Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Kara Zor-El was having a really bad day, which was great since, last she remembered, she had been poisoned by kryptonite radiation and her body had started to cannibalize itself.

Mind you, she was still in a terrifying amount of pain and certain she would die alone, her entire race killed after her planet had exploded, but she was alive, she was still here.

So, in hindsight, the day being anything was a pleasant surprise.

She wondered if her cousin had made it, his ship had left Krypton earlier than hers and she was certain she could have escaped had it not been for the kryptonite shard that hit her vehicle just as it was about to leave the Rao system.

She was certain he had escaped. It was just too painful to think otherwise.

Then her mind started to get foggy and she passed out once again.

.
"It's a Kryptoan body, of course it`s fucking valuable." Said a harsh insectoid voice.

Waking up to hear someone discussing the value of your still living body was not the most pleasant of experiences but, since she hadn't been certain she would wake up at all, it was not the worst that could happen. By Rao, they had even taken the kryptonite meteorite away from her.

"It's Kryptonian, fucking idiot." Said a second, kryptonian voice and Kara felt herself being moved. "What kinda freak would ever want a body anyway?"

"I got contacts man. Those Psion freaks pay well for this kinda crap. Fuck, after that explosion this gotta be the last Kryptonian they ever see, it's gotta be valuable."

"Sold a lot of bodies, did you?" asked the second voice in amusement. "Fine, put it on ice so it doesn't stink up the ship and get back here fast, this beauty ain't scrapping itself. I dunno how much we can get for the body, but krypto tech is fucking expensive."

Kara felt herself being dragged, but she couldn't move a muscle. Her mind screamed at her to get up, to struggle, to activate the ship's defenses and resist it, but she couldn't even open her eyes.

Finally, the pain was too much and too exhausting, she stopped even trying to struggle and felt the insect grabbing her body. A minute later, it just threw her into the freezer, the impact sent a new jolt of pain through her body, her mind went blank and she passed out again.

"Entry number five, day 102, year 12.528. Five days since acquiring the subject. Subject still showing signs of cellular regeneration despite having been deceased for at least six star rotations." Said a cold and calculating voice as Kara woke up to the feeling of something digging into her right arm. "It seems the specimen has similar traits to Tamaraneans, at least in the way it absorbs solar radiation."

"Still no signs of brain activity on the monitors, and the retrieved samples continue showing signs of cellular division even after separation from the body." A second voice answered.

Kara heard something moving inside her chest, but she was completely unable to feel it. In fact, she was unable to feel anything on her body.

"Any signs of full body regeneration?"

"Negative. The subject's cells are capable of limited regeneration, but it requires elevated levels of sunlight radiation with a high energy output."

"A pity, I had hoped the subject's biology was similar to a Czarnian, but it seems it has truly expired."

Kara was feeling numb, despite the horror of having some bastard scientist playing around inside her body, she was utterly paralyzed, unable to even move a finger.

Thankfully, she was still unable to feel anything and Kara barely registered as they bombarded her body with synthetic solar radiation. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, she started to feel a tingling sensation on her skin.

"Hmmm, leave its heart in place, but retrieve the remaining organs and insert it into one of the Tamaranean solar chambers for further observation." The first voice said and seemed to step away from her. "If it's capable of some regeneration, we may be able to study it for much longer."

Unable to feel anything, Kara heard one of the scientists carrying her away from the experimental room. Soon, they put her inside a tank filled with some liquid and lifted her into a standing position.

"The subject really shares many characteristics with Tamaraneans, I wonder if they had interbreed in the past?" Wondered one of the scientists as he locked her body in place.

Somehow, she was able to feel the invigorating sunlight hitting her naked and heavily damaged body. It felt absolutely divine, to the point that she lost several hours just basking in the sensation of the sun hitting every piece of her body, knitting her flesh closed and, together with the fluid around her, starting to regenerate the damage done by starvation, exposition to kryptonite and a vivisection.

Then the light started healing her damaged nerves and she started to wish she had died with Krypton. The pain was unbearable and she couldn't even scream. It must have lasted centuries, getting worse and worse as her nerves became better and better.

Thank Rao her body could still shut down and return to hibernation.

"Entry number seven, day 107, year 12.528. Ten days since acquiring the subject." Kara woke up with a startle, she was actually able to feel as the knife dug into her chest and the Psion pried her ribcage open. She wanted to scream, to shout, to fight back, but her body continued to refuse her. "Hmm, it seems like the subject will need at least a week to fully regenerate its organs. Make sure to harvest them every time its ready."

Kara wanted to cry when she felt the devastating pain caused by exposure to kryptonite, she could feel her veins throbbing and her muscles spasming even as her body didn't move.

"Intriguing. The body quickly deteriorates once exposed to the exotic radiation." Kara felt the scientist cutting into her flesh. "Skin resistance is almost immediately neutralized once exposed."

"I wonder... does the exposure also cause pain?" A second voice said in a tone of conversation. "Would proximity or quantity of radioactive material increase the pain? A true pity we can't find out."

Suddenly, the pain proved to be too much and Kara just passed out.

Next time she woke up, Kara was resting inside the healing pod, her body being constantly bombarded with sunlight radiation. She still couldn't feel her body or even open her eyes, but she swore she could see a petite woman looking at her from behind the glass of her pod.

A spike of pain went through her mind and she felt her consciousness becoming muddy, her life flashed through her mind and she asked herself, was it the end?

She remembered her uncle Jor-El presenting her with his own son Kal-El, the new head of house El. The baby had been so small, so fragile, not at all like those released from the birthing matrix. Kara remembered his little hand squeezing her finger as she wondered how she could take care of him by herself.

She remembered the first time she had built something worthy of House El. It had been a simple gravity stabilizer that used 1.2% less energy than the average model while using the same materials. Zor-El had been so proud of her, already innovating before ever completing her apprenticeship.

She remembered meeting her parents for the first time, the way her mother had actually hugged her, the way her father had nodded his approval with a glint in his eye as she stepped out of the birthing matrix without stumbling.

Then she remembered dying, she remembered the hours spent on a hospital bed as her organs failed her after getting hit with a truck. The memories came back to her with the same force as the truck.

Years of life on Earth, a different family, different age, and different gender even. She remembered being Jace Brown, a college graduate on his first job, reading about places like DC, Marvel and thousands of other stories. The memories overwhelmed her mind and she passed out.

"Entry number twelve, day 124, year 12.528. Twenty seven days since acquiring the subject." Jace woke up to a new voice. A different Psion scientist was looking at his body. He felt the sharp pain of Kryptonite exposition hit him before a needle pierced his neck. "Subject's resistance continues to increase with solar radiation, exposure to material 12A233 is now required to operate on the subject. Starting procedure nine."

Jace felt utterly lost. No, he wasn't really Jace anymore was he? His name was Kara now, Kara Zor-El. He/She wanted to laugh at the absurdity of the situation, was she really in DC right now? Reborn as Superman's cousin and being experimented on by Psions?

For a second, Kara wasn't certain which one was the real her. Was she Jace having a hallucination on his deathbed on Earth or was she Kara doing the same inside a Psion vessel?

Then she felt something boiling hot enter her body, filling her veins with head and pain, her mind screamed and rebelled, and such questions lost all importance. When the pain became too much, she passed out.

"Entry number fifteen, day 132, year 12.528. Thirty five days since acquiring the subject." Kara heard the Lizardman say as a new round of experiments started.

She had decided she preferred to be called Kara, she had been a man before, but she had lived sixteen years as a Kryptonian woman and her memories as Kara were also more recent, closer to her mind.

With how much pain she was usually in, Kara was convinced this wasn't some kind of dream or hallucination, she was also pretty sure that both sets of memories were true. At least they felt like it.

She had been Jace Brown, She had been born a male and lived for 26 years on Earth, had parents and friends, but she was Kara, and her memories as a Kryptonian were more vivid.

Knowing that she'd never see her human parents again hurt but, to her, it had been sixteen years and she had become numb to it. The loss of Krypton was far more painful.

She wondered if this was how an amnesiac would feel if he recovered his memories after years. Her memories as Jace were still important, they still affected her, but she was Kara now.

The usual pain of kryptonite radiation cut her musings short. "Hmm… it seems like the time needed to fully regenerate its organs has increased." The Psion said with some disappointment in his voice.

Kara couldn't wait for her body to fully recover, she dreamed of finally opening her eyes and blasting the cursed lizard with her heat vision reducing him to ash. Alas, no matter how much she struggled, it was not to be.

"Entry number twenty, day 202, year 12.528. One hundred and five days since acquiring the subject." Kara woke up to the pain of Kryptonite exposure. Hearing the date, she couldn't help but become worried. It seems like she hadn't woken up for months now. "Samples of the subject have finally started deteriorating. The master has ordered minimal exposure to material 12A233 and for one of the subject's extremities to be amputated for further testing."

Kara heard the lizard picking up a saw and felt its teeth biting into her leg but, at this point, she had gotten so used to pain the amputation felt almost relaxing. No, there was no use lying to herself, the pain was still excruciating, but it was far better than the times they opened her chest.

In the end, they finished the procedure far sooner than expected and put her body back into the solar chamber. The solar radiation quickly dulled the pain and she felt her mind relax.

"Entry number thirty eight, day 92, year 12.529. Three hundred and fifty seven days since acquiring the subject." Kara recognized the Psion's voice as coming from the first one to have operated on her body, but her mind struggled to even wake her up. "I have finally discovered the reason the subject's regeneration continues to deteriorate. It seems that constant exposure to material 12A233 has permanently damaged some of the subject's cells and repeated experimentation has overcome its recovery."

Not for the first time, Kara cursed the Psions in her mind. Gathering her strength, she made another effort to wake up, praying to God, to Rao, to The Presence for strength, it was useless. She couldn't move.

"Thankfully, the subject still shows promise as its body seems to be able to assimilate most forms of radiation. Starting procedure." The cursed Psion said, Kara felt as her chest was cut open again and the lizard cut off one of her lungs, a second set of hands pried open her eyelid, but she still couldn't see anything as they cut off her eye. "Transplant 17 is a failure, no surprise there. Transplanting the new organ and closing up the subject."

"Master, should I take it back?"

"Yes, the subject is too valuable to continue letting others experiment on it, leave it in the solar chamber until I come to check up on it again."

Kara woke up two more times while in the solar chamber. Her body no longer seemed to recover with sunlight. She also felt tired of fighting, of trying to recover, of holding on and hoping for something that was never going to happen.

She wanted it to end.

"Entry number thirty eight, day 92, year 12.529. One thousand and twenty three days since acquiring the subject." Kara cursed her luck, for a while now she had hoped to never wake up again, but it seems like she was still alive. "One hundred and ninety three days after transplant nineteen, the subject continues to show no signs of rejection. I have decided to halt all experimentation on the subject until the results of the latest experimentation are clear, transplant nineteen is just too important."

For a brief moment, Kara tried to gather the will to care about what the Psion was talking about, but she couldn't manage it.

"I have also acquired two new Tamaranean subjects that are far more interesting." The Psion paused as if in thought, then laughed. "I had almost forgotten how experimenting on live subjects felt. While Tamaraneans are a known species, my work with the Kryptonian subject has given me new ideas and it is far more satisfying when they can actually struggle."

Kara felt equal parts angry and terrified when she woke up inside the pod. On one hand, it meant that she wasn't going to be subjected to a new set of experimentations and, on the other, that she was still alive.

Suddenly, she started hearing the blaring sound of sirens all over the facility, Kara's remaining eye opened wide at the realization the damn Psions were having problems and she felt a smile on her face.

The harsh glare from the artificial sunlight hit her face, causing her to frown. Wait, she opened her eye! Her body responded!

Immediately, Kara started struggling with everything she had. At first only her toes moved, then her fingers and then her entire body started recovering, her limbs started tingling and she felt her body come fully under her control for the first time since leaving Krypton.

She wanted nothing more than to smash her way out of the chamber and run, escape, scream, do… anything. Still, she waited, absorbing more and more sunlight and gathering her strength. She'd only have one chance to escape, she couldn't waste it.

Looking all over the room, Kara saw the plain white walls of the ship, with no details, wires or even devices. The sunlight projector looked like a two square blocks of white metal sprouting from the floor and connected by a large gray gear. Simple, uninteresting and cheap.

At this point, Kara didn't really care if she died in the attempt, but she absolutely refused to be recaptured, or to die without taking as many of the damn lizards as she could with her.

Staying still inside her pod as she heard the commotions around her was one of the hardest things she had ever done, but she spent the time familiarizing herself with what remained of her body.

She knew she must have been inside the healing tank for a long time in order to have recovered so much, but she didn't know how much of her organs were whole at this point. Her left eye was still missing and she couldn't feel her left leg, clearly, she wasn't in perfect condition.

When Kara heard the sounds of battle approaching her, she knew it was time. She had never killed anyone before, neither Kara nor Jace had even been in such dire situations, but she didn't think she would have any problems splattering a few Psions around the walls.

In her previous life, Kara had always felt that most heroes caused a lot of trouble for themselves by sparing their enemies. Kara refused to make the same mistakes, not now.

Gathering her will, Kara started experimenting. It took her a few minutes to get control of her flight ability, when she was confident enough, she willed herself out of the tank, breaking through the glass without any effort.

Finally, she took a deep breath of air after what must have been years. Kara couldn't help herself, she screamed.

The sensations hit her like a ton of bricks, for the first time in years, she felt the air hitting her skin, she smelt the scent of cleaning products and the dusty must of Psions.

The wind hit her and Kara's body registered the cold, even if it didn't bother her. She laughed, she laughed long and hard despite the situation.

For years now Kara had been locked into a Kryptonian healing coma, barely able to register any feelings beyond pain, barely able to hear anything beyond her short periods of consciousness while she tried to wake up.

All the sensations overwhelmed her and she promptly lost control of her flight, falling to the cold, metallic floor in a heap. Still laughing, Kara gathered her will and slowly floated up.

Finally, Kara managed to get into a hovering position, even if it bobbed around, going up and down as she breathed.

She knew she should have been moving immediately, not allowing the Psions any time to make a plan against her, but she wouldn't make for a very imposing, or maneuverable, figure hopping around on just one leg.

The very thought of everything the bastards had taken from her caused Kara's flight to grow more erratic, her fists closing tightly at her sides as a strange feeling of heat gathered at her sole remaining eye.

The wave of heat she released melted a hole twice her own size in the steel wall. Dazed, Kara looked at the hole and floated closer, lifting a hand. She marveled as she felt the heat on her skin, but it felt more like a warm wind than the result of several meters of molten metal.

With a smile, Kara thought of the Psions waiting for her all over the ship, she couldn't wait to get to them.

Looking at the hallway, Kara registered the same white metal stretching as far as her eye could see. There were plain metallic doors with strange symbols painted in black above them, they looked the same and, were it not for the huge melted hole, Kara wouldn't be able to differentiate her own room from any other.

Moving while flying turned out to be easier than hovering in place, Kara seemed to have an instinctive affinity for flying and, much like an animal can walk a few minutes after being born, she managed to achieve controlled flight at about the same uncoordinated level.

Still, trying to maneuver with her fist extended like she saw her cousin do in the comics was a long way off, Kara bounced around the place as if drunk and moved mostly in an upright position.

The one time she tried to imitate Superman, she had lost all sense of direction and was left spinning in place like a pinwheel for a few seconds before falling on her side.

Fortunately, the advantage of being Kryptonian was that she left dents in the walls instead of collecting bruises from doing so.

Hearing the sound of gunshots coming from her side, Kara turned and, squinting her eye, gathered heat before blasting the wall as hard as she could. She melted a hole through it… and the next wall… and the next. Hell, she blasted a hole through what must have been nine walls to reveal the darkness of space looking back at her.

For a second, Kara was left paralyzed. She stared at the destruction until the vacuum started dragging everything and everyone towards the hole.

She saw armed Psions and robots flying through the air, as well as two bizarre beasts with far too many tentacles for her liking trying to keep themselves in place by grabbing at everything on sight.

Kara herself was dragged through four openings before snapping out of it and making herself stop, the cold hit her and caused goosebumps in her arms. Looking around, she saw the walls around the damaged sections starting to seal. Just before the breach to her right could close, Kara managed to fly through the shrinking gap.

Taking stock of her situation, Kara noticed a minimal but noticeable drop on her stamina from using her vision. With a sigh, she resolved herself to training with the ability a little before using it again, at least when at full power.

The fighting around the ship had briefly stopped after her attack, but it returned with renewed vigor and she could hear a female voice screaming with fury only two corridors away from her. This time, Kara decided to just fly through the walls, lowering her head and driving her body shoulder first at the metal, the metal gave way.

She burst in the middle of what looked like a war, from one side of the place an extremely hot orange girl was releasing bolts of green energy from her hands. Like Kara, the girl was completely naked while blasting Psions in full armor.

On the other side, there were Psions and robots with energy weapons shooting at pretty much everything. Their aim was terrible, but there were so many of them that the girl was getting hit almost as often as she shot, every shot left ugly burns on her skin and caused her to lose control of her own flight.

Some of the shots managed to hit Kara as she stood there, but they just felt like hard pokes, annoying but far from painful.

Hmmm… psychopathic sadistic Psions or hot orange girl who was probably Koriand'r?

Grabbing the closest robot, Kara twisted its head off its shoulders and then threw it through the body of a Psion. The lizard just exploded in a shower of blood and Kara screamed in both rage and satisfaction before using the rest of the robot as a makeshift weapon to bat Psions and robots aside.

She attacked the two dozen psions without rest, ignoring every shot that hit her and releasing all her anger and hate, all her fear. When the robot she was using was reduced to a few pieces of scrap, she threw it aside and grabbed a Psion to continue her massacre.

At one point, Kara had started to cry, her screams had turned from roars of rage to those of pain and frustration, but she continued, she continued even when they started running away, she continued even when every single one of the monsters was dead and she was left reducing one of their bodies into just so much paste.

Panting hard, she released the last robot she had been using as a weapon and lay down on the ground crying, her arms hugging her body as it all finally hit her. She was free, she was free and she was going to stay that way no matter what.

A touch to her shoulder almost caused Kara to lash out, her single eye glowed red with heat, but she snapped out of her daze just in time to stop herself. Twisting around, she saw the orange girl taking a few steps away from her, her hands held high to show no threat and her glowing green eyes wide with worry but also… understanding?

Seeing that Kara wasn't attacking, Koriand'r approached her slowly and very deliberately wrapped her arms around her. Kara released her flight and just started crying against the naked woman's orange skin for a minute.

Eventually, Kara gathered her wits and pushed herself away from the girl, she knew they couldn't stay in place. The Psions may have heavier weaponry, ones capable of hurting even a Kryptonian or, worst case; they may be able to use the kryptonite they had to trap her.

Kara knew she still wasn't thinking right, her fear and anger at the Psions still clouded her mind, but she just couldn't care about it at the moment.

Koriand'r tried to talk with her, but Kara ignored the Tamaranean, unable to understand the strangely guttural sounds of her language. Frustrated, Koriand'r grabbed her and forced Kara to look into her eyes before asking a question, still unable to understand, Kara shook her head.

"I don't understand." She decided to say in English, Kara knew from the comics that a few humans had made it into this sector, and nobody was likely to know the Kryptonian language here.

Koriand'r eyes shone brightly as she nodded in understanding before cupping Kara's face in her hands and kissing her, Kara couldn't help herself, she kissed back, opening her mouth and savoring her taste before snapping out of it and breaking the kiss. With a nervous laugh, Kara remembered about the Tamaranean nonsensical ability to learn languages with a kiss and flushed red.

Kara Zor-El hadn't been homosexual when she lived with her parents, but neither had Jace. She hadn't thought about the implications before, being more preoccupied with survival after all, but she found that she was quite attracted to Koriand'r body.

Thinking about it, she imagined a male kissing her in place of the girl and didn't mind it at all. Shaking her head, she left that little revelation for later and asked. "Can you understand me now?"

"I can, warrior, have you overcome your grief?"

"Not really, but we have more important things to worry about." Kara said and floated towards a mostly intact Psion body before starting to steal some clothes. "Kara Zor-El, nice to meet you."

"I am Koriand'r, princess of Tamaran." She greeted me before finding some clothes herself. "Do you have a plan, warrior Zor-El?"

"Call me Kara, your attack was probably what saved me, in my book that makes us friends."

"Joy! Admiration! To have an entire book dedicated towards your friendships!" She said, her face lighting up once again and her mouth opening into a wide smile. "Still, I can not imagine how those Zarbnarf manage to subdue a warrior of your power, Friend Kara."

Kara sighed before slipping into a very loose set of pants. She ripped out the missing leg and tied it around her waist in order to keep the piece of cloth in place. "I was in a healing coma and recovering from a wound, so they didn't have much trouble just keeping me from fully waking up. Do you have any idea how to get away from here?"

"Do not despair, Friend Kara, together we will most certainly be able to claim one of the ships of escaping." Koriand'r said and gave Kara a reassuring smile while helping her find a shirt.

Kara let Koriand'r continue the search and just floated in place, her mastery of the skill growing by the second, to the point that, while it still required concentration to keep herself in place, she could keep her body moving in a straight line without much effort now.

"Come on, Princess. Let's finish this before they have time to prepare any traps." They flew together, slowly picking up speed as Kara got more comfortable with her ability, but they didn't meet any other Psions or robots, allowing Kara to start experimenting with her abilities.

Kara tried to shift into x-ray vision to look through the walls for a few minutes before getting fed up with things and just using raw power to burst through them.

Eventually, they found the docking bay where the Psions kept the smaller ships, but there were Psion corpses and robots spread everywhere and the two remaining ships were in flames, while a third one seemed to be missing. "What the heck!"

"Friend Kara! My sister must have destroyed the ships of escape so they could not follow her." she said with a wide smile, happy that her murderous, traitorous sister had managed to escape. Or maybe Kara was being hasty. She had to idea which version of Blackfire she was dealing with after all. "We were separated in an earlier fight, I am most glad to know she has managed to escape!"

"I don't suppose you know a way to call her back for help?" Kara asked, already knowing the answer, but with some hope that she was wrong. After all, she was feeling extremely lucky since escaping.

"I am afraid my sister is very… practical. She would not risk coming back even if I could contact her." She said with a sad smile. "She would not risk it."

"Great… Just great." Kara suppressed her desire to curse or lash out at things around herself. She had to remember she wasn't a human anymore, lashing out was very bad now… especially for the environment around her. "Fine, if we can't take an escape vessel we're just gonna have to take this one instead."

Yeah, she quickly started warming up to the idea. Kara hadn't liked the idea of leaving behind whatever data the Psions had gathered with their experiments, Kryptonian experimentation never ended well in the comics, for anyone.

She had still been willing to do so in order to escape but, now that she had an excuse, she was eager to destroy everything and kill every single one of the cursed bastard's.

Turning back towards the interior of the ship, Kara finally managed to get her x-ray vision to work and immediately started searching for the densest concentration of psions, or the control room, that would work too.

She quickly found almost 40 Psions armed to the teeth with alien rifles and surrounded by security robots, they were getting ready for a fight, at one of the paths towards the center of the ship.

Kara took a minute or two to verify they weren't carrying any lead boxes or exposed Kryptonite then, when she was sure, she released a hysterical laugh of relief. "Ahahaha, the fools still don't know what they are fighting, Muwahahahahaha!"

"Muwahahahaha!" Came the exaggerated evil laugh from Koriand'r, it caused Kara to turn around and just look at her, dumbfounded.

"What was that?"

"I wished to partake in Friend Kara's customs to show my support." She revealed with a smile that just drained some of Kara's rage and fear away. "You have a most intimidating battle cry!"

They just stood there, staring at each other's eyes, a few seconds later Kara shook her head and snickered. "Nevermind."

Taking a deep breath, Kara accelerated in a straight line towards the Psions. She ignored every wall or floor in her way and acted like a battering ram, opening a path of destruction for Koriand'r to follow.

When they arrived, it wasn't really a fight but a slaughter. With Kara's resistance blocking most shots Koriand'r was free to show just how capable a warrior she was.

Every one of her starbolts sent a Psion flying or pierced right through them when she managed to hit exposed flesh. More than one Psion was decapitated by one of her well aimed attacks, then they reached melee range and all hell broke loose.

Even still wounded and recovering, Kara was faster, stronger and more brutal than Koriand'r. She punched through Psion's armor and all, or simply grabbed them and squeezed before throwing their bodies as makeshift projectiles.

Sometimes, Kara just ripped arms off and moved on, leaving the Psion to bleed out in pain. She moved from target to target like an unstoppable berserk, but Koriand'r wasn't any worse, she had skill. The Tamaranean Princess didn't fight like a human would. She didn't use footwork and, in fact, didn't step on the ground even once.

Managing to steal a blade from one of the Psions, Koriand'r floated around the battlefield with catlike grace, slashing, stabbing and delivering precise punches and kicks. In the end, she had defeated more enemies than Kara herself, substituting raw power for precision and control.

"Can you find out where the command room is?" Kara asked while wiping some blood off her face, turning around, she also spit some that had gotten into her mouth.

Koriand'r seemed a little sad at the amount of death they had caused, but she was a warrior trained by warlords, she wasn't a stranger to the battlefield and its horrors while also having very little sympathy for Psions.

"Certainly, it should not take very long." She approached one of the disabled survivors and started interrogating the monster. Kara had to continue thinking of them as monsters after what she had done, thankfully, it wasn't very hard.

The wounded male just spit in Koriand'r face, the girl cleaned the spit and dropped him to choose another.

Having recovered her breath, Kara floated herself towards a third survivor and dragged his wounded body up by the arm, leaving him dangling painfully in the air. "Where is the control room?" She asked and then repeated herself in all the languages she had studied in Krypton until the lizard answered.

"Stupid humanoid, we know what you are now! They will be ready for you!"

Kara squeezed the lizard's arm until she heard the bones crack. "Thanks for the warning, where is the control room?" She continued to question him. The lizard hissed in pain and attempted to spit at her, but Kara just used her speed to whip his body around and smash him against a wall.

She sighed. Despite all she suffered she didn't want to torture them. Kara knew she could do it, she hated the Psions enough to break every single bone in one's body and smile at his pain, but that's not who she wanted to become.

Knowing she would lose control of herself again if she interrogated another lizard, Kara briefly watched Koriand'r question another survivor then shook her head and concentrated on her x-ray vision to search the ship.

She still didn't have full control of her powers, being completely new to their uses. Kara's vision couldn't see through the entire ship and was erratic on how many layers she could look through at every moment. The ship was enormous. Easily the size of one of a small city, no matter how hard she tried, Kara couldn't find any other gathering of Psions big enough to be significant.

"Friend Kara, I have found the location of the room of control!" Koriand'r floated towards her with eagerness, green light flashing in her hands, pulling out a Psion personal computer, she opened a holographic map of the ship and showed her a red dot in the center and another green one where they currently stood.

Both young women were about two kilometers away from the center of the ship and still near the hull. Looking down at the floor, Kara frowned and tried to take a look with her vision, but it was still too far away.

"Alright, great work." Preparing herself once again Kara frowned, her back and shoulder had started to hurt from ramming so many walls, and there were so many ahead of her she had lost count. Suddenly, she shook her head and thought better of it. "Shit, alright Koriand'r, can you plot us a new path? I don't think I have the stamina to reach it in a straight line."

From the comics, Kara thought she should have been stronger than this but, then again, her cousin's power fluctuated wildly, from comics where he was just very strong, to ones where he was godlike and capable of punching holes in reality.

Kara also had to remember she wasn't in the best condition, her body was thin and malnourished, she felt hungry, thirsty and every time she fought, she had to catch her breath for longer, to the point she was wondering if perhaps her lung hadn't healed completely.

Flying twice as fast as a running man turned out to be a hush. It even managed to bring a smile to Kara's lips despite the situation she found herself in. She followed Koriand'r as best she could, going through wide corridors and elevator shafts. Koriand'r even took the time to smash some robots and Psions whenever they found them on the corridors.

Nearly twenty minutes later, they were finally arriving when Koriand'r stopped in the middle of the corridor. Kara almost hit her mid flight before managing to bleed out all her speed, with a flushed face, she had to fly back almost twenty meters to meet the princess.

"What?" she barked harshly out of mortification, then she saw the hurt look on her companion's eyes and sighed. "Sorry, I'm not used to looking like a fool while flying."

"I understand." Koriand'r turned towards her left and pointed. "We are two corridors to the right of the center of command. I plan on breaking the walls to avoid any traps they may have on the doors."

"Right, good idea, just hold on a minute." Turning towards the wall, Kara looked at the command center searching for any treats, she found many.

Despite their precautions, the Psions were watching them move, using some kind of surveillance camera to monitor them.

The lizards had all turned towards the wall and were waiting for them. Every single one of the bastards also carried a small piece of kryptonite tied to their bodies.

A large piece of Kryptonite, the size of a large van, was lying in the middle of the room, its green glow illuminating the white walls and creating strange shadows. It must have been sold to the monsters together with her escape pod by the scavengers that first found her.

"Ah! Alright princess, we're gonna have a change of plans here."

"Do you have a plan?" Asked the orange beauty, completely willing to follow her lead.

"Not really, but I can see through the walls and the enemy is ready for us."

"That is most distressing. It will make the battle much harder!"

"It's worse than that." Kara confessed. "They have a large piece of kryptonite, it's a radioactive rock that's poisonous to me and can weaken my body almost instantaneously. I can't enter that room without losing all my power, Koriand'r."

"Rage! Fury! How dare they use such repulsive means, do not worry, Psions are not warriors, I will be more than enough to fight them." Koriand'r gave Kara a quick pat to the back and readied herself.

"I'll give you ranged support, but I really can't enter there, Koriand'r, I can't be captured again, I just can't."

"I understand Friend Kara, I will not blame you." Lifting her glowing green hands, Koriand'r took some distance from her and released two of the largest starbolt yet, managing to blast through both walls separating them from the target.

Kara watched as Koriand'r flew into the room over a hail of blaster fire, she rammed one of the security robots through an electronic table before starting to send starbolts everywhere in the room.

Finally snapping out of her daze, Kara cursed herself for just watching like a stupid bystander, she quickly channeled energy to her remaining eye and released a controlled wave of heat without losing control of the power.

It took her a full second to burn through each wall, but she managed to hit a Psion holding a huge energy cannon, burning a hole through his chest. Slowly, Kara moved her head and burned a line through the room, forcing the Psions to focus more on survival than killing Koriand'r.

The heat ray was slow enough that some Psions managed to dodge it, but they were still forced to stop shooting at her companion to do so. Seeing that it was useful, Kara continued to aim towards the bastards, killing another two and destroying five robots, but mostly making them pause in their shooting.

Koriand'r herself wasn't just watching. As the main attacker, she moved through the enemies like a tiger, taking cover behind the Psions themselves and returning fire with quick starbolts while growling with anger.

She moved with purpose, fully demonstrating her superior strength and warrior training, but she wasn't a Kryptonian. Every time the hail of shots hit her, it caused her to release grunts of pain.

Finally, one of the larger cannons hit Koriand'r in the chest, sending her body flying and almost blasting her through another wall.

Psions may be many things, but they weren't stupid and capitalized on the hit despite Kara's best efforts to cut them down. She even increased the power to her attack. The constant release of power made her feel the strain and her eye started to water.

Suddenly, Kara fully lost control of her heat ray, she made sure to release one last blast of heat that melted a large hole through four walls, but it left her screaming in pain and cradling her remaining eye with both hands.

Koriand'r managed to take the chance to roll aside, recovering quickly, she flew up and blasted her enemies again, then dived towards one who had been flanking her and punched him in the chest before stealing his cover.

Forcing her eye to open, Kara looked at her companion and saw the cannon had left huge burns all over her chest and left arm, there were also dozens of smaller burns all over her body. Koriadn'r' was in a bad situation, her clothes had turned to rags, one of her fingers of her left hand was missing where someone had hit her with a solid projectile and she was bleeding.

"Fuck… no just fucking no!" Kara cursed as she flew towards the room, she didn't even manage to cross the wall before feeling the kryptonite affecting her, weakening her, making her retreat as flashes of her time locked inside the escape pod and, later, under the Psion's knives, flooded her mind.

Wrapping her arms around herself, Kara started to hyperventilate.

Koriand'r managed to take out another Psion with a cannon, she also destroyed some important control, causing red lights to start flashing all over the ship. The sudden loud noise surprised the hell out of Kara, but it also allowed her to refocus on the fight in time to see her partner crying out as something hit her face.

Tumbling down to the ground and screaming in pain, Koriand'r was pinned down under fire for the second time, the survivors rained down laser fire and projectiles towards her, forcing her to curl up and try to protect herself by hiding behind tables.

"Just how many of the damn lizards are there!" Kara screamed in frustration, Grabbing at the wall, she sunk her fingers into the metal and ripped a wide sheet away.

Putting the piece of metal in front of herself, Kara held it like a shield and accelerated as fast as she could, bursting through the walls and smashing the gathered Psions around her partner. The attack crushed at least a dozen of them and scattered the others.

Before Kara could recover, she felt her body locking up under the Kryptonite radiation, a bolt of energy caught her in the shoulder, blowing a hole right through it and causing her to scream from the burnt.

Kara howled in pain and fell to all three's. The Kryptonite started affecting her more, causing her incredible amounts of pain, her veins bulged up under her skin and she collapsed under her own weight, actually throwing up from pain.

With a grunt, Kara tried to drag herself under the metal sheet, but she wasn't strong enough to even lift it while under the effects of Kryptonite and got another hit on the leg.

With a second to recover, Koriand'r exploded into action. Even extremely hurt and missing some hair, she still managed to blast everything in sight before grabbing a metal support beam that had been cracked and ripping it out to use as a projectile.

The attack crushed another four Psions and finally broke their morale. The few remaining lizards were left running for their lives. Koriand'r was breathing hard from exhaustion, but she was still standing, her eyes glowing with green light as she tried to blast the runners. Kara released a low whimper of pain and the princess refocused.

"You came!" She screamed in happiness before noticing the bulging veins all over Kara's body. "What is wrong Friend Kara, how can I help!"

"The… argh… the rock." Kara cried out, Koriand'r looked around and saw the glowing green piece of kryptonite lying covered in debris at the center of the room. In a hurry, she gathered Kara's body in her arms and flew out of the utterly destroyed command center.

Kara felt the pain starting to go away as soon as they got out of the room, leaving behind only the burning feeling in her leg and shoulder from the shots she had taken. She looked at Koriand'r face and smiled a true smile, they had won, they had won control of the ship and probably killed any Psion with the power to take it back!

Releasing a breath of relief, Kara passed out.

Chapter Text

Kara watched with a calm face as the medical robot worked on her missing leg. Psions may not have used anesthesia on their victims, but they did keep some to use on themselves, just in case of an accident, or a rampaging experimental subject.

So, she barely felt anything as the robot sliced open her healed knee and started connecting the prosthetic circuitry to her nerves, but she was feeling a little nervous.

Kara wasn't really worried about the robot. Despite being somewhat backwards, Psions were still far more advanced than Humans. Even their worst machines still made modern hospitals look incompetent.

Really, the only reason so many of their test subjects died was because they usually didn't care to keep them alive. Finding out just how much trauma an individual was capable of withstanding before death was part of the experiment.

No, Kara was worried about the piece of kryptonite resting on top of the medical tray close by. It was an unfortunate necessity if she wanted the medical instruments to pierce her skin, but that didn't mean she had to like it.

At least the remaining Psions had finally been killed last night. Kara didn't know how she should feel about that. On one hand, she still hated them with a passion but, on the other, she knew her cousin wouldn't approve.

After the fight, the control room had been a huge mess. Computers and delicate devices were melted or filled with projectiles, and there was Psion blood everywhere.

Still, after Kori had moved the Kryptonite into a safer location, Kara had managed to use the controls to reconfigure the ship's security robots, ordering them to hunt down any monster or Psion they found.

It had been an impulsive move. Kara had been filled with anger, pain and adrenaline when she gave the order. The result was an empty ship, with every Psion executed, but Kara couldn't bring herself to regret it.

Kara was used to dealing with crystal based technology, but she did remember using Earth technology, and she had been raised by scientists genetically engineered to be smart. So, she understood how to manipulate Psion's computers fairly easily.

Almost a week later, they were still in the Vega system. Their ship was massive, but it was geared heavily towards research and, since they were never supposed to leave the system anyway, had very little in the way of propulsion.

Turning her head away from the piece of radioactive rock, Kara looked at her new leg once more. It wasn't very pretty, and it wouldn't hold up to the kind of stress her own body could take, but it was stronger than steel and allowed her to stand without having to rely on her flight.

Kara had lived two lifetimes being only as strong as a normal human, having a leg only slightly stronger than steel wasn't all that hard to swallow.

It helped that Kara had managed to include a hidden plasma weapon and a short range personal shield on the prosthetic. The shield was capable of blocking heavy caliber projectiles while completely ignoring most energy weapons.

By Rao, if Kara was gonna be forced to have a prosthetic limb, she was gonna have a badass one!

Kara had half expected to be able to regenerate her leg, or at the very least her eye. Unfortunately, it seems like it would take time to fully recover from her healing coma and all the Psion's experiments.

Creating a prosthetic eye was a little harder, what could she put on a bionic eye that she didn't already have as a Kryptonian? Instead, Kara had just put on an eyepatch and accepted that she wouldn't be getting a new eye anytime soon.

Finishing the operation, she tested her new leg, moving the individual toes and then the joints before putting it against the floor and slowly getting up. There weren't any problems.

Really, flying was awesome, but Kara had already started to miss just walking around.

The leg itself was made from an extremely heavy dark gray metal, but it was still no wider than her own leg. All of its mechanical parts were hidden behind a metal shield, but it still granted her 80% of her feet movement.
The prosthetic wasn't perfect, the technology far behind what Krypton could do, but it would serve, for now.

Kara and Koriand'r found themselves alone on the huge spaceship. There had been other prisoners before their escape but, when they started flying towards the command room, the Psions had decided to execute every other test subject lest they manage to get reinforcements.

Kara refused to blame herself for their actions, but it still hurt to know she could have saved some lives; If only she had been paying more attention to her improved vision or hearing, she could have acted.

Walking away from the medical bay, Kara couldn't help but look at her new leg from time to time. In the docking area, she found Koriand'r carrying a giant crate of tools from further inside the ship, her arms lifted above her head.

The girl's face opened up into a giant smile. "Joy! Congratulations on the new leg, my friend!"

Koriand'r smile was contagious. Kara couldn't help but return one of her own. "Thanks, princess, want some help with that?"

"No need, it is just machinery for the automatons. Not very heavy, yes?"

"I suppose." Kara said. She was still unused to the fact that a ton of metal wasn't heavy. By Rao, a hundred tons may not be heavy for her right now. "You're looking better…"

And Koriand'r was, there was no mistaking that. Kara hadn't noticed before, but a week of good food and rest, coupled with her increased metabolism, had caused Koriand'r to recover at a prodigious speed.

The Tamaranean had bulked up. Koriand'r had looked like a beautiful but anorexic teenager before, now she was a very fit young woman, with obvious muscles and great curves.

"Thank you." She said and laid the crate down so the maintenance robots could get to it.

Thankfully, while Komand'r had laid waste to the remaining ships when she escaped, she hadn't left them completely beyond repair. By focusing on only one of the ships, the both of them had managed to get it working without much trouble.

In only a few more hours, the robots would be finished with the essential repairs and they could leave this cursed place once and for all. "Friend Kara, we have gone through battle together, shared the breaking of the feast and lunch for days. Please, why have you continued to refer to me by title?"

"I… suppose I just didn't think about it?" Kara confessed, a little embarrassed, Krypton didn't have royalty, but her previous life had taught her to treat royals with respect. "How about I just call you Kori then?"

"That is more than acceptable." Kori nodded and then floated up. "That should be enough to finish the maintenance, I believe. I am going to take one last sunbath."

Kori floated away while Kara sat down atop another empty crate and continued to play with her new prosthetic, deploying the shield or practicing taking out the small handgun hidden inside. When she finally reached earth, it would probably be full of people who knew her cousin's weakness. Kara wanted to be ready for them no matter what.

A few hours later, the mechanical bots beeped and started entering the repaired ship. It looked terrible, with patches of different colors all over the hull, some of its guns were missing and it used mismatched propellers, but it would work.

The robots would have to continue repairing the non-vital parts still damaged inside, but it was ready to depart. Kara sent Kori a message and started gathering her things.

They had managed to find what remained of Kryptonian technology on the ship, as well as all Kryptonite, which they kept in a lead box created by Kara using her heat vision to seal any openings. Soon, they were both comfortably sitting inside the ship and watching the research center from a few million kilometers away.

Kara took a strange sense of pleasure in watching the reactor of the large research station overload and explode. The ship actually broke apart in at least a dozen pieces then, with a flash of light, exploded with devastating power, shattering into millions of pieces and destroying all Psion research inside.

"In Tamaran, we do not like to live in the past or hold grudges, but I must confess I am glad to see that place gone." Kori said as she hugged Kara's neck from behind, finding and giving support.

They watched quietly while their ship picked up speed away from the station. Eventually, even Kara's enhanced vision couldn't make up the pieces anymore. With a sight, she tapped Kori's arm to be released and turned towards her. "Are you sure you don't want to be left in Tamaran?"

"Correct, the Citadel is still in control of my home. To return now would only force my parents to turn me away once again." Kori started to float away slowly, but Kara grabbed her by the arm.

"Come with me to earth then?" She asked and dragged the orange girl away from the window. "I'm sure we can get some help for your people there."
"Truly? Earthlings must be mighty warriors indeed, if they are willing to face the Citadel just because someone asked!"

"Ah… well, you'd be surprised what people would do for a hot girl." Kara laughed. Kryptonians didn't really have romance, but she had been a teenage male in her previous life, she still remembered how horny it made her. "As for being great warriors… they have some, but the majority is 'very' far from a Tamaranean."

"Then… please, how can they help me fight?"

"Well, let me explain a little about their heroes…"

It took nearly a week for the ship to leave the Vega system but, after that, the maintenance droids inside finally finished fixing the ship's drive. It allowed them to travel much faster, arriving in the solar system in only another two weeks, despite the huge distance between them.

Kara and Kori spent some of that time sparring, with the golden princess teaching Kara how to fight while flying, how leverage worked when you had no need to keep your feet on the ground and even just how to face a resisting opponent.

Kara didn't become an expert in less than a month, but at least she was no longer restricted to ramming things very fast. She also managed to get a handle on her improved strength. Kara hadn't broken a glass cup in nearly a week.

Kara had also spent at least an hour every day teaching her companion about earth culture and what to expect when they arrived. Making sure Kori remembered how fragile most humans were was a work in progress, and the princess just couldn't understand why humans would frown on too much exposed skin.

It took only a moment for their ship to land on the dark side of the moon. Kara had chosen the location because she didn't want to risk getting detected by any villain like Luthor, Vandal Savage or Brainiac.

Also, she supposed she wasn't ready to meet her cousin just yet, not without knowing which version of him she would find. Kal El hardly ever went bad in the comics but, when he did, it was always bad, Injustice and Justice Lords bad.

Grabbing a bag filled with gold and platinum she had found while passing through the asteroid belt, Kara put the ship under camouflage and took a small tank of oxygen. Ordinarily, she thought she could hold her breath long enough to make the travel between Earth and the Moon but, while her lung had healed from being harvested by Psions, it wasn't working at full capacity and she didn't want to risk it. Kori herself didn't even need to breathe.

"We're here." Kara said to her companion, noticing how Kori held her own bags of precious metals.

"Excitement! Eagerness! I can not wait to finally meet an Earthling! Do you think they will like me?"

"Nobody could dislike you Kori, it's impossible." Kara laughed. She took one last, deep breath, before holding it in and flying away from the ship, Kori quickly flying after her.

Kara took some distance from the hidden ship, not wanting to draw any attention to its location. Finally, she really let her power flow.

For the first time, Kara started flying as fast as she could, quickly gaining speed. In less than a minute, she stopped feeling the Moon's gravity pull. Seeing as she was alone, Kara stopped for half a minute so Kori could catch up.

When the Tamaranean stopped beside her, Kara pulled out her communication device and typed. "Will I have to wait for you?"

A few seconds later, Kori tipped back. "No, I seem to be much faster than usual. I can also fly much easier in space."

Giving her a nod, Kara flew away, accelerating from zero to a hundred in a single instant; if she wasn't in space, there would have been a sonic boom.

Even without a suit, the cold of space didn't really affect Kara. She was also managing to hold her breath fairly easily and feeling pretty great.

Then Kori flew beside her and bumped her shoulders, making her lose control and tumble through space for a second. Regaining her orientation, Kara saw her friend waiting for her and laughing quietly before flying away, leaving a trail of light from her hair.

"Oh she didn't!" Kara thought and narrowed her eyes, Kori's figure quickly gained distance. It took her less than a second to take out her communicator at super speed and type again. "It's ON!"

Kara started giving it her all, flying faster than a bullet, much faster. The planet itself seemed to become bigger and bigger after each blink of her eye, soon filling her entire vision. With a silent laugh, she tackled Kori and started tickling her. Princess Koriand'r of Tamaran was very ticklish.

Kara took her victory with grace, leaving the squirming golden girl lying in the air. She pulled out her oxygen tank and took a few breaths before putting it away. Lifting her nose at the recovered princess, Kara smirked, Kori pouted.

They returned to their journey, quickly entering the atmosphere and making sure to decrease their speed so they weren't flying fast enough to gather visible heat.

Kara may have lost Krypton, but she had been an Earthling in her previous life, she still had fond memories of the planet, in a way, they were much better than her current ones.

Her human parents had been much warmer than her Kryptonian ones. Also, their memories weren't tainted by the pain of her entire planet exploding.

Taking a long breath, Kara smiled, she was finally home.

.

Two hot girls flying down in space suits was not something one saw every day, it would certainly draw a lot of attention, but it was already dark. Kara just made sure they weren't caught in any cameras and dropped right in front of a lone teen with glasses. She looked him over and dismissed him from her mind, but Kori hurriedly floated over.

"Greetings Earthling! Please, what is your name? Where are we? What are you wearing in your face? Do you want to be my friend?" She bombarded the poor guy with her questions while his eyes were glued to her breasts.

"Ahem." Kara had to intervene, making the guy snap out of his daze.

"Ahh… I guess we're in the United States, Fawcett City, I'm-I'm Ed Baker!" He swallowed hard at Kara's unamused face, forcing his eyes away from Kori's exposed skin. "I guess we can be friends?"

"Joy! You were right, Friend Kara, Earthlings are very receptive!"

"I bet he wants to be 'receptive'." She answered, narrowing her single eye at the teenager before releasing a sight and dropping to her feet on the ground. "I suppose you'll do."

"Ahhhh… I have to tell you, I'm too thin, very sickly, not at all a good probing candidate!" he took a few steps back.

"Do not worry friend Ed, I have been told probing is not a traditional alien greeting, no matter how many times it is portrayed in your history." Kori nodded in understanding.

"Those were fiction Kori, make believe." Kara sighed while pinching the bridge of her nose. "There will be no probing for you boy, do you have any money?"

"You're robbing me?" he asked, incredulously. This was DC. Kara didn't know why he was so surprised.

"No, but we need some normal human clothes." Kara took off her backpack and opened it showing him the metal bars inside. "We can pay you. We just don't have any of the local currency."

As he saw the amount of gold on her backpack, the boy lost all color, retreating a few steps and then falling on his ass. "I-I don't want anything to do with sto-stolen goods!"

"There. Was. No. Stealing! By Rao, we're aliens, we come from space! Why would we steal when we can just go to the asteroid belt and mine some gold?" Kara was starting to regret ever talking with the boy.

Ed looked from the two girls to the bag filled with precious metals twice, his face growing relaxed, and then turning into a smile as greed overcame his caution. "Look, I don't have any money, but you both are just about my cousin's size. I can get some of her clothes for one of those bars."

"Ha! I'll give you half a bar of gold."

"Three bars!"

"Half a bar! And we get to choose the clothes." Kara countered and laid an arm over his shoulders, whispering. "Next offer will only be a quarter."

"Fine! But, if you guys want to choose, you're gonna have to talk to Amber."

"That is acceptable, Friend Ed." Kori nodded, far too eager to meet another Earthling. "Please, do you think she will be my friend too?"

Seeing the boy's suspicious return, Kara gave him a break. "Don't worry. While we don't want to draw too much attention, we aren't really hiding. Going to a full mall and paying with gold bars is too much, but meeting a few people inside a house isn't a problem."

