Smallville AU OOC

Rose McCrimmon
(...knocked my glasses off. stupid.)


Mr. Constantine
(telling stories out of school, are we?)


Gabriel Sullivan
('...where we give a crap.')​

Name: J'onn J'onzz The Younger
Alias(es): John Jones, Jr. / John Jones, Sr. / The Martian Manhunter
Age: 18
Race: Martian
Height: 5'11" (JJjr); 6'1" (JJsr); 7'5" (MM); variable
Hair: Dark Brown (JJjr); Dark Brown w/ grey (JJsr); None (MM); variable
Eyes: Green (JJjr); Green (JJsr); Luminous Red (MM); variable



The Martians are an ancient race, and their history is as tumultuous and myriad as the forms these creatures can take. Emerging from the ancient oceans of Mars, aboriginal toad-kings established vast war-like empires aeons before the first glimmers of organic life even formed on Earth.

As the Martians themselves evolved, so too did their forms of conquest, and certain sects of the Martian race took it upon themselves to expand their empire from their lowly scarlet fourth planet to the rest of the furthest reaches of the solar system, Earth included... during this time, the peaceful science-minded philosophers of the Green sect had their great Renaissance, and stood up to the more tyrannical peoples of their species, most especially The Pale Martians.

In Martian culture, a race of shapechangers, identity was mutable, represented by exterior forms that were freely chosen. For instance, The Pale Martians chose the colour of phobic terror and sadistic delight to express their ultimate goals, whereas The Green Martians chose the colour of understanding and unification-- especially The Manhunters, whose form was designated the epitome of law-enforcement and courageousness. The fact that The Pales openly chose to devote themselves to destruction and domination galled the law-abiding sensibilities of The Greens, and a great civil war tore across the Martian landscape.

Many terrible weapons were unleashed by each side in an attempt to put a stop to the other, but the most final and terrible of this was a thing called "H'ronmeer's Curse," a psychic virus that leapt from mind to mind to mind throughout every sect of Martian culture, defying every attempt to shapeshift around its effects. This is the source of every Martian's crippling vulnerability to fire, and it would have been the end of all of Mars if not for the timely intervention of ancient Krypton: left unchecked, H'ronmeer's Curse would cause its infected to shapeshift into a horribly flammable substance and burst spontaneously into flame, utterly unable to escape their own consumption.

Prior to periods of great xenophobia, Krypton reached out the hand of friendship to a multiplicity of alien races of a certain level of development, one of which were the peoples of Mars. Taking the side of the intellectual pacifists of The Green sect-- perhaps out of altruism, perhaps out of protecting their own long-abiding interests in Earth --Kryptonians offered Phantom Zone technology for the imprisonment of the murderous Pales, and mental training to wall off the more deadly effects of H'ronmeer's Curse, and access to the Kryptonian Stargate network with which individuals could traverse not only space but time as well.

Krypton, however, eventually entered a long and reclusive era in its history, cutting itself off from interstellar contact and support. With the subtraction of this aid, Mars managed to carry on, though the memory of the crimes of The Pales were passed through the generations with the telepathic historical archives and this would occasionally result in the uprising of dissidents who thought The Pales something to be emulated. Mental training remained a top priority, but Mars' geomagnetic Stargate points fell into deep disrepair.

Some time in relatively recent history, though long before Rao and Krypton vanished both from the sky in grim finality, a great and terrible recurrence of The Pale rebellion occurred, threatening all life throughout the solar system and in a final desperate act, J'onn J'onzz The Elder, greatest of the legendary lawkeeper Manhunters, found himself forced to reach into the minds of Martians the planet over and unleash the full terrible effects of H'ronmeer's Curse, held back for so long...

Mars killed itself that Earth might live.

Martians of all colours of the rainbow screamed and burned, as J'onn J'onzz The Elder returned to his family home to die along with them.

It was then, only then, as the flames raged and the screams echoed to the skies, that he gazed upon his wife M'yri'ah, his daughter K'hym, and his teenage boy J'onn J'onzz The Younger, and despaired as to the extent of his crime. Thinking quickly, M'yri'ah suggested that one of the disused Stargates might provide a last-ditch escape for their children, that they might restore their mental defences and escape beyond the immediate psionic range of the virus' rampant propagation. Tearful and loyal, K'hym refused to depart her parents' company, but M'yri'ah was able to convince the younger J'onn to take this escape, to launch himself into the cosmos and save the last pure ideals of Mars.

The family fled across the scarlet desert, delving into the last known location of an active Stargate, gathering there, weeping, around J'onn The Younger. M'yri'ah's last act was to restore the vestigial mental blocks that kept H'ronmeer's Curse from devouring young J'onn alive, and elder J'onn's last act was resurrecting the Stargate for one last desperate burst of life...

K'hym's last act was to kiss her brother goodbye.

The last thing J'onn The Younger witnessed as he vanished into spacetime was the seething scorching death of his loved ones, and then he was very much alone.

J'onn emerged out of the timestream into an ancient cavern in the walls of The Grand Canyon of Earth, in the presence of maverick xenoarchaeologist Saul Erdel...

...his terrifying Martian visage combined with the surge of power accompanied by the activated Stargate, caused Erdel to perish of a heart attack. J'onn's last vision of his homeworld had been death, and his first vision of this new world was death also. Wounded psychologically perhaps beyond repair, J'onn somehow maintained the presence of mind to rummage through Erdel's fading thoughts for knowledge of language and geography... and found on Erdel's person a map of strange and mystic places which might contain artefacts left behind by aliens...

