Elana Morris was originally the only inmate at the Department of Extra-Normal Operations, the only alien ever detained there to actually go through the American legal system. She was basically convicted of involuntary manslaughter and her alien physiology was such she'd react in dangerous ways to otherwise normal drugs or foods. Or she'd accidently kill another inmate. When Director J'onn Jo'nzz understood she was simply serving her time at the D.E.O without incident, and literally not bothering anyone, he changed her status. This story borrows more from another idea I had. In which she is not technically a prisoner but they were charged with her care. And a theoretical physicist Martin Stein was called in to try to figure her out. Martin is taking her on her first excursion outside the Department of Extra-normal Operations. Either way it has been well established that her mother's people (Enkarens) were powerful empaths. And had about 3 times the physical strength of a human. The reference to cultural strength and identity is because Martin is Jewish. And would in fact have a Mogen-David on his casket when he passed.
“My people agree that there is a creator. We don't believe in fate so much as providence. And our favorite thing to do is discuss our own beliefs and conclusions about the nature of the divine being that crated the universe. We have conferences of like-minded people, but we don't separate ourselves by our faith. Certainly not by how we feel we should honor our One God.” Elana looked sideways at Martin. “All Abrahamic faiths make perfect sense to me. Their view of God lines up perfectly with my won. But I happen to think they line up with each-other too. To me all Islam, Christianity and Judaism are is vastly different traditions and concepts on how to perceive or relate to the same God of our-all of your ancestors. You shouldn't call people stupid for thinking or even being raised differently than you. Back home we would have gotten that.”
“I'm sorry but, 'back home'?”
“My mom raised me with everything she would have learned in primary or secondary school in Teresia. It's my ancestral homeland on her side. This also means I know how my people would have viewed or interpreted almost anything I see here. WE all had different religions. Or actually we didn't form religion around our spiritual beliefs. Very different from Kryptonians or Martians, they literally all worship the same God. Heritage and culture, well you know as well as anyone how much the two get blurred together sometimes...And the kind of strength that can give a culture.”
“Yes, indeed I do.” Martin said hesitatingly.
“Sorry, I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable.”
“It's fine, refreshing actually.”
“To know someone who doesn't mince words but insists on being respectful as they refuse to?”
“Well that plus just talking about things either of us feel like talking about.” Martin looked around nervously. “And do I assume your shadow is still very interested in you-slash-us?”
“I should say that whatever has given me these visions, I've learned to trust it. That even if what I see isn't happening, I'm seeing it for a reason. And yes, whoever was SO interested in someone like me, is still around. But I'm not entirely sure he's not wearing a mask, using an image in my head that's so fresh for me, having just received and being so focused on what I saw. Also, I cannot for the life of my fathom why I got an early-warning system about him in the first place. What I saw is so fantastical, even by DEO standards, it's not like I'll be able to convince anyone I'm right about him?”
“Perhaps it was more for his sake than yours?” Martin said thoughtfully. “So he wouldn't have as much explaining to do. Or so that someone else will be able to consider- that is give weight and clarity to- his his 'fantastical' story?”
“So I can clarify & confirm what he says when I do bring him in? Trust me, he should want to come. I hope to heaven that you are right and that he's not wearing that kind of a mask. For one he shouldn't exist anymore than J'onn should have. So without a warning or some kind of head's up *I* wouldn't believe this story. And *I* wouldn't have believed it out of his or anyone's mouth.”
“Okay, that one you are going to have to explain.”
“That J'onn shouldn't exist? Well obviously he should exist but when the DEO first encountered him they were wrong about what he was. I mean...Well, you know who J'onn is right?”
“He's a shape-shifting alien who reformed the DEO into what it is, not like it was run under his predecessor. A Green Martian, a steadfast warrior...an a man of honor by all I can tell of him.”
“Exactly, he's a Green Martian...And he never told you that part. Ohh crap.” Elana looked down, dejected and thoroughly displeased with herself.“We should get going. We should head back.”