"Curiosity abounds! Please, what is this mall you speak of?"

"A shopping mall is a big building, usually filled with smaller shops, where people gather to purchase things, eat or simply to have fun." Kara explained towards her companion.

Ed took off his hoodie and handed it to Kori, it was a little too small, but still helped them to not stand out as much. As they walked, they alternated answering Kori's constant questions while the boy led them towards his cousin's house. They still got quite a few looks from some of the people on the streets, especially the males, but were easily dismissed from their minds.

They did look more or less human, the hoodie covered most of Kori's more exotic details and they weren't doing anything out of the ordinary.

Reaching a medium sized traditional house, Ed opened the small gate and led them inside before pressing the bell, when his cousin took too long to answer, he pressed it again.

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" The girl shouted from inside the house.

Amber Joyce was a young girl of about 18, her hair was held up in a towel and she was already wearing plain white pajamas. She took one look at her cousin and the two girls hanging around him and frowned. "Nope, you're not doing this." Then she slammed the door on their face.

"Amber! Come on Amber!" Ed started banging on the door and pressing the bell for a full minute, leaving two very amused aliens smirking at his desperation until Amber opened the door again.

"Look Ed, just because my parents are out of the city, it doesn't mean you can just bring your cosplay girlfriends to fool around… Hey! What are you doing!?" She shrieked as Ed pushed his way inside the house. Kara decided to make the conversation easier, floating after him and smiling when Kori did the same. "Just… what?"

"Edward Jonathan Backer, what's going on here!?" She shouted and dragged her cousin away from the two floating women in her living room.

Kara just let herself fall down on the sofa and started searching for something to watch on the TV, but Kori floated around the room, looking at everything just like a curious cat.

"What the hell have you gotten yourself into?" Amber whispered in his ear after they finally got to the kitchen.

"Look Amber, don't ruin this for me, please?"

"Ruin what!?" Her whispering got louder. "Are you some kind of… henchman now?"

"What? No! I mean, technically…" The boy shook his head. "Alright, look, they just arrived on earth and don't want to stand out too much, so I thought they could borrow some of your clothes."

"Are they aliens now? I thought they were just metas. What the hell are you doing with aliens?" Then she registered what else he was saying. "And who the hell are you to lend my clothes to strangers!"

"Have I told you they have two bags full of gold and are totally willing to share?" The boy poured himself a cup of water. "Look, they just dropped down from the sky right in front of me, what was I supposed to do?"

"Call the police?"

"But… Come on!" Ed pouted at her and Amber sighed, stealing his cup of water, she drained it and massaged her temples.

"Haaa… but they were two hot girls, so you didn't want to. Fine, how much did they promise you?"

"Half a bar of gold."

"Where the hell did they find gold anyways?"

"They said it was the asteroid belt." He replied, now with some hope in his voice.

"Fine, fine, but I get 80%. They are my clothes after all."

"What! No way, 50/50!"

"80%, and I don't tell your parents what you have been doing after school" She told him and Kara smiled. Yeah, it would work out.

"Fine." He whined. Suddenly, his phone started ringing. "Shit, it's mom. Hi mom! Ah… I kind of forgot, at Amber's place, no! I mean, I can just walk, it's not too late, alright."

Ed was forced to hand the phone over to Amber, she smirked at him, not moving for a second and making him think she wasn't gonna say anything, then she took up the phone. "Hi, aunty, yeah he's here, don't worry he's not that annoying, love you too, bye."

"Look, can you stay with them?" He asked her, giving a few glances where Kori was floating up at the ceiling and poking the lamp.

"Yeah, I can deal with them." Seeing her cousin's reluctance, she punched him in the shoulder. "What were you gonna do anyway, flail your arms at the flying aliens like you did Carlos? Don't worry; anything happens I'm running away while screaming for Captain Marvel."

"Thanks Amber." He kissed her on the cheek and gathered his own backpack.

When they reached the living room again, Kara turned off the TV. "Hey, in the interest of being honest, I kind of heard everything you guys said." They both swallowed, but Kara waved their fear away. "So, this is Captain Marvel's city huh, cool."

"Ah, I'm just gonna… go then." Ed said, making his way towards the door. Kori managed to intercept him, giving him a back crushing hug which left the teenage boy equal parts happy and in pain.

"Good bye Friend Ed, we must meet again!" Kori released the boy, he was left breathing hard and cradling his back in pain, but still had a huge smile when he left for the door. Amber just stopped at the kitchen's door with a hand on her hips and looked at her two guests.

"Aren't you awfully comfortable here?" She asked, raising an eyebrow as she saw Kara's laid back posture.

"Comes with no one trying to kill or experiment on me." Kara answered, just to see her reaction, a smug smile on her face while Kori nodded beside her, equally happy.

"Yes, Earthlings seem much better than Psions, I am glad we came here!"

"Alright, I'm gonna pretend I didn't just hear that." Amber shook her head, not knowing how to deal with them. "So… you want some clothes then?"

"I did hear you saying your parents aren't home, right?"

"Riiight…" Amber answered warily.

"So, how about another deal, you lent us some clothes now, let us sleep here today, then help us for a day or two and I'll pay you a full gold bar?" Kara opened her backpack and pulled out a small and rough bar of gold from inside. "I didn't really weigh the thing when I made it, but it had about 10 kilos of pure gold, should make for a quarter million at least."

"Holy shit!" Amber stumbled away, staring at the gold bar with huge eyes, then at Kara's backpack. "Holy shit, that's a lot of money! Why the hell are you paying me so much money?"

"Convenience… mostly, we got a lot more in the bags, and it isn't exactly hard to mine some more if we need it." She confessed and Kori nodded by her side. Without knowing a lot about Earth's culture, the Tamaranean was letting Kara make most of the decisions, at least for now. "We're from another planet Amber, we don't have to value gold the same way Earth does."

Amber's eyes kept glancing towards the gold, but she seemed to steel herself, lifting her eyes, she asked. "And why have you come to Earth?"

"We're an advanced scouting party. We're here to study your heroes so our army will have it easier when they arrive." Kori gave her a mean look, but Kara let silence fill the room for a few seconds before laughing. "Just kidding, we're refugees. Kori's people were subjugated by assholes and she couldn't go back while my planet exploded."

It still hurt to talk about Krypton like that, the wound still felt fresh despite the time that had passed. Kara's new memories of another life made it easier, but not by much.

In a way, it was just something else she had lost.

With a sigh, Kara let herself fall back on the sofa and covered her eye with an arm, just waiting for an answer.

"Fine, you guys can stay, but only for today."

"Great." Kara smiled, adjusting herself on the sofa, she couldn't help but appreciate Kori's new clothes.

Amber had been smaller than her, so the clothes were very tight and showed her every curve. It most definitely didn't help that the princes chose clothes which left a lot of her skin exposed to the sun.

Contrary to Kara, the Tamaranean princess had healed and recovered very well, her body filling out in all the right places. Even her finger had been easily reattached.

Kara herself chose some baggy clothes which hid her features.

No longer looking like supervillain, or an alien, Kara asked for Amber's phone in order to do something she had been eager for since recovering her memories.

Kara ordered pizza.

Chapter Text

Kara was lying on the couch with her new notebook on her lap, searching for everything she could find about her cousin and Earth's other heroes.

Thankfully, she had already dismissed concerns of an Injustice or Justice Lords's situation; she also wasn't in any DC movie universe she could recognize.

In fact, the Justice League had been formed for quite a few years already and had a very diverse cast of heroes. Kara also wasn't in the DCAU; the Justice League's holster was both too big for JL and too small for JLU.

Her cousin seemed to be a well established hero, having been active for a long time now. People on the internet suspected he was around 30 to 35 years old.

Kara did find a Clark Kent working at the Daily Planet as a reporter and a Lois Lane acting as his partner, or well, more like the other way around.

With Flash and Lois still alive, Kara wasn't really concerned about his mentality, she just… didn't know how to approach him after so long being absent.

Instead, she had spent her time establishing herself in the city. Kara had broken off pieces of her gold bars and sold them to different pawn shops for some immediate cash, then rented a loft for her and Kori to stay at, before getting some new clothes for them both.

Kori really came to like Amber. They both hang out together a lot of the time, having even bought some bad superhero costumes so they could go out dressed like that despite Amber's shame.

With the bad costumes, they could say they were cosplayers whenever Kori's skin color and hair were questioned. It worked surprisingly well, or at least seemed to, since Kara couldn't find anything about her on the internet and no hero or villain had turned up on their door yet.

Kara had already spent a lot of time searching the internet for the known identities in the DC universe. Bruce Wayne, Oliver Queen, Wally West, Selina Kyle, Lex Luthor and many others… Not that she could remember everything about every character from DC, but she did get a general idea of how things were.

Closing her notebook, Kara left a message for Kori and put on some party clothes. Opening the window, she flew towards Gotham City.

Kara wanted to get herself fully established before contacting her cousin and the Justice League. It would just feel better to cover all her bases and make some alternative options for herself. Far too many people knew her cousin's weakness for her liking.

Using her improved senses to make sure she wasn't caught by anyone of the bat family, or one of his many deranged villains, Kara dropped on an alley and patted down her clothes, making sure they were all in place. She was wearing a skin tight pair of jeans with knee length boots, a white tank top showing her midriff and a leather jacket.

Approaching the bouncer, she gave him a smile and he waved her into the Tin Roof Club without even checking her ID. Sometimes, it paid to be a very hot woman. She'd never have gotten away with this in her previous life.

The club itself was full. Kara had to distract herself from her hearing so she could withstand the loud music. She walked aside, freeing the club's entrance and then searched the room until she found Selina Kyle.

Even hotter than on her pictures in the internet, the Woman was acting like a bartender at the other side of the room. Kara could definitely see how Batman kept letting her escape.

Probably a case of: hate letting her go, but love watching her leave. The woman wore leather very well.

Squeezing through the full dance club proved very easy when one had super strength. Even if she had to slap a few male hands away, leaving them with painful reminders to mind their manners or push away some females until she arrived at the bar.

"Hey Baby, wanna have some fun?" Asked a young man sitting at the bar, the guy was a little too drunk for his own good. Kara just shook her head, but the inebriated idiot didn't take the hint and tried to warp an arm around her waist. "Come on, don't be like that."

Holding his arm with one hand, Kara grabbed him by the shoulder and pinched him painfully before lifting him from the chair and looking him in the eye. "I think it's time you went home, Romeo."

The guy just grimaced, nodding his head furiously until she released him.

Kara turned to see Selina giving her a curious look. She sighed. "I don't mind the looks or pickup lines, but touching without my permission is a big no, no." Taking the guy's place, Kara sat down at the bar and smiled. "Give me a neat Johnny walker."

"You sure you're allowed to drink?" Selina asked, but she was already grabbing a bottle and glass.

"I'm much older than I look."

Selina raised an eyebrow and challenged. "And If I asked for some ID?"

"I'm afraid I don't have one of those, not yet at least."

Selina's face became far more serious at that. She poured the whiskey and handed Kara the cup, but narrowed her eyes and took some distance. "I think you're in the wrong place for that kind of thing."

"Oh, I don't really need or want an ID right now." Kara took a sip of the drink and grimaced. Her Kryptonian body stopped the drink from affecting her in any way, a true pity. "But, I do come with an offer you can't refuse."

"I don't know what you mean." Selina's voice hardened.

Kara's enhanced senses caught the barely concealed tension in Selina's every muscle and she snorted. "Sorry, sorry, I just always wanted to say something like that. Don't worry, I won't hurt you."

"What makes you think you could?"

"Oh I could, I really, really could, but I won't. I don't want my cousin to get mad at me when we finally meet." Kara looked down at her glass of whiskey and sighed at the tragedy. She would never be able to enjoy a good drink again. Draining the glass, she continued. "What I really meant was, I have an offer you won't refuse, particularly since money is not a problem."

"I believe you." Selina relaxed a little and just stared at her for almost a full minute, clearly still out of balance at a stranger knowing who she was. "I don't usually take jobs from anyone. It's more trouble than it's worth, but you got me curious and that's always been a problem with a cat. Stay here after the club closes and we can discuss things without any interruptions."

"Great, don't worry you won't regret it." Sliding her glass back to Selina, Kara got up from the bar and joined the dance floor.

As a man, she had always though she looked stupid dancing, but she did enjoy the attention she was getting. Kara spent quite a few hours just enjoying the music, changing partners from time to time.

She was forced to give painful pinches when some guys got a little too happy with their hands, one even got a very painful and private lesson when he insisted, but Kara did enjoy her time, dancing with girls as often as guys until, finally, her chest started to hurt and she was forced to sit down despite not even having started to sweat.

She'd really have to spend more time sunbathing.

Half an hour later, the club started to empty out. Selina finally joined her in the private stall Kara was occupying, leaving an employee to finish dealing with the bar. "I'm surprised a little dancing wiped you out already."

Turning towards the woman, Kara tapped the flower designs on her eyepatch. "Don't tell anybody, but the eye is not the only thing I'm missing."

Selina looked her over, but didn't seem to notice her prosthetic leg, still she nodded. "I see… still, I have to say, you're acting awfully sure of yourself for someone without a reputation to back it up."

"Let's just say, I'm new around here." Kara made some small talk; she didn't really mind revealing things about herself. The only thing anyone could really use against her was her cousin and, well, she'd like to see them try. "Truth is, I was supposed to come years earlier, but I had an accident and couldn't make it in time."

"Must have been some accident then."

"Yes, a vehicle collision, I almost died."

"Club is closed, boss, do you need me for anything else?" Asked a giant of a man.

"No, thanks Roberto, you're free to leave." Selina waited until the man locked the club's door behind himself before leaning over the table, her moves becoming more fluid and predatory. "Now, tell me, what is this… job you're offering me?"

"Have you ever seen Hawkwoman and Hawkman's maces?" Selina just made a motion with her hand indicating for Kara to go on. "You may not be aware, but they're made from a very rare and valuable metal called Nth metal. It's originally only found on their home planet but, over the years, various small amounts have made their way here to Earth. I need you to find and retrieve at least 200 grams of said metal."

"Hmm… and I suppose you don't know where I can find such metal?" Selina asked while tapping her nail against the table.

"I have some ideas, but nothing certain." Kara thought about things and tried to remember anything else from the comics. "It's quite possible there's an entire Thanagarian ship buried down on Egypt. It would be full of Nth metal, but I don't know its exact location, it should have crashed there thousands of years ago. Batman also has several knuckled made from the metal in his cave and Despero used large amounts of the metal when he fought the entire League some time ago. After that, the most likely place would be in the hawk couple's houses and their maces."

"You're not asking for much, are you?" She mocked sarcastically. "Dealing with members of the League isn't easy."

"I understand, that's why I'm willing to offer almost anything for it."

"Why almost?" Selina wondered out loud while dragging her nails on the table and narrowing her eyes.

"As I said before, my cousin wouldn't like me killing anyone and I don't really want to disappoint him but, short of that, any favor you ask I could probably do." Kara thought about it a little before completing. "And, as long as you accept precious metals, I could pay any price you want."

"Hmmm… this metal must be very valuable then." Selina wondered out loud.

"It's not the rarest, nor the most powerful, but yes, it is very valuable." Kara leaned towards Selina and used her own nail to tap the surface of the table, leaving holes that went all the way through. "Let me be clear here, Selina, when I say I will pay any amount of money I really mean it. No need to offer it to others, no need to search for its true value. Just say your price and I will pay it."

"And if stealing it earned me some trouble?"

"I'll back you up. Don't worry, short of provoking Black Adam himself, I should be able to deal with anything and, worse comes to worse, I can ask for my cousin's help… or leniency."

"You'll understand if I take some time to decide if I want to take this job?"

"Of course, just try to not take too long." Kara replied and pulled out a small piece of paper with a pen from one of her pockets, writing her number on it. "I guess we're done here for now?"

"One last question if you will, that's some claim you're making and I can see you're strong." Selina stared at the small holes in her table. "But, how can I trust you're that much of a heavy hitter?"

Kara folded the piece of paper with her number and threw it at the table with a smile. She knew what she was about to do was a little over the top, and probably revealed more than she should, but she was in a world which had become a comic book in an alternate reality, she could indulge. "Oh, I'm sure you're aware I'd prefer to keep this between us Selina, but I think I can convince you."

Slowly, Kara floated off her seat. Her single eye glowing red with ominous heat, she turned her head up and shot a heat ray towards a window, melting the glass completely before flying out through it.

With tremendous speed, Kara rose up into the sky, using the cover of darkness to hide her body, almost out of the atmosphere; she made a parabola towards the European continent.

Kara had planned to spend quite some time exchanging her gold in pawn shops all over the world for some time now and, after her meeting with Catwoman, it was the perfect moment.

Since she could fly to anywhere on the planet, the fact that it was night wasn't an excuse to stop.

When she finally found a city where the shops were already open, Kara was in England, which was very convenient; she only spoke two earth languages right now.

Kara spent the next three hours going from pawn shop to pawn shop, selling pieces of her gold in every city she could. Eventually, she got fed up with the activity, there had to be a better way to do this, but she hadn't thought of it yet, not without getting in contact with worse criminals than Catwoman and she wasn't willing to do that.

On her way back, Kara couldn't help but be happy with her work. Hopefully, Catwoman wouldn't take too long to get back at her and, although she had only gotten a few thousand from each shop, she had gone to enough of them to gather almost a quarter million. It was more than enough for her expenses for the next month.

It's really a pity that people who accepted getting paid in gold were usually on the wrong side of the law; things would be so much simpler if that wasn't the case.

Arriving back to Fawcett City, Kara committed her first mistake, she let her guard down. The entire time, she had been flying under the radar, keeping her senses focused so she could avoid anyone getting a good look at her while moving too fast for most people to even see her figure, but she was almost home so, she relaxed.

Kara collided with a wide chest floating right in front of her, bouncing off and almost hitting a building before recovering her balance.

Captain Marvel stood in front of her. Almost two meters tall and with a wide chest, the brunette looked to be around twenty five, with perfect hair and well defined muscles filling his skintight red outfit, a white cape hanging over his right shoulder.

He looked hot as hell and, for a moment, Kara hoped this version of him was already grown up but, since she hadn't heard anything of the marvel family, she didn't find it very likely… a pity.

"Ahem, hello there." He said with a charismatic smile. Kara could even see the shine in his teeth.

"Hi….?" She made the greeting sound more like a question before looking around. "I'm sorry, did I do something wrong?"

"Ah no, no, you've done nothing wrong miss." He said embarrassed before scratching at his neck. "It's just… I don't see someone flying in this city everyday."

"Oh really?" Kara answered and leaned closer to the man before lowering her voice. "Are you making a pass on me?"

"No! No, of course not! Ah, not that I wouldn't… And you are very beautiful… Ugh, that's not what I meant." He floated back, his face going red as an apple as he desperately tried to justify his actions and immediately looking several years younger. "I mean… haaa."

Yep, definitely still the kid version, Kara thought and sighed in her mind. With a smile, she laughed at him.

"Don't worry, I was just kidding, come on let's get inside." She motioned for the young hero to follow her since they were very close to her loft. "I don't actually want to draw too much attention and hanging out with a hero isn't very stealthy."

"Of course miss, lead the way." He recovered from his flustered moment and waited for her to gain some distance before whispering to himself. "Stupid, stupid, this is Beautia all over again."

Kara couldn't resist, the best Kryptonian power had to be her ability to mess with people, because she really loved it. "I heard that. You know."

"Ugh." The Captain stumbled in the air, but recovered almost instantly, closing his mouth before he said something else incriminating.

Flying fast enough nobody would have time to take a picture, Kara entered her own flat through an open window and settled down, waiting until Captain Marvel followed her in, looking around himself curiously.

Taking of her jacket, Kara threw herself down on the sofa and opened her boots before kicking them away, revealing her metal leg. "So, what exactly did you want from me?"

"Sorry, I'm really not used to new supers just inviting me over." He said while searching for a place to sit. "They usually just want to kill me, you know?"

Kara sighed. The kid looked so earnest right now, she couldn't keep her distance. Floating up from the sofa she made her way towards the kitchen. "Fine, come on, I think my roommate left some chocolate cake in the fridge."

"What?"

"Cake, you want it?"

"... Yes." Captain Marvel was initially wary of the food, but Kori always took her food very seriously and always bought the best cakes in the city, so he soon forgot about him worries. "You know, this is turning out far better than I expected."

"Yeah, I'm not much for starting fights with superheroes." Kara said and pointed at him with her fork. "Besides, my roommate is a fan. She'd be mad if I beat you."

"Alright, so… What are you doing in the city?" He finally asked between bites of cake.

"It's more or less where I landed." Kara poured herself some milk and offered it to the superhero who nodded happily.

"You're an alien then?" He asked while lying back against the chair and wiping his mouth with his sleeve.

"Yep, don't worry, I'm just here to meet one of my relatives and won't cause any problems."

Turned out, Captain Marvel was a pretty okay guy. He accepted her answer fairly easily and they spent the next half an hour just talking with each other with. Him telling her about his fights with Doctor Sivana or Black Adam, while she spoke a little about her life on Krypton, without revealing any details of course.

"Hi, Kara, you home already!?" Amber shouted from the entrance. "Ouch, watch it, Kori!"

"I am sorry, Friend Amber." Kori floated towards the kitchen, her arms filled with grocery bags, and then she froze, her eyes going impossibly wide while looking at Captain Marvel. "X'hal's breath! I am your biggest fan!"

Kori flashed in front of the Captain and proceeded to fly around him like an over excited bee. "Curiosity abounds! Please, who is your greatest enemy, why do you call out Shazam, who is stronger, you or Superman, do you like cookies, may I have an autograph?"

"I… Whoa, that's a lot of questions." He said to try and buy himself some time while the orange girl continued to buzz about.

Kori threw the shopping bags on the kitchen's counter, spilling out an intimidating assortment of snacks before grabbing a bag filled with cookies and dragging the Captain by his arm, surprising him with her strength. "Of course you like cookies, what kind of terrible creature would not, yes? Please, have you ever eaten the strawberry flavored ones, the geniuses of your Earth knows no bounds, to be able to invent something so divine!"

Kara shook her head at the scene. The huge man couldn't resist and was physically dragged towards the living room where a new girlish scream came from Amber herself.

Looking at all the bags, Kara sighed. Kori had probably bought a lot of ice cream again, so she better start organizing things before they melted.

Kara finished putting away the groceries when it hit her. "Shit, I knew the cake was too much."

Flying past a laughing Kori playing arm wrestling with Captain Marvel, Kara dashed into the bathroom without anyone noticing and proceeded to spill her guts out. Thankfully, she remembered to keep her hair out of the way, but her stomach was hurting like hell.

Once again, Kara cursed the Psions with every fiber of her being while spilling what little food she had managed to keep. Really, she was very thankful that Kryptonians under a yellow sun ate more out of habit than necessity.

Taking her clothes off, Kara took a long bath, making sure to clean her face especially hard. Her missing eye still bothered her and she knew she should make a prosthetic, if only to fix her problem with depth perception, but she couldn't bring herself to do it. Somehow, a missing eye was harder to face than a leg.

Using one of the Psion's medical devices, she made sure to check her health to see how the constant exposure to the yellow sun was affecting her. The device was far too primitive to truly diagnose Kryptonian DNA, but it still gave her a base to work from.

Kara sighed; her missing limb and eye really had stopped healing. It seems like even the effects of sunlight had limits and her body had reached them. At least her insides were still recovering, if slowly. Kara felt slightly better every day that passed, but it would still take a long time until she was fine.

In a bout of anger, Kara almost punched the wall, but managed to stop herself and take some deep breaths. The Psions were gone, she was on Earth, she was safe... she was safe.

Kara finished her bath and put on a robe before briefly glancing at Captain Marvel, The hero was still being bombarded with questions by Kori and Amber. Kara smiled, both Kori and the Captain seemed to be having a lot of fun.

Too tired to interact with them, she went to the bedroom and took the time to check her phone. She knew Catwoman wouldn't have called her so soon, but she couldn't help but hope.

Nth metal would fix a lot of her problems.

Throwing herself on the bed, Kara knew she should get changed, but she just didn't care, before long she had passed out.

Chapter Text

Kara squinted her eye and moved her hand with extreme care, every movement precise and calculated. Slowly, she rotated the machine's arms and released another burst of radiation into the small piece of Kryptonite, it flashed with green light for a second and then started to vibrate, absorbing more and more radiation. With a loud 'bang', it exploded into hundreds of pieces which quickly lost their colors.

Taking her hands off the controls, Kara wiped her forehead and sighed. She wasn't stupid enough to experiment with the radioactive rocks while in the same room, but using remote control handles and cameras in a far away room worked, even if it still caused her some stress.

In truth, she knew she should really be working on a prosthetic eye, but she couldn't bring herself to do it. She was still hopeful her eye would start to grow back, despite the fact it was showing no signs of doing so.

Still, putting on a prosthetic could delay or even stop the re-growth. Perhaps her healing was prioritizing her internal organs and would shift back to her eye eventually? She had been feeling better lately.

Glancing aside, she saw her prosthetic leg was still only at 60% charge and sighed before also checking her robots on the computer.

Her mining robots were still working, they weren't very efficient, being just repurposed security and maintenance drones instead of specialized equipment, but they could still find precious metals inside the asteroids and bring them back to the ship fairly easily.

It wasn't a long term solution, but she wasn't looking to start a true mining operation anyway, and could still get a fortune before they broke down.

Catwoman had called her two days after their meeting in order to accept the job, but her asking price had been a little too large for what Kara had in hand. She hadn't thought she'd need 50 million in gold when she had first mined the asteroid belt with Kori.

Still, it wasn't all that hard to do, even with the technology she had at hand.

Finally, she looked at her data recovery program. The Psions had damaged the data crystals in her ship while trying to extract information from them, and it was taking a long time to get it all fixed.

Stretching her back, Kara yawned and went back to her experimentations. She had already managed to turn a tiny piece of kryptonite red by bombarding it with radiation and accelerating its half-cycle, but any more and the damned rock simply degraded too fast to be of use, quickly becoming inert.

As a Kryptonian, very few things threatened Kara, and she wanted to be ready whenever one of them showed up. Magic was already being dealt with by obtaining Nth metal, and it would even have the bonus of helping her finally heal, but there was always a chance of another Kryptonian showing up.

As far as she could find, her cousin hadn't dealt with general Zod yet, and an evil doppelganger was always a possibility in DC, what with alternate realities and mad scientists.

So, she was trying to find a way to deal with them, and she doubted Superman would let her use the more… permanent solutions. As a result, she was killing some time trying to create golden kryptonite, relatively harmless to her people, but able to reduce them to human level for a long period of time. Perfect for safe incarceration.

She wasn't having much luck.

"Damnit!" She cursed as another small piece of Kryptonite lost its color and stopped radiating any harmful waves. It hadn't exploded this time, but Kara finally decided that just radiation wouldn't be enough to create anything other than the red variety, and that one only drove Kryptonians mad with rage.

Changing her approach, Kara tried to increase the rock's half life instead, expending another hour and a half trying various ways of doing so until she finally got a nail sized piece of blue kryptonite on the table.

She memorized the precise method of fabrication before erasing it from the computer. Even if she lost two entire days of data gathering and studying, Kara wasn't willing to allow anyone even the slightest chance of getting their hands on Kryptonite research.

Sending a drone to put away both red and blue pieces of Kryptonite, she watched as they put them in small lead boxes. Kara checked the more long term experiments with pressure and chemical baths, making sure they were running correctly before pushing herself away from the chair and grabbing her prosthetic.

With a turn of the wrist, she locked it in place and wiggled her metal toes. The metal wasn't capable of transmitting sensations, but she always felt better when she had all her parts in place, almost like she was whole again.

Putting on her socks and boots, Kara dropped down on the floor and cracked her neck. How strange, in both her lives she had always wanted to fly and, now that she could, she had the odd desire to walk everywhere.

Looking over everything one last time, Kara made sure the mining process was automated and working as expected before grabbing her respirator and walking towards one of the ship's hatches, then she flew out into space picking up speed towards earth.

She didn't fly as fast as she could, or even constantly accelerate. She wanted to let herself rest since it was a much greater distance than just from the moon.

Still, since her mask allowed her to breathe easily, and there was no air resistance, her body moved with ease, picking up speed slowly but constantly, allowing her to finish the trip in less than two hours.

She had to bleed out some speed before reentry, lest she burn her new clothes but, in another twenty minutes, she was dropping down behind an alley in Fawcett City. The sun was still up in the sky, so she was a little early getting home and, since she hadn't eaten in a day and a half, decided a little ice cream wasn't too much.

Fawcett City in the afternoon was beautiful. It had a peaceful feeling Kara had only ever felt in Kandor when the military was away from the city, a sense that no matter what happened, everything was gonna be alright. People walked the streets and just felt…safe, Captain Marvel was doing a good job.

"Whoa!" Screamed a teenager as he almost hit her with his bicycle while she was waiting in line for an ice cream.

"Watch it, you punk!" Shouted a man from behind her. He put a hand on her shoulder and tried to support her and stop her from falling. It was completely unnecessary, but Kara appreciated the thought. "You alright miss?"

"I'm fine, thanks." She gave him a wide smile before noticing the little girl hiding behind his leg and holding one of his hands. "And who's this?"

"Anna." The little brunette squeaked from behind her father, hiding her face on his pants and causing Kara to laugh out loud.

Kara really couldn't see herself raising a kid like that, no matter how cute she seemed. Perhaps it had been for the best that Kal El had found such caring parents as the Kent's.

The young father lifted the girl up into his arms and kissed her on the cheek before smiling at Kara. "Come on, honey, say hi to the nice lady."

"Hello." The little girl said and then buried her face on her fathers' neck while mumbling something.

"Nice to meet you too, Anna." Kara couldn't help messing with the kid's hair. "Heh, cute kid."

"Thanks," Said the proud father. "I've never seen you here before, are you new here?"

"Yep, just moved into the city a couple of weeks ago."

"Really, hope you like it here then."

They continued to make small talk as the line advanced, Kara asking about what to look out for in the city, and him kind of bragging about his daughter. It wasn't anything important, but she found it nice to be able to have a simple, normal conversation.

"Hey, I think it's your turn." The father pointed and Kara saw he was right.

"Thanks, nice to meet you." She waved the little girl goodbye before approaching the ice cream truck and passing the attendant a bill. "Get me a vanilla cone."

"Right away Miss."

"Hi honey, did you wait too long?" Said a female voice from behind her.

Turning around, Kara saw what was probably the girls' mother joining them to wait in line. Getting her cone, Kara waved back one last time and left.

"Hi mommy, daddy was flirting with the pretty lady!"

Kara almost spit her ice cream as she heard the eager little girl tattling to her mother. Lowering her head, she increased her walking speed while snickering at the flustered man's response.

Kara should have known things were going too well. Her experiments were going well, all her projects were working as expected, she should have known something was gonna go wrong.

Looking up, she saw Captain Marvel flying towards a tall building before being hit by a huge lightning bolt and losing control, falling heavily into the asphalt only four blocks to her right.

Damn, was Livewire or Weather Wizard in the city?

Using her X-ray vision, Kara found the Captain already recovering before a second discharge of electricity passed through the cables in the street, hitting the Hero in the chest, driving him back into the ground and revealing a blond teenager sparkling with electricity, her boot on his chest.

"Well, well, well, looks like you're not so marvelous after all!" The girl, who couldn't be older than fourteen, gloated before the Captain recovered and tried to grab her. With a flash and a few bolts of electricity, she disappeared, only to appear on the sidewalk. "Ha! He did say it wasn't going to be easy."

Seeing the girl lift her hands in the air and they starting to gather another electric discharge, the hero dodged.

"Sha… darn it!" He started to say, but cut himself off, clearly not knowing how resistant the girl was, and unwilling to really hurt her. Kara noticed the hero seemed to be holding back a lot, even avoiding causing damage to his surroundings despite the battle.

Kara kept an eye on the fight and started walking towards them. She wasn't actually worried, Captain Marvel was about even with her cousin in power, but it wouldn't hurt to be close by, just in case of any accidents… Plus, it was her first superhero fight, she didn't want to miss it by getting distracted.

Both fighters started playing a kind of keep away game, with the super powered teenager flashing away every time the Captain got close, and he enduring her electrical discharges while grunting and grimacing.

Fortunately, the girl didn't seem able to actually hurt him, even when her revealing outfit started helping, shining with orange light as it channeled her power.

Noticing it, the Captain started aiming for her suit, managing to damage it without hurting the girl inside and causing her teleports to become erratic.

One of said teleports fell short, leaving the girl just a little too close to the hero, he managed to use his speed to grab her before she could reorient herself, destroying the electronic devices in her suit and causing her to scream in frustration.

She beat her fists at his arms fruitlessly, her hair floating up as her electrical discharges became weaker and less controlled.

The fight seemed to be over when the girl grabbed at the captain's arms and they both flashed with electricity, causing every lamp in three blocks to blow up, and one of the generators in the closest lamppost to explode in a shower of sparks.

A thunderbolt hit them from above, causing the closest windows to explode, when Kara's vision finally cleared, she saw five stunned kids in the place where the two had fought.

The oldest looking girl recovered first, she shook her head and looked at her own hands in wonder before releasing a laugh.

"Ahahahahahaha, I beat Captain Marvel, I actually did it! How cool is that?!" Pointing with her hand, she released another thunderbolt towards an empty car and caused it to explode. "And this power, we had never absorbed so much power before!"

Kara's stomach dropped, she could put two and two together and come to a terrible conclusion. Somehow, this Livewire wannabe had absorbed Captain Marvel's powers.

Discarding her half eaten ice cream, Kara flexed her foot and tried to alpha strike the oldest girl by going as fast as she could. Somehow, the girl caught her movement, her eyes widened and she released another thunderbolt right at Kara.

The strike hit her in the chest with the power of a truck, arresting all her momentum and sending her flying back to hit a car, causing the metal to bend around her. The impact drove the air out of her lungs and sent a jolt of pain all through her body, somehow bypassing her natural resistance. Worse, it carried enough of a charge to fry the electronics on her leg, despite the amount of isolation she had on it.

Crap, Captain Marvel's powers were magic weren't they?

"Ugh." Kara grunted, grabbing the metal around her, Kara pushed, freeing her body from the car and glaring at the girl.

The little shit just laughed and lifted one of her arms, releasing another bolt.

Kara wasn't fast enough to dodge lightning, but she could certainly dodge someone aiming at her. Flying aside, she watched the new attack hit the car and make it explode before having to fly up in order to dodge another bolt.

"Will you just stay put!" The girl screamed, stomping on the ground from anger and aiming another bolt towards Kara.

The Kryptonian dropped down from the air, letting the thunderbolt pass harmlessly over her head while taking the opportunity to charge right at the girl.

Before the brat could gather another bolt, Kara was close enough she could slap some sense into her.

"Ack!" The girl screamed, her eyes going wide from fear and, just before Kara could hit her, disappeared in a flash of thunder, hitting the clouds above them and discharging thunderbolts towards all directions. Even Kara's enhanced senses couldn't see which one was the real one.

With the immediate treat gone, Kara grabbed the unconscious 10 years old boy in the middle of a charred street. She first checked his vitals and released a breath of relief, then turned towards the other three girls.

They all looked like different versions of the same girl, one of them was crying in a sitting position, her heart beating like mad from fright, she had slightly longer hair and no piercings or tattoos. The second had short spiky hair and used the same piercings as the original, but had a wild look in her eyes and seemed very angry. The last one was still trying to recover, wearing the destroyed suit.

Kara guessed she was the original, since there was nothing different on her body.

"Ugh… what happened?" The boy in her arms asked, holding his head in pain. Kara laid his body on the ground and prepared herself to fight. The little brats weren't that powerful, but she was still wounded, and they were damn fast.

"I… I was… wait Captain Marvel is a kid? Wha… how!?" The original girl asked, dumbfounded.

At her side, the wild looking girl started flashing before turning into a stream of electricity and flying into a nearby energy cable, her travel so fast Kara was unsure she would have caught the girl, even if she didn't have to protect the unpowered boy. At least she didn't seem to have been supercharged like the older clone.

"Kara? What are you doing here?"

"Hi, fancy meeting you here Cap." Kara said and smiled in relief, at least the boy didn't seem to be damaged in any way.

"Oh crap!" He scrambled away from her before taking everything in, then he lifted an arm and shouted. "Shazam!"

Nothing happened, he tried jumping up and screaming the name again, but his body refused to change, then he noticed all three of them looking at him and scratched his neck sheepishly. "Can we just pretend that didn't happen?"

"Suure." Said the original girl, then she looked from Kara to the Captain, and her still crying doppelganger before sighing. "Shit, I didn't even want to do this, but the others convinced me and now I'm hurting children. Ugh, I knew it was too good to be true."

The girl let herself fall on her ass and crawled closer to her double before putting an arm around her for comfort and covering her own eyes with a hand.

Kara didn't know how to deal with one crying preteen, much less two. Giving a glance to Cap's civilian identity just to make sure he wouldn't break out in tears on her, Kara approached the twins and said the first thing that came to her mind. "Come on; let's go before someone else gets here. I have cake at home."

Flying while carrying three kids was kind of awkward, but Kara managed it fairly easily and, soon enough, the more childish of the girls was giggling in her grasp with both arms open wide.

"Weeeeee!" She screamed and almost wiggled free of Kara's grasp. It wasn't the stealthiest thing to do but, at this point, Kara was beyond caring.

She entered her apartment and dropped all three of them on the ground before throwing herself face first on the sofa and releasing a loud groan.

"So… what now?" Whispered the boy beside her head and she waved him away like an annoying fly.

Turning in place, Kara started fiddling with her fried leg. Taking off her boot, she tried to manually disengage the locking mechanism with one hand while waving the boy away with the other. "You're the hero, you find out what's going on."

In frustration, Kara managed to get a nail between the jammed locks and rip them free, finally getting the destroyed leg out of her body. The prosthetic itself seemed to be a total loss, but at least the port seemed to be salvageable, so she wouldn't need a new surgery.

15 minutes later, Kara pinched the bridge of her nose and could already see the headache coming. Long story short, the girl was called Amy and she could absorb electricity, but hadn't been able to truly use her ability until someone made her a power suit and told her to fight Captain Marvel.

Damn, and the stupid girl actually did it, thinking the worst that could happen was she lost and, as a minor, would get a slap on the wrist.

To make matters worse, the girl suffered from multiple personality disorder and, when she absorbed the Captain's power, her body had split into four. "So… who are those personalities again?"

"Ah… only Amber has a name, really." Amy told her while trying to appear smaller by keeping her head down.

"Amber is the mad one, right?" Kara asked while massaging her aching stump in annoyance.

"She's… she's not mad! She's just… angry." Amy protested and took another bite of her sandwich before grumbling. "She's the one who always protects me."

"Fine, so we have the 'protective one', the 'childish one.'" Kara pointed towards the other girl who was happily eating cookies in the kitchen while swinging her legs on the stool. "And the one who ran away was what?"

"I - I don't know, she just… always wants me to do dumb things, like… she's kind of impulsive."

"Errr… turns out everyone in the League is busy right now." Billy told her as he finished texting on his phone. Kara released another groan, a louder one this time; she just knew it was gonna be her problem to fix this. "So, I think I know why I can't transform. I think Amber absorbed the power of Zeus, so I can't use the magic lightning to summon my transformation."

Kara looked from Amy to the little boy and lifted an eyebrow. "And it has to be magic lightning, normal lightning won't do?"

"Still can't believe Captain Marvel is a kid." Amy whispered to herself and finished her meal. Licking her fingers, she asked. "Can… Can I have another one?"

Kara nodded and Amy eagerly started opening the fridge. Looking closer, Kara noticed the girl was far too thin, her ribs visible under her suit and her limbs more like sticks.
Damn her bleeding heart, she was gonna have to do something about that too wasn't she.

"I don't know. This never happened to me before." Billy said and dropped down beside her on the sofa. "I mean, we can try right?"

"I'm NOT hitting a ten year old with lightning!" Amy shouted in outrage from the kitchen before lowering her head again, as if afraid she was gonna get hit.

"Didn't seem to bother you when hitting Captain Marvel with lightning." Kara joked and the girl flinched.

"I… I didn't think I could hurt him." The girl confessed, her voice barely above a whisper. "And that was mostly Amber anyway."

"Well, thankfully, both missing personalities don't seem to be doing any damage." Kara said. "Amy, do you think you could face them if they make problems?"

"I… ah, Amber was-was the one who always dealt with problems." The girl said with a shaking voice. "I'm too weak, too ugly, too useless, I-I'm only good for my power."

The girl quickly started to tremble in place, her nails digging into the flesh on her exposed tight until they drew blood. Kara didn't know how to react.

"Amy!" Billy cried out and held her hands tightly with his own, snapping her out of her funk. "Amy, you're not weak or useless, you fought me, you defeated me, and nobody weak could do that! Besides, you're far from ugly."

Looking at Billy's eager expression, Amy couldn't help but take some deep breaths and calm herself, then she gave a little giggle. "I don't think heroes are supposed to cheer up their villains."

"Ugh, alright, enough sweetness already." Kara mocked them. She had lost a very expensive prosthetic, had a killer headache and was probably gonna have to fight someone with the power of Zeus; to say she was in a foul mood would be a huge euphemism. "Do you at least have any idea where your two missing doppelgangers would go?"

"I don…" Amy started to say when an enormous thunder interrupted her, rattling Kara's windows and causing every light in her apartment to go out.

Looking out of the window, Kara saw another ten meters wide thunderbolt hit the top of a building and blow every one of its windows, leaving a short, spiky haired teenager with several piercings on her face laughing maniacally on top of it.

With a maniacal laugh, the girl lifted both hands up and rained thunderbolts down on the streets at random. "Nevermind, I think I found her."

Chapter Text

Kara looked at the power drunk teenager on top of a building and sighed, she had briefly hoped the girl had escaped the city or something, but she should have known she wasn't this lucky.

One of the thunderbolts streaked from the girl's hand and struck Kara's own building, exploding her windows and making her hair stand up straight.

It seems she'd really have to deal with her before she really hurt someone, Kara could already hear the shouting of fear and distress coming from the streets, but Amber wasn't aiming at people… yet.

She had wanted to become a hero anyway, but she didn't want to do it by punching people in the face.

For Rao's sake, she was from the house of El, they had been scientists for generations now and, with the study she had on Krypton, she should be able to find better ways to deal with enemies than punching them.

She could understand why her cousin, without a proper education and having all the power of a yellow sun, would decide to fight in the frontlines, but she wanted to show a Kryptonian's power didn't come just from his body, but also his mind.

Even if it was very satisfying to just punch people who annoyed her.

"Alright, I'll deal with the angry one before she really hurts someone; can you guys wait here until I'm back? Without your powers, you shouldn't risk going after the others alone."

"But she shouldn't have the power of Zeus." Billy said, his face looking determined. "We can deal with her."

"Then she shouldn't be able to cause any trouble before I'm back." Kara answered and prepared herself for the fight. "Right now you're just a kid; you don't have to deal with this."

Billy made a face and Kara resisted the sudden urge to pinch his cheeks before flying out the window, her mind trying to come up with a way to deal with the girl.

She'd have to do it without her ranged abilities, there were hundreds of metahumans and aliens with flying brick powers but, if she started using heat vision or ice breath, her heritage would be pretty obvious.

She really didn't want to meet her cousin looking so… damaged. It was enough that she couldn't be there for him for decades, there was no need to make him worry about her too.

Taking care not to scare the girl away, Kara floated towards the building she was standing on and decided to try to fix things without violence, not everything had to be a fight after all.

"Hey, it's Amber right?" She called out as she approached, causing the girl to stop creating lightning and turn towards her. "Look, can we talk?"

"You!" Amber pointed at her and Kara tensed, but there was no lightning bolt, instead Amber started gloating. "Come to grovel have you? I defeated Captain Marvel, a little third rate superhero like you won't even be a challenge."

Great she was talking, what now?

Kara realized that, despite living two lives, she had no experience dealing with rebellious teenagers, much less rebellious teenager supervillains.

"Amy is worried about you, you know?" She tried and saw a flicker of worry on Amber's eyes, but it was quickly crushed.

"She was always weak; it was always me who had to deal with father, always me who had to take the beatings, always me who had to carry the others!" She screamed in anger and thunder rumbled in the clouds above. "But I'm free now, they can't hold me back anymore!"

"Amber you know that's not…"

"Enough!" The girl shouted and waved her hands, releasing a wave of lightning.

Kara tried to dodge, but even her speed wasn't enough and three bolts struck her in the chest sending a wave of pain through her body, locking her muscles and sending her flying back to smash into a building, leaving her twitching body on the floor of an apartment.

It took a second for Kara to recover and she shook her head as Amber started showering the city with her power once again. Taking stock of the situation, she saw that the attack hadn't actually damaged her, it just hurt a lot. "Rao, it just had to be magic, lightning already hurts, it had to have magic too."

Floating up, she patted the scorched spot on her shirt and saw a couple huddled against the wall in fear, the man trying to shield his wife away.

"Ah, sorry about that, supervillains, you know?" They stared at each other for a second before Kara flew away as fast as she could.

Flying around the building, she approached Amber from behind. Unwilling to risk punching the kid's head off, Kara grabbed her from behind and flew away as fast as she could, trying to take her away from the city before she killed anyone.

"Alright, I tried to do this the easy way!" Kara said they flew, the annoyance clear in her voice.

"How dare you!" Screeched Amber before discharging lightning from all around her, making Kara grunt in pain and annoyance. "Release me!"

"Do you want to kill someone?!" Kara screamed in her ear. "Look around; you're going to kill someone if you continue throwing a tantrum!"

"Shut up! They deserve it; they deserve it for not helping us!" Amber lifted an arm and another large thunderbolt hit her from the dark clouds above.

Kara gritted her teeth and speed up, finally breaking the sound barrier and driving both of them outside the city. They were just about to smash into the ground when Amber remembered she could turn into electricity and slipped out of Kara's grip, appearing a hundred meters away and trying to blast her.

"This would be so much easier if I already had Nth metal." Kara grumbled as she dodged Amber's aim again and tried to close up with the teen.

It quickly became a game, with Kara trying her best to grab the girl and Amber flashing away at the last second. They covered miles in seconds when Amber finally managed to nail Kara with a bolt and drove her into a road, creating a small crater.

Tires screamed as a car attempted to dodge her body, but bumped into her and went tumbling down the road, Kara could hear four people cry out from inside the van as it crashed to the side.

She tried to lift up and rescue them when another bolt struck her chest and hammered her body into the ground.

Her muscles twitching from the charge, Kara felt Amber flash down a few meters beyond her reach and call down another bolt.

"See, I'm so much stronger without them, they held me back!" The girl screamed and raised both arms to call down more and more lightning, further destroying the road and overcoming Kara's resistance to start actually hurting her flesh. "I defeated Marvel, I defeated you, I can defeat anyone! Nobody can hurt me anymore!"

Kara could smell her flesh burning from the magical lightning as it devastated the road and blinded her vision, she had to escape, and she had to leave before the girl actually managed to do permanent damage.

Then she heard the child crying from inside the van and smelt her blood.

"Mommy, it hurts." The child whispered, her voice weak.

By Rao, she was so little, just like the child Kara had met when going out for ice cream.

Gritting her teeth, Kara's fingers dug into the asphalt and, even under the assault, she managed to take a breath, then she used all of her power to briefly overcome the lightning and turned towards Amber.

"RHAAAAAAAAA!" She screamed, concentrating her voice in front of her and releasing a shockwave.

Her shout shattered the van's windows, causing the family to cry out once again, but also hitting Amber like a speeding truck, sending her body flying away and cutting off her attack.

Twisting around, Kara hacked, her lungs hurting almost as much as her skin before her hands closed into fists and she flew towards Amber.

The girl was trying to get up, but the blow had left her confused and disoriented, with blood coming off her ears. Dropping in front of the girl, she was absolutely bursting with anger.

Kara grabbed Amber's head and lifted her; unfortunately she didn't know how to safely make the girl pass out, so she forced her to look at the van and screamed.

"Look what you're doing, Look at her!" She pointed to the little girl with a crushed arm inside the van.

Amber's eyes finally managed to focus again and she stared at the little girl. Barely five years old, the kid was crying and too afraid to move as she bled out under the car.

"No, no!" She cried out in horror and struggled away from Kara's grip, her eyes never leaving the little girl. "I didn't want this. I didn't want this!"

