from the sky, civilians would hurry to the nearest shelter. And hopefully, the shelters would prove to be effective against attacks from the other Kryptonian weapons.
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Post by dans on Nov 6, 2023 2:25:25 GMT
Part 20 Vic Valor Fights Back
Vic Valor was the first of the super heroes to arrive at the scene of K-Pau's latest incursion. As Valor began battering the weapons ports on the flying monstrosity, a hatch opened in the side of the vessel and K-Pau emerged. He was flying under his own power; apparently he'd recently swallowed a Proton Energy Pill. 'Those pills might make him almost as powerful as Superman!' Valor thought with grave concern. 'I've never faced the Man of Steel - but years ago, when he built the original Vic Valor battle armor, Ted Knight was certain it wouldn't put him in the same league as Superman. Juna and I have improved on the design since then, but at best, I'll be at a serious power disadvantage. I have to be prepared to take drastic actions!' He put it out of his mind and closed the distance with the Kryptonian because that's what heroes are supposed to do. He was absolutely determined! 'Got to uphold the honor of the Invincibles!' In some normally distant compartment in his mind he could sense that Marnu was terrified something would go wrong and he (Marnu) would somehow be banished back in the same Limbo he'd only escaped in the late 1940s after a tiak of imprisonment (100,000 years!), but Vic pushed that compartment even 'further' away. 'We have to do this, Marnu!' he exhorted himself. 'It's what heroes do - and we claim to be a hero!' Marnu had been a hero in his own day, and tried to push the terror aside. His own powers were limited until he could destroy the Lens of Allouche, so the best he could do was keep from distracting Valor, and maybe offer advice. K-Pau rocketed towards a squad of Sky Knights and before any of them could react, he smashed through their sky sleds and left them to fall, turning toward the next closest Sky Knight team. Valor speared him with heat vision, turned to maximum; in fact, he used an internal Emergency Overload protocol to exceed the design specs! Like Ted Knight's Cosmic Rod, the laser that gave Valor his heat vision was powered by cosmic radiation, and it had recently been beefed up with a combination of Galactic Patrol, Juneon, and Xenon technology. The massive burst of input power almost instantly fried the lasers, but for that almost instant, K_Pau was bathed in heat comparable to the interior of a white star. Everyone knows that Superman can survive the interior of a star, but the Thoronan fabric composing K-Pau's current battle suit was not nearly as tough, and from the waist up, the top half of his costume simply poofed into ionic vapor! Enraged, K-Pau turned his full attention toward the rapidly approaching Vic Valor. Fortunately for the falling Sky Knights, Strobe and Apex arrived at that same instant, and immediately joined the remaining Sky Knights in the rescue of their falling comrades. After taking a Proton Energy Pill, K-Pau was somewhat faster than Valor, but not as much as the villain clearly expected. Valor's android body reacted with electronic speed and precision, which offset much of K-Pau's expected advantage. And the Vic Valor half of the personas inhabiting the android body was a highly skilled combatant, while K-Pau had never been in a real fight before; he had been a lab technician working for Jor-L back on Krypton before he had committed his crimes and been captured and sentenced to be sent into space in a suspended animation capsule as punishment for those crimes. K-Pau was also significantly stronger, which could have made a for a fascinating spectator duel between greater power vs. higher skills... if the stakes hadn't been so high. But K-Pau was definitely out to 'kill' his opponent. Vic took a number of blows he couldn't fully evade, but managed to avoid the full impact - and as an android, he didn't sense pain in the 'normal' sense. He struck back when he could, but the most powerful of his blows were only relatively minor irritations to the now proton-powered Kryptonian. K-Pau was becoming more and more enraged, and finally he just backed off a few feet and flew forward with all the speed at his muster - and smacked right into Valor's stomach with his shoulder, driving him backward across the sky. Not incidentally, Valor had positioned himself so that they were now well outside the 'city limits' of Thoronopolis, and over the crater of yet another meteoric impact. Valor used his own flying power to add to their speed, and used his gravity control circuitry to increase the mutual attraction between K-Pau and Thoron as much as he could. Thoron's gravity was naturally about 10 times as strong as that of Earth, and for a fraction of a second, that gravitational attraction was amplified to intensity similar to that produced by a