“Yeah, no kidding. Time to breath DEO air again...literally and non-sarcastically.”
“You mean you can't breath unfiltered air for long?” Martin said as he put a $20 on the table and picked up his jacket. “Not a complete shot in the dark. I was there when they figured out why you had such trouble speaking...why you reacted as if there wasn't enough air in the room. IOt's not exactly because of Asthma, but the result is much the same."
“ 'There's not enough air in the air'...is 10 degrees off. More like there's too much of something else and I can't breathe-thereby I can't process the 'air' in the atmosphere either. In human physiology if oxygen bonds with sulfur you can't process oxygen. Same for us with the... Aeon? Argon in the air. It's like breathing in smog. It's smothering. And eventually my breathing goes shallow. Hyp-O-ventilating essentially.”
“Adding to the list of reasons you don't usually leave the D.E.O.”
“Well, yeah.”
They were in their car and heading back to the D.E.O. Both of them strapped in, Elana in the front passenger seat of Martin's Impala. “How much do you know about when J'onn and Nikita first met? When the original Hank Henshaw was still around and the impressions everyone left on each-other?”
“Very little I'm afraid. I know Henshaw was a close-minded jerk who saw all aliens as potential enemies. I know Nikita had been a prisoner at the DEO but with the help of a sympathetic agent, whom she emotionally attached herself to, she was became more of an asset than an inmate. In custody but here to do a job. I know that J'onn was an alien they had to go to the far northern Canadian Rockies to find. And neither Director Henshaw nor the other agent were said to have survived.”
“After that mission Nikita was invited to become a full agent of the D.E.O and J'onn took Hank's face and identity in order to reform the D.E.O. And Superman has been 'in' on their agreement and intention since day one. Listen, I can tell you everything Nikita told me, she wouldn't mind it. I cannot say anything that was not contained in her story. These will be Nikita's words and feelings. I feel that to give my own, or anything of J'onn's story that I myself have learned, without permission, would violate J'onn's trust.”
“Well, okay.”
Elana spent the rest of the drive and 30 extra minutes describing Green and White Martians, that Nikita was of a sibling race to her own, but without the hot-bloodedness and the disproportionate physical ability. And how Nikita's loyalty and faith went first to J'onn and then to the DEO. And how Nikita's people, Zavallens have the Ten GAlorious Tales, her peoples Holy Scriptures which inform every single aspect of thier lives. And when she was done Martin was looking at her with a new admiration. “You really are in-tuned with emotions...even those not actually your own.”Elana looked at him thoroughly thrown off balance. “Of course, I'm Enkaren.” Martin's face showed his lack of understanding. “My people's empathic abilities are such that traumatic hypnosis would be a thing if I were full-blooded.”
“Could you run that by me again in elaborated English?”
“You know how I get when I sing a song? If you have an open mind you see it in your mind's eye as well. Or here..” She put her left hand to the side of her own face and played an image of cool winds blowing over fields of wildflowers. “If I were entirely of my mother's people, that wouldn't have been in your minds eye. You would have whole-heartedly believed you were there and never questioned it. It would be a full-sensory, even physical experience; indistinguishable from the ground and surroundings in which you truly stand. Not to say it was always a weapon of war. We would use it to calm a troubled sea OR stir up a tempest...But in general using our minds as a weapon against our enemies would be the first thing we'd think of. That is why my people are so feared among alien races. The only difference is that my mother never taught me to use my abilities that way. She wasn't that kind of person. Even if I were pure-blooded traumatic hypnosis would be a mis-nomer.” Elana looked away, sadly.“...What happened to her?” Martin asked in a weak voice.