Kara saw the fight go out of the girl and just dropped her, she felt like she'd kill the villain if she held on for much longer, and she had more important things to deal with anyway.

Flying towards the car as fast as she could, Kara saw the father finally crawl out from under the van. Grabbing a piece of the door, he used it as a weapon and tried to shield his family.

"Don't worry, I'm here to help." He still looked at her suspiciously, but Kara just made her way towards the car and used her x-ray vision to see if she could move the people inside. "I'm with Captain Marvel"

At the name of the hero, the father relaxed and dropped the makeshift weapon.

"Oh, thank god!" Falling to his knees, the man tried to crawl back and to help his family.

"Stop, let me do it."

Grabbing the car with both hands, she started tearing it apart like paper, prying it open without moving the people inside.

"What…" he swallowed hard."What about her?"

Kara gave one last glance towards Amber, but the girl was still trying to get to her feet and didn't look like she wanted to continue fighting.

"I don't have a way to contain her right now, and I'm not willing to kill." Kara told him and helped his wife out of the car.

They looked at the lost girl and frowned, but nodded. "I'm gonna call for help."

The teenager boy had passed out inside the car, but he hadn't broken any bones and his brain wasn't swelling, so Kara pulled him out of the car.

The little girl was a different matter, her arm had been crushed and the weight of the car was keeping her from bleeding out, so Kara had to be careful not to move the car or take too much weight off.

From behind her, she heard another thunder and turned around to see Amber gone in a flash, leaving another dark spot on the road.

Rao damn it! Hopefully, that had snapped the teen from her power trip.

Kara just cleared a path towards the wounded girl so the paramedics would have an easier time when they arrived and stepped back. "You shouldn't move her; the car's weight is keeping her from bleeding out but…"

Unable to do anything else, Kara heard the sound of the ambulance coming and decided her work was done. Flying up, she still waited between the clouds as the paramedics safely rescued the girl before finally going home again.

Without Amber attacking the city like a maniac, she had time to think about things.

Flying inside her home, Kara didn't see anyone there and sighed.

"Children, I swear uncle Jor-El was mad for wanting to raise a kid the old way." Cloning and help with education was far more effective.

Flying a few centimeters off the floor, Kara took off her destroyed clothes and threw them in the trash before taking a hot shower.

She grimaced when the water hit her body, but her muscles soon relaxed as she washed herself. Finally, she stood in front of a mirror and looked at the damage.

Her entire chest was filled with electrical burns, her belly was blackened with large exposed spots of red, but she could see they were already healing, everything looked painful and scary, but it wasn't actually very deep, she'd recover.

It'd still hurt like hell for a week or two, but she'd heal.

Touching one of the spots, she winced, magic was such bullshit.

Her cell phone was just a melted piece of metal, so Kara grabbed her landline and dialed Billy's number in a futile hope. The boy didn't answer. With a sigh, she dialed Kori.

"Greetings!"

"Hey Kori, how are you?"

"Most wonderful, I did not know the mall of shopping had such a diversity of nourishment."

Holding the phone against her ear with her shoulder, Kara started putting on her provisory armor. It was far weaker than her natural resistance but, when dealing with magic, it would act as a barrier and take the blunt of any attack… she hoped.

Either that or it'd melt against her skin and make things so much worse. "So, I take it Captain Marvel didn't call to ask for help or something?"

"Nay, he did not." Kori answered seriously, her voice losing some of her usual cheer. "Please, do you mayhap require my help friend Kara?"

"You know what? Yeah, I could use some help." Pulling the phone off her ear, Kara finished putting on her armor before continuing. "Can you meet me at the apartment?"
"I will be home in a moment."

By the time Kori finally arrived, Kara was fully armored and had managed to use her ship's computers to hack a government site, finding a blueprint for a prototype inhibitor collar. The principles behind its functions were simple enough for her to copy.

In a moment, she had cannibalized some of her technology and adapted it into an inhibitor shackle. She doubted it would hold up to the power of Zeus, but it should keep Amber from turning into lightning for a few minutes.

"Alright, this should be able to disable Amber for a moment if she still wants to fight." Kara said towards Kori.

"Wonderful, humans are not so dissimilar to Tamanareans, thus I should be able to disable her if she can not escape." Despite being slightly weaker, Kori had the training needed to make someone pass out without hurting them.

Koriand'r used a purple sports bra, gym shorts with a small skirt to cover her ass and ankle high boots, leaving most of her light orange skin exposed to the sun.

Kara couldn't help staring as her friend finished putting on the boots and floated up, her long, curly red hair floating around her like fire, then she shook her head and smiled. "Good, let's go."

They both flew off the apartment and Kara made a mental note to try and find another house, no way had people missed several heroes coming and going from her place.

Even with all her powers, Kara still couldn't find two kids wandering alone in the entire Fawcett city.

She didn't know if that was because her powers were still growing with exposure to the yellow Sun, or if she was in a version of DC where Kryptonians just weren't that strong.

"Friend Kara!" Kori called from her back. "Over there."

Turning around, Kara saw her friend pointing towards a hospital without lights. Activating her X-ray vision, she scanned the building and finally found everyone standing around the bed of an adult male.

Dashing through the air, they both burst through the window to stare at the scene.

The man on top of the bed was clearly related to Amy, they had the same hair and face, but he was still asleep and had a respirator over his mouth.

Beside his bed was Amy's missing personality, a kitchen knife held over the man's throat in her shaking hand.

Amy and her childish copy were huddled against the wall and trembling in fear, the girl was frozen in place, quiet tears falling from her eyes as she stared from Amber to her… father?

Finally, Amber held Billy up in front of herself like a shield and smiled with a cruel light in her eyes as she seemed to take pleasure in everything.

"Do it, end his pathetic human life already." Amber said with eagerness, lightning cracking around her head. "Come on, don't be a weakling like Amy!"

Kara frowned, Amber seemed different, the girl no longer had any hesitation in her voice and seemed to act with deliberate cruelty as she squeezed Billy's throat to keep him from speaking.

"Stop, you don't have to do this." Kara shouted, but didn't dare attack. Even with her speed, there was no way of knowing if she could disable Amber before she fired Billy.

Kara didn't actually know if Amber's lightning would be able to hurt Billy, being fuelled by the power of Zeus as it was, but she really didn't want to risk it.

"Don't listen to her, she's an adult, you know how they are." Amber mocked and approached the girl. "Finish it; you know we all want it."

Throwing his head back, Billy managed to smash it against Amber's nose and escape her grasp; the rebellious teen lifted her arm and started gathering electricity when Kara moved.

Flying as fast as she could, Kara broke the sound barrier again, making everyone but Kori wince. She grabbed Amber's arm and put on the shackles, a second later Kori hit the girl and grabbed her neck, squeezing it for a few seconds until Amber passed out.

"Well, that was easy."

"I can teach you." Kori smiled at her. "It can be very dangerous if you do not do it right."

"Amy, stop!" Billy shouted as he recovered from his fall. "You know she wouldn't want this."

"He hurts us." The girl with the knife said, her voice shaking. "He always hurts us and nobody does anything!"

"I know you don't want to do this, and you don't need to." The 10 year old said and slowly approached her. "I'll protect you, you know I can."

"No, you're not a hero anymore!" she shouted back.

Kara considered interfering, but Billy was the hero and, even without his powers, he still had the experience. Instead, she went to help Amy while Kori made sure Amber wouldn't wake up.

"It's alright; I know you don't want to do this." Billy finally reached the girl and held her arm. He was much smaller than her, but he managed to gently pull her arm away from the man's neck. "Look at me; I swear I won't let him hurt you anymore."

The girl stared at Billy's blue eyes and finally dropped the knife; Kara relaxed and helped Amy get up. Now they just had to find a way to return Billy's powers and help the girls unite.

"Utterly pathetic." Said Amber, her voice cold and without feelings. "And to think I had some hope for you still."

Turning around, Kara saw Starfire floating in the air before being launched at the bed. Billy Managed to grab the girl and throw himself aside, but Kori still smashed into the man and sent them both sprawling to the ground, the man's head bounced against the ground and Kara could hear his neck breaking.

"What?" She whispered in confusion, looking from Kori's face to Amber's fallen body. "I mean, what!?"

"This was only supposed to be a test but, once the girl came to me to complain and I saw how successful it had been, I couldn't resist." Amber said and got up from the floor, a smug look on her face even as her eyes stayed closed.

Without another word, Kara launched herself at Amber, but she suddenly smashed against an invisible barrier in the air and bounced back, her face stinging.

"To think that, after all this time, all the pawns I threw at you, you'd be defeated by a new kid." Amber looked towards Billy and mocked.

With a crack, the floor under Amber broke off and started flying, carrying her body up. Slowly, everything started floating up in the room and then flying around Amber's body like a hurricane of debris.

Shaking her head, Kara tried rushing the girl again, but she was struck by the metal frame of the bed, a number of wires and pipes burst from the walls and warped around her limbs like snakes, pulling her away and trying to choke her to death.

Glancing around, Kara saw Kori grabbing Amy and her childish copy and trying to fly towards Billy, but the breathing machine hit her in the head and forced her back.

Twisting in the air, Billy screamed and managed to throw the girl in his arms towards Kori before Amber motioned with an arm and he was held beside her body, his limbs locked in place.

"You know, I think I'll enjoy watching your face as I wipe this city off the face of the planet." Amber said as her eyes finally opened and they flew out of the building.

With a scream of rage, Kara pulled herself free from the rubble and growled. "Alright, this is getting ridiculous!"

Flying straight towards Amber, she pulled her arm back and prepared to hit the girl as hard as she could, then a telekinetic blow hit her in the chest and sent her flying back with a sonic boom.

Kara's body broke through the hospital building, smashing straight through the walls and floor and causing terrible damage before she hit the street on the other side and carved an enormous trench, sending parked cars flying and damaging every building in two blocks.

With a groan, Kara lifted her head to see Amber waving a hand and causing her Inhibitor shackle to burst apart. Lifting an arm, the girl released a house wide stream of lightning towards the sky which spread around the city before coming back down.

All around her, Kara could hear the sound of explosions and shouts of pain as the sky itself rained down death and destruction. Looking around, she saw a building get hit with one of the lightning bolts and violently explode, sending pieces of debris raining down around it.

"Come; let me give you a front row seat as I destroy your beloved city." Amber shouted at Billy and they started rising in the air while she laughed out loud. "Only then will I end your pathetic human life, ha ho hee ho haw heeeee!"

Chapter Text

Kara pulled herself from the ground with a small groan of pain, all around her; she could hear people screaming in pain and despair.

Amber's last attack had caused a terrifying amount of damage, throughout the city, hundreds of buildings had exploded from the divine bolts and there were entire blocks demolished or on fire.

Shaking her head, Kara decided she didn't have the luxury of hiding anymore.

In a burst of speed, she flew towards the burning buildings and let out a long breath, a wave of icy wind blew through the rubble, smothering all the flames.

She spent the next few minutes rescuing people in dire need until Kori dropped by her side, releasing Amy and her two alternate personalities on the floor.

"What now, Friend Kara?" The Tamaranean asked in doubt.

"Now we find Amber and make her stop, no matter what." Kara growled even as she lifted a huge piece of building and freed two adult men from under it. "No more holding back, no more being gentle."

Kori just nodded, she was from a race of warriors and didn't see killing the same way most humans did.

"No!" Amy shouted and threw herself at Kara's waist to no effect. "That wasn't Amber; she'd never act like that!"

"I agree." Kara told her and shook her head in sadness. "But we just don't have the luxury of taking it easy."

Kara knew the girl who taunted them in the hospital couldn't be the same one who fled in shame at hurting a little girl. Even sick people didn't change so fast, but whatever she developed yet another personality or was being controlled didn't matter anymore. Not with this level of destruction.

The girl had killed hundreds, possibly thousands and, if left alone, would kill millions. She had to be stopped no matter what.

"Keep helping people and, if you see Amber, call out to me immediately, I'll be listening."

Kori nodded and flew away to help at another destroyed building while Kara dragged the girls towards a police officer.

"Stop!" The officer shouted while pointing his gun so Kara lifted her arms up.

A few moments later, Kara managed to calm the man down and get him to take care of her teenager problem. Flying back, she took off her helmet and wiped the sweat away from her face. Why the hell was no one from the Justice League showing up?

Frustrated, Kara grabbed a phone and tried to dial their hotline once again with no luck; she almost crushed it in her hands when she remembered another number.

"Hello, who's calling?" Said Catwoman's voice from over the phone.

"Selina, this is your new employer." Kara said with a tired voice. "Do you have any idea why the bat or one of his friends isn't in Fawcett city right now?"

"I'm a thief not a spy, information on the Bat's location wasn't in our deal."

"For Ra… never mind, just turn on the TV or something." Kara said as she pinched the bridge of her nose. "Someone stole Captain Marvel's powers and is trying to destroy the city. Can you get in contact with someone from the League?"

"What?" Kara heard the woman scrambling over the phone. "I can try, but I'm not exactly trusted."

Turning off the phone, Kara put it back into her armor and continued to work.

Using her super senses, Kara worked tirelessly to rescue everyone she could, lifting cars and buildings, stopping fires and carrying the wounded, all the while keeping an eye out for Amber.

Three hours later, she had started feeling the exhaustion from overusing her powers while not fully healed. Her lungs were killing her and the electrical burns on her chest had started to ache under her armor.

With a blast of heat vision, Kara melted a few metal beans, creating a solid structure to hold one of the demolished buildings in place and helped the rescue workers by creating some stairs from rubble.

Kara's phone finally rang, fishing it out of her armor; she turned it on without looking. "Did you manage to call someone in the League?"

"Good evening young lady." Came a gentleman's voice from the phone. "This is Giovanni Zatara speaking, your criminal friend managed to interrupt one of my shows so this better be important."

"What?" Kara asked with some confusion, if Selina contacted Zatara why he wasn't here already. "Don't you have a TV or something? Fawcett city is in flames, it has got to be on TV by now."

"No, it isn't" Giovanni's voice suddenly became hard and to the point. "Explain."

Kara stared at her own phone, what the hell, was there something blocking the signal around the city? At least it didn't seem capable of blocking her repurposed alien tech phone.

"Someone stole Captain Marvel's powers and is using them to destroy the city."

"This better not be a joke or you're spending a month as a frog, young lady." Zatara said and Kara heard him scramble for his costume. "The rest of the League is dealing with an attack from Despero, but I'll be there in a minute."

Three minutes later, Kara heard chanting somewhere in the city and Giovanni floated up on a metal disk to hover over one of the spots she hadn't taken care of yet. "Hsiugnitxe eht semalf!"

Fires went out all around the man, drawing both Kara and Kori's attention; the girls flew towards the older hero and stopped in front of him.

Zatara had never been one of Kara's favorite heroes, but he was still a powerful member of the League and worked with her cousin, so she could barely contain herself.

"Pots eht doolb, laeh eht hself." He said and a blue light enveloped the victims, causing some to relax and helping the field medics.

Turning around, Zatara took them both in with only a disapproving glance at Kori's clothes.

"It appears you were truthful, seems like someone is blocking notice of this from getting on national news." The magician said while scratching at his chin. "Do you have anything of Captain Marvel I can track?"

"Just a moment, I think I have something."

Flying towards her house only took a moment, and Kara soon found a discarded jacket Billy had left behind before flying back. When she came back, Giovanni was speaking to Kori about what happened.

"Very well, I think I have a general idea of the situation, do you have anything to add… Kara was it?"

"Marvel said the girl only took the power of Zeus, not his other sources but, while wearing an inhibitor shackle, she also had powerful telekinesis."

"I see, let me see if I can locate them." Throwing the jacket up, Zatara enveloped it in a blue light and started chanting, his face closed in deep concentration. "Wohs em eht renwo fo siht tekcaj."

The jacket dissolved into motes of light that spread in a circle and formed a vision in front of the three of them, revealing Fawcett city before zooming in on the edge of the city.

On top of a building, Amber stood and discharged a continuous stream of power towards a mechanical device.

Billy was tied up to a chair, a gag on his mouth and desperately trying to escape, his face a mask of fear, but also determination. Around him were several people Kara didn't recognize.

There was a giant humanoid with gray skin and sharp ears. Bulging with muscles, the man was enjoying himself by threatening to crush Billy's fingers one by one.

Another shirtless man with a Mohawk sat at the edge of the building and waved a rustic mace around as if he was a music conductor to the city's screams.

A metallic robot with a conical head stood at Amber' back like a bodyguard.

By their side was a giant beholder, its tentacles wiggling in excitement and its huge eye staring right at Billy with delight.

The last member of the group made Kara stop and scratch at her own eyes before looking again because she couldn't believe what she was seeing.

Flying around the building and crackling like mad was the Wicked Witch of the West… from Oz

Kara had no idea Oz was in the DC universe. What the hell?

"I don't see Marvel?" Zatara said in confusion, making Kara wince.

"When not transformed he's a ten years old boy."

Zatara's hold on his cane tightening, almost breaking the wood. "I… see, I'll need to have a… talk with the League."

"Do you have a plan or should we just attack?"

"I recognize some of our enemies and they are by no means weak. Alone, I am no match for all of them." The man said and cut off his spell. "I must know what the two of you can do if I am to have an idea of our chances."

Kara frowned and swallowed, she really wanted to take her time before revealing herself… A glance around and she shook herself, every second they wasted, more people would be in danger and she couldn't justify keeping her secret at their expense.

"I'm a Kryptonian, my friend is a Tamaranean."

Giovanni did a double take. "I'm sorry, did you just say Kryptonian?"

"Yes, my full name is Kara Zor-El."

The hero took a second to process that, but then nodded, he had his priorities straight

"And what can a Tamaranean do?"

"Basically, a slightly weaker Kryptonian capable of throwing bolts of concussive light instead of heat vision."

"Hmmm, or chances just became much better." Giovanni smiled viciously.

"All of our enemies have fought Marvel before and managed to escape. The alien man is called Oom the mighty and is a physical match to Marvel.

The second man is called Ibac and he made a deal with some demon or devil, it works much like Marvel's own powers, only drawn from evil humans of the past.

The Robot is called Mister Atom and he has super strength and can shoot radiation but, without a source of nuclear power nearby, he shouldn't be as strong.

The Wicked Witch of the West is a powerful magic user and can overcome most foes if they give her time.

The last member is Evil Eye, he can mind control people, it supposedly doesn't work on Marvel, but we have no such protections."

"Are Ibac and Oom's powers magical?"

"Ibac's are, but he shouldn't have anything truly exotic, he's mostly a brawler."

"Friend Kara, I must remind you Amber was not acting as herself in our last encounter, do you think it possible this Evil Eye was controlling her?"

"Evil eye's power shouldn't work on Marvel." Zatara interjected. "With the power of Zeus behind her, the girl should have become immune as well."

Looking around the city, Kara couldn't help hearing the crying from the wounded and the grieving, she squeezed her hands tightly and released a long breath.

"Considering what they have done, are you going to stop us if we don't hold back?"

"While I don't condone killing, I'm not as opposed to it as some of my friends in the League." Zatara confessed and sighed. "I have seen far too much to hold myself back like that."

"Alright, we should be able to surprise them and take out some of their members before the fighting even starts."

"I'm listening."

Kara sighed; she wouldn't be holding back, she wouldn't be nice. Briefly closing her eyes, Kara smiled, it wasn't a nice smile.

They approached the spot from the air, all three of them flying above the dark cloud of rain that was covering the city.

From her spot there, Kara could see hundreds of people guarding the building, most were holding guns, but some were using iron pipes or even chairs as weapons and walking around like zombies.

Amber somehow had an invisible shield around herself and Kara wasn't entirely sure she could break through it on a single strike, so she decided to leave the girl for later.

"Are you ready?" Giovanni asked the both of them and they nodded at the same time.

Lifting his cane, Giovanni pointed it at Kara and Kori and started laying spells; protections against magic, evil and mind control were the main spells he used.

They wouldn't block everything, but Giovanni said it would make any blow they received weaker for a time or until his magic was overwhelmed.

"Tel Reh Swolb ecreip lacigam sreirrab!" He finished while pointing at Kara and almost fell down from his floating disk as the cost of his latest spell hit him.

Stretching her neck, Kara took off her helmet, it had been dented by Amber's previous telekinetic blow, and she didn't want it getting in her way. Then she fell, a second later she put all her power in her flight and burst right through the sound barrier, flying like an arrow towards her target.

Ibac and Oom snapped their heads up and started to straighten when Kara flew fist first into the Wicked Witch, Giovanni's magic clashing against some kind of barrier and breaking right through.

Somehow, the witch managed to survive the blow, but Kara still drove her body into the ground creating a huge crater and breaking all of her bones.

Kara was equally disappointed and relieved that the witch's magic had managed to reinforce her body; with the woman completely defeated, she didn't feel right delivering a killing blow to her defenseless face.

Turning around, she flew up to see dozens of white birds dispersing the clouds and turning into shining projectiles that rained down on their enemies.

Ibac waved his mace and destroyed a few of the spells, but one hit him in the shoulder and sent his body spinning, the few that hit Oom only caused the alien to stumble, but the spells were far more effective in the others.

A few holes were punched right through Mr. Atom's iron armor and the Evil Eye released a loud screech of pain, his huge bulk catching most of the spells.

Amber didn't even move, an invisible shield covering her body and blocking every blow until one of Kori's starbolts struck her from behind and sent the girl flying.

Flying up, Kara concentrated and released a ray of heat vision as hot as she could, burning through the building before hitting the Evil Eye, the giant monster's flesh boiled under his skin and he exploded like a balloon.

It wasn't Kara's first kill, that dubious honor belonged to some of her captors, but it was the first time she made a conscious decision to do it.

Back then she had been running on pure instinct, a desperate need not to escape, to eliminate her captors so they would stop hurting her and she had barely thought about her actions.

Killing Evil Eye was different, it had been a deliberate action, she could have done something else, she had time to do something else, but chose to eliminate him to stop the villain from using his civilian thralls.

Kara expected to feel horror, to throw up or at least lose her breath but there was nothing, she just felt numb.

It had been so easy… a single stare and the villain was gone.

Kara gave a little giggle when she realized she could literally kill most beings on this planet with a look, then she stopped herself and swallowed.

It had been so easy, barely an inconvenience, a single look and a life was gone completely.

Glancing back, she saw the mind controlled humans regain their senses and start running away from the fight as fast as they could, almost trampling each other.

With some hope, she turned to Amber, but the girl didn't regain her mind and started throwing bolts of lightning towards Giovanni.

It was worth a try.

"Nrub!" With barely a second to react, Giovanni pointed his cane and released a wave of fire towards the girl.

The flames hit Amber's telekinetic shield and stopped dead, but it couldn't fully block the heat. With a scream of pain, she stumbled back and gave the magician a break from her blows.

Distracted, Ibac's mace hit Kara upside the head and sent her flying back, her ears ringing from the blow.

"Ah, and just when I started to think it would be boring." Ibac laughed and patted the head of his mace with a hand. "I'm going to enjoy destroying you, little girl!"

Despite having her hands burnt, Amber recovered fast and released another bolt of lightning back at the sky, interrupting Giovanni's next spell before she turned to Kara and smiled.

"Interesting, to think I'd be able to have a Kryptonian at my hands." The girl said and started walking towards her. "First, I get Marvel, now you… This day just keeps getting better and better, a pity Thaddeus couldn't make it."

Kara dodged a lightning strike and flew back when Ibac almost hit her again, taking a second to look around herself, she saw Kori in a heated battle with Oom.

The alien seemed stronger, but Kori was more skilled, dancing around his blows with beautiful martial arts moves and blowing him back with starbolts, a wide smile on her face despite their situation.

" Esir dna niated meht." Zatara shouted as he approached the building and concrete golems started rising from the floor before charging the enemies.

A blast of radiation hit Kara in the side and drove her back a few meters before she turned her head and struck Mr. Atom with another heat ray, melting his left arm.

Another lightning bolt hit her chest, but Zatara's protection held and she retreated behind Ibac's body, making it impossible to strike her without also hitting the man.

Briefly glancing aside, Kara burned the ropes tying up Billy's arms and desperately dodged another of Ibac's blows, the maniac laughing all the while.

"Pathetic, at least the other one is a male and a worthy opponent." Ibac mocked and grabbed one of the golems, throwing the entire thing at her. "Will you keep running, little girl? Or will you let me catch you and show you your place?!"

Looking at Ibac's impressive physique, Kara trembled and slowly floated back, she released another heat ray, but Ibac managed to block it with his weapon and smirk.

With a roar, the villain charged and Kara flew up trying to escape from him.

Filled with confidence, Ibac actually dropped his mace and jumped up, grabbing her leg and trying to drag her down with his weight. "Oh I'm gonna have fun with you!"

Kara smiled, she didn't think anyone would be stupid enough to underestimate a Kryptonian so much but Ibac deserved a prize.

Dropping her pretense of fear, she turned around and kneed him in the nose.

With a grunt of pain, Ibac's hand released her leg and he started to fall, whipping around. She grabbed his wrist and punched his face as hard as she could manage.

Blood flew everywhere, the blow was so strong it sent Ibac's body flying, only to be stopped by the hold she had on his arm. With a loud snap, his shoulder was dislocated.

From the side, Mr. Atom had recovered and delivered a strong blast of radiation so Kara swung her villain around by his loose arm and blocked the blast, then used him as a weapon to pummel the robot through the building.

Lifting the screaming villain, Kara punched his face again and then thought about what he said. "Oh I'm going to enjoy this, little boy."

Dropping him to the ground, she flew down as fast as she could, causing another sonic boom and hitting him between his legs with her booted foot, folding his body in half before breaking through the roof and several floors until they hit the ground.

Ibac was left disabled and foaming at the mouth, his body seemed to deflate as whatever power he held fled and he became just another street thug. Satisfied, Kara flew up from the hole they had made and cracked her fingers.

To the side, Kori blasted Oom off the rooftop with a starbolt, but the alien managed to grab her and drag her down with him, they hit the ground with a devastating impact.

Worried, Kara couldn't help but use her X-Ray vision to look through the building and see Oom punching her friend in the face twice before Kori kicked him off, sending him flying away and flying after him.

A bolt of lightning struck Kara's armor and sent sparks flying as the armor started melting on top of her body.

"Do I have to do everything myself!" Amber screamed and the rubble started flying around her, blocking another of Zatara's spells.

Turning into a bolt of lightning, Amber flashed to Giovanni's side and struck him with lightning, Zatara's protection blocked the lightning, but he lost control of his disk and fell down.

Billy had finally managed to fully escape his bindings and was running away from the fight when Mr. Atom burst through the roof in front of him, the damaged robot almost managed to grab the boy when Kara dropped on its head and dented the metal with a kick.

"No, cease this action!" the robot shouted and tried to pry her off with his one good hand, bolts of radiation flying from his eyes.

Grabbing Mr. Atom's head, Kara twisted it aside, making the metal scream until she pulled it right off.

Adjusting her grip, Kara used the head as a projectile to try and hit Amber, causing the girl to turn into lightning again and appear a few meters away.

Despite having defeated most of her allies, Amber didn't seem all that worried as she stood there and watched Mr. Atom's head flying away. "How disappointing, I really should have waited for Thaddeus, at least he is competent."

"It's over my dear." Zatara said as he stepped back into the roof and straightened his suit. "You're strong, but you can't hope to defeat the both of us."

"Heo hao heeee hohe hoo, you really think you have defeated me?" Amber turned her head sideways and sighed. "I admit I got a little greedy, after obtaining the power of Zeus so easily, I wanted to try stealing the other attributes too, and so I kept the boy alive and the damage to a minimum."

Before she was finished talking, Kara was already moving, unfortunately, with a wave of her hand, Amber released a giant thunderbolt which struck the building, it was so powerful it made the ground shake and actually disintegrated whatever it hit, turning it into dust and leaving a scorched hole in its place.

Dodging another spell from Zatara, Amber forced him to block a smaller bolt and struck him from behind with a head sized piece of rubble pulled by her telekinesis.

Kara took the chance to strike, punching the girl's smug face.

Her fist hit a telekinetic shield with so much force it created a shockwave, then it broke through, hitting Amber's face and sending her stumbling back.

"Heooo hee haaa huee, really impressive Kara." Amber said, massaging her face. "Kryptonians really are a step above those pathetic humans, I almost don't despise you, come on, hit me more, hit me harder!"

She did, this time she kicked the girl and sent her body flying back, her body bounced twice off the ground and started falling off the roof before Amber flashed again and appeared back at the edge, one of her arms holding her chest and the other broken, she still managed to gather another bolt of lightning.

"Pots, tel ruoy rewop eb delaes!" Zatara said as he pulled himself up, managing to cut off Amber's attack and creating a magical barrier around her.

"How cute, you think your weak magic can really contain the power of Zeus? You think it can contain my power?" Opening her arm wide, Amber released lightning from all around her body, it hit the barriers and bounced back quickly increasing in brightness until they could barely see her body inside.

"What now, do I kill her?" Kara asked. She didn't want to kill the girl if she was being controlled, but didn't see a better option.

"No, without the full blessings, her body shouldn't be able to channel much more of Zeus power." Zatara sighed and pointed his cane at himself. "Laeh ym sdnuow."

A blue light washed over his body and he slowly straightened his back, his wounds closing, but taking a lot out of his magical reserves.

Cracks started forming around the cage and it finally burst, releasing another massive thunder towards the sky and revealing exhausted Amber resting on her knees.

Kara was worried about her friend, but she trusted the Tamaranean to overcome her enemy, so she walked with Zatara towards the panting Amber, her eyes downcast.

"Accept you de…"

"Let's not raise any more flags, will you." Kara interrupted.

"Very well." Zatara almost laughed as he recovered his breath. "Sniahc kcol reh sbmil."

Magical chains burst out from the ground and encircled Amber's arms and legs before grabbing her by the shoulder and forcing her up.

"Now let's just find out how to return Marvel's powers."

Amber finally lifted her face and Kara's eyes widened at the sharp look in her eyes, in reflex; she started jumping away as the teenager opened her mouth and spewed a wave of hundreds of small green maggots.

Dozens of the creatures got into Kara's body and gripped her armor with tiny little claws, but she burned them away with heat vision as fast as she could, their tiny bodies bursting like popcorn.

When she finally stopped, Kara saw Zatara covered in the maggots and stumbling around. Before she could help, one of the creatures climbed inside his ear and he fell to his knees for a second, then smiled, dissolved his chains and helped Amber up.

"Well shit."

"Crude, but aptly put." They said at the same time while staring at her. "A pity you managed to escape."

Using her X-Ray vision, Kara stared at their bodies and saw a tiny maggot resting inside the heads of both of them; the one inside Giovanni even had some kind of device around its neck.

Great, now there were two magical enemies to fight against.

"Wols nwod, emoceb kaew." Zatara whispered before Kara gathered herself and she felt her body becoming heavy.

Lifting her arm, Amber pointed her way and started gathering a bolt, Kara tried to fly aside, but her movements were sluggish, the bolt hit her in the arm and locked her muscles.

She fell to the floor twitching and out of breath, but managed to look at them and release her heat vision, the shot went over their heads and Amber hit her with another bolt before she could adjust.

"Ahhh, the delicious sound of pain." Zatara said as he started walking towards her.

"What was it you said?" Mocked Amber. "It's over my dear, you're strong, but you can't hope to defeat the both of us."

"You should know… ugh, how that turned out for you." The worm inside their heads laughed with that ridiculous laugh once again and Kara recovered enough to start flying away at a slow speed, but her muscles still felt like jelly. "Who are you anyway?"

"You may call me Mr. Mind my dear." Amber said with a smile. "Leader of the Monster Society of Evil!"

"Are you for real?"

"Ah, I know it's a little cliché, but I find those pathetic humans need all the help they can get making sense of things." The worm inside Amber talked using her voice. "You know, I usually prefer to act as the chess player, moving things from the shadows but, with dear Amber, Giovanni and now a Kryptonian under my power, I may need to rethink my approach."

When another bolt of electricity was thrown her way, Kara dodged and started flying away, using the rubble to block Zatara's line of sight and avoid his spells.

She tried to burst into the building to hide, but Zatara's spell had temporarily stolen her strength.

Using blasts of heat vision and throwing rubble, Kara managed to keep the worm from flanking her while she hid behind the pieces of the destroyed rooftop and tried to think about a solution.

"Evlossid eht elbbur ni tnorf fo em!"

Zatara's magic blasted from his body on a cone and every piece of rubble Kara could hide behind was turned to dust. Feeling exposed, Kara gave a burst of speed and flew towards the destroyed hole Mr. Atom had made. Behind her, she could hear Amber laughing and gathering another charge, the villain pointed with her finger and started to release the bolt of lightning.

She was just starting to fly into the hole when she saw Billy jump from behind a boulder, his limbs trembling and his eyes squeezed tightly in fear. "Shazam!"

"NO!" Kara screamed and tried to throw herself on the way, but she was too slow.

Then Amber's bolt struck him in the chest and there was a huge flash of light as a stream of lightning flowed into his body, sending the boy flying over the edge of the roof.

"No!" Kara cried out.

Ignoring the worm's amused laugh she flew toward the edge with no care for any evasion, expecting another bolt, it never came.

"Ah, damnation." Amber and Zatara said at the same time.

"Tropelet ot reh!"

Suddenly, Kara felt Zatara's body hit her from behind, grabbing her waist, the magician threw up another wave of worms over her body and she heard their little claws digging into her armor as they hurried towards her head, some of them spilling over her body to fall on the ground.

"SHAZAM!" Another bolt of lightning hit her body, this one washing over her without damage and destroying all of the worms while pushing Zatara away.

A second later, Zatara's spell broke and Kara shot over the edge of the building like a speeding bullet, when she managed to turn around, she finally saw Captain Marvel floating there.

From over the other side of the building Kori arrived, she had a black eye and a split lip, her hair was a mess, but she was smiling in satisfaction, having clearly won her fight.

"Ah, this is truly a pity." The worm said from both of its hosts. "Perhaps I shouldn't play so much next time."

"There won't be a next time, Mr. Mind." Captain Marvel said, his voice deep and reassuring in his transformed form.

"Ah, but that's where you are mistaken Captain, even if you manage to capture me, which I highly doubt, I have seen your prisons, I'll escape before the year is over."

Kara winced, this was DC so the worm was probably right, even the Joker escaped every year and he didn't even have powers.

"Anyway, I think I'll escape now, despite my… miscalculation by having a little too much fun, I'll still like to keep both my prizes."

Around them the entire building started shaking before the upper floor broke into huge boulders and floated up around Amber and Zatara.

Marvel tried to charge in, using his body to break through the rubble, but he was hit by another telekinetic strike and his trajectory was changed.

All three of them started dodging the boulders, Kori blasting starbolts to try and break them into tiny pieces.

With a giant breath, Kara screamed, releasing a wave of sound which blasted a path clear towards the duo and made them stumble while grabbing at their ears.

"AAaaahhhh." Amber and Zatara screamed as they fell to their knees.

Taking the chance, all three of them flew through the opening; the captain grabbed Amber and held her in a tight hold while Kara and Kori went for Zatara.

Kara was about to punch Zatara's throat to stop him from casting when his next spell completed.

"Tcejer eht mrow." A green worm was sent flying from inside his ear and Zatara sagged in relief.

Seeing the creature flying away, Kara blasted it with heat vision and both girls helped keep Zatara up, with a sight he smiled at them.

"I must thank you; your shout disrupted the creature's control and gave me the opening I needed." He shouted, his ears still bleeding from the blow. "Hateful little thing, but a powerful telepath, he was on pair with John."

"Can you get rid of the one inside Amber before it recovers?"

"What?" the man shouted and Kara just pointed at the girl in Captain Marvel's arms.

"Ah, right." Then Zatara coughed up some blood and his limbs lost strength, his body almost slipping from the girl's grip. "The, coff coff, the creature used too much of… of my magic, ugh even I can't use so many spells or make a Kryptonian so weak without paying a price."

"Release her Mr. Mind, Release the girl." the Captain ordered. "I won't allow you to keep controlling her, don't force me to burn you out of her!"

"Hueee hee hoo hee, and what will you do Marvel, kill me?" Amber said with the same dispassionate voice as before. "That will not be possible."

"You don't think you can still escape, do you?" The Captain asked, but became worried when Amber just passed out in his arms.

With a sudden realization, Kara remembered the Worm that had just flown out of Giovanni's ear didn't have a device at its neck.

"Still escape?" Kara barely heard a smug robotic voice from inside the building. "But I already have."

Wiping her head around, Kara saw through the walls of the building to find a worm standing over Ibac's body, a small electronic device held in a collar around its neck and the device Amber had been charging with lightning when Zatara had cast a search spell resting beside him.

"Contrary to you stubborn heroes, I know when to make an exit." The worm mocked even as Kara burst through the floors in a straight line towards the thing. "Pathetic, even the Kryptonian didn't notice when I traded places with one of my brood after trying to snare her the second time."

"NO!" Kara screamed in rage as Mr. Mind activated a device on Ibac's body.

BOOOOM!

A huge portal opened behind them and Mr. Mind lifted Ibac's body with his telekinesis, ridding the unconscious villain inside the portal.

Kara refused to allow it, How dare he kill so many people, hurt so many and think he could just escape!

Bursting through the last floor, Kara saw she was too late to stop then, in a burst of rage; she released another ray of heat from her single eye aimed directly towards the little worm.

Mr. Mind's telekinetic barrier distorted the heat from the ray, dispersing it into a large area but not stopping it entirely. It washed over their bodies, burning both the worm and Ibac as if it had been a wave of flames, the villain screeched in terrible pain as its skin swollen and blistered and the little voice box on his chest exploded, taking off a chunk of his small body.

Then the portal disappeared, cutting off Mr. Mind's telekinetic control and dropping everything he had been holding up with a devastating impact.

Breathing hard, Kara lashed out in rage, punching the ground and creating another crater. She hoped the heat had killed the monster, but didn't really think it would happen.

Finally calming down, she floated up, her hair in disarray around her, sometime in the fight, she had lost her eye-patch and her armor was almost entirely melted. When she finally flew out of the building and hit open air, she froze.

All around her, looking a little tired and filled with minor wounds, was the entire Justice League, her cousin floating in the center, a gash on his forehead and some of his costume destroyed.

"Ah, hi." Kara's mind froze and she tried to wave a hand over her messy hair, her eye taking on Earth's mightiest hero. "Long time no see, little cousin."

Chapter Text

Clark picked himself up and sighed, he was tired and, for a Kryptonian, that was saying something.

Defeating Despero the first time had been hard, the alien tyrant was cunning and had an extremely powerful mind but, this time, they were supposed to be ready.

With John acting to fight off the alien's mental influence and Bruce's countermeasures, it should have been far easier… Instead, the League had almost lost.

Despero himself seemed to have been ready for them.

With men like Luthor and Savage always finding counters to his powers, Clark really shouldn't have been so surprised when an enemy adapted.

They had gotten ready to face a powerful mind controller and, instead, they faced a brute just as powerful as him and capable of endlessly regenerating… That could also mind control people.

Thank God Bruce had been able to disable Barry before the speedster did any damage.

"Hey guys, can you release me now." Said speedster begged, his teeth shaking from the ice covering his body and keeping him from using his speed.

A flash of heat vision later and Barry was freed, the speedster blurred in place until he was dry and no longer in danger of freezing.

"Damn, didn't know you had one of Captain Cold's guns, Bats."

"We were about to face a telepath stronger than Manhunter. I made preparations." The caped crusader said as he got up. "Besides, the gun is Victor's work, much safer to use."

"And what if you had been controlled first?"

"I wouldn't."

"Yeah but, what if you did?"

"Robin was monitoring the situation and could have disabled me if needed."

Clark sighed, that was just like Bruce. The last time the man relaxed was probably at their double date with Lois and Selina, looking at the pictures still brought a smile to his face.

Diana managed to lift a car, freeing Katar from under it and they all converged on John who was still holding the baby, Barry was the one to ask.

"Now what?" Flashing towards the Martian, Barry started working his finger in front of the red alien and avoiding his little hand. "I mean we have prisons and we have orphanages, but I don't think we have prison orphanages."

"Well, he is an intergalactic criminal." Hal finally said. "The guardians are eager to get their hands on him."

"Hey Supes, where's your cape?" Barry asked, flashing to Clark's side.

"Somewhere safe."

"Can they contain him?" Katar asked while trying to get his right wing to bend the right way.

"Well yeah, they're the guardians, I'm pretty sure they only need us lanterns because of our numbers." Answered Hal as he dusted himself.

Clark stared at the baby in John's arms and shook his head. "The better question is: Can they raise him?"

"The guardians? No way, but I think Kilowog would make a great dad!"

"Call them." Bruce finally decided. "Despero's rampage had no fatalities on Earth thanks to our quick response, the government won't complain if we hand him over."

With that decided, Clark turned away from the League and towards the evacuation line until he found what he was looking for.

Flying quickly, he landed in front of the kid still holding on to his cape and smiled.

"You came back." The kids whispered and took a step away from his mother's side.

"I told you I would." Clark said and caressed the kids head.

"Thank you, Superman, thank you." The blonde woman cried out and hugged him, her tear filled eyes soaking his damaged suit as she held him and her son close.

"I see you've managed to find your family without my help." Clark smiled at the kid, using his fingers to comb his hair into place.

"Yeah… Can you still fly me around anyway? It would be so cool!"

"There's another League emergency in Fawcett city, Zatara answered a cry for help from Captain Marvel, but they've both been out of contact since then." Clark heard Bruce say to the other League members.

He also heard Barry and Hal's groans at the announcement and almost snorted.

"Sorry, there's another emergency I have to help, maybe another day alright?"

"Awww man, villains are such buttheads."

"Jason!"

Clark knelt before the kids and took his cape back before nodding with a serious face. "Yes, yes they certainly are."

Clark arrived back with the League right as they reached the zeta-tube, his cape at his back the only piece of his suit still intact.

With a flash of light, they arrived in Fawcett city and Clark was immediately attacked by the sound of thousands of humans in pain.

All around the city were cries of pain or misery, Zatara and the Captain appeared to have managed to stop the worst of it, but the city was still in a MUCH worse state than the one attacked by Despero… and that was saying something.

The League's flyers quickly floated above the buildings to reveal the full scope of the devastation and Clark's cheer fled, his face becoming serious.

Everywhere he looked he saw destruction, Zatara and Marvel had managed to stabilize things, but there was still so much to do. Clark wanted nothing more than to start helping out, but he knew he had to stop whoever caused this before that changed.

A quick look around and he was certain there was nobody in immediate risk of dying, so he fully concentrated on finding Zatara.

"My ring is picking up large amounts of energy coming from the edge of the city." Hal told them and Clark turned towards where he was pointing.

"I see it, both Zatara and the Captain are hurt." He warned them and accelerated.

He was exhausted, he had been working without sleep for a few days already and the fight with Despero had pushed him farther than he has been pushed in years.

Still, he was the first to arrive, ready to face anything he found.

They arrived to find Captain Marvel holding a wounded kid in his arms and Zatara sitting down on top of a piece of debris, the building they were on was in shambles, the top floors were gone and there were scorched marks everywhere.

There was also an orange, alien girl floating above a hole in the building, she was cradling her ribs and looked like she had been in the fight of her life.

"I apologize for not being there to fight Despero." Zatara sighed and pushed himself up, he looked around for his hat, but it was crushed under a piece of the roof. "I'm afraid the situation here proved no less dire, however."

"What happened?" Asked Bruce as he dropped beside the Captain and started looking the girl over.

Before any of them could answer, a blonde girl flew up from inside the hole and froze when she saw them.

Clark could see she looked even worse than the orange alien, she was missing a leg and an eye, there were burn marks all over her face and limbs and her armor was half melted to her chest.

Then she stared right into his eyes and spoke, making his heart skip a beat.

"Ah, hi, long time no see little cousin.
"
Hundreds of thoughts flooded his mind, was it true, was this another trick by Luthor or another of his enemies?

Then he saw the girl's eye start to roll on her head and her flight failed her.

She fell directly into his chest, having moved faster than all but Barry and Marvel could follow. His arms wrapped themselves around her and he lifted her wounded body just as he had done to others he had saved a thousand times before.

Bruce would probably have a fit of paranoia about a new Kryptonian just showing up right after he had met with Icon, but Clark didn't care about that.

Lifting the girl in a princess carry, he looked around the city and didn't know what to do; he wanted nothing more than to help the girl, his… cousin? But there was so much to do; Fawcett city had faced so much destruction.

"Clark." Diana called, making him turn towards her. The woman had a smile on her face, her eyes filled with understanding. "Go on, we can deal with things here."

"But…"

"This is why the League was formed Clark, so we could help each other in times like these."

He looked at the entire League standing around him and his eyes finally stopped when they met Bruce's and saw… happiness there.

Oh, it was buried in a lot of suspiciousness, paranoia, apprehension and just a little bit of envy, but his friend was happy for him.

The dark knight just nodded. "Go."

He went, his flight taking him in a direct path towards the Fortress as fast as he could.

He got to the Fortress in only a few minutes and made his way towards the medical wing, lying the girl inside one of the med chambers. Even if the girl wasn't a Kryptonian, it should be able to heal her wounds.

"You brought someone inside the Fortress again." The AI said from behind him, manifesting into the image of his father and coming to stand by his side.

"Yes, what can you tell me about her?"

A light flashed inside the med chamber and the AI started looking over her body.

"Ah, it seems she has finally arrived on Earth." The AI said and walked around the med chamber. "Your father theorized there may be some time dilation during the flight, but never this much."

"Who is she?" He asked with far more hope than before.

Clark wasn't as desperate to find another Kryptonian as he had once been. With the League behind him, he had found the companionship he craved and felt like he had accepted his place in the world.

He still had a wide smile on his face as he looked at her resting body inside the chamber, maybe he wasn't the last Kryptonian alive after all.

"Kara Zor-El, daughter of Zor-El and Alura In-Ze, your cousin."

"Why didn't you tell me about her?"

"Kara Zor-El was supposed to have arrived on Earth a few minutes after you, your father wanted her to be the one responsible for your care and education." The hologram said with no emotion in its voice. "As she hadn't arrived by the time the Fortress was activated, it was likely she had failed to escape Krypton or somehow perished on the way. There was no need to mention her existence and raise false hope."

He sighed; sometimes he still couldn't understand what was going through his birth father's mind when he made the damn AI.

Clark touched the glass on top of the chamber and watched his… cousin's face with a warm feeling in his chest.

Then he remembered the state she had been when he found her and clenched his fist. What happened, what kind of fight had she been in to be so wounded? Why had it taken so long for her to arrive on Earth?

With a hundred questions in his mind, he paced in front of the chamber. To think he had almost lost her before they even met. "Shouldn't she be awake by now?"

"Kara Zor-El is in constant pain, the Fortress is keeping her asleep in order to do a deeper examination of her state."

"What? What's wrong?"

"An exotic energy source was found in her newest wounds and the fortress has detected remains of Kryptonite radiation filling her entire body, some of her organs are missing or changed and there are signs of cell degradation, more time will be needed to reach a full diagnosis."

He froze in place, his hands clenching tightly and he even felt heat starting to gather at his eyes. With a deep breath, he forced himself to calm down. "Can we purge the Kryptonite?"

"No." The hologram of his birth father put his arms back and entered what Clark called his lecture mode. "Kryptonian cells absorb energy in order to function. They do this most effectively with the emissions from a young star, but can absorb any energy, that is why the mere presence of kryptonite can affect a Kryptonian so fast. The Fortress is not capable of directly purging such energy, usually letting your natural regeneration overcome it as soon as you're no longer exposed."

"Unfortunately, constant exposure to a large source of Kryptonite radiation, coupled with constant cell regeneration, has caused Miss Zor-El's cells to be overwhelmed. The resulting deterioration does seem to be improving under exposure to Earth's yellow Sun but, until it is complete, her body will prioritize the restoration of her cell's energy absorption ability over any other wounds."

He pulled a chair from another room and sat beside his cousin's chamber feeling very conflicted, his anger and indignation at her situation were only matched by his happiness, he had a cousin.

He had a cousin and someone had hurt her.

He took another deep breath and let it out slowly. He had time to be angry later, when she was well.

Pulling out his phone, he started making calls.

"Hi Lois… about that, I won't be able to go to work tomorrow… No, it's a family emergency… yeah my parents are alright it's my cousin." Clark sighed. "I didn't know either, that's part of the emergency… thanks Lois, I'll tell you about it later."

Yeah, it was going to be a long night.

