16th March
07:01 GMT -5
M'gann tilts her head to the side slightly as Angelika leads the Earth's other of kryptonians and half-kryptonians through what looks like tai-chi. The motions don't exactly correspond to those of tai-chi, but humans and kryptonians have the same points of articulation so there's a degree of similarity.
"Overgirl knows Torquasm-Rao?"
"She might
look young, but she
is five years older than Superman.
" I watch as she corrects his form, changing the angle of his outstretched left arm.
"And Overman's seventy four. He's had plenty of time to study it.
"
And a brief discussion of what it actually
does made me
very glad that we're not planning on fighting Overman anytime soon. From what Overman, Overgirl and Earth 10's magicians can work out, it essentially gives the user greater control of their innate energy fields. Which would mean that while Overman might be a physical duplicate of Superman, his training would make him
in effect significantly stronger and tougher. And that's before getting into the really unusual things that are supposed to be possible with it.
Fortunately, no one of Earth 10 had access to an actual
master of either Torquasm-Roa or Torquasm-Vo. They've essentially been trying to recreate it from surviving records with the aid of personal experimentation. I suppose that if I were looking for one I'd try-.
Overgirl doesn't know about Daxam. Which is one of two places where there might actually be a surviving master, along with the Phantom Zone. Or if not an actual master then at least an inheritor of the tradition.
Ms Lanes takes a slurp of her coffee.
"Okay, you wanna give me the background on this?"
"Obvious question: how does someone with super strength learn how to fight?
"
She nods. "I've seen how Superman goes through training robots. So this is kryptonian fight club?"
"No, you-. Superman's kryptonian physiology, his strength, toughness and speed, make it very hard for him to improve his
skill level. A human martial artist can go to any gym or dojo and find people to train with. Someone as powerful as him? He's got maybe two dozen people on the planet he can train at anything like full power with. And out of all of them.. only Diana is much use as a trainer.
"
I
had thought that Adom would be able to help there, but it turns out that he hasn't ever had to train a fighter in his weight class before
either. Which makes sense: the other Ancients came pre-trained, Shiruta wasn't a brawler, and… As he said, he never had a family to share his power with before. He said that he would be happy to have training bouts with Superman, but even someone as clumsy as Clark Kent can only explain away
so many bruises.
"Though Superman's doing better than
some. The best Hugo Danner could come up with during World War One was to have himself dropped onto enemy positions by plane. When he fought the All-Star Squadron,
Atom beat him pretty easily, because Atom had fought
plenty of people in his weight class while Hugo hadn't.
"
"Wasn't he a boxer?"
I nod.
"An amateur, but he was pretty good at it. Though… Honestly? Reading the reports it doesn't sound like
he was all that good at it either. Super strength and toughness change so many assumptions about what will hurt someone and what won't, you can't just transfer what you learn without super strength over.
"
Or we'd just dose Superman with gold kryptonite and train him like
that.
"If she's five years older than him, how come she looks so young?"
Um.
"Have you and Superman talked about your long term future?
"
There's a certain something in her eyes as she understands my implication.
"Oh. So she just hasn't physically aged."
"No, she-. Well, I
assume that she has, as I don't have earlier scans to work from. But she is aging now. Just not at the same rate a human would.
"
Which considering how she was made is pretty darn lucky.
Ms Lane turns to M'gann.
"How does that work out with you and Superboy?"
"Um… I'm not really sure? Martians usually live longer than humans, but…" She shakes her head. "No one knows what Kon's life expectancy is. If he lives as long as humans do… Well, that's still a long time. And if he lives longer then
great!" She smiles a little.
And doesn't mention the third possibility; that something goes wrong with all the exotic effects operating on Kon's body and his lifespan is
shorter. That
shouldn't happen. I've studied his biology and had the G-Lusca check him over as far as they can. As far as we can tell nothing like that
should happen, but kryptonian energy fields aren't well understood. Jor-El… Might be able to make him entirely kryptonian, but that would involve radically altering who he is. Lex Luthor genes make you think rather differently to Kal-El genes, not to mention all of the other minor changes.
No, I'm… Just being paranoid. If nothing else, earning Helios' favour has probably made him a low-end arcane life form, and if
that's happened then conventional biology is much less important.
"And how about children?"
M'gann purples faintly. "I… There are… Things I could do with shapeshifting. They're kinda
advanced-" Ms Lane's eyebrows are slightly raised and I'm
not using empathic vision on M'gann right now. "-but that's not something we're worrying about right now."
"Are you asking for any particular reason?
"
"Kids don't read newspapers, Match is single and working out with his shirt off." I bow my head slightly and raise my eyebrows. "I'm not proud of it, but Superman having a new workout routine isn't exactly breaking news. This is going in 'Lifestyle', if Perry even uses it."
"Just another new kryptonian?
"
She nods. "One was big news, two was news. Three is a production line."
"She comes from a parallel universe.
"
"Had one of those last year. You got into a fight with him." She looks mildly curious. "Is the House of El crest different in her universe?"
"No, and she operates under the name 'Overgirl', so it wouldn't really fit.
"
"It's not an 'S'. The kryptonian glyph for 'hope' just looks kinda like one."
"Yes, I… Yes, I know.
"
"And that's… Germanic? Sun, or victory? I suppose either works for a kryptonian. Is there any reason she doesn't use the regular one?"
"Yes, and you'll be free to ask her about it.
"
"Does she know it's half what the SS used to use? Because even if she doesn't plan on sticking around, she might wanna consider changing it."
"I believe that she is aware, but she's been wearing it for a long time, as has her mentor. Overman feels much less connection to her Kryptonian heritage than Superman. I would be surprised if she followed your advice.
"
Ms Lane shrugs. "She can take the heat from the Jewish Anti-Defamation League if she wants to."
It's completely inappropriate, but I can't help but smile. And Ms Lane looks a little too curious at my reaction.
"Um.
" I clear my throat.
"You ever thought about getting superpowers yourself?
"
Remember, Lois, they're underage! Stop eating that eye-candy, leave some for 