neutron star. Valor's gravity controller was overloaded and failed in milliseconds, but their trajectory was altered so that the pair slammed into the ground instantly, with the force of a massive asteroid. Valor's lower body, which was below the pair, was instantly crushed and vaporized, but his upper body, slung over K-Pau's shoulder, was partially protected by the Kryptonian's invulnerability. Not enough to continue the fight, however. So he instantly did something that no man can do, that which Marnu feared more than anything. He thought the simple command which activated the process that allowed his 'mind' - the energy matrix which contained both Vic Valor and Marnu - to exit their current body - and flash across space at the speed of light to the 'R&D' Deck of Avenger. In a row of large, clear plastic cylinders, another Valor body stirred painfully to life as the matrix found a new home! 'Fortunately, Juna and I have built a couple of spare super powered Valor bodies here on the Avenger!' Vic tried to reassure Marnu, as he set about the tasks of activating his new body, one of several similar bodies in the row of identical tubes. It wasn't a perfect solution - it would take perhaps 15 minutes to fully activate the dormant body, and even though this particular body had been designed to be as nearly as possible a perfect duplicate of the destroyed one, it would take him another 15 minutes to become fully acclimated to the change. He had to hope that the rest of Thoron's defenders could hold out until he got back. K-Pau had never obtained any loyalty from the criminals of the 'Operation' he commanded; he ruled through fear and intimidation. They'd seen him kill any of their fellows who didn't respond instantly to his commands - some of them instantly, others through torture, and he'd only become worse once he'd reconstituted the Proton Energy Pill formula. He was thoroughly hated by the others who still lived. And perhaps even worse for insuring their loyalty, he was willing to destroy their home planet if he didn't get his way - and none of the criminals believed that Thoron would ever surrender to him. So when they saw the massive explosion that followed him being slammed into their planet at incredibly high speed, they took their chance. The cobbled-together craft suddenly raced away, climbing as fast as its salvaged motors would drive it. Then the remaining criminals bailed out, covered in invisibility dust and using anti-gravity single person 'parachute engines'. They set the auto-pilot to overload Less than a minute after they finished evacuating the ship with the auto-pilot deliberately overloading the engines well outside of the safely zone, the ship exploded!
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Post by dans on Nov 6, 2023 22:03:45 GMT
Part 21 K-Pau Flames Out
As soon as they finished rescuing the falling Sky Defense workers, Strobe and Apex rocketed away in the direction to which K-Pau and their unfortunate partner Vic Valor had been moving. Apex used telescopic vision provided by her Kryptonian goggles and Strobe augmented his own distance vision using a Glow energy construct as a telescope. They saw K-Pau stagger to his feet at the end of an incredibly long, roughly-hewn ditch his own body had gouged out of the bedrock due to the combined super speed flight powers of Valor and his own, enhanced by the Proton Energy Pill, also greatly enhanced by Valor's gravity manipulation. They were horrified as they watched K-Pau rip the remains of Valor's body apart and then stomp the shards into dust, though Jim wasn't as worried about his comrade as he might have been... "It's an android body," he reassured the horrified Apex. "Vic has some method of hopping into another body. But we're on our own against K-Pau now, for at least a few minutes - and the fact that he was able to do that to Vic shows that he is incredibly powerful! Maybe we should split up and try to catch him by surprise?" "That sounds like a good idea," Apex agreed. This was her first super powered confrontation, so she really didn't have any idea of what strategy or tactics might be appropriate. The two veered off of the direct line toward K-Pau; they would catch him in a 'pincer movement' and attack from two directions at once. A tactic that failed instantly. As soon as they split apart, the Green K alarm now programmed into Strobe's Glove began blaring a "Danger Level" alert to Strobe. In his Glove-enhanced view of the area around K-Pau, he could now pick out several Green Kryptonite boulders; apparently the meteor that had impacted ahead of them and devastated the landscape had been composed at least partially of Green Kryptonite which had been exposed by K-Pau's impact - and suddenly, with no warning at all - Strobe was within the danger zone their radiation presented. He had to retreat before the Glove's anti-gravity functionality failed and he was slammed to the ground with 10G force!
