Early Life[]
Bullied throughout his childhood and preteen years, Ken's youth was very rough. He would be called homosexual slurs, because the kids assumed he was gay, and physically attacked. However, he was nothing more than an odd child. Being beaten and taunted on an almost daily basis became the norm for him. He spent most of his youth resenting those that hurt him, and he resented none more than his mother's boyfriend. The name Trevor Brownley became synonymous with hate for young Ken. He would get his revenge on Trevor by stealing from him in the dead of night. Dealing drugs was the source of Trevor's fat wallet, which he loved to show off to anyone within his house. Ken would sneak into his room when he was out dealing, and he would steal jewelry from Trevor that he would forget about.
This changed one day when Trevor decided to wear an old medallion of his, and he couldn't find it. Having found nothing leading to the diamond encrusted medallion, Trevor flew into a rage. He blamed Ken for the theft, because he could tell Ken hated him. Charging the boy while screaming every hateful word and slur that he could, Trevor made his intent known. He was going to murder the boy, and he would have his associates dispose of the body.
Ken charged out of the front door of the house, and his sister followed close behind him. Running was their only option to survive. How else was a ten year old boy and a nine year old girl supposed to survive a raging madman?
Trevor, a six foot tall monstrosity of a man, did not relent. Searching every stump and fallen tree, he would not give up until his hands ran red with the blood of that boy. A crack sounded in the distance, and Trevor began sprinting towards the direction of the noise. His rage boiling over, he decided he would kill the girl too for extra measure. He couldn't afford any witnesses, after all.
Ken ran and ran despite the pounding in he felt in his chest; his sister was relying on him to save them both. After making their way into a clearing, Trevor came barreling out of the woods. He began running with all the might his legs could muster. Blood lust had consumed him almost entirely, and he did not care how much energy he spent. A line of coke could perk him right back up, after he rested a bit.
Crack! Ken tumbled over, nearly unconscious from the blow to the back of his head. Trevor had grabbed a large stone and hurled it at him. Ken's sister, Monique, screamed in horror as Trevor pounced on Ken. Beating the child's stomach with all of his might, Trevor laughed maniacally. "You're dead kid! You shouldn't have pissed me off!", he screamed at the bleeding boy.
Loud thumping filled the air as Ken cried out in pain. Was this the end for this child? Cold seizing the boy's extremities, he could feel the life in him slipping away. The prickling chill of death danced on his numbing nerves slowly taking away all sensation within them bit by bit. Vision blurring and fading to black was the last sight he'd ever see.
The thumping seized after the air filled with the deafening CRACKOOM! of a sonic boom. Trevor's hand was held frozen in the air by a large man with black hair and blue eyes. The man was dressed in an all blue suit that had a red cape. Bearing a large metallic diamond shaped shield on the chest, the suit bore a large letter S that spanned the length and width of the emblem. Superman had arrived, his eyes burning white hot with sheer rage.
Superman was trembling from his rage, and he used all of his energy to not beat Trevor to a pulp. Laughing, Trevor looked Superman in his eyes. "Do you think I didn't anticipate one of you super fucks showing up?", he asked as he reached in his jacket. Click! His body began to swell, as his muscle mass tripled, then quintupled in size. The veins in his body began glowing green, and he bore a sadistic grin. "I brought with me a special gift from some friends, and this formula has received my special treatment!", he boasted as he knocked Superman back. "I laced it with some of Hour-Man's special little formula, courtesy of some contacts of mine.", He continued boasting. "Make this easier on yourself! Surrender and tell us who your contacts are!", Superman demanded. Trevor pounced on him, fiercely pounding on Superman's skull. "I'll put you down first, Super-Bitch, then I'm going to squash that little shit stain's skull to paste in my hands!", he screamed as he laughed maniacally.
Having had enough of Trevor, Superman snapped and punched him with enough force to pulverize a car. He was careful to aim the punch, so the force of the attack didn't hurt the children. "How could you treat a child like that?!", Superman asked as his voice thundered. "It's simple, I enjoy watching that thieving little shit suffer! He's been stealing from me! He's the only one who hates me enough to do so, and he knows what I can do to him!", Trevor answered snarling. Before he can utter another word, Superman speed blitzes him into a nearby wall and follows it up with a super fast barrage of punches to his face. Unconscious and bleeding, Trevor had been quickly defeated.
As the Science Police were collecting Trevor and all evidence of the assault and his criminal ties, Superman flew back to the scene carrying a short woman with brown hair. "Susette Spartan, you're under arrest for felony neglect of a mino-", the officer is cut off by Superman. "She was out of town for on-the-job training, and she wasn't aware of Trevor Brownley's true nature.", He quickly cut in. "My baby! Where's my baby?!", she shrieked in desperation. "He's over here, Ms. Spartan.", Superman calmly guided her to the small boy, wounds sealed thanks to Superman's heat vision. "I couldn't rush him to a hospital, as his body wouldn't have been able to handle it, so I had to perform some on-the-spot surgery. Your son is going to be okay.", he said with a slight trace of pain in his voice. "I hope he never has to see that man again.", he tells Susette as he turns to give his side of the story to the Science Police.
Susette twitched with anxiety as she couldn't do anything but watch as the Science Police quarantined her helpless son. They tested him for any possible contamination from the laced Venom. They also tested him for any traces of drugs. As they tested him for drugs, medical aid was quickly administered.
When the Science Police finished administering aid to the boy, he was sent to the nearest hospital. Superman flew Susette to the hospital, and he recounted the events that had transpired. "If you knew this much, why didn't you show up sooner!", she roared. "I have to monitor my flight speed, so as to not create a sonic boom within city limits. If I did create a sonic boom in the city, many people would have died from the backlash.", He explained. "I heard your daughter scream, and I flew high into the sky where the shock wave couldn't effect anything. I broke the sound barrier, and I flew straight down into the fray.", He continued. Realizing the truth, Susette calmed down and began sobbing.
After a few weeks in the hospital, Ken would fully recover. This raised suspicion among the Science Police. His ribs having been broken, Ken should have taken at least a couple months to recover. They tested a blood sample, and they discovered that he was a meta-human. Susette confessed that she was a meta-human with the power to heal at an accelerated rate, project energy blasts, and a super physiology comparable in strength and durability to lift and throw 110 tons. Hiding among non-Metas was her goal, so she hid any inclination of powers from everyone. She didn't tell her children they had powers, and she made friends with a scientist from STAR Labs. The scientist, Bryan Roberts, helped her develop power dampening nanobots that she fed to her two children.
The Science Police decided to help her keep the powers a secret from the children, but the children would be monitored until they reached adulthood. When they reached adulthood, they would be enlisted for service in the military. Once part of the military, they would be trained and guided to join the Science Police. With the discipline instilled in them through the military and their service on record, they would have an easier time transitioning into the Science Police.
Dawn of a New Hero[]
As he neared his Sophomore year in High School, Ken began to rebel. Utilizing his skills with stealth, free-running, and lock picking, Ken would sneak out of his house to explore the surrounding area. Knoxville was a beautiful city with the gleam of lights beading across every building and the skyline. Pulsating with the voices of the night life, the city radiated energy, and that energy nourished his soul.
As he would jump across the roof tops, the thought of flying high in the skies perforated every thought in his mind. Licking his ears with its goose bump enticing chill, the fall wind gave him a taste of what he so desired. Imagining himself among the clouds, he continued to sore among the roof tops each night. Police began to take notice, and they mistook him for a potential new hero or villain.
On the night of March 3rd, 2011, he had been able to scale to the top of the First Tennessee Plaza Tower, when the blare of a police siren cut sharply into the night air. "Come down from the rooftop, sir!", a male officer's voice demanded through the megaphone. Panicking, Ken tripped and fell from the building. The building was almost thirty stories high, and he had just cleared five stories when he felt it. Incredible heat began pulsing through his veins, his mind cleared, and his instincts began to sharpen. The world around him began to slow, and gravity's choking grasp loosened. Floating weightlessly despite gravity's power, his muscles lost any aching they felt. Flipping his body around, he made contact with the concrete of the building his tumbling body had been tracing the frame of. Calculating the exact force and trajectory needed to propel his body perfectly into an alleyway several blocks away was rapidly becoming an easier task by the millisecond.
His jump having been executed, knowledge began to breach the surface of the conscious mind. Every equation, scientific theory, book, hypothesis, word said in conversation that he had heard or read began to fill his mind. His mind filling, he still found that he could focus on the task at hand perfectly fine. In fact, he was able to process seven separate thoughts consecutively. He processed the course material for the class and deduced the "most likely" answers for the next six tests. Landing upon the concrete of the alley, he had already deduced a means to maintain his privacy and protect him from any backlash from the police.
He walked calmly out of the alley way into a nearby Big Belly Burger, and he picked eight dollars from the pocket of a man who was standing in line. Purchasing a Belly Buster Burger, he pulled his hood off his head, and he began eating his burger. Hunger had quickly begun to take him, and he needed something to sate it even if only partially. Rapidly consuming energy, he needed a means to balance his energy consumption to make it home. His mind began to slow, and his focus shifted back to two consecutive thoughts.
Leaping dozens of yards from a building again was out of the question if he wanted to keep himself on his feet. Watching as police cars sped by, he calmly ate his Belly Buster and began calculating his route home. Police were searching for the "rooftop meta", and they weren't going to quit anytime soon. As the last scrap of the fattening meal touched his lips, the door to the establishment opened and two officers stepped inside.
They look around the room, eyeing the nearby gawking onlookers with suspicion clinging tightly to their faces. Cutting to the front of the line, they began talking to the cashier. The cashier shakes with anxiety, due to the intensity of the officers. Their conversation could easily have been heard had the officers not anticipated the deafening silence of the room. As their conversation continued, Ken ate quietly as he stiffened with anticipation. How could they have found him so fast? It had only been 5 minutes!
As he chewed, his pulse tore its way through his body as his blood pressure soared to the skyline. He wouldn't be as nervous, had he not just smoked some marijuana 20 minutes earlier. Continuing on, the conversation at the counter seems to have gained traction. Two customers seemed to have joined in, and the conversation had become audible.
"Are you guys serious? A meta is on a run?", asked a customer in a red hoodie. "Yes, he was last seen falling from the First Tennessee Plaza Tower, when he kicked off of it and launched himself into an alley near here", responded a young officer. "What did he look like?", chimed in a young woman with glasses, a cashier.
"From what we could make out, he's a young tanned man wearing a blue hoodie. He's wanted for trespassing and disturbing the peace.", answered an older officer. "Well I don't see any-", the cashier began to say, cutting off when her eyes landed on Ken. Unfortunately, he was the only tan guy in a blue hood, and he quickly began trying to think of a way out of his current predicament.
However, he doesn't have enough time, as the police notice the cashier's gaze and trace it to him. They begin making their way to him, demanding he put his hands up. He begins to get out of his seat, and the police begin yelling and reaching for their guns. Bystanders nearby panic and lower themselves to the floor to protect themselves. "Officers, I don't want any trouble. All I did was go for a rooftop run.", he tells the officers in a calm tone. "GET ON THE GROUND AND PUT YOUR HANDS ABOVE YOUR HEAD!", one officer screams at the top of his lungs. Obliging the officer's demands, they handcuff him and place him in the back of their vehicle. As they drive, one of the officers pull out a radio and contacts a woman known as "Waller". "We got him Waller. We'll meet you at the designated area.", the officer says in a strict tone.
After the call, Ken gets a chill down his spine and his gut tells him to get away. Bulging veins and muffled grunts nearly give away his efforts to tear his cuffs. They were odd, not like any handcuffs he'd seen in movies. A strip of blue light lined the center of the hulking mass of the cuffs that weighed down his entire forearms. As he strained, he felt the same surge in his head as he did when falling off of the building. So bright was the image of raw energy that flashed to his mind, his pupils began to contract. Just then he noticed through his squinting eyelids the fading and dying of the light on the cuffs. Creeaak! CRACK! Breaking the cuffs, he kicks the door open and jumps out of the car. He hears one of the officers scream, " What the fuck?! How did he break those cuffs?!". Tearing down the road, he quickly ran from the car towards a nearby alley and through to the other side. Chuh!Chuh!Chuh!Chuh!Chuh! Air particles part as the painted composite blades of an approaching helicopter cleave through the shadowy sky of the night. Whooaaaooooooowww! The roaring wind licking and biting his ear as he ran did nothing to distract him from the city and obstacles before him. The luminescent lights of nearby buildings and cars attempting to blend together in streaks, only managing to in his unfocused peripheral vision.
He had to get away from these people! He was going too fast for their safety! If he was going to operate at this level, he'd need to get to a safer destination. Halting his mad dash, he launched forward from the ground as hard as he could. Peeling away from sight, the city fell into the abyss of the night's ebon maw. Blitzing him, the ground of the Nevada desert slammed into his face and chest. How had he not seen it fast approaching? Was his energy running out? His answer came as he began rising to his feet, only to fall on to the ground. He couldn't pass out here! What if they come back?! "I need food! I need food!", he muttered under exhausted gasps. Without thinking, he begin eating the sand and dirt his face had been resting upon. He filled his mouth with the coarse minerals three times before he felt satiated enough to stand.
How did eating sand replenish some of his energy? What is going on?! Musky scents filled the air around him, and he surrendered to the beast that was his instincts once more. The scents enticed his nose, and he followed then. Having covered a mile of jogging, his senses had brought him upon an unsuspecting bighorn sheep. The noise he made upon approaching startled the creature, and it ran as fast as it could. He reached out a hand to try to grab it as it fled, but the animal was too quick. Lacking energy to chase could be the end of him, and he began to panic again. "I'm so hungry... why won't you just die?!", he screamed still frantically grasping the air for the sheep. Just then, a beam of light shot from his grasping hand and burned the sheep alive. "Wha-what's going on?", he began to inquire before the scent of burned meat lured out his instincts once again. He closed the distance between him and the corpse, quickly tearing into its charred flesh. The grit still in his mouth was washed away by what blood hadn't evaporated in the creature and the sizzling flesh that still boiled as his teeth had ripped it to pieces. As the last scraps of the sheep's bone and flesh were digested, his mind cleared. The thick quilt of sensory fog upon his mind disintegrated, and he was conscious enough to register the sight before him. what was left of the sheep laid bare. Traces of its bones exposed to the light friction of the desert wind, slowly eroding to its touch. The centuries of exposure they would face gradually wearing them down.
Shock gripping his mind, he nearly retched. He couldn't taste anything, however, despite the gallon of blood covering his chest and pants. He began to gag, but he couldn't throw-up. Gathering himself and calming down, he rose to his feet and prepared to jump again. However, as he took off from the ground, he was tackled back into it by a flying stranger. He panicked and kicked them away, not realizing he had been tackled by the hero Steel. "Let's not do anything else rash here. You've already evaded arrest and seem to have killed someone or something. If you come peacefully, we can get you help.", Steel's firm tone reverberating through the night sky. "NO! I heard the officers! They're trying to give me over to some shady person named 'Waller'. You're working with them, aren't you?!", the quivering tone of a panicked Ken protested in return. "Waller? What are you talking about? I was told you were a meta resisting arrest. There was no mention of Amanda Waller. Look, you seem to not be in the best mental state at the moment, and I understand why you're afraid. Come with me, and I will protect you from Waller and her lackies as best as I can.", Steel said as he slowly and carefully approached Ken with his hands raised and his weapon placed on the ground. As Ken began to slowly disarm and approach Steel, the hero received a call from someone on what seemed to be a hidden comm within his suit. "This is Batman, we just received a call from Waller that the meta you were sent to apprehend is to be given over to her. We don't have a choice on this one, I'm sorry Steel".
Thinking Ken hadn't heard the call, Steel didn't reply and continued to approached him. Ken, however, immediately began panicking again and made it clear he heard the call. "YOU LIED! I JUST HEARD YOUR CALL! YOU HAVE A CHOICE!!", he yelled bulging veins in his neck portraying his fear and rage to the hero. "Look kid, calm down! I don't like it either, but we can still hel-", Steel began stating before being cut off by a blast to the chest from Ken. "The kid could hear our call!", his excited tone piercing into his comm. "Noted, the kid has super hearing. We're going to have to change our communication method.", Batman stated on the other side of the comm channel. After that, Ken couldn't hear anything else, as if he could even focus to while fighting Steel. The armored hero seemed to be able to match his newfound strength and speed, possibly even surpassing them.
The first blast having damaged Steel's armor, the hero's moves became more calculated and careful, avoiding the energy blasts while aiming his punches for soft spots on Ken's body. However, his movements seemed to lag ever so slightly at a couple points, indicating his mind would become slightly distracted at those moments. 'What is he thinking?', Ken wondered to himself as he rushed the hero. His moment of distraction caught by the hero, Steel dodges and strikes him hard in the stomach with his hammer. The blow knocked the young meta off of his feet and into unconsciousness.
A man stands proud among what appeared to be clamoring news teams within a vast golden city. The skyscrapers around him stand high enough to disappear within the clouds, and railroad tracks float high in the air, weaving throughout the skyscrapers and buildings. The people wear glistening tunics that split down their center to reveal large medallions resting upon thick knitted shirts on the men, and the women wear dresses that trail behind them, never exceeding a distance of two feet. Whenever the breeze would push the skirts, or they would exceed two feet when trailing behind the women, the dresses seemed to drag the slack back within its two feet limit. Lining the collars of their dresses appeared to be various colors of furs that were different for each woman. Trailing the circumference of their collars were odd looking jewels resembling emeralds in physical appearance, except for their colors and their nigh-translucent transparency. This transparency revealing what appeared to be a miniaturized galaxy resting at the center of each gem. In fact, it appeared the men had the same kind of gem resting at the center of their medallions. The proud standing man they seemed to be fawning over stood fairly tall among them, dressed in a near skin-tight, dark grey suit. The suit looked familiar, akin to that of Superman's. However, the emblem was different. The "S" that should have been at the center was replaced by what appeared to be a blue sun centered within the still image of a clear starry night sky. The images of the moving blue sun and still sky sat perfectly within the diamond-shield emblem's silver frame. The emblem frame's upper left and right portions extended to form flexible shoulder pads that extended two inches from the suit itself. The collar of the suit extended to the top of his neck, and the rim of the collar was lined with the same silver colored flexible metal. The boots of the suit were made of the same metal and covered the entirety of his lower legs and feet. He also wore skin-tight gloves made of the same metal that covered his hand and forearms and a light blue, transparent cape that appeared to be made of light and draped over the middle of the shoulder pads, ending at the upper center of the emblem on his chest.
As he was about to speak to the people, a giant black planetoid materialized in the sky from a giant bright light, and a cloud of strange flying creatures began to form. As they descended upon the people, everything faded to black.
Opening his eyes, he finds himself seated at a desk within a small room. A large black woman smelling of cigarettes, coffee, and gun powder sits in front of him. "Hello Mr. Spartan, I see you've finally decided to rejoin the waking world. How was your rest?", the stern yet calm woman asked him. "Who the hell are you? Wait-are you that 'Waller' lady that Steel mentioned?!", Ken asked as he started to panic. "Yes, I am Amanda Waller, but you have no reason to panic. I don't mean you any harm.", she stated in her calm tone. She continued," I've been monitoring you since you were younger, after your powers manifested briefly to save you from dying at the hands of your abusive ex-stepfather. You recovered from multiple blows delivered by someone who took a drug that makes users strong enough to lift skyscrapers, when made into the potent cocktail that he had", she recounted, "However, the strain it put upon his body nearly killed him". Startled, Ken couldn't help but ask her how she knew, as his mom didn't even know what happened to Trevor after the event. Every time she asked, she would only be told he was imprisoned and not to ask any further. "You see young man, Mr. Spartan, I work for a government agency known as 'Task Force X'. We oversee superhuman affairs such as what you endured as a child, learning as much as we can about Meta-humans and super powered individuals. The ordeal you suffered would have been incredible enough to catch our eye, had you been an adult. However, you were a small child. That made it so much more interesting for us. Unfortunately, neither the superhero community nor the United States government take fondly to government agencies 'adopting' young super-beings against their parent's will. Fortunately for us, we were able to offer you additional education as part of a deal with the president and your mother.", she explained.