On the ridiculously astronomical off-chance that these might represent Stargates of Krypton's old old visits to the human cradleworld, on the off-chance that J'onn might use these to return home to save his people or die trying, J'onn began tracking these locations down. Most were red herrings, urban legends...

...but one was The Kawatche Cave outside of Smallville, and this was very very real.

Ready sacrifice himself once more upon the altar of the whims of hypertime and hyperspace, J'onn found himself stumbled upon by a far more real source of hope. The Last Son of Krypton. Clark Kent.

Immediately patterning a human form after one inspired by Clark's shape, J'onn befriended the powerful young man.

He was fifteen, and this was three years ago.

And they have been brothers in arms ever since.

---

Powers: Before their near extinction, Martians were one of the most powerful and versatile species in the cosmos, and The Last Emerald Child of Ma'aleca'andra carries all these traits within his matrix.

Telepathy- J'onn is capable of reading minds, detecting emotion and even guiding and manipulating the thoughts of others. He can classify psionic emanations according to a mood spectrum, even to the point of reading psychic impressions on objects and energies, simulating advanced psychogeography. He can link multiple minds simultaneously, serving as a conduit for each to hear the other's thoughts. He can read minds over great distance, even interplanetary gaps, though to link consciousnesses over interstellar distances taxes his range considerably.

Telekinesis- While not specifically capable of moving objects with his mind from a distance, J'onn possesses select forms of telekinesis, most of which are internalised. He can manipulate his own matter at the molecular level, permitting: a vastly advanced form of shapeshifting, capable of assuming an incalculable number of configurations and even transubstantiation into certain simple forms of matter; regeneration, rebuilding himself should he be injured, though based on the extent of the injury this may require long periods of time and/or significant measures of concentration; density control, increasing his molecular solidity to the point of attaining nigh-invulnerability and massive strength-- the extremes of these rivaling those of Clark or Lana --or decreasing the same to the point of becoming utterly intangible, allowing him to "phase" through solid objects. He can also use this telekinesis to defy local gravity, rendering him capable of flight at amazing speed, and to render himself invisible by bending light around him at the photonic level. Occasionally, J'onn can conduct these telekinetic energies out through his eyes in a technique he calls "Martian vision," taking the form either of force blasts or a molecular-level temperature excitation that closely resembles Clark's radiant infrared heat vision.

Heightened senses- J'onn possesses eight senses, not all of which are comprehensible to human conventions. His eyes alone are capable of penetrative vision which, like Clark or Lana's, can see through any matter save lead; distance vision which provides an enhanced telescopic image even through extreme atmospheric conditions like sandstorms or snowstorms, or through natural low-light conditions; micro-vision capable of delving to the nanometric level or lower; and wide-band electromagnetic vision primarily used to create an infrared image based on heat. All of his conventional senses-- that is, analogous to human senses --are enhanced to a similar degree, including his sense of touch. Combined with his psionic awareness, this makes evading J'onn's detection a formidable task.

Superhuman speed- J'onn's speed and reaction time rival those of Clark or Lana, though they fall far short of certain other beings of tremendous velocity. He is capable of running faster than the proverbial speeding bullet, and capable of watching such a bullet in flight. Interplanetary distances are daunting to him, but not impossible. He is not capable of superluminal speed without external augmentation.

Indefatigability- J'onn's meta-ATP-fueled Martian metabolism is akin to a perpetual motion engine, requiring little if anything in the way of sustenance or hydration or sleep. Combined with his shapeshifting-based ability to regenerate, J'onn could conceivably maintain his youth indefinitely, making him functionally immortal. Atmospheric extremes like Jupiter's storms or the vacuum of space do not hamper his ability to function, and extreme cold is a walk in the park to him. Increased heat, however...

Weakness: J'onn may have a wider spectrum of powers than Clark or Lana, and may have these powers far from the light of a yellow sun, but the weakness of Kryptonians is relatively rare on Earth, the light of red suns and the glow of multiple colours of Kryptonite. J'onn's primary weakness, on the other hand, is as nearby as a book of matches or a cigarette lighter.

Fire- Extreme heat is debilitating, but open flame is paralysing and agonising. Prolonged viewing of a single flickering wick causes J'onn's powers to become inaccessible, trapping him in the form he presently occupies or forcing him to revert to his natural Martian form. Quick bursts of flame immediately cut through natural invulnerabilities and cause him terrible pain. J'onn is especially hurt by flame that is ignited with malicious intent, infusing the flame with a negative psychic impression and essentially combining this physical/neurological weakness with the weaknesses of his

Mind- While a powerful mentalist in his own right, J'onn is also made exceptionally sensitive by this, and his relative lack of skill at mental acrobatics and relative lack of mental defences compounds his vulnerability to psionic attack.

Magic- He doesn't know it yet, but there's few species in this Universe who can overcome the chaotic, physics-bending properties of magic. Martians, it seems, as adaptive as they are, are not as invulnerable to magic as they are to other attacks. They are not extra-vulnerable to magic-- i.e., magic doesn't instantly become more effective when used on Martians --unless the magic is fire-based, they are simply more vulnerable to magic than they are to conventional attacks.

Youth- Overall, J'onn is still very much in training. Technically able to access every single one of his powers, J'onn lacks specific tactical tutelage in the individual abilities and simply does the best he can with each. Smartalecky and impetuous, J'onn has also been known to bite off more than he can chew, especially when it comes to enjoying the sensory pleasures of each form he's capable of taking. Of course, three years on Earth and a lawman father have given him some small preparation, but he is hardly yet the formidable force he could become.