CH-10

The light of day in this desert, one with towering dunes and gusts of wind filled with white sand, was bluish.

Nate received an unexpected and important notification shortly after placing Nabu in the inventory:

[You are under a blue sun, which lacks the radiations of a yellow sun. All problematic blue-sun and yellow-sun linked flaws that could be used against you have been removed. You will no longer face any problems from technologies or weapons that use blue sun radiations.]

[Your Kryptonian powers have returned: you can now become stronger under a blue sun and absorb its radiations.]

[This Essence aims to make you work hard to become strong, so you can't just plunge into the sun and become a god. It will only speed up your healing.]

'At this point aren't all adaptations important?'

By now, Nate expected to receive notifications more often than not. Except for possibly being able to breathe underwater.

For this one, he wasn't too dismayed or surprised; he had already noticed an interesting pattern that didn't bother him too much.

When it came to quickly gaining strength, he couldn't always take the easy route or rely on lazy shortcuts. Perfection was never handed down to him on a silver platter.

Especially if the way to gain it was shameless. Like just having a nap in a sun.

'Thinking about not being able to simply throw myself into the sun to become a god, I forgot that this prison is a place that never sees a night...'

Nate would only experience extremely rapid healing if he was standing very close to or inside a sun. Despite being ridiculously convenient and extremely helpful, his Essence was shameless and contained various nerfs. 

Nate had noticed it now. It epitomized the essence of a hard worker. One given limitless potential and a strong ability to adapt.

It did not want him to become a god in the same way that Doomsday could.

Even though he benefited from radiations like all other Kryptonians, Nate had to work hard to improve his strength.

Pulse!

Surge!

Thrumm!

Nate felt, became aware of his strong and vigorous heartbeat as his super hearing returned.

He was overjoyed to feel his steel-like vigor and super-strength coming back to his body, in his veins.

All of his Kryptonian powers were restored quickly.

He didn't seem to need Nabu here... Except for when he'd have to leave.

'Adaptations are taken care of one by one... The same thing will probably happen when I come face to face with a red sun... I don't think I'll ever get tired of this cool feeling. I am not as broken as Doomsday, but it is exhilarating in its own way.'

Nate thought as he entered the tent; he didn't try to enter quietly, so he immediately woke up the snoring woman inside.

The sleep appeared deep, but she awoke immediately.

This wasn't exactly a safe environment, so having such an ability was probably a very good thing.

"Stay back! Who are you and what do you want with me! I don't recall ever seeing you here…" 

Raya spoke with a deep scowl as she reached for a weapon inside the furnished tent. 

The beautiful blonde Kryptonian woman grabbed a knife. She had no superpowers in this prison.

Not that she ever had them. It appeared that she had more often than not lived on Krypton. Even when she traveled throughout the Kryptonian galaxy for work, she never went anywhere with a yellow sun.

Nate knew some general information about her because he wore the golden helmet.

He was far from being omniscient in knowledge, but things from his past now had a proper explanation and some context. Raya was not only Jor-El's friend, but also Jed's. Nate's biological father.

Nate did not say anything directly, he smiled without moving and made himself look friendly. Raya appeared to notice something after a few moments, as she maintained the deep scowl.

She spoke abruptly and hesitantly, 

"Wait... Why does your face seem so familiar?"

Nate chuckled and remarked, 

"I was waiting patiently to see if you could ever put the two faces together and remember me… You did, it seems."

"My father implanted memories of you in my spaceship Raya. I'm Moro, the son of your friend Jed."

Nate didn't mention his mother because she wasn't important. Like Raya, she didn't have a surname. She wasn't from a special house on Krypton, and she died on the day he was born. Nate was not born artificially.

His birth had also been difficult for his mother, who had a complicated pregnancy and a difficult baby-birth delivery.

"Moro??"

Raya's eyes turned big. Her face was frozen with shock for a long time before she jumped towards Nate and hugged him.

She seemed like someone who had suddenly found oxygen in this terrible and lonely prison.

Her guard dropped completely as she exclaimed happily, surprised that Nate had grown up to look so much like her friend Jed.

XX

"..."

Outside the Phantom Zone. In a cornfield in the quaint, simple town of Smallville.

Standing close to where Nate had disappeared, John was curious.

The child had become invisible, and moments later, he was completely unable to sense his presence.

He knew Doctor Fate though, the JSA, and its members, so he could make some guesses about what might have happened.

Lindsay's perspective was different, as she asked,

"What happened, and where did Moro go?"

John responded, 

"He seems to have used mystical powers to go somewhere I can't tell. That guy from before and that helmet aren't simple things. It looks like that we could need to notify Jor-El of this… Nate is quite unlikely to be driven insane due to his Kryptonian heritage, but still..."

Worried, Lindsay inquired, 

"Mystical powers? As in magic?"

John nodded,

"Precisely. Until now, I had no idea Jor-El's people could use mankind's magic or be chosen to inherit such an ancient magical legacy... My knowledge of Krypton may need to be refreshed... From what I've seen and recall of Krypton, magic was more of a religious-related science, and the witch-like women there could be considered scientists as well."

