1955

The old, balding man with silver hair and a matching beard opened the door to the darkened laboratory. He turned on the lights, illuminating the rather small room, and approached the desk. Resting on there, amongst the scattered, hand-written notes, was a recording device. The man held a package of Oreos in his hand and munched on one, setting the rest of the cookies next to the device. He brushed off his hands and lips, then pressed the record button and picked up the microphone.

“This is the audio log of Dr. Saul Erdel,” he said into the microphone. “For years now, I’ve been working on a method of traveling vast distances in the blink of an eye. This method of transport, called teleportation, will revolutionize how human beings travel across the world.

“My work has met with multiple setbacks, but I believe I have finally mastered the basic concepts necessary. And tonight, I begin my first test.”

He placed the microphone on the desk, allowing the device to continue recording, and took a fresh cookie from the package. Erdel approached the two large chambers in the corner of the room, with vacuum tubes attached to them and several power cords running into the wall. Setting the cookie inside one of the chambers, he shut the glass door, then pulled down the large switch on the side of the device.

Grinding noises followed and the lights along the device started to power up. The scientist stepped back to the microphone and raised it up. “This is how it begins. With enough of an initial charge, I believe I can transport this simple biscuit across the room to the adjacent chamber.”

Electricity crackled, arcing around the center of the chamber. The light was so bright, Erdel had to shield his eyes, though he didn’t want to look away for a second. The brightness only grew more incredible, and then gauges spiked into the red zone. Erdel rushed to the chamber, his hands reaching for the lever. Once he touched it, the electricity flowed into his body and blew him clear across the room.

Bulbs burst and the entire room went dark. Erdel sat up, groaning. Pain radiated throughout his body, and he crawled towards the chamber. He reached for the door to open it, when there was a thump against the glass. He jumped back and stared through the door.

There was a shadow inside the chamber and what looked like a hand pressed against the glass. That hand banged against the door a few more times. It recoiled, the fingers closing, and then punched right through the door, sending shards flying.

Erdel gasped as he witnessed some sort of strange creature crawl through the door. It was gangly and hunched over, with long arms, four digits on each hand, and the head had a peak. The skin was a dark green and two, crimson eyes narrowed at Erdel, glowing in the dark.

“M-my god…what are you…?”

The creature spoke a single word: “Ma’aleca’andra.”

“What is that?” Erdel gasped. “What does it mean?”

The creature took a step towards him, reaching a long limb and its strange digits towards him. Erdel screamed—he could hear the creature’s strange mutterings echoing everywhere. No, not echoing—they were in his head.

There was a tightness in his chest. Erdel’s breath grew short and he screamed one final time before he collapsed. The strange creature moved closer to him, gasping as well. It reached a hand towards the fallen scientist and bent its head down low.

From Erdel’s mind, the creature gleaned a measure of information. He stood upright and approached the window, staring out at the night sky. There was a white orb hanging amongst the clouds. But…how could that be? If it was what he thought it was, that orbiting planetoid was far closer than it should be.

The creature approached the desk. The notes Erdel left were written in some strange language it could not understand, and the old man had expired before the creature could get a full understanding of the tongue these strange, pink creatures spoke. He looked back at Erdel’s body, then closed his eyes.

The green skin changed to the same hue as Erdel’s. His body shrunk down to human proportions, mimicking Erdel’s exactly, right down to his face. The alien noticed something else—the package of cookies left behind.

It reached, plucking one from its container. Holding it up to its nose, the creature sniffed it a few times. It brought the cookie towards its lips and took a cautious nibble. The taste was different from anything ever experienced before. The creature popped the entire cookie into its mouth and chewed on it.

A smile formed.

THE CONQUEROR

Part I

By Dino Pollard

Present Day

The rental car raced down the street, right past the sign that read HAPPY HARBOR. The driver, a young man with shaggy, brown hair and a few days’ worth of stubble pressed record on his smartphone, mounted on the dashboard.

“Hello, truth-seekers! This is Lucas ‘Snapper’ Carr with another update from the road! I’m now heading towards Happy Harbor. For the past few years, this sleepy little town in Rhode Island has been the source of numerous reports of paranormal phenomenon! Is there really something here in this tiny hamlet, or is it nothing more than local superstition? Keep listening to my podcast to learn the truth!”

He stopped the recording. Later, after he finished his interviews in Happy Harbor, Snapper would edit them together into a single episode. Or maybe multiple ones. Who knew what this would turn up?