"Once you reach the age of 18, we would be allowed to move you to a school where we could better monitor and condition you to become an agent of the government, specifically our agency. In return, we would provide you the finest education possible, pay for your entire college tuition (double majors or possibly more included), and protect you from any other potential super powered threats that may come your way until you graduated high school. I'd say your mother cut a pretty sweet deal, wouldn't you young man?", she posed the rhetorical question with a calculating smirk. "So why all the deception? Why not just talk to me?", he asked aggressively. "We had to be sure you were safe to approach. You may be a nice young man in your day-to-day life, but powers can bring unpredictable results at times, like your rabid consumption of that animal.", she smoothly retorted, quickly raising and lowering a brow at the end and smirking. She knew she had disarmed him with that statement, and she went in for the deal sealing offer, "Mr. Spartan, as part of our agreement (per the finest education part), we can help you learn to control some of your powers and train you to be more effective in combat. We can't have our future agent being clumsy out in the field". "Okay, I would appreciate that.", was the only reply he could manage to muster, before Ms. Waller led him to a vehicle that drove him home.
Once they arrived, Ms. Waller walked him to his front door and handed his mother (who had been eagerly waiting for them) a large stack of papers while telling her they would be in contact with her. "-but Ms. Waller, he's only sixteen! The deal was for when he hit eighteen-!", his mother cut in. "Don't worry Ms. Spartan, we haven't come to collect him yet. This paperwork is the part of your side of the deal where we get to move him to a school we watch over. I think he'll like it, because it's near Metropolis, Superman's city.", she states with a stern yet almost warm look. His mother's face flickered a brief smile, before it transitioned to one that portrayed mixed emotions. "When do I start at my new school?", he asks while almost failing to hide his new excitement. "You'll start tomorrow, once our movers have finished securing your belongings in place and moving your house.", she says plainly. "Wait, wha-?", the two Spartans began to question before the house was carefully lifted onto a large truck bed they hadn't noticed driving up. 'That's weird, I should have heard them (the truck and the movers). What's going on?', he thought to himself. Noticing his searching gaze, Waller chimes in, "I almost forgot to tell you, young man. I modified your watch with some of our power dampening technology we used in your handcuffs. It will help to suppress your powers outside of your training, so you don't accidentally hurt anyone. It also makes for a great tracking device, in case you manage to get lost, kidnapped, or sneak out again.", she states with a smirk. "Don't worry about the ride, by the way. Our boys are thoroughly trained for these kinds of things. You could balance a tea cup on your head with how smooth they drive.", she continues with a plain tone.
As they approached a suburban neighborhood across from the ocean outside the outskirts of the island city, Waller turned to Ken and confessed, "I'm impressed you've gotten such a base understanding of your powers already." He replied, "Well, think about it like this .... I'm a teenaged guy that just learned he has superpowers. I've been taking note of the changes and thinking on them. It's all I really could think about while I was out cold. That, and I've read several posts about metas controlling their powers and theories on power control." Waller smirked, somewhat impressed by how sharp the boy was. "Tell me then, without the watch on, could you hear where Superman is in the city right now?", she asked. "There's a chance I could, but I don't have a strong enough grasp on my powers just yet to pinpoint his voice specifically. From what I can tell, I have Super Strength (and Super Durability as well as Super Speed by extension), Super Senses, and I can fire Energy Blasts. So, my powers are pretty similar to his, and it makes me wonder if I'm meant to be your secret weapon against him.", he retorted. With no hesitation or shame, Waller quickly replied, "Him and so many others like him, should the need arise, Mr. Spartan."
The moving team maneuvered his home carefully onto its new foundation. The evening sky giving way to the slowly creeping approach of the night. Having completed their mission, Waller commands her team to standby to depart. Before leaving, she turns to Ken and informs him that he will be attending Metropolis High School starting the following day. "Rest up, young man. You have a busy day ahead of you tomorrow. You have to get used to your new school and will be starting your first lesson on controlling your powers after.", she said in her usual tone as she and her team departed. Watching as she and her team depart, Ken begins thinking to himself. "I can't just depend on her and her goons to teach me. Sure, they're doing some helpful things for me, but I get the feeling I shouldn't trust them too much. I should do some practicing on my own tonight and set up a schedule for the new few months.", he tells himself as he begins to explore the area.
Walking around the yard, he ponders to himself how he can better control his powers, mainly his need to feed as a result of their usage. "How can I stop myself from going feral like that again? If I do that in front of others, it's gonna freak them out, and it could put a target on my back later on.", He wondered to himself in anxious determination. "The sun, Superman uses it to fuel his powers! No, I haven't demonstrated an ability to absorb and metabolize energy yet (have I?). Someone once wrote an article saying The Flash eats ridiculously high nutrient dense food bars. What if I could make something like that? I'd need to study biology and nutrition more first. My powers could make it a lot easier, but I can't use them while I have this damned watch on!", he further ponders in frustration. Walking over to his night stand, he opens a drawer and checks the money he has saved up from his summer job. "Only $200 left, maybe I could pawn some of his left over jewelry. That's not a bad idea. Then, I could use the money to buy myself some college textbooks for further research. Then again, I have to get this watch off first. What to do...?", his thoughts trail off as he checks outside to see if Waller and her team have left. They appear to be gone, but Ken isn't chancing that they walk up on him doing anything suspicious, so he carefully checks around the house while acting casual and comes to a realization. "They don't need to stay, if they have already bugged the place. Damn, now really isn't a good time to do anything. School may ironically be the best way to be sneaky.", with that thought in mind, he takes a shower then heads to bed.
A swarm of flying creatures descends upon the golden city as the people scream in terror. The grey clad man flies up to greet them as he tears through the oncoming horde at a blistering speed that alone is enough to tear many of the creatures in two. The planetoid's fiery pits erupt, engulfing the man. Just as all seemed lost, the light cleared and revealed his still living, unharmed form. He charged the planetoid, moving it away from the golden city and out of its sight. As the people began to cheer, a dread set over the crowd that realized its hero would never return. 'Darksied has claimed him!' exclaimed a voice in the crowd that turned into gradually into a whisper as the vision faded again.
Starting upright to the sound of his alarm, Ken woke to find himself drenched in a cold sweat. Why did he feel so terrified of that vision? Darksied? What did he have to do with this? As questions circled within his mind, he prepped himself for the upcoming school day with a shower, basic self grooming, and a hearty breakfast. His breakfast was unusually hearty. He found he had consumed a whole carton of uncooked eggs, 13 pancakes, a whole package of the cooked bacon his mother had made, his whole bottle of multivitamins, and a whole 5 pound bag of uncooked rice. "How the hell am I able to eat this much? It seems I have the power of 'super digestion', but I'm still wearing the watch.", looking at his watch at that thought is when he noticed it. The watch's digital screen was completely blank. It had no power. Just then his mother and siblings returned to the kitchen to notice the onslaught that had been laid upon their breakfast. "Ken! What the fuck?!", his sister erupted in anger. "I'm hungry! I wanted some!", his little brother protested in disappointment. "Honey, were you that hungry still?!", his mother asked with great concern. "I'll cook up some more food. Terrence and Monique, you guys go ahead and eat the pancakes that are still left while I cook you guys up some more eggs and bacon. Ken, are you still hungry?", she asked him with an intense gaze of concern. "Yes...", he replied faintly. "So, why are you cooking him more. He already ate a ton!", Monique jabbed with frustration and a touch of envy. "He has superpowers now, so he needs to eat a lot to keep his energy up, or he could go into a coma!", his mother jabbed back with an unusual level of authority and experience in her voice. "Oh yeah, do we have superpowers too, MOM?!', Monique jabbed back with an accusing tone. Ken's Mother grew silent for a couple minutes then answered with a tired sigh, "Yes, you do have superpowers, but I suppress them with power dampeners I've been putting in our food. It seems your brother's powers can undo power dampeners over time. He likely gets it from his father".
"And, who was my father?", Ken asked with an inquisitory tone, cutting the silence that followed. "His 'Earth name' was Eugene Herald, and he worked part-time as a local barber and as an artist. I don't know what planet he was from, but he displayed the same powers you have. He could also fly and .... manipulate matter....." her tone growing more and more reluctant. "Wait, are you serious?!", the two older siblings erupted in shock. "Yes and that's enough questions! Do not try to manipulate matter, at least until Waller teaches you better power control!", his mother demanded with a seriousness he had never seen before. "This conversation is done! All of you finish getting ready for school!", his mother suddenly demanded with a strong tone of frustration in her voice.
As he walked to the school bus stop with his mind circling around the conversation, he focused on the name 'Eugene Herald'. He would have to look into it. Knowing his father was dead, he at least wanted to gain answers as to what alien race his father was a part of. The rumination was cut short when he bumped into someone. "Hey man, watch it!", the young guy said frustrated. Coming back to reality, Ken noticed the brown haired, bowl-cut young white teenaged guy standing in front of him. His blue eyes relaying his annoyance behind the glasses resting upon his face. "My bad man, I was lost in thought-", Ken responded noticing the school pen the young man had tucked in his shirt pocket. "Hey! You go to my school. What's your name?", Ken asked, seeking to possibly make a new friend. "My name's Bruce, Bruce Skye. What's yours, man?", Bruce replied. "My name's Ken, Ken Spartan. How long have you been going to Metropolis High?", Ken replied. "One year, this will be my sophomore year. I came here from Illinois because of my mom's job. How's about you man?", Bruce asked.
Before Ken could answer, two young girls come running up to Bruce with something in the youngest's hands. "Bruce! You forgot your lun-", she cut short when noticing Ken. "Who's this?", she asked. "He goes to my school. His name's Ken.", he replied. "Hi Ken, my name is Renee Erwin and this is my big sister, River Erwin!", the young golden brown-haired girl said with a very upbeat and enthusiastic tone. Her red headed older sister met eyes with him and blushed, meekly saying "hi" before giving a timid wave and smile. "We go to the middle school, but we missed the bus today-!", she began to explain their predicament before her brother motioned for her to leave them alone, after taking his stuff from them. "Go home already, he and I were talking!", he said. Just then, Ken noticed a bus coming toward them. "Well, looks like our bus is here, dude. Let's continue talking on the bus.", he said.
The cool autumn air that licked at the faces of the passengers and the driver of the school bus complimented the almost indigo and gold hued sky of the rising morning sun. The morning silence of tired young souls trying to stir their minds in preparation to see their friends at school was occasionally cut through by small, short lived bursts of conversations between waking friends. All sound died down as the bus approached the brick building of Metropolis High School, and the people aboard the vehicle stirred as they prepared to depart. As his shoes clomped upon the tiled floors and his eyes skimmed over the dull colored walls of the building, Ken and Bruce made their way to the cafeteria to grab snacks and talk. It would be in the cafeteria that Bruce would introduce Ken to a couple of his friends, Mark Moralez and Destin Vineheart.
"I met them at open house about a week ago. Guys, this is Ken. He's new to our school. Ken, this is Mark Moralez and this is Destin Vineheart.", Bruce stated. Shooting Ken a flirtatious smile, Destin spoke first, "Hey, it's nice to meet you, Ken". The auburn haired, freckled girl locked her bright-blue eyes onto Ken's, softly staring deep as if to try to see his soul. Her smile growing gently wider across her flushed cheeks as she did so, she then gently took his outstretched hand and lightly shook. "Hey man, I'm Mark!", the goofy and enthused pale guy said as he caught his falling grey beanie and placed it on his black hair. "It seems Destin's taken a shine to you!", he teased as she giggled and blushed, smiling at Ken. "I could say the feeling is mutual, but we can talk about it more later. Because, it looks like it's time to go.", he stated with a progressively more disappointed tone as he motioned to the quickly growing crowd of students that were leaving the cafeteria. Making their ways to their classes, Ken grabbed Destin's arm and gently drug her into the theater area after telling her they should talk. "Hey, so I wanted to get your number, so we could text each other during class.", he said while trying to hide his nervousness. "Yeah! Absolutely! Can I get your phone please?!", she responded as her face and eyes lit up immensely and clearly trying to contain her excitement. Gently and quickly taking his phone, she put her phone number into it quickly and sent herself a text. "Okay! I got your number too!", she exclaimed smiling brightly. "Come on, I'll walk you to class!", he stated, gently yet firmly taking her hand.
A week later, Ken and Destin would begin their relationship, and Ken would find himself quickly growing to be good friends with Bruce and Mark. It would be during his English class that he would make a big discovery. As he was reading his assigned book and taking notes, he snuck his phone out to send his girlfriend a quick text. He noticed that the phone was low on power and grew frustrated. Seeing his friend Bruce, he moved over to sit next to him. "Hey man, dropping by the library between class?", he asked in a playful manner. "Nah man, I took a free period so I could work on some personal projects. I tried to text you earlier to let you know I'd be here. Did you check your phone?", Bruce responded. "No, my phone is nearly 'dead', so I'm saving battery life.", Ken replied. "Here, I have a charger I made. It's a super charger that can charge your phone almost instantly.", Bruce said with a quick smile. However, when Ken handed him the phone, the screen was still on. It was then that Ken noticed in a very brief moment that the phone instantly charged before it even hooked into the charger. 'Wait a minute, did it just charge as soon as he touched it? Does he have powers?' Is he a hero or villain? I better play dumb for now, just to be safe Ken thought to himself as he pretended to not notice.
Instead of taking the bus home that day, Ken decided to walk home as an excuse to drop by the local library to order some college textbooks. He planned to have them sent to Bruce's house, telling him that his mom doesn't want him overwhelming himself by studying too much at once. Within the next week, he would practice what he could with his powers. During this practice, he would discover he has the ability to sense energy sources. Using this power, he discovered what he already suspected. His house was indeed bugged and so was the shed outside. With his books arriving by day two, he began to put his plan into motion. Carefully, he would drain the power from the bugs in his room to buy him time to do some quick studying of his textbooks, which he found he could do at amazing speeds with excellent recall and comprehension. He would memorize the entirety of the textbooks within two days of study and return the textbooks a day later. "Alright, now that I know what I need, I need a work place and the tools necessary to begin making what I need. Where can I get those, though?", he pondered to himself.
The next day, he would be spending time with Destin in the school theatre's atrium, when an idea would come to him. He would bring Destin with him to check for clubs that the school had, and he would find that the school did indeed have a chemistry club. 'I could use this club to use what I've learned to make nutrition bars, though getting the materials could prove tricky. I could bring some outside materials using foods...' , he thought quietly to himself. As he was thinking to himself, Destin would gently tug his shirt sleeve and motion to a piece of paper on the board. "Hey handsome, can we join this club together?", she asked him with pleading eyes. The flier was for a 'childcare and home skills club' that the school's Church Club had started. "I mean, you know I don't share the faith, but it wouldn't hurt to develop the skills for the future. Sure, we can join it.", at the utterance of those words her eyes lit up like diamonds in sunlight. She gave him a big kiss and hugged him tightly for a minute, before saying, "Thank you baby!". He would enroll in the two clubs, the Childcare Club with Destin and the Chem Club on his own. He would notice an overlap in their time fames and inform Destin of it, mentioning that he may not always be able to attend. She would be saddened by the news but reluctantly accept it.
A few months later, he would manage to whip up 12 nutrition bars, each measuring 3 1/2 x 2 x 1 inches (LWH), that would prove to be very successful. In fact, through careful study he would discover that a single bar can allow him up to 13 hours of continual power usage without making him ravenous. 'Okay, I'll test the first bar by eating it and then using the weights in the school's weight room after class to test my lifting strength. If I load the straight bar with 45 lbs weights, I should be able to get to about 500 lbs of weight. That should be good enough to test most of my lifting forms. After that, I can start testing the matter manipulation and energy blasts on small rocks in the area. They won't be noticeable.' With his thought finished, he waited until after class and walking Destin to her bus to put his plan into motion. He knew the weight room didn't have cameras, as the students were already constantly observed by the teachers and installing the cameras was more expensive than the school could afford. Checking the room with his energy sensing ability for extra measure, he deduced it was clear and began putting his plan into motion. He lifted the 500+ lbs with the ease of holding a feather and found he could lift the weight with individual fingers using the full range of motion of his fingers. Once his weight lifting routine was complete, he would leave the weight room and walk to his home while running calculations from his class. He ran the entirety of every book he read and recalled every memory he could repeatedly and simultaneously during his walk. It would be during that walk that he would slip into an alley and carefully begin blasting small rocks (using his fingers) to test how the energy blasts work and how he could focus them individually.
With his mind and senses preoccupied during his walk, he failed to notice the auburn haired girl that had been watching and following him. However, when he reached his house, she would confront him about what she saw. "Hey handsome, what were you doing?", she asked while walking up to him from behind and hugging him. "Wait, what? I thought you got on the bus. Did you follow me?", he asked in shock. "Yes, I followed you and saw everything. Why didn't you tell me about your powers, baby?", she asked him as he spun around and hugged her, looking up at him and pouting. "Well, um, I've been trying to figure them out myself-let's move away from the house and talk more.", he said quietly as he moved her towards the sidewalk. "What's wrong?", she asked as a concerned look grew on her face. "It's ... my house is bugged by a government agency that my mom made a deal with. They promised her a lot in exchange for me serving them once I reached adulthood. It's a long story.", he admitted quietly to her. "Sooo, you need somewhere to practice without them watching, and you're worried they might start watching me?", she finished for him while smiling at him. "You know, you could just come to my house. I have a big yard there and there's a lot of privacy on Fridays. I live with my grandma and sister, but they go out to bingo night with her friends on Friday. You could practice more there. Besides, I have something I want to show you", she told him softly as she looked up lustfully into his eyes and kissed him. "Oh yeah, wassat-", he said as they kissed. "It's a surprise, handsome.", she said as her flushed lips met his. With his super senses being aroused by the rush of adrenaline and his sudden passion, he could swear he heard the trees and nature around him bending ever so slightly closer, as if the world itself were trying to embrace him.
After what felt like ages of passionate kissing, the two resigned from their lip locking and Destin asked him to walk her home. "It's not nearby, but we can get away from your house before you use your powers.", she said as they walked. "Babe, I don't think you'd survive me 'super-jumping' all the way to your house, or me running at super speeds.", he quickly stated out of concern. "It's okay baby. I know you wouldn't hurt me on purpose. Besides, Bruce dated this one girl with powers, and he showed us a site to buy protective barriers for stuff like this. It's a 'forcefield suit'!", she playfully exclaimed at the end, activating the forcefield. The blue-tinged light encompassed her body in a protective barrier that fit her form almost perfectly, only hovering two inches from her form on either side. "It makes me hover in the middle, and I can breathe just fine thanks to the 'filtration system'.", she said while making a goofy nerdy voice at the end. "Haha, okay, I'll trust it. But, if you get hurt, I'm having a 'sit down' with the makers.", he said with a smile as he began to move into the road while quickly and carefully building up speed to match the cars around him. After matching their speed, he then worked his way up to doubling it, all the while she watched him with awe and lovestruck eyes. Through the noise of the rushing wind, gentle beating of his feet, and nearby nightlife he could hear her gently whisper in an admiring tone "My Superman". As she did so, she watched him and ran her index finger gently over his chest, the forcefield having detected his body and expanding to cover them both long before he took off.
Upon reaching her house, he set her down carefully on her feet at the edge of her driveway. Before he could say anything, she jumped up and kissed him again before saying, "Come here, handsome!". She would guide him into the large woods nearby to what appeared to be a treehouse in a huge tree, about 30ft high. "Whoa, that's a huge treehouse! It has to be at least forty feet across!", he said with great shock. "Yeah, my grandpa and cousin built it when I was seven, and I've used it as my "home away from home" ever since he died. "Oh, may he rest in peace.", he responded with a concerned look. "Thank you handsome.", she said before giving him a quick kiss. They climb into the tree house using the ladder, and Ken found that it was surprisingly well furnished. It even had a couch and full sized bed in it with separate rooms! "This is awesome!", he exclaimed. Her soft, supple skin meet his hand, they locked fingers as she guided him to the couch where she gently pushed him down onto it before sitting onto his lap.