For a few minutes he stayed there staring at his phone, then he dialed again and laid back against the chair. "Hi Pa, I miss you too, can we talk?"

.
.
.
.
Clark arrived back at the watchtower through the Zeta-tube in his Fortress, he didn't really want to leave Kara's side, but it had been two days and his computers were still busy analyzing her body, they also showed no signs of finishing.

Besides, even without the Zeta-tube network, he could be back at her side in a minute or two.

"Thanks for coming, Clark." Bruce received him and they started walking towards the meeting room together. "How is she?"

"The computer is still looking over her situation, but it's not good." Clark covered his eyes with a hand and only felt Bruce's hand patting him on the shoulder. "She's not going to die, the Fortress has assured me she'll heal… eventually."

"Is there anything I can do?"

"No Bruce, she just needs time." Clark smiled at his friend's support. "And how's her friend, the orange girl?"

"That's one of the things we need to discuss today."

"Alright, let's go then."

They entered the League's council room and the window towards the planet started to close, making sure they were secure and unobserved.

Clark looked around the room, both Lanterns were in attendance, Hawkman and Hawkwoman sat side by side, Arthur, Red Tornado, Barry, Diana, John, Captain Atom, Black Canary, Green Arrow and Zatara.

Only Captain Marvel was missing from the table.

"Are we starting without Marvel?" Clark asked.

"Captain Marvel chose not to attend this meeting. While it is no longer an emergency, he is helping with the rebuilding efforts at his city and trusts the rest of the League's judgment."

Nobody said anything else, making Clark raise an eyebrow, but he didn't complain. If something happened to Metropolis, he'd probably skip a League meeting to help out too.

"Everyone is present," Started Arthur and they all focused. "Our agenda today is… unusual, however no less important to the survival of the Justice League."

"Please, take your seats." Said Bruce and waited until they were all ready. "Let's start with the less important news, Hal?"

"The Guardians have taken custody of Despero, according to them, there is still a chance he may regain his memories and powers, so they'll have to keep an eye on him, but he'll be raised as a normal child in the meantime."

"Let's hope turning our enemies into babies doesn't become a habit then." Diana said with a frown. Like Clark, she believed in second chances, but this may be going a little too far.

"Yeah, sheesh, I didn't know Martians could do babalities man, that's scary." Barry said, drawing sighs from all around him. Even John seemed annoyed this time.

"Despero becoming a baby was a result of the backlash from his own power, not the Martian Rite I executed. Martians can NOT do babalities, whatever that is."

"What about the ones who attacked Fawcett city?"

Turning on the hologram on the center of the table, Batman started showing images from Captain Marvel's attackers.

"The team of super villains identified themselves as the Monster Society of Evil."

"A little on the nose aren't they?"

"Yes, but also incredibly dangerous, after the battle, we were able to apprehend Mr. Atom who many of you are familiar with and Oom the mighty, an alien serial killer who can match the upper levels of super strength and martial ability."

"Evil Eye perished in the battle, but several members managed to escape, the Wicked Witch was wounded, but used magic to return to her plane. Ibac and Mr. Mind escaped together through some kind of teleporter, worse, we have reason to believe those were not all the members of the Society."

"A shirtless dude and a worm don't seem that dangerous to me." Hal said, earning a glare from his partner and Zatara.

Now that Clark thought about it, Zatara had been glaring at everyone ever since the start of the meeting.

"The… shirtless dude, as you so eloquently put it, is empowered by the spirits of some of the worst men on Earth's history." Zatara said and started tapping his fingers at the table. "While he is weaker than Captain Marvel, and the actual host of the spirits hold them back, Ibac is still incredibly brutal and more than a match for most of the League."

"As for the 'worm', it was a telepath as strong as John and capable of telekinesis powerful enough to shatter a building and throw Captain Marvel himself around. I am told the creature was able to hit a Kryptonian through several buildings too."

Clark did not know that, Mr. Mind was it? He'd have to remember to thank the being for how it treated his wounded cousin.

"Regardless, the Monster Society of Evil shows that our villains are adapting, just as we have come together to face greater threats, they have come together to face us." Bruce said. "I'll be sending each of you a document with information about villains each of you usually face alone. It is not impossible such team ups may attempt to swap enemies in order to surprise you."

Clark noticed the room starting to become disquiet, a tension growing at every member. He really didn't think he was gonna like what this was about.

"Before we address the 'elephant in the room', we have one last problem to deal with." Diana took control of the hologram and showed them an image of the orange girl who was his cousin's friend. "This is Koriand'r, Princess of the planet Tamaran, she's a refugee hoping to enlist the League's help to free her people from enslavement."

"Isn't that within the Green Lanterns jurisdiction?" Arthur interjected. "The League was created to protect Earth, not some distant planet, especially not when there's already a police force for such things."

"The Green Lantern Corps are barred from entering the Vega system." John Stewart explained. "Our rings refuse to explain why, but it is common knowledge the system has become a refuge for criminals and other, even worse, types."

"What exactly does this Princess want?" Hawkman asked. "Depending on the circumstances, we may be able to get support from Thanagar."

"For now, she only asks to be able to stay on Earth, but she's looking for help with retaking her planet and repelling the forces of the Citadel." Diana tapped a few keys and the console in front of them started receiving data. "The girl is a fierce warrior and has been staying with me while her friend recovers, this is all the information she has on the Vega system situation."

Clark read it all and grimaced, it was worse than he thought.

Armies of cloned and brainwashed soldiers, a race of cannibalistic spiders, pirates, another race of amoral scientists, it was not a simple case of fighting once and being done with.

"Wow, what a shit show." Barry said as he too finished reading and lay back in his chair. "So, when are we going?"

Everyone else was still on the first page, but they had finished the resume and could comment on the situation.

"Do we even have the right to interfere?" Red Tornado spoke for the first time, his voice impassive. "This is not an Earthly matter."

"You all know I have a kingdom to govern. I can't simply leave Earth to fight for another nation and abandon my own." Arthur said. "More than that, the League has a policy of non interference, deciding who does or does not rule a planet is not in our charter."

"Can we live with ourselves if we do nothing?" Clark finally asked, making them all lift their eyes from the data. "We don't save people because a charter allows us to, we do it because we believe it's the right thing to do, because it's what we have been taught to do. Would we stop being heroes if the government declared our work illegal again tomorrow?"

That made them all stop to think for a few seconds, it was Bruce who finally broke the silence. "It is clear we need time to review the information we have just received, there will be no vote on this issue today."

They all nodded in agreement, extending the League's actions beyond Earth was something they all had to take time and think about and, while the situation on the Vega system was dire, it seemed to be stable for now.

"So, what's this problem that's got everyone on edge?" Clark finally asked.

"Captain Marvel." Zatara said with an odd voice. "The 10 year old boy who has been lying to all of us and how he is part of the League."

"Marvel does possess an adult body and the wisdom of Solomon." Red Tornado said.

"Wisdom does not equal maturity." countered Arthur with a frown.

"His lies about his situation are not exactly a good proof of character." Diana sighed in frustration.

"Yes, because we all revealed our names and entire story to each other and came to work without masks." Barry mocked. "Come on, some of us still haven't revealed our actual names to each other, who knows, Captain Atom there may be a convicted murderer for all we know."

"His age was exactly why I allowed Captain Marvel in the League." Batman said from his seat causing everyone to turn to him.

"Wait, you knew?" Giovanni lost his cool and got up, his cane hitting the table. "You knew and still let a ten year old into the League? I tolerate your sidekicks because they at least have adult supervision, but to put a 10 year old on the League!"

"Why did we even allow him in the League? He was clearly immature and far too flippant about every situation." Captain Atom complained.

"I allowed Marvel into the League for his own protection." Bruce answered without cowering and in the same tone he always spoke. "The Captain's situation is very different from one of our sidekicks, while our partners are getting training from us, they have no enemies of their own, no cities to protect or the experience to deal with it."

"Captain Marvel was accepted in the League long after he had been active as an independent Hero. He had already gathered a collection of super villains who see him as an enemy, including the likes of Black Adam and Thaddeus Sivana. Refusing to allow him into the League would only endanger him more and leave him with no backup."

"So that's why the Captain was never dispatched alone huh, I always wondered about that." Barry said, smashing his fist at his open palm as if he had solved a great mystery.

"We can't allow him to continue in the League, his immaturity and lies are proof he doesn't deserve to be here."

The room descended into chaos as the League started arguing about the Captain's situation, some complaining about him and pointing out his mistakes while others defending his inclusion.

"Enough." Clark finally shouted, causing everyone to stop. "He's ten years old."

He looked around the room and let them all take this in.

"He's a ten year old boy trying to be a hero. We are NOT blaming him for not revealing his age to us." He took a moment to gather himself and looked down at the damage he did to the table, shaking his head he continued. "We are the responsible adults; it is our failing not his."

They all seemed to finally realize just how young the boy was and Clark nodded, then turned to his old friend. "Who did this to him? I think I need to have a talk with whoever is responsible."

"He draws his powers from the Wizard Shazam." Batman answered, tapping a finger against the table. "I'll send you the location later."

With their tempers cooling down, the League took some more time to deliberate on things. In the end, they decided to keep the Captain, not only would it tarnish both the League and Captain Marvel's names to have him kicked out, but the entire League agreed it would feel like too harsh a punishment for a little boy who was only trying to do what was right.

Despite that, since the Captain was a magical champion and most of his enemies were magical in nature, Giovanni would take him under his wing. To the public, the magical powerhouses would be teaming up, but Zatara was effectively taking the boy as his apprentice from now on.

The League would meet in a month to decide about Princess Koriand'r's situation and, until then, the girl would be under Wonder Woman's care on Themyscira. The Amazonians seemed to have really taken a shine to the young warrior.

With the meeting finished, Clark said his goodbyes and returned to the fortress as soon as he could. "Any change?"

"No, the Fortress is almost done analyzing her situation, but it should still take her a year for a full recovery."

"When can I wake her up?"

"Now, if you wish to, but her wounds will still cause her pain. In another 4 days, the healing chamber should be able to heal her electrical burns and most obvious wounds completely."

Sitting back at his chair, Clark leaned back and stretched. Technically, he didn't need to be here for at least another four days, but he couldn't bring himself to leave her side for very long.

He was still keeping an ear on what was going on in Metropolis, and the League would contact him if he was needed anywhere else but, until then, he'd stay by her side until she was better.

He felt something wet and cold touching his hand and looked down to see Krypto nudging his hand with his nose. Sitting down, his dog whined at him.

"Alright, come here boy." Pulling the large dog into his lap, he waved a hand through his fur and started caressing his head. Krypto licked his face, causing him to laugh out loud and embrace the dog.

The dog's support dispelled the last of the anger he had been holding and left only hope in its place. He had a cousin, he had a cousin and she was going to be okay.

With a wide smile on his face, Clark lifted Krypto by his front legs and put them on top of Kara's medical pod's glass. "Here, I want you to meet my cousin Kara, I really hope you're gonna like her boy."

Chapter Text

Kara woke up slowly, her eye felt heavy but her body was feeling good, as if a weight she didn't know she was carrying had been lifted from her shoulders, then something jumped on top of her with enough strength to drive the air out of her lungs and she fully woke up.

"Ugh." She groaned, feeling a wet tongue furiously licking her face and, on instinct, pushed the creature away and opened her eye. "Krypto?"

The large white dog squirmed on her lap and continued to try to lick her face, causing her to laugh out loud as she fended off its advances.

"I see you've met Krypto." Said the mature male voice and Kara finally looked to the side.

Kal-El looked good, very tired, but good. He had a warm smile on his face as he observed Krypto's antics on top of her.

Kara didn't know what to feel. Awe at being in front of one of, if not THE greatest hero ever written? Relief to see her little cousin was doing well? Or perhaps guilt for not being there when he needed her? She had absolutely no idea.

Looking at her current situation, she sighed. She was supposed to be there for him, damnit, not the other way around.

"I met him when I first saw you." She confessed and laid back down, putting an arm over her eye and remembering the old memory. "You were such a cute kid too…"

Kal-El's warm hand touched her arm, slowly held her hand and squeezed, causing her to open her eye again.

"I'm sorry you had to go through that." Kal-El told her with a soft voice. "Krypton's destruction still hurts… And I can't even remember it. I can only imagine how it is to have seen it."

"Krypton wasn't that different from here, besides how cold and distant everyone was, that is." She confessed with a sigh. "Did you know uncle Jor-El got Krypto because he was worried he wouldn't be able to give you affection?"

Krypton had been a very distant planet. Its people were too logical, to the point that Kara doubted her own parents had kissed more than once or twice in their whole lives.

She still remembered her parents putting her inside the escape ship. They hadn't been able to shed a single tear, and the strongest sign of affection was a single kiss on her forehead from her mother.

She knew they had loved her, but showing it was just not done on Krypton, Kryptonians just didn't know how. Were it not for her previous life's memories, Kara doubted she herself would be this expressive.

Turning away from his smile, she squeezed Krypto's fur. "I should have been there for you."

"I'm glad you're here now." Kal-El said and squeezed her hand again.

She squeezed it back and finally smiled. "Thank you."

They stayed together for a few minutes, only Krypto's breathing to break the silence. Finally, Kara pushed herself up from the healing chamber and looked at her body.

She no longer had any of the wounds she received from Amber or Mr. Mind, but her leg and eye were still missing. She wore a skintight dark blue Kryptonian solar suit that left only her head, hands and foot uncovered.

Suddenly, Kal-El embraced her, his large arms enveloping her body and pushing her face against his wide chest. For a few seconds, Kara didn't know how to react, but finally, her arms moved and hugged him back.

"I really AM glad you're here now." He told her when they separated. "What happened?"

"After Krypto's test run, the Kryptonian council became even more alert to any ships leaving the planet." Kara explained as she leaned against the healing chamber and remembered. "Both Father and Uncle Jor-El had to include stealth equipment on the ships, and mine was the larger one, more noticeable and harder to make modifications."

"Your ship was launched only a few hours before Krypton exploded, but mine almost didn't make it, I was still in sight of the planet when it exploded." She stopped as her voice started failing her.

Kal-El's hand never left her shoulders giving her strength, pulling her into another hug the man whispered. "It's alright now. You don't need to say anymore."

"A piece of Kryptonite hit my ship, disabled it and wounded me." She continued anyway, feeling like she had to tell at least this part of the story. "I entered a healing coma, but the close proximity to Kryptonite never let me wake up until I was rescued. Then I made my way here."

"I see, is that how you lost the leg and eye?"

She looked at his protective face and couldn't bring herself to put even more on his shoulders. Kara never wanted to put anything on his shoulders, she just nodded.

"Why not come to me when you arrived? I would have been happy to meet you."

Kara's hand went up slowly and touched her missing eye for a second, then she sighed again. "I was supposed to be here for you. Uncle Jor-El made it my responsibility to raise you, to guide you and teach you about our world." She took a deep breath and gave him a somewhat bitter smile while pointing at her missing leg. "I didn't want you to meet me like this."

"I would have liked to meet you no matter how you were, you're family." Kal-El told her with a laugh. "After so long, I never thought I'd meet someone else like me and, well, you may be a little late, but I think things turned out alright."

"Yeah, your parents would have been so proud of you." Kara finally smiled back at him and then she laughed as something occurred to her. "Well, uncle would probably tell you to use a little more of the Fortress' technology instead of punching bad guys, but he was always an intellectual."

"Not that different from the fortress AI then." Kal-El sighed, equal parts frustrated and amused. "Come, Ma got you a change of clothes and I have some food stored here if you want."

"What happened to Kori after I passed out?"

"Wonder Woman says your friend is having a lot of fun in Themyscira, but she asks about you every day." He told her as he led her through the crystalline fortress. "Also, the girl you saved is still in four bodies, but Star Labs is doing the best it can to help her."

"And Mr. Mind?"

"The League is still searching for the mutant worm." He said and Kara heard some anger in his voice for the first time. "We're gonna find him, I promise you."

"Just how long have I been recovering?"

"Just a little over a week." He said as we approached a table, Kal-El flashed around faster than Kara could move and set the table at record time. "Here, Ma made some pie for when you woke up."

Kara sat down and took a small bite from the meat pie, it was delicious. She still didn't trust her stomach to eat as much as she could, so ate with small nibbles. "Can I meet them?"

"My parents?" Kal-El lifted an eyebrow, his mouth already filled with pie. "I wasn't really sure you'd want to see them so soon. You look so young I didn't know how much time it has been since you woke up."

"They did raise you when I couldn't, I have to thank them."

"Sure, they'd love to meet you."

They made some small talk while eating and, when her stomach couldn't take it anymore, she pushed her plate away and saw Kal-El getting serious.

"About your situation…" He said awkwardly, as if he didn't know how to start.

"Did the Fortress find anything about it? I had looked at my situation but, without Kryptonian technology, I wasn't able to find out a lot."

A hologram of her uncle formed at her side, his usual impassive face looking at her.

"Greetings, Kara Zor-El." He nodded with his arms crossed behind his back. "The Fortress did its best to heal your wounds, but some of the problems are beyond the current medical data available."

"Your ability to absorb radiation has been damaged by the years you spent exposed to Kryptonite. In your healing coma, your cells were constantly healing, but also being damaged by the harmful radiation around you, until most of them suffered permanent damage."

"Permanent?" Kara interrupted the hologram, her hands gripping the table. "You mean I won't recover?"

"Incorrect, most of your cells were permanently damaged, not all of them and your body is slowly renewing itself based on the healthy remains." Jor-El's hologram told her as he showed a display of her body, most of her body was a dark gray color but there was a core of blue in several locations which was slowly spreading. "Exposed to yellow sunlight, the healthy cells in your body are capable of absorbing it more effectively and multiply faster than the unhealthy ones such that, in fifteen months, your entire body should be healthy."

"Unfortunately, that also means usual healing methods for Kryptonians can't accelerate your recovery."

"Why not?" Kara asked, frustrated. She hadn't wanted to get her cousin's help because she didn't want him finding out how hurt she was. Now that it was no longer a concern, she was eager to get back into shape.

"While a healthy Kryptonian's cells don't have a limit to the amount of sunlight radiation they can absorb, it is not the same for your damaged cells. As we do not have any means of delivering radiation directly and exclusively to your healthy cells, there is a risk of overloading your damaged body and causing it to fail, resulting in death."

"What about my eye and leg?"

"As explained, usual Kryptonian healing is not possible. The next best option would be to clone your missing limbs; however, the Fortress currently does not have such facilities. It would take two months to build them and another three to fully grow them until they're ready for transplantation."

She just stared at the holographic representation of her body, at its missing leg and the gray color.

"Kara." Her cousin's voice snapped her out of it as he put a hand over her own. "You're safe now, you can take your time recovering, there's no need to hurry."

She huffed, easy for him to say, he didn't know what kind of horrors were out there in the galaxy.

Ah, who was she kidding, he probably knew them better than her since he was the one stopping many of them.

"Here, I got this for you." Kal-El put a large box on top of the table and pushed it towards her. "I know it's not exactly what you wanted, but it's the next best thing I could manage."

Opening it, Kara found herself looking at a new prosthetic leg, it looked sleek and had a coat of paint matching her own skin color, there were no visible joints and it could pass as a normal leg even from a close examination.

"The casing is made from what little Kryptium I had left, so it should actually be able to match your durability while the programming was done with sunstone." He scratched the back of his neck a little embarrassed.

Kara touched the prosthetic. She could still feel the coldness of the metal, but the texture was a perfect match for her skin. "Thanks."

Taking it out of the box, she quickly found the sunstone control system and floated in the air while adjusting it to her missing stump. With a click, it connected to the receptor and she could feel her lost limb again.

It wasn't the same feeling as that of a real limb, but it was the next best thing. She wiggled her toes with a smile on her face as they obeyed her commands with only a barely perceptible delay, one that she was sure she wouldn't even notice if she wasn't a Kryptonian and her senses weren't so much faster than the average human.

"Really, thanks." Then she looked at Kal-El's sheepish smile and narrowed her eyes. "Alright what else did you do?"

"Well, I noticed you had some extra functions on your previous one and… I just couldn't resist." He said while handing over his tablet with information about her new leg.

She quickly read everything. It seemed her cousin had put a lot of modifications on her leg. While the external casing was made from hard metal, the insides were mostly sunstone and modular, capable of reorganizing themselves in order to generate a protection field around her body that blocked external radiation.

In the right configuration, it could also absorb and store electricity or kinetic energy for later release, hold a small amount of medication and, at the cost of the limb itself, teleport her back to the Fortress by overloading its internals to generate enough energy.

Kara approved. If she was gonna have a metallic leg for a few months, it damn well was gonna be a cool one.

Seeing his embarrassed face she lifted an eyebrow and joked. "What, you didn't put any weapons in there, not even a rocket kick?"

"A rocket kick would be cool." He nodded as he saw she wasn't angry. "But it would be kind of unnecessary, don't you think?"

"I'd have found a use for it."

"I'm glad you liked it. I was afraid you'd think I was being too overprotective."

"Kal-El, I'm on this planet for only a few days and I already got attacked by a megalomaniac caterpillar, I'll take every protection I can get."

As they finished putting the dishes away, Kara got dressed in some normal clothes over her solar suit, a black shirt and jeans, then the both of them flew out of the fortress and started making their way back to the mainland at a leisure pace.

"So, Kori is staying with Wonder Woman?" She finally asked when they were approaching the coast.

"Diana took a liking to the girl, and they were spending some time together on Themyscira." He nodded and turned her way. "But Koriand'r heard you were waking up today, so they are waiting for you in Greece."

They flew in a straight line over the cities and landscape, too far above it to even be noticed by the people underneath. Kara just followed her cousin until he started to fly down.

Suddenly, a red comet shot from a beach below them, trailing fire behind itself. Kara braced herself, but she was still bulled over as the Tamaranean princess hit her, sending them both tumbling through the air.

Kori's arms wrapped themselves around her body and attempted to squeeze the life out of it as the girl started talking without stop. "FriendKaraIamsohappyyouarewellIwantedtoseeyoubuttheywouldnotletmeIamsorryIamaterryblefriend!"

"Kori, Kori calm down, breathe!" Kara said when she finally managed to push her friend back and draw some air back into her lungs.

Kori let herself be pushed away a little so they could really look at each other. The giant smile on her friend's face warmed Kara's heart, then she saw the glint in her eyes. "No don…"

It was no use, Kori hugged her again and it was all Kara could do to keep them in the air and not crash down on top of the house.

Kara briefly glanced at her cousin to ask for help, but the bastard was just floating there laughing at them.

"Kori, I missed you too." She said as they finally dropped down on the sand.

Her cousin dropped beside Wonder Woman and a young woman who was looking at them with disapproval.

"Friend Kara, I really missed you, I tried to see you but they would not let me. I am terribly sorry, I am a bad friend!"

"No you aren't, foolish girl." Kara said as she flicked her friend's forehead. "It wasn't even that long."

"It felt terribly long to me." Kori said as she rubbed her forehead.

"Alright, I spent a week healing but what about you, I heard you stayed with Wonder Woman in her country?"

"Yes, Princess Diana allowed me to enter her country, and she even introduced me to her sister!" Pulling at her arm, Kori led her towards the waiting heroes.

"Greetings Kara Zor-El, I'm Diana Prince and this is my sister, Donna Troy."

"Hi." Wonder Woman's sister said grudgingly, earning her a glare from the older woman.

"Greetings, I'm Kara Zor-El. It is an honor to finally meet one of my cousin's allies."

Beside her, Kori could barely contain herself, causing both her cousin and Diana to give her amused glances.

"Come on Diana, I think we can let the two of them catch up a little." Kal-El said with a laugh. "I do need to talk to you about something."

"Very well, this is my private property Kara, feel free to enjoy the beach." Diana nodded and the pair of them walked towards the house while talking with each other.

Kara made sure not to focus on them. She was sure they wouldn't be talking out in the open if it was anything truly important, but she wanted to give them some privacy anyway.

"So, how was Themyscira?"

"It was most wonderful! The amazons were all warriors, they invited me to the arena of fighting and even Diana herself sparred with me."

"Did you win?"

"I did not, Diana was very powerful."

"Cheating alien girl." Kara heard Donna cursing under her breath and turned her way.

"Something wrong?"

"Friend Troya is still angry she lost to me." Kori said as if it didn't bother her in the least. "My sister was much the same when we spared back on Okaara."

"Is that so…" Kara gave the young woman a glare, but Donna seemed immune to it.

"Friend Troya, I already told you there is no need to feel bad, yes? The amazons are mighty warriors indeed, but the Warlords of Okaara are the fiercest warriors of the entire Vega system." Kori said in a calming tone. "Even better, they are the best teachers of the Vega system and I have been trained by them for years."

"Fine, I get it already." Troya waved Kori's concern away. "Look, I only get so much time away from home alright, I'm going into the city, tell my sister I'll be back by night."

Kara watched the girl fly away with a frown in her face, but it quickly went away as she dismissed her from her mind.

"She didn't defeat you even once, did she?"

"Do not dismiss her friend Kara, Troya is quite skilled, she is just not as skilled as her sister." Kori said as they continued walking along the beach. "Oh, I know, you two should become sparring partners, you are stronger than her by a large amount, but she is a far more skilled fighter, she is just too unused to facing stronger opponents."

"We'll see." She said, having no intention of actually doing that. Kara did need to get more training using her powers and someone who wouldn't fall dead at the first blow was ideal, but she already had Kori and her cousin to do it. "Alright, now that you meet with the League, did you get their help?"

"They are still discussing it, Princess Diana tells me many of them have obligations on Earth they can not abandon and are divided. Still, she has offered to mentor me and introduce me to earthly customs."

"She wants to make you her sidekick?" Kara was surprised, she didn't remember Kori becoming a sidekick in any version of DC she knew of. "Good for you, you must have impressed her."

Then again, her knowledge and actions must already be making changes, so it wasn't a total surprise.

"Indeed, I was most excited at the offer. Princess Diana has been a hero for years now, I can not wait to learn from her!" Unable to contain her excitement, Kori started floating beside her causing Kara to smile in amusement. "She even wants to introduce me to the other sidekicks at an assembly at the Hall of Justice in two weeks!"

Kara frowned, did that include Robin? Dick Grayson's Robin? For some reason, Kara didn't know if she really liked the idea of such a meeting.

"Just a tip, don't call them Sidekicks, they probably won't like that very much." Kara warned, then she thought about it a little and corrected herself. "No, on second thought, make sure to call Robin a sidekick, do it as often as you can."

"Please, why would they not? Is it not a venerable human tradition to learn from those with more experience?"

"Yes, but they're teenagers, I'm sure they won't see it that way." Kara shook her head in amusement just imagining the meeting.

"Thank you, friend Kara. I really cherish your opinions."

After that they found some beach chairs and laid down to enjoy the sun. Kara couldn't help but appreciate Kori's figure as the girl actually took her top off and laid with only the bottom part of her swimsuit to increase how much sunlight she was getting.

After a few seconds, Kara finally snapped out of her daze and took off her own jeans and shirt leaving only her skintight Kryptonian solar suit.

It seems like, in her situation, getting more sun wouldn't really do her any good, but that didn't mean she couldn't enjoy it.

Chapter Text

Kara looked at the drawing in front of her and sighed, she had finally finished designing her prosthetic eye.

In truth, she had been procrastinating for nearly a week now, refusing to work on the thing and hoping for an alternative while hanging out with Kori.

Unfortunately, Zatara himself didn't have any magical means of accelerating her recovery and, even when she got her hands on Nth metal, it would still take a long time for her to regenerate the eye, far too long to justify staying crippled, especially when she could easily remedy that using the Fortress' capabilities.

Her cousin didn't mind her using his home away from home, he barely stayed at the place anyway, and Kara felt comfortable inside the crystalline building, among the Kryptonian sunstone computers and equipment, it kind of reminded her of home.

Not that she didn't enjoy human housing but, after living so long on Krypton, the lack of crystals around felt just a little bit odd.

Kara had debated for a long time about what to put on her eye, laser eyes or x-ray visions were classics, but she already had those, in fact, she already had pretty much everything in her own biological eye, there was no need to improve it.

If she was even capable of doing so, that is. She had been raised to be a member of the science guild, but she was still only an apprentice.

More than that, she didn't want to get used to having anything special in her eye, since it was most likely going to be the first thing she healed when she could.

So she went with a disposable device, a modified version of the sunstone programming on her leg. Instead of teleporting her back to the fortress, the eye would start the teleporting sequence and then fail, catastrophically.

The resulting explosion wouldn't be the biggest and, considering she wanted to be a hero, that was a good thing. Instead, it would break the space around itself, shattering everything caught in the explosion regardless of how tough it was or what defenses it put up.

It probably wasn't the best idea to carry around something so dangerous but, if she was gonna carry a secret weapon, it damn well was gonna be something that hit harder than just her fists.

Sending a copy of the design to the Fortress AI, she ordered it produced and stretched her arms above her head, laying back against the chair. Just as she was getting ready to leave, her uncle's hologram appeared by her side.

"Miss Zor-El, are you certain you wish for such a device to be produced?"

"I did send it to you didn't I?" Kara sighed and got to her feet. "Don't worry, I made sure to put plenty of safety precautions on it, it has proximity sensors and can't even detonate too close to me or Kal-El, or if the sensor fails."

"Very well, it will be ready by tomorrow."

"Say, how is the data recovery from my damaged ship?" Kara took the chance to ask. She still found it extremely uncomfortable to talk with the image of her dead uncle, so she had been avoiding getting the information.

"It is going well. Despite how damaged it was, the Fortress is recovering and decoding more information every day and it should be 85% done in another 29 hours."

"What about the remaining 15%?"

"The last 15% of the information was either permanently lost or will require significant computational efforts to restore, there can be no expected time for completion."

Walking away from the computer, she cracked her neck and left the room. Entering the main hall, she briefly stopped in front of the giant statues of Jor-El and Lara Lor-Van. "Did Kal-El build this?"

"No, the statue was part of Jor-El's original design for the Fortress."

"Heh, uncle was a good man but very prideful, it was just like him to make a giant statue holding our entire planet in his hand, no wonder he was friends with General Zod." She considered the figure for a little longer before shaking her head and turning away. "What kind of information was in it anyway? Just a copy of Kal-El's?"

"No, Kal-El's ship was filled with information about culture, art, religion and civilian technologies, Jor-El considered them more important and more fitting for his young son." The hologram told her as he pretended to walk beside her, "Your ship's data is far more focused on the less idealized side of Krypton, military technology, war records, political information about the sector. I believe it was Jor-El's intent for you to safeguard such information until such time as you felt prudent to allow Kal-El to see it."

Well now, that was interesting. Kara already started to daydream of a Kryptonian war armor fully protecting her from anything and enhancing her power even further while wielding futuristic weapons.

"Can I see the military designs then?" She tried to keep her voice neutral, but there was no mistaking the eagerness there.

"Unfortunately not, as Kal-El is now of age, and was the one to activate the Fortress, he has been recognized as the current head of the El house, as a result, the clearance for looking at the information has automatically passed to him."

Nooooooooo, her army of modular sunstone military drones!

Shoulders dropping, KAra made a mental note to ask her cousin for the information and checked the time on her new phone. Kori would be meeting the other sidekicks today and Kara wanted to accompany her halfway there to show her support.

Waking into the huge cylindrical chamber, she selected Fawcett City and activated the Zeta-tube, feeling the Zeta-bean hitting her body, she frowned for a few seconds, next thing she knew, she was stepping out of a door in a dark alley.

Taking a second to see if anybody was watching her, Kara put on a simple blank mask just to make sure and floated up, flying towards her apartment.

The building had been damaged at Amber's rampage but, lucky for her, it was minor, and it was already in working order after only two weeks of repairs. A miracle since almost everyone who did such repairs was busy fixing the worst of the damage on the city.

"Hey, Kori, I'm home!" She called out as she stepped inside from the open window.

"Hello, Friend Kara." Kori yelled, she was holding a bag of cookies in one hand and applying a large coating of mustard on top of them. "Please, would you care for a cookie? This yellow condiment is truly delightful when put on top of it."

"Nope." Kara grimaced, she may have wanted one, but that was before it was covered with mustard. "So, are you excited to meet the other sidekicks?"

"Exultation! Joy! I am indeed most exhilarated to meet the others!" She almost screamed as her hair started floating behind her and the tips started catching fire. "X'hal's breath, I am late, hold this Friend Kara, I have to get ready. Princess Diana is going to be here at any moment!"

Dashing away towards her bedroom, Kori started throwing her civilian clothes around as she rushed to get ready. Kara followed after her, giving some calming words.

"Don't worry, I'm sure Wonder Woman would wait a few minutes for you to get ready. Besides, even if you are a little late, it's not like it's an official event, there's no deadline." Then she considered who her friend was meeting and decided to disperse some sagely advice. "And remember Kori, a nickname is a good way to close the distance and become fast friends, if you're not certain how to give someone a nickname, you can use someone's characteristics like, for example, calling Robin SHORTY or little guy, something along those lines."

Floating out of her room, Kori's hair trailed a fiery aura behind her as she finished adjusting her superhero costume; her armor was very close to Wonder Woman's. but it left Kori's midriff exposed and didn't have the bracelets. Kara still found it strange that she didn't have a belly button. "Apologies, Friend Kara, what did you just say?"

"Nevermind, it was nothing important." Kara sighed. Sabotaging Kori's ability to make friends wouldn't sit well with her.

"Do you think they are going to like me?" Kori asked, her hair finally going back to normal as her feet touched the floor.

"I'm sure they're going to love you Kori, you have nothing to worry about."

"Thank you." The girl started fidgeting making Kara give her a hug.

"Come on, let's go." Kara put her mask back on.

They flew out of the apartment and back towards the Zeta-tube, this time stepping out on Washington DC half an hour before the meeting date.

"Good to see you're here on time." Said Wonder Woman, she was waiting for them beside the Zeta-Tube exit, her shoulder leaning on the building and her full gear on. "Good to see you too Kara."

Kara nodded at the woman. "Say, does your invitation for a spar have a date of expiration? Kori and Kal-El are still teaching me how to fight, but I'd like to test myself later."

"It doesn't." Wonder Woman smiled. "But since you're a beginner, perhaps you should come with us to Themyscira one of those days. I'm sure Starfire and Superman are great teachers, but you'd benefit from a larger pool of opponents."

"Really? I'm finally meeting Kal-El's parents later this week, but I'd love to go."

The island of the Amazons was one of the places that still intrigued her. Kara really wanted to go but, at the same time, she was kind of afraid she'd draw the attention of the gods.

Also, she had been a man in her previous life; could she step into the island without earning someone's ire? Rao she really hoped so.

"Please, are you sure you do not want to attend the meeting with me?" Kori asked, holding her hands.

"Another day, Starfire." Kara shook her head and called her by her superhero name for the first time, making the girl beam. "Besides, you know I have a meeting later."

"Well, this is where we part ways then." Wonder Woman clapped Kara on the shoulder. "Do take my offer one of those days; we'd love to have Kori's friend over."

Seeing Wonder Woman's affectionate gaze towards her new protégée, Kara had to laugh. Yep, the woman had fallen for Kori's infectious personality alright.

With another hug, Kori and Wonder Woman flew away towards the Hall of Justice, leaving Kara alone once again.

Kara took the Zeta-Tube back to Fawcett City and grabbed the backpack she had left at the house before flying up again.

Instead of taking the Zeta-Tube towards her meeting, Kara found a deserted place and quickly ascended high above the clouds and beyond the sights of almost everyone. She didn't want to leave an electronic trail and, despite her technological skills, she was pretty sure she couldn't erase her details from the Zeta-tube network.

DC's technological geniuses were such bullshit.

Soon, she started approaching Gotham City and dropped beside a little gas station just outside the city limits.

She doubted Batman would have a way to track individual flyers entering his city but, seeing as he fought such beings fairly often, and was… well Batman, she wouldn't put it past him. It was better to be safe than sorry anyway.

Pulling out her burner phone, she called a cab.

Almost an hour later, she stepped out of the car in an alleyway close to Catwoman's bar. The establishment was still closed but, using her x-ray vision, she saw the woman sitting alone in one of the tables. Selina also had a lead box below the table and another, much smaller one, in her pocket.

Well that was the problem with having such well known weakness, people who were going to deal with you tended to acquire it.

At least it was a fairly obvious thing, after all, she may not be able to see inside a lead box, but she could certainly see the lead box itself and it was pretty easy to guess what was inside.

Kara really didn't know how her cousin kept getting surprised on all those comics. With the possible exception of Lex Luthor, people didn't build everything around them with lead, so it was pretty easy to see when something was suspicious even if he couldn't see what exactly it was.

With only an effort of will, she reconfigured the sunstone inside her new leg and activated the environmental shield inside it in order to block radiation. It had the unfortunate side-effect of also blocking most of the beneficial effects of solar radiation, but she was working to remedy that.

Maybe then Kal-El would accept his own version of the shield instead of being stubborn about it.

She understood that blocking his sunlight absorption would decrease his power, but he had been living under the yellow sun for decades now, he had enough reserves to function without it for a few years even while fighting someone, much less for a few minutes.

The shield covered her entire body with a shimmer, but then settled. It made her look slightly discolored, her clothes just a little less bright, her skin a little whiter, but it was hardly noticeable.

Approaching the bar, she knocked on the door and waited a few seconds, on her vision, Selina put a hand on the lead box in her pocket and got up from the table. Damn, she really had scared the poor woman in their previous meeting.

Kara knew she shouldn't have continued her deal with the thief. She was pretty sure Kal-El could lend her some Nth metal if she asked but, well, Catwoman was already trying to steal the metal, and asking him for every little thing still left a bitter taste in her mouth.

"You're early." Selina commented, but quickly shook her head and motioned her inside. "Nevermind, come in before the Bat comes knocking."

"Batman should be out of Gotham today, the sidekicks have a meeting."

"The Bat is finally letting the pipsqueak have some fun, huh. Good for him." They entered the building and Selina promptly grabbed a bottle of whisky, pouring two glasses and handing her one. "Come on, I got you what you asked."

"Good, you had any trouble?"

"Some, I found some remains of the ship you mentioned in Egypt, but it had already been looted and I only managed to steal a small sample."

"How small?"

"1.852 grams, to be precise." Selina finally let go of the box in her pocket and pulled out the larger container from under the table. "Plus, I think I got the attention of some powerful people when I did it."

"I see. Do you want to renegotiate our deal then?" Kara narrowed her eyes at the woman and Selina sighed.

"No, did you bring the money?"

Kara took her time opening the box and inspecting the metal, it was a broken piece from some computer, using her vision, she could already see only about half of it was Nth metal, but it was well worth the price in her mind.

"Here, 50 millions in gold and jewels." Kara put the backpack inside the table, almost breaking the wood over its weight. "It's up to you to find a way to use it though."

Selina eyed the backpack, but didn't move to take it, a few seconds later she sighed, "Could you at least move it behind the bar, please?"

Ah, right, despite being half filled with jewels, it was still not something a normal human could comfortably lift.

With a snort, Kara moved the backpack behind the bar.

"Say, is your offer of help still on the table?" Selina asked as she drained her glass of whisky.

"Exactly what kind of trouble did you get for this thing?"

"I heard about the kind of battle that went on in Fawcett city three weeks ago after your call, you know." She commented without answering the question. "About how a bunch of villains had joined forces to deal with Captain Marvel while the League was busy. The problem is, I don't think that's the only villain alliance around anymore."

Well, now Selina had her full attention. "Is that the kind of attention you attracted?"

"It's not certain, I don't have any proof of this, but it just doesn't make sense for it to be only a single villain." She confessed and pointed at the box with the Nth metal. "Stealing that attracted far too much heat, and from far too many sources for it to be just one person. I barely got back into the country alive."

"I see." Kara said, seeing the signs of exhaustion on Selina's face for the first time, the woman hid them well, but there were bruises all over her body and she had bags under her eyes. "Do you need a safe place to stay?"

"No, Gotham is the Bat's home, they won't be as brazen here, even if they manage to get me, it would still attract his attention and they don't want to be discovered just yet it seems."

Makes sense, with how united and powerful the League was, the only chance a villain alliance could survive is by remaining hidden.

Kara wondered which version of such an alliance they were dealing with. The Legion of Doom, The Secret Society, Injustice League, The Light, or something completely new? There were so many villain teams in DC she'd have to get a better idea of where things stood before she could say.

Damn, Kara didn't even remember there was a Monster Society of Evil before meeting Mr. Mind for the first time. She had always been more of a Batman than a Captain Marvel fan.

"It seems you're mostly safe here then, what exactly do you want from me?"

"A favor, you promised help dealing with any heat from the job so I want the ability to call on once if something turns up." She said while pouring herself another shot.

Kara considered it, Selina was a fairly benign thief all things considered and, if Kara got the woman killed for a job she ordered, Batman would never forgive her.

Plus, she'd probably only ask Kara to steal something or protect her from someone, it could even be fun… probably.

Batman wouldn't keep letting her escape if she was the kind of woman to hurt innocent people. Then again… Talia al Ghul was a thing.

"Fine, you get one favor, but don't be using my name to intimidate people. I don't want every one of my cousin's enemies knowing I exist by next week."

"Don't worry, you'll be the nuclear option in case everything goes to shit." Selina confessed and relaxed against the back of her chair while putting a hand over her eyes. "It wouldn't be in my best interest for them to be able to make countermeasures before I called you."

Grabbing the piece of Nth metal, Kara spent a few seconds prying the less useful materials from it. It was pretty easy to do since the Nth metal was the only one capable of resisting her Kryptonian strength.

When she was left with only a pure sample of the thing, she put it in her pocket. Snatching the fourth glass of Whiskey from Selina's hand, Kara drank it all in a single gulp and pulled the bottle away from the woman.

"Come on, you're looking like shit, go to sleep Selina."

"What are you, my mother?" the older woman complained, but got up and stretched her back. "Ugh, I really should have left this meeting for another day."

Kara started laughing at Selina's annoyed face. "I don't know why you called me if you have just gotten back in the city. I know I was in a hurry, but I could wait another day or two."

"I just wanted to be done with this whole thing." She turned to glance at the bag full of money. "It was almost not worth it, almost."

Kara left the Tin Roof Club very happy with her purchase, it may only be a small amount of Nth metal, but it was just what she needed to make herself safer. Better yet, it was something nobody but Selina knew she had and so, nobody knew they had to counter.

She took a cab back out of the city and then flew as fast as she could towards her hidden ship on the moon. Kara may have started using Kal-El's Fortress as a second home, but she still kept the ship hidden in order to have some privacy on her own projects.

Working on Nth metal without ruining its properties was hard, and not something her Kryptonian education had covered, but the Psions had some information about it.

At least the damn mad scientists were good for something.

Soon, she was able to separate the sample into four pieces and integrate one of them inside the casing of her prosthetic leg; besides putting it under her own skin, it was the safest she could keep it. Inside the Kryptium casing and very hard to separate it from her.

Not that Nth metal needed protection, but it would keep someone from simply stealing the metal from her.

The second piece she turned into a simple ring to wear around her fingers, something to help in her healing and so it could start getting acclimated to her body.

It would also allow her punches to affect magic beings, which was always a good thing.

The other two, larger samples she simply left on the ship, she needed to study the metal after all, and she wasn't certain some of its more exotic properties could be activated simply by wearing the thing.

Plus, it would be good to have some Nth metal in store in case she somehow lost what she was carrying.

When she finally arrived back home, it was already long past midnight and the lights were on in her apartment. Eager to find out how Kori's day had gone, Kara accelerated and entered the building.

Her smile dimmed a little as she saw Kori sporting a split lip, again.

Kori was one of the best martial artists on the planet, and nearly invulnerable, Kara had to wonder how the heck did she keep getting hurt like this.

What the heck, it was supposed to be a friendly meeting, not a free for all. Did any of the sidekicks even have the kind of strength needed to give her a split lip? "What happened?"

"Fury! Scandal! Vile trickery! Friend Kara, someone has violated your cousin in a most foul manner!"

"What? Violated as in…" Kara said in utter confusion, her temper already starting to rise, by Rao, if something had happened to Kal-El right after she met him…

"Some craven scientists acquired The Superman's DNA and cloned him, trying to create a weapon!" Kori stomped on the ground in indignation. "Worse, Superboy was not allowed to even see the sun while growing up!"

"I… see." Kara said in a measured tone, she was starting to get a suspicion she knew where this was going and she didn't like it, she didn't like it at all. "And what exactly was my cousin's reaction to this news?"

Young Justice wasn't the worst DC setting to be in, but it certainly didn't do the original Justice League any favors.

"The Superman was very affected, he seemed extremely hurt by what had happened, Friend Kara." Kori laid a hand over her shoulders in support. "He refused to face the clone at their first meeting."

Ah, it seems that, despite arriving so late, Kara would still have to teach her little cousin some lessons.

Chapter Text

That same morning, Kara floated in front of the mountain, her mind deep in thought. She was feeling very… conflicted right now.

It's not like she didn't understand her cousin's reaction, she had been human once, a long time ago, she got why finding out you had a clone made in secret would affect him in such a way. Well, in a manner of speaking anyway.

There weren't any human clones walking around in her previous world after all, but she imagined the experience was kind of like finding out you had a son from a drunken one-night stand years after the fact.

Only, since Kal-El didn't consent to having his DNA taken, it was probably much worse.

Still, she kind of expected Superman to rise above such things. It was not like Superboy asked to be created after all. Kal-El could be mad at the scientists who created him all he wanted, but the boy needed help, now damn it.

Plus, she was Kara Zor-El and this was a DC universe, it didn't take her long to come to terms with the probable fact she'd have a clone made by one supervillain or another somewhere down the line.

Her Kryptonian education also didn't help in this aspect, at all.

On Krypton, nearly all Kryptonians were born on the Birthing Matrix, the DNA used was carefully selected and modified not only so they'd be more capable in the caste they were supposed to belong to, but also so they'd get joy from doing it.

Kryptonians didn't rebel against their imposed roles not because it was forbidden, but because they didn't want to, they were genetically designed to like their jobs.

Looking at things from a Kryptonian view, Superboy's birth was almost normal and only his accelerated growth was an anomaly. It was not like every Kryptonian pairing loved each other or wanted to be parents after all.

In fact, love between pairings was the exception, not the norm and, sometimes, their guild just needed a new member.

So, two thirds of Kara's mind was screaming at her that her cousin's actions were wrong and illogical and she should be giving him the beating of his life for abandoning a member of his own race like that. There weren't a lot of them left after all.

Still, she knew it would do no good right now and, more importantly, Superboy's situation came first. Kara would give her cousin the time to think about things in peace.

From the YJ show, she knew he'd take a long time to accept the kid but, maybe, just maybe, her presence had changed things for the better.

Right now, she had a newborn Kryptonian to deal with, even if he wasn't really a child. Since her cousin wasn't gonna be there for the kid, it was her job to take care of him.

Using her X-Ray vision, she pierced the layers of earth and stone over the secret base and sighed at the lack of protections it had. She really shouldn't be able to observe Superboy watching static on a TV, not from outside the building itself at least.

Why the hell was the League even still using this place for anything when every two bit villain knew it existed?

Well, it had some defenses and very advanced facilities for something a human could build, so it was better than any random house, but still…

Dropping fast, Kara stepped in the front entrance to Mount Justice and watched as the computer scanned her body before slowly opening the underground entrance. She floated down the mostly empty building while watching some robots doing a few last minute repairs and cleaning.

She followed the calming sound of static towards Superboy's location. The kid was sitting on a sofa in the mountain's living room while ignoring the robots working around him and concentrating on the TV.

"Hello there," Kara called out awkwardly as she dropped back to the ground beside the sofa.

Superboy wasn't surprised, he had probably heard her breathing or even her beating heart as she approached, he just grunted and gave a quick glance her way, then he jumped three meters into the air and fell back down with his fists lifted into an aggressive stance.

"Who are you?" he growled. "You're not a member of the Justice League."

Kara sighed at his aggression and sat down on the sofa. Crossing her legs, she looked at him without her x-ray vision for the first time.

He did look a lot like Kal-El.

Well, the Young Justice cartoon had established that already, but it was one thing to see it in a cartoon and another to see it in real life, with all the small little details.

"You're right, I'm not with the League. I'm here to find out how I'm gonna deal with you."

Slowly, Superboy lowered his fists, then he crossed his arms over his chest and glared at her. "Where is Superman? I thought he'd be the one to deal with me."

Was he pouting? Yes, yes he was pouting, cute kid.