"I never really got to witness them using their powers in intricate and sophisticated ways that might appear mystical without any logical explanation."

John Jones had spent a significant amount of time on Krypton, but not enough to say he knew everything about the planet and culture. He did not necessarily go there to unwind or for casual tourism.

He used to be a bounty hunter in space and spent a lot of his time on Krypton because of Jor-El.

He and Lindsay did not stay too long before leaving, going directly to the caves to report to Jor-El.

XX

A few moments later. Back in the Phantom zone.

Raya wore a nomadic, desert-ready outfit with a neck gaiter. The fit was loose. She appeared attractive and pretty in a kind and tenacious manner.

She had survived a long time here.

She noticed an issue while offering Nate some of her precious water.

She asked him, 

"I'm still confused about something; if you made it to Earth, how did you end up in this miserable place with me?"

Nate refused the water, saying, 

"I don't need the drink… Thank you. I came here using my own mystical abilities. I just got a strange power that some humans on Earth occasionally inherit. We can go back once we've finished talking. I actually came to free you from this abominable jail."

Raya said with strong surprise in her eyes and face,

"You came to free me? Wait, you can get here with your own power??"

The woman stood close to Nate without moving, holding the poorly made cup in her two hands, which contained the water.

Nate nodded and said, 

"Yes. Though I need to put on a helmet to do that for now."

He had yet to attempt to replicate any abilities. He did intend to mimic Nabu's abilities, however.

Even if a lot were likely to be weak on him. By himself alone, meaning.

Raya asked, 

"A helmet? Where is that helmet?"

Nate stated, 

"It's stored somewhere safe that you cannot see with your eyes and that only I have access to. I have other strange abilities."

"Oh," Raya said, "you do seem to have a variety of abilities… There seems to be a lot about you that I need to catch up on, Moro."

She inquired, 

"Is it just you, or is there something unique about Earth that I don't understand? I don't recall it being a place with so many powers and abilities readily available."

She had been Jor-El's coworker for quite some time and knew a few interesting things, including, of course, about Earth.

Nate responded, 

"Earth is a strange place; aside from magic, they have something called metahumans. Human DNA is very predisposed to mutations, which give them unusual abilities. However, the mystical powers I wield are purely occult."

"I remember there were witches on Krypton… I learned that in the knowledge I was given about our planet."

Raya, who was also sitting, said, 

"Yes. On Krypton, we did have some supernatural, unexplainable wizardry, witchcraft, and sorcery, but the origin seems more innate. Individuals were born this way. Growing up, I was told that such people kept to themselves and practiced obscure religious faiths..."

"Can't say I know much more than that."

"Everything else about our culture, unusual or not, is more of a science with rationality and logic at its core."

She seemed to be thinking of something and asked, 

"How did you get the rest of your abilities? Maybe some of them are innate to our planet."

Nate said, 

"I actually don't know. Aside from that helmet, the rest of my abilities simply appeared one day in the past. More of it came recently, after I reawakened the rest of my memory."

"Some of the information I obtained while on the spaceship appeared to be clogged for quite some time. I couldn't access all of it until today."

Nate intended to use this excuse to justify some of his powers. Krypton magic was obscure, so this was an excellent excuse.

Raya hummed and said, 

"Not much was known about your mother's origins except that she grew up as an orphan… Could there be possibilities? As far as I could tell, the blood in your house was normal."

"The majority of the house of Am, except for men like your father, married between relatives or other houses of comparable prestige."

Nate said, 

"Who knows... We wouldn't know if our blood had any unique characteristics. You stated that people born with such innate occult abilities tended to keep to themselves and practice strange and obscured faiths. I doubt they'd ever come forward to show off their powers…"

Raya smiled and said, 

"That's true, but if there had been any magically linked accidents with children in your house's long history, wouldn't anyone have noticed?"

"Certainly, some of those children awakening their powers would have caused commotions."

Nate replied,

"Maybe. In any case, Krypton is no more. We have no real way of knowing the truth."

Because those people did not want to be known too much and expose themselves to the light, knowledge of them had almost certainly died out along with the planet.

Raya appeared sad for a moment when her unexpected guest mentioned their already-deceased home.

Thinking of cheering her up, he decided to start doing some magic trick. Basically drawing his prizes…

He had been impatient, eager to find out what he would get today. Aside from the usual, regular Senzu beans.

He didn't wait and went for the first item, surprising her with something that appeared out of nowhere, dropping in front of his feet. It was a scroll. Another one.

"..."

Nate was taken aback when he realized what it contained.

It was a scroll containing Rock Lee and Guy's taijutsu knowledge. Along with the first two gates, that were safe. For the first time, he got something he truly needed.

There was even the drunken fist inside.

It wasn't that Nate lacked confidence in Kryptonian Martial Arts, as used by people like Zod, but something like taijutsu, particularly from those two, seemed naturally superior…

Anyway. Because he had yet to meet people like Lady Shiva, this would be extremely valuable in all cases.

Taijutsu was surely not inferior to any DC martial art, or was it?

Nate picked up the scroll to sense it and its potential, hopeful that Naruto had never deceived him.