“Nothing bad. She was an old woman when I was born. She died when I was in my 20's. I was 31 years old when I attacked an assailant – someone who was beating someone else up – and ended up doing enough damage he died from his injuries. That man turned out to be a cop. And I got arrested being so disregardful of law and order that killing a cop was nothing to me. If a persons position is such that wronging him is a worse crime than wronging a civilian he should be required to Identify himself. Maybe he was supposed to but he never declared himself. I sure as hell didn't mean to kill him. That was the result, not my intention. And no one could figure out how a little shrimp like me could have caused enough damage to kill him -someone as fit as a police detective- unless I'd knowingly or willfully use enough force to do so. It's not like a pacifist can accidently kill a solider, right? So I spent 15 years in a DEO cell. Wondering why I wasn't sent to a normal prison if they didn't know I was an alien? I eventually realized it was because the director of the D.E.O, the original Hank Henshaw, had figured out I was one. And that chances were good table-salt would burn me or I'd react to a normal painkiller like it was a powerful sedative or even hallucinogen. At the D.E.O. I was cared for by people who knew who I was and otherwise left me alone. And I was and am fine with that. I met director J'onzz when he was doing his rounds. And at first I didn't know he was well...not Director Henshaw. Then I realized he didn't know my story. And he didn't agree with keeping me locked up. In him and then in you I have found someone actually willing to talk to me just for the sake of talking...All because a man like Hank Henshaw actually saw what was going on when no one else did. And that is enough irony for a lifetime."
"J'onn, I would like to introduce you to Querl Dox, a descendant of the Brainiac Clan."
"And you are sure. You are confident...in him?" He wanted to say 'that he is a good guy' but didn't want to be offensive, or risk ticking off a strange visitor.
"He is as much an exception to the rule as my own mother was. And you know a Franciscan Friar is non typical for an Enkaren." She looked to Martin Stein, to the Coluan visitor and back to Director J'onzz as she spoke. "My mother carried a dagger but never a sword. And she was more apt to carry a loaf of bread than an Olive Branch. You get where I'm going...what I'm trying to say."
"She carried a knife but never loved a weapon. She wasn't a pacifist, or at least didn't wear that on her proverbial sleeve but always tended to the poor and weak?" Martin Stein guessed.
"And for her people, for Enkarens that was very A-typical. They were warriors born. Not aggressive, not tyrannical by any means, but fighters all the same." She looked over to her friend. "Like I told you Martin. My abilities being weaker, my emotions being diluted and not in pure form, is the result of my mixed heritage. That I actually have control over my 'quick temper' and why my 'hot blood' is never very explosive...that's because my mother raised me right." Elana blushed. "Well, it's because he raised me how she did. In a way most Enkarens wouldn't consider to be 'right' or at least not natural thinking. And in a style, with a set of values most aliens wouldn't think of as 'Enkaren'.
Elana stares hard and Querl Dox. A moment alter she shakes her head. "Director, Nikita would be a better help to you than I. And not just because my head is full of air right now."
Director, J'onn Jo'nzz looked at his alien friend with a note of sympathy. "You should go to your quarters and lie down."
Querl Dox looked with concern as Martin took Elana by the arm and half-guided half carried her to the training room that served as Elana's quarters at the D.E.O. "I am afraid I do not understand is she...ill?"
J'onn Jo'nzz glanced back at the visitor. "DO you know enough about Enkaren physiology to know why the air itself is slightly toxic to them?"
"Enkarens would use an argon gas chamber to execute criminals." Querl said immediately. "The amount of Argon in Earth's atmosphere would make them feel like they were breathing in smog...And the air filtration systems here at the D.E.O would allow her to breathe what would be for her 'pure air'. without any apparatus."
"You really do know a lot about practically everything."
I realize Elana introduced me to you as Querl Dox. But I would actually prefer to be addressed by my designation, Brainiac-5. My friends just call me 'Brainy'."
"Not close to your family?"
"A less formal name implies a familiarity I find...comforting. And for my people calling one by there individual name is...actually setting them apart from the rest of thier family."
"You're related to Indigo." J'onn realized quickly. "How is that possible."
Brainiac-5 did not respond except to lower his head.