Laying her head on his chest, she began to speak in a very soft, dreamlike voice. "Baby, I know I accepted your powers earlier, but I can't help but wonder something. Would you accept me, if I had powers?", she said sounding a bit gloomy at the end. "What-, baby, what kind of question is that? You're my sunlight on a cloudy day, my magnolia in a field of .. dead grass and briars! Of course I would accept you!", he said sounding slightly offended she would ask. "Wait, why are you asking?", he said with sudden realization. She stared up at him with what looked like pleading eyes before adjusting herself in his lap to where she was straddling him and they were chest to chest, with her arms wrapped gently and lovingly around his neck. "I love you so much, handsome.", she said with a passionate and warm tenderness that seemed new for even her. Still staring lovingly and gently into his eyes, she continued, "You're the first person that isn't family that I've let in here and have said 'I love you' to. Please, just watch this before you say anything else". She finished her request with a soft kiss before she sat up in her straddled position and pointed at a nearby wall. In astonishment, Ken watched as magnolia flowers of different kinds began to bloom out of the wall in order of size and color, with warmer colors being larger. "That's not the only thing I can do, baby.", she continued as she gently trailed off and kissed him. "The next one requires we be a little more.... physical.", she continued in a dreamy, lustful voice as she began to reach under his shirt and rub his body.
Grabbing her waist tenderly, he stopped himself from going further, "Wait- I'm too strong! You'll be killed-!". Before he could finish, she gently kissed him and smiled while looking into his eyes. She gently grabbed his hand and began to squeeze it progressively harder. At first, he didn't feel anything and thought of it as a person trying to crush a solid steel ball in their hand. However, after she increased the pressure, he felt .... as if he was being squeezed by another person. Granted, one who was weaker, like a child or small person trying to squeeze a grown man's hand, but he felt it. "Whoa, so you-", he began before he was cut off by her tender kiss. "Handsome, I wanted to show you a better way. I'm not dumb, trust me.", she said teasing him before they began to kiss each other passionately. They carefully removed their clothes as they made their way to the bed. "I know I'm strong too, handsome, and I can heal but be careful. It's my first time, and I can still feel pain.", she said in a teasing manner. With a smirk, Ken raised her chin with his index finger and kissed her as they began slowly. "B-baby *gasp* -ooooh, o-one more thiing", her lusty voice continued, "D-doon't .. pull.... oouut! Aaah-mmm!". As she finished her request, she locked her legs tightly around him, never letting up.
The sun rose the next morning on the resting couple and their home away from home. As the sunlight brushed his face, Ken opened his eyes to the sight of his girlfriend resting her head on his chest, straddling him like a cowgirl, and the feeling of himself still in her. 'Wow, she really meant it when she told me not to .... "exit her" ', he thought to himself with a smile. Rubbing his right hand along her back, he took a second to enjoy the feeling of her soft, supple skin. With his left hand, he gently placed his index finger under her chin and ran his thumb along her cheek bone, next to the bridge of her nose. Tracing along, he followed the trail of freckles along her cheek, enjoying the sight of the beautiful decorative bronze dots. He watched intently as he went, noticing the smile that slowly appeared upon her lips. Her smile, her flushed cheeks, her freckles, her plump lips, and her loving sky blue eyes that stared into his were enough to make his heart begin to flutter. "Good morning to you too, handsome.", she said with her dreamlike voice as she leaned forward and they kissed.
The light swirling and stroking of their tongues stirred their senses as they both sat up slowly, embracing and kissing passionately once more. As they rose, she shifted her weight down onto his lap and gasped. "I see you're really awake now.", she smiled and teased as they continued. They rolled over and began their love making once again. A couple hours later, they were back to their waking positions and running their hands along one another, when Ken had a realization. "Shit! School!", he began to sit up when he was stopped by Destin. "Baby, haandsoome, did you forget what yesterday was while you were practicing with your powers?", she asked him playfully. She continued, "I said you could come over Friday for a reason.", an almost mischievous grin on her face. "It's Saturday handsome, and my grandma and sister went out of town on vacation yesterday morning. Before you ask, I told them I had a project I was going to work on for school. I didn't tell them it was us practicing our powers together.", she finished with a victorious smile on her face. "Very well, if I'm going to practice with my powers, I'm going to need to practice my physical powers a lot today.", he responded with a mischievous tone. "Why do you think I brought you here handsome? I'm yours all day or weekend, if you want. Just don't forget to eat some snacks and keep your energy up", she said with a lusty smile as they began again.
Sunday evening they decided to take a break from their 'festivities' to talk more about their powers. As they were getting out of bed, Ken noticed a bit of blood on his thighs and the sheets. "Babe, is this your bloo-", he was cut off by her answer. "Yes handsome, I told you it was my first time!", she said with a chuckle as she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him. "And I wouldn't change it for the world.", she said before kissing him again and grabbing his hand and leading him to the bath tub. "How do you get water into here? We're about thirty feet high,", he pondered to her. She said nothing and simply laid her head on his chest and watch as a series of vines appeared through the faucet's hole and spread to reveal blooming roses that then shed their petals into the tub. The vines and roses then retreated and before he could say anything else, she said," Keep watching handsome". A couple seconds after she said that, water slowly began to flow out of the faucet. He noticed that it had a flowery smell to it and was surprisingly warm.
"I can use my plants in a variety of ways, even to gather, heat, and cool things.", she said as he watched the water rise and stop just at her collar bone, wetting her auburn hair that now clung to his chest from the moisture. "Handsome, can you massage my back? You've made it really sore.", she sighed with a slight pout as she leaned forward. "I'm almost surprised that's all I made it. You're not as strong as me, so I should have hurt you at least a little. That tells me that you can heal quickly.", he said with a slight chuckle as he began to massage her back and waist. "Mhm, I can heal really quick and even regenerate a bit, but it takes time. I started this semester with a broken arm.", she said with a nonchalant tone. "How-?", He began, but he stopped himself as he put it together quickly. "You're a hero. But, I've never seen you on the news or anything.", he said quickly. "I try to keep it a secret, since my grandma doesn't know I have powers. I got them during a school trip to Gotham several years ago thanks to one of LexCorp's experiments with Kryptonian DNA and Poison Ivy's DNA. I wouldn't have known what the experiment was, if not for Lois Lane reporting on the story later. They don't know the experiment was a success, because I've kept it a secret. But, I'm more hybrid than human now.", she said with a somber tone. Before she could say anything else, Ken gently turned her head and kissed her. "Hybrid, human, it doesn't matter. I still love you.", he said as he kissed her again. "Hey handsome, I can tell you're a hybrid of sorts too. I can smell it on you.", she mentioned to him. "I know, my dad was an alien from what I was told, and my mom never told me what she is. But, I do know that it's not human. It's possibly something magical.", he answered as they kissed again. "Can you lean back?" she asked him, grabbing the edges of the tub and raising herself several inches after he did. "What do you have in - oh-!", he began as she lowered herself onto him again. "You accepted me, so I'm accepting you again now. Remember, don't ... mmmm! Don't pu-ll ouut... hah!", she said with a wry smile, biting her lip as they began once again.
Later that night, they hugged tightly and kissed one last time before Ken left to go home. his mind was still swimming and he remembered the last thing they spoke about. They made a promise to each other that they would continue to help each other practice, and he revealed to her that he would sneak off at times and do a little vigilante work. "Don't ever do that without help, handsome!", she scolded. "If something happened to you, I couldn't live with myself." she said as a tear ran down her face. "It's okay baby, I know how to work within my limits.", he said to her with a kiss and a wink. "We should work together, so we can protect each other!", they said suddenly in unison, both smiling again after.
Exobyte Invasion[]
Summary: After months of heroics, Ken's world would change one day. As he was in battle with the villain Bizarro, Ken would suddenly begin to fall critically ill, leading to his defeat. It would have potentially meant his death, if not for the intervention of the heroes Icon and Rocket.
(Powerset gain: Kryptonian powerset)
Upon arriving at his house, Ken would get into his bed and fall asleep as his adrenaline wore off, and he realized how tired he really was. When the dawn began to peak upon the world, however. It would find that Ken had began watching the world first, particularly his breakfast. He had already cooked himself some and downed a nutrition bar, which he had begun calling Power Bars. Before cooking breakfast, he had whipped up another batch of Power Bars to replaced the ones he used up while at Destin's. He now had 18 bars. Little did he know, he would soon need the bars desperately...
As they were walking home from school, Ken and Destin would see a battle taking place in Metropolis between Superman and Parasite. Apparently the villain had escaped prison again and needed to be reeled in. Normally, Ken and Destin would ignore the battle. However, Parasite would notice the couple while he and Superman were fighting nearby. He would attack them, thinking they could serve as quick snacks, unaware they weren't human. Using the power he took from Superman, Parasite quickly rushed up and grabbed them both by their necks. "What's this? You two are giving off a lot of energy! Are you Metas?! Yes!", he quickly began trying to drain them dry. However, this proved to be a grave mistake as he had enraged Ken. "FUCKING STOP-!!", Ken yelled as he began to drain the energy away from Parasite and blast him with a powerful energy blast from his eyes.
"Oh, so you can drain energy too?!", Parasite exclaimed with a tinge of fear in his voice. "You're gonna be a problem then!", he continued. As Parasite and Ken were exchanging blows, Destin looked through Ken's bag for a Power Bar. Since he explained what they were the previous weekend, she knew they could help them recover their energy. 'At least, I might be the only one that needs it', she thought as she watched Ken ferociously knock Parasite through a power station. Pouncing on Parasite, Ken landed on his stomach stomping hard with both of his feet and driving the energy leech deep into the ground. "Yoush-little shit!", Parasite proclaimed as his body was nearly cleaved in two by the attack. Noticing Superman starting to stir, Ken quickly ran over to Destin and grabbed her. "Come on, if we're going to avoid questions from the cops and whoever, we gotta go now!", he said as he quickly increased his speed to over 60 mph. "NOT SO FAST, YOU LITTLE PUNK!", they heard as the energy leech caught up to Ken and tackled him. This caused them all to go skidding across the asphalt and into a nearby building. Destin landed softly, surprisingly, until she looked back and noticed she landed on Ken. "I'm so-", she started to say before being cut off. "It's okay baby, I did it on purpose.", he said with a smile. "That explains this.", she said as she got out of her straddling position from his lap. Summoning some nearby plant life, she made a protective shield around them. "I'm gonna try to heal some of your injuries, handsome.", she said as she summoned some plants and began mixing some herbs together in a hard nut shell. "You've got a beautiful face and some cool powers. I should keep you around for a loong time, haha.", he chuckled as she rubbed the poultice on his wounds. "You should, now let me treat your other wounds.", she said straddling his lap. "What other wounds?", he asked as she kissed him. "The ones in your heart because he hurt me. You didn't fail to protect me. It comes with hero work.", she said stroking his cheek. "It did hurt though, baby. Please make sure he can't do it again by kicking his butt?", she asked with pleading eyes.
As Parasite removed himself from some rubble, he noticed a large cocoon made of plants near the former entrance to the building. "Ah, there you are!", he said as he marched over to the cocoon and began trying to pry it open. "Damn, this thing is stronger than I thought! Plan B!", he proclaimed as he began draining the energy from the plants. When an opening was revealed, Parasite was terrified by the site of an enraged Ken charging out of the cocoon right at him. BOOM! "*gasp*GAH-!", was all the leech could manage as he was driven through the wall behind him and several feet past it with the force of what felt like a train. However, the purple pest clung onto the young avenger with a bear hug like a vice grip. "I got you now, kid!", he yelled with triumph. Ken wrestled to try to get free as he felt his energy being drained again but stronger than before. "I'm gonna turn your own power against ya and mummify you!", Parasite yelled with sadistic joy as Ken yelled in pain.
Hearing her lovers pained yells, Destin summoned some vines to thrash at Parasite and bind his arms to help Ken break free by pulling them apart. However, the effort was not enough, as he had quickly grown too strong. In desperation, she covered herself in a plant based armor and charged the purple energy vampire. Using her plant attacks in tandem with her own, she managed to stun him into dropping Ken, allowing a vine to pull him away to safety. Trapping Parasite in a spiked cocoon (akin to an iron maiden), she ran over to Ken and pulled a Power Bar from his backpack. "BABY! BABY! PLEASE, WAKE UP AND EAT THIS!", she yelled through panicked tears. Ken lay unresponsive and looked almost dead. She summoned a plant and mixed some herbs together, then she had a plant hold them under his nose as she did chest compressions. Breathing in the mixture's noxious fumed, Ken stirred awake, and she held his head and fed him a Power Bar. Seeing it barely had an effect, she kept feeding him Power Bars, until he stopped her. "I'm good now, baby. In fact, I'm feeling great! What the hell?", he said before the sound of loud cracks caught his attention. CRACK! CRRACK! CRA-CRACK! Parasite had broken free of his temporary prison and charged Destin. "NO THE FUCK YOU DONT!", Ken yelled in unholy fury as he unleashed a bloodcurdling, malicious uppercut to the creature. KABOOOM!! The impact sounding as terrifying as thunder in a hurricane, the punch launched Parasite high into the air as Ken pursued.
BOOM!! Hitting the pavement several miles away in the heart of Metropolis, Parasite was awestruck. He didn't have long at all to sit there, as Ken once again landed on top of him, stomping hard onto his head with his right leg in the process. Parasite tried grabbing Ken again to drain more power, but he found that it was ineffective. "WHAT?! HOW?!-" BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOO-BOO-BOO-BOO-BOOM! Punches strong enough to split the surrounding pavement rung loud across the area, followed by a quick five-hit flurry. Parasite was terrified as his veins bulged against his clamming, sweat soaked skin. "I-" BOOM! "I-" BOOM! BOOM! before Parasite could speak, he felt Ken grab his head and drive it straight into the ground with ungodly force. KRAKOOM!!
Superman followed the large explosive sound into the heart of Metropolis, having chased the sound of the fight as well as he could with his weakened body. To his horror, he found Parasite driven at least ten feet into the ground, head first. Nearby, a young man laid unconscious on the ground, foaming at the mouth. "Oh god no!", he heard a young woman's voice yell as what looked to be a plant creature ran over to the teenager. As the leaves and bark shed from it, Superman saw that it was a teenage girl and guessed she was his friend, until she kissed the younger man's cheek to try to wake him. "Please, let me help!", Superman said as he flew down to help them. "I'll look him over with my X-Ray Vision to scan for internal damage... What's this? He's not human! It makes sense, but he has a ridiculously high concentration of proteins and carbs in his system right now. It's too much for even his system to process at once!", Superman stated as he then narrowed his eyes in what looked to be focus as he slowly went over Ken's chest cavity.
"He eats these to maintain his nutrition, when he uses his powers!", the girl said showing Superman a paper bag labelled "Power Bars". Pulling one out, Superman quickly scanned it over and chuckled, "That explains it. How many did he eat?". "I fed him ten, after that freak drained him!", she responded as she turned and spat in Parasite's direction. "Oh, that's not good. Just one has enough nutrition to feed the city for a week!", Superman said at the revelation. "Come on, I'll have to take him to the Justice League Watchtower. We have tech there that can stabilize him.", Superman said as he picked the young man up. "Wait! Please, don't tell anyone! He's being watched by the government!", she said in a half whisper. "Fill me in at the Watchtower, and I'll see what I can do to help.", Superman said gently as the girl recovered their belongings and made a cocoon for the couple. "I'll give him some medicine to hold him together while you fly.", she said as she took the young man into the cocoon. As it quickly shut, a vine arched over the top of the cocoon to form a hold for Superman. He grabbed it and carefully flew progressively faster to the Watchtower.
A flaming world where dread hung over the atmosphere itself as a thick sheet of misery complimented. The two mixing and intermingling to drain the hope from all life on the giant world. The grey-suited man was trapped in metallic cuffs that bound his hands and feet, leaving him splayed out as if he were the clothed Vitruvian Man. 'Tell me, Deathfist, how does a hero have such a violent name? ... I would say it is because of your culture that allows a degree of brutality to be acceptable... you would fit right in with us', a golem-like, giant, hulking figure spoke to him. The figure appeared to be at least eight feet tall and its skin was cracked and stone-like. His eyes glowed with the reddish malice of the burning of damned souls. 'Desaad, begin your work', the golem says as the vision begins to fade...
Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!
The beeping of his heart monitor rung into the room and his ears, as he began to stir. Eyes still partially glazed over, he searched around the room to piece together his surroundings. His eyes are met by the blurred sight of grey, steel looking walls and bright lights. He stops as his eyes meet the figure of a familiar girl holding his left hand. It was Destin, and she had her head down and tears rolling down her cheeks.
With a gentle tug, he gained her attention and was met with her hugging his head. Her arms wrapping around his head, his face was gently pulled to hers as they kissed. "Thank god!", she said shakily before continuing. "You've been out for almost a week, baby.", her soft voice caressing his ears as she held him and spoke. "You know damn well I ain't givin' up that easily, beautiful.", he responded plainly as his usual politeness gave way to his true thoughts. "Come here, I'll help you dry those eyes.", he said calmly as he sat up and grabbed her waist, pulling her in for another kiss. "Ahem, I don't mean to interrupt you love birds. However, I get the feeling we should have a talk, young man.", Superman cut in as he approached the pair with two mugs of hot chocolate. "Here, something else to help brighten you guys up as we talk.", he says as he hands them both a mug. "Now, I've spoken with Batman-", Ken's nostrils flared as Superman said the alias. "I know he turned you over to Waller. He recognized you, after I mentioned you being tracked and some research. I apologize on his part for what he did. Unfortunately, we do have to work with some legal restrictions at times to avoid government involvement. Waller is one not to be careless with. He's been working on an out for you ever since your clash with Steel, which-", he pulls out a Power Bar and smiles. "-I'm sure lead you to develop these. You were trying to avoid going feral again, like before.", he raised an eyebrow to Ken.
"Yeah, I didn't want to lose control like before. That was..... gruesome. What did ... he do to help me out?", Ken asked as he expressed his confliction, "As you've noticed, you don't have really any privacy, even at home. She's been doing what she can to keep an eye on you everywhere you go. Some of your teachers are even under her thumb. To make matters worse, the position she had planned for you 'in the military' was really for the Suicide Squad. She's using your brief run-in with the police in Tennessee as justification." Superman continued with a look of concern on his face. "The Suicide Squad.... those guys that wear the explosive collars.... right?", Ken asked. "Yes... I take it you came across a video on the internet.", he responded. "Yeah, they missed a few vids in their cover-ups. I came across them while researching superheroes and villains in my free time. So... she was trying to put me into a brutal working position in case I changed my mind...", Ken trailed off as the realization hit him.
Destin sat there listening as they spoke with a look of dread that grew into horror as she heard of Waller's plans. As Ken trailed off, she asked Superman what was done for Ken to which he answered. "Batman has informed his mother of the full extent of the contract that she wasn't informed of. He found them both an excellent lawyer that specializes in government negotiations and legal contracts. Your mother found her copy of the contract, which didn't make mention of the illegal surveillance or the forced inscription to the Suicide Squad. Wayne Industries has offered to pay for the legal fees, as well. With the clear violation of your rights and the original agreement, your mother should be able to void the agreement and keep your belongings as part of her compensation. Also... the League respects your bravery in battling Parasite. He regularly gives myself a lot of trouble. We would like to offer you training with your powers once your mother finishes with the lawsuit. I'm sure she doesn't need the stress alongside her court matters, and it gives us more time to plan out your training.", as he finished, he smiled.
A month flew by since the altercation with Parasite. Ken began his training with Superman and the Justice League, and quickly advanced his understanding of his powers. His mastery of his own powers was quickly attained ... or so he initially thought.
As he was walking home one day, he would go to the aid of a young couple trapped within a wrecked car on fire. As he freed the couple from their bindings, he noticed his arm was on fire and stepped back to allow them to run from the wreckage. They expressed fear for his safety, but he waved it off while stating how fire can't seriously hurt him. He stated that he actually felt no pain with an intrigued look on his face. In fact, his body seemed to be unaffected completely. While it couldn't kill him or do him serious harm, it did normally still slightly burn his skin, It didn't even cause it to redden.
"What the hell is going on...? Have my powers changed ... or evolved?!", he asked as he left the scene to contact Superman. "Superman, sir, are you there?", the young man asked into his earpiece. It was a couple seconds later he began to hear his mentor's voice in his mind. "Let's talk this way. It's more secure.", his mentor responded. "Yes sir, I just saved a couple from a burning car and something happened. My arm is on fire, but I feel no pain, and the fire isn't extinguishing.... not even from dunking it in water.", he said as he expressed his intrigue. "It seems your powers have more to them than we realized. I'll come pick you up and take you to the Watchtower. I know someone that should be able to help you learn more.", his mentor instructed with a hint of curiosity in his tone.