"Kal-El is being a little stupid right now," she told him and turned off the TV. She didn't see the problem revealing his Kryptonian name since he didn't use it anyway. "I do somewhat understand his point of view, but that doesn't mean it isn't stupid."

"Is that… his name?"

"Right, you don't even have a name yet, fuck what were they thinking?" she covered her eyes with a hand and sighed again. "Come on kid, let's talk a little."

"Stop calling me kid!" he shouted at her and refused to obey, his anger already starting to rise.

Damn, she really didn't know how to do this.

"Alright, alright. Sorry," correcting her posture, Kara tried to be a little more serious since her approach wasn't working. "First, let me introduce myself, I'm Kara Zor-El, I'm Kal-El's older cousin."

"What?"

"Yeah, interplanetary travel and being frozen kinda inverted that order but, I was definitely born first," Kara told him with a nod. She looked around all the working robots and the empty space and came to a decision. "Nope, come on, we're leaving."

"What?" He asked again, still flabbergasted to be meeting a second Kryptonian.

"This place may make for a good base of operations, after installing some better security that is, but it's definitely not a home. Come on, you're staying with me from now on."

"The Justice League told me to stay here," he protested weakly, but Kara just got up and started pulling him away from the room.

"The Justice League stashed you here, you mean. Yeah, I'm gonna have to have some words with them too," she started to walk towards the exit when she remembered the boy couldn't fly right now. Turning around, she went back towards the Zeta-Tube.

She didn't really like using the things too much, she didn't have the time to study the network and she wouldn't put it past The Light to be able to access its records. Thankfully, Batman had approved of her initial paranoia and gave her a fake name.

Brika was a good name for an average flying brick package, wasn't it?

Kara took the kid back to Fawcett city but, instead of going directly back home, she stopped at an empty restaurant where they could have some privacy without having the kid become too defensive.

They sat at a booth and Kara pulled a device from one of her pockets, throwing it inside the table. She activated the sound blocker so nobody could hear their talk, soon a waiter came around and she ordered two plates of Beef Bourguignon.

"Come on, eat up," she told him as she thought about what to say.

Superboy actually dug into the meal with gusto, it seemed he had inherited her cousin's love for the meal after all.

"Alright, first we'll get you a name. Do you want to choose one for yourself or for me to give you one?" Kara asked. "I mean, if you have anything in mind it'll be great. but it's not like people usually choose their names, so there's nothing wrong about not knowing."

Kara had thought long and hard about Superboy's name, in the end, she decided there was nothing really wrong about Connor or Kon-El, and she didn't need to change it just to be different.

In some continuities, Kon meant abomination, but that had not been its first meaning, and it was not the meaning in this reality. There hadn't even been a clone war in her Krypton, much less a prejudice against them.

"I-I really don't know?" he asked in confusion as he looked at his own hands.

"Hey, I just said it's okay, remember, no need to be worried," she calmed him down. "How about this, my cousin is called Kal-El, El being the house name. I'll call you Kon-El since you're family."

"I… Kon-El?" the kid said with a little smile on his face. "I'm family?"

Kara knew she was throwing a lot on his plate right now; the kid was barely out of his tank before, so he didn't have much experience, but he did have the knowledge necessary to understand things.

Hopefully, getting him in school and interacting with a wide variety of people would help with his emotional development.

Also, no member of the El house would live without a proper education.

"But, I'm a clone…"

"Alright, wanna know a secret? For a Kryptonian, you're actually more normal than Kal-El," she let Kol-El digest that as she ordered a serving of ice cream as dessert. Scoping a spoonful, she commented, "Most kryptonians are like you, born from mixing DNA, Kal-El was the odd one, he was actually born the old school way, can you believe that?"

Kara continued to eat her ice cream as Kon-El slowly started to understand the situation he was in.

Truth be told, Kara really didn't want to be involved. Kon-El was created by The Light, and chances were high they'd find out about her existence if she got involved but, she just couldn't leave the kid alone.

She, Kal-El and the boy may have been the last Kryptonians alive today. No way could she let a member of her own race fend for himself like that.

Well, there was the phantom zone to consider, but that was a whole other can of worms.

"I guess this is a lot to take in right? So, what do you want to do?" she finally asked him with a welcoming smile. "I confess I was a little hasty to just take you out of the mountain, if you want, I can take you back while you think about things, but I'd really like for you to stay with me. I wasn't there when my cousin needed me, but I won't make the same mistake with you."

Despite her dislike of the place, Kara was willing to recognize Kon-El would probably be safe at the mountain for another few days, and her main reason for taking him out of there was to have a frank conversation without Batman -or anyone else- peeking.

"I-I need some time to think."

"I understand," she finished her ice cream and laid back against the stuffed chair, "How about this then, let me tell you a little about your family, and Kryptonians in general."

"I'd like that, yes."

So, she told him about their original planet. About how most Kryptonians were like him, born through a machine in order to fulfill a purpose in their society, but they could still grow to like different things, all in order to get him to relax a little and maybe help him find himself sooner instead of being angry because he wasn't Superman.

It was painful to talk about her home, but she managed to hide that from him without much trouble.

She wasn't even lying, spending a few months or even years training in a different guild was a common form of teenage rebellion on Krypton. It was even beneficial, they'd inevitably discover they liked their original guild more and the experience would make them better when they came of age.

A member of the Science Guild who spent a few years training in the Military Guild would understand their needs better after all and Kryptonians lived long enough for the lost time not to be a problem.

She also told him about the house of El, their story, their customs and their achievements, all in the hopes of catching his attention.

That damn cabal of clowns used telepathy to fill his mind with thoughts of filling Superman's shoes and fighting for Earth like that was all he could do. Kara did her best to change that assumption.

Kon-El was created from Lex Luthor and Kal-El, a member of the El house, it was impossible for him to just be an angry muscle-head who punched things and she'd make damn sure of that.

Eventually, she left a much happier and, perhaps, a little less confused with life, Kon-El back into the mountain with a new cell phone holding both her and Kori's number. She flew away from the mountain for a few minutes before her smile fell off her face.

"UGH! That was a mess! I kept confusing him and barely let him talk!" she lifted both arms up and almost yelled in frustration. "And I didn't even talk with him about the examinations!"

Kara knew for a fact there were mental commands implanted on the kid and she wasn't about to let them stay.

Also, she didn't remember anything being wrong with his biology, but Kryptonian DNA was incredibly complicated. She wouldn't put it past CADMUS to have missed something that's only gonna show up decades later or, worse, left something on purpose.

She'd have to talk with Kal-El about letting Kon-El into the Fortress but, if he said no for some reason, she'd just have to sneak the boy inside. Worst case scenario, she'd use her ship's medical bay, but it wouldn't come to that.

She had already left a message with the Martian Manhunter asking for a meeting, but the male was busy with something at the moment and would get back to her sometime tomorrow, probably his niece arriving on Earth.

Now, to deal with the second problem.

When night fell, Kara stopped far above the clouds and over the damaged CADMUS building. There wasn't anyone fixing the entrance, but the heavy machinery lay all around the place.

She tried peering inside the building, but Luthor was one of the owners of the place, of course it was filled with lead.

She considered her options. At first, she had thought about just mining enough gold to buy the entire thing but, not only would that reveal her existence to the world, it would probably not work. The Light, or even just Luthor himself, had enough political power to block any such move.

She also couldn't risk The Light moving the things inside when they learned of her attempt.

She'd bet Luthor had filled the place with all sorts of contingencies in case her cousin snapped and actually attacked it. The man was far too used to dealing with an angry Kryptonian… too bad for him he wasn't used to dealing with an angry Kryptonian's tech.

Lifting a small pouch from her waist, Kara opened it and turned it upside down, releasing a deluge of metal balls half the size of her fingernail. They fell through the air, but stopped right before hitting CADMUS' surface, floating a couple of centimeters above the ground. A second later, they activated their non disturbance mode and disappeared from view.

Kara may not have access to Kryptonian military drones, but high grade civilian gear could work just as well when dealing with Earth's technology.

Every little drone she released was equipped with a camera capable of mapping terrain and keeping track of living beings, a wireless transmitter untraceable by Earth's current technology and a cloaking device.

On Krypton, they were used to float above a Kryptonian and help them navigate without being lost, take pictures or recordings of important moments and information for later use, keep track of children and remain inconspicuous during everyday life.

Here on Earth, they were nearly undetectable stealth devices.

Opening a tablet in front of her, she ordered the devices to start infiltrating the facility and map out all its rooms. It wasn't instantaneous but, after only a couple of hours, she had a complete map of CADMUS underground and the drones were keeping track of all organic movement.

Thousands of Genomorphs of all shapes and sizes, dozens of scientists all currently working and even Guardian himself taking a nap in a resting room, all unaware of the machines watching them.

Ordering one of the drones to connect to an empty and unobserved computer wouldn't usually be possible, but Kara had made a few modifications so the drones were compatible with Earth's tech.

Soon, she had access to CADMUS systems through her tablet and released a wave of malware. Small, inconsequential programs that were so alien to CADMUS computers they wouldn't be detected as viruses and slowly took over every aspect on their systems, using The Light's own hidden programs to do so.

That's the problem with leaving backdoors in a computer system so you could interact with them without detection, someone else could make use of them if they had the right knowledge and equipment.

Kara had no doubt someone like Oracle, The Brain, Dr. Ivo or Dr. Morrow could quickly adapt against her programming, they were just that good, but CADMUS computers weren't really their focus, and Kryptonian tech was an out of contest problem the system just wasn't capable of fighting against without supervision.

With control over the building's computer system, Kara started downloading a copy of all the information they had, even the ones kept hidden on Luthor's secret little server. She also took the chance to install a program that would erase both her image and voice from any recording device in the building.

Alright, now what?

Despite her efforts, Kara's skills at stealth were about the same as her skills at fighting before meeting Kori, that is to say, she didn't have them.

Yes, she could avoid meeting anyone on the mostly empty upper floors, but the lower floors were a hive of activity and she still didn't have the time to adapt the drone's stealth tech to work with her clothes.

Worse, some of the Genomorphs were telepaths and she had no way to hide from them. "Alright, mental note, find a way to hide from telepaths, or at least block their powers."

Well, if she couldn't hide from the Genomorphs, she'd just have to get their help instead.

She quickly lifted her tablet to her face and changed the view to watch Dubbilex; since she already controlled their computer, it was easy to generate a message requiring his presence on one of the upper floors.

Then she dropped down. Using her speed and the darkness of the night, she managed to remain undetected by anything outside the building.

The ground floor was still filled with rubble, but she found an easy path down into the first underground floor which only had a couple of human workers, Kara avoided them and found an empty room.

Before long, she felt a weight settle on her mind, she knew she still didn't have the mental fortitude or training to resist his intrusion but, luckily, she didn't have to.

Instead, she tried to think about Superboy, their family connection and her intent to free the Genomorphs from their imposed slavery and hoped he wouldn't delve deeper.

She had to admit, it was somewhat of a gamble to let someone have access to her mind but, the second she felt him trying to delve where he wasn't invited, she'd use her speed to burst out of the building, even if she had to go through him.

She was pretty sure he wasn't a powerful enough telepath to incapacitate her before she was out of his range… or plastered him all over the hallway. She even made sure she was actively thinking about that too.

The automatic door to the room opened with only a small noise and the tall Genomorph stepped inside, his arms crossed behind his back.

"Greetings, Kara Zor-El. I apologize for the intrusion into your mind," he told her in an emotionless voice. "I can only say it seemed necessary from my point of view."

"I can see that, yes," she nodded to him in greeting and massaged her temples. "You didn't try to peek for too long, so I forgive you."

"Well, the image of my insides spread on the hallway in case I tried was most illuminating," he told her as he awkwardly extended a hand, then he continued. "It also seemed disturbingly likely, with the way you were thinking."

"Ah, I'd really like to avoid killing again, but mind control just leaves me on edge. Were you able to see why I came while you searched my mind?"

"I could see you're attempting to help my kind, but I have to confess, I retreated somewhat hastily after that vivid image."

Yep, Kryptonians were scary. No doubt about that.

"Well, I have three options for you," Kara told him while keeping an eye on the surveillance system. "First, I can just call the League again, I'm pretty sure the damn idiots were too tired from fighting Wotan, or too busy gapping at my cousin's clone to think about things but, after a round of yelling at everybody, I can get them to help free you guys from slavery… still don't know how they let that one pass.

"The second option is probably the safest, I'm pretty sure you guys qualify as a race of your own so, if I call The Green Lanterns and ask for asylum, they'd come over in a heartbeat to help you guys settle somewhere else. Heck, maybe Mars would take you guys; they're all telepathic shape shifters, so it could be easier for you guys to settle there.

"The third option would be a little riskier, I can help you guys take over," and here Kara leaned towards Dubbilex with a predatory smile. "I already have control of the building's surveillance systems and, with your telepathy, you can turn the tables on your so-called 'owners' without anyone even finding out."

"That is… three more options than I was expecting," Dubbilex said with a sigh. "I always believed Superboy would be the one to help us, and meeting the Justice League only enforced that feeling, even your heroes didn't really see us as anything but tools."

Kara's hands tightened into fists at his words, she really would like to argue with that, but she couldn't, not when what he said was right.

"I can only apologize for how the League dismissed you guys, I could say they're too overworked to pay attention to the little details. but it is no excuse, and slavery is never just a little detail."

"Why are YOU so willing to help us?" he asked, narrowing his eyes at Kara in suspicion.

"Many reasons, I'm pretty sure you were the one who organized things so Kon-El would be freed, so I feel indebted to you. Plus, as I said, I don't consider slavery to be a small thing and I have the power to do something about it," Kara said and scratched the back of her head, somewhat embarrassed by her next reason, "But I'm also doing this to stop whatever plans you creator's have for you, that's why I'm a little partial to the third option, I do need a base of my own, and a little help dealing with the bastards that created you. Having that help come from you guys and the base being one of theirs would feel somewhat… poetic."

"I see… and if I don't trust you, will you leave us alone?"

"I'm sorry, but no. I'm willing to let you choose how to do this, but I can't leave you guys as slaves no matter what you say," she considered things a little bit and completed. "Besides, I know for a fact there's another Kryptonian and a little boy hidden somewhere down here, so I'm raiding this place anyway."

"Impossible, I'm aware of every one of CADMUS projects, there are no records of another successful clone, Superboy is the only one."

"Wrong," she quickly browsed through the data she stole and turned her tablet towards the male. "They called him Project Match, he is in dire need of help and I WILL provide it."

Dubbilex didn't release his arms from his back but, with a light tug, the tablet slowly floated away from Kara's hands and towards his face, he quickly read the information about Match but, instead of giving it back, he started searching for information about Genomorphs themselves.

Kara let him. Dubbilex's face became angrier and angrier as he read on, finally he reached his own information and Kara swore, if she had been using a normal tablet instead of a Kryptonian one, it would have cracked in half as it was flung across the room.

"We accept," Dubbilex said without any hesitation in his voice. "They need to be stopped."

Kara grabbed the tablet back and couldn't help herself, she read what had bothered him so much. "Well... damn."

Chapter Text

"Well, damn," Kara couldn't help but say as she read the information on the tablet.

She took a minute or two to read about the other genomorphs and felt sick to her stomach. She too wanted to throw the device away, the only thing stopping her was the fact its Kryptonian metal would probably break through the wall and kill someone, or at least alert the building to her presence.

The entire thing just hit far too close to her previous experiences at the hands of the Psions for comfort. It seems like Cadmus didn't just create the genomorphs from nothing or from a single genetic sample from an unknown race.

During Cadmus creation, the U.S. government saw some merit to Luthor's goals and quietly supported the project in exchange for data on the emerging metahuman threat.

The Genomorphs were actually created by using DNA from previous experimental subjects, humans who were experimented on by Cadmus in one of its smaller branch laboratories until they either escaped or died. The scientists had taken the DNA samples with the most promising powers and created the Genomorphs from them.

The current Genomorph types weren't the only ones created, just the only ones stable and useful enough to be mass produced.

Kara didn't recognize most of the names, but one of the subjects drew her attention, it seems like Dubbilex himself was created by using the DNA from Ace in the hopes of replicating her reality altering powers.

They were greatly disappointed, but not surprised, when he only showed signs of having her telekinesis.

It only left Kara angrier, she had been willing to give the Justice League a chance but damn, for them to have missed the Genomorphs even after Batman himself had shut down Cadmus human experimentations… how could they have fucked up so badly?

Later… she could deal with that later, now she had to focus on getting Match and Roy out of here, preferably, but not necessarily without anyone noticing it. "Alright, do you need my help taking over?"

"Depends," Dubbilex said in thought. "How exactly are you planning to take over? We could easily take over the building if we worked together and there are enough G-gnomes to mind control every employee but, either way, we would quickly be found out if we did so."

"I was thinking more along the lines of just… nudging the researchers away from anything we didn't want them to do, let them work on things we want while we gather information on their misdeeds," Kara confessed, she may have been a Kryptonian, but she wasn't really a mastermind or criminal genius. "Someone will still find out but, hopefully, when they finally realize there is something wrong, we will have enough information to get them all in jail… and it would buy me enough time to find a safe place for the genomorphs."

Kara didn't think she could fool The Light indefinitely, but she hoped they could do it long enough to be able to prove their identities to the Justice League and, more importantly, a court of law.

Worst case scenario, she'd still get some work done by Cadmus employees and Luthor would be paying for it.

It wasn't exactly a lawful thing to do, but Kara had long decided she cared more for what was right than for the law and she didn't really think her cousin would mind too much.

After all, he had been flying around and fighting crime long before the Justice League formed and had a UN charter. Vigilantism wasn't exactly legal either, as far as she knew.

"We can definitely do something like that," the leader of the Genomorphs said. "Usually, messing with someone's mind doesn't sit that well with me but, for those people, I don't think I'll have any problems."

"Good, I'll make sure to alter their electronic communications while you make sure they just… forget to do anything too unethical, hopefully we get a few months without detection."

"Likely," Dubbilex nodded while considering the people he… worked for. "We have been their servants for so long the scientists have become used to just ignoring us, nudging them away from noticing our activities will be easy if you can make sure we aren't caught on camera."

Kara wasn't exactly a programming genius. Her education had been more focused on producing hardware not software, but adapting the program she was using to delete her image so it would also include a few G-gnomes was easy to do.

"I can make it so no security camera notices any G-gnome where he isn't supposed to be but, if you want to do something big, you're gonna have to find a blind spot or warn me beforehand," then she pulled out a small casing and wrote her number on it. "If you need anything just use one of the employees phones to call that number. Also, inside the casing, there's a panic button, press it if you need immediate help."

"Thank you," Dubbilex bowed his head, his horns pointing her way. "This means a lot to us."

"It's nothing, I'm really sorry my cousin didn't do this earlier."

With their deal sealed Kara decided it was time to deal with the other problems in the building.

With access to Luthor's own secret server, she was able to find Match and Roy's locations with no trouble and, with Dubbilex and the G-gnomes, it was laughingly easy to traverse the building. She only had to modify the elevator data to indicate it wasn't moving and then walk towards it as if she owned the place. Right now, she kinda did.

It was incredibly easy for Dubbilex or any G-gnome to keep the human workers from even noticing her passage.

As they descended towards the storage area where Match was kept, Kara read about his situation.

It seemed like the complexity of Kryptonian DNA made his body really unstable. Not only did it have to be kept frozen in stasis to avoid further deterioration, it also had to be constantly fed with solar radiation to stop Match from dying.

Kara wasn't specialized in biology and she really didn't know if the Fortress had a solution for his problem. Krypton itself didn't deal very much with clones, much less failed Kryptonian clones made with Genomorph DNA as glue.

Although, Krypton scientists had been masters of biological, and even DNA manipulation, so there may be information about it on the Fortress.

She'd have to see what could be done, but there was a real chance she'd need to find someone trustworthy to help her solve it.

"It's really here," Dubbilex commented as the secret door opened revealing hundreds of stasis pods with failed experiments inside them.

"You didn't believe me?"

"You already proved how easy it was to infiltrate Cadmus computer systems," the Genomorph confessed with a blush. "It was entirely possible everything I read was something you put there."

Well… he wasn't wrong.

Kara shook her head and quickly located both Roy Harper and Match's stasis pods in her tablet. Both were locked in place, but could be moved with the use of a battery to temporarily power their systems, she went towards Match's first.

Despite being created through different methods, Match looked exactly like Kon-El, it made Kara wonder if that was how Kal-El had looked at their apparent age.

Mental note, make sure to ask for some photos from the Kents.

She made sure everything was in order with Match's pod, but didn't deactivate it. She remembered how the boy had reacted in the show and, despite her strength, she didn't know if she could subdue him without causing too much damage.

Kara stood there looking at the pod for a long time, her head twisting from side to side as she scratched at her chin in thought; Dubbilex eventually approached her side and asked. "Is something wrong?"

"Hmmm… I may have been a little hasty coming here," she confessed with some shame. She had just been staring at the clone with a single thought going through her mind, how was she going to bring the giant pod to the fortress? "I was thinking who I could call that wouldn't ask questions about a giant pod with a person inside and help me move it. Do you know if Wonder Woman has an invisible jet?"

"I… do not?"

Kara sighed. Well, it wasn't like she couldn't carry it there with her own arms but, well, flying around with an almost car sized pod above her head would be incredibly awkward.

Maybe she could call Batman? She could ask for help after she shouted at him about missing all this just a day ago. The only problem was that she still wasn't very familiar with the caped crusader of this universe.

Would he keep it a secret? Or would he try to take over the operation in the name of the League? Did she care if he tried?

Kara was surprised to discover the answer was no, no she did not. He could try all he wanted, she wouldn't let him.

In her mind, she had been making excuses for the way the League had just… missed an entire race of slaves right in the middle of the U.S but, after meeting and talking with Dubbilex, she could no longer pretend they hadn't royally screwed up.

Deciding to make a decision later, she went to check on Roy's own pod, even frozen as he was, the boy had a scared look on his face, he looked far too young to be captured by villains and his missing arm tugged at Kara's own strings.

She briefly glanced down at her own prosthetic and swore she'd grow him a new arm as soon as the Fortress cloning facility was ready. He wouldn't need to get a prosthetic from Luthor with who knew how many backdoors inside.

Then she glanced between the boy and Dubbilex and had a thought that brought a new smile to her face, it wasn't a very nice smile. "Say, just how good of a telepath are you?"

"I have to confess I'm a fairly strong telepath for a Genomorph, but there are G-gnomes who are both stronger and more skilled," he answered as he stared at the boy with some pity in his face. "Why do you ask?"

"Can you find and modify mental commands?" she asked, her mind working hard to think about the opportunity.

Didn't The Light like to use double agents to infiltrate the Justice League? She was already taking one of their facilities so, maybe she should take one of their plans too.

"That depends on how strong of a command it was and how deep it's been buried," Dubbilex said with a thoughtful voice. "I certainly couldn't disable a command created by someone like the Martian Manhunter but, if you can bring the subject to us and know what to look for, the G-gnomes are used to working with each other and there's enough of them to overcome just about anything."

"How… interesting," she suddenly couldn't contain herself and started snickering and then she laughed. "Muahahaha… wait where are you going?"

Dubbilex had retreated from her side and taken quite a few hurried steps away from her; at her question, he stopped and righted himself, but his red eyes avoided her own. "Apologies, Desmond used to laugh like that and it brought to mind some unpleasant memories."

"Ah, right," damn, she really had to stop with the maniacal laugh, it was cathartic, but she didn't want to give her cousin the wrong impression. "Anyway, that's for later. Can we unfreeze him right away?"

"I can get one of the scientists over if you need?"

"No, let me check their information first."

It seems Cadmus did indeed have the facilities necessary to unfreeze Roy, but it wasn't like Kara could just take him out of the pod. The entire process would take at least a day and his recovery a few days more to be safe.

With a sigh, Kara decided she would be flying with not one but two pods towards the fortress. Her takeover of Cadmus was far too risky and she wanted to leave as few vulnerable targets on the facilities as she could manage.

"Dubbilex, get their pods ready for transport, please, I'm gonna have to make some calls."

"Very well. I'll have a G-Troll bring the batteries over and move the pods."

Nodding to the male, Kara went back towards Match's pod, sitting down on an empty spot where another pod should be, dialing his number on her Kryptonian tablet. She smiled as his phone started to ring.

She really did love Krypton technology, no way would a human cell phone work this deep underground.

"Hello Kara, did you need anything?" Her cousin asked with a tired voice, Kara didn't know if she had ever seen or heard him when he wasn't tired. The League really was overworked. "I'm just getting home from League work if you could wait a little."

"Hi, Kal-El, we need to talk," She said with a serious voice. "When were you going to tell me there was another Kryptonian alive?"

"Kara I… it's complicated," He gave a huge sigh and Kara could feel the amount of frustration and exhaustion He was feeling even from across the phone. "He was made, Kara, made by my enemy to replace me… I just didn't want to get you involved and at risk."

"Kal you have Krypton's cultural data, you know being 'made' isn't exactly odd for a Kryptonian," letting her body slip towards the floor Kara rested her back against the support.

"He's dangerous Kara."

"He's a kid Kal, he needs help," Kara hit her head against the support in frustration. "I have seen what you have done for this planet, what you stand for, you're better than this."

"I-I know, I'll talk to him alright?" another sigh, another long pause. "Look, can we talk about this in person? You're still coming to the family dinner on the weekend right?"

"Only if I can take him too," when there wasn't a response Kara cursed in her mind. "Kal I won't say you're his father, but he is a member of the house of El, he's family."

"Alright, I guess I can introduce you two then."

"Kal, I already met the boy."

"WHAT?"

"I just said he was family, did you think I was just gonna leave him alone on that mountain?" Kara almost screamed back and had to take a second to calm herself, to remember her cousin was a failed being just like everyone else. She took another glance at the second clone inside his pod. "Look, don't think about him like he's your son, he isn't, just think of him as any other kid who suffered because evil people messed up his life, right now, he just needs help Kal."

"You're right," Kal-El eventually said as she heard him throw himself on the sofa. "You're right, is he still on the mountain?"

"Yes, I offered for him to stay with me but he needed some time to think."

"I'll talk with him tomorrow then. I really need to rest right now."

"That's all I ask," she told him and smiled, she'd still have to get back at him for his fuck up so he wouldn't think she'd just let it pass but, at least it wouldn't need to be anything drastic. "I'll see you on the weekend then."

"Alright, yeah," yet another frustrated sigh as Kara heard something breaking in his hand, then he relaxed. "And, Kara, thanks for calling me out on it."

"My pleasure, his name is Kon-El by the way, can't believe none of you guys even thought to give him one."

She turned off the phone and went back to looking at Match's pod. She had gotten her cousin to at least talk with Kon, but she didn't think he needed to face a second clone right now, one who was dying too.

Kara didn't have Batman's phone and a quick search on the internet with her device didn't uncover Bruce Wayne's personal cell phone, but she did find the Wayne manor landline on some private database.

She was still angry at the Justice League but, now that she thought about it, she couldn't justify keeping Roy hidden away from his adopted family. With some luck, Batman would manage to see the advantage of keeping the boy hidden and convince Green Arrow, she'd hate to see her newly formed plan be ruined because of her ethical standards.

By Rao, being a supervillain must be so much easier.

"You've reached Wayne Manor, how may I help you?"

"Hi Alfred, This is Kal-El's cousin, Kara, can I talk with Batman?"

There was a beat of silence over the phone and then Alfred took a deep breath. "Master Bruce will not be happy with this."

"Alfred, put Bruce on the line, please."

"Very well, it will be just a moment," Kara heard him walking for a minute or two before talking with someone. "Master Bruce, Superman's cousin wishes to speak with you."

"Clark wasn't supposed to share my identity," he said in a harsh, angry voice.

"My cousin didn't tell me you were Batman." She huffed.

"How did you find out?"

"I'm a Kryptonian under a yellow sun, how do you think?"

"Hmm, what did you need?"

"I was just curious, you guys had a Kryptonian, two green lanterns and the world's best detectives, how did you miss a second Superman clone and a frozen kid when you searched Cadmus?" she said in a conversational tone, "Particularly when it was the second time you guys dealt with a Cadmus problem?"

There was a long silence filled with barely contained tension before Batman spoke a single word. "Explain."

Kara was certain her device was secure from anyone trying to hear their conversation, both because her technology was so advanced and because nobody knew they had to counter it yet so, she did.

"I'll be there in twenty minutes," was the only thing the Bat said before turning off the phone, but Kara's enhanced hearing managed to hear a lot more.

The slight tremble in his voice, the shaking of his hand on the phone, the beating of his heart, the harshness of his voice, Batman was absolutely furious, almost beyond reason.

Without even touching the ground around her, Kara floated up and back to her feet, from the side, a huge G-troll came around the corner carrying a portable battery.

"Can I get a G-Gnome to help me bring Batman inside and make it seem like everything was in order?" Kara asked Dubbilex.

"Does he approve of our actions?"

"I doubt it, but he isn't saying anything yet and, after the way he dropped the ball here, do you think he has the right to say anything?"

Chapter Text

Kara watched as Batman approached Roy's cryo pod with sure steps, her x-ray vision going over his body on instinct. He was actually already wearing a lead mask, plus his utility belt had several lead pouches, but his armor was mostly made from different materials.

She could also see he had a recently broken rib and a cracked bone in his leg, she was impressed, the guy wasn't even limping. "Wow, did you make a lead mask in just 15 minutes?"

"I had it prepared as soon as I found out someone managed to clone Superman." He grunted back and stopped in front of the pod.

For quite a few minutes he just stared at the boy frozen inside without moving a muscle, even his breath was calm making Kara think he was doing some kind of mental exercise to keep his anger in check. Finally, he asked. "How long until it's safe to release him?"

"It'll take a day or two, but I was planning on moving the pod to a safer place before I started," she told him and handed the man the tablet with Roy's medical information. "I'll also be moving Match's pod before releasing him."

"The second clone?" Batman asked, but it didn't wait for her answer. "Good, we're gonna have to call Green Arrow and hunt down the copy soon."

"About that…" Kara started to talk, but almost swallowed her tongue when Batman's burning gaze turned her way. Damn, the man was intimidating, and he didn't even turn his head. "The current Roy has no idea he's working for your enemies."

"That is obvious," the Bat said and turned his gaze back to Roy. "As much as the League messed up here, the boy couldn't fool us for two years if he was aware of what he was doing, is it drugs or telepathy?"

"The later," hmm, it seems Batman could be sharp when he was focused on things.

"You know who's responsible?"

"Beside's Luthor you mean? I have some idea," Kara put the few mentions of The Light she had managed to find in Luthor's private server and showed them to the Caped Crusader. "I have a few suspicions about who the members are, but it will take some time to confirm them."

"I'll start looking into it," Batman told her as he turned his eyes back towards the pod, almost as if he was unable to turn away from it for too long.

Kara knew she really should tell him about her knowledge of the YJ show but… she couldn't do it. No, she didn't want to do it. She didn't want to tell anybody how much she knew about things, about the world and the monsters hiding in it.

She liked keeping it a secret, that way she would have an advantage against anyone she faced. Rao, Batman himself had counters to the entire League hidden away, she could have her little secret too.

It was another advantage keeping her from ever getting used or captured by anyone else again and she really didn't like letting go of those. Plus she could still tell him their identities in a few days, after she had time to think about things, then she could justify her knowledge by claiming she had investigated it or something.

Shaking her head she decided to change gears. "How did you guys miss this, the slaves, the secret rooms?"

"We were tired and they played us," the Bat confessed, his voice becoming even harsher as his free hand closed into a fist. "Fighting Wotan had been challenging and Luthor worked quickly, his political power meant we only had a limited amount of time to search the facility before turning the case over to the authorities. Only Superman and Flash could have found this place in so little time and they probably had countermeasures specifically made to counter them.

"When we didn't find anything dangerous inside the facility, we trusted the legal authorities to deal with everything else, including the Genomorphs. We failed here, all of us."

"And the Green Lanterns?"

"In order for the UN to accept the League, the Green Lanterns had to work under several restrictions, they can't use it to break into private or government data banks unless there's a life at risk, the situation here was already resolved by the time we arrived."

"The countries were afraid you'd find all their dirty little secrets?" Kara asked.

"Yes."

"You know, you guys are called the Justice League but, are you really fighting for justice or just the law?"

As they quietly observed things A G-Troll approached them and actually lifted Roy's pod with a single hand, then connected it to a portable cart with its own energy source, making sure everything was in order.

"The League has to change," Kara continued as Batman didn't give her an answer, her voice hard as she made the ultimatum. "I'm not an expert and I don't have your experience so I can't tell you how to do it, but it HAS to change, you can't drop the ball like this again."

"Yes," was Batman's single word answer.

"That's it, that's all you're gonna say?" she threw her arms up and started walking away from the man.

"We fight for what is right, Kara Zor-El," Batman finally said. "We fight so no child has to see their parents die in front of their eyes again, so an evil man can't take a kid and force her to fight until her own power kills her and, sometimes, that means following the law. I want nothing more than to arrest Luthor right now, but what do you think is gonna happen if I do so?

"I could capture him, I could gather all the information on his computers, I could spread all the terrible things he had done to every corner of this world and he would still not stay in jail a single day because I didn't follow the law," the frustration on the Bat's voice was clear for anyone to hear, Kara didn't even need her super hearing. "But you're right, the League has to change, we are making too many mistakes, our enemies adapted and we did not."

Kara just stared at the man for a few seconds, finally, she sighed. "I still feel like punching you."

"Do you still need any help with the Genomorph situation?" he asked, ignoring her latest sentence and looking at Dubbilex. "I noticed no human bothered with me coming down here."

"A lawyer for when they inevitably have to come out in the open would be nice."

"I'll get it ready," he watched as the G-Troll started wheeling the pods towards the elevators, then turned back to her with a considerate look. "I can see you have a plan, tell me about it."

So she told him, she spoke as they went up to the surface without interference, or even the notice of any worker, then up into the Batplane and right back towards Gotham City.

"What you're proposing will be risky, even for a Kryptonian, you'll be going against enemies that could give even your cousin a fair fight," he commented when she finished and Kara snorted.

"I'm not asking for permission, even if Roy and Green Arrow don't agree I'll still do it, it will just be harder," she answered as she thought about things. "I'm also not going to do this alone."

"They'll agree. I'll just have to keep them away from Luthor until they regain their senses and they'll agree," Batman lowered the Batplane inside the cave and opened the hangar door. "Who are you thinking of recruiting, your friend?"

"She was really excited about teaming up with the sidekicks, plus she isn't really the most discreet girl," Kara said and sighed. "Not that I am a master spy or anything like that, but I can remain hidden when needed, Kori is a warrior at heart."

"I have a few ideas about that," the Bat told her and took a few seconds to send her a message with an address, "If you want to investigate The Light go there, they'll help you."

Kara didn't recognize the address, but a quick search showed it was just a large house beside a cemetery in New York City and owned by someone called Cain. Settling the Plane down, Kara saw there were already people waiting for them with medical equipment.

Beside Alfred, there was also an old, white haired woman waiting for them inside the cave, she had an incredibly annoyed expression on her face and barely lifted an eyebrow as Kara floated out of the plane holding both pods above her head.

"Leslie Thompkins, my trusted physician," Batman explained as he started walking inside the cave.

The woman's frown deepened and she tried to his Batman's head with a cane. "What did I say about leaving with those wounds?"

"Don't."

"Exactly! So why did Alfred just wake me up asking for my help!" Kara almost snickered as she watched the old lady berate Batman. "Now, let me see what I have to work with."

Kara carefully deposited Roy's pod beside the woman and made sure to send all the information about his state to the Batcave's reserve servers which Batman had given her access to. They were completely isolated from the main servers even by her equipment, so he probably felt safer that way.

"Do you have a Zeta-Tube in the cave?" Kara asked.

"Yes, I'll give you temporary permission to activate it before calling Green Arrow."

"Thank you. I appreciate it."

"Green Arrow will probably need some time to process this, I'll inform you when we're ready," With a nod, the Bat just left her there and continued walking inside the cave until he was outside of her usual vision.

Kara turned away and started looking for the Zeta-tube, but she still heard his steps becoming uneven as he started limping outside her view. Finally, his steps stopped and she heard him punch the wall, then lay his back against it and release a deep sigh, filled with frustration.

Trying to ignore it, she finally found the Zeta-Tube and activated it, leaving the cave until Batman called her back.
.
.
.
Kara manipulated the Fortress controls and finished adapting the solar chamber to be able to house March's stabilizing fluid. Throwing herself back against the chair, she sighed. "How long until you can fully understand his biology?"

"Three days, his cells seem to be mostly defective Kryptonian cells, but there is an alien DNA mixed in and holding it together. The fortress database may not have the information needed to fully cure him."

"Not even by cloning him a new body?" she asked the AI.

"It would certainly increase his lifespan, but not solve the issue completely, his brain would still be composed of defective cells and eventually deteriorate, we could clone his brain tissue, but even Krypton was unable to ascertain if that would solve the issue or just create a new being."

"I see... would exposure to Nth metal solve the issue?"

"Again, it would delay the deterioration, but the cells are fundamentally wrong, it is unlikely to fully solve the issue."

"So, either I get a geneticist good enough to fix it, or I find a mage capable of transferring his soul," Kara wondered out loud. "Does the Fortress have any information about anyone who could help me?"

"Unfortunately, the great majority of such individuals are known villains, several scientists at star labs may be able to solve the issue given enough time and investment, but it is likely the clone would have already died by then."

"As for transferring his soul, again, the field is mostly dominated by villains, but Giovanni Zatara may be able to help with it, the former Dr. Fate or John Constantine however, are far more certain options."

"Ugh, right, there was that Fate debacle to deal with," Kara wasn't completely against Fate, yes the YJ version was a mind controlling asshole, but it could have easily been avoided if people didn't keep ignoring the man? Creature? Eldritch being?

The Lord of Order was a necessary presence in the universe, Kara doubted she could befriend the being, she'd always remember what he would have done by taking over Zatara's body, but she could respect it… somewhat. Its situation could have been handled so much better.

She could only imagine the state of the world's mystical problems after so many years without a Lord of Order to balance Klarion's influence. No matter how much of an asshole Nabu truly was, a Lord of Order was still needed and, at least, he was somewhat heroically inclined.

It would really suck to get rid of the helmet and get saddled with a dictator or mass murderer, not all order was nice after all. Kara was starting to see how the Justice League could be overwhelmed; she didn't even know where to begin solving problems.

No, that was a lie, she knew where she had to start, she had to get more allies, she had to get her own team, a team of heavy hitters capable of dealing with the likes of Klarion and Mr. Mind and coming out on top.

Maybe then she could make her cousin's life a little easier.

She did briefly think about getting the help from the team, but there was a problem. They were kids.

Sure it was fun to watch them work in a cartoon, but she just couldn't put them in the kind of situation she was planning on getting. In truth, the team was composed of kids with ages between 14 and 16 years. They most definitely should not be facing people like Vandal Savage and Sportsmaster, much less the eldritch abomination that was Klarion, no matter how much they protested they were ready.

For fuck's sake, they weren't even over the age of majority, they should NOT be risking their lives, she respected them for it, sure, but that doesn't mean she'd let them do it.

This is why there were child labor laws, damn it, and to think that she was mostly on the team's side when she watched the show for the first time.

At least she had to admit, most of the Team's troubles weren't the League's fault. At face value, their missions weren't anywhere as dangerous as they turned out to be.

Yes, they weren't ready for an infiltration mission on a foreign country, but Superboy, Miss Martian and Kid flash were strong enough not to be in any danger from average drug dealers and Robin and Aqualad had the training to deal with it.

More than that, almost all of their missions were like that, things they shouldn't have any problem with that went to hell because of things impossible to know were happening.

At least this time they'd have Kori with them, so they shouldn't get overcome by most dangers. Starfire may not have been the stealthiest of heroes, but Kara would actually give her a fair chance against almost any member of the Justice League, the girl was just that good a warrior.

With another sigh, Kara stepped away from the control panel and stretched her neck, now it was up to the Fortress to examine the clone in depth and try to find a solution to his defective genetics.

Who knows, it may not even be that problematic and its Kryptonian database may have a ready solution? Stranger things had happened.

It had been almost two hours since she arrived at the fortress and Batman hadn't called her back yet, Kara was starting to feel uncertain, had Green Arrow not agreed with their plan? Or was he taking his time beside his newly found foster child?

Kara's plan was simple: to use the Light's own creations against them, she had already taken over Cadmus and, with the G-Gnomes' help, she could deprogram both Kon-El and Speedy, getting both an uncompromised half-kryptonian and a double agent.

The Light's main advantages were their anonymity and the fact nobody knew where they hid, with Speedy freed from their mental commands, he could continue to act as if he was following orders and find out where they were.

The Light's main dangers were Klarion and Savage; if Kara could take out those two it would solve half her problems.

Not that she was underestimating Lex, freaking, Luthor but the main driving force behind this particular alliance were the two immortals who had been working behind the scenes for millennia.

At least she could trust Lex's xenophobia to turn him against someone like Darkseid in the end; she couldn't say the same about Savage, much less Klarion.

Unwilling to stay in place just waiting for an answer, Kara made a quick search on the internet and found what she was looking for, hopefully her first teammate. "Say, does the fortress have a shovel?"

"I'm sad to say Kal-El never felt the need for a shovel, but the fortress can easily produce one in a few minutes?"

"No need. It'll probably be faster without one anyway," Kara waved him and entered the Fortress Zeta-Tube, adjusting it to send her to New York.

As always, the Zeta-tube left her in a small, closed off alleyway where she could easily fly up, taking advantage of the night and her blank mask to keep her identity a secret.

From the air, she had to squint a little to be able to find where the Queen's was, but finding the memorial cemetery was actually pretty easy.

Making sure there were no guards around, she dropped on an empty patch of grass and tried to be as respectful as possible as she searched for one particular grave, finally she found it.

It read, in memory of Danette Reilly, 1924 – 1945.

Looking down at the ground, she used her x-ray vision and gave a sigh of relief to see the body was still inside, if a little bit deeper than she expected.

She hadn't been sure just when the woman had been exhumed and there was a chance she had come a little too late.

Considering the situation, Kara had been hoping the coffin would be closer to the surface and she could just… grab it and pull it up, but it was actually buried deep into the ground, it seems she'd have to get her clothes dirty. "I guess they did bury people 6 feet under back then."

With both her flight and the resistance of her body, a little bit of earth couldn't even inconvenience her, but she was annoyed she'd have to take a shower later.

With a sigh, she used her flight to start sinking into the ground until she could reach the coffin and pull it open, getting earth on her eyes felt kind of funny, but it didn't actually bother her, her eyes could bounce off bullets after all, and she had x-ray vision.

She quickly pried the coffin open and found Firebrand's body completely intact inside the wooden casket; pulling her up by the arm, she lifted the limp woman up and out of the hole in less than a minute.

Then she looked at the mess she had made and sighed again, the grave was less disturbed than if she had actually excavated it or pulled the entire coffin out, but there was still a large, uneven hole going down which was impossible to miss.

Lowering Firebrand's body beside her own gravestone, she considered the situation. "I do hope your problem is only a matter of hardware, I'm nowhere near as good at software stuff and I wouldn't want to mess up your personality."

Her clothes were already a mess, so she just started filling the hole she had made, then she got some grass from under a tree and laid on top of the bare earth before getting up and patting herself down. The grave was still a little lumpy, but nobody would notice it had been excavated unless they came very close.

Grabbing Firebrand's body, she smiled. "Now let's see what old man Morrow was capable of when he built you."

Kara couldn't wait to see if she could improve the woman with Kryptonian tech, Red Tornado may be one of the League's heavy hitter's but, when she was done with her; Firebrand would leave him in the dust.

Chapter Text

Kara crouched under her bed trying to find where she had put her Rao be damned sunstone adapter, she just knew she had left it somewhere in her bedroom.

Then she actually remembered who she was and almost cursed. Using only one hand she lifted the bed all the way over her head and finally found the damn thing resting just beside the wall.

"There you are." She gently kicked the device towards the middle of the room and lowered her bed back into place with a sight.

She really should have thought more about her actions, it would have been so much better to use her cousin's Fortress of Solitude to get Firebrand back into a working condition.

In fact, she had been halfway towards the building before she realized she didn't have a justification for how she knew about the android.

Now she had an inert android on her living room and had to make do with the technology she had on hand or in her spaceship, and not all of it was capable of interacting with human technology without help, even mad geniuses' technology.

Kara grabbed the adapter and took the chance to also grab some discarded clothes lying around her room throwing them into the washing bin. Finally, she started to make her way back towards the android.

From ahead of her she heard the apartment door opening, then a little girl's scream followed by a shout of "Shazam!"

Kara's eyes went wide as the large superhero burst through her door, damaging the wall and breaking the wooden frame with a worried look on his face, electricity was still cursing through his muscled form.

"Miss. Zor-El! Are you alright?" his eyes looked all over the room taking in her messy bed, the books spread around the floor and a sunstone crystal floating above a pedestal in the middle of the room with cables spread all around it. "Are you aware there's a body in your sofa?"

"Hi Billy," Kara sighed and took the chance to mess up the kid's hair, "It's not a body, it's an Android."

"Ah, I didn't know you could build an Android, Cool!" his serious expression melted from his face and he glanced at the damage he had done with a sheepish look, "Sorry about this then, I thought someone had attacked you."

"Don't worry about it." It really was Kara's own fault for leaving Firebrand just lying there anyways. "Is Kori with you?"

"Yeah, she invited me in after a joint training with Wonder Woman."

"Great, come on then." Kara made her way back towards the living room to see Kori looking at Firebrand's body with a curious gaze, "Hi Kori."

"Hello friend Kara, please, was this some vile miscreant you had to take down?"

"Nope, this is Dannete Reilly better known as Firebrand," She told them as she kneeled in front of the Android and laid the adaptor against its back. "I guess you can call her Red Tornado's older sister."

The crystal tip of her adaptor pierced right though Firebrand's false skin and connected to one of the cables inside her body. Quickly, it pressed itself against her form and started sending information directly to Kara's computer.

"So… you can't build androids?" Billy asked and Kara could hear the slight tone of disappointment on his voice.

"Billy, I can indeed build an Android," Kara bragged and started reading the diagnosis from her device. "I'm not skilled enough to create a sentient AI like Firebrand or Red Tornado but I bet I can build a much better body than this one."

Kara hadn't completed her studies in Krypton but her home planet had been so advanced she could be considered a genius in both mechanical and electrical engineering, and at least decent in many other fields of study.

Not biology though, she had always hated biology.

"Shazam!" Billy said and turned back into his 10 years old body since there wasn't anything dangerous "Cool… so, why do you have Red Tornado's sister in your living room?"

Kara thought about her answer, how much did she want to tell the boy and how much could she get away with hiding?

By Rao, they had already found her with the android in her home; it was kind of too late to hide everything.

From the side, Kori released a gasp and turned her shinning green eyes towards her. "Exultation, Delight, friend Kara, have you rescued The Red Tornado's sister from some nefarious villain and will attempt to reunite them?"

"I mean, I guess that's kinda right?" Kara said, she had wanted firebrand as an ally but she wouldn't keep her from meeting old friends if she wanted to. "I actually wanted Firebrand's help with something but, giving her a second chance in life was a huge part of why I choose her."

Kara had always thought Firebrand had gotten a raw deal in the show, sacrificing her life to save a friend only to be awakened several decades later, mind controlled, and forced to sacrifice herself again to stop Red Volcano.

At least Red Torpedo had gotten an entire life of his own before he was controlled by Morrow's robotic clone and had to sacrifice himself to stop his younger brother.

"Joy, I always knew you had a most righteous spirit." Kori's giant smile made Kara turn her eyes aside and blush from the praise. "Please, do you require any help?"

"Not right now." Kara took another look at Firebrand's body and sighed, "Look, can you two keep this quiet, at least for a now? I don't want too many people finding out about me or what I am doing."

"I… I don't know, are you sure you're alright Miss. Zor-El, you know the League can help you."

"Aw, are you worried about me Billy? How cute." Her equipment finished Firebrand's diagnosis with a flash and sent the information to her tablet. "Don't worry, Batman and some other people are gonna be helping me so I'm not doing this alone. Also, I told you to call me Kara already Billy."

"Yes Miss Kara."

"Ought I help you with your goal friend Kara?" Kori asked as she tried to read the information in the tablet. "It is avowed I am not a discrete person, but I can restrain myself if needed, and no villain yet knows of my existence, perhaps I could be of help?"