"I can't get any closer!" Apex's communicator, built into the Kryptonian goggles, carried his words to her. "Green Kryptonite blocks the Glow!" Strobe willed himself into a sweeping turn before the Glove totally failed, hoping to fly far enough away that he would be able to land safely rather than crash to the ground under the crushing force of Thoronan gravity! The pain didn't get any worse, but he was descending too rapidly, when suddenly, he was back in full control! He looked around to see Apex nearby! "I thought you were in trouble... guess I was wrong," the Glove captured her radio reply. "Now that you're safe, I've got to stop K-Pau - and save Thoron!!" He could see that he was still in the danger zone, even through right now the Glove was working perfectly. "Something's still wrong!" he notified her. "I need to retreat! I don't know what's happening, but I'm likely not going to be able to help you... You should wait for Valor; he'll be here in a few minutes. Let's just keep an eye on K-Pau from a safer distance for me and see if we can prevent him from doing more damage until Vic gets here!" He ordered the Glove to fly him back toward Thoronopolis at high speed. Not knowing what else to do, Apex followed... for a short time. Then she stopped, and contacted him.
"Change in plans, Strobe! You guard the city - I'm going back. K-Pau is MY problem and I'm going to solve it - right NOW!"
Suddenly the Glove's Green K radiation detector was active again - and this time, it was showing Green K radiation barely above the detection limit - about 2% the level that actually began interfering with the Glove's operation. He could function at almost full power here. It was very strange that the Glove had let him fly deep into the danger zone without any warning earlier - but that was something he could worry about later. "If you can draw K-Pau away from the crater, I can help fight him!" he radioed Apex - but by this time, she didn't seem to be listening any longer. He had to hope Valor would get there soon, because right now, there wasn't much else he could do to help her from so far away. He ordered the Glove to track K-Pau's location and alert him if the villain moved far enough away from the crater that he could effectively join the battle again, and he sent a notice to Avenger to tell Valor to get back here as quickly as possible. Then put his full efforts into aiding Sky Defense and civilian responders in disaster relief.
***~~~***
'I've just got to get close enough to him for the Anti-K to work,' Apex was mulling tactics in her mind. "From what I know about him, the Proton Energy Pill makes him stronger and faster than I am - until it wears off. According to Halk, its effects should last about 20 minutes. So his extra power should be running out soon. And Halk says that until he takes another one, our power is about equal, except he can't fly and will lose his vision powers. So I've just got to engage him and survive for a short time until his extra power runs out, and then if I can keep him from taking another pill, I'll have a much better chance against him! Yeah, just survive, that'll be simple..."
The prudent thing to do seemed to be to evade K-Pau during the few minutes of extra power he had left, and then as soon as his power level dropped, rush him and incapacitate him with the Anti-K before he could take another Proton Energy Pill. But prudence be damned - she had no idea how she would know when his power wore off, or how she could prevent him from taking another pill.