Upon arriving at the Watchtower, Ken found a woman that appeared to be made of green flames waiting there for him. "Hey Fire, how are you?", he asked in a rather nonchalant tone. "I'm good, I heard your powers have grown, and it appears to be correct, muchacho.", she said as she motioned to the fire that was slowly spreading from his arm. She continued, "Come on, I'll show you how to control it". They spent the next few hours working together to practice his control of his newly discovered pyrokinetic powers.
"Your powers seem a little odd, muchacho. Your fire takes a little more time to start up and is. as you mentioned, oddly persistent. I think your powers have grown but not with the fire. You have a better resistance which could be from burns you've sustained over the time you have worked with us. Didn't you help Superman with a house fire last week?". she asked an enthused Ken. "Yeah, I ended up pretty burnt and getting chewed out by my girlfriend. I'm glad I can heal. Superman was pretty quick to save me when things turned sour, also.", Ken responded with realization. "My body is able to adapt to what nearly kills me or seriously threatens me, is what you're saying.", he continued.
"Not exactly what I was saying, muchacho, but it seems correct. You seem to have the potential to be a real power house. It still doesn't explain the fire, though...", she trailed off. Superman came into the training area as she did and spoke, "I think I might have an answer to that. You see, as I watched you guys, I came up with an idea. Fire isn't our only hero that uses fire for their powers. There is also Firestorm. This got me thinking, 'what if he isn't controlling fire as is but using something to make the fire without realizing it?'. Firestorm can manipulate non-organic matter as well as utilize his pyrokinetic abilities, so ... what if you are doing the same thing? What if your 'pyrokinesis' is really you vibrating molecules around you to induce combustion and manipulating those and other molecules to manipulate the resulting fire...?". Fire's face lit up with joy as he finished and she proclaimed, "That's it! Thank you, Superman! You should watch out for this one, then. He really is a power house in the making!".
At school the next day, Ken was on his way to his theater class when he was approached by one of his classmates, Angela Stevens. She was a black haired girl with dark green eyes and pale skin. Standing at a height of 5'4, rather thin, and average in appearance, she wasn't the most striking individual. She was Mark's new girlfriend and had come to ask Ken if he had seen Mark. "He hasn't been at school all day and won't answer my texts.", she said in her usual tired tone. That same tone clung to her voice no matter what the situation was or her emotional state. "Let me text him and see.", Ken stated as he pulled out his phone and sent his friend a text. They waited a few seconds before he received a text in response.
[Sorry man, I'm out sick. I think I caught the flu or something. Might be out a while...]
After that, Angela received a text from Mark apologizing and giving what was essentially the same explanation. "Why didn't he just text me sooner? I guess he doesn't care about me as much.", she responded jokingly. Chuckling, Ken told her not to worry, since she had only been with him about a month. "He probably forgot to, since he's tired. You know he cares about you.", he reassured her. Continuing, he said, "Who knows, maybe it was him that fought Parasite that day.", he laughed. "I doubt it", she chuckled back. "Thank you, how's Destin by the way? Is she here?", she continued. "She's fine, she had to leave early today to go see her mother.-", he replied before being cut off by the bell. The two parted ways after saying their farewells.
As Ken was walking away, Angela looked at him with a solemn look before turning and going to her class.
The final school bell rung as Ken made his way out the chilly metal double doors of the school entrance. While he was walking, his super hearing would pick up the sounds of screaming and crashing in the heart of the city. He ran into a nearby alley and ignited himself, burning away his shirt, pants, and shoes to reveal the super suit he wore underneath. It was a blue suit akin to Superman's. However, this suit lacked the "red undies" and was simply blue with no belt or underwear-like design on the pelvis. It was a full body suit, except for the hands and above the lower half of the neck. The suit also sported a golden harness with a golden metallic Superman shield at the center. The space around the S was filled with a crimson background that ended at the golden diamond's edges. The red boots were solid with no pattern or design, and the suit lacked a cape. Around the wrists of the suit was the same crimson coloring of the boots and emblem's background. It rather clear that it was an incomplete suit.
Ken used his fire powers to ignite his head and hands before the initial burst of flame died down. Picking up his pace, he jump from the alley towards the source of the noise. He landed near the Daily Planet and came across the sight of the villain Bizarro attacking an armored vehicle. He quickly tackled Bizarro to prevent him from crushing one of the drivers. Boom! The concrete gave way as the two super beings crashed into it.
Bizarro didn't take well to this sudden attack and knocked him through several buildings in response. Pouncing on Ken, the ogre unleashed a rapid volley of punches onto the young hero, driving him into the ground further and further with each hit. Enraged, Ken kicked Bizarro away and gave chase. He blasted the ogre with several concussive blasts from his eyes and hands. "Bizarro am no can blast from eyes too!", he yelled as he unleashed powerful blue rays from his eyes. Ken blocked the beams with his own eye beams and countered with blasts of fire from his hands. The gap between them closed quickly, Ken then hit Bizarro as hard as he could to launch the being into the sky.
Using the few seconds it bought him, he quickly calls in the disturbance to the Watchtower and activates a distress signal that was built into his ear piece. He received a response from Ikon, who states that he and his sidekick will arrive as soon as possible.
The feeling of reassurance that came over Ken allowed him to take a second to refocus and thus formulate a strategy. However, before he can enact it, he feels the world begin to spin. "What the fu-!", he began as he notices what appears to be a pulse of light rapidly spreading across the sky. He isn't allowed any further time to think as Bizarro charges down to him. Driven into the ground, he tries to fight back. He punches Bizarro away, who notices something and smirks. Charging again, he attacked with confidence. Ken feeling a bit overwhelmed, tried again and again to send the creature flying with less and less pay-off. He was getting weaker.
Soon, he felt as if he could barely move. His blood was like molten iron flowing through his veins. His vision vibrated and blurred, an illusion of violent spasms and convulsions. Spinning and churning tides of confusion fogged his unfocused mind. Thud! His body hit the ground as his motor functions began to shut down. The one thing he managed to focus on was the discolored clone above him, Bizarro. "Me no am going to make sure you live!", the creature belted as his eyes began to glow. The blow glow encompassed Ken's body as he felt a chill run down his spine and his eyes began to frost over.
Shortly after, a loud boom awoke the young hero. In his sight was a man with an crimson super suit and sporting an emerald colored cape. With him is a young black woman sporting a more casual looking super suit of her own and goggles. The man instructed her to check on Ken, while he dealt with Bizarro. She rushed over to him and pulled out a justice league communication device of her own to call for a medical evacuation for Ken. "He's really pale. I don't know what's going on with - *Crackle* Is anyone there?! What the hell is going on?!", she yelled wide eyed as forcefield began to encompass buildings in the distance. "I need to fly him to a police station to use their teleporter! You gonna be okay, Ikon?!", she yelled to the large man in crimson. "I'm good, Rocket! Help that young man out!", he responded to her quickly as he deflected and countered blows from Bizarro.
However, before they reached the station, she was intercepted by a Brainiac drone that shot her out of the sky. She landed on the roof of the police station, in front of a couple officers. Ken was no so fortunate, as the drone collected him and took him to the nearest Brainiac ship. He inside that ship, he noticed large pods that seemed to be housing many people. Some were damaged, appearing to have been destroyed from the inside. As Ken fell into the cool, painful, tingling embrace of the liquid inside of the pod, his body seemed to immediately react. No longer did he feel sickly and weakened. In fact, he felt stronger than ever. He felt panicked. His body had detected something and was fighting back ... hard. With an eruption of power, he through his arms forward and demolished the front of his pod. Yet, he body was still agitated. It was the liquid.
He wrapped his body with flames and burned it all away, then he blasted open all of the nearby pods. Many people landed outside of the pods and began to wake. However, a few only laid motionless. Upon inspection, he would discover they were already dead. It was too late for them. He and a couple others gathered the bodies and began wondering how they would escape. "Look, I'm not hearin' a plan, and I'd rather not be weighed down by a corpse!", a crude man in a yellow tracksuit said. "I say we ditch the stiffs and have 'Super-Man' here blast us out.", he continued while motioning to Ken. "Look, these people deserve a proper burial, and we don't know if this ship is sealed. I could blast a hole in it and cause everyone to be sucked out into open air. From what I saw, we're at least several stories up. Also, there's likely more people that need help!", Ken argued as he motioned down the hall with his head. Just then a voice came through his JL Communicator, "Hello, can you here me?". The voice sounded familiar. "Oracle, is that you?!", Ken responded quickly. "Yes, it's good to see you're awake ... sorry, what was you alias again?", she questioned. "Uh, let's just go with Superboy X for now", he awkwardly responded. "Sure, any who, I'm glad you're awake, Superboy X. Brainiac is launching an attack on Earth. A future version of Lex Luthor just released something called 'exobytes' into the atmosphere-", she was cut off by Ken. "The wave of light in the atmosphere?", he asked as he cut in. "Yes, exactly. Brainiac seems to be trying to recover these exobytes from everyone that has them. It's because they grant super powers to those infected. Go down the hall in front of you, and I'll see who I can send to help you out.", she finished.
Following her orders, the group made their way down the hall. "Holy shit, yer telling me I got powers now!", the man in yellow exclaimed. "I wanna test this out! I gotta know what I can do!", he began to yell as his excitement began to get the better of him. "Shh! You're gonna attract attention!", Ken warned. The warning came too late. A large, spider-like briainiac drone came barrelling down the hall towards them from the large door at the other end. Its giant, robotic brain seemed to pulse with malice as it charge forward. Its glowing empty eye sockets locked onto the group of escapees. The man in yellow held his hands out and made a pushing motion with them. "Come ooon baby, give me fire!", he yelled with determination as his hands began to glow. To his dismay, however, a rock formed in front of them and fire at the robot. "Aww, rocks?! Come oon, that's nowhere near as cool!", he groaned as he put his hand back up and continued firing. Setting the body he was carrying down, Ken launched himself at the distracted drone and punched it through the door it came from. The force of which split the robot in two. "See, now, that also would be cool! Hmm, I gotta test that out!", he said as he began thinking. Just then, a couple humanoid drone came through the now broken door towards the group. A couple members of the group stepped forward and tried to use their powers, too. One discovered she could conjure and manipulate ice to her will with magic, while the other discovered he could rip one of the drones apart with his mind.
The group continued to make their way through the corridors with Oracle's guidance, freeing everyone they could along the way. During this process, Ken would discover Bruce trapped in one of the pods. "Hey young man, are you okay?", Ken asked while putting on his best Superman impression. "Yeah, I'm fine Ken.", Bruce responded with a stern look on his face. "How?-", Ken started as Bruce pointed to his JL Communicator. "I think it's my new power. I can access the information the League has on you through that.", he said with a slight smile. "Don't worry, your secret is safe with me and thanks, man.", he continued as he stood up. "What are you two whispering about? You know each other?", the man in yellow yelled to them. "No, I'm just checking on him.", Ken responded as they made their way back to the group.
"So, um....what do I-we call you?", Bruce asked him as the made their way down a nearby corridor. "Apparently, he doesn't really use an alias, so he made one up called 'Supaboy X'. It's not very good, if you ask me.", the man in yellow answered before Ken could. "It's a good thing I didn't ask you, pudgy. Next time, don't be rude!", Bruce snapped at him for interrupting. "Calm it down guys! We got more pods!", Ken cut in. As they tried to open the pods, drones began flooding in from the far ends of the corridors. "Shit! I'll hold them off! You guys free everyone in the pods!", Ken ordered as he began firing blasts at both swarms. "Hey! Don't you go countin' us out now, ya hear!", the telekinetic from earlier stated as he began assisting in the defense. The cryokinetic woman stepped in to aid him, while the man in yellow also began assisting Ken. "You can do more than shoot rocks, man. You've got the power of Geo-Kinesis, I'm sure of it!", Ken proclaimed to the man in yellow. "Tha name's Jake. You can call me .. hm... Landslide! Yeah!", he said as he created a large cluster of rocks and fired them like bullets from an automatic rifle.
With the swarms defeated, Landslide got the idea to create platforms to place the deceased on two free up people for support. "Hey, I'm gettin' tha hanga this!", he exclaimed with joy. "Good job man, now we can focus more on defense and offense.", Bruce congratulated. Meanwhile, Ken was on his comm with Oracle. "Okay guys, last room up ahead! We'll meet with Superman there!", Ken told them as he began to motion forward. "Ahh shit! Not Superman! The guy busted me last week for smokin' a joint in the park!", Landslide complained. "He's gonna send me back to jail!", he continued. "Considering the current situation, I'm sure he's willing to let you off the hook, so long as you help out and be a good guy. Also, that's such a rookie mistake to smoke an illegal substance openly like that.", Bruce corrected with a look of disappointment. "Oh okay-wait.. rookie?", Landslide trailed off as he saw what lay before them.
The large purple room was capped with what appeared to be a holographic grid of solid light, the same 'material' as the floor. Standing at the center appeared to be Brainiac, or at least an avatar resembling the original. Before Landslide could scream, Bruce covered his mouth and motioned to the teleporters. Exchanging glances with the others, Ken relayed the silent agreement with his plan. Everyone made their way towards the teleporter, while Ken lagged behind. If Brainiac made a move to intervene, Ken would stop him. Before they reached the teleporter, Brainiac sprung to life and began to chase. Ken barreled into him, sending him flying across the room. The robot was stuck into the wall from the force, which the group used as an opportunity to try to activate the teleporter. Accessing Ken's comm, Bruce was able to contact Oracle with a text requesting teleporter evac. The request went unanswered before another teleporter activated across the room, and Superman stepped out. "Oracle, I'm inside the ship. The survivors are on the teleporter across from me. Activate it while my student and I teach Brainiac a lesson.", Superman requested as he braced himself for combat.
With a quick flash of light, Landslide and the other survivors were teleported away. "Where's the guy with the glasses at?", Landslide asked the group as he looked them over. They were inside a nearby police station. A fact which didn't initially catch his attention, though he soon became aware of. Back at the Brainiac Harvester Ship, Superman and Ken were battling Brainiac, when Ken noticed a survivor still present. "I think Oracle missed one!", he said with a growing sense of worry that turned to shock. It was Bruce. "What are you doing?! You need to go!", he yelled as he held off Brainiac. "No, he's trying to call in support. I'm holding them back for now!", Bruce argued as he seemed to focus his mind on something. Landing a hard right hook on Brainiac, Ken finished the job off by blasting the robot with an incredibly powerful blast of energy. "Go! I'll take care of the ship! Oracle, prepare the teleporter!", Superman ordered before dashing down the hall. "Time to go!", Ken said as they rushed onto the teleporter and disappeared.
As they looked around, they realized where they had landed. The beige bricked walls and well lit halls of the police station surrounded them, as did many other new heroes and metahumans saved from Brainiac's clutches. Even as they came to this realization, new metas were being teleported in. "I think it's gonna be like this for a while. That light in the sky went past the city.", Bruce said in awe of the flood of metas. "This also means there's going to be a lot of new villains, too. I'm going to have my work cut out for me..", Ken said as he looked to Bruce suspiciously. "That reminds me, how long have you had your powers?", he asked Bruce. "Well, my original powers were always a thing. My dad was a meta that my mom met in Illinois. These new ones I gained the same time as you ... well, have you gained any? Also, what's your deal with your powers?", Bruce responded. Having seen Bruce save the people on the ship, he felt far more assured of his intentions. "I'm sure I have. I felt stronger after a few minutes, on the ship. It hurt like hell at first, though. As for my initial powers... I don't know their origin.", Ken explained. "My dad is apparently an alien, and I'm not sure about my mom.", he finished.
"Hello! Oracle here!", the digital informant chimed in. "Come in, Oracle, I'm reading you loud and clear!", Ken answered. "Gorilla Grodd is attacking the Queensland Bordwalk and turning people into apes. We need heroes to run over and help put a stop to his devolution tech!", she delivered with clear agitation. "You sense it too, huh? The villains are about to start running rampant.. Don't worry, we got this!", Ken reassured her as he looked to Bruce. "Wanna join me man?", he offered. "Yeah, my mom went to the boardwalk today for a meeting with her client. She works in child services.", he answered with a look of determination in his eyes.
Return to Monkey[]
Upon reaching the boardwalk, the two young heroes found it adorned with strange cylindrical machines. The people near them were being changed against their will into gorillas. The process seemed painful. CRrack! Another victim of a nearby machine began to change. *Groooaann* The cracking and groaning of his bones as the elongated into the new ape form sent a chill down their spines. "Be careful around those machines, man.", Ken warned as he prepared to fire a shot at the machine. "Whoa! Wait! I'm sure I can reverse this. Gather up the nearby apes while I work on the machine!", Bruce instructed as he made his way over to the machine. "Good idea, I'll get onto it!", Ken said as he dashed towards the nearest ape. "... and here we go", he said as he returned with the last ape within sight. As the apes struggled with their bindings, Bruce and Ken stepped out of range of the machine and as the latter activated it. The resulting transformation left a bunch of nude or barely clothed people in place of apes. With blinding speed, Ken ran and gathered them clothes from a nearby shop.
"Alright, did you find your mom?", Ken asked his friend. "No-there!", he replied as he noticed a large red haired woman in the crowd. "I'll let you guys talk. I need to find Grodd.", Ken said as he began to leave. "Speaking of which, I noticed a signal coming from this location while I was working on the machine.", Bruce said as he showed Ken a local map on his smartphone, pointing out a building a couple blocks away, on the map. "Thanks man!", Ken said, before turning to go and pursue Grodd.
Upon arriving at the shabby old hideout, Ken realized he would have to fight his way through several apes. As he did so, he made his way to the main room of the hideout and saw a worrying sight. Grodd had captured the Flash and was preparing to devolve him. However, the arrogant ape had let his guard down and turned his back to his foe. "Quick! Get me outta here!", the Flash whispered to Ken. With a bit of careful selection on the nearby terminal, Ken managed to disable the forcefield holding the Flash. The veteran hero then ran over towards the flea bitten tyrant. However, the grungy gorilla managed to protect himself with a shield and deflect the Flash away.
"You primitive and vainglorious fools! Tremble before Grodd!", Grodd bellowed as he activated nearby teleporters to summon in his mighty ape army to combat the heroes. "No you don't.", Ken said as he dashed around the room and knocked out the apes with a single blow each. He then proceeded to unleash a flurry of super strong blows against Grodd's mental shield, shattering it. "RRAAAHHH!", the ape roared as he grabbed Ken by his arm and flung him through a nearby wall. Thu-thu-thu-thu-thu-thu-thu-thu-thu-thu-THUNK! All Ken could hear was a rapid series of blows as he crawled out of the wall. The sight before him was of the giant ape, stunned and stumbling. "Hhrrnngghhshh.... Damnsh youus...", the fur ball managed to say as it stumbled to the nearby teleporter and disappeared. "You did a good job! I need to go to Gorilla City and talk to Solovar.. see ya in a flash!", the speedster said before disappearing in a puff of dust and trail of lightning. "Who-. Nevermind", Ken decided as he left the warehouse.
Back at the police station, he debriefed with the Flash and Oracle about the Boardwalk and retired from his superhero work for the day. Oracle's robot gave him a personal teleporter to use to teleport to the Watchtower or any designated area of his choice. While he appreciated the gift, he decided not to use it to go directly home, in case it tracked his location. So, he teleported to an abandoned warehouse he knew of. While there, he found an area free of cameras to quickly change into normal clothing. He then quickly stashed away the teleporter and some gear in a satchel and left the warehouse. He made a call to his family to confirm their safety. They were fine, but his mother was worried about him due to his silence. He told her he was okay and would see them soon. He then called his girlfriend, who answered in a combination of anger and panic. "Why didn't you call me sooner?! I saw you get hurt by that pasty freak dressed like Superman! Where are you?!", she fussed. "Are you home... or 'home'?", he asked her. "Yes, I'm in the treehouse.... come here. I want you here....I'm scared.", she whimpered to him. He jump a fence nearby that lead to a small wooded area, where he disappeared in a burst of speed.