"Thanks Kori, but don't worry about it." Kara smiled at her but shook her head. "I know you're very eager to work with the other sidekicks and learn about Earth. Plus, I actually trust you to protect and help to train my new family."

"Truly? Has The Superman accepted Superboy as a member of the family then?"

"It's a work in progress." Kara said and sighed. "He let me bring the boy to meet his family this weekend at least so, there's hope. Ah, his name is Kon-El by the way."

"The Superman is a great hero, yes? He will not turn the boy away, even more so as you have acknowledged your familial relationship with him."

"I certainly hope so."

Looking over the information it seemed like Firebrand's memory was intact inside the Android and Kara wouldn't need to touch her programming, her supposed death was only a hardware problem.

Kara would need to take the heroine's body into her spaceship to do the repairs but it was nothing beyond her abilities, or resources.

"Anyways, how goes the training?" Kara asked as she carefully settled Firebrand's body into a chair and freed the sofa for her own use.

"Giovanni is great." Billy said as he grabbed a bag of chips and started eating. "I thought he'd just lecture me but he's actually teaching me spells even without transforming! Then we had a joint exercise with Wonder Woman."

"Diana is a great teacher! Today we went to The Mall of Shopping and partook of some of humanity ancient customs, the sharing of frozen treats and procurement of varied clothing while sharing stories."

"She took you shopping, then you had ice cream?" Kara asked incredulously.

"Indeed, Princess Diana said my martial ability was satisfactory and we should work on acquiring social skills!" Kori said while sucking on a straw inside a bottle of mustard. "She also informed me there will be a meeting in two days with the entire team."

Well, she wasn't wrong.

Taking in the information Kara nodded, the League was probably ready to give their sidekicks some freedom in two days then.

Kara wondered if they'd still form as a black ops team now that she had interfered, or would they become more like Teen Titans now that they had Kori?

"I'm gonna have to take Firebrand to the ship if I want to repair her." Kara informed the two of them as she picked up the android once again and put on her blank mask. "Ah right, Kori, do you mind if Kon-El comes to live with us sometime this week?"

"I do not, the apartment is of considerable size and his presence will be greatly appreciated."

"Right, see you later then."

.

.

.

"Welcome back mistress Kara." Said the robotic voice of her ship's AI as Kara entered the bay.

Kara had been improving her ship's capabilities a little bit every day since getting access to the Fortress and Kryptonian Tech.

She may not have access to military grade equipment but even civilian tech was an improvement over what the Psions had.

The ship was almost entirely covered in sunstone, with some of the mineral growing outwards from its side like a huge pimple. Kara had high hopes for how this particular project would turn out.

Sunstone was great like that, not only would it grow simply by absorbing sunlight, Kara could also program how it would develop making it take the shape of a second ship attached to the Psion's vessel.

In a month or two she'd have her own Fortress of Solitude parked on the outer side of the moon.

Only, it wouldn't have her cousin's base of information and be mobile. Then she could throw the Psion ship into the sun and be rid of the last of those assholes.

"How goes the experimentation?" Kara asked, she hadn't actually named the AI, it was far from being sentient and most of its programming was still made by Psions, she didn't want to get attached.

"Seventy percent of your projects have resulted in failure, another twenty two point thirty three percent have remained inconclusive and two new wavelengths of Kryptonite have been found."

The computer informed Kara with no emotion on its voice, she'd have to improve that when she finished growing her new ship, the cold and robotic voice gave her the creeps.

"Which experiments were inconclusive?" She asked as she laid the android on top of a metal bed and started gathering the necessary tools to open her up.

"One of the Kryptonite shards is still being subjected to experimentation and the current computers can't fully monitor the changes on the Nth metal samples."

Well, seems like she'd have to get better sensors then, could she make something capable of monitoring magic too?

Cutting off Firebrand's clothes Kara revealed the hole on her chest where Dragon King had shot her, at first look it really was no different from a normal human.

Since she was a Kryptonian, Kara didn't even need protection equipment, she used a saw to clean the damaged section of organic material revealing the Android's red painting underneath, then slowly cut her back open and revealed a myriad of damaged cables.

Thankfully, it seemed like the energy source for Firebrand's flame control wasn't damaged; only it's connection to her central circuitry and other essential equipment.

It seemed like Morrow had made it so any large damage to her chest area that pierced her organic coating would almost immediately turn her off. It caused her body to appear dead and prevented anyone from finding out she had been an android.

"Huh, I guess it was better to just recover the android later and then change its face." Kara muttered while working. "No need to risk revealing he had been able to infiltrate the Justice Society and get their guard up against his next attempt."

Repairing all the damage was impossible and producing suitable substitutes would take time so Kara made sure to keep Firebrand's memory and personality safe while taking out her pyrokinetick core for study.

In fact, instead of getting a substitute, she'd study Firebrand and reprogram some sunstone to be compatible to her core design.

Yes, the kryptonian technology would give Firebrand far more energy to work with and actually allow her to regenerate from damage while also making her more resistant.

A pity Kara didn't have access to kryptium or she'd truly make Firebrand a monster.

Still, with how modular sunstone was, it would be easy to allow Firebrand to change configurations. Kara's mind was immediately filled with canons and fire jets.

Wait, could she pack enough energy inside Firebrand for her to create a plasma sword? It would be hot enough to explode people like Kara had done with the Evil Eye but Firebrand could keep it as a last resort.

She was so giving the woman a plasma sword.

Three hours later she decided to take a break from working with the sunstone and take a look at the kryptonite variations, she was almost done with the damaged part of Firebrand's circuitry but, she still wanted to swap everything else before waking her up into a new body.

Making sure to activate her radiation shield Kara looked through the reinforced glass and smiled when she saw the two shards of Kryptonite she had created. It would need testing but…

A smile grew on her face as she got the perfect way of punishing Kal-El for abandoning Kon-El like that. She was pretty sure Kon-El wouldn't be able to appreciate the prank today but, in a few years, when he developed a little more?

Kara would take photos, so many photos.

Of course she'd have to think about something worse if Kal-El didn't get his act together after their family meeting but, until then, she could take it easy on him. He was her little cousin after all.

Her phone rang on her pocked causing her to snap back to reality, pulling out the device she saw it was from Batman so, she hurried to answer.

"Speedy will be in Star City tonight, meet us there by 7."

The Bat actually hung up on her before she could answer causing Kara to huff in annoyance. At least Dubbilex had already informed her, the G-Gnomes would be ready to work on Kon-El and Roy anytime she wished.

Satisfaction filled her, she tried not to think of the genomorphs as her minions, she really did but… it was hard.

"No, bad Kara, they're sentient beings you're currently helping escape slavery and fight against their oppressor, and you're trying to be a hero anyway." She chided herself as she looked at the time, she'd have to get moving soon if she wanted to make it. "Heroes don't have minions, they have sidekicks."

Could Dubbilex be a sidekick? He was certainly young enough for it.

Kara grimaced as she grabbed the respirator and opened the ship's hangar, as a kryptonian she shouldn't even need to breathe when under a yellow sun but, her damaged cells still needed oxygen far more often than she liked.

It took some time to finally reach Star City, Batman hadn't actually left her an address but, with how good her hearing was, a little bit of concentration was all she needed to sense him and Green Arrow talking on an empty rooftop.

She gently stepped into the roof and saw both heroes waiting for her there, Batman was busy reading something on his communicator, but Green Arrow was pacing from one side to the other, his arms crossed and his fingers digging into his skin in a way Kara was sure would have drawn blood had he not been wearing gloves.

"You're here," the Bat simply said as he glanced at her. "Speedy should be here in half an hour."

"Why would he come here?"

"Across the street is one of Brick's bases of operation… Speedy is trying to gather information on his activities and will be here to install monitoring devices." Green Arrow said as he finally stopped pacing and scratched at his tired face with both hands. "He's still using some of my supply spots for equipment."

"So, are we just capturing him them?"

"You're the one who found Roy, Big Blue's cousin right?" Green Arrow said and actually warped his arms around her body in a heartfelt hug. "Thank you."

"Ah, yeah…" Kara was left without knowing what to say, she patted the man's back and looked towards Batman but he was ignoring her. "Sooooo, the Bat managed to keep you from killing Luthor?"

She really had no idea what to say.

"Yes, God knows I wanted to, but…" releasing her, the man stepped away and shook his head as if it would help dispel his anger. "I don't even know what I should do. I think I know the clone for almost as long as I trained Roy."

Kara turned her eyes away from the awkwardness of the situation, what could she say to that.

"Are we taking him to Manhunter or the Genomorphs?" She finally asked Batman, the man glanced at Green Arrow for a second and turned off his computer.

"I spoke with Manhunter, while he could deprogram the clones he informed me the Genomorphs would be a better, safer choice." Kara lifted an eyebrow at this information.

"Isn't John far stronger than them?"

"Yes and, if we wanted to break his mind, that would be useful." Batman said as he approached the two of them. "Manhunter informed me unraveling, and even finding, such commands is more about knowing the mind you're working with and being careful than raw power."

"And the genomorphs have far better knowledge of the clone's mind." Kara realized as the man explained, but Green Arrow was still unsettled by the idea.

"Don't worry, Manhunter promised he'd look over their work once it was done but, the genomorphs really are the best option in his opinion."

Not that Batman himself seemed to be any happier about the prospect, from the way his body tensed at the thought. He probably still didn't trust the Genomorphs.

"How're we capturing him?" Kara asked.

If she had been alone she probably would just use his mental commands against him, she still remembered the clone would freeze if she said "Broken Arrow", but the information wasn't anywhere on Cadmus computers so, she couldn't justify using it. She had already messed up enough no need to make everybody even more suspicious.

"I'll try talking with the boy." Green Arrow said as he scratched at his beard. "Clone or not I still trained him for years, he'll listen to me."

"In case Green Arrow fails to convince him and Speedy manages to escape, we'll intervene and subdue the boy." Batman said and handed her a small black injector. "This should cause him to pass out in a few seconds, we can't risk him escaping and warning his handlers, willingly or not."

Kara nodded and they all retreated inside the building to wait for Roy to arrive, Green Arrow started pacing again while Batman just continued reading something. Kara started thinking about her future.

She had been making do with asteroid mining and selling gold in pawn shops but it wouldn't work for much longer, there are only so many pawn shops in the world before she had to find some, even less legal, other means.

There was also only so much gold she could sell before she crashed the market.

More than that, hauling gold back and forth just took too much time and felt like grunt work, there were far better things she could be doing.

Hmmm, how would she go about creating her own company anyway? She'd have to get an Earth identity and documents, then start hiring people who weren't too arrogant to work for a young woman.

There were so many kryptonian devices that could improve life on earth. It would still take a lot of work to adapt it so human's themselves could both understand, and produce, the technology but she could really make a difference.

She smirked, it would be so satisfying if she could use her own company to corner the market and drive Lexcorp into bankruptcy.

Better yet, she could work towards buying Lexcorp and turn it towards improving the world instead of killing Superman. By Rao, with how much more advanced Krypton had been she could even succeed.

Did she know any smart businessman beside Luthor in the DC universe? She'd need one of those as CEO if she wanted to take him on no matter how good her tech was.

She knew she had gotten the advantage over Luthor and the Light right now but she'd need some smart people on her corner when they started plotting against her.

Suddenly, Kara's head turned towards the side and she immediately looked through the building to see an arrow poking from the side of the brick wall, a thin rope tired too it.

Not even a minute later Speedy came sliding down the rope, using his bow as a handle.

Green Arrow traded glances with the two of them and nodded, then left the shadows of the building and started walking towards his sidekick.

Roy had leaned over the edge of the building and was watching Brick's employees working on the illegal building.

"Hello Roy, I heard you aren't answering your friend calls?"

Roy's head turned towards his mentor and snorted, "If they want to play house with the League I won't stop them, but I have real work to do."

"Come on Roy, you know that's not what the League wanted to do." Green Arrow sighed and sat on the edge of the building. "Look kid, you know that's not why we kept you from the space station."

Kara grimaced, noooooo, don't call him kid you idiot!

"Don't patronize me!" Roy slapped his mentor's hand and stepped away, "I don't need you cuddling me when I know I can do better. I'm tired of your bullshit."

"Roy… look, we really need to talk alright"

"There's nothing to talk about!" The boy snapped and pulled out another arrow from his quiver, "first you keep me away from any important mission, now you're even interfering when I'm doing something for myself. Stop trying to keep me down!"

It seemed like Roy really was done talking because he shot his arrow towards a street lamp, a second rope trailing behind it and growing taunt when it hit something solid.

For a second Kara though nobody would do anything and got ready to catch Roy herself as he put his bow over the cable, then Green Arrow moved with surprising speed.

A second arrow flew straight at the line and cut right through it, causing the cable to snap and almost making Roy fall on his ass.

"Look Roy, we really need to talk." Green arrow's only answer was an arrow to the face.

He dodged the projectile and closed the distance between them, using his bow as a club to hit Roy's legs and cause him to fall down.

"Stop it kid," he jumped over Roy's sweeping kick but got a punch to the stomach while in midair. "Uff, think about what you're doing, this isn't you Roy!"

Turning towards Batman Kara asked "Should we step in?"

"No, Green Arrow has it handled."

"We're just here to watch?"

"We're here in case he manages to escape, or has reinforcements." Batman said and finally turned away from whatever he was reading to watch the fight in silence.

Green Arrow and Speedy traded blows, using their bows as weapons to try and disable each other, but Kara could see they weren't trying to really hurt each other.

"Enough!" Roy managed to push Green Arrow away.

Faster than Kara thought possible they pulled arrows from their quivers. The kid was faster and shot his arrow at his mentor's feet, then jumped away to avoid the result.

It exploded, expanding foam and covering a large part of the rooftop in an instant.

Green Arrow had been ready, he knew his protégée was actually a faster shot than him and was already twisting aside before the foam had covered him, then he released his own arrow which split into four ropes to encircle Speedy.

The boy was still in the air and couldn't dodge, but he still managed to interpose his bow between the arrow pieces and stop the rope from completely locking his arms.

Falling to the ground, Speedy managed to reach another arrow and started to cut the cable but Green Arrow was faster.

Grabbing speedy's bow with both hands the older man pressed the boy down into the ground.

Roy tried a few tricks such as using gadgets in his legs or fighting dirty, but Green Arrow had taught him everything he knew and managed to overcome it all.

"Sorry about this Roy." The archer said and pulled away from his protégée, an empty injector in his hand.

"How…?" Roy asked in the ground, his voice already failing him, with a hurt look on his face, he only managed a single other word before falling unconscious. "Why?"

"Come, were taking the Batplane towards Cadmus."

"Not gonna use the zeta-tubes?" Kara asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Two risky, Speedy had access to the network, there's no way to know how compromised it is."

Approaching the sleeping boy Kara made to grab him but Green Arrow stopped her.

"No, let me do it." He wiped his mouth on his sleeve and got up from his sitting position, "Damn, I'm not as young as I used to be."

He looked down at Roy and sighed deeply, his face becoming a frown. "Sorry kid."

Then he lifted the boy in his arms and adjusted his mask with unusual gentleness.

The flight towards Cadmus was a quiet one, Batman wasn't exactly talkative even in his best days and even Green Arrow didn't seem up to talking.

Finally, Kara couldn't stand it anymore and spoke.

"Don't worry, we're fairly sure we can undo the mental commands without causing damage."

"Thanks, but what about Roy, the original one I mean?" He covered his face with both hands and quietly screamed for a few seconds. "God, this is such mess."

"You do know Kal-El's Fortress is creating a cloning facility as we speak right? Human body parts are far easier to make, Roy can have his arm back in a few months." Then she tapped her metal leg with a finger causing it ring. "Until them I can make him a substitute."

"Ugh, didn't we have enough of a mess with clones already?"

"Well, it's not really the same thing." Kara explained. "Krypton didn't deal with full on cloning of sentient beings, the religious guild came down on that really hard, but we could create tissue samples, organs and limbs for medical purposes, we used the patient's own DNA to prevent rejection."

"So, you'd just… grow him a hand?"

"It wasn't my area of expertise but, I think it was more like… building him a new hand using biological material?" She said, but it was more like a question, the entire thing wasn't really common back then, it was not like many kryptonians even needed such medical procedures in the first place. "I never really saw it in action."

"Right… sometimes I forget you guys are aliens with interstellar travel and other such things." He shook his head and lay back against the seat. "And... thanks, I'm sure he'll appreciate that."

An hour later Roy was inside one of the genomorphs pods with ten G-gnomes all around him, their little horns glowing brightly as they worked.

"How long is this going to take?"

"Once we knew the situation my brothers were able to locate several of the G-gnomes responsible for the initial work on the boy." Dubbilex told the worried hero. "None of us were responsible for his mental commands but we are familiar with his mind, it will only take a few hours to undo his commands."

Turning back to Kara, Dubbilex continued speaking.

"Once we are done here it should be easy to go over our brother Kon's own mental commands, in about the same amount of time."

"Thanks Dubbilex, we appreciate it."

"One last thing, one of my brothers informed me there was yet another clone of the boy on the facility."

"What?" Green Arrow whirled around to stare at the genomorph and even Batman started paying attention. "Where is it?"

"It seems like Guardian himself was an aged clone of Roy Harper the light decided to use as a bodyguard. We have already started looking over, and scrubbing away, any commands on his mind."

"Fuck!" The hero cursed and kicked the wall with his full strength, only his steel caped boots preventing his toes from breaking. "Godsdamnit!"

Batman turned away from the room and Kara decided to follow his example, leaving the incensed hero alone to vent his frustrations.

"You know what; I think I can let them recover for a week or two before I pitch my idea to them." Kara commented to the caped crusader. "As long as the light doesn't find out we have their mole I'm not in a hurry, and I do need some more time to improve my plan."

It was not like Kara had anything on paper yet, she had an idea she wanted to pitch to them, but it would take a long time to iron out all the little details and refine the idea into a working plan.

Without turning her way, Batman eventually started talking almost in a wondering tone.

"Over the years I have come to trust the League, we aren't perfect, we aren't infallible, and this showed just how much such failure can cost, but I have come to trust it enough that I don't need to watch over their shoulders for everything they do."

Kara wondered why he was speaking like this, yes the Justice League needed to be better, but he didn't actually own her the explanation.

"That means I'll be trusting Green Arrow to act as your connection to the League. I'll be too busy restructuring the League to micromanage your team." He said and finally turned around to look her in the eye, his eyes were hard and filled with a newfound conviction. "That also means I trust Superman enough not to immediately disable and interrogate you, despite all your little slips and the inconsistencies in your story, don't make me regret it."

Kara gulped, despite being a Kryptonian and having all sorts of contingencies in her costume, the Bat still managed to be intimidating.

As the hero started walking away from her Kara watched his retreating back remember something else and lifted a finger to call his attention but couldn't bring herself to speak, Batman stopped anyway. "What?"

"Ah, I kinda need some human documents?" She told him and the Bat nodded.

"I'll hand them to Superman when I next see him."

Chapter Text

Bruce Wayne stood in front of a grave. It was a simple grave, with only a name and the dates of birth, and death, with far too few years between them.

As he knelt, he had to control himself to avoid crushing the bouquet of flowers in his hands. Releasing it in front of the gravestone, he lowered his head and closed his eyes for a few seconds.

Since when had he become so careless? So trusting as to leave matters in the hands of the authorities, not making sure they were followed through? He was from Gotham city, he should have known how corrupt the police and government could be.

He had mellowed out, working with the Justice League, people he both respected and, even rarer, trusted, had made him careless.

It would not happen again.

"Who was she?" Clark asked in a soft voice as he approached from between the trees.

Bruce sighed, he hated being so predictable that his friend could so easily notice what mood he was in. Then again, the Kryptonian missed very few things despite not being a detective himself. "Ace, she was one of Cadmus previous victims."

"You…knew about Cadmus?"

"Not the main laboratory, no," Bruce said and sighed again, but didn't explain further.

Once upon a time, Bruce had faced the Royal Flush Gang and, later, accompanied Ace in her last moments.

That particular division of Cadmus responsible for the gang had been isolated from the main laboratory, in another city and under government supervision. It had been built thanks to a government contract and, while still holding the Cadmus name, had very little to do with the current source of their problems.

More than that, Batman had made sure it wouldn't be active ever again.

Luthor had managed to escape that crime too, quickly shifting the blame onto the government and the supervisor while denying any direct involvement.

In his defense, not all of Luthor's companies were criminal in nature, and it really had been the government's fault that time. Batman had made sure of that. Not that the business tycoon hadn't managed to profit from it anyway by the looks of it, the Genomorphs themselves were proof of that.

"I'm calling an emergency meeting of the League."

"Another one?" Clark lifted an eyebrow and handed him a coffee cup.

"We need immediate changes," Bruce took a sip of the coffee and continued to look at the grave. "We also need to vote on the League's expansion, fast."

"What are you thinking?"

"We need to include normal people, delegate some duties and follow up on our work."

"You… delegating?" Clark snorted and shook his head in disbelief.

"The League has grown too big and too busy. I've started missing things Clark. I can't afford to miss things."

"Well, I can't say I don't agree. Lately, I've been acting as Superman too much, I miss just being myself," the man said and sipped on his own coffee. "How was she?"

"You were right," Bruce told him as he touched the tombstone one last time and turned away from the grave. "Her wounds weren't just from the accident."

And hadn't he made a mistake there too? The entire Cadmus situation had left him disoriented and confused and he had fallen back on old habits, threatened the girl as if she was one of his criminals in need of a shake down. Even worse, it was a mistake with so much potential to hurt his friend, his best and, perhaps only, friend.

He should have done better.

At the time, he had seen a superpowered Kryptonian far too comfortable with killing her enemies, and far too hasty on her actions, going after the clones and dealing with the Genomorph situation by herself, with no thought for the consequences of her actions.

So, he had threatened her and, only later, connected the dots. He almost immediately regretted it.

"You're sure?"

"She's fidgety, she doesn't realize it, but she flinches at small noises and keeps looking around as if afraid," he told his best friend while they walked back to his car. "She's also incredibly uncomfortable inside Cadmus, actively avoids looking in the direction of the scientists there and empathizes far too much with their experiments."

"It's not just, you know, her having empathy?"

"Not this much, she acts harshly and lets things slip when dealing with the experiments," Bruce said and looked his friend in the eyes. "She also knows more than she's telling us Clark, I won't look into it but… be careful."

"She's family Bruce, the Fortress verified she existed and its medical exams would have discovered if she was just a clone or another kind of trick," Clark sighed and looked up in frustration.

"I know, and I'm happy for you, just don't let it blind you."

"I won't."

Clark accompanied him in silence for a while, his own anger barely contained at what his cousin must have gone through. Diana's new protégée had been clear on her information about the Psions and, given her reactions, Kara must have been in their hands for some time.

"I also acted harshly. Her keeping secrets rubbed me the wrong way after everything that happened," he confessed as they reached his car and stopped.

"Ugh, this entire thing has left us all out of balance," Clark said and put a hand on his back for comfort. "You know, she's bringing the clone to our family dinner this weekend."

"I didn't, but I approve," Bruce told him.

"I knew you would, it's just so…" Despite being a reporter Clark didn't have the words to describe what he was feeling.

Bruce didn't press, letting his friend gather his thoughts. Finally, he pulled a folder from inside the car and handed it over.

"Here, your cousin's documentation, she's Kara Danvers now, adopted by an old couple, she inherited a small tech business in Pennsylvania."

"How'd you even get it so fast?"

"I already had it, it was a contingency in case I ever needed money without using the Wayne name, I have a couple dozen," Bruce told him with a smirk, he liked being ready. "I only had to make small changes to the name and gender to make it work."

"Thanks Bruce." Clark patted his shoulder for support and Bruce nodded, but his smirk fell away soon after, he wasn't felling very happy right now.

He drove home, his mind working overtime as he thought about everything he had seen, heard and read today.

Reaching his home, he went directly to his office and made sure to read about the League's activity today, after that, he also checked how Gotham was doing and if his presence was needed in the city.

A broken rib wouldn't stop him from doing his duty if it was needed.

Lastly, he checked up on Richard. The boy was still out with Kid Flash and would only be back by night. Bruce liked that, he liked that Richard still had a life outside the costume and wasn't driven by revenge, he liked that he wouldn't end up like him.

Hopefully, this new team would allow him to make friends, people he could trust at his side and that would keep him from growing bitter with the world.

Then he got to work. First was the new direction for the team. The League knew the teenagers wanted more responsibility, to get away from their mentors and work for themselves. It was also clear they wouldn't take no for an answer, they were teenagers.

Bruce wanted nothing more than to keep them under his wing for as long as possible, to protect them and teach them so they wouldn't have to make the same mistakes he did when he had started out, or face the same problems but, sometimes, that was impossible.

The team was supposed to be the League's "black ops" division, giving the teens something important to do which couldn't be done better by more experienced heroes, for the simple reason that the more experienced heroes couldn't do it.

It was important work, which the League really couldn't do if they wanted to keep their UN charter.

They'd be working on League information and their missions would be carefully chosen, so they wouldn't have to face anyone too dangerous, in theory. Batman knew how things could escalate suddenly when things went wrong.

The truth was, nobody would be fooled, the team didn't have the necessary training to remain undetected and their powers were very distinctive.

Even if they succeeded in a mission without immediate detection, it would still be pretty obvious who was responsible, the team would leave evidence behind but, so what? They weren't League members.

Of course everyone would know who sent them there, not only would it extend the League's reach without causing public or legal backlash but, hopefully, it would also stop villains from just flaunting their activity and daring the League to do anything.

It was against the spirit of their charter but, in truth, only Captain Atom would care, maybe, if he was forced to deal with it.

The League worked under the charter because it made things easier, made their arrests stick, kept their villains behind bars for longer and gave them access to more information and resources, not because they would be forced to stop saving people without it.

Now, Bruce was starting to change his mind about it.

With proof that there were entire teams of villains monitoring League activity, and some had even managed to infiltrate the League, it became too dangerous for the teens to work in the shadows.

Plus, with Kara working to make her own team, it may also be unnecessary.

No, instead of a black ops unit, he'll truly make them a team, something even better than the League.

The League, for all its ability and cooperation, was still a collection of individuals, they worked well together, yes, but they were still individuals. In a fight, the League was only as good as its members, the sidekicks could be so much more.

When he finished typing his proposal, Richard had already arrived, he took a small break from work to have dinner with him and went right back to the computer, time to deal with the League's new outlook.

The Watchtower would still have to be kept isolated and restricted only to full members, for obvious security reasons, but the Hall of Justice would have to stop being just a tourist attraction.

They'd have to hire clerks, detectives, office workers, medics, military advisers. It would take months of background checks to make sure no mole was inserted in the new chain of command, but it would be worth it.

Not only would it make the League's work much faster, it would also introduce the necessary human element to their work.

Clark may manage to keep his country boy outlook on life, but Bruce knew their colleagues could grow distant from the everyday people and that wasn't a good thing.

He worked throughout the night, typing away at his computer almost constantly, using his experience as owner of WayneCorp to create the barebones of the new League.

He knew he couldn't let things continue as they were.

He also prepared his own presentation to the League, it would be harsh, a crash course on everything they had left undone. Bruce was sure it would hit the League almost as hard as it had hit him. A punch to the gut that left him reeling, made him re-evaluate his own actions and find them wanting. It wasn't pleasant, it wasn't easy, but it was needed.

It would also force them to be better.

A gasp of surprise made him look up from his desk to see Alfred entering the office. "Master Bruce, what are you doing still working at this hour?"

Bruce looked through his windows to see the sun already rising through the curtains, he squinted his eyes and turned back to Alfred as his old friend handed him a light breakfast and his pain medication.

"I am capable of waking up early Alfred," Bruce tried to lie, but he knew it wasn't going to work on his old friend.

"Master Bruce, only a vampire is more averse to the sunrise than you," said Alfred with a frown while standing beside him, looking him over with a judgemental gaze. "Go to sleep, Master Bruce, or do I have to drug your drink again?"

"Fine Alfred, I can finish this later."

Alfred still kept checking up on him as he took a shower and only stopped when he was properly in bed, refusing to hear any of his protests and promising to take Richard to school in his place.

His mind was still working like mad when he laid his head against the pillow but, despite that, he felt his eyes growing heavy almost immediately. His last thought was that: he wasn't entirely sure Alfred hadn't drugged his breakfast after all.
.
.
.
.
In a nearly empty room, Lex Luthor stood in front of the images of his fellow conspirator. Their true faces were hidden, but he knew them well, he wouldn't get involved with them without first knowing who he was dealing with.

Vandal Savage, a man he could respect, to a certain extent, the nominal leader of their little cabal, the immortal thought he was in complete control and Lex allowed him to continue such misunderstanding.

Klarion, some kind of manifestation of chaos, a childish and distasteful ally, but also a magical powerhouse nearly without equal and necessary if they wanted to remain beyond discovery.

Ocean-Master, an arrogant man that the rest of them barely tolerated, his contest of Aquaman's control over the oceans all that guaranteed his place amongst them, his lack of intellect only surpassed by the next member.

Queen Bee. In truth, Lex could barely tolerate the woman's stupidity, but her complete control over her country was useful and any other puppet they put in her place would probably suffer from the same failings.

No, he could accept the woman's ego when he knew she was the one taking the greatest risks, and the one they'd all throw to the wolves in case anything went wrong.

Ra's al Ghul, the ancient assassin, another man Lex could almost consider a peer, a pity their goals didn't really align. Lex stood for progress, while the old immortal kept to the past, as if it was somehow better.

Finally, The Brain, an impressive scientists, if a little too happy to take shortcuts on his studies, Lex would happily employ the man of given the chance. He was also the only one Lex wouldn't eventually have to deal with.

Truth be told, Lex highly disliked their little group, Savage was an arrogant and condensing leader who thought he could fool him with some fake rhetoric with no substance.

Ra's, clinging far too much to the past for his liking, they both believed in humanity, but Ra's thinking was far too primitive, too focused on nature and too little on what humanity could achieve.

The others weren't even worth mentioning, to stupid or too chaotic for his comfort.

Eventually, he knew he'd have to get rid of them all but, until then, he could use the group to finally eliminate the damn alien.

Superman really was so terribly annoying.

For a second, Lex considered just eliminating his companions now, if some of their true goals were successful they could grow into a real treat, he knew he could do it, even Klarion wasn't beyond his reach.

But no, that would be such waste when they could still be of use. And he did dislike the alien slightly more than he disliked pretending to respect Queen Bee.

"So, the League discovered the clone, did they find out anything else?" Vandal asked.

"No, the safeties against them worked well enough until I could get the authorities involved," Lex told him dismissively, the legality of the League's actions was a tool he was an expert at using.

"Good, did Wotan escape after the fight?" Was the immortal next question, the sorcerer's escape wasn't necessary, but it would be good to be able to use him again.

"The old mummy is very cunning. He managed to slip out in the confusion," Klarion answered while petting his damn cat. "Plus, I lent him a hand."

"The planned assassinations were all successful without the League to interference," Ra's revealed and all of them turned to their last goal for this particular action.

"Did the deal with our partner go well?"

"Their technology is still being calibrated, but Simon informs me we should have steady trade in a few months," Queen Bee said with a wave of her hand, her imperious voice almost making Lex wince.

Another thing Lex didn't like, deals with technologically superior estates never went well for the natives, and he had no doubt he was being handed the equivalent to shiny trinkets from their "partner", but he did need the information such trade allowed him to gather.

"Gentleman, our plans are going well and I have managed to contain any information leaks from Cadmus," Lex told them. "I'll send our employees the latest data on blockbuster's effect from Desmond desperate act but, if you'll excuse me, I have work to do."

They nodded to him and he stepped away from the monitors, the smile leaving his face.

All monitors turned off and, not even a minute later, Mercy walked into the room with the information about the assault on Fawcett city.

The others didn't really care about the city, or the villains responsible, but Lex had been alarmed to find the League had made two arrests and allowed another three to escape.

That was five supervillains working together, would their little Injustice League trick still work when someone else had done it first? Would the Bat be able to come up with countermeasures until then?

Sitting down, he started reading the report about the location of the final fight, reports of two new flying heroes, one of them capable of using sonic attacks, putting out flames and getting thrown through buildings, how… interesting.

Relaxing against his chair, Lex tapped his finger against two particular pictures, one of a dead Evil Eye, it's body exploded from a sudden discharge of heat, the second was of a single, thin, scorched line in piece of rubble, a very familiar scorched line.

"Hmm… is there another one of those damn creatures on the planet?"
.
.
.
.
.
.
Far away from there, in a completely different plane of existence, a blonde being in the shape of a man sat on a throne of skulls, he wore tight, white clothes and a green cape that billowed out from behind him in a dramatic fashion to fall over his shoulders and down towards his legs.

He looked exactly like a typical supervillain, with sharp eyebrows and eyes that shone with green flame. Green flames also sprouted to life around him as he scratched at his chin in thought, he did not like the way things were going.

Originally, he was supposed to have plenty of time, his target would remain unprepared, his potential untapped, but something has changed. His target was learning much faster than he expected, growing in unexpected ways.

The being was still confident he could succeed, and time would make his eventual success better, but there was always a risk his prize would no longer be worth it if he took too long.

Innocence was such fragile thing after all, so easily lost.

With deliberate consideration, the being willed into existence five candles, five unlit candles.

Looking up the man started searching for just the right people to ignite them up.

Behind him, Satannus and Blaze traded glances, a barely contained eagerness on their faces.
.
.
.
.
In a hidden base on the surface of Venus, Doctor Thaddeus Sivana watched over his old companion, the worm was grievously wounded, part of its body was missing from where its voice box had exploded, and there were burns all over its skin.

The single ally Mr. Mind had been able to escape with had also died. Once disabled, the spirits that powered Ibac had fled his body, leaving only Stanley behind and his body was only human.

The heat had burned his flesh and Sivana hadn't cared enough to save him, paying far more attention to Mr. Mind himself.

"I should have killed the boy," Mr. Mind confessed from his regenerating pod. "I wanted to find a way to drain the other aspects of his power, but I should have just killed him."

"My old friend, I confess that, now that I know Captain Marvel is just a kid, I am no longer as interested in him as I used to be," Sivana told the worm while playing with the storage of magical power they had recovered. "Not that I have anything against hurting children, mind you, but I just don't find him a worthy challenge anymore."

"Thaddeus, I'll have my revenge, I'll destroy both him and that cursed Kryptonian," the worm coughed into the minuscule microphone amplifying its voice. "Right after I destroy everything they have ever loved!"

"I suppose I still need something to test my inventions against," Sivana said and finally managed to settle the box containing part of the stolen power of Zeus inside one of his machines. "And I have never studied a Kryptonian before, would their flesh still be as resistant even when separated from the rest of the body?"

Unable to help himself, Mr. Mind's telekinesis rattled the little pod he was in with his anger. "Another one who will feel my wrath!"

"Still, we will need to gather the rest of the Society if we want to enter the game, my friend," Sivana said as he put on his goggles and started studying the magic. "Vandal is very protective of his little planet and, failure that he is, he does posses impressive allies."

Bent over the information on his computer, Sivana couldn't help but appreciate all the data on the device, despite his failure, Mr. Mind hadn't left the place empty handed.

Magic really was an interesting source of power, so versatile and yet so potent. He'd have to better study its effects and rules.

"Very well, old friend, perhaps I have been away from Earth for too long," he told the worm and approached the healing chamber and smiled down at the worm. "I have already sent out a call for our allies, Both the Justice League and The Light are just so filled with interesting specimen, I can't wait to get my hands on them heh, heh, heh."

Stepping away from the recovering work, Sivana turned towards the square box suspended inside another of his experiments, there were thousands of cables connecting to the device and part of its edges had been greatly damaged, but it still worked.

Pulling out a controller, he started pressing buttons causing the captured father box to spark, release a loud whine and, with a loud explosion, a boom tube formed in front of him.
.
.
.
.
Far away from Earth, in a small corner of the Vega system, one of the myriad of Psion searching vessels finally retrieved the small beacon lodged into the side of an asteroid.

Quickly, the man-sized cylindrical device was grabbed by the vessel and brought aboard the larger Psion ship waiting close to the remains of their research station.

As fast as they could manage without damaging the thing, a team of the lizards started working on retrieving the information inside.

Months ago, this particular ship had received the distress signal from the research vessel, but it had been too far away and arrived far too late to render any aid.

It had scoured that particular part of space to gather all the destroyed pieces of the station, but the loss of data had been complete, someone had made sure all their computers were destroyed beyond any ability they had to repair it.

Still, the Psions hadn't completely given up, it was normal procedure to release several dormant devices containing copies of important information in case a Psion vessel was in danger of being destroyed or taken over.

If there was one thing Psion's hated above all else, it was the destruction of valuable information.

With how big the research station had been, there was no way any such device could store all information inside, but it could have valuable data and contain clues about what happened to the vessel.

Finding such devices in the emptiness of space was almost impossible, at least until they started broadcasting their signals, years later. It was actually an integral part of their survival strategy to prevent the attackers from finding them, but this particular one had gotten stuck on a nearby asteroid, such things weren't uncommon since the station had probably released thousand such data caches in every direction.

With a beep, the beacon received the correct password and started dumping its information all over their computers. It was exactly what they were searching for.

Chapter Text

Kara approached the door at a slow pace, she could hear Krypto barking inside the house and Kal-El talking with his mother, her steps faltered as she thought of that, would they like her?

She still found it hard to conciliate Superman, THE hero, with her little cousin, the same baby she had held in her arms and swung around before getting scolded by her uncle.

Quickly, she stopped paying attention to her increased hearing so as to give them at least some privacy, it wasn't an active power so she couldn't just turn it off, but she had learned to shift her attention towards something unimportant and whatever she didn't want to hear just faded into the background.

Finally, she turned to her companion.

Kon-El looked great, she hadn't managed to get him wearing formal clothes, but his wardrobe already included more than just superman t-shirts and she had managed to make him wear an elegant black shirt and jeans.

Kara took a moment to adjust his collar, then she combed his hair with her fingers, weaving them through his hair causing him to grumble, she just smiled.

"Do you have to do that?" He asked in an annoyed voice, an improvement from his constantly angry one, and tried to wave her hand away.

"Yes, yes I do." She laughed as she pulled the boy closer, "Come on, they're waiting for us."

Finally, she knocked at the door and felt some butterflies on her stomach.

"Don't worry, I'll get it." Said a male voice from inside, A few seconds later the door opened to an older man appeared, he looked at both of them smiled. "God, you really do look just like Clark, come on in."

"Excuse-me." Kara said and started walking inside when Krypto's white body flew right into her chest, the kryptonian dog actually made her take a few steps back as it licked her face causing her to burst out laughing.

Putting the dog down, Kara cleaned her face and stepped inside, Krypto having smashed through all the tension on her body.

"Thanks for having me." She told him as she walked inside.

"Nonsense, you're family." Martha called in from the kitchen. "Come in dear, I heard you liked my pie?"

"I did." She nodded.

Kon-El followed her inside, his head waving from one side to the other as if he couldn't believe where he was.

"Kara, Good to see you here." Kal-El appeared causing Krypto to immediately dash to his side; he scratched behind the dog behind his ear. "You know, I always dreamed of something like this happening."

Kara looked at him, there was a smile on his face and the usual tension was gone from his shoulders, his posture completely relaxed even as he briefly glanced at Kon-El, he really was at home here. Good.

"Kal-El." She greeted him with her own smile. "Hope we aren't late?"

"You know you can just call me Clark right, or Kal if you prefer." He said as he walked closer, taking a second to see she was feeling fine.

"I… Krypton wasn't exactly an informal place." She confessed sheepishly. "I have no problem with human names but, it just feels odd to use only first names for Kryptonians, I don't think I did that even for father."

"I see... well, you can take as much time as you want." Kal-El hugged her with a wide smile on his face, she managed to hug him back but soon pushed him away and glared at him causing him to tense, finally, he turned to the clone.

"Kon-El right? I…" taking a deep breath, he released a long, slow breath of air and laid a hand on Kon-El's shoulder. "I'm sorry for how I reacted on our first meeting; I hope you know you're welcome here."

"I… I am?"

Kal-El just starred, his eyes shifting away from the boy's with embarrassment, then, as he looked at Kon-El's face, filled with both hope and fear, he drew another breath and finally managed to smile, it was a true smile. "Of course you are, as Kara told you, you're family, now come on, help me put on the table."

Warping an arm around the boy, Kal-El pulled him further inside the house.

Kara just smiled as she saw the both of them walking together, then she looked to the side to see Jonathan smiling too, his face full of pride. "I'm glad to see the kid managed to get over it."

"You raised him right." She told him, then took both of his hands in hers and bowed her head. "Thank you, thank you so much."

For a second, the old man didn't seem to know how to react, then Martha poked her head out of the kitchen and scowled. "Jonathan Kent, what do you think you're doing treating the poor girl like that?"

"Ma, I just…"

"Come here girl, have you been eating well? You look a little thin."

With a smile Kara let herself be swept in the moment. Kon-El seemed almost completely lost as Kal-El and Jonathan started getting the table ready, a small, confused smile on his face while Kara started helping Martha prepare lunch by cutting vegetables.

Later, after she helped wash the dishes, they all sat on the porch and just talked, one of the cows on the farm was eating nearby and Jonathan pointed it out to them.

"They're used to it now, but you should have seen how confused the cattle were the first time the Kid lifted it up in the air as if it didn't weight anything." He joked, as he balanced himself on the chair. "His strength was still spotty back then and it slipped, dropped right on top of him and almost scared me to death."

"Was he hurt?" Kara couldn't help but ask.

"Only his pride, he wanted to show off so much and fell face first in the mud, I think we still have the picture I took." The old man laughed out loud. "I think he glared at that cow for a week later."

"Oh, pictures, can I see them?" She tried to disguise her eagerness but, by the looks on the old couple's face, she wasn't having much success.

"Of course, I'm gonna go get them." Martha said with unusual cheer and walked inside the house.

"Alright, I think that's my cue." Kal-El pushed himself up and looked at the farm. "Say Pa, you still wants that old tree gone?"

"Yeah, the new farmhand we hired killed the poor thing." Jonathan sighed with regret.

"Pa, you know you can always call for help, it wouldn't take me more than an afternoon to help."

"Ah, you're busy boy, plus it helps the local folk to hire from here." He waved... Kal off, Kal just shook his head and stretched his back.

Kara took a second to adjust her thinking, calling him Kal had felt so strange, to be so informal with another kryptonian. She still loved Krypton but she could admit it, the planet had been very cold.

"Come on Kon, help me out here." Kal called out causing Kon to almost jump out of his skin.

Kal was still a little uncomfortable with the boy, but he was trying, he really was.

Kon turned to her and Kara nodded with a smile causing him to jump to his feet and follow Kal, waving around the cows and further into the farm.

Jonathan waited until his wife was back before turning to her. "You know, we talked about it, but we wanted to hear your opinion first before we made it official."

"What?" Kara asked with curiosity.

"When Clark told us somebody made a clone of him we were surprised." Martha said as she handed her the picture album and sat besides her while looking around for the boys. "But we talked about it and are considering adopting the poor boy."

"If you agree of course?" The old man continued with a hurry.

Kara didn't know what to say, she had plans to get things ready for Kon, get him into school, find him a therapist to help develop his feelings and everything else, but she couldn't deny it felt… overwhelming.

Being sent to take care of Kal had also been overwhelming, but, at the time, the imminent destruction of her home world had left her numb, to the point she couldn't even think about it.

Could she let the Kent's raise another member of her family? What would her parents think of letting a human raise a member of the El house, again?

But… the Kent's had done such good job with Kal, could she be even half as good with Kon?

"Honey?" Martha called out as she laid a hand over her own causing Kara to turn towards her. "Honey, we know you just arrived on the planed, you're just getting your life in order. I know you want to take care of him, but we're here."

"And you don't have to stay out of his life you know." Jonathan said with a kind voice. "We can provide him with a human identity and a place to stay while you teach him about your planet."

Could that work? It was not like she couldn't fly here in less than an hour, from anywhere in the planet really.

In the end she nodded, Kon had the chance to have parents, real parents; she couldn't take that away from him. "If he agrees."

"Of course Honey,"

Whoosh!

Attracted by the sudden noise, Kara turned her head to see a large tree flying up in the air and towards the horizon, a few seconds later, Krypto almost broke the sound barrier as he flew after it barking like mad.

"There they go again." Was all Jonathan said before completely ignoring the wooden missile.

"Boys, right?" Martha commented with a sigh.

Concentrating, Kara looked thought the cows to see Kal patting his hands with a satisfied smile while Kon was starring after the dog.

Then Krypto came flying back with the tree on his mouth, the enormous missile was so large he couldn't even see where he was going and smashed into the ground causing both Kal and Kon to wince.

The dog dropped the entire thing at their feet before flying around the both of them barking again, his tail wagging so fast it caused a small wind to blow on the grass.

With a laugh Kal pushed Kon towards the tree and nodded, Kon looked between the tree and the dog a few times, then his fingers found purchase on the wood, he lifted in up on his shoulders but Kal Stopped him.

"No, throw it point first to avoid air resistance, like this." The older man adjusted the tree on Kon's grip and nodded.

Whoosh! The remaining of the tree flew again, a little slower but still flying out into the sky for quite a few kilometers.

With an eager bark, Krypto flew after it.

Kara turned back to the older woman and nodded. "Boys."

"Now, let me show that time Clark decide he was the second coming of the Flash."

From the corner of her eyes Kara caught the sight of Kal stumbling on the empty field.

.

.

.

.

Kon decided to stay with the Kent's, they still had Kal's bedroom ready to receive the boy and, since he still wasn't certain what to do, Kara convinced him to try and stay with them instead of being alone on the mountain.

Together, she and Kal flew away from the farm and up towards space, they flew close together, so close that Kara managed to smile at him and speak.

"You may have redeemed yourself, but you know I'll still have to punish you for neglecting the kid, right?"

"What?"

"Yep, it's my prerogative as the older one." She nodded with a smile. "I get to punish you went you do something stupid."

"You're serious, but I…" Kal looked at her with amusement, then it became worry. "Wait, what kind of punishment?"

"I guess you'll find out."

"Kara…" he said in a warning tone but she ignored him. "Seriously, what kind of punishment?"

She just ignored him and accelerated quickly breaking through the clouds and further still, until their presence couldn't possible bother any planes, a second later Kal stopped beside her.

"Wanna make a stop at the fortress?" he invited, "I gotta leave something there first, but them we can stop on Metropolis for your documents, Batman left them with me."

"About that, did Batman talk with you?" She asked him with an uncertain voice, her face changing from amusement to a far more serious look.

"About what?" he asked back.

"I went to Cadmus after discovering Kon's existence." She scratched at her neck and decided to just say it. "There was a second clone Kal."

"What?" he just said with a stunned face, his body dropping a few centimeters in the air before his flight stabilized. "No, I searched the place."

"They made sure you and the Flash couldn't find it easily."

"What… what happened to it?" he asked, almost afraid to know.

"It was… a prototype, they couldn't get Kryptonian DNA right and he was deteriorating quickly, I left him on a healing chamber in the fortress, but it doesn't have the information needed to heal him."

They floated there in the air, Kal almost frozen between fury and horror, finally, he gathered himself and asked. "Is there anything we can do?"

"I'm looking into it, if you know a genius geneticist you can ask him." She said and took the chance to embrace him, he let her. "I can already think of several people that could help, he's gonna be okay."

"I… I'll see if anybody can help." He said after a few minutes. "Will you be coming to the fortress with me?"

"You're still going?" Kara said surprised.

"Yeah," his voice had a newfound conviction as he starred down towards his home, and towards Kon, "I'm not running away from this anymore."

"Good," Kara released him and looked him in the eye. "You really make your parents proud, the two sets of them."

"Thank you, are you still coming with me?"

"No, I have a different meeting waiting for me in another hour."

"See you tomorrow then?" he asked and she nodded.

"I'll drop by your house to get my documents."

With that, they said their goodbyes and Kara watched Kal flying towards the fortress, his acceleration almost immediately breaking the sound barrier with barely an effort until he was beyond even her sight.

Kara sighed, if he continued to make her this proud she'd have to rethink her prank.

Putting on her mask, she followed his example, exploding into action, going from zero to a hundred in barely a second as she made her way towards New York.

It wasn't that she was in a hurry, or showing off. Even wounded she was just that strong, the only thing keeping her from flying faster was the atmosphere of the planet, the heat generated by the air resistance wouldn't actually hurt her, but it could hurt things around her.

Eventually, she lowered herself gently in front of a cemetery, a large, old house just beside it; it was at least four floors high, made of wood and looked almost like a castle.

