“The Man I Used To Be”  An Else World Fan Fiction

Prelude:  His Once and Future Love.

Mr. Henry Small and Mrs. Laura Lang laid on their picnic blanket but they totally ignored the meal Laura had backed for them.  Laura’s blouse was off and Henry’s shirt was unbuttoned and they were preparing to go all the way for the first time.  Henry was so intent on what he was doing that he never heard the man come up behind him.  Henry fell on top of Laura then rolled off unconscious on the blanket next to her.  Laura reached to cover herself and screamed, “WHO ARE YOU?  WHAT DO YOU WANT?!”

The tall, grinning man looming over her said, “Call me Joe.  I’ve come to resurrect my lost love Louise.”  Mrs. Lang saw some kind of device in the man’s hand and screamed when he knelt beside her and lifted her skirt.  She tried to resist him but he was impossibly strong.  He spread her legs without effort.  She passed out as she felt the man position the device between her thighs.  Joe continued on like any scientist would while conducting an experiment on a lesser species.  He had no empathy for the woman just a sense of anticipation that in a few short years, he would have his Louise by his side again – and this time, it would be forever.

Laura and Henry woke up in each others’ arms.  Both pretended to have enjoyed themselves but neither could remember anything that had happened.  Laura was sore so she knew they had done something, but she didn’t even remember eating and all the food was gone.

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Part One:  Kryptonian Freedom

Jor-El spoke to the members of the World Counsel, “But the world is ours for the taking!  A few of us could dominate it without any trouble or risk to ourselves.”

Car-Tan, spokesman for the counsel said, “Why, Jor-El?  Why would we want to take Earth or any other planet?  Krypton is a paradise.  We have everything we could possibly want or need right here!”

Jor-El said, “Why conquer a primitive world?  For the sheer fun of it!  They are weak.  We can make them do anything we want them to.  ANYTHING!  They will betray their every ethical belief just for the chance to live another miserable day.  Making them beg and crawl and hurt each other is an INCREDIBLE thrill.  The best times I’ve ever enjoyed where when I’ve visited Earth and had my fun with them.  Now I’ve decided to share with a select few the joys I have known.  Come with me.  Try it.  It’s wonderful!”

Car-Tan said, “Jor-El, you are insane.  Krypton hasn’t spawned a monster like you in two millennia.  We beg you to report for treatment or regeneration.  I’m sure the bio-engineers can determine what your problem is and fix it easily.  Kryptonian laws give you the freedom to refuse treatment and to continue to live your life this way as long as you don’t physically harm another, but we are permitted to quarantine you to this planet so a disease from our world, namely you, won’t harm another.  I only regret that we didn’t stop your off-world trips in your current and earlier regenerations.  I hope any damage you have done there was minimal but my guess would be that it was not.  Please Jor-El, allow us to help you!  For the love of Rao!”

Jor-El laughed, “Me sick?  This whole world is sick.  It’s stagnant and complacent.  There’s not a man here with any courage or a woman with any passion.  I prefer the life I lived with the Kiwatche back on Earth.  I was their god and master and they worshipped me -- as is my due.”

Car-Tan said, “Your portal privileges are revoked.  You are hereafter forbidden to leave the planet until you receive medical treatment and are pronounced mentally fit.”

Jor-El said, “It would take a man to stop me … and other than me, there’s not a man left on this planet.”  Jor-El laughed and strode confidently from the counsel chambers.

Des-Mec, a junior counsel member asked, “Shouldn’t we do something?  Even with out his portal, Jor-El is not a man without resources or cunning.  He could easily find another way off the planet – though only a mad man like himself would ever consider leaving Krypton.”

Car-Tan answered, “The law is clear.  He has rights.  But if finds another way off the planet, let him!  There is no place in the universe where we can’t easily find him and bring him home.  The freedom of all men is sacred.  While he is here, he can do as he pleases as long as no one else is harmed.  But we will no longer permit him to play cruelly with lesser life forms.”

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Part Two:  The Good Wife.

Jor-El readied the space ship.  Lara asked, “Why is it so important that you go back?  Are Earth women so much more desirable than me?”

Jor-El said, “Yes, definitely!”

Lara said, “I will submit to genetic alterations or perform any act you ask of me.”

Jor-El said, “That’s the problem.  I like a little fight in my women – a little resistance … or a LOT of resistance to what I intend to do to them.   You are too passive.  Anything I could dream up, you would submit to willingly.”

Lara said, “When will you build a ship big enough for you?”

Jor-El said, “This ship will suit my needs just fine.  If I built a ship any bigger than this, the counsel would come in here and take it.  They think this is a prototype so they let me have it.  I’m surprised they didn’t come for me after I got mad at your dog, threw him in the first ship I built and launched him into space.  I regret it now.  Having to build a new ship cost me two weeks!  I wonder why the enforcers never came?  I was sitting here ready to fight them -- to their deaths if necessary.  Dogs have rights too, but I guess they are second class citizens.  Or maybe the enforcers were afraid to face a real man.”

Lara said, “You have disabled all the monitoring devices and I didn’t report what you did.  I told people that Krypto died in an accident.  I loved Krypto, but I love you more and I didn’t want them to take you away.  I know you’ll get better soon.”

Jor-El said, “Ooo!  You almost got me excited there!  Breaking a rule.  Naughty, naughty!”

Lara said, “Then would you like to ….”