From one wooded area to another, the young hero closed the distance between him and his lover within the hour. He made his way up to the porch of the treehouse, where he was met by his beloved. "Hey baby, I-", before he could finish, he was wrapped in her warm embrace. She kissed him softly, over and over with tears running down her cheeks. "I thought you were going to die... I couldn't make it on time.... I ran as fast as I could... baby....what happened?", she whimpered between tears. "I don't know. I guess it was those exobytes. Either way, I'm fine now.", he reassured her as he ran his fingers through her hair to comfort her. "You're staying here for a while, mister! I want to make sure you don't die on me....please...", she begged playfully as she progressed back to a somber state. "I'll stay tonight, however I'm going to at least stay a couple days with my family to make sure they're okay.", he responded gently. "... okay. Were they okay?", she asked with a slight up-shift in tone. "Yeah, let's go inside.", he said as his head began to feel a little hazy.
It wasn't a bad feeling. It was rather soothing and warm. Stepping into the treehouse, he set his things down and turned to his girl. "Hold me baby...", she said as she pressed her face to his chest. "Don't ever die on me... I can't stand to lose you... You're my big strong man, and I need you around...always...", she whimpered between deep, short pauses. Looking up at him with her wet, pleading eyes, she gently tugged on his shirt and pulled him into a kiss. He could've sworn he saw her lips flush. It didn't matter, suddenly, his head was swimming. He ... wanted her more than anything. "I don't - hah - I won't... die.", Ken panted out. 'What is going on...? I'm so...', he couldn't even finish his thought.
"Come here!", he commanded as he grabbed her by the waist and lifted her up. As if reading his mind, or expecting it, she wrapped her legs around his waist as they began kissing profusely. Grabbing the waistline of her jeans, he tore them off her with the ease of tearing paper. The jeans torn in half were flung in separate directions. She returned the favor as she tore the shirt from his chest and tossed it to the side. He tore his jeans and her shirt away, as he set her down on the dining room table and began kissing her neck. "Remember handsome, don't pull out. Make me yours!", she said as she squeezed her legs tighter around his waist. Her vice like grip felt powerful around his waist. He'd never seen this level of strength from her. "You....exob-", he couldn't finish his words. "Shh, I got lucky - ahh mm - haaandssoome - mmm -. Juuuhh..st a -aahh ah- sstrength boooo- ooh ooooh- st.", she barely managed before she began lightly kissing and biting his neck.
As the bright morning sun arose, Ken caught the scent of eggs and bacon in the air. As he opened his eyes, they were greeted with the sight of eyes like sunlight reflecting off of clear ocean water staring up at him. A ginger girl staring lovingly at him was the full view available to him, once they came into focus. "Good morning handsome!", her tired and lusty voice spoke to him with a breeze-like softness and encompassing warmth. "You were surprisingly energetic... and... giving.", she joked as she leaned up and kissed him. "What happened?", his morning voice hitting her ears and seeming to stir her awake. "I didn't hear that, handsome. Can you say it again?", she begged with a smile. "I know we got at it, but I don't know what came over me.", he responded again in his morning voice. "I think I know what it was. I learned a new trick.", she said timidly. "Mmm, wassat?", he asked as he tried not to nod off. "I'd rather show you, handsome.", she whispered in his ear.
She gently blew at his ear and stirred him awake. However, he stopped her short as a sound reverberated outside. Metallic crunching and the crackling of snapping branches and trees sounded all around. "Ah shit, I'm pretty sure Brainiac just found us. Why doesn't he just telep-?", stopping short of his question, Ken pulled out his comm and called Oracle. "I'm jamming his signal. Your friend yesterday was a huge help in targeting his systems and hacking his network. He won't be able to teleport anyone else to his ship. Though his drones, of course, can still track you down. Do you want back up?". she asked in urgency. "No, I've got his back!", Destin chimed in. "Who is that?", a confused Oracle. "I'm his girlfriend. The one who helped him fight Parasite.", Destin responded as she started motioning at the walls of the treehouse. Her hands moved as if she were guiding something unseen. "Very well, I'll leave it to you guys. I have traced your signal, in case you need to call for back up. I'll standby.", Oracle stated before the line went down.
"Okay, I'll get changed while you... what are you doing?", he asked his strangely occupied lover. "Calling in my own help, handsome. Can you hear it?", she responded with a slight smirk. He focused his hearing to distinguish the sounds outside. It was more metallic crutching and crackling of trees, but this time it was different. The crackling seemed to start in one area and transition to another, as if the trees were moving. The crutching was no longer of the footfalls of a steely march, as it had turned into the crunching of metallic chitin being crushed in the maw of some unforeseen, overbearing force. "I've been practicing on my own ever since our fight with Parasite. I wanted to make sure I could be more helpful. My range is still limited, though, or I would have made sure that freak couldn't have hurt you yesterday.", her face turned into a blood curdling scowl as the words left her lips. The mental image clearly plastered in her mind of his battered body laying on the ground. As she finished speaking, the crunching outside became a deafening cascade. It was as if the force outside were feeding on her anger.
"My turn, take a rest, baby.", Ken said as he ignited his head. His super suit shown boldly in the glorious morning light, as he stepped outside to face the remaining threat. Outside he found mangle shells of robots entwined with large vines and snaking roots. Their circuitry had been brutally torn apart in a display fitting a museum exhibit of body horror and brutality. Amongst them remained several large humanoid drones. "I take it these gave you the most trouble.", Ken spoke into the morning air to what seemed an invisible audience. However, he received a response on the wind from his intended audience. "Yes handsome, they're tougher than the other ones. Be careful...please...", she replied with the palpable concern in her tone. "Shhh, it's okay, baby. Watch me do my thing.", he reassured as he cracked his knuckles and charged forward. CRUNCH! The first of the eight humanoids was quickly crushed by the might of his charge. Its metal frame condensing and twisting like it had been a stop sign hit by a car exceeding 100 miles per hour. As it was thrown by the force of the charge into one of its compatriots, Ken grabbed the one next to him by its head with his right hand and crushed it flat. He then proceeded to throw it towards another drone. However, it quickly dodged and charged him in turn. "Six", he dodged and snatched the drone up by its left leg and brought it down on another drone. The drone was impaled by the crushed head of its ally with such force that it split in to horizontally at the chest. "Four... and a half", he stated as his focused gaze met the surviving drones.
"Why are you so still?", Ken thought aloud. In response, the drones then shifted their stance. Two held the palms of their hands up to Ken, while the others took fighting stances. "Analysis complete.... combat style adapted... proceeding to engage...!", the drones stated just before the two fighters charged. They came at him quickly, seeming to suddenly match his speed and power. "What the f-?", he barely got out. Boom! Struck hard enough to launch him, he flew through several misplaced trees. He was met by the fighters that had closed the distance and brought before the two observers. With their palms still pointed at Ken, they stated, "Beginning digitization of target!". They then fired beams of energy at him the plucked and pricked at his very being. His body felt as if static were coursing through it and causing it to painfully vibrating rapidly. "AAAAGGHH", he screamed as he tried to resist the pain. "Stop it! NOW!", he roared as he fired a powerful blast of energy at one of the observers, incinerating its head and shoulders. As he prepared to fire at the other, it suddenly was torn apart from the inside by briars that seemed to have snaked through its body. One of the fighters began to loosen its grip, as its arms and back were bent backwards to painful angles. Continuing to bend, it imploded in on itself until it were just a ball. Shoving his hands into the chest cavity of the remaining fighter, Ken ripped it in half and slammed the two pieces together hard enough to condense them into flat sheets.
Turning towards the tree house, Ken saw Destin running towards him with tears streaking down her cheeks. "Are you okay?!", she screamed as she launched herself into his arms. "A little hurt, but I'm okay.", he said as he held her tight and rubbed her hair. "What was all that?!", a shrill voice cut through the moment. Standing at the edge of the woods, not twenty feet from them was a young girl, about 12 to 13 years old. She had "dirty blonde" hair and round glasses over her brown eyes. She about a good foot shorter than Destin, yet she had the level of aggression often seen in chihuahuas. "Eilene, there were these robots. They atta-", Destin started. "Wait, who the hell is he?!", the girl cut in with a growing look of anger on her face. "I'm tellin' nanny you snuck a boy over! Is he a freak, too?!", she began screaming. "Don't you talk about him like that!", Destin began to demand with a look of frustration growing on her face.
The girl gave a rude gesture before storming towards the house. "NANNY! DESTIN BROUGHT A BOY TO THE HOUSE!", she screamed as she made her way to the door. "Shit!", Destin said as she quickly had the plant life around them begin to clean up the mess left over from the battle. "It's too late to hide any of it. I done seen it, and I done seen him. Who are you boy?!", a portly older woman with glasses and brunette hair said as she came storming towards them from the door. "I'm Ken, ma'am, Destin's boyfriend.", he replied with a growing suspicion as to her meaning in the emphasis of the word 'boy'. "Are you that freak that fought the purple freak? The one that put my granddaughter in harm's way?!", she said as her teeth gritted. "Nanny, wait! He didn't cause it. That purple freak attacked us first!", Destin protested in futility. "I don't care who attacked first. You wouldn'ta been there if it weren't for your involvement with this boy.", her face growing more and more red as she spoke. "Ma'am, I took the brunt of that fight and protected your granddaughter to the best of my ability, at the time. Also, why do you keep calling me boy like that?", he replied with a clearly suspicious tone to his voice. "I'm sure you can tell why, boy. Lemme make something clear. She may be a freak, an affront to god, but she is still my granddaughter. I don't want her dating someone like you, but she's gonna do it anyway. You're just lucky her granddaddy ain't here to see this. He wouldn't have cared that yer a freak. He'da dealt with you one way or another. You don't come back here without notifying me first. You both stay in my house, where I can see you. And, you better not been touching her, boy. She ain't yers to keep. She will marry one of her own, not you.", she panted out rapidly as her temper seemed ready to boil over.
"I'm so sorry, baby!", Destin apologized desperately. "She grew up in a different time. That's why I didn't let you meet her sooner. She-", her pleading was cut short by a hug from Ken. "It's okay baby. It's not your fault. This is a bit awkward, though.", he whispered as he quickly glanced over to the window. Her grandmother was watching them through the blinds. Her red face highlighting her looming presence. "I'll come see you again later-", he began. "-only once a week, so she doesn't get suspicious. We can meet more than that somewhere else.", Destin whispered quietly from his chest. As they tried to steal a quick kiss, there came a rapping from the window. "None of that now, boy. Git!", the furious portly woman motioned him away before making her way to the door. "Inside. Now!", she commanded to Destin as she swung the door open.
Let's Stop A Riot[]
As he made his way home in the glow of the afternoon sun, he thought back to what Destin meant. 'Where are we gonna meet?' - "Hello! Do you read me?!", a familiar voice cut through his thoughts. "Hey Oracle, what's up?", he responded as he brushed the thoughts away. "Metahumans are rioting at a hospital in Metropolis. I'll send you the details!", she instructed . "I'm on it!", he said as he slipped into a nearby alley and emerged out in his super suit.
The scene that lay before him was disturbing. Patients were ramping and some were writhing on the ground in agony. Lexcorp guards were doing their best to gather up the ones they could into transportation vehicles for shipment. Documents had been scattered across the grounds of the hospital, as well as many other forms of debris.
Fight For The Light[]
Summary: Brainiac's forces invade the home of The Green Lantern, Hal Jordan, Coast City. During the course of Brainiac's invasion, Ken would encounter the Red Lantern and Sinestro Corps for his first time. Exposure to their powers would awaken latent natural powers of his own and form an idea in his mind.
(Power demonstration: Partial E-Spectrum Access, Idea: Unique GL Power Ring)
Lightning Strikes[]
Summary: Seeking aid against the Paradox Reapers, The Flash reaches out to the new heroes for aid. Exposed to the speed force, Ken gains two new powers that can allow him to further realize his true potential.
(Power gains: Paradox Energy Manipulation* and Speed Force Energy Manipulation*) (Power demonstration: Energy Manipulation, Energy absorption)
Battle For Earth[]
Summary: With the help of Future Batman, the new heroes would seek to combat Brainiac's forces with incredible fervor. During this, Ken would discover a new power that would aid him and the new heroes in turning the tide of battle, after suffering a great loss.
(Power Gain: Super Flare)
Love Lost
The South Gotham Courthouse stood tall within the massive bottle, as the eight heroes arrived alongside Superman. Lining the grounds of the courtyard were purple colored metal tubes. Ken guessed they were very large wires. Forming a large netted pattern, the wires didn't cover the sidewalk. Though, at the center of the courtyard was a large platform with a see through floor. "Those areas under the platform... do you see them?", Superman asked them. Just then, nearby Brainiac drones noticed the small group of heroes and attacked them.
Crash! Boom! The heroes tore through the drones as the sealed environment began to erupt into chaos. Purple robot dashed around, grabbing converted citizens contained in small bottles and began bringing them to the center of the courtyard. A booming voice rang throughout the bottle, demanding for the drones to bring the "jury" to swear in. As they heard the voice issuing demands, they noticed people in orange bottles the drones were ignoring. "It looks like we have an option to beat them at their game.", Ken chimed in while pointing at the orange bottles. He continued, "Hey Magnolia, Theory, and Obsidian, we can take the left side". "Okay, I'll take everyone else. Once we've filled as many of the positions for the jurors as we can, we can all regroup.", Superman agreed.
Home Turf[]
Summary: With plans for bases released to the heroes and villains by their respective mentors, Ken and his team begin creating their base. They are then contacted by the JL for assistance in dealing with T.O. Morrow's robots.
It was a quite afternoon, and he had just finished brewing coffee. The hour on the clock read one, highlighted by glistening beams of golden sun. He wondered to himself how his life had hit this point, at such a brutal turn. Forever lost to him was the one for whom he yearned.
Ken sipped on his coffee, as he watched the clock on the wall. 'What can I do now?-' *knock knock knock*The knocking at the door took him away from his thoughts. Opening the door, he found Bruce and Mark standing there. "Hey man, we wanted to come check on you. Can we come in?", Mark stated as he dapped up Ken. "Yeah.. come inside.", Ken responded in an exasperated half-whisper. "I can only imagine what you're feeling right now, but we've been trying to find ways to help you get your powers back...once you've calmed down.", Bruce stated as he pulled something from his bag, a book. "We checked with Madame Xanadu for clues and contacted some magical heroes we know. They helped us compile this tome for you. You saved a few of them back on..... back when you gained your exobytes. I won't give you the tome now, but I want you to use it as motivation to get some help. We know how stubborn you can be.", Bruce said firmly as he opened the book.
"Here's a free one to help you, repeat after me. 'Oro pro emundatione animi mei perturbationis hujus, quae me tam frequentat. Viam retributionis et pacis dirige me'. It's a prayer in latin for peace and retribution.", Bruce instructed as he looked up at Ken. Ken looked at him with annoyance, "You're expecting me to pray to some unknown deity for peace and retribution?! As if anyone of them would hear me out to begin with....", Ken began snarl as his frustration quickly begin to turn to anger. "Was it not them that allowed this in the first place?! Where were they when the bastard cut-he cut-he.....", Ken coudn't finish as he fought back tears. "I understand what you're saying, man. This could be your chance to reach out and see, though, Besides, we're not leaving until you do it.", Mark chimed in sternly.
After several minutes of sitting in silence, Ken reluctantly recited the prayer, "Oro pro emundatione animi mei perturbationis hujus, quae me tam frequentat. Viam retributionis et pacis dirige me. There, I did it. Now please leave me alone for a while". "How long is a while?", Bruce retorted gently. "A week. I just want time to think to myself.", Ken responded. "We'll give you three days. You don't do anything stupid. We'll know if you try, bro.", Mark said as he patted his back. Certain of Mark's implication, Ken decided to take a walk to truly be alone for a bit. He waited until an hour after they left to take his stroll.
While he was tempted to go through the Watchtower to find who he could to teach him magic, he knew it would be far too obvious. He would be stopped by anyone that knew of what happened and told to 'calm down'. As he walked, he came across some new heroes battling Brainiac drones. Among them was a familiar looking woman wielding what appeared to be ice magic. He watched them battle and tried to listen closely for any incantations. "pears eci ekam!", the woman yelled just before a spear of ice formed in her hands. She threw the spear as hard as she could through the remaining drone, finishing the battle. "That's the last one. That makes five patrols in just the past two days. Brainiac won't relent on trying to expand his territories, so we need to hurry up and push back against him.", an agitated man's voice stated. "Wait-someone's here!", a woman's voice cut in.
As he prepared to make his exit, a woman with jet black hair and wearing white robes adorned with jewelry and runes appeared in front of him. "You! Are you hurt? What did you hear? Who-?", she began to question him before the ice mage cut in. "Chill out, Miss Vex-a-lot. You're gonna freak him out!", she warned as she and the rest of the team approached. "It's Mistress Hex, hun. You make sure to not get that wrong either.", she teased Ken. "What are you doing over here? Didn't you see the warning on tv?", the ice user asked him. "Nah, I didn't. I needed to take a breather and thought a walk would help out.', he replied. "Check your tv next time. It's dangerous out here!", Mistress Hex chimed in as she touched his arm. After doing so, she recoiled in shock and grew a look of sympathy on her face. "Oh...", she whispered as she looked into his eyes.
Upon saying his thanks to the group and turning to leave, he thought he heard Mistress Hex whisper something under her breath. As he rounded a corner several blocks away, he ran into something soft like flowing fabric. Backing away, he noticed the person he ran into was the superheroine from earlier. "You're that 'hex lady' from earlier. What do you want?", he asked her suspiciously. "I want to help you. I sensed your grief and had a vision of your thoughts. I know of your loss and would like to offer you lessons in magic.", the woman replied in a sorrowful tone. "What's the cost?", he retorted. "Just don't use it against the heroes and help us take down the one who wronged you. That is all.", she answered as she moved closer and rubbed her index and middle finger together across his forehead. The world went black as he fell into her arms.
"You must remember me! .... My s-..... *cchhrrrrrzzzzhhhrrrr* Don't forget!"
The thick scent of lavender and sage fills his nose. He stirs to the feeling of someone rubbing his forehead. Opening his eyes, he sees Mistress Hex looming over him and rubbing his forehead while chanting. "Good, you're awake.", she said after finishing her chants. "What did you do?", he asked as he sat up. He noticed the table he was laid upon was surrounded by candles and runes. "I cast a charm on you to boost your ability to learn for our lessons. Also, I did a little more divination to check your powers. They're not gone, just suppressed. It seems something in your body is doing so.", she explained to the now shocked Ken.
Last Laugh[]
Summary: In his maniacal bid for fun and chaos, The Joker and his gang would hack into the safe houses of the new heroes and villains, causing the deaths and injuries of many. During this madness Ken, Rin, and Arris would be pitted against new villains, and Ken would be inspired to utilize his mind to resolve this breach of security.
(Idea: Hacking and Engineering)
Hands of Fate[]
Summary: Aiding Doctor Fate, the new heroes would battle against the forces of Felix Faust and Eclipso to prevent the darkening of the citizens of Gotham and Metropolis's hearts and minds. Working alongside magical experts, Ken would gain access to magical tomes and scrolls that would allow him to learn new magical powers.
(Power gains: Magical Prowess and Spell Casting)
Origin Crisis[]
Summary: With Future Luthor tampering with the Nexus of Reality, the heroes must put an end to his mad scheme before he causes unknown havoc upon the universe and timeline. It would be here that Ken would be exposed to the power and energies of the Nexus with no effect. However, exposure to the energies would cause him to slowly manifest a new power a few years later.
(Power gain: Reality Warping*)
League of Assassins[]
Sons of Trigon[]
Summary: Beginning with the sons of Trigon reigning terror upon the new heroes and the Titans in a Desecrated Cathedral, the demon Trigon would become involved, after a failed Unholy Matrimony. This threat would push Ken to his limits, triggering a surge of power from his newly acquired power set that would put him at odds with his own mentor.
As the new heroes face off against Jacob and Jack, forced to face their Deepest Desires in their Wasteland Wonderland, Ken is pitted in combat against his mentor.
(Power demonstration: Necromancy*)
Amazon Fury[]
Halls Of Power[]
Summary: With new league halls being established by the new heroes and villains, the war between the New Gods makes its way to them. This would eventually pit Ken and other new heroes against various Apokalyptian New Gods, and Ken would face Kalibak in battle.