'He knows he decisively beat Apex in their last battle, and my disguise should convince him that I'm still the original Apex. That should make him overconfident enough to let me get close to him!' So instead of any maneuvering or stunting, she just zoomed directly at him, and blasted him with a combination of heat vision and x-ray vision as she approached. K-Pau turned in her direction and just hung there in the sky, totally ignoring the powerful beams hitting him - and actually broke out laughing when he recognized his attacker. "Why, it's Ant-X! Come for another beating, insect? The powers of Jor-L's inventions are as NOTHING compared to my own!" As he was laughing and boasting, he felt the sensation that he'd previously identified as his Proton Energy Pill beginning to wear off, so without stopping his mocking banter, he pulled another PEP from a pouch on his belt and popped it into his mouth. He'd apparently never seen Jor-L's warnings about taking two pills too close together... Almost instantly, he felt his power returning... and then suddenly he was feeling hot, and hotter, and then hotter than he'd ever been before, and then his body literally couldn't contain the power and he started to BURN! He had never felt pain like it before! Suddenly, not only did K_Pau KNOW he was about to die, he was mentally begging to death to come instantly to stop the tremendous pain! And then the speeding Apex got close enough that the Anti-K started to take his powers away... and the flames died almost instantly, and the the effects of Kryptonite poisoning hit him, harder than ever before, and he finally passed out...
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Post by dans on Nov 6, 2023 22:06:11 GMT
I realize the story ended abruptly - but exposing the evil Kryptonian to Kryptonite seems to be pretty quick and final! Part 22 That's a wrap! Thoronan society was used to recovering from disasters - at least, as used to it as any society can be. And the damage done by K-Pau was small compared to an actual asteroid impact. Intensive sky scanning showed that the next giant asteroid slated to collide with Thoron was more than 6 months away - which should be time to construct 2 replacement zazers with the endurite Avenger had collected. And the new Apex should be able to handle anything smaller... The combination of the power overload of two Proton Energy Pills, the second pill enhancing by a side effect of the first, combined with a dose of Anti-Kryptonite poisoning, almost killed K-Pau and left him crippled and weak. He had been burned over 100% of his skin and about 80% of his muscles had been destroyed. The Purple Healing Ray could completely heal the skin, but was less effective with the other injuries. Like Halk Kar, K-Pau would be wearing a mobility suit for the rest of his life - and would be helpless without it. Halk Kar hoped that Thoronan Rehabilitation Science might be successful; after all, K-Pau had grown up on Krypton and it seemed possible that he could be an excellent source of first hand knowledge about Kryptonian society. But only time would tell... The highest officials on Thoron, Planetary Councilor Lom Atar and Lar Mida, the Commander of Sky Defense, wanted to announce a holiday during which the first Apex would officially pass the torch to the new Apex, and at the same time honoring both the old and the new Apex, the Sky Defense Force, Avenger's crew, and Avenger, as planetary heroes But most of Avenger's crew voted to decline the honor - they needed to return to Juneo as soon as possible, and didn't want to take even a day longer than necessary. Jessiat's civilization was still in danger of extinction from the incredibly voracious planet wide jungle that had almost completely overrun Juneo, and she was well aware that people were still dying every day in their all-out war with the invading plants. Now that they had the ultimate weapon against plants - White Kryptonite - there was no excuse for delay, even as short as a day. The rest of the crew was stunned when Juna Dondwar announced that she was planning to stay on Thoron... she and Sav Ont were more than a little attracted to each other, and the prospect of being apart didn't appeal to either of them. And the prospect of working together to on the process to derive other Kryptonite isotopes from Green K, beginning with Anti-K and endurite, was a challenge neither could resist! So, Avenger and crew said their goodbyes, and the giant ship headed back to Juneo at the best hyperdrive velocity. They all promised they would return sometime in the future, and then, poof, they vanished into hyperspace. The ceremony was still held, honoring the many valiant warriors who had helped save Thoron; Apex 2 was introduced to the public, and Halk Kar was finally able to slip off into retirement. He made a point of regularly visiting K-Pau in prison while he recovered (as much as possible), trying to interest the former super villain in working for the Krypton Museum. After the whole long episode, the ending seemed extremely quiet and anti-climactic all around, but everyone involved was certain the current quiet would last only until they fell into their next adventures!
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