FinalMax said:
You know, someone's gotta come up with how Keitaro and Kara met.? Not me, writer's block and all that, but someone's gotta at least make the scene work.? That, and the Amazo beatdown.
Okay, here's a rough attempt at the start of everything...
It had all started so simply for Keitaro Urashima. He was following around his sometime boss and mentor Seta Noriyasu to America as he gave lectures about the Turtle Civilization and looked for leades for future digs. It was supposed to be a way to find himself and resolve his lack of progress with Naru back at the Hinata-Sou. Somewhere deep down, Keitaro hoped that he could somehow make himself into someone Naru could truly love.
How it had gone from that to Intergang hunting them down over some deal Seta broke up with his "lack of" driving skills, Keitaro would never understand. All he knew was that a group of armed thugs had broken in during Seta's lecture at NYU and started pointing guns at he and his mentor both.
But the trouble really started when a young woman with light brown hair in a style similar to Naru's made a bolt for the exit and one of the gunsels reacted by opening fire on her. Keitaro's mind ran on pure instinct as he moved faster than he thought possible and put himself in front of the spray of automatic weapons fire, arms help wide in an attempt to provide as much cover as his slender frame could.
The last thing he clearly recalled was the sound of Seta calling out his name and a strange series of metallic pings on the floor before the arrival of Supergirl put and end to the attempted hit and put the gangsters down for the count.
Keitaro stood there in shock looking at his chest where the bullets had struck, paying no attention to Seta, who ran up to him to check obn him, or the the gorgeous heroine who was taking out the bad guys. He just remained in a kind of fugue state for several seconds as his mind tried to process what had taken place.
Time felt like it started up again as he was confronted with a pair of crystal blue eyes looking into his own from a face framed by light blond hair. "Hey, I asked if youwere alright?" Supergirl inquired again, shaking Keitaro's shoulder to get his attention.
Keitaro looked at Superman's cousin, then to his unblemished clothes, then to the ground where saw half a dozen flattened slugs should have torn his organs to shreds after they hit him, and finally back into the eyes of Kara Zor-El. "I'm... fine," he stated with a sense of amazement before his eyes rolled back into his head and he fainted dead on the spot. Only Kara's quick reaction time saved him from a nasty concussion as he fell.
"Well would you look at that. I guess Haruka was right. The kid really is immortal," Seta said as he scratched the back of his head nervously while looking from Keitaro, to the bullets, and back again.
"Really. Do tell," another voice demanded in a cold deadpan from behind the Today professor.
Seta had to fight a yelp as he looked into the face of the Batman who had seemed to materialize out of nowhere.
"Nice of you to show up," Kara groused as she set Keitaro carefully on the ground.
"Supergirl, perhaps you should take Mr. Urashima there to the Hall of Justice for medical attention. Professor Noriyasu and I have some things to discuss," Batman commanded as he narrowed his eyes at the famed adventurer.
Part of Kara wanted to bristle at Batman treating her like some kind of kid... again, but she kept it down. The guy that fainted on her was more important right now anyway.
*****
"Well, what can you tell us?" Superman asked to start the meeting meeting at the Watchtower proper to go over Batman's report of the incident earlier at NYU.
Batman called up a display of the still sleeping Keitaro in his room before summoning a computer file with what looked like a high school photo of the young man as he recited, "Keitaro Urashima, of the noted Urashima Clan of Japan. Age: 21. Is currently listed as the owner and manager of the Hinata-Sou, formerly a well respected Inn within the Hinata district of Tokyo until his grandmother, one Hina Urashima coverted it into a dorm several years ago. Failed the Todai University entrance exam three times until finally passing but was unable to attend his first two semesters of class due to a broken leg. He is a known associate and apprentice to noted achaeologist Seta Noriyasu and is given partial credit for the Turtle Civilization discoveries on Pararakelse Island. He is currently travelling with his mentor as Mr. Noriyasu delivers lectures on the Turtle Civilization."
"Well that tells us about who he is, but what happened where we have him under observation in the medical wing like this?" Green Lantern asked.
Batman gave GL a blank stare for several moments before he responded, "He survived being shot six times by automatic weapons fire unharmed through the application of, if Mr, Noriyasu is to be believed, previously unused mteahuman abilities. After noticing his apparent abilities he fell into shock and fainted. DNA tests confim that these abilities are related to some form of Kryptonian ancestry."
"So you're saying the boy is part Kryptonian?" Superman asked incredulously.
"How is that even possible, Bruce? Is he some sort of clone like Connor was? An earlier prototype perhaps?" Wonder Woman asked of her cowled comrade.
"J'onn and I are still going over the data, but at this time it seems unlikely. Not only does Mr. Urashima have an well documented and verifiable past but his Kryptonian genes are both highly diluted and do not seem to demonstrate any relation to the House of El," Batman replied as he called up Keitaro's genetic profile for them all to see. "In fact, he does not share any genetic match with any Krytonian we have on record to date."
"How can that be? I mean, I thought there weren't any other Kryptonians left?" flash asked with a concerned look at the Last Son of Krypton.
"Until the discovery of the Phantom Zone and General Zod, we thought Superman was the only Kryptonian alive. Until Kara's arrival, we thought he was the last member of his family. It is too early to tell for certain where Keitaro's Kryptonian abilities came from, although it appears they did save his life earlier," J'onn interjected.
"What do you mean?" Superman asked, still trying to come to terms with what he was hearing.
"It appears that while the boy lacks the full range of Kryptonian abilities at this time, the stress of the situation caused him to manifest a degree of Tactile Telekinesis to protect himself and the girl he moved to protect from the gunfire aimed at her," Batman reported as he called up the surveillance video for the lecture hall for them to see.
It was not hard to seem the admiration and aknowedgement in the eyes of Superman and Wonder woman alike at they saw Keitaro moce to save the sirl without any form of hesitation. for his part Batman was far more skeptical. After all, Intergang was involved and they had demonstrated ties to Darkseid and his minions in the past.
"So the kid is like Connor then," Flash asked at the mention of Tactile Telekinesis.
"It's too early to tell. We'll have to run more tests to be certain. Up until this point the boy hasn't demonstrated any kind of meta-human abilities beyond being reputed to be more resistant to damage than the average person. He could be anything from a clone, to someone from a parallel Earth, to a plant of somekind by one of out enemies, or even exactly what he appears to be; a person with a long past unknown Kryptonian ancestor. I'll run more tests and let you all know when I'm certain," Batman vowed.
"Bruce, what's your gut instinct?" Superman asked after a pause.
"Going by what I've already found, either the Urashima family is far more connected than I ever believed or Keitaro might be exactly what he appears to be. For now we'll have to keep an eye on him. Even in the best case scenario he's a Kryptonian hybrin with no idea of how to cope with his emerging abilities. That could be extremely dangerous," Batman cautioned.
"Kara might be able to help with that. I know she's chomping at the bit to find out what's going on and she would understand better than just about anyone how card it is to cope with new abilities like ours. After all, she didn't grow up with them on Krypton or have a childhood here to put things in perspective for her," Clark suggested.
"Agreed. You can brief her on the situation and she can keep watch over Urashima. In the meantime, I'll continue my research," Batman reponded with a nod.
And with that the meeting began to break up as Clark went to inform Kara that they might have a new connection to their homeworld here on Earth.