Bombshell Paradox[]
Summary: With an elseworld Justice Society in need of aid, the League sends teams of new heroes to aid them in their plight.
War of the Light[]
Summary: Contacted by Hal Jordan, the League became aware of a war ensuing between the various lantern corps. The League goes to aid the Green Lanterns in their conflict. Ken and his team would face off against empowered villains to end their madness. However, they would not find this task easy, as they would have to face a terrorizing Black Adam, the fear-loving Scarecrow, and a full fledged Yellow Lantern Cyborg Superman.
(Power demonstration: Green Light of Willpower Access, Red Light of Rage Access, Yellow Light of Fear Access) (Knowledge gain: Lantern Ring Construction)
Blackest Day[]
Summary: In a race to stop the Blackest Night, Ken and leagues of heroes would travel around the universe to find the source and neutralize its power.
Blackest Night[]
Summary: During the events of Blackest Night, Ken would battle a Black Lantern Doomsday in a brutal fight to the death, and it wouldn't fare well for him.
(Temporary Power Boost: Red Lantern Ring)
The New Life Initiative[]
Summary: After witnessing the birth of the White Lantern Corps, Ken's team gets the idea to start a new league. A league that can combat the power of the Black Lantern Corps should it ever rise again. As they mourn the loss of their friend and leader, a surprise comes to rock their world.
Brightest Day[]
Summary: Resurrected by his natural powers, Ken would witness the rebirth of the universe, after the events of the Blackest Night. Inspired by what he witnesses, he begins to form a plan for a new experiment.
(Idea: The New Life Initiative (League), life creation) (Power gain: Life creation (limited), Magical Prowess)
Reign of the Kryptonians[]
The Will of Darksied[]
Summary: The streets having been plagued by thugs, Darksied stands to pose a new threat to the Justice League and the new hero leagues. Can the New Life Initiative defeat this new threat?
(Idea: Alpha Sanction)
Age of Injustice[]
Earth 3[]
Summary: As the NLI aids the Justice League in the efforts against the Crime Syndicate, they encounter a new threat in the form of the JL leader's vile doppelganger and his minions.
The Bleed[]
Summary: Curious about the nature of the space between universes, Ken begins scanning the thoughts of JL members to learn what he can about the void. Afterwards, he makes his way there. This draws the attention of the Monitors.
The Multiverse[]
Summary: With the Monitors trying to find him, he makes his way through different universes to record their histories and current changing states in a tome he created called "The Tome of Endless Realms".
Deluge[]
Summary: Tensions with Atlantis rise and the new heroes are assigned to deal with the issue. Ken uses this as an opportunity to scan Atlantis for powerful magical artifacts to study their effects.
Future Revisited[]
Having finally acquired all of the knowledge, experience, and mastery of his powers needed, Ken begins executing his long held plan. Utilizing a spell he learned from his sister, Ken traveled to the "future" of his world, before Lex Luthor killed Superman. He swapped Superman with a clone, wiped his memories, and took the original back to his league's base. He implanted new memories into Kal-El, convincing him he was Ken's bodyguard and right hand man. He modified his appearance, so he wouldn't be recognized by altering his DNA. He then created a suit of armor for him with Ken's modified version of Superman's emblem on the chest. He then gave him the name of Archer Clayton and the alias of Supernova. While modifying his DNA, Ken made him completely immune to all kryptonite and granted him new powers.
Returning to the future, he raided a Brainiac harvester ship. His ultimate goal was to find the technology that created the Exobytes and reproduce it back at his league's base. During this raid, not only would he achieve his ultimate goal, but he would also come across information on Brainiac's computers revealing that his name was Vril Dox and that eighteen percent of the planets he had assimilated had defenders potentially more powerful than even Superman. This information fascinated him, and he became motivated to gather more information regarding these planets.
Utilizing the knowledge he gained from hacking the network of the harvester ship, he found and gained access to Brainiac's bottled planet storage room. Here, he entered the bottle containing the planet of Korugar to retrieve the rings of the fallen Sinestro Corps members. Shrinking down the rings, he stores them in a pill sized capsule in his belt. He also takes the bodies of Lyssa Drak, Arkillo, and Sinestro, storing them in separate capsules within his belt. As he began to make his way toward the electro-magnetic field of the bottle, Brainiac's ship notices his intrusion. The ship begins releasing drones to stop him, so in turn he utilizes his magical powers to raise the bodies of the fallen Sinestro Corps members around him. He taps into the power of the power battery to charge their rings to full power. Using his power to control energy, he creates a hole in the bottle to release the newly revived Sinestro Corps members into Brainiac's ship, growing back to their normal size as they left the bottle. He controlled them, so they wouldn't damage the ship and drew Brainiac's forces outside to do battle. As they left the ship, his presence was masked again, and he resumed his gathering of research materials.
Outside of the Mothership, he finds the bodies of The Atom, Blue Beetle, Powergirl, and Black Canary. He stores them within separate capsules within his belt as well. Having traveled to the remains of the Fortress of Solitude, he took the bottle out of his pocket. Placing the pieces for the frame around the Fortress, he dug underground. He surrounded the entirety of the Fortress with the bottles frame, then he activated its electro-magnetic field. With the remains of the Fortress of Solitude bottled (and in tow), he made his way back to the past to begin his research.
Within the remains of the Fortress of Solitude, he discovered the bodies of Fracture and Strongarm. He was fine with this, as they would serve as additional members to his Palace Guard. He resurrected them and teleported their unconscious bodies to the medical wing of his palace, placing them within stasis pods.
With all of the resources he desired at his disposal it was time to begin creating his Empire of Solitude.
The Empire of Solitude[]
Travelling thousands of light years away from Earth, Ken would find a large expanse of uninhabited space and claim it as the perfect location for his Empire of Solitude. Releasing the remains of the Fortress of Solitude from the future from its bottle, he repairs it to its former glory. Gathering nearby asteroids and meteors and breaking them down on the molecular level, he forms a new giant planet 20 times the size of Earth's sun. He creates oceans to cover fifty five percent of its surface and a single giant continental land mass that covers thirty five percent of its surface with smaller islands littering the surface of the rest of the planet. At the heart of the continental mass sits the restored Fortress of Solitude.
Taking the bodies of the fallen heroes and villains, Ken constructed a Kryptonian Regeneration Matrix from scratch and upgraded it to allow him to alter the genetic code of those being revived. This upgraded Regeneration Matrix was dubbed the Phoenix Matrix.
With the aid of Supernova, he revived the fallen heroes and villains and wiped their memories completely. He mentally programmed them to serve him and protect the Empire of Solitude with their very lives. Power Girl and Black Canary were made into his Chamber Maidens. He trained them in the Kryptonian martial arts Klurkor, Torquasm Vo, and Torquasm Rao to better their combat instincts. Training them in Boxing and Mixed Martial Arts, he refined their combat skills to turn them into lethal fighters.
He trained them in how best to utilize their powers to their fullest, turning Power Girl into one of his most powerful guards. After he finished training Power Girl to properly utilize her powers to their maximum potential, he renamed her to Karen Starr and gave her the alias of Andromeda. Crafting her a bodysuit using Prometheum and 10th metal, he granted her a suit capable of charging her with solar energy and granting her permanent immunity to all forms of kryptonite. Andromeda would serve close to him as his most loyal servant.
Taking in the sight of his new empire, he felt joy and peace to have his own home away from home. However, he thought it would be best to expand his empire more.
Seeking to expand upon his empire, he travels the Omniverse and clones Barda Free, Amazing Grace, Jade, Wonder Girl, Cythonna, Super Girl, Hawkgirl, Mary Marvel, Giganta, Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn, Catwoman, Zatanna, Mera, Laira, Fire, Isis, Raven, Bleez, Starfire, Donna Troy, Miss Martian, Faora, Ursa, Jessie Quick, and Gaia (from the Dark Multiverse) with all of their original counterpart's powers.
He then traveled to the DCeased universe and purged that Earth's Wonder Woman of the Anti-Life virus. He then recovered her body, brought her back to life, and wiped her memories. Her body living, it was still missing her soul. He took her unconscious body back to the medical wing of his personal Fortress, keeping it contained in a specialized medical pod. Traveling to that Earth's underworld, he encountered its Hades. Killing him, Ken broke his body down on the molecular level and converted it into a weapon for the recovering Wonder Woman. This scythe would grant her the powers of Hades on top of her own and could conceal itself within her soul until she called upon it. Her soul recovered and her new weapon forged, Ken then took the soul of Hades and destroyed it. He converted the raw ethereal energy of the soul into a lasso composed of ethereal energy. This lasso would allow Wonder Woman to interact with ethereal energies, traverse the ethereal plane, and all of the abilities of her original Lasso of Truth. Returning to the medical wing, he would give her soul back to her, wake her up, and give her the new weapons he created for her.
As with Supernova, he gave her new memories and altered her abilities, granting her new powers and enhancing her old ones. She would become the leader of his personal concubines. The clones would follow her orders loyally, but they all would hold true allegiance to Pantheon and no one else. He gave her the new name of Lyta and the alias of Diadem.
The cloned Hawkgirls, like the other clones, were created with all the powers of their original counterparts of their universes. These clones included clones of every Hawkgirl in the known Multiverse and were all fused together into "the ultimate Hawkgirl", adding their powers and skills onto one another. He then grants this new Hawkgirl the power to access the Red Light of Rage and the Violet Light of Love freely, while maintaining her intellect in the process as well as further enhancing her Thanagarian physiology. He creates for her a unique gauntlet that would channel the power of the Rage aspect of the Emotional Spectrum similar to that of Crona's gauntlet. He named this gauntlet the Fist of Spartan. Furthermore, he traveled to a dying universe to claim the helm of its Ares, fusing it with Hawkgirl's helmet and reshaping it to a variant of the helmet. Granting the helmet and its powers to her, he renamed her Cheyenna Hall and granted her the alias of War Bird. She was later appointed to Diadem's team as one of the higher ranked members.
After teleporting all of those he's cloned and those he rescued or revived aside from Supernova into the main hall of his fortress, he wipes away the past experience of their bodies and souls to his selection. He wiped everything away except for their combat experience, emotional maturity, combat knowledge, formal education, combat training, power growth, and combat capabilities. Wiping away any miscellaneous experiences from their bodies, minds, and souls that weren't related to intellectual growth and combat experience. This included experiences such as past love(s) and intimacy, familial ties, mundane day to day activities that had no useful information or training, etc. They had essentially become new people who were all placed at an average age range of 18-24.
He then made clear to them what their roles are within his empire, expanding upon their education and shaping their moral inclinations. Their morals were shaped to center around the preservation of the Empire of Solitude and the life and well-being of Pantheon. The women would be his concubines and personal guard, and the men would be the guards to his Fortress. Their sole focus would be to guard the Fortress from any intruders or attacks, making no time for themselves. In turn for fulfilling their roles, they were granted minor soul bonds to Pantheon, through his magical abilities. This bond would protect them and remove any needs for sustenance on their ends.
Using his magic, he concealed the Empire of Solitude from all mortal eyes and created a blue sun 45 times the size of the sun of Earth. The sun was placed far enough from the planet to prevent it from sucking the planet into it. He then traveled to Krypton's air space and gathered two large Kryptonite asteroids and brought them back to his Empire's galaxy. Shattering them to powder, he took shards of Sunstone from the Fortress of Solitude and fused them with some of the Kryptonite powder. He then launched them into the ocean and let them grow within forests and canyons to a limited degree. He then took the remaining Kryptonite powder, transformed its energy, and added it to the Fortress's core, increasing its power supply.
Exploring his Fortress, he reshaped it to his desire. He also took Sunstone shards and scattered them across the planet in a similar manner to the "Krypo-Stone" shards. The scattered shards would grow randomly across the planet to a limited height to prevent them from dominating the planet. Taking samples from a large canyon, he reduces the samples to powder, replicates the molecules until he has enough powder to cover the continent, and buries the powder carefully within the soil of the continent. The Sunstone powder fertilized the soil exponentially, creating the perfect condition for plant life. Releasing spores he had collected from Earth and samples taken from his former mentor's Fortress of Solitude, he covered most of the land with plant life.
He then uses his powers to rapidly grow all of the plant life of the planet to maturity. Taking a capsule out of his suit, he spread micro-organisms throughout the forests and seas. Finally, he traveled the Multiverse and took DNA samples of every life form he came across. Sorting all of the samples according to genetic sequence, he constructed a machine using magic in tandem with his knowledge and powers to contain them all. This machine would become known as the Gene Matrix.
With Supernova leading the Palace Guard, Fracture and Strong Arm became his generals alongside Diadem, War Bird, and Shift. The are fierce protecters that could easily take down very powerful opponents. Supernova would later recieve further upgrades to his abilities, after Ken had travelled to an alternate timeline, some know it as "DC One Million" and witnessed that timeline's Superman. Supernova was granted the ability to manipulate sunstones at will and infused with 10,000 years worth of direct solar energy. He was granted minor matter manipulation abilities and infused with the powers of an alternate reality Ion entity. Despite his empowerment, he still is nowhere near his lord's power, but he would never challenge him anyway. Many would try to turn him against his lord and none would succeed, same with all other of Ken's servants and guards.
DCeased (Side Story)[]
Seeking to create a champion to lead his concubines and personal guards, Ken travels to worlds where Wonder Woman has died. He comes across the universe of the DCeased. Making his way to the location of Metropolis, he finds nothing but smoldering ruins. Using his power of Hindsight, he reviews the history of this Metropolis and learns that this Earth's Captain Atom had detonated at the center of the city. He travels throughout the ruins to search for any superheroes bodies to scan their minds. However, he doesn't initially find anything. As he continues searching, he finds the head of Cyborg. He scans the head's memories for information regarding the location of Wonder Woman. The information he receives from Cyborg's memories tells him Wonder Woman would go out hunting for the living and would return to that area.
Upon learning this, he decides to cast a spell that will notify him when Wonder Woman returns. After setting the spell, he decides to explore the world and galaxy to see what he can find. He flies to the Earth's stratosphere and uses his super vision and tandem with magic to scan nearby galaxies. He finds another planet that is inhabited by "the son of Superman" and a new Justice League of sorts. What catches his attention and curiosity is the Superman sitting at the core of the sun. This Superman appeared to be infected and absorbing the sun progressively, and he remained there stationary while doing so. As he observed this Superman's continuous power growth he watched as Superman turned his gaze to him.
Ken immediately knew that this meant trouble and a whole lot of it. Bracing himself, he prepared for the Superman to attack and attack it did. Blitzing him, Superman knocked him through Jupiter's core. Rushing back, he blitzes Superman in turn. This strike only managing to knock this incredibly powerful Superman back several feet. Ken realizes that he can't hold back as much against this Superman, as it could result in him being seriously injured or possibly infected with the Anti-Life Virus. If he were to become infected, he may not be able to see the completion of his new empire.
He begins using his power of Energy Replication to empower himself rapidly and begins drawing some of the solar energy from this Superman. However, this proves difficult as this Superman has become so powerful that he could better resist the energy draining. Overcoming his shock quickly, Ken decides to no longer restrain his strength. He attacks Superman with all his strength, striking the Anti-Life godly entity with a flurry of concussive blows. With his new level of power added to his attacks, Superman is knocked through Neptune and charges back into the fight. Pantheon, Ken, blasts Superman with beams of kryptonite energy fired from his eyes and hands, but the god overcomes them quickly.
Continuing to blast him with kryptonite energy, Ken surrounds himself with an aura of the energy. Charging the fatal god, Superman, Ken enchants his fists with a Force Multiplier of one thousand. He strikes the god with mighty blows, but the god doesn't relent. Superman rains down multiple vicious bows onto Pantheon, drawing blood. Seizing the opportunity, Superman bites into Pantheon's shoulder. Panicked, he strikes Superman with a punch strong enough to render him unconscious, sending him flying back into the core of the sun. Pantheon quickly draws all of his spilled blood back into himself and teleports himself to a dead universe, where he begins wrestling with the virus for control of his body and mind. For months he wrestles with the virus until his body finally adapts to it and purges the virus from him. Noting the purge, he decides to use his magic to create a clone of himself and test its immunity. The test proved successful and he realized he was now immune to infection and carrying the virus.
Making his way back to the universe of the DCeased, he returned to the very second after he left. He visits the new Justice League while cloaking himself from detection. He gathers atoms from the air to form a floating eye, cloaking it from detection as it is being made. Binding it to a spell, he uses it to spy on the new Justice League and record their actions in his absence. Once done, he teleports back to the Earth of this universe. He receives an alert from his spell that Wonder Woman had returned to the garden. Making his way there, he finds the femme fatale staring at the head of Cyborg. Having experimented on his clones, he deduced the structure and energy signature of the virus. Thus, he uses his powers to purge the virus from the heroine's body. Taking her corpse, he cloaks her from detection too and leaves a clone of her behind that is infected with the virus. He leaves with it her weapons and teleports undetected back to his Fortress. At the fortress, he returns life to the deceased Wonder Woman and placed her into a specialized medical pod to heal her wounds. The pod would also keep her unconscious until he returned.
Returning to her world, he travels to its Underworld and attempts to convince Hades to give him her soul. The god refuses and attacks him. They battle and Ken uses his incredible magical powers alone to subdue and kill the god. "To simply kill you and let your body rot would be a waste.", he tells the god's soul. "So I will put your entirety to use, given you can still try to plague me as you are.", he finished before obliterating the body and soul of Hades and reshaping them into weapons. Scanning the River Styx, he finds Diana's soul and takes it. He stores it in an empty specialized capsule in his belt. He then uses his power to warp reality and place the River Styx into a separate empty specialized capsule in his belt. He then returns to his Fortress of Solitude.
As he entered the medical wing, the pod containing Diana presented itself to him and opened to reveal her unconscious body to him. He returned her soul to her body and as she woke and began asking him who he was, he looked at her and with that same look wiped her memories from her mind and soul. He then gives her the new weapons he made for her and teleports to his throne room, summoning her and others to the court in front of his throne. Once there, they were altered on a molecular, mental, and spiritual level to his desire. Afterwards, they were assigned roles and she was made the leader of his concubines and personal guard. This role greatly pleased her and she served it with great pride and joy until the end of her near eternal life, and she would gain the role of mother to one of his children shortly after her revival as Diadem.
Atlantis[]
Justice League Dark[]
Summary: With unknown eldritch entities invading Earth and the universe, Ken would send an avatar to help push back the invasion of Earth. This is done to protect his family on Earth and as a favor to Superman. This also was a part of his plan to attain knowledge of the magic used by the eldritch entities, granting him more immense magical power.
(Power Gain: Eldritch Magic)
Dark Knights Metal[]
As the events of Dark Knights Metal begins to unfold, Ken is aware of what is occurring. He does nothing, confident the Justice League will resolve the issue of the knock-off counterparts. However, the introduction of the Dark Multiverse does peak his interest, as he wonders what kind of dark counterparts to himself may exist there. Carefully, he travels the Dark Multiverse and glimpses what lies within. When he returns, he begins creating counter measures for each and every possible threat from the Dark Multiverse. One of the Batmen from there tried to follow him back, a twisted Batman version of Captain Atom. He waved his hand and wiped the Batman clone from existence.
He then recalls something he saw in the timestream of Earth -1... the death of its Superman. Having collected and reassembled the souls, bodies, minds, and concepts of every being in that universe to serve his will and Empire. Plucking the universe from the Dark Multiverse, he places it into a new multiverse, one he names the Super Multiverse. As an expansion of his empire, the men of the universe are remade with no purpose outside of serving as military fodder, while the women are remade into guards and concubines.
As for The Devastator, Ken sent an avatar to hunt the creature down, cloaked from detection by all except for its creator. The avatar would find the defeated Devastator and transport it to the former Earth -1, now Super Earth 1. Once there, the avatar revives The Devastator and brings the revived Superman of that world to it. Underestimating that Superman, due to his previous carelessness, the creature would call him weak. The Superman would quickly rip the creature's throat open and tear his head off, impaling its body on one of its summoned bone spikes. Looking the dying creature in the eye, Superman would repeat its insult once used on him back to it, "Now who's weak".