Snapper drove into a motel parking lot and pulled the car into a spot. After turning off the engine, he got out and retrieved his bags from the trunk. After checking into his room, he opened up his laptop and reviewed the information he had.

As an amateur UFOlogist, Snapper had devoted his life to the study of aliens on Earth. As a kid, his father often talked about his time at Kansas State University when he and his friends went into a small town nearby for a few drinks and they witnessed the Smallville Meteor Shower. Snapper’s father said that amidst the meteors, he saw a rocket ship.

Ever since then, Snapper was fascinated by alien phenomena. The rise of metahumans had only increased his belief that he was right. And in his research, he discovered several strange stories over the past fifteen years, all of them involving a local private investigator named John Jones.

The dossier he’d gathered on Jones wasn’t that impressive. He’d been a decorated police detective in Gotham until one day, he just up and quit the force, divorced his wife, and moved to Happy Harbor. The few mentions of Jones in the press since then had some very strange undertones. Stories claiming that he’d solved cases with information he couldn’t have possibly uncovered. Stories of his odd behaviors. Of tricks of the light when it seemed like his eyes glowed.

Snapper had an address for Jones. His first order of business was to meet with the private detective in person and see what he had to say for himself.

Somewhere Over the Persian Gulf

I hate this.

As the being called Superman flew through the clouds, that’s the one thought that kept racing through his mind. He didn’t want to get involved in international politics. Since his public debut in Metropolis not long ago, there had been countless pundits and politicians commenting on his actions.

Calling him a demigod. A potential threat. All he wanted to do was help people. And though he knew what he was doing in the Middle East would certainly contribute to that, Superman still worried that the politics surrounding his actions could easily be misinterpreted.

As Clark Kent, he traveled the world after college. He even spent time in Bialya, back when General Rumaan Harjavti had staged the coup that led to his rule over the small nation. He’d seen firsthand what Harjavti’s mix of totalitarianism and populism led to. The images of the victims still haunted him.

Now, Harjavti had grown even more bold than before. He was calling on Bialya to become a nuclear power, which he claimed to be a necessary deterrent to the aggressions of the west. It had put everyone on edge.

Given his own history in Bialya, Clark was concerned. He looked deeper into the situation and discovered that Bialya had somehow managed to secure a shipment of nuclear material. That was his target this day. And just below him was the ship carrying that shipment.

Superman zoomed in with his telescopic vision. Maintaining that view, he activated his x-ray vision and could see almost everything on the ship. Except several containers, no doubt lined with lead to protect from the radiation. This was definitely it.

Diving from the clouds, Superman was a blue and red blur. He landed on the deck of the ship and faced off against its occupants. They were mercenaries, no doubt, and they instantly raised their guns and opened fire. Superman remained still as the bullets flattened against his invulnerable flesh.

“I’m going to take a wild guess and say that you guys aren’t up-to-date on current events.” His crystal-blue eyes turned bright red and the guns grew too hot for the mercenaries to hold on to. Superman moved faster than the human eye could see, quickly rendering the opposition unconscious with a few feather-taps—or at least feather-taps for him. For them, it was like a brick thrown against their head.

Superman rose above the ship and stared down, using his x-ray vision to confirm which deck the material was in. He dove through the first few decks, his fists easily punching through them, and stopped on the lowest.

A massive, lead container stood before him. Superman gripped hold of the edge and pulled, tearing it open. Inside, he could see the clear markings of radioactive material. It only confirmed what he feared—Harjavti was pursuing nuclear armament.

Superhuman hearing picked up someone trying to sneak up on him. A metal pipe struck Superman’s shoulder, instantly bending at a nearly ninety-degree angle upon impact. The Man of Steel turned, flashing a smirk that quickly turned to shock.

The man who struck him, he had something on his face. A kind of strange, purple starfish with what looked like a giant eye in the center. Before he could react, the starfish jumped from the soldier and leapt at Superman.

Heat vision exploded from his eyes, and the starfish gave an inhuman screech. It landed on the floor and Superman looked at it carefully. The strange creature began to climb up with the aid of its limbs. Its eye looked almost angry and it pounced again at him.

Superman blew hard, his freeze-breath quickly subduing the small creature and it landed harmlessly at his feet. Blinking in disbelief, Superman looked to the mercenary who attacked him, but the man looked even more confused. His gaze met Superman’s and he asked very simply, “Where am I?”

But it wasn’t the man that grabbed Superman’s curiosity as much as the strange, frozen starfish at his feet. He knelt down and picked it up, examining its innards with his x-ray vision. It was unlike anything he’d seen before, and it brought up more questions.