Jor-El said, “NO!  I said “ALMOST.”  I’ve got a little lady waiting on Earth who would commit adultery to be with me.  I implanted her into a woman who was committing adultery at the time – so the new one should have the same lack of morals as the old one did.  Environmentally and genetically she’s on a course to become the woman she once was.  My only concern is that, if I don’t get there quickly, someone else might get her first.  If that happens I’d have to kill them both.  No matter.  I want to be her first and only so I’d have to grow another one and wait for that one to mature physically.  I could accelerate her growth but she would still have the mind of a child.  Hmmm.  I might grow a second one at that.  A woman child might be fun.  Well, I can’t wait!   I leave within the hour.”

Lara said, “They’ll just bring you back.”

Jor-El said, “No, they won’t.  I’ve got that all taken care of.”

Lara said, “You’re not planning to hurt anyone are you?”

Jor-El said, “Of course I will.  It’s easier for me to just kill everyone then to stop them individually when they come for me.  Too bad their deaths will happen so fast.  But I won’t be here to watch and enjoy it, so who cares.”

Lara said, “Oh merciful Rao!  Every time you regenerate, I hope the next clone will solve the problem, but every clone of you has been worse.  Mor-El was an inspiration to me.  I fell in love with him.  Sim-El was a little cold but Son-El was down right mean!  But you are the worst of all.  To even consider hurting someone is outrageous.  If I actually believed you could hurt one of our kind I would do my duty and report you at once.  Why don’t you trade in your body now?  Please consider it.  They could fix the problem in the matrix and you would start fresh as Kal-El.  You would still be you -- but without this attitude problem. ”

Jor-El said, “Oh, I’ll be Kal-El soon, but without cloning.”

Lara said, “But you are only supposed to advance name with each regeneration!”

Jor-El said, “RULES!  I hate them!  To the radioactive core of Krypton with all those stupid rules!”

Lara said, “Rules accepted by voluntary choice for the benefit of all are what makes us what we are as a civilization.”

Jor-El said, “And I HATE what you are -- the entire lot of you.  I’m sick of your platitudes and programmed responses!  People here are nothing but soul-less, passive machines.  Time for me to leave!”

Lara said, “I will be lonely without you my love, but my main concern is this:  Living as Kal-El among the people of Earth, you will be so different from everyone else.  Will you find others who will love you and get you the help you need?”

Jor-El said, “I need no “help.”  I will be a god there.  They will worship me.  As to women, I will take who I choose.  And, as I’ve told you, I have a life mate chosen and growing into the woman I want her to be.  She should be 3 or 4 years old when I get there.  I’ll have to alter her to make her durable enough to be a suitable mate, but that’s an easy fix.”

Lara said, “Stay with me!  I will put up a fight if you truly want me to.”

Jor-El said, “You wouldn’t know how.  Even if I told you that I was about to kill you and destroy everything you hold dear, would you fight to stop me?  Could you?  Do you have it anywhere within you to put up a fight?   I AM going to kill you now and destroy everything I leave behind so no one can follow me.  Resist me now!  Fight to save your life and the civilization you hold so dear!”

Jor-El came at Lara.  She threw her arms around him, kissed his cheek and whispered in his ear, “I will love you always, my dear husband.”  Jor-El put a hand at each side of her head and twisted her neck quickly.  Her body fell to the floor.

Jor-El looked at her dead body and said, “Laura?  LAURA!  Why didn’t you fight me?  You should have stopped me.  Now what will happen is your fault.  IT’S ALL YOUR FAULT!”

Jor-El turned to a console and mentally ordered it to begin its .assigned task.  He took off his clothes and laid down on a table next to the space ship.  A mind probe began to collect everything that made Jor-El who he was.  Another device was causing Jor-El’s body to become younger and shrink to the size of an infant.  The child was left with only trace memories of who he had been.  Another device in the room began generating a pulse that shot through an opening in the floor and began neutralizing the forces that held the planet Krypton together.  The mind probe transferred the essence of Jor-El into a sophisticated thinking machine that was octagonal and could fit in the palm of a person’s hand.  The machines gently levitated the baby into the awaiting ship.  As he floated over Lara’s body, the baby saw her and cried out.  Tears steamed from his eyes.  The octagonal thinking machine containing the essence of Jor-El floated into the air and found its home in the side of the spaceship.   The spaceship closed around the baby as the roof above the ship opened to allow it to depart.  As the spaceship flew out of Krypton’s atmosphere, the planet exploded leaving no one alive to follow Jor-El.

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Epilog:  The Best Laid Plans of Monsters and Men

Jor-El’s intention was to land near the Kiwatche caves, mature his body to the age of 20 in a process as rapid as the one that had made it younger and reunite his consciousness and memories with his body.  Then he would find Laura Lang and take custody of Louise who he would raise to be his primary mate and companion.

Unexpectedly, the ship was struck by a meteor that was part of a meteor shower intended to hide the ship’s entrance into Earth’s atmosphere.  This particular rock weakened the ship and made it “ill.”  It released Jor-El’s essence and the spaceship crashed.  The child Kal-El was found by Jonathan and Martha Kent and their teachings had an influence on him contrary to the nature of the Jor-El essence.  Jor-El made attempts to regain control of his body but was unsuccessful until he was able to use a woman who he altered and renamed “Kara” to lure Kal-El back to the Kiwatche caves and get him to willingly submit to re-birth … and unification.

The End?