The creature would be reassembled and Superman would absorb the Doomsday Virus the creature emitted. Inoculating the people of that world and the Empire of Solitude against the virus, the avatar would remove that world's Superman's weakness to any form of kryptonite. Now a form of SuperDoom, Superman would begin going by the name The Obliterator and subjugate the revived Devastator through a brutal beat down, forcing it to become nothing more than and obedient animal. Putting a spiked chain around the creature's neck The Obliterator began using the creature as a loyal guard and attack dog. This purpose was then encoded into the former Devastator's being by the avatar, preventing it from ever rebelling against The Obliterator, Pantheon, or the Empire of Solitude.
Doom Metal[]
As the Batman ridiculousness unfolds further, the knock-offs try to invade the Multiverse. Not tolerating there attempts to invade the universe, he conjures a magical protective barrier around the 23 different galaxy clusters near the one housing his empire. The barrier destroyed anything from the Dark Multiverse on contact that he didn't want entering it. He then ventured out, cutting a massive swath in their ranks, piling the bodies high. One dark Batman after another fell, no matter their abilities or experience. When he returned to his empire, he scanned every atoms and spec of micro-space to ensure no invaders had made it through. Then, he sat on his throne and smiled.
"That was a nice little play session", the words leaving his lips right before the universe itself above them all opened up to reveal a massive slender woman with white skin. Gauging her power, he sensed she was a powerful woman, but he wasn't afraid. In fact, he was excited at a new idea. He scanned the Multiverse and Overvoid for other versions of her and began collecting them. Fusing them into one, he changed her very mind, soul, body, and being to serve as his ultimate concubine and servant. He named her Totallia and returned to his empire with her. She showed total devotion to him rivalling that of Diadem's, whenever questioned, tested, or challenged on the matter. She would later become impregnated, like many of Pantheon's concubines by her master Pantheon, and proudly mother his 14th child.
The New 52[]
During his previous travels through the multiverse and its history, he would visit various iterations of the multiverse throughout different "Crisis" events. It would be just after one event known as "Flashpoint" that he would encounter his favorite form of the Prime universe. During his time in this iteration of the universe, he would develop a great bond with its Superman, a younger and more upfront version of the man. This younger Superman would prove to be quite resilient in a way that the one who mentored Pantheon, and his mentor's prime earth counterpart, lacked. This younger Superman knew how to "get the job done" while still maintaining a level of empathy and understanding rivaling that of his previous iterations.
Pantheon found himself relating quite well to this young Superman and enjoying how he felt surprisingly more down to earth than the man he was used to. Teleporting Rin-Tra and Arris' fused form to him, they attend a double date with Superman and Wonder Woman. The two couples developing a great friendship with Ken chanting a spell blessing Clark and Diana in their heroic and personal efforts. Bidding a temporary farewell to their new friends, Ken and Arrin (fused Arris and Rin) make their way back to their home.
This bond would inspire him to later revive this iteration of the Prme universe, after "Mr. Mxy" warps it into a state that deformed it after birth. Taking everything connected to the New 52 iteration (down to a conceptual level), he would move it into what would become the Super Multiverse and recreate it there as Super Earth Prime. This would serve as the first and prime universe in the Super Multiverse.
Later on, he would attend the wedding of Superman and Wonder Woman of the former New 52 universe, now Super Earth Prime, in person. He would also help mentor the twins (son and daughter) of Superman and Wonder Woman, in that universe's future.
Powers:[]
Hybrid Physiology
His all around physiology is enhanced by Kryptonian genetics from Kal-El and Kal-L, which granted him the regular powers of a kryptonian, but he is significantly stronger and tougher due to the kryptonian physiology mixing with his meta physiology, causing the two power sets to add to one another.
- Super Eidetic Memory - Ken's memory is incredible, and has yet to show any limit. Ken was able to memorize and utilize the Life equation of the New 52 Universe. He has also looked into The Presence's power with his Magic Vision, and survived, learning even more magics in the process.
- Accelerated Regeneration and Healing - Due to his newly acquired hybrid physiology, his natural regenerative abilities have been enhanced significantly. This allows him to quickly regenerate bones and even his brain.
- Molecular Manipulation
- Molecular Fission
- Molecular Fusion
- Molecular Acceleration
- Molecular Reconstruction
- Density Alteration
- Molecular Manipulation Resistance
- Atomic Bond Strengthening - He can strengthen the bond between the atoms of his body and organs, making them significantly harder to break.
- Titanic Strength - He can destroy entire multiverses with a single blow, if he so desires it.
- Super Senses
- Super Sight
- Electromagnetic spectrum vision
- Microscopic Vision
- X-ray Vision
- Telescopic Vision
- Infrared Vision
- Radiation Vision - He can view various forms of radiation as clouds or trails of different colors.
- Multiversal Awareness
- Extra-Dimensional Vision - He can peer into multiple other dimensions, including the Over Void and The Bleed.
- Super Reflexes
- Super Thought
- Flight
- Freeze Breath
- Super Breath
- Self Sustenance
- Superhuman Touch - Through powers he absorbed from Kal-L, he expanded his Kryptonian powers. He can 'read' the content of wire recording(s) through his fingers, for example.
- Bio-Electric Aura
- Cardiovascular Control
- Super Metabolism
- Super Disguise
- Sound Manipulation
- Vocal Manipulation
- Immortality
- Immunity to Ailments
- Invulnerability
- Hypnosis
- Solar Radiation Absorption
- Super Adrenaline Rush
- Thermal Resistance
- Power Nullification Immunity
- Energy Manipulation
- Hidden Force Manipulation - By virtue of his ability to manipulate energies, he is able to tap into these energies and manipulate them. (Ex. He can manipulate hidden forces like the UV Light of the Invisible Spectrum, the Still Force, and Crisis Energy.)
- Kinetic Energy Manipulation
- Potential Energy Manipulation
- Chi Manipulation - He can manipulate his own chi to empower himself or drain the chi from others. He can also manipulate chi for a variety of effects.
- Solar Energy Replication - As his powers evolved, Ken began to demonstrate the ability to produce his own UV radiation within the solar energy storing cells that had grown within his body, after having his genetics improved with kryptonian DNA. This ability requires that he absorb some UV radiation, so that it can be used by his storage organs to essentially cause them to function as their own nuclear reactors. This is also theorized as one of the reasons that his powers are evolving much faster than they had with his father. This ability first was shown during the course of The War of The Light, around the time Black Hand began tampering with the power batteries. He uses this power to compensate for his slowed solar absorption, and even surpass the solar absorption and metabolism of a regular kryptonian.
- Reality Manipulation - Due to exposure to the energies of the Nexus of Reality, he has gained the ability to control quantum energies. This grants him the power to manipulate time and space to his will, and it grants him the power to resist any form of reality warping. He can combine magic with this power to expand its capabilities further.
- Time Manipulation
- Space Manipulation
- Reality Creation
- Reality Destruction
- Concept Creation
- Concept Destruction
- Energy Projection
- Super Flare
- Concussive Blasts
- Ocular Blasts
- Radiation Blasts - He project various forms of energy from any location from his body.
- Pyrokinesis - Serving as the precursor to his energy manipulation abilities, he has completely mastered the power of Pyrokinesis and can even change the energy signature of the fire to match other energy signatures.
- Self Detonation
- Self Immolation
- Emotional Spectrum Access - With his powers enhanced by his exobytes, Ken can access all aspects of the emotional spectrum to create hard light constructs and access their unique abilities. It was discovered that the exobytes did not grant him further powers, but advanced the maturation process of his emotional spectrum abilities by several years.
- Paradox Energy Manipulation
- Energy Destruction
- Energy Creation
- Super Speed - He can move at speeds far exceeding light speed. He has outpaced Superman, who estimated he was at least moving several Centillion times the speed of light.
- Self-Induced Molecular Acceleration
- Time Travel
- Perfect Fitness - His body maintains his physical fitness without the need to exercise.
- Anti-Life Virus Immunity - Due to exposure during his adventure into the world of the DCeased, he developed an immunity to the virus that was ravaging that universe.
- Adaptive Immunity - His immune system can create super adaptive antibodies that can combat and destroy any harmful viruses, bacteria, or diseases. He can actively control his immune system and choose its target.
- Multiversal Connection - He shares a psychic link with all other versions of himself, allowing them all to know each others' location, overall health, mental state, etc. The link doesn't allow them to read one another's thoughts, however. Whenever a new universe is born, the version of him in it receives the ability upon conception.
- "Hax" Breaker - Utilizing a culmination of dozens of his powers, he created a defensive power for himself. This power allows him to resist abilities and powers that would be considered "Hax" aka "Instant win moves". Thus, he can't be wiped away conceptually or instantly killed or defeated by bypassing his powers "just cuz". Not even a writer of a comic involving him could do so, for example.
Magical Prowess
Due to his desire to constantly grow and improve, he has become skilled with and mastered many types of magic, and even capable of tapping into the Source's power. This grants him protection from magical attacks. He is not immune to magical damage, but is able to resist multiple forms of magical energy manipulation, like life energy manipulation.
Ex. He can take damage from Shazam's attacks, but even "omnipotent" magical enemies will struggle against him.
This protection is even in effect when his body is destroyed. If he were to be atomized, his atoms would still be heavily protected by the Source Tapping, allowing him to regenerate. Of course, he would be in immense pain, due to the massive strain.
- Spell Casting
- Knowledge Manipulation
- Knowledge Granting
- Knowledge Withdrawal
- Knowledge Manipulation
- Eldritch Magics
- Eldritch Summoning
- Eldritch Spellcasting
- Eldritch Curses
- Ability Granting
- Burden of Atlas - Allows him to alter the weight and density of an object, either increasing or decreasing either aspect to his desire. This spell also allows him bring forth the emotional burdens of the targeted being to force them to confront them.
- Size Alteration
- Hell Fire - He can utilize hell fire in a variety of ways to attack his opponent(s) and damage or destroy their soul.
- Astral Projection - He can project his soul from his body to explore the Astral Plane. He retains all of his power as he does so.
- Mystical Portals
- The Everyman's Protection - Increases his durability and defensive capabilities more and more as his health lowers.
- Emotion Manipulation
- Translation - He can use magic to translate his words or the words of others. This often comes in the form of a magical avatar that serves as a mediator. He can also use this in tandem with his super mind to learn any new languages.
- Necromancy - He can use his magical abilities to raise and control the dead.
- Bone Armor - He can use magic to manipulate the bones of others to form an armor around himself that varies in durability depending upon his magical reserves and will.
- Soul Shred - He can utilize potent magical energies to destroy the soul of his opponent.
- Spiritual Communication - He can use magic to contact the spirits of the deceased to communicate with them.
- Resurrection - He can resurrect a body either temporarily or permanently, according to his whim. The body is often resurrected through the magic alone in the condition it was in at death. However, his other powers allow him to heal it, fully restoring it.
- Soul Manipulation
- Necrosis Manipulation - His necromantic magics can manipulate the state of necrosis in which an undead individual is in, slowing or accelerating their rot. He can even reverse their rot to restore them to an almost perfect state.
- Soul Sight
- Soul Bond - He can form a link from his soul to an individual of his choosing, allowing him to magically grant them powers and new abilities. This also allows him to magically replicate their powers and abilities as well. This link also allows him to assist those he creates it with in other ways. For example, he can help regulate their emotional states or outright remove significant emotional stress from them, akin to the manner of Superman taking on Batman's suicidal desires after the events of Emperor Joker. It also alerts him to any danger they're in, their emotional state, their mental state, and can allow him to experience any of their senses at a whim. However, the boons granted by this link from him to another are only in effect so long as it is still intact.
- Undead Detection - He can use his necromantic magics to highlight where any undead are in his or someone else's immediate area. this highlights them by making them glow a pale green hue. This effect can be seen through any walls or obstruction and doesn't overload the eye's photoreceptors. If he or they can't see, the magic will use their other senses instead, such as using stronger growing local vibrations as one gets within closer distance of an undead.
- Undead Control - Any undead that are within 400,000 miles of his location fall under his control, no matter the means for their undead state.
- Mind Restoration/Destruction - He can restore the higher thinking and rational mind of the undead or take it away to reduce them to a feral state. No matter which he does, the undead will continue to serve him down to the very essence of their being.
- Mystical Force Fields
- Power Replication
- Teleportation
- Dispel Magic
- Power Granting -He can give others new powers through the use of magic in combination with his scientific knowledge and/or his energy and matter manipulating powers.
- Creation - He can create life utilizing a sample of a being's DNA or body. He can also create objects from a sample of the original object. This ability even allows him to create beings that aren't technically considered alive, but they bare DNA, such as viruses.
- Conjuration - Using nothing more than his mastery over raw magical energy, he can conjure any being that he is aware of to serve his will. This can range from demons to angels to humans to even the souls of the dead.
- Elemental Sentinel Conjuration - By channeling magical energies into the element(s) around him, he can create sentinels that obey his will and are as physically powerful enough to exert force equal to Keplar's Supernova in a single flick, and they can endure that same force with the utmost ease. The sentinels also possess the powers of pyrokinesis, hydrokinesis, aerokinesis, cryokinesis, chlorokinesis, geokinesis, x-ray vision, ocular energy blasts, shape shifting, energy manipulation, and energy absorption .
- Summoning - He can summon anything and anyone to him that cannot resist his might.
- Weapon Creation - He can use raw magical energy to form a weapon.
- Chaos Magic
- Order Magic
- Mind Transference - He can transfer his mind or a copy of it into another's body. However, his body will always retain a copy of his mind that will seek to rejoin with the original by drawing it back to itself, restoring the original mind to his body. He can also switch the minds of two beings.
- Physical Enhancement
- Illusion Casting
- Transmogrification - He can use magic to turn his enemies to animals, which he can use other magics to control to what degree his target is turned into an animal. He once used this power to turn Zan of the Wonder Twins into a wolf man as a demonstration of what it could be like to have his sister's powers.
- Sever - His will to cut and slash manifested, this magic cuts and slashes whatever he decides.
- Healing - Healing minor injuries is no challenge for him. However, to heal graver injuries takes more time, depending upon the severity of the injury.
- Animal Manipulation - Using magic, he can control the wills and bodies of animals, ranging from the normal animals of Earth to alien animals to even extra-dimensional or magical creatures.
- Evolutionary Advancement - Having attained knowledge of all life in the known universe, he can force any animal to rapidly evolve or devolve at his will.
- Cloning - He can use his magical powers to create clones of himself. However, these clones aren't as powerful as himself and lack any DNA of their own. They act like puppets to his will and lack nor desire any motivations of their own.
- Weather Manipulation
- Trigon's Grasp - He can use a spell to summon the hands of the demon Trigon to clasp his enemy between them, trapping his opponent.
- Transmutation - Utilizing magic, he can change any ore into another ore of his choosing.
- Magically Enhanced Senses
- Magic Vision - By imbuing his Electromagnetic Spectrum and X-ray visions with magic, he can view all magical energies, and their weaknesses. This allowed him to dominate The Spectre in one on one combat.
- Aura Vision - Using magical energies in tandem with his Electromagnetic Spectrum Vision, he can view the aura of any life form. This also allows him to view any spiritual energies and thus the souls of any dead.
- Necromancer's Gaze - Using magic, he can detect dead bodies in the form of a purple aura that surrounds them, when using this ability. This aura is visible only to him.
- Hindsight - Using magical energy, he can view all of the past events of a location, person, or object.
- Foresight - He can use magical energy to glimpse the potential future of the world around him.
- Telepathy
- Mind Scan - While using his magical prowess, he can scan the minds of those he sees fit for memories or knowledge. He can also project his target's memories into a moving image that can be viewed like a screen by others.
- Mind Control - He can use his magical abilities to influence the minds of others.
- Life Draining Resistance
- Power Mimicry Resistance
- Source Power Tapping - He's strong enough to induce a hint of fear in even the source. This comes from not only his power, but also his resistance to even the Source's powers. The Source had attempted to strip Ken of some of his powers, but was hurt by the backlash of energy his body directed at him.
- Enchantment - He can enchant his attacks, armor, and weapons with the power of different magical elements and/or a magical effect.
- Magical Energy Absorption - He can absorb and metabolize magical energy.
- Multikinesis - Imbuing his mind with magic, he uses magical energies to manipulate different aspects of the environment around him at will.
- Cryokinesis
- Chlorokinesis
- Aerokinesis
- Hydrokinesis
- Electrokinesis
- Geokinesis
- Telekinesis
- Umbrakinesis
- Photokinesis
- Soul Protection - His soul cannot be destroyed.
- Flight - If his normal ability of flight should fail him, he will utilize magic to compensate. This provides him many different alternative methods of flight from different types of wings that he can grow to fly without the need for wings. He can also sprout the wings for cosmetic purposes.
- The Alpha Sanction - Taking his experience from Darksied's Omega Sanction, he used some of his most powerful magic alongside primordial energy taken from New Genesis to create the polar opposite of the Omega Sanction. This power allows him to place his target within a paradise dimension, where their greatest dreams are lived. It can also cancel out the power of the Omega Sanction.
Skills:[]
- Hypnosis
- Leadership
- Politics
- Skilled hand to hand combatant He has mastered the following martial arts;
- Jeet Kun Do
- Karate
- Tai Tzu
- Kung Fu
- Boxing
- Akido
- Capoeira
- Kick Boxing
- Lui He
- Bokator
- Combato
- Defendo
- Shippalgi
- Kendo
- Fencing
- Kajukenbo
- The Keysi Fighting Method
- Sambo
- Pit Fighting
- Eskrima
- Bojuka
- S.P.E.A.R
- Nindokai
- Systema
- Brazillian Jiu Jitsu
- Krav Maga
- Muy Thai
- Kapu Ku'ialua
- Bacom
- Ninjutsu
- Pressure Points
- Rough and Tumble
- L.I.N.E.
- Alien Martial Arts: He has also studied and mastered several alien martial arts throughout the Milky Way galaxy. Batman and Superman estimated that he has at least mastered 45 alien martial arts, besides Kryptonian martial arts.
- Kryptonian Martial Arts Mastery He has mastered a couple Kryptonian martial arts:
- Torquasm Rao
- Torquasm Vo
- Horo Kanu
- Klurkor
- Kryptonian Martial Arts Mastery He has mastered a couple Kryptonian martial arts:
- Skilled Armed Combatant He is skilled with almost every weapon wielding fighting style on Earth.
- Mastery of Throwing weapons
- Fluent in all Earth languages His most commonly used are; English, Spanish, French, Russian, Italian, German, Native American (Every language), Latin, Arabic, Japanese, Chinese
- Expert in Law
- Scientific Genius
- Expert in every science known on Earth His favorite fields are; Biological Engineering, Genetics, Physics, Psychology, Chemistry, Biology, Bacteriology, and Political Science.
- Genius in Kryptonian sciences
- Tactical Genius
- Meditation Mastery He is a master of utilizing different meditation techniques to create added protection, or enhance his physical attacks.
- Theta State Induction Meditation
- Naturally skilled singer He has always been an exceptionally good singer, without being taught. He's specifically good with pop, pop rock, classic rock (like Elvis), and soft rock.
- Exceptionally skilled in stealth Due to his past as a thief, he is very skilled with stealth, enough so that he has managed to even sneak into the Batcave undetected. He did this twice, without the aid of super powers.
- Master of Disguise
- Master Detective
- Interrogation
- Intimidation
- Writing
- Poetry
- Parkour/Free Running
- Artistry
- Expert Actor
- Tracking
- Mimicry Can perfectly mimic voices with precise muscle control, and perfectly mimic an opponents mannerisms and body language.
Abilities:[]
- Indomitable Will
- Super Ventriloquism
- Knowledge of the Anti-Life Equation - He had deduced the Anti-Life equation after visiting Apokalips.
- Knowledge of the Life Equation - He has memorized and knows how to utilize the Life Equation. The Life Equation is: ( companionship + understanding + assurance + joy + altruism ÷ respect ÷ commendation ÷ sympathy x innocence x dignity x success x acceptance y=n where y=despair and n=caution, love=truth, death=rebirth, and self=light side )
- Knowledge of the Anti-Death Equation - Having sent squads of elemental sentinels lead by one of his magical clones each to explore the multiverse, one of his squads would encounter a universe under attack from the Gentry. The clone would utilize magic vision and its other super senses to analyze the Gentry to understand their power. The squad would notice the entity known as Empty Hand smacking away Darksied and use the distraction to analyze it. During the process, it would learn of the Anti-Death equation. Carefully, the squad would sneak away and ambush a couple creature of the Gentry and allow the clone to break them down all the way to even a conceptual level to better analyze their power up close and study and carefully absorb its energy bit by bit. After some time, the clone would successfully absorb and gain control of the powers and thus the equation. All of the knowledge and experience would be gained by Pantheon at the same time, due to his powers that allow him to do so. Thus, he would gain the knowledge and ability to utilize the Anti-Death equation. The clone would be withdrawn by Ken to a safe outpost where it would be assigned as that universe's observer for the Empire of Solitude and its creator, Pantheon. The clone would be given the alias of the Prodding Hand.