Snapper walked up the stairs of the office building to the fifth floor. He crossed the hallway, stopping at a door which read, JOHN JONES, PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR. Before he could even knock, the door opened.

“Can I help you with something?” John Jones was a tall man with dark skin and a bald head. He wore a white shirt and gray slacks, with the tie somewhat loose around his unbuttoned collar.

“Mr. Jones, isn’t it?” asked Snapper. “My name’s Snapper Carr, I run a—”

“A podcast examining paranormal phenomenon, yes, I know,” said Jones. “What can I do for you, Mr. Carr?”

“I wanted to ask you a few questions about—”

“No, you do not want to ask me anything, Mr. Carr.”

Snapper blinked. It sounded like a voice inside his head. His vision blurred and he felt dizzy, having to hold onto the doorframe to keep from falling over. Snapper slowly looked up, and through his blurred vision, he could have sworn he saw two glowing red eyes staring down at him.

“You will leave Happy Harbor. John Jones is not a case worth investigating. Do we understand each other, Mr. Carr?”

The next thing Snapper knew, he was standing outside the office building. He had a vague notion of what just happened, but nothing he could concentrate on.

Metropolis University

Superman stood across the table from Dr. Terry Ethridge, a marine biologist who mostly taught these days. Ethridge adjusted her glasses as she cut into the strange starfish that Superman had brought her to investigate. The Man of Steel watched the whole autopsy.

“You said you found this thing on a ship in the Persian Gulf?” she asked.

Superman nodded. “It seemed very strange to me. The man who attacked me, this thing was stuck to his face. Then it jumped at me. I examined it with my x-ray vision and thought I needed a second opinion on it.”

Ethridge sighed and looked up. She tore off her latex gloves and tossed them into a trash can. “To tell you the truth, Superman, it’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen before.”

“So it’s not indigenous to the Persian Gulf?”

The biologist chuckled. “It’s not indigenous to any body of water I’ve ever seen. It may superficially resemble a starfish, but that’s where the similarities end.”

“What about the nuclear material on the ship? Could it have been mutated somehow?”

Ethridge shook her head. “No, Superman, you aren’t understanding me. This thing is unlike anything that exists on Earth. I think what we have here is an organism of xenobiologic origins.”

“Xenobiology?” asked Superman. “Doctor, are you saying this thing could be an alien lifeform?”

“I think it—”

Ethridge was cut off at the sound of the wall blowing in. Superman quickly moved in front of her, wrapping his arms around her so he could shield the doctor from the impact. Debris fell on him and he pushed it off, turning to see what had caused the wall to crumble.

A giant hole stood where the wall once did. And standing atop the rubble was a man with short, blond hair, wearing a kind of crustacean armor over his muscular body. In his green-gloved hand, he held a golden trident. And wrapped around his face was another one of those alien organisms.

“Doctor, I think you should probably get as many people out of the science building as you can find,” said Superman.

Ethridge nodded and ran for the door. The strange man with the trident took a few steps closer, but Superman blocked his path.

“Aquaman, right?” asked Superman. “I’ve heard of you. But I thought you were one of the good guys.”

Aquaman responded by thrusting his trident at the Man of Steel.

Happy Harbor

John Jones walked across the beach, his sleeves rolled up and his hands stuffed into the pockets of his slacks. This Snapper Carr had come to investigate him. He’d managed to maintain this identity for a number of years, ever since the original John Jones had died. But maybe now it was time to find another identity.

It was too bad—he’d enjoyed living in Happy Harbor. And his little hideaway had been a great place to continue his work. John walked from the beach towards a rocky cliff. Nestled in there was the entrance to a cave.

In the darkness, John’s form shifted into that of J’onn J’onzz—a green creature with glowing, red eyes. He pushed his hands against the cave wall and his body passed right through the rock. On the other end, he emerged into a walled off section of the cave, one with advanced technology and monitors all around.

J’onn sat at the computer and scanned through the footage. The arrival of these metahumans had him curious. He’d been watching them ever since Superman’s debut in Metropolis not long ago. They had great power and he wondered if they could be trusted.

But before he could consider anything more, an alert flashed. J’onn brought up the new footage and saw a news report of Superman and Aquaman battling in the city of Metropolis.

“Pause.”

The footage paused. J’onn zoomed in on the image of Aquaman and he gasped when he saw the purple starfish wrapped around his face, its giant, red eye staring out.

“By the flames of H’ronmeer… The Conqueror has come to Earth!”

NEXT: Superman vs Aquaman!