Looking at the old monstrosity Kara thought it wouldn't be out of place in a Scooby Doo cartoon.

Approaching the front door she saw the sign that read, 'House of Mystery'.

Kara wasn't familiar with the name but she briefly wondered if it had anything to do with the 'House of Secrets' from DC. She didn't remember it correctly but there was an episode on the… first season? Where it had showed up.

Making sure nobody was watching her she took off her blank mask and made her way towards the house, then she climbed the wooden steps and knocked.

"Come in Miss Kara, your companion is already waiting for you inside."

Kara immediately activated her X-ray vision, her hackles were immediately raised when she couldn't actually see through the walls, they weren't coated with lead but, even with her vision activated, she could only see the wooden door in front of her.

With a tap of her finger, her radiation shielding went up and input a communication signal towards the device on her bedroom, it sent a pulse towards the device every two minutes revealing her location and, if it stopped transmitting for more than half an hour, it would alert the entire League with her last known location.

Finally, she took a breath and entered the house.

The man who received her was short, he had brown hair combed up as if to make two horns on each side of his head, he had a pair of small glasses and held an Oil Lamp on his hand.

"I'm sorry Miss Kara but I'm afraid the house current lacks electricity." The man smiled and waved her inside. "Still, I think we make do."

From inside the place was enormous, it's lavish wooden floors shone with care and there were large candles on the wall giving everything an orange light.

In the middle of the entrance there was a large set of stairs going up the first floor and, at both of its sides were three sets of doors leading inside the house.

Kara caught a glance from one of the open doors and saw an old woman carrying a tray of food towards someone in a bed, then she looked again.

The old woman's face had cracks in it from which she could see a dark shadow almost leaking, her skin seemed as grey as granite and Kara swore something moved under her wrinkles.

Kara gulped and started preparing herself.

"Please don't, dear Alice is terminally ill, I'd hate to bother her with your fight."

"But that's…" She said and shivered.

"Her housekeeper, her only desire is to heal." The man said and led her up the stairs, "A very interesting story that one, but we're here."

For some reason Kara believed the man, still, she dropped a couple of surveillance drones while he wasn't looking and sent them towards the room.

He opened the door to a huge room; there was a fireplace lit and a single occupant sitting on a comfortable seat, a large cigar in his mouth and half a bottle of alcohol resting at his side.

"Come in, it's good you've arrived early." He said and glanced towards the bottle. "I was trying to think of twelve good reasons not to finish the bottle, but could only come up with seven."

Kara walked inside the place and couldn't help but stare at the figure before her; he was large, much larger than she expected to tell the truth, he was also a chimpanzee, a talking chimpanzee wearing an old detective costume, cap and all.

"Go ahead, stare all you want, not like it hasn't happened before." The chimpanzee mumbled and took another eager glance towards the bottle.

"Sorry, I know it shouldn't really surprise me but…" Kara shrugged and took a seat beside the chimp.

It really shouldn't surprise her, she had seen stranger things since arriving on Earth.

"Story of my life." The chimp shrugged and dragged on his cigarette, then he spilled it out. "So, what did the furry send you here for?"

Even as he asked, the chimpanzee's eyes were taking everything in, paying very close attention to her body posture and reaction.

"Furry?" she tilted her head in confusion.

"Tall, dark, likes to pretend he's a bat." He said with a tired voice. "Should leave being an animal to those born into it if you ask me."

Kara snorted and relaxed back against the chair.

"Alright, I'm Kara Zor-El pleased to meet you." Kara said. "I'm in need of a team; I guess Batman thought you could help me with that?"

"Well, I'm not much of a hero mind you, but, if you have someone in mind, I can definitely find them for you." He said and finished his cigar before straightening his back, "Bobo T. Chimpanzee, but you can call me Detective Chimp. The Bat may be the best Human detective in the world, but I'm better, it's just fact."

Chapter Text

"'Better than the Bat', huh?" Kara lifted an eyebrow at that, she had only been vaguely aware Detective Chimp existed in the DC universe and had no idea what kind of ma… animal? He was. "Well, you'll understand if I don't just take your word for it?"

Bobo just shrugged as if he didn't care, and maybe he didn't.

"What does the Bat want from me anyway, sending someone with superpowers like you?"

"And how do you know I have powers?" Kara asked, brimming with curiosity and trying to come up with a way to test the chimp.

"Alright, guess we're doing this then," his large hand grabbed the bottle and he took a swig, whipping his mouth with a hairy arm, he leaned forward. "I could smell grass and farm animals as soon as you entered the room; it's far too recent of a smell for you to have come from anywhere near here the conventional way."

"That means you either flew, ran or teleported here, I could see you arrived from the direction of the cemetery, yet there isn't a paved path between the graves and yesterday was a rainy day, since your boots aren't completely covered in mud, I tend to think you're capable of flight."

The chimp released the bottle and put a hand under his chin.

"There's some kind of field around your body disrupting the refraction of light, yet I can still smell you. You aren't floating above the chair and you're wearing metal, which means you wanted protection when you entered the building, but your shield doesn't fully block 'mundane' particles or protect against physical objects, even metallic ones."

"It's possible that the field blocks bullets and other such kinetic projectiles based on the speed they're moving, but why would you use such a specific shield when you could block far more and be far safer with a more generic protection?"

"The most logical explanation is that this shield blocks a particular form of attack, probably mental, magical or a unique weakness. Given that you're paranoid enough to activate it before even meeting me, but equally unworried about the protection not blocking physical attacks, I would say you don't fear them."

"Following flight and fearlessness towards bullets, the most likely complementary power would be super strength. And since you aren't carrying a weapon, you believe you're strong enough to face any human you may encounter without one. You could arguably do this with martial skill, yes, but your overall movement and posture nullifies that notion almost outright."

"A slight bulge in your clothes indicates a mask of some kind, but you aren't wearing a costume under your clothes, even a temporary one, and your body doesn't match any of the well known heroes. You're clearly new to the business, but since the Bat himself sent you here, you're probably a heretofore secret relative of one of the League's members… most likely Superman, Wonder Woman or the Martian."

Lying back against his chair, the chimpanzee looked at her with a smug smile to which Kara could only respond with a sigh.

She had to get better at hiding things if there were people like this just running around in DC.

"Impressive." She said and thought about her situation.

Had the chimp approached her of his own accord, she'd probably be getting really paranoid and would start to consider silencing the guy, but she was the one looking for help.

It seems like Batman couldn't directly help her so he sent her to someone with a similar skillset. She could use that, particularly against people like Luthor or Queen Bee, both of which hid behind the law to block the League's actions, investigation and public exposure was the most straight-forward counter.

As soon as she got out of here she'd have to do a more in-depth search on Bobo, but she decided to outline about her goals without revealing too much of her hand.

"Alright, I'm creating a team, people who can be discreet, but hold their own in case they're discovered." She began while watching the chimp's reaction.

"Hmmm… the Bat finally decided he'd had enough, did he?" Bobo said and scratched his face. "Must be annoying, having to keep to the charter."

"More like, I decided I'd had enough, and Batman agreed with me." Kara answered, frowning at him, the chimp nodded, conceding her point. "The way I see it, it's not that the League is unwilling to deal with the problem, just that it's best they don't have to… problems like this one could easily spiral out of control and set their cause back by decades."

"Alright, and how exactly are you thinking of… dealing with those problems?"

"I'm not looking to form a team of cold blooded murderers. Arresting people will always be the preferred option." Kara sighed and thought about the situation. "But I don't want the law stopping us from doing what's right."

"No boy scouts then, do you already have anyone in mind?"

"I already have a member, and maybe two more, but I could use your help looking for some of my candidates." She said and squinted her eyes. "You can find people, right? It's not just pretentious presentations of your logical prowess?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm a fully trained private eye." The chimp pushed himself up and pulled a pack of cigarettes from under his seat, then put it in a pocket in his chest for easy access. "Want to give me a hint as to what we'll be dealing with?"

So, Kara started talking, she didn't tell the chimp everything or even every name, that would require more trust than just a referral, but she did talk about the Light, a cabal of supervillains working and manipulating things from the shadows.

Detective Chimp had questions, a lot of questions, eventually, she ran out of things she was willing to divulge without doing further research on the hero.

From the look on his face, Kara had no doubt he got far more from her than she did from him. But then again, she couldn't really be blamed for having a lot of trouble judging his reactions since he was, well, a chimp.

"I'll start asking around." He told her when they were done talking about the team and its goals. "Something like that doesn't start from nothing."

"You sure you want to risk it before I get the team ready?" Kara asked with worry, the Light were quite capable of silencing the chimp. "I can only provide so much protection by myself."

"Kid, I've been doing this for a very long time and if there's one thing I have learned, it's that criminals don't like being controlled." He took a drag from his second cigarette and blew it towards the fireplace. "The fact these characters have stayed hidden for so long means there's some powerful people involved, but it also means their minions will be all the more eager to backstab them at the first chance."

"Well, at least take this." She handed him one of her drones, "squeeze it and it'll send a signal to me with your location."

The chimp rolled the little metal ball between his thick fingers and brought it close to his eye, critically looking at all its little details, then shrugged and put it in his pocket together with the pack of cigarettes.

"Hah, it's not like I'll go around asking for this Light of yours by name, Kid, I'm sure the bastards won't say anything about a shadowy secret organization, but they'll still be eager to point me at their Bosses in hopes of stealing their places."

With their meeting concluded, Kara shook the chimp's hand and made her way down the stairs. Alice's door was closed and Cain was nowhere to be seen.

Kara swore there was something watching her inside the house, but, even with her improved senses, she couldn't find anything.

Feeling goosebumps starting to rise on her skin, she hurried out of the house. The sun had just set and the lights on the street were already on, but the cemetery itself seemed much darker than the hour indicated.

The feeling of being watched vanished, but she still hurried to follow the path out of the damn place, her steps becoming faster and faster as she walked.

"Leaving so soon, Miss Kara?" Said a voice from her side causing Kara to jump up in fright and turn around.

She had been focusing on the house so much that she hadn't been paying attention to the rest of her surroundings.

Cain appeared from between the graves, a small smile on his face and a shovel in his shoulder.

Kara's eyes narrowed as she saw old, dried blood on the shovel, but she couldn't tell if it was just some animal blood. He did interact with a heroic detective fairly often so it probably wasn't nearly as bad as it looked.

"Yeah, I don't think the house likes me very much." She joked.

"It likes collecting stories," Cain said while looking back at the house. "Maybe tell it a story next time you come?"

"I'll keep that in mind." She said, and hoped it would never come up.

Finally, Kara left the property and released a sigh of relief. She walked a few blocks away from the place before finally deactivating the beacon on her leg.

Then she pulled out her phone and started watching the images recorded from her drones.

Despite its looks, the thing pretending to be an old woman really was acting as a nurse and housekeeper to the woman inside the room.

Her devices still managed to start mapping the house, but, despite how long she had been talking with Detective Chimp, they just weren't done, and the information they had gathered made no sense.

Kara tried to retrieve the drones, but, as they followed exactly the same path they used to explore, they ended up in new rooms in the house.

After waiting for ten minutes Kara was forced to order them to self-destruct, only then did she release the breath she had been holding.

Magic, she hated magic.

Kara started walking again before releasing a frustrated sigh.

No, she didn't hate magic, it was actually incredibly cool. But, as a Kryptonian, things would be so much easier if it didn't exist.

Getting into a little coffee shop, she ordered a cup of it and started looking at the information on her phone again, deciding if she should approach her next meeting or ditch it for another day.

She was confident she could escape in case things went sideways, but this recruit was a powerhouse, and hadn't always been on the side of the angels.

Also, as Detective Chimp just showed, her identity was far too vulnerable.

She had planned to appear as just a normal human, someone completely independent from her heroic persona but, if Detective Chimp could determine she had powers with a simple glance…

Not like there'd be a lot of detectives on his level, at least if his claims of matching Batman had any validity but the concern remained.

In the end, she decided to go. She didn't know if she'd have any chance of another meeting if she ditched this one, and the man wasn't only a powerhouse, but also provided incredible utility. She'd just have to wear her mask while there and hope it was enough for the time being.

Paying for the coffee, Kara found an empty spot on the street, she put on her mask and flew directly up, too fast for any humans or common cameras to register more than a blur rising through the air.

Then she made her way towards Opal City. She had a meeting with a certain Richard Swift and his girlfriend Hope O'Dare.

Kara's search hadn't turned up any criminal activity for the Shade at this time, but her computer had found some suspicious historical records that indicated he had been active, using his powers on and off again around the world for hundreds of years now.

She wasn't entirely certain it was him but, even if he was only a metahuman in this version of DC, getting access to his powers before the Light would be a win.

Still, he did have a record of pretending to be weaker than he actually was and having fun by playing the villain, or hero, from time to time.

At least she had spoken with his girlfriend and confirmed the woman would be there during the meeting, it was unlikely he'd try to kill her with a loved one close by, and O'Dare didn't seem hostile to her. Quite the contrary in fact.

As she approached the city, she made sure to activate her beacon once again, then reconfigured the sunstone on her leg to act as an emergency teleport in case the man did turn out to be hostile.

It would ruin her prosthetic if she had to use it, but better it than her really.

O'Dare's home was a loft in a quiet corner of the city, Kara knocked on the door and the beautiful redhead answered. She was around 35 years old and still extremely fit, wearing a white shirt and common jeans. "You must be the one who called about Richard."

"What gave me away?" Kara asked with some amusement as the woman led her inside.

"I don't know, maybe the mask?"

"I'm surprised he even agreed to speak with me." She only knew the man from what little information she had gathered, and from her previous life, but he didn't seem the type to entertain a stranger.

"He didn't."

"Then… why am I here? Why invite me inside?" Kara could see the woman didn't have any animosity towards her, but springing a surprise superhero on someone like The Shade was never a good idea.

Maybe she really should leave, then again, Shade never killed a good superhero before, at least none that she could find. The man seemed to actually admire them.

"He's getting restless again, he thinks I don't see it, but he's been out of things for more than a decade now." O'Dare offered her a chair and sat in front of her at the table. "If he's gonna go out there again, I'd prefer he gets to adventure for the good side this time."

"So he is immortal then?" She asked in curiosity, trying to confirm if her information about his actions was correct.

"I don't know, but he hasn't aged a day since we first met." She sighed and supported her face with a hand. "It's hard, aging and watching him remain the same."

Kara didn't know what to say, then the room suddenly became a little darker, flakes of darkness started behaving as if they had mass, gathering in the shape of a man in the middle of the room, finally, The Shade teleported inside, his eyes hard as he stared at Kara with barely contained malice.

Then he looked at O'Dare and seemed to understand the situation, he sighed causing Kara to relax the grip she had on her teleport device.

Richard Swift looked like a slightly pale, but not unnatural 40 years old, he was well muscled and his hair was darker than any Kara had ever seen, his eyes filled with affection, and frustration, as he looked at his lover.

He was only wearing an overcoat over a simple black shirt and didn't have his signature top hat or cane, but Kara's eyes caught the sight of tendrils of darkness quickly retreating down his coat and out of view.

"I see you're having guests today. Hope, you should have informed me."

"Would you have come?" she huffed.

"For you my dear? Yes." He sighed and took off his jacket. "I feel more and more alive with every second I'm with you, I wouldn't pass it for anything."

He bent down and gave a light kiss on the woman's forehead before elegantly sitting down at the table with them.

"I know you've been itching to get out, to have fun like you used to do in the past." She glared at him.

"Hardly like I have done in the past, no. I was thinking of acting as a metahuman in another five or six years, one of the ones whose powers change their bodies, they're such convenient justification." He replied with amusement and turned towards Kara. "What do you think, white skin and black eyes to go with the shadow motif? I don't think I have clashed against any of this current Justice League yet."

Right before Kara's eyes Shade's skin lost color, darkness filled his eyes and it consumed even his eye sockets until they became round circles with red dots in the middle, his hair was covered with shadows and his cheeks sunk into his head until he resembled a skull.

"See, I knew you were eager to start your little games again!" O'Dare accused and with an amused laugh, Shade reverted back into his original form and combed his hair back.

"I can't deny that." He said and adjusted his perfect posture. "I thought I'd handicap myself, not use constructs very well and limit my portals to a certain weight or size?"

"How about a different game then?" Kara interjected, if she could get him interested… "I'm creating a team to fight against certain villains. They call themselves The Light."

"Ra's little group, yes. I'm aware of them." He told her and appeared to consider it before smirking. "It's just not the same… facing against a hot blooded hero, one filled with conviction and an iron will… I miss that."

"Well, the team isn't exactly supposed to be well known so, you can still play with the heroes if you want?" she offered. She didn't really want to condone villainy in any form, but The Shade always seemed to take it easy when playing around, and it could make for good training for Kori and the sidekicks.

The Shade looked towards his lover and O'Dare laid a hand over his own, nodding her head with a smile, he smiled back. "I suppose it could be interesting to fight without restrictions for once, and Ra's little group includes many who could face me even at full power. Do you have a way for me to contact you?"

"Here," Kara tossed him another of her drones, "You can get in contact with me by just squeezing the metal ball."

"Very well, I suppose our meeting here is concluded?" He asked and, after Kara nodded, got up and offered O'Dare an arm. "Come my dear, you did offer me a relaxing walk in your company, didn't you?"

Kara went out of the loft and watched as shadows covered the couple, then it dissolved like ashes, leaving no signs of where they had gone. Not believing her luck she deactivated the beacon once again and flew back to Fawcett City.

The Shade was a little more cold blooded than any of her other candidates, and perhaps a little too much even for her goals, but he also had standards, and she may need someone of his caliber to take on the Light.

She arrived home and, seeing as there was nobody inside, took a quick shower before going directly to work. Using the Kryptonian crystal in her bedroom as a computer, she searched the internet for information on Detective Chimp.

What she found was… promising. He was far less known than Batman but, amongst certain groups, there was serious discussion about whether he, the Bat or the Question was the best detective.

It quickly became clear the chimp was a hopeless alcoholic, sometimes incredibly rude, but also incredibly competent and trustworthy. Not ideal, but workable.

It also seemed like he was actually more experienced than Batman in dealing with magical mysteries.

Coupled with the Bat's support, Kara decided to give a little more trust to the ape.

Her computer had also managed to get the information for several addresses for people she had flagged as interesting.

Victor Stone was still a kid, Ted Kord was a business magnate with no interest in heroics, Maxwell Lord showed no signs of supervillany… yet.

More importantly, she had found the location of the Tower of Fate. Doctor Fate was an essential force of the universe, a natural enemy to Klarion, and, in the worst case, someone capable of helping Match.

Plus, Kara couldn't help but want to ask a few questions about her own state of being from the Lord of Order.

She also found the address for the future Elongated Man. The guy actually lived in the same city as The Shade.

A pity that he was still just a kid, his ability to shape his body was second only to a Martian, and the Plastic Man. Perhaps she could get Plastic Man involved instead, he still wasn't a member of the Justice League, right?

Still, there were a lot of names she couldn't find and she had no way of knowing if it was for lack of information or just because they didn't exist in this universe.

"Friend Kara, are you home?" Kori called from the living room as she arrived back from her training with Wonder Woman.

"In the bedroom, just a sec." Stretching her back she noticed she had been reading for two hours and decided to take a break.

Turning off her screen, Kara floated up in the air and to her feet, she stretched her neck and opened the door with a wide smile on her face.

"Welcome home Kori. How was the training?"

"Wonderful! Friend Troia finally managed to best me in a contest!" the redhead informed her with a nod, "it was a truly inspired match, I am proud of her improvement."

Kori had already taken off her boots and hung a coat at the door leaving her dressed in a comfortable set of shirt and pants.

"So, you don't have anything else to do right now?" Kara asked with some amount of hope.

"I do not."

"Come on then, let's relax and watch a movie or something."

Kara's visit to the House of Mystery, then facing someone like The Shade… it had left her exhausted and she needed to recharge a little.

Having lunch with Kal's parents had been wonderful, but it hadn't been very relaxing for her, always wondering if she was leaving a good impression.

"What a great idea, I will prepare buttery explosive grains while you choose the movie."

"It's called popcorn Kori!" Kara shouted after her and started looking for something to watch on the internet.

Eventually, she decided a silly horror comedy was just what she needed, the House of Mystery had left her rattled and making fun of something scary would help her relax.

Soon, Kori came floating from the kitchen with a bucket of popcorn and sat down on the sofa.

Kara stopped thinking about supervillains, or anything really, she just decided to relax, take the rest of the night off.

Kicking off her own boots, Kara threw herself on the couch, her feet hanging off the side of the sofa while her head tested on Kori's lap.

It made for a surprisingly comfortable pillow.

"So, when is the new sidekick meeting taking place?" She asked as she lifted her arm and stole a handful of popcorn from Kori's bucket.

Kara couldn't remember any of the show's exact dates even if her life depended on it, but she knew the team formed very soon after Kon's rescue.

Now it had already been over a week and there was nothing.

"The Batman has asked us to meet in nine days." she said and lifted her bucket to keep it out of Kara's reaching hands. "I am most excited to start training with them, the joint training with Billy was very enlightening."

Pointing the remote at the TV, Kara started the movie and adjusted herself, turning her face towards the screen and curling her legs until they fit on the sofa.

Kori dove into her popcorn, her nine stomachs working overtime to consume the entire bucket. Kara still managed to steal some every now and then, but Kori ate like her life depended on it, finishing the entire thing in less than ten minutes.

She wiped her hands on a tissue and turned towards Kara, eyes shining with interest.

"Friend Kara, may I perform braiding maneuvers on your hair? Diana informed me it is a common form of bonding between sisters, but I have never had the opportunity with Komand'r"

Kara glanced at Kori's fingers and, after checking if they were clean, nodded. "Sure, go ahead."

She too had never been this close with a friend, it would be unthinkable on Krypton and just… not something she had been interested in as a man.

As she felt Kori's gentle fingers running through her hair, Kara felt the last amounts of tension leaving her shoulders.

Releasing a breath, she closed her eyes and just enjoyed the sensation, the atmosphere. She felt safe, welcome, her body wasn't even hurting that much at the moment.

As Kori separated her hair and started braiding it without much skill, Kara actually fell asleep.

Almost an hour later, Kara woke up feeling better than she had… ever.

Her body wasn't in any amount of pain, she had a sense of peace around her and there was a pleasant scent in the air.

Hearing the TV still on Kara remembered where she was, without opening her eyes she asked. "Sorry about sleeping on you like that. How goes the movie?"

"I do not know, I dare not open my eyes!" Came the squeak from above her causing Kara to glance up.

The movie was right at its climax, with zombies running after the main characters and tension filled music.

Kori had a hand over her eyes and her shoulders were stiff with tension while her other hand gripped the sofa's arm, almost pulverizing its wooden frame.

Kara wanted to laugh out loud at the sight, but instead she carefully grabbed at one of her new braids, one of the more well made ones.

Slowly, she brought the end of her hair up and towards Kori's trembling face, then she tickled her.

With a scream, Kori jumped into the air until her body hit the ceiling, her movement throwing a laughing Kara to the ground.

The shining green glare she received back only made Kara laugh harder.

Kori attacked, her fingers finding purchase under Kara's clothes and starting to tickle her.

Oh, it was on.

Fifteen minutes later the both of them lay on the ground breathing hard and the house was a complete mess.

They had managed not to break anything, but it would still take quite a while to put everything back into place.

Kara's hurting lungs took a little bit of the joy away from her, but not much, and she still had a huge smile on her face when Kori floated up.

"Humph, now I will have to take another shower." She complained, but there was no bite to it. "I shall forgive you if you assist me to put everything back into place"

Kori extended a hand to help her up, which Kara ignored.

"Don't wanna." Kara denied, the carpet was incredibly comfortable and she wanted nothing more than to fall asleep again.

"Kara Zor-El!" Kori scolded, causing Kara to release one last snicker and float up to her feet.

"Fiiiine." She said to show how reluctant she was, but, when they started working together, they finished surprisingly fast.

When they were done, Kori took her shirt off revealing her white bra and sweat filled chest, Kara gulped and averted her eyes, not wanting to perv on her best friend but, after she turned around and started walking towards the bathroom, she couldn't help staring at her back as she went.

Unlike Kori, Kara had better resistance even wounded, she hadn't managed to sweat quite so much and decided to take her bath in the morning.

With a happy smile, she went to sleep.

Chapter Text

The next day she woke up late, taking a few minutes, she stretched her limbs and took a quick shower before looking for Kori, but the girl had already left the house, her training keeping her busy almost every day.

She decided to start her day by visiting her cousin while he was at work and finally get her documentation in order before she started recruiting again.

And maybe get his permission to look at the Fortress military tech too while she was at it.

Also, she wanted an excuse to see the famous Daily Planet and meet Lois Lane.

She also had to get her power armor ready, even if it was only the civilian version.

She had thought she could get by as a normal human, but Detective Chimp had guessed her powers with barely a glance so she didn't want to risk meeting anyone else without hiding her identity.

As she stepped out of the Zeta-tube in Metropolis she made a note to see if she couldn't crack the teleportation network and make her own version. It was just too convenient.

She'd probably get rich enough to be able to buy the entire LexCorp if she made teleportation affordable to the common people. That, or get assassinated by the transport industry.

She smiled as she saw the enormous skyscraper with the globe rotating on top of it marking the headquarters of the Daily Planet.

Kara walked through the doors and paused to look at the building's interior.

The entrance was an enormous open floor with panels showing prize winning reports written by the journal's own reporters, dozens of workers walking purposefully to and from the stairs and elevators.

From behind her, a young man came running inside the building. Kara heard him approach and stepped to the side, but the guy still managed to hit her back and bounce off, falling on his ass.

"Hey." She scolded, turning around to see a young redhead with a photograph camera around his neck.

"Sorry, I didn't notice you…" he sheepishly apologized as he looked at her face and flushed.

Kara smirked, she hadn't been bad looking in her last life, but she did enjoy her new and improved looks too.

Extending a hand, she helped pull the young man to his feet.

"Thanks. Jimmy Olsen, photographer," he introduced himself as his flush faded. Checking his camera to see if it was still okay, the man looked back at her. "Sorry for running into you."

"Don't worry about it." So, this was her cousin's famous friend, he was surprisingly cute. "You know, maybe you could help me find my cousin?"

"I'm sorry, who are you again?" He asked in confusion.

"I'm Kara Danvers, Clark's cousin." She introduced herself as the two of them walked further into the building and stopped blocking the doors.

"What? I didn't know Clark had any more family!" He exclaimed in surprise, clearly confused by the way things were turning out. "You're talking about Clark Kent right?"

"Yep, you know Clark's adopted right? I'm his biological cousin." Usually she wouldn't be so open, but she was in a great mood and felt like she knew the man from the comics. "We reconnected a few weeks ago."

"Huh, you know what, sure. Come on." He pressed the button to call for an elevator and turned towards her with a smile. "So, are you his only family, or is there a whole Clark clan out there?"

Kara thought about the question, and about both Kon and Match, then avoided his eyes and shrugged. "It's… complicated, I guess it'd be better to ask Clark about that."

"Yeah, I get that; don't wanna step on his toes or something right?" He nodded and dropped the subject.

"Hey, what kind of photos do you take? Is it just people for the Planet?"

"Yeah, I mostly take photos to go with the articles, but I love to take art photos and nature shots."

"No nudes?" She teased, causing the young man to swallow wrong and start to cough away from her, his face becoming red.

Heh, teasing people was surprisingly fun.

When the doors finally opened, a flustered Jimmy practically ran away from the enclosed space, buying himself time for his embarrassment to fade.

Using her vision Kara looked through the walls until she found her cousin bent over a table, discussing an article with Lois and an older male inside a private room.

Kara smiled, she just knew he'd be with Lois.

"You alright Jimmy?" She asked as she patted his back.

As soon as she spoke, Kal's head twitched, then he briefly turned towards her, even through the walls she saw him giving her a small smile and motion for her to wait before turning back to Lois to finish their talk.

"I'm fine." He said and glared at her, but there was no heat to it. "Come on, Clark should be at his desk right now."

She followed him inside the building, entering a wide open space filled with individual desks; Jimmy frowned when he didn't see Kal anywhere in sight.

"Come on, which desk is his?" Jimmy looked at her eyes for a second, but shook his head.

"Sorry, could you just… wait over there." He pointed to a comfortable waiting chair close to the wall. He was still in a hurry, but didn't want to just leave her alone at Clark's desk without supervision.

"Sure, I sent a message right before I arrived so he should be here soon anyway." She lied, glancing back towards Kal, she saw he was almost done with the discussion and decided to wait on her feet.

Jimmy seemed conflicted, looking between her and a room further inside the building. "I'm really sorry to just ditch you like that without Clark, but I really am late."

"Don't worry about it." Kara waved his concern away with a smile and watched him dash away towards his employer.

Not even a minute later Kal left the room, followed by Lois Lane. Miss Lane seemed completely distracted by something she was reading, but Kal motioned for her to come over as they walked towards their desks.

"Kara, good to see you!" he gave her a hug and turned towards Lois as the reporter raised an eyebrow and looked at him suspiciously. "Lois, this is Kara Danvers, the cousin I told you about. Kara, this is Lois Lane, one of the Planet's star reporters."

"So you're the famous cousin?" She took a moment to look Kara from top to bottom with a critical eye. "Yeah, I can see the resemblance. Weren't you in the hospital?"

Lois seemed to be really suspicious of Kara, her gaze never leaving Kara's face, as if searching for any signs of guilt.

Kara couldn't blame the woman, a new relative turning up out of nowhere with a medical emergency was suspicious even on her previous world, much less this one that was filled with supervillains and other ridiculous plots.

"I got better, still have to get treatment, but I don't have to stay in the hospital anymore."

"Expensive treatment, I take it?" The reporter squinted her eyes, her feet tapping against the ground as she thought Kara was taking advantage of her… wait, were they already married?

Kara remembered they had a son together but, since the focus was never on Superman, she didn't remember in which season they'd gotten together.

"Lois! Don't be like that." Clark begged while covering his eyes with a hand.

"It's fine Clark, I can see why your girlfriend would be worried." Kara patted Clark's back causing him to trip, almost dropping the papers on his hand. "And I guess you could say it's expensive, but I have the money."

"Oh, tell me more." Lois tried to shoulder Kal away and get to her, but her cousin grabbed her by the shoulders and gently guided her away.

"Lois, she's not here for an interview." Lois frowned at him, but still let him guide her towards her desk.

"Fine, I'll drop it." Rolling up one of the papers in her hand, she used it to hit him in the forehead to show her displeasure before walking away. "But don't you dare do that again or there will be consequences, Smallville."

Kal had a small smile on his face as he watched her go, then he turned towards Kara's smirking face. "Not that I'm complaining but, what're you doing here Kara?"

"Getting my documents back, mostly. I'm just starting to get my life in order and I kinda need them to even get started." She told him as she continued to look around the place with interest. "By the way, you and Lois? I tentatively approve."

Kara still hadn't had time to properly get to know Lois Lane, but what little she had seen was promising. The woman did seem to care about Kal and was very protective of someone she thought was taking advantage of him.

"Things with Lois are… complicated." He told her as he guided her towards his table, "I actually brought everything here since I was thinking of finding you later today."

Pulling one of the drawers, Kal handed her a thick folder, Kara took only a few seconds to check everything, but she trusted him and Batman to have things in order.

It seems that things would be even easier than she had first thought; her new identity already had an established tech company in her name, one that was seeing at least moderate success in the communication field.

"And Bruce's just giving me this? The factory alone must be at least twelve million and, from what I can see, there's quite a lot of cash available to my name."

The amount of money here was spare change compared with something like WayneTech, but Kara hadn't expected Batman to just give away millions.

"The… factory only exists on paper, or well… there's a building but it's really in need of repairs." Kal explained and looked around to be absolutely sure nobody was listening. "Bruce said the money in the accounts could be paid off some of the metals you already mined. Batman sometimes needs that kind of procurement done off the books."

She just nodded, Batman could have afforded to just give her the money anyway, but she didn't mind paying him back with the material she had already harvested. He probably didn't need it, but it would make her feel better not to owe him more than necessary.

"Right, thanks anyway. And about the access?" She probed.

"Kara… Krypton was very advanced, their military tech was dangerous." He said as he sat down, Kara bristled at his tone.

"Does that mean you won't give permission?"

"Look, I have yet to go through everything on the database, but I know there are some things in there that are just better forgotten or destroyed… or at least sealed away." He sighed and adjusted his glasses. "How about this, I'll give you access to anything defensive and, later this weekend, we can go over everything else together, then you get access to anything you can convince me you can safely use?"

Kara frowned; she hated how patronizing he sounded despite trying his best to be diplomatic.

Taking a deep breath, she tried to think about things from his point of view. Krypton was an advanced civilization, its military probably had access to planet bursting weapons and she was only 17.

More than that, she hadn't been on Earth for even half a year, he barely knew her really. It was still incredibly annoying, but she too wouldn't give a seventeen year old she barely knew access to military gear, even if they were family.

"Fine." She huffed in exasperation and glared at him. "I was already planning on working on my armor first anyway."

Kal stared at her with a strange look on his eyes as she said that. He started to say something, then closed his mouth as he thought better of it.

Shaking his head, he got back up and gave her a hug, holding her tightly against his chest. Kara was confused, but she did hug him back.

"I know it wasn't exactly what you wanted to hear, thanks for understanding." He finally said as he released her and sat back down.

"So, how's Kon taking living with your parents?"

"Surprisingly well." Kal told her, his face going back to the happy smile he usually had. "Bruce is helping with the adoption papers and he seems to enjoy helping out on the farm."

"What human name did he settle on anyway?" Kara asked with mild curiosity, with the way things were going he'd probably end up with the same name after all.

"Connor Kent. It's close enough he isn't likely to get confused." Kal glanced at a calendar on his table and tapped his finger against the table for a few seconds. "Say, do you have anything on the twenty first?"

"Not really, why?"

"I'll have to cover something with Lois so I thought you could take Connor to his meeting at Mount Justice." He told her with a sheepish smile.

"You couldn't make it?" Kara lifted an eyebrow in annoyance.

"I mean, it would be a little tight, but I could do it." Scratching the back of his neck he avoided her eyes, but continued to speak anyway. "I just thought, maybe you'd like to spend more time with him and meet the entire team together?"

"...You know what? Sure, I'll bring him there." Kori would be there too, and she could take the chance to find out what kind of changes Batman was making.

"Great, I'll update your Fortress access as soon as I'm done with work then."

"Right, thanks Kal, guess I'll leave you to your work now." She said her goodbyes, took her documents, then kissed him on the cheek and turned around.

While she was leaving the floor she caught sight of Jimmy getting yelled at by a fat guy and happily waved him goodbye.

As soon as she was out of sight she properly read all her new documentation, then decided to check her new property personally.

Her new headquarters was in a small rural town in Pennsylvania. The building itself was one of the biggest in the city, but it was currently almost empty, with only a couple of office workers dealing with some documents inside.

Kara would have to take some time to find out what really happened, but apparently, without any oversight, the CEO had stolen as much money as he could and fled, leaving management of the company, and the fallout, for someone else to deal with.

Without access to the money left from the owner's accounts, whoever was left was just doing their best to delay declaring bankruptcy.

Bruce probably didn't have the time to manage such a relatively small business and may have even forgotten he had acquired such a fake identity until Kara had asked for it; he probably had hundreds of covers he could use. It wasn't the end of the world if one was burned.

After checking on things Kara made sure she had access to the computers still within the building before she went towards the second building she now owned.

Her new factory was really just a huge abandoned building, most of its heavy equipment had been sold off or stolen and the remaining machines were just gathering dust while locked inside the expansive, mostly empty building.

It would take a bit of effort, but the location was good and Kara could already see the bare bones of her future technological empire here.

Kara had been thinking about her future a lot, as a Kryptonian she had access to incredibly advanced technology, but just giving it out didn't sit well with her. Just the thought of freely distributing crumbs of her knowledge like a benevolent overlord left a bad taste on her mouth.

It'd also probably cause damage to human society, making it dependent on alien knowledge and materials they couldn't even produce.

No, she wouldn't just give away her technology; instead she'd focus on getting a great team and have them reverse engineer various 'safe' items until they could be easily replicated.

Breaking things down until even the average human not only could understand and use her products, but also replicate them without her exotic equipment, materials or even her input.

She refused to follow the 'Reed Richards is useless' trope. Any improvements she made wouldn't just stay with her and die out if she was gone.

It would take far more time to get everything in order, but it would also allow her to make long lasting changes without causing damage.

And maybe, if she made some of her tech accessible to the common man, other advanced scientists would be forced to adapt in a positive way unless they wanted to go bankrupt.

For Rao's sake, Cadmus had been able to clone people and even create entire new species. But no, instead of working on making it cheaper so the average person could have access to the obvious medical uses, they just spent their time trying to clone Superman. What a waste!

In fact, it was the first order she had given as the new controller of Cadmus. Her own experiences and situation made transplants something of particular interest to her, so she had gotten most of Cadmus working on adapting its clone technology into developing affordable to produce transplant organs that wouldn't have a chance of rejection.

Strangely enough, even with cloning, transplanting a limb was still harder than an organ.

Limb transplanting wouldn't really save lives like producing a heart would, but it was the second priority for Cadmus anyway.

Using her vision Kara started surveilling the land surrounding her factory, making sure it had solid bedrock foundation; she was surprised to find there wasn't any water or mineral deposits anywhere close to her property.

With her technology, the entire thing would make for a great underground facility, just like Cadmus. Now that was an interesting thought.

Eventually, the Light would find out about her takeover of Cadmus and it would be good if she already had an alternative place for the Genomorphs by then. This small town was almost ideal.

A safe place to stay, a safe job at her factory so they could start their new lives and trustworthy employees she could use in her secret base… Who knows, depending on the people of the town they may even be able to integrate without much trouble down the line when Bruce's Lawyer got the Genomorphs' legal situation in order.

Until then, Dubbilex and the other G-gnomes could hide with illusions or she could give them holographic disguises.

With a smile, she made the call.

Dubbilex seemed eager for the chance, some of his more active Genomorphs were just begging to leave the facility and start exploring the outside world, even some of the G-trolls which would make things… complicated.

Most Genomorphs wouldn't have much trouble if they had a holographic disguise, but G-Trolls couldn't even leave Cadmus, the upper floors were just too small.

Kara promised that she'd have a teleportation device ready to bring them out of Cadmus without having to destroy the upper floors as she was sure she could get temporary access to the Zeta-tube network in a few days.

Damn, she had so much work to do.

Looking around herself, she dropped a handful of her drones on the property and ordered them to act as sentries. It wasn't really necessary yet, but the little devices were easy and cheap to make so it wasn't a loss and she thought it was better to be safe than sorry.

Finally, she found the phone of the one currently in charge of the company, a Mr Derrick Blackwell, and left him a message to set up a meeting.

She thought about getting a head start on getting things in order by using her superspeed to clean the place up a little, but… fuck it, she hated cleaning things up and she had more important things to do.

Like… eating lunch.

Finding a small restaurant in town, Kara sat at an empty table and started working on the future of her company. After thinking about it a lot she had decided to start with something that Krypton had been particularly good at, solar energy.

Kara was pretty sure she could improve a contemporary Earth solar panel by at least 200% using only human technology and without making it too expensive to produce, creating clean and cheap energy while making a killing and dominating the market.

The only question was, did she start slow… use only the money she had available to build up her resources with the panels before branching out, or did she start with a bang? She could probably get a loan from Bruce or at least a huge contract with advanced pay to supply some of his companies.

Who was she kidding? Of course she'd get Bruce's help, it would make everything from capital acquisition to recruiting to distribution so much easier and she wouldn't even feel like she was taking advantage since she'd make sure her tech was worth it.

In fact, she'd make it so it was Bruce who got the better deal. Her pride as a member of the El family wouldn't let her do anything less.

She laid back on the chair and started composing her proposal. She had to do things by the book if she wanted her company to work within the law, and so anybody looking wouldn't find it strange.

She didn't want to build a secret base and get it found out because she cut corners.

Jumping through the hoops necessary to get a meeting with Bruce and secure his support was annoying, but it would also put a certain distance between them in case anybody discovered her identity, or Batman's.

Chapter Text

"Thanks for bringing me here Miss Kara." Billy said for the third time, a bouquet of flowers held firmly in his hands. "I know you may not like her after what she did, but Amber really wanted to meet you and apologize."

"Don't worry kid." Kara said as she handed the guard their day pass and identification, the man checked their information on his computer and nodded. "Besides, I'm not heartless. I can give people second chances if they're working to get better."

The kid gave her a huge smile at that, a second later they stopped in front of a metal door and waited until the guard buzzed them through.

STAR Labs wasn't exactly a maximum security prison, but their preparations to protect their research were very thorough, and they did work with the Justice League to monitor and help meta-humans with dangerous or uncontrollable powers.

Seeing as Amy was still underage, had willingly handed herself over when rescued from Mr. Mind, and Billy had vouched for her as Captain Marvel, the law had allowed her to stay in one of STAR Labs' facilities if she also went through mandatory therapy.

"Hello, you must be Kara Danvers." said a middle aged woman as she saw them approaching. "I'm Sharon Banks, Amy and Amber's psychologist. I'm glad you could bring Mister Batson here, they both greatly enjoy his visits."

"They're still separated?" Kara asked as she shook the woman's hand.

"Yes, Amy was able to absorb the other two personalities we identified as her Id and Inner child, but Amber is still separated." The doctor said and stopped in front of a thick metal door. "Billy, why don't you go ahead and meet with them while I talk with Miss Kara?"

"Right, thanks for letting me see her Mrs. Banks." Billy took a breath and entered the room, his flowers in front of him. "Hi Amy, Amber."

"Billy!"

"Hey pipsqueak, about time you showed up again."

The door closed behind him leaving Kara alone with the psychologist. The woman seemed to be watching Kara's face in search of something so Kara just lifted a quizzical eyebrow and decided to wait her out. Finally, the doctor sighed.

"Right, I was told Amber had hurt you before. As her doctor I must know, are you here to yell at her or blame her?"

For a brief moment Kara just looked at the closed door and thought about it, did she blame Amber for her actions? A little bit, but the girl was only fourteen and had been abused by her parents.

Kara wasn't exactly the forgiving type but, surrounded as she was by people like Billy, Kori and her cousin, she couldn't help but want to be a better person.

She hadn't lied to Billy earlier, she was willing to give the kid a second chance. The girl hadn't even caused any deaths before she was controlled by Mr. Mind.

"I haven't exactly forgotten what she did, but I'm willing to forgive it, once." Kara confessed, to which the doctor smiled at her.

"Good. I wasn't completely certain if you should meet with Amber yet. It could do a lot of good to the girl, yes, but it could also set her back by a lot." The doctor looked at the door with a frown on her face. Turning back to Kara, she took a deep breath. "It's not a chance I would have taken myself, but I was overruled by Doctor Wilcox. Still, I'm glad my fear appears to have been groundless."

Kara prepared herself to enter the room, but decided to give Billy a little more time alone with the girls. "Say, do you know why they're still separated like that?"

"Doctor Wilcox believes it's something in her meta-gene reacting with Captain Marvel's powers. Amy and Amber were the only ones to retain their powers when separated. The Doctor believes their power has taken over and changed after getting super charged by the Captain's and is fuelling their separate existences."

"And you?" Kara had to ask, the woman really didn't seem happy with her superior's decisions.

"I believe they don't want to be united." Retreating from the door the Doctor sat down on a couple of chairs in the hallway then leaned back against the wall. "Amber's personality was formed as a way to protect Amy from the rest of the world; I believe she's refusing to unite with the original because she wants to protect Amy from the guilt she feels about what happened."

"Wouldn't it help if I forgave her?"

"Possibly, but not forgiving her could do far more damage." Lifting her glasses and scratching at her eyes in frustration the Doctor continued. "At this point I'm not certain they can ever be joined. We have been keeping the both of them in the same room and going through the same procedures, but they have been separated for such a long time their experiences have greatly differed."

"Is that a bad thing?"

"That's just it, we still don't know. I'm a psychologist and even in my area of expertise I'm not certain. They're the first known case of split personalities also having split bodies and her condition doesn't really have a cure." The doctor gave Kara a bitter smile. "The standard treatment is usually just tries to integrate as much of the personalities together as possible into one while finding a way to manage the dissonance, but they have diverged so much and are acting so independent from one another… It could be best to just stay as they are now."

"I take it that's not the healthiest option?" Kara had to ask.

"Again, we don't know. Can she even stay separated indefinitely or is their independence only gonna make it worse when it ends? That's not even considering the possible physical side-effects. We're doing our best, but her case is complicated."

Kara didn't know what else to say and the Doctor seemed to realize she had said too much leaving an awkward atmosphere between them that stretched for almost a full minute.

"Alright then, I think I've given them enough time alone." Kara finally broke the silence and opened the door.

Both Billy and Amy sat on her bed, their legs crossed while Amber was sitting beside them and pretending not to be interested. Billy had a cell phone out and was showing them some pictures while telling her about his latest training session with Zatara.

Beside the bed, Billy's bouquet of flowers rested inside a jar of water where Amy had put them.

All three of them lifted their heads and looked at her when she entered, Amy smiled at her, but Amber just avoided her eyes. "Hey, I heard you girls were receiving visits already."

"Yeah, Doctor Wilcox said we should start interacting more," Amy said while leaning over Billy. "He's even going to start letting us out of the lab for exercise."

"Yep, guy's an asshole, but at least he knows we're getting fed up with being lab rats."

"Amber!" The original twin scolded but Amber just shrugged.

"What? Are you gonna tell me he isn't an utter asshole?" Amber looked at her twin with annoyance. "Bastard tries to separate us every chance he gets."

This time it was Amy who avoided her twin's eyes, too polite to answer the question.

Kara frowned, wasn't STAR labs trying to keep them together to avoid deviating their personalities and experiences even more? Guess the good doctor decided they were better off separated. Either that or he was a complete bastard only interested in research data. Something to follow-up on later.

Grabbing a chair, Kara pulled it closer and sat together with Amber so they could hear Billy's story and watch him cast a very basic ball of light. Kara immediately looked for any cameras, but it seemed like the girls weren't monitored while in their room.

Amber seemed incredibly on edge with her, but she eventually relaxed and became much more focused on Billy's fledging magical abilities.

Kara thought the three of them looked incredibly cute together. Despite being older, the two girls hung on Billy's every word with Amy leaning over his body, their shoulders touching and Amber herself squeezed on top of the bed with them while peaking over her twin's shoulders acting incredibly interested in his fights as Captain Marvel.

An hour later, the Doctor knocked on the door and poked her head inside, warning them that visiting hours were over.

Billy hugged Amy under Kara's amused eyes, then he went towards Amber and the rebellious teen looked at Kara, then towards her twin and back at Kara. With a long suffering sigh, she let the boy hug her, her face flushed with embarrassment.

Kara managed to keep from snickering.

Just before they left the room, Amber grabbed at Kara's shirt, causing her to stop and turn towards the girl again. "What is it?"

"Are you alright?" The girl asked with a tiny voice, her eyes meeting Kara's with a desperate need. "Shit, I don't know how to do this. Look, I'm really sorry about what happened; I didn't mean to hurt people so much."

Kara looked at the girl again and saw deep regret. Putting a hand over her head she messed up her hair. "Look kid, I'm not gonna say it was nothing, but most of it wasn't really your fault. 'You' didn't kill anybody, or even hurt me that seriously. Just don't do it again and I can forgive you."

"I'm not a fucking kid," Amber slapped her hand away. "And I won't, I swear I won't."

She glanced back towards Amy, her face turning into a protective smile.

"Then don't worry about it. Just try to find a way to make up for the damage you caused when you're out of here." Kara told her and saw the Kid nod in understanding.

"Could you… could you find that little kid's name? I know I fucked up and hurt her family so I wanted to…" She swallowed hard as she seemed to gather herself. "To apologize."

"I'll find out." Looking towards the hallway Kara saw that Billy was already waiting for her at a corner. "I'll visit again next week, alright?"

"Yeah… thanks."

Kara and Billy stepped out of the building and made their way towards the Zeta-Tube, Kara still had a meeting with Kori and Wonder Woman for some training, but she wasn't in a hurry, it wasn't even three in the evening. Kori trained with her mentor until eight.

"Thanks for coming, Miss Kara." Billy said as he squeezed her hand. "I know I could come as Captain Marvel, but Amber is always on edge when I show up like that."