- Highly Resistant to Mind Control - He is so resistant to mind control that even cosmic entities, like True Darkseid and Perpetua, cannot control his mind.
Weaknesses:[]
- Golden Kryptonite (formerly) - While it may not leave him temporarily powerless, like with regular Kryptonians, it did cause him intense pain and illness.
- Split Personality - Due to torture in the pits of Trigon's Dimension, Ken's mind had split. This separate personality would call itself Azifer, and it would hunt him relentlessly, once it gained its own body. It holds an obsession with Ken, and it seeks to take control of his body and mind.
- Powerful Opponents - If an opponent can match or surpass his power, then they can critically wound him or attempt to "kill" him.
Paraphernalia:[]
- Atom Bender Suit (formerly) - A suit he designed for his early hero days that highly resembles the outfit of New 52 Superman, but it had a golden colored harness on the front that had a magical display that showed the Superman symbol on the shield, and the metallic straps connected between his shoulder blades. The suit helped him channel his blasts and control his other abilities. The suit can now display a multitude of symbols, including the various symbols of the Lantern Corps. He would utilize his self-immolation ability to ignite his head, to conceal his identity. This suit would be absorbed into his Pantheon suit to increase its functionality and add its look to his wardrobe.
- Helm of Ares - Travelling the multiverse for trinkets to decorate his fortress in his Empire of Solitude, he travels to an alternate timeline of the world of DCeased and takes the Helm of Ares.
- Unique Green Lantern Power Ring - Having memorized the design of a Green Lantern Power Ring and the associated Power Batteries, Ken constructed himself a Green Lantern Power Ring by condensing raw Willpower to form the ring. Using his connection to the Emotional Spectrum, he empowered the ring and enabled it to draw upon any nearby willpower in absence of a Power Battery. This ability can be pushed to draw power directly from the Emotional Spectrum to fuel the ring or increase its power.
- Pantheon Suit - Due to his immense strength, Ken had to wear a near indestructible suit that he developed by using the Miracle Machine to suppress some of his powers, when he would fight. The suit could adjust within femto-seconds to his enemies, further suppressing or allowing greater use of his power in accordance to his enemy's power. This was done by scanning any genetic material from his enemy that touched the suit, and worked in tandem with Ken's mind to know who the enemy is and how strong they are. This process accounts for a vast variety of powers, and species throughout the multiverse. The suit also monitored Ken's vitals constantly to adjust when necessary. It can also shape into any outfit that Ken desires or expose his body, if he desires it. It has a limitless storage capacity, thanks to magical enhancement. This allows him to keep whatever he wants on hand for whenever he may need it. The suit is also immune to any form of hacking and viruses of any kind throughout the Omniverse. Due to his immense power, the suit can no longer suppress his full might. Thus, he removed the function from the suit and actively avoids hand-to-hand combat with human opponents, unless he decides to kill them. He will utilize his other powers to prevent his own power from destroying his nearby environment in a variety of ways.
- Broken Qwardian Power Ring - During the War of Light, Sinestro attempted to force Ken into the Sinestro Corps' ranks. He sought to control of one of, if not, the most powerful of the new heroes. Ken, however, fought the ring and broke it in his fist. He kept the broken ring in case he ever needs to repair it to use its power. He later brainwashed Sinestro and Arkillo, temporarily, to train him in utilizing the yellow light of fear for extra measure.
- Indigo Tribe Ring - After travelling to an alternate timeline of The Blackest Night, he manipulated aspects of the event to allow him to take Ray Palmer's place as the Indigo Tribe recruit. Using the power he gained, he tapped into the Indigo light of compassion and drew several rings to himself. He used their powers to sever Nekron's hold on the Justice League. Reviving them, he inducted them into the tribe, and they defeated Nekron. Slipping away stealthily from the timeline, he took several rings with him to use later.
- Blood Fang - A necklace fashioned for him by his sister from a fang of a powerful demon, after she killed it. The necklace has arcane runes carved across it on multiple sides. These runes were placed upon the necklace to revive him, if his powers ever fail him. He's magically fortified the necklace to the point of indestructibility.
- Hell Fire Chain - The Hell Fire Chain was taken from a crime lord's meta-human guard to protect himself in a street fight. Ken imbued it with a fortification spell so that it wouldn't break while striking his opponents. He also imbued it with an attack spell that allowed him, while holding it, to strike significantly harder.
- Dragon's Tail - A chain constructed from kryptonian metal and imbued with several types of fire magics, torture magics, and fortification spells to make it incredibly hard for even Doomsday to break. Ken utilizes the chain as a whip, shield, and with some transformative magic, a sword. When he isn't using it as a weapon, it can attack opponents with its bladed tip. It can also block, catch, or reflect projectiles. If lost, the chain will return to him on its own.
- Legion Flight Ring - Gained after saving the lives of three legion members during his time in the future, this ring allows its user to fly at will. He keeps the ring stored in his suit, in case his powers and magics ever fail him.
- Kryptonian Power Ring - Created in case he ever lost his powers again, or needed even more of a power boost. The ring is made with 20 sheets of kryptonian metal condensed to the size of the ring and advanced kryptonian technology that enhances his genetics specifically, as a safety measure. It adds the strength of a kryptonian to his own, so long as he doesn't take it off. To do so requires a few steps.
- Step 1: Turn the symbol 'til the point of the diamond faces him
- Step 2: Recite the passcode
- Step 3: Pull the symbol towards him
- Step 4: After it clicks once, move it to the right
- Step 5: Pull the symbol towards him
- Step 6: The ring will then transform to its regular look, and slide off his finger.
- Portal Disks - Disks that Ken keeps on him constantly for use to access alternate dimensions and occasionally visit the Monitors. He's even gone to visit The New 52 universe and has a preference for that universe. Even after gaining his magical abilities and the power of teleportation, he keeps a stash of portal disks stored in his belt in case of emergencies.
- Crown of the Seven Suns - When worn, it temporarily enhances the genetics of the wearer, so their physiology is significantly improved. The crown is resistant to reality warping powers. Despite enhancing their genetics, it doesn't make them genetically compatible with another species.
- Specifically designed by Ken to have no work around, the crown can kill the user if worn too long. A human would die within a couple femto-seconds, while a powerful being such as a Kryptonian could last as long as 20+ seconds.
- Ken has recently dawned the crown, while he's in his Empire of Solitude, as his own show of authority and power for its denizens. Demonstrating that he can wear the crown for months at a time without showing any slight sign of damage to his well being.
- He later revealed to Superman that the crown was made using the atoms from the bodies of multiple dead gods from other universes. He also collected their powers to give the crown its powers.
- Powers Granted:
- Physiology Enhancement
- Power Enhancement
- Powers Granted:
Rogues[]
- Darksied
- Vyndktvx
- Nekrotheos
- Imperiex
- Grease Trap (deceased)
- The Anti-Monitor
- Doomsday
- Yuga Khan
- Mongul
- Volcana
- Mallow
- DevilDog
- The Sinestro Corps
- Malice (Mark Mireles)
- Larfleeze
- All American Boy
- New Villains
- Azifer
- Brutilation
- Xar
- Brute
- Despero
- Massacre
- Terrorsmith
Main Villains:
Azifer
After suffering torture at the hands of Trigon's sons and demons, Ken's mental state fractured causing his inner malice to adopt a life of its own within his mind. As he was being rescued by a team of new heroes sent by Superman, a demon lord attacked the team. They defeated him, and he slipped into Ken's mind, possessing him. This caused him to fuse with the new persona known as Azifer and twist it further. In doing so, he lost his own life and was devoured by the Azifer personality. The demonic power caused the persona to become darker and more ruthless.
Nekrotheos
An anti-matter version of himself that is only half as strong as Ken (without exobytes), but utilizes advanced magics and recently died, becoming a Black Lantern.
Brutilation
Twice as rage filled as Doomsday and blood lusted beyond reason, this clone of Doomsday can easily obliterate even the avatars of Darksied. His main priority is to kill Superman and everyone he loves, then kill Ken. He was created by Darksied to counter and surpass Ken's strength.
Powers
- Super Strength - Has strength massive enough to easily crush large planets to dust at his weakest.
- Telepathy - Can communicate with others using his mind.
- Telekinesis - He can physically effect his surroundings with just his mind.
- Size Alteration - Can alter his size to his will.
- Avatar Creation - Can create two avatars at a given time to serve his will.
- Erosion Blasts - Can fire blasts of energy from his eyes that erode and rot whatever they hit.
- Geo-kinesis - Can manipulate the Earth around him to his will.
- Hybrid Physiology - His physiology is a mixture of Doomsday's and Darksied's avatar. This grants him the majority of his physical powers.
- Venom production - Can naturally produce a variant of Venom that significantly increases his strength and endurance.
- Adaptation - Can adapt to harsh environments, and his opponent's attacks quickly.
- Bone Spike Production - Due to Doomsday's genetics, Brutilation can produce bone spikes that are toxic to touch.
Notes[]
- After the events of Origin Crisis, which exposed his body to the energies of the Nexus Of Reality, he would manifest reality warping abilities.
- Ken has traveled to multiple dimensions before, like the New 52 universe, and even alternate timelines, like the Batman Beyond timeline.
- The powers he gained from his exobytes were added to his genetic sequence and remained intact after he lost his exobytes. This is because his genetics had absorbed the kryptonian genetics and improved upon them. His exobytes were later expelled from his body, and he collected them to study. They lost their ability to grant powers. However, he hypothesizes they may be able to regain this ability, if provided genetic material. This has led to him reverse engineering millions of exobytes that can provide or add more powers to a living being.
- (Author's Note): He is intentionally written to be an overpowered character, who was inspired by the characters Superman and Doctor Doom. This is to challenge the notion of Superman being an overpowered character by presenting what I personally believe to be a ridiculously overpowered character without resorting to a simplistic statement of omnipotence.
- (Author's Note): While he is intentionally written to be an overpowered character, he didn't immediately gain all of these abilities, needing to utilize his powers and his understanding of them to their fullest to do so. For example, with his power enhancement from the exobytes, it allowed his mind to perceive time differently and extended the limits of his mind. Using these in conjunction with one another allowed him to learn at a super accelerated rate and at a greater capacity than he would have been able to without the enhancement. This also serves as a nice test to myself to challenge my writing abilities to handle writing overpowered characters.
Feats[]
Strength[]
- During a battle with Superman, while he was possessed and his powers were still developing, he fought Superman to a stand still. Superman at this time was calculated by Oracle to be able to strike with a force of at least 45 Septillion megatons.
- Before his exobyte empowerment, he was able to strike with a force of two trillion megatons and easily endure the same force.
- While his powers were still developing as a teenager, he demonstrated the he could easily pull a tree from the ground with his bare hands and pulverize it with a single blow. If he was careful, he could pull all of the roots of the tree out as well, without damaging them.
- When he demonstrated his unrestrained power for Superman, during his apprenticeship, he pulverized a dead planet that easily dwarfed the sun. Superman calculated that the planet had five times the mass of the Earth's sun.
- Ken would become enraged during the events of Dark Knights: Metal and would shatter a solid block of Inertron with his bare hands.
- When battling a reality warping demi-god, the demi-god created several dozen miniature universes and placed them inside the fibers of his muscles in an attempt to crush him brutally. The attempt failed horribly, as Ken walked and moved as if they weren't even there.
Durability[]
- Before his exobyte empowerment, he demonstrated that he could endure the force of a mountain exploding, with him at its center, on the atomic level.
- During the events of Blackest Night, he fought with a Black Lantern Doomsday and endured the creatures unrestrained blows for at least 30 minutes.
- Darksied would attempt to kill him using Marvelous Marno's Master Blaster, as it was said to be unsurvivable by any other being except Darksied. He endured the shot and proceeded to destroy the avatar of Darksied that shot him with it.
- Hades once attempted to destroy Ken's soul, and the discovery of his inability to do so devastated him to his core.
- He is immune to all known diseases.
- While in an alternate multiverse, he willingly and fearlessly looked at a photo of a pale entity known as "The Shy Guy" or "SCP-096". He withstood the creature's assault with no damage and subdued the distressed entity. The Shy Guy has demonstrated the ability to severly damage god-like entities in its history.
- As part of his rigorous training, he has pushed his abilities to new levels by repeatedly and precisely stressing them, tanking the stress they produce on his body and mind. This has included such tests as detonating a clone of the planet Apokalips (with the planet's exact mast and energy output) within the center of his eyes and heart.
- He doesn't require sustenance to survive.
- He is immune to matter manipulation.
- He is immune to Titan Toxin, a toxin secreted by one of his concubines' skin that can kill most life forms, including New Gods, Gods, and god-like beings.
- His soul cannot be destroyed.
- While possessed and his powers were still developing, he fought Superman to a stand still and endured his unrestrained attacks. Oracle calculated later that Superman, at that time, could hit with enough force to surpass the gravitational binding energy of Earth (45 Quintillion megatons).
- As he was constructing his Empire of Solitude, Pantheon would discover a sun equal in size and mass to VY Canis Majoris and detonate it with his energy manipulation power. Using his raw natural durability, he endured the following explosion without so much as a scratch or burn.
- He would fight Superman after the events of Dark Knights: Metal to test his power. During this fight, he would scold Superman for not using his ability to absorb sunlight. He would then draw latent UV energy into Superman, even teleporting a fifth of the sun's energy into Superman's cells that allow him to metabolize solar energy. Superman's power skyrocketed, and Pantheon would construct an alternate dimension that was far stronger than their own with his magical powers for them to fight in. When Superman threw a punch, the planets in five nearby galaxies were pulverized, and the galaxies were torn apart. Ken endured this blow with nothing more than disappointment in his former mentor's neglect of his powers.
- Deathstroke once tried to stab Ken in the eye with a blade that was able to cut atoms. It shattered upon contact with his eye.
- When battling a reality warping demi-god, the godling became desperate and attempted to detonate full-mass universes that he had miniaturized and been allowed to place in every cell in Ken's muscles. Through sheer durability of his soft tissue fibers alone, the explosions were crushed down into super dense mineral clusters and no damage whatsoever was done to Ken.
Speed[]
- Before his exobyte empowerment, he demonstrated that he was easily able to break the sound barrier. He would do this during a fight with Bizarro in the desert, where he breaks the sound barrier to produce a sonic boom right next to Bizarro to catch him off guard and send him flying back several feet.
- During the events of Brightest Day, he would travel to the sun and back in less than 30 seconds with ease.
- As the Dark Knights were causing trouble throughout the Multiverse, Ken would demonstrate that he was easily able to run and fly fast enough to enter the Speed Force.
- During a battle with Darksied, he would match the god's speed as they fought throughout the universe. The resulting disruption would catch the attention of the Justice League and the Legion of Superheroes.
- When challenged by Reverse Flash during the events of Dark Knights: Metal, he would chase the speedster fast enough to catch him. Reverse Flash was surprised, as he was running fast enough to out race Wally West and destroy reality.
Intelligence[]
- Before his exobyte empowerment, he demonstrated to his mentor during a test that he was able to simultaneously do 500 advanced Physics and advanced Calculus calculations in his mind.
- During his fight with Superman in which he constructed a new dimension, he would encourage Superman to further explore his powers and true potential. As a demonstration of what Superman could accomplish, he demonstrates to Superman that he's able to simultaneously do at least 500 billion advanced calculations in his head. These calculations comprised of every Mathematical equation on Earth and Krypton. He displayed these calculations to Superman while he ran them in the form of energy projections around them both. The equations ranged from deducing the mass of New Genesis to calculating the scale of the Multiverse.
- He was able to deduce the Anti-Life Equation, after a trip to Apokalips, within six days.
Might[]
- He was able to resurrect multiple fallen heroes and villains and wipe their minds to place them into his service. While wiping their minds, he would manipulate time around them and the very concept of their beings to revert them to earlier stages in their lives. This would wipe away whatever their bodies, minds, and souls experienced that he chose. He would wipe everything but their combat experience, emotional maturity, education, combat training, and power growth. Turning them into the perfect blank slates to serve him, they had essentially become reborn.
- He created a concubine and imbued her with the powers of multiple gods and the wizard Shazam from dead and dying universes. This took almost no effort on his part.
- He used his Mana Vision to deduce the Spectre's weaknesses and exploit them in one on one combat, defeating him.
- Using his powers of Reality Manipulation and Reality Creation, he tore every aspect of the New 52 reality from the New Earth reality and separated them into their own universes. The New 52 reality was situated within a new universe and designated Earth-A1. After which, he traced any other changes made, finding remnants of Mr. Mxyzptlk's power and removing the changes made by it. This restored the relationship between that Earth's Superman and Wonder Woman, and it culminated into a marriage. He then placed protective barriers around the reality that would deflect any harmful energies or entities, preventing it from being destroyed or altered again. This idea came to him after noticing a lot of suspicious energies floating around the Prime Universe prior to Perpetua's attack, and him discovering the history of that universe upon investigating the energies.
- Upon restoring the New 52 to its own universe, he hunted down Perpetua's remnants and resurrected her into a smaller, healthier looking version of herself. He then modified her appearance to remove her oversized head crests, giving her a normal humanoid head (more akin to a human shaped one). He then duplicated her power and metabolized it. Finally, he did a total rewrite on her as he had done the other servants before her. She now serves as his loyal concubine and star-gazer.
- During the vast majority of his battles, he uses his powers to prevent the conflict from destroying reality around him, whether it's just a building or the fabric of the DC Multiverse itself.
- He has taken on alternate versions of various reality warping entities in one on one combat and won.
- He has demonstrated that he can know everything about any of his servants, planet's denizens, concubines, or wives whenever he wants, simultaneously.
- He consistently has demonstrated the ability to absorb, metabolize, and reproduce various different energies. Some of the energies have included various forms of radiation, godly energies (such as Zues' lightning, for example), and more.
Miscellaneous[]
- He has visited the Graveyard of Gods and keeps a portal to it within his Fortress of Solitude.
- He has claimed multiple notable artifacts throughout the DC Multiverse, such as; a Dilustel Refractor, an Omegahedron, a Legion Flight Ring, a Helm of Ares (DCeased), a Lasso of Truth, an Indigo Tribe Ring, a Qwardian Power Ring, a Trident of Poseidon, and more.
- To antagonize Trigon, he created a spell that allowed him to summon the demon's hands to clasp his enemies, trapping them. He later would use the spell, so he could send an alternate universe Lobo to the demon, who was then consumed and destroyed.
Quotes[]
"If there is potentially always someone more powerful, whether with one power or multiple, I'm not going to quit working and improving. I refuse to become complacent and thus place those I care about at risk like that. My methods have been carefully refined, and thus I can study and practice multiple skills and powers in the same time it takes Wally West to run a mile." (In response to Superman's questioning him about his power gain during the events of Death Metal)
"You've removed your mental blocks and yet you still seem to neglect your true potential. There's no point to having infinite potential in nearly every regard, if you don't embrace it. I'm running millions upon billions of equations in my head as I'm talking to you that could individually overwork and fry quantum computers dozens of times more powerful than the main computer at the Watchtower. Imagine what I can and already have achieved with this insane potential." (During the events of Blackest Night, when he confronts the resurrected Superman)
"You're to lead my personal guard and warm my bed every night, day, morning, or evening that I desire. Is that clear?.....Good, I'm glad you've fully accepted your new role, and you've done so wholeheartedly from what I can see in your soul. Right now? Let's wait until the ceremony has finished" (When speaking to Diadem and assigning her the role as his lead concubine and personal guard.)
"So many Batmen here that can miraculously just out think and outclass the superhuman and god-like members of the Justice League... you would swear this was some poorly written, Bat-nut hugging story written by an unimaginative intern" (When commenting on the swarm of Bat-League members)