J'onn J'onzz is an alien from the planet Ma'aleca'andra (Mars). As a young man J'onn served with the Ma'alec'andra Grand Army during the planet's war with the hive-mind like white Martians. J'onn was part of a special unit know as the Manhunters, committed to finding and bringing to justice the most heinous White Martians. In the final days of the war, a war that would end with a Green Martian victory, J'onn and his Manhunter unit were engaged in a firefight when a wormhole opened up on the battlefield and pulled J'onn into it.
He tore through time and emerged out the other side in a strange place with a strange looking creature watching him. It turned out the man was Dr. Saul Erdel, a scientist experimenting in quantum mechanics, and he was on the planet Earth. The year was 1946. The stress of seeing a full-fledged alien caused the elderly Dr. Erdel's heart to give out. The old man died before J'onn could figure out what was going on. Confused and not sure what to do, the Martian fled into the night.
Over the years J'onn traveled the world, using his powers and abilities to help as many people as possible while trying to discover a way home. Any hopes and dreams he had were crushed when NASA's probes and rovers on the surface of Mars reported that the planet was a dead one, and had been dead for a long time. The wormhole Erdel had opened sent J'onn through time as well as space. Mars and his family were long gone. Acting now as John Jones, a private investigator in Seattle, J'onn still grasps with being the last Martian and trying to find his true place in his adopted homeworld.
Seattle, Washington~Did I turn off the stove?~
~She knows about me and her sister. I don't know how, but she does!~
~Kill! Kill! Kill!~
~I'm going to kill myself today.~
~Man, I've got to pee.~This is my life. Even walking down the street in the earthly guise of a middle-aged man I cannot help but be bombarded with the thoughts of the rest of the world. These are just what lies on the surface, the loudest in the churning cauldron of free-flowing thought that is the human mind. These innocent monologues, repulsive ideas, and mundane observations all swirl together in a loud cacophony that now register as little more than background noise to me.
I had the collar of my jacket turned up against the low drizzle that morning. The thoughts of others filled my ears, but I had them tuned out with my mind focused on the upcoming meeting. The day before I had received an email from someone wanting to meet at a specific location. I was suspicious, but also curious. I would know well in advance if I was walking into a trap, and if I was then god help the people trying to trap me.
The diner the customer picked for the meeting was a typical greasy spoon. There were beginning to be fewer and fewer of those in Seattle as gentrification ran roughshod over the city and outlying suburbs. I sat at the counter for a minute and perused the menu before something caught my eye just as the waitress walked up.
"What'll it be, hun?"
"It says here you offer an Oreo milkshake."
"Sure do. Is that what you want?"
"Yes," I said with a smile. "Yes, please."
She went off the fix the shake while I turned around to look through the diner. Someone was watching me and thinking about me. I found the owner of the eyes and thoughts in the corner. A teenaged girl with curly red hair locked eyes with me and instantly turned away. In the brief moment our eyes met I felt a wave of thoughts and emotions flood through her. Crippling sadness, uncertainty, loneliness. Feelings I could identify with very well.
"Did you email me?" I asked her as I approached the booth.
"Yes," she said softly. "I read about you on the internet at the library. You were a detective?"
"Yes. Yes, I was. Seattle PD, LAPD before that. I'm a private one now. Mind if I sit?"
"You can..."
The waitress brought me my milkshake and I offered some to the girl, only for her to turn it down.
"So, what do you need help with?"
"It's... my sister... she's gone missing... I'm... I'm all alone now, I have nobody left. Will you help me? I don't have any money, Mr. Jones... please?"
More thoughts and emotions, almost too sad to comprehend. Visions of a pretty young woman with blonde curly hair, visions of hypodermic needles, razor blades, men with gold teeth and switch blades. Way too much violence for a girl this age to have seen. And now she's all alone.
"First things first, tell when you last saw your sister."
1x Thank