"It's fine. We wouldn't want your little girlfriend to be uncomfortable, now would we?" She smirked.

"Ack. That's not… nevermind." He just gave up when he saw the amused smirk on her face causing Kara to laugh out loud.

"So, which one do you prefer: the delicate one or the tomboy?" She couldn't help poking at the kid.

Once they were completely out of sight Billy checked his phone and got excited, releasing her hand he stepped back from her. "I'm sorry Miss Kara, but the League is calling for me. Shazam!"

With a flash of lightning, the little kid was gone leaving a large man in its place, Kara snickered again. "I can't believe you're fleeing in terror from me."

"Sorry, can't hear you, have to go." He said while avoiding her eyes, then he flew away as fast as he could, leaving a highly amused Kara behind.

Half an hour later Kara stepped onto Wonder Woman's private beach in Greece. She quickly made sure there weren't any cameras or surveillance devices turned her way and pulled her mask away from her face.

From further into the beach Kara saw Kori waving at her before taking a punch to the face for her distraction. Quickly refocusing, the princess started fighting back against Troia, their bodies floating a few centimeters above the sand as they traded blows.

Wonder Woman herself turned towards Kara and smiled. "Kara, Starfire said you'd be coming over today."

"Hello, and thank you for the invitation. Is that what she's gonna call herself now?" She asked, somewhat surprised despite herself.

Kara had already changed things so much she half expected Kori to call herself Wonder Girl or something.

"Yes, Princess Koriand'r decided to use the translated meaning of her name while acting as my apprentice." Wonder Woman replied. Lifting an arm in front of her face almost faster than Kara could react, the heroine deflected a starbolt towards the sea causing it to explode and shower them in a thin mist. "Do not aim towards the spectators. Not all of them are going to be as powerful as me and it creates a bad habit!"

"Apologies!" Kori shouted back while dodging a kick aimed at her head.

"They seem evenly matched." Kara commented and Wonder Woman shook her head.

"No, Starfire almost matches me in skill, she holds back to allow Troia to grow."

Looking at the fight going on, Kara couldn't really see it. Then again, both fighters were far more skilled than her.

Watching as Kori put Troia's arm in a joint lock and dropped the both of them violently towards the sand Kara considered how she'd fight them.

Well, besides turning hundreds of drones into teleporting bombs like her prosthetic eye or bombarding them with heat vision from a kilometer away.

Even wounded, Kara was clearly still far stronger, faster and more resistant than both of them. Her best strategy would be to take a few hits and get close enough to use strength to end the fight in a single hit.

She could probably take four or five blows for every one she dealt and still win the fight.

Unable to escape from the joint lock, Troia tapped out on the sand. Wonder Woman nodded towards Kara and went to talk with her sister letting Kori fly closer and give her a back breaking hug.

"Friend Kara, you came!"

"Told you I would," She said as she hugged her friend back. "Punching my problems away may not be my preferred method, but that doesn't mean I can't see the advantages of knowing how to do so."

"It is wonderful to have you here." Kori finally released her and floated away, "Please, would you like to do the sparring with me?"

"Starfire." Wonder Woman called as she helped Troia back to her feet. "Sorry to interrupt, but I was thinking of testing Kara's skill before anything else."

"It is not a problem. I have only taught Kara for a short time, but she is a most adroit pupil."

"What do you say, Kara? Feeling up for a spar?" Wonder Woman asked with a jovial tone as she waited at the same spot Kori and Troia had been fighting.

"I guess." Kara said and started stretching her arms as she walked towards the heroine. "You know I had no martial training before meeting Starfire less than three months ago, right?"

"Don't worry. I just want to get an idea of your condition. I'll hold back."

"Fine, just say when."

"I'm ready when you are." Wonder Woman answered with a kind smile.

"Fight well Friend Kara! I am sure The Wonder Woman will refrain from breaking too many of your bones!" Kori oh-so-helpfully cheered from the sidelines.

Well, she had been considering how she'd do in a straight up fight. Guess it was time to find out.

Without warning Kara accelerated as fast as she could and tried to punch her opponent in the face with a surprise attack, she tried to put everything behind the blow and end the fight as soon as it started. Fair fights were for idiots and people willing to lose after all.

Wonder Woman punched her back, her fist hitting Kara's with enough strength to cause a shockwave. Not exactly prepared for the collision, Kara was sent flying back, her feet digging into the ground and sliding back for almost two hundred meters before she managed to stop herself.

Her entire arm had gone numb from the collision and she had to shake it a little to regain the feeling, opening and closing her fist. Kara finally used her flight to float up and pull herself out of the ground she had sunk into.

Looking back towards the hero, Kara saw the woman hadn't moved from the spot, her body relaxed and only an eyebrow lifted at her. With an amused smile the Wonder Woman asked. "What was that?"

Kara considered her answer. Did she really think she could sucker punch Wonder Woman, or that she'd be stronger than her for that matter? Yes, yes she did.

"'Arrogance', I guess." She said with a sigh, Looking at the undisturbed sand under Wonder Woman's feet she couldn't help but frown. "Damn, you didn't even move."

"Kara, we can fly just by thinking about it, pushing against the ground for leverage is almost never the right option."

"Right, I knew that." Kara grumbled, then got serious and started using what little Kori had taught her.

At first she tried to bombard Wonder Woman with short blasts of her heat vision, but the heroine deflected them all with her bracelets and it seemed like doing any damage that way would cost far more than Kara was willing to use.

Her heat vision was one of her most costly abilities and she didn't want to waste it, she also didn't want to use her shouts or ice breath when she anticipated they wouldn't really do any damage and only cause her pain.

The two of them clashed with incredible strength. Moving as fast as she could, Kara delivered an overwhelming series of blows which Wonder Woman either dodged or blocked before striking back and forcing her to defend herself.

At first the Heroine's blows sent her flying back for dozens of meters or caused her to sink into the ground but, after only a couple of exchanges, Kara started to get the hang of things. Eventually, she only had to take a few steps back every time she was hit.

Then Kara started using her heat vision while in melee range, making Wonder Woman have to always keep track of her eye.

In truth, at their level, the ground was more a suggestion than the actual field of battle. Both of them could easily sink several kilometers into the ground without even making an effort if they wanted to.

The answer then on how to prevent being sent flying was, obviously enough, to use her flight ability. The only reason Wonder Woman didn't fly back or sink into the ground for hundreds of meters with every blow was because she was stopping herself from doing so.

Unfortunately, that also meant you had to take the full brunt of the blow every time, absorbing it all instead of dispersing it or turning it into momentum.

"Good, you really do learn fast." Wonder Woman complimented even as she leaned back, dodging a punch and making Kara overextend before kicking at her exposed ribs. "Sometimes, if you have the range, you'll still want to let yourself be sent flying. It gives you a few more seconds to counter the force of the blow or take a breath, but we're often fighting in a populated area so it's best not to count on that being an option."

Breathing hard and with her clothes soaked in sweat, Kara held her aching ribs and nodded towards her sparring partner.

Wonder Woman herself wasn't completely unscratched, Kara managed to get a few lucky hits in and the heroine had a new bruise on her cheek. She also had a light coat of sweat and a few strands of hair falling over her face.

"Ha, that was a great warm up," Wonder Woman laughed when she saw the disbelief in Kara's face, she waved a hand through her hair tucking the stray strands back and continued. "Don't worry, we're not sparring anymore, you wouldn't benefit from it anyway."

"Oh thank Rao! I don't think I could go for another round."

"Have to say, I didn't think you could last so long Blondie." Troia commented from the sidelines. "Not much skill there, but still much better than I expected from someone with so little training."

"I informed you of her prowess, Friend Troia." Kori stated happily while bringing a cup of water for the two.

"Yeah, I suppose you did." Troia nodded and looked at Kara with newfound respect. "So, are you gonna be joining us for training from now on?"

Kara grabbed at the water and drank it all in a single gulp before pushing against her knees and straightening her body again, considering things a little she breathed out and nodded.

"Yeah, I can't do this every day, but I think I'm gonna start coming at least twice a week from now on."

After that Wonder Woman started teaching them how to fight against stronger opponents and having them test their moves against each other.

In her last life, Kara had always heard that footwork was one of the most important things in a fight, but that meant less than zero when you could fly.

In fact, most of what the Amazon was teaching them was about how to avoid causing destruction and, if you were pushing against the ground and using footwork, you were probably causing a lot of damage to the streets.

Also, being hit through a building was surprisingly dangerous for the building, and for everyone inside it. No matter how often Kara had seen it in comics and cartoons a significant part of her lesson was reserved for how to avoid becoming a person shaped wrecking ball.

They only stopped an hour after the sun had set. Wonder Woman's house had half a dozen showers and, after washing themselves, they had a nice meal prepared by a chef she employed and trusted.

Outside of combat, both Diana and Troia wore comfortable white dresses with no sleeves. Kori herself wore only a tank top and gym shorts that hugged her body and left most of her legs and belly exposed.

Since her own clothes had gotten soaked with sweat, Kara had borrowed one of Troia's dresses with leather shoulder straps that was surprisingly comfortable, and fit her incredibly well.

She still preferred to wear pants, but having a few dresses wouldn't be entirely bad.

After dinner Troia threw herself down onto the sofa before starting to look for a movie to watch and Kori followed her out of curiosity.

Seeing as they were left alone Kara decided to take the chance and ask the woman about something.

"Say, Miss Diana…" Kara started to say.

"Just Diana outside the costume Kara." The older woman interrupted with a smile as she drank a glass of wine.

"Right, Diana, do you know how I could get in contact with Bruce in my civilian identity?" She asked, Kara could probably find out a way to do it herself, but there was no way to know how long that would take. "I wrote a business proposition I know he'd be interested in, but I'm not sure how to approach him without being suspicious."

Diana looked at her with some curiosity, but didn't ask how she knew Batman's secret identity. Looking at Troia and Kori busy in the living room she thought about the question.

"Well, Bruce does have a reputation as a playboy." She finally said with some hesitation. "There's gonna be a fundraising event in Gotham two days from now, the best way to approach him would be as a beautiful woman there."

Kara lifted an eyebrow at her in disbelief. "Are you saying I should…?"

"Well, you did ask and it is the easiest way." She smiled at Kara with amusement. "It definitely wouldn't raise any alarms about why he might be interested in your proposal."

"Ugh… just, ugh."

Damn it. Kara supposed Bruce Wayne was handsome enough, but he was her cousin's best friend… and old compared to her.

Although… now that she thought about it, that last part didn't weight as much for her, considering her previous life and all.

"Fine, I guess it wouldn't hurt." She said after considering the matter for a full minute. "Still, letting people think I got a deal because of my body just leaves a bitter taste in my mouth."

"Then don't do it. It's not a matter of life or death, is it?"

"No, I suppose it isn't." Kara sighed and took a glass of wine herself.

"Don't tell Clark I let you do that." Diana joked as she filled her glass.

"What? We're in Greece and I'm already 18 anyway, it says right there in my documents." Kara answered back smugly and traded amused smiles with the Amazon.

Soon, all four of them were sitting comfortably on Diana's giant sofa, even Diana had taken off her shoes and lay sprawled between a little mountain of pillows.

This time it was Kori that laid her head over Kara's lap as they relaxed while watching DC's version of the Lord of The Rings.

Chapter Text

Kara read the information on her computer one last time before letting out a sigh. Dropping the device on top of the table she scratched at her good eye before looking at the android still on the bed.

Fixing and improving Firebrand had been a very interesting project. The android's new sunstone batteries more than tripled her previous output, the new alloy improved her armor by 54% and her new wiring should make her reaction speed nearly twice as fast.

Despite all that, Kara just couldn't reactivate her. It seemed like Dr. Morrow had put a failsafe in order to prevent anyone else but him from turning the android back on.

Kara's computers could brute force it, but the risk of activating another failsafe and damaging Firebrand's programming was just too high. Kara had wanted to rescue the woman and give her a second chance, not finish killing her.

Mad scientists were such bullshit. There was no way T. O. Morrow should, using Earth technology from over half a century ago, have been able to block a hacking attempt by a Kryptonian program. Unfortunately for Kara and Firebrand, nobody had told that to Dr. Morrow, so the old man had done it anyway.

Once again, Kara cursed herself for having morals. Things would have been so much easier if she didn't care about the android's memories and personality.

Pushing her chair back, Kara let her computer continue attempting to find a weakness on Dr. Morrow's programming without risking her core and decided to focus on something else, namely, giving the gynoid better senses.

Kara had wanted to turn her on as soon as possible but, since that wasn't going to work out, she could start developing the necessary equipment to give her an actual sense of touch and taste. Both things that Dr. Morrow had neglected since it didn't affect her fighting ability.

Integrating a complete synthetic somatosensory system under Firebrand's synthetic skin would take another full week, and that was only because Krypton already had such things so Kara didn't have to invent them, just adapt them to work with Firebrand.

The annoying beep of Kara's alarm finally made her stop and look at the time. She was almost late for Bruce's party.

Stepping away from the chair, Kara made her way out of her ship and looked towards her newly grown moon base. It was still only two small rooms sitting on the surface and had already delayed the completion of her ship by a week, but… moon base!

She sighed. It was such a pity that she hadn't been able to get her own teleportation network working yet. Krypton had had teleportation technology, but it required some pretty rare materials and she didn't have access to them while on Earth.

Rao, she didn't know if Earth even had them to begin with.

Arriving back at her apartment an hour later, she tidied her clothes and grabbed the door handle, with only a second of hesitation Kara opened it.

Kori was already waiting for her, a huge smile on her face and her eyes shining with unholy light. Kara froze, shivered and tried to close the door.

"Excitement! Ecstasy! Euphoria!" The Tamaranean princess almost shouted as she tackled Kara and forcefully dragged her inside the living room to stand amongst more than a dozen different dresses. "Friend Kara you have finally arrived!, Master Diana and Friend Troia have left a large amount of clothes for your discretion. Let us start with 'The Dressing Up', yes?"

Kara looked at the room filled with dresses and outfits of all shapes, colors and sizes, most of which left entirely too much of her skin exposed, before shuddering.

"Ah, I was thinking I'd just wear a sui…" she stopped talking as she looked at Kori's huge, puppy dog eyes.

"Please, what is the quandary bothering you?" Kori asked as she put her face uncomfortably close to Kara's.

Taking a step back Kara looked at the… she counted them, the 18 dresses arrayed around the room. She looked back at Kori's eager face and shinning eyes. Admitting defeat, she dropped her shoulders and breathed out.

"I guess I just don't know where to start." She didn't even finish the sentence before Kori was holding a red high slit dress in front of her body. "Alright, let's get this over with."

Using her speed she grabbed the dress and went to her bedroom before putting it on in less than a minute. Standing in front of the mirror, she lifted an eyebrow as her image starred back at her.

It looked incredibly good.

Stepping back out she saw Kori waiting for her, feeling slightly embarrassed Kara opened her arms and slowly turned in place, when she completed her turn Kori was already holding a second dress.

Kara just took it. She knew when she was beaten.

In the end Kara had to test every single dress there, the only surprise was the fact that it wasn't a completely unpleasant experience. With her speed it hadn't been that much of a time waste and she had enjoyed Kori's reactions.

Kara suspected she'd have enjoyed it far more if their roles had been reversed, but Kori wasn't going with her this time.

In the end, she chose a black cocktail dress with a single strap over her left shoulder, it was unexpectedly comfortable and left her feeling… elegant. She liked it.

"Sorry you can't come with me Kori."

"Do not worry. We can most certainly do 'The Clubbing' at another opportunity."

Kori waved her goodbye as Kara grabbed a thumb-drive with her business proposal and made her way towards the Zeta-tube. Getting to Gotham City, she called for a cab and let it bring her towards the party.

Gotham's newest fundraising was actually being organized at Wayne Manor, so she was absolutely sure to meet the billionaire at least once without attracting unwanted attention or suspicion. It was quite the circuitous way of doing things, but the point was that even if one of their identities was found out it wouldn't splash on the other.

Stepping out of the cab in front of the huge gates, Kara could already see nearly a thousand people in fancy clothes partying. She wondered just how many of them were part of the Court of Owls.

With her senses it was pretty easy to find Bruce, she also found someone else of interest amongst the guests. Selina Kyle fit in perfectly with the fancy nobles on the property.

Kara briefly considered which one to approach first. Bruce seemed to be really busy receiving guests while Selina seemed unable to stop herself and already had a large jeweled ring hidden in her purse.

"Hello, Selina. Decided to ditch the leather today?" She called from behind the cat thief, almost causing her to jump out of her skin.

Giving her a death glare, Selina grabbed a drink from a nearby waiter and drained it halfway in a single gulp. Narrowing her eyes, she practically hissed. "What are 'you' doing here?"

"Trying to hand in a business proposition to the host." Kara replied matter of factly. She had already revealed her identity to the woman anyway so there was no need for too many games.

"Haaa… I didn't think you would be after the Wayne fortune too. You didn't seem the type." Selina gave her an appraising glance, looking from her elegant shoes to the top of her black dress. "Shows what I know I guess."

Kara made sure nobody was paying attention to them before answering truthfully.

"I'll have you know I'm not after his fortune, I'm after my own." Kara tried to get her own drink only for the waiter to deftly avoid her hand and give her a disapproving glare. "Right, we're in the United States. Anyways, I have a proposal Wayne can't refuse, but it'd help keep my identity a secret if people think they know why I got the deal."

"Well, who am I to judge, it's not like I don't use my body as a distraction too." She laughed and leaned against the table while finishing her drink. "Have to say though, I would definitely recommend getting to know Bruce Wayne. He's wonderful in bed you know."

"Spare me the details..." Kara looked at Bruce again and had to admit, the man did fill his clothes well. She thought about Kori and sighed. "But no, I'm kind of interested in someone already."

"Well, good for you." Selina said and continued to look at the guests. "Are you gonna be stopping me today?"

"No, no I don't think I will." Kara answered after only a brief moment of thought. "Just try to target people who really deserve it, it shouldn't be hard in this crowd."

"I'll just avoid the waiters then."

"That seems about right." Kara cringed at some of the things she was hearing from the conversations around her. "You know what, want to dance a little?"

"Sure, why not."

Relaxing a little, Selina pulled her into the middle of the dance floor. Despite Kara taking the role of the male it was Selina who controlled the dance, being far more experienced and skilled.

She made sure to guide them closer to the older dancers or the ones who seemed most distressed at their presence, making sure to be particularly sensual around the most prudish of the lot even as she stole from their pockets.

Kara was actually having fun for a while when she finally noticed the important guests stop arriving and Bruce being freed from his responsibilities. "Say, wants to introduce me to the owner of the house?"

"Well, if you want people to believe your proposal was accepted because you were a good lay, a threesome would probably do it."

Kara snorted, but didn't deny it. Mostly, she was amused to see Selina still didn't seem to know Batman's identity despite having dated Bruce before.

The man himself was inside the building talking with a kid Kara had never seen before. The boy was about 13 and looked somewhat small for his age, wearing a fancy suit and a tie.

Hmm. It seems like Richard Grayson was in the house.

Bruce caught sight of them approaching and lifted an eyebrow at Selina, then a second one when he recognized Kara in her arms. "Hello Bruce, wonderful party you're throwing. Have you met Kara before?"

"Selina… good to see you again, and I can't say that I have. It's a pleasure to meet you." With a smooth smile Bruce held Kara's hand and lifted it to his lips laying a light kiss on top, Robin grunted in disgust causing Bruce to introduce him. "This is Richard Grayson, my ward."

"Kara Danvers. It's an honor to meet you, Mister Wayne." Kara said with her best smile, and then turned towards the boy. "And you too Mr. Grayson."

"Ugh, you can just call me Dick, everyone does." Robin dismissed her greetings under the disapproving glance of his mentor.

"Oh, I'm really sorry." With the kindest smile she could manage, Kara put a hand on the boy's head and bent down, making sure to accentuate how much taller she was. "Frankly, I know kids can be cruel, but there's no need to call you names. Hang in there young man."

Selina snorted and even Bruce had a glint of humor on his eyes as Robin was left speechless. Before he could recover Kara got up and turned back towards Bruce.

"I really wanted to talk with you, Mr. Wayne., I'm sure I can manage to make it worth your time."

"I see. I can definitely make some time for you after the party."

"UGH! This is totally not whelming." Turning away from them the boy wonder lifted his arms and started walking further inside the mansion. "I think I'm done here, I'm going to my room."

Once mostly alone, Selina almost threw herself on Bruce's arms. Leaning on his chest she kissed him on the cheek and smiled. "Well, my work here is done so I'll leave the two of you alone to talk. See ya later Bruce."

The both of them watched as the woman walked away with a distinct feline movement to her waits. Finally, Bruce turned back towards Kara. "I'm surprised you know Selina."

"I can't say I really know her, but I liked her club and met her at the party." Kara commented, still staring at Selina's back. "You know, I think she's planning to steal from everyone in the party."

"What are you here for Kara?" Bruce questioned while ignoring her unnecessary comment and dropping the pretense of a Casanova.

So he already knew she was Catwoman… interesting but not surprising.

"Exactly what I said, I wanted to present you a proposal without having to wait years and your reputation gave me a good excuse." Kara replied. Fishing inside her own purse she pulled out the drive with her proposal and handed it to him. "Don't worry, this is strictly business related."

"I appreciate you trying to keep both things separated but, next time; just send it through your cousin." He told her as he pocketed the device. "If an alibi is needed I'm far better prepared to create it."

Well shit, Kara could see he was kinda right. Not that her own excuse was bad, but Batman had trained his entire life for it and, if she remembered right, even Alfred had been a secret agent before.

"Fine by me. Didn't really like slinking up to you like this anyway." Passing a hand through her hair she adjusted her dress and sighed, "Should I stay until the end of the party now?"

"No, you're not important enough for people to pay attention to you and, even if they do, they'll just assume I had you over another time. I have let them believe that often enough."

"Fine, do look at it, I'm sure you're gonna find it lucrative."

Leaving the mansion Kara made sure to keep a wide smile on her face. It wasn't very hard since her memory of meeting Robin was still fresh on her mind.

Damn Shorty making eyes at Kori… in the future… probably.

Shaking her head to dispel that strange train of thought, Kara considered how to get home, deciding to go for a short walk towards the teleport instead of just flying there.

Gotham City may be incredibly dangerous at night, but not for someone like her. In truth she was kind of disappointed, she had half expected some disaster to hit the party while she was still there and start a crisis for Batman.

Guess even in DC those things don't happen every day, it just seemed like it when you're reading from the comics. There probably wouldn't ever be charity galas in Gotham if every one of them got attacked by madmen.

In fact, after the way things had turned out as soon as she got to the planet, Kara had been expecting to constantly get attacked every time she looked out of the window.

Kara knew her luck would run out eventually, but she was enjoying the peace and quiet in the meantime.

Walking through the city she couldn't help but hear cries for help and stopped four muggings and a shootout by using her speed to just steal the weapons involved and stun the criminals with a VERY light tap to the head without anyone even seeing her.

She briefly wondered what people would think the next day? That the Flash had been in town?

Then she heard two punks laughing and joking as they hit something, stuffed it into a bag and were walking towards the bridge to throw it.

Rao be damned, she hated animal cruelty.

She arrived at the bridge and watched the bastards from behind, turning her head sideways to consider how she'd deal with them.

"Damn, this cat's going crazy man! Ahahahaha."

"Come on, you think it's gonna die when it hits the water or when it drowns?" one of the assholes filled with too many piercings asked.

"Who cares, just throw it." The second one said and grabbed for the bag.

"I do." Kara finally interjected as she kicked the mofo off the bridge and watched him sailing down. "I don't think it's high enough to kill him, but do you think he knows how to swim?"

"What the fuck are you doing, bitch!" The remaining asshole shouted looking from his belly flopping friend towards her face with a hateful glare.

"Yeah, I agree you should totally go help him."

Grabbing the bag out of his hand, Kara lifted the second mofo by the collar and flung him out of the bridge. "Hmm, I guess both of them can't swim."

Kara gently opened the bag to find an extremely angry, light blue cat. The kitty immediately went wild trying to scratch her but Kara ignored its attempts. "Shhhh, it's alright, the bastards are gone now. Look."

The cat just tried to take out her eye, its claws bouncing off her fake one without leaving a scratch. Kara held it close to her chest and slowly started petting it while looking at the two bastards desperately trying to survive in the river.

Eventually, one of them managed to reach the riverbank and drag himself out of the river, but the second one finally lost his strength and started to truly drown. Kara waited a few seconds then sighed and saved the bastard.

Grabbing both assholes, Kara saw they had soaked drugs inside their pockets and dropped them on top of a police car.

The cat had finally calmed down and was actually starring at both guys as if it held a grudge, his sharp claws digging into Kara's arm with barely contained rage. Kara petted it again until it relaxed and calmed down.

"Ah, you're a good kitty after all." She called out in a stupid voice as she looked at its collar, a little metal plaque in the shape of a fish with its name and owner phone. "So you're Dexter, come on let's see if we can't find your owner."

Finding Dexter's owner was easy, Kara just called the number and got the address. Unfortunately the woman was dead and it had been a policeman who took the call.

Kara let the cat see its owner one last time and managed to convince the Police to release some of its things that weren't in the same room the crime had happened, but the cat couldn't stay in the midst of a police investigation.

Kara looked at the exhausted cat as it slept in her arms and couldn't bear to leave it. New cat in hand, she had to fly back to Fawcett City since he wasn't recognized by the Zeta-tube network and then spent the rest of the night getting it adjusted to her apartment.

The next week was busy but otherwise uneventful. Dexter got into a few fights with Kori, but the Tamaranean eventually won the kitty over and he seemed to be getting better. Still incredibly aggressive, clawing at everything he could reach, but also incredibly needy when sleeping on her bed.

Kara trained with Wonder Woman another two times, both of which were entirely focused on diminishing collateral damage and protecting civilians.

Bobo called her and said he had some new information about The Light, but The Shade hadn't contacted her and Green Arrow had asked her for a little more time for Roy and his clone. With Firebrand still out of commission Kara didn't mind the delay so much.

She had gotten the detective trying to locate Dr. Morrow's location, but that too would take some time.

Even better, Kara and Kal had spent two entire days going over the information on Kryptonian technology and Kara had managed to convince Kal to not destroy every doomsday weapon in it. He had refused to build anything too powerful, but if a planet- eating monster showed up they could make something useful in only a day or two.

Kara had also gotten the Fortress to build her an emergency armor. It wasn't anything too impressive since the Fortress only had a very limited amount of the materials needed. That and Kara wanted to keep it in reserve in case it was needed for something else.

In the meantime, her company was getting back on its feet. With access to new funding Mr. Blackwell turned out to be a surprisingly competent manager.

They had an appointment in a few days to hash out the details, but Kara could already see it was gonna work out as soon as Bruce finished analyzing her proposal, maybe she'd get Dubbilex involved too. It would be mostly his people working there and his management could make her life easier until she found a fitting CEO, or at least a COO to run the day-to-day.

"Mrraw!" Dexter protested and tried to sink his claws into her tights as Kara tried to move him out of her lap. He couldn't hurt her, but her clothes were paying the price for defiance against the little overlord.

"Sorry Dexter, I have to take my little cousin to a meeting today."

She finally pried the cat away from her pants and he hung bonelessly from her arms. His first plan thwarted, the kitty looked at her with huge eyes and started purring, almost forcing Kara to put him back down and accept being late.

Fortunately, Kara resisted his mind control powers and let him down on the sofa while getting up. "Sorry, I really have to go."

Taking the closest Zeta-Tube to Smallville, Kara put on her mask and started flying the rest of the way towards the farm. Kon had his first reunion with the sidekicks today and Kara had promised Kal she'd be there for him.

Well, with everything going on, she had forgotten to make a public costume so she wouldn't be meeting the rest of the team herself, but she'd at least bring him to Kori and the two of them could arrive together.

Approaching the farm she started concentrating on the noise coming from there, quickly locating Martha, Jonathan and Kon talking about the day he had ahead of him.

Kon really seemed to love the Kents. He found the farm's lack of noise calming and farm work to be very relaxing. Having already raised one super-strong kid they had experience with his problems and Kon seemed calmer and calmer every time Kara visited.

Seeing as she was a little early, Kara slowed down and just enjoyed the sensation of flying. There was nothing better than the sheer pleasure of the wind passing over her body at high speeds, or even just letting herself drop in freefall then recovering at the last second and flying up again.

Her mind was concentrating so much on the farm she only heard someone approaching her from behind when it was too late.

A shiver on the back of her neck was Kara's only warning, she reacted on instinct, turning around and protecting her head with an arm just catching a brief glimpse of a long chain as it hit her in the shoulder with so much force it shredded her jacket and made her cry out in pain.

The chain wrapped itself twice around her body until the sharp point of a hook hit her just above her collar bone. Though unable to break through her skin it still left a bruise and made her lose control of her flight. Suddenly, her enemy whipped the chain down.

She hit the ground with a bang, immediately using Wonder Woman's teachings to try and stop herself, but still creating a hundred meters wide crater.

Furious at the cheap shot, Kara grabbed at the chain with both hands and, seeing as they were in the middle of nowhere, returned the gesture, whipping whoever had just attacked her down into the ground and creating a second crater, one twice as big as her own and lifting another cloud of dust into the air.

From the middle of the dust cloud she could hear a very amused male laugh, then the owner of the chain started pulling on it to drag her closer.

Gathering her will, Kara put everything she had on her flight and tried to resist the pull, when that didn't help she got worried.

Finally, the cloud dispersed and she could see who was attacking her, there was only one thing she could say. "Ah shit."

Chapter Text

"Ah, shit!" Kara repeated herself, her muscles straining uselessly against the chain wrapped around her body.

Standing only fifty meters from her was the giant and shirtless form of Lobo, DC's most infamous bounty hunter.

Lobo was just… huge. While Kal had more of a swimmer's build, the bounty hunter was made of muscles upon muscles with arms as large as Kara's waist. He basically looked like the stylized album cover version of an 80's heavy metal singer on steroids.

The very end of his chain was still wrapped around his bulging arm and the pale man was pulling her slowly towards himself with a smile on his face.

"Lobo, what the hell are you doing here?" Kara grunted, equal parts fear and anger.

"Heh, seems like even Kryptonians know to fear the Main Man. You guys really are as smart as they say!" Lobo mocked, but continued to drag her closer

In a hurry, Kara grabbed at the chain and tried to break it, but the metal was able to resist her strength somehow and only released a groan.

Trying to fly away was useless so Kara did the opposite. Rushing Lobo caused the chain to give her enough slack that she managed to slip out of it and kick him in the face as hard as she could.

Lobo took the hit without even trying to protect himself and went flying, skidding across the ground for a hundred meters before his hand grabbed at the floor and he stopped himself.

"Feisty! I like it!" He laughed as he snapped his nose back into place and snorted a glob of blood out. "I'd offer ya a…"

Kara hit the asshole with the strongest blast of heat vision she could manage before he could finish the sentence.

The attack hit him with physical force, driving his body back and through the ground for nearly a kilometer and incinerating a path of destruction. The farmland around her attack caught fire, its flames spreading rapidly through the crops.

Kara cut off the attack and turned away from the Kent farm. Before Lobo could recover she started fleeing.

A single command activated her panic button, sending a message to the Justice League, Kori, Kal and even Batman at the same time as her leg started reconfiguring itself into her emergency teleporter.

Kara was just starting to think she had escaped when her ears caught a sound that chilled her blood.

From the Kents' direction she heard Kon telling Martha he was gonna check out a noise he heard.

"Fuck!" Kara didn't know if Lobo had come specifically for her or if any Kryptonian would do, but she wasn't willing to risk it.

Stopping herself in the middle of the sky, Kara turned around to see Kon taking a huge leap towards Lobo's location.

The bounty hunter himself was just getting up and seemed in no hurry to follow after her. Kara wanted to scream.

"Bastich, I think I'm in love!" Lobo shouted as he got back to his feet, his burned face already starting to heal and his black hair to grow back.

Pulling a giant cigar from his back pocket, Lobo bit the tip off and used the fire around him to light it up. He took a huge drag on the cancer stick and finally looked up at Kara, lifting an eyebrow when he saw she wasn't running. "Heh. And I thought I'd have to hunt you down again."

Kara was paralyzed with indecision. She wanted nothing more than to fly away but, with Kon coming here and Lobo seemingly disinclined to follow her, she couldn't do it.

She considered catching Kon before he arrived, but she also didn't know how fast Lobo was and couldn't risk leading him any closer to the Kents' farm, the man wasn't exactly known for his aversion to killing innocents.

"Why are you here, Lobo?" Kara repeated herself, hoping that she could get him talking and delay him.

"Seems like you stole something from some pussy-ass lizard people and they put a bounty on y'head. Something about their progenitors or some shit." He pointed at her with two fingers while puffing out a huge cloud of smoke. "Always wanted to bag myself a Kryptonian so I took the bounty, and the Main Man always delivers."

Shit, how the hell did they find out about her? She and Kori had made sure to destroy all the data in the ship when they took it over.

Also, Kara hadn't stolen anything from them. Well, maybe the ship itself, but it was just a common ship, damnit.

Kara took the chance to release every drone she carried in her pockets, the little round devices weren't really weapons, but she could overload their self-destruction and turn them into low power grenades.

Not like that would hurt someone like Lobo, but it could distract him.

Damnit, Kara just knew things had been going too well. Why didn't she bring an actual weapon?

Lobo started calmly walking towards her, twirling his chain in his hand and causing it to sing as it cut through the air.

"Now come here, Princess. The damn Lizards are mostly interested in some bullshit organ they put in ya, so let the Main Man make your insides into the outsides and we can find it together."

The chain flew towards her faster than she could see. Kara was ready and still managed to dodge to the side, but Lobo pulled on the chain and whipped it towards her, almost taking her head off.

On reflex Kara ducking under the swing, but she wasn't fast enough to dodge Lobo himself as he jumped up and grabbed her boot.

"Gotcha. Now let me punch your face in for ya!"

"Fuck off!" Kara stomped down on the brute, but Lobo only grabbed her other leg and squeezed, his strength so great it actually caused her pain.

Looking at Lobo, Kara tried to burn his face off with heat vision again. The Czarnian just leaned his head away and swung them both around in the air causing her shot to go wide, burning a line through the farmland and hitting a barn a few kilometers away, setting it on fire.

Fuck, even here she had to worry about collateral damage!

Lobo took the chance to grab at her shirt and pull himself up her body, cackling in amusement the entire time.

Using the interface on her eye, Kara ordered one of her drones to fly into Lobo's eye and explode.

"Argh." He finally took a hand away from her body to protect his eye.

Kara acted fast. Twisting her body, she ripped the leg of her pants off and caused Lobo's remaining hand to slide off her body holding only a piece of cloth. His body started tumbling down to the ground fast.

With a shout of rage she took the chance to punch him in the kidney and accelerate his fall. He hit the ground with a shockwave and immediately turned around, but Kara was already on top of him, delivering a knee to his stomach.

She used her speed to punch him in the face twice before activating her heat vision again and trying to burn through his neck. The blast was so hot it vaporized the crops around them and scorched the ground.

She just managed to burn her way to his spine when he grabbed her face, his enormous hand blocking her vision.

Kara felt herself being lifted as Lobo got to his feet and ordered all her drones to bombard him, forcing the bounty hunter to use his other arm to destroy her small army.

Having never stopped using her heat vision, Kara's drones brought her enough time to burn through Lobo's hand and amputate two of his fingers, loosening his hold.

Before Kara could take her distance, Lobo kicked her in the chest, folding her body in half and sending her flying back.

"Feetal's Gizz, what a rush! I ain't had this much fun since I stitched my granddad's eyes shut and sent 'im walking through traffic!" Lobo screamed. A giant smile on his face.

A hundred meters away, Kara held her chest with a hand and tried to recover her breath. Heat vision was probably her most costly ability and she had been abusing it.

"Kara!" Kon shouted when he finally got close enough to see them.

With another giant leap the boy dropped by Kara's side in a superhero landing. Putting a hand on her shoulder he checked her for any wounds before looking towards Lobo.

"Bastich. Another one of ya Kryptonians, I knew I wuz gonna have fun t'day! Just fraggin' KNEW it!" Lobo laughed out loud as he shook his wounded hand, his fingers already starting to grow back.

"Kara, who's that?" Kon asked as Kara finally righted herself, her chest still hurting.

"Lobo, psychotic bounty hunter extraordinaire." Kara glanced at Kon and saw the boy was tense, his eyes glued to the enemy as if he just wanted to charge in and start punching. "Don't. I already called for help, we just gotta delay him."

For a second, it seemed like Kon wasn't gonna listen to her, but then he released a breath and nodded causing Kara to smile.

"Alright punks, it's kinda ah tragic fraggin' waste, but the Main Man is on the clock. And if your buddies are coming I'm gonna have to stop playing around with ya." Lobo cracked his neck and rolled his shoulders. "Tell ya what, the more ya struggle the more it's gonna hurt so, y'know, feel free to go crazy!"

Lobo exploded into action, his speed much faster than before. Both Kara and Kon ducked under a swing of his chain and Kara barely had time to cross her arms in front of her chest before getting hit by a flying knee.

Kon tried to punch Lobo in the face, but the hunter reacted instantly. Grabbing his hand Lobo pulled Kon out of balance and head-butted him into the ground.

Kara recovered and attacked with a kick which Lobo blocked with his chain wrapped around his arm. Kara managed to avoid getting grabbed again but Lobo's hook glanced off the side of her head with enough strength to disorient her.

The Czarnian turned towards Kara, giving Kon enough time to jump to his feet and punch him twice in the side, then climb on his neck and try to put him into a sleeper hold.

"What's this, amateur hour?" Lobo grabbed at Kon, but it left him open for Kara to strike him in the balls. "Gah!"

No matter how Kon tried to hold on, Lobo still managed to pry the arm away from his throat with a single hand. He then swung at Kara, using her little cousin's body as a bludgeon.

Kara managed to dodge it and kick at Lobo's arm, but the bounty hunter didn't release his new club.

"Aaaargh!" Kon screamed and grabbed at his arm with his free hand.

"No!" Unable to keep her mind calm, Kara charged right in, tackling Lobo which caused him to drop Kon but rewarded her with a knee to the face.

Before Kara could recover, Lobo lifted both hands and delivered a devastating hammer blow to the back of her head, burying her body deep into the ground.

Under the ground, Kara realized they may not be able to buy enough time. The fight had only lasted for a few minutes and Kara really doubted she could survive another.

She thought about the teleport in her leg. It was already ready. Activating it would be so easy. A single command and she'd be away from here and safe inside the Fortress.

Unfortunately, it could only take one Kryptonian to the Fortress. She couldn't take Kon with her or send Lobo instead.

A huge arm dug into the ground and grabbed her by the hair lifting her up with barely any resistance. Bringing her head up Lobo stared into her face with a grim. "What's the matter? Y'done already?"

"RAAAAAAAA!" Kon screamed as he rushed from the side and punched Lobo in the head.

The Czarnian dropped Kara and took two steps back, but Kon didn't stop there, raining a flurry of blows at his face and screaming all the while.

Kara tried to help, but she was still disoriented from the last blow and couldn't even manage to fly, only managing to stumble towards them.

Finally, Lobo had enough. Grabbing his hook he swung up, forcing Kon to stop his attack and jump back.

In the air, Kon was unable to dodge the second hook strike. Not being fully Kryptonian he wasn't as resistant as Kara and the hook dug deeply into his side splashing blood all over Lobo's arm.

When Kon fell back to the ground he stumbled and fell to his knees in pain.

In desperation, Kara tried to rush to his help, only to fall down, her legs unable to support her. With one last effort she used her eye's interface to delay her teleport by three seconds. Ripping her prosthetic leg off, she threw it as hard as she could towards Kon.

Lobo reacted; his instincts making him swat the projectile out of the sky. Kara watched it hit the ground and, with a loud pop, disappear.

"Huh." The Czarnian looked at where the leg used to be, then shrugged and walked towards Kon with a maniacal grim on his face. "Y'know, ya punch like a chump but y're tenacious, I'll give you that!"

"I'm almost sorry to have to kill ya… Ah, who'm I kiddin'. I'm not sorry at all!" Kon tried to fight back, but Lobo kicked him in the head one last time, sending him back a few dozen meters, worsening his wounds and causing him to finally pass out. "Now, I never fragged a Kryptonian before, y'fella gonna be my first. I'm almost shy!"

Unable to get herself up, Kara dug into her eye socket and pulled out her last prosthetic before throwing it at Lobo as hard as she could.

Once again the bounty hunter swatted it out of the sky with his chain, his swing so fast the bomb flew a few meters away before it had time to implode.

The effect was devastating. The displaced space first drew Kara a few centimeters closer to its effect, then it seemed to break with a deafening bang, violently and randomly cutting everything in its range into a thousand pieces and teleporting them into different directions.

Kara stayed down for a few seconds. Finally, she managed to push herself into a kneeling position and laugh.

She had done it! The device should have splattered Lobo all over the place buying them enough time. It just had to!

"Hey ya fraggin bitch, those chains cost money!" All color fled from Kara's face as she heard the Czarnian's voice. "I was gonna do you the favor of killing ya, but nobody gets away with breaking th' Main Man toys like that. Now I'm gonna hand ya to the bastards alive."

Kara finally saw the bounty hunter. Lobo hadn't escaped the explosion unharmed. He was missing his entire right arm and most of his chest, his head was only connected to the rest of his body by a small strip of flesh and his ribcage was left fully exposed.

He also didn't really seem to care.

Blood flowed freely through the ground and he seemed to barely be on his feet, but soon the blood stopped and his exposed flesh started squirming as it regenerated.

Getting his feet back under him, Lobo used hand to hold his head in place until it grew enough flesh to stay on his body. It must have taken an entire minute, but Kara just stood there, looking.

No, she just refused to believe it.

She refused to believe this utter asshole was just gonna kill her newest little cousin.

She absolutely refused to believe he was gonna hand her back to the Psions, to once again become one of their experiments.

No!

In her first life Kara had just been getting her life in order, had gotten a job and started to be happy when it was all taken away as she died.

NO!

She had been gifted a second chance. A second life on Krypton where she had a family, a bright future, maybe even a chance to leave her mark on the world. But that too had been taken away, even more completely than her previous one.

NO!

Now she had just started to rebuild it all, she had a best friend, she had a family again, she had people who loved her and this… this… thing was just going to…

NO! She refused!

With a roar of absolute anger, Kara threw herself at the regenerating Lobo, a red aura manifesting itself around her, sharp spikes of pure rage forming around it.

Lobo used his remaining arm to punch her, but one of the spikes dug into his flesh and divided his fist in half.

Kara seemed to forget about her wounds, forget about her pain. The only thought in her mind was to utterly obliterate her enemy.

"DIEEEEE!" She shouted, her voice distorted by emotion.

In her anger she grabbed his arm and turned one of her spikes into a thin blade, severing it completely before throwing it away as hard as she could.

The aura around her arm turned physical, lengthening her fingers into claws that she used to push an arm through his chest and pull out his heart.

Lobo head butted her, snapping her head back. He then did it again and again, laughing like a maniac the entire time, but it only served to increase her rage.

Grabbing his head with both hands, she twisted it all the way around and ripped it off before hundreds of rage spikes ripped his body into pieces.

"DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE!" Kara squeezed his head between her arms and activated her heat vision one last time, the heat burning through Lobo's flesh until there was only a skull left, then even that crumbled into ash.

Despite Lobo's total destruction, Kara continued to rage, screaming out like a madwoman. She completely lost track of time as she struck against an inexistent enemy and sent spikes of red light cutting through the ground.

Finally, she fell back to her knees breathing hard, her rage having diminishing and the red aura around her slowly fading away. Breathing hard, she felt the tears falling down her eyes and into the completely ravaged ground.

Strong arms enveloped her and pulled her closer to a chest covered with the red symbol of house El. "Shhhh, it's alright. He can't hurt you anymore."

She looked up to see Kal, his face concerned but also filled with half a dozen small cuts. His costume too was filled with small cuts from her power.

A second set of arms hugged her from the front. Kara turned her eyes to see Kon, a huge gash on his forehead, an eye already starting to swell up, but otherwise fine. She cried harder.

Gently, Kal lifted her into his arms and cleaned her face with a thumb; still crying, Kara buried her face into his chest and shook as the Kryptonian equivalent of adrenaline left her body.

Lifting his eyes, he considered the destruction around them, his face turning into one of utter fury, his eyes shining red with barely contained power.

"Again." Kal quietly whispered. His voice was sadder than Kara had ever heard before. "I won't allow this to happen again, I can't."

"FRIEND KARA!" Kori shouted as she finally arrived.

The Tamaranean princess dropped right in front of Kal and was quickly followed by Wonder Woman.

With some of her regained strength Kara managed to push her face away from Kal's chest. Her cousin reluctantly released her, letting Kara float under her own power for a brief second before Kori glomped her.

Kara buried her face in Kori's shoulder and held on with everything she had. The Tamaranean hugged her back, her hands carefully supporting Kara in case she lost her power.

"It is alright, I am here for you." Kori soothed and held Kara's head in her hands. She adjusted Kara's hair away from her face with a finger and kissed her in the forehead. "I will always be here for you."

Kara let herself be held in Kori's arms, enjoying the fleeting sense of security she could bring. She knew she'd have to let go, but she really wished they could stay like that forever.

"So, what are you doin' after? Cuz bastich, that fight was hot!" Said someone from the ground.

Everyone reacted, Kori held Kara in her arms and floated up to get some distance from the sound while Kal put himself in front of Kon, his eyes shining red.

Without anyone to protect, it was Wonder Woman that advanced, finding a pool of blood and pieces of meat with a half regenerated head inside.

"What's the matter? Ya never seen a guy regenerate from his own blood before?" Said Lobo's head, still missing most of its left side. "Wonder where you threw that arm, cuz I tell ya, that's gonna be a pain to deal with in a week or two."

Chapter Text

Fifteen minutes later, Kara was still feeling a little shaken. She and Kori watched as Kal used his frost breath to put out the fire's all around them. Unfortunately, the cold probably also killed the crops around the place.

Kon himself had woken up angrier than ever, but he had calmed down after a minute or two. As a half Kryptonian under sunlight he still had some impressive regeneration and the wounds Lobo had given him were already closing.

The largest chunk of the bounty hunter himself hung from Wonder Woman's shoulder, he was still only a head with the bare hints of a neck starting to grow. His hair was tied into a convenient handle and Wonder Woman had used her Lasso of Truth as a gag to keep him from talking.

"You sure you should be using a divine artifact like that?" Kara couldn't help but ask, after all, the Lasso was usually used to force people to talk, not the other way around.

"Do not worry. While this isn't exactly its intended purpose, I have to confess I hardly used the Lasso for a more satisfying cause." The heroine told them as she started looking around the devastated farmland. "I do believe even the gods would approve."

An old farm truck approached them from the direction of the city, the young man driving it parked just before the devastated area and got out. "Jesus, my crops!" without knowing what to do the man just grabbed at his head.

With the fires put out, Kal started floating down to talk with the farmer, a smile on his face.

"Tell him I'll pay for the damages." Kara whispered and saw the slight tilt of her cousin's head indicating he had heard her.

The damage of their battle was extensive, and the farmer's insurance probably didn't cover villain damage this far away from a big city.

"I'll start marking the area Lobo's blood has affected." Wonder Woman put a hand on Kori's shoulders and nodded. "Superboy, you willing to help me out by making sure I don't miss anything?"

"Yeah, sure." Kon pushed himself to his feet.

As Kal continued to explain to the farmer what had happened and how the League weren't going to leave him in the lurch, the two heroes started trying to mark a large area around the battle for incineration, the crops were already dead anyway and it was best to be sure no new Lobo's would grow from a piece of him they missed.

Kara wanted to help out as well but was still feeling exhausted, and confused.

Together with Kori they just floated up and went to sit on top of the half destroyed barn to wait and watch until everything was done. Kara would react to any strange noises and only Kori's presence by her side prevented her from fully freaking out.

"Sorry, you and Kon are missing the sidekicks' meeting." Kara apologized, but it only earned another hug from Kori.

"Absurdity, foolishness, madness. How could I abandon you after that-that zarbnoff… no, that glempork attacked you!" Kori said, her fists shaking with anger as she stared directly at Kara's eyes, suddenly she threw her arms around Kara's neck and squeezed. "I am so overjoyed you are safe, Friend Kara!"

Feeling Kori's arms around her body, and knowing her cousin was near to deal with any danger, Kara finally let herself sag into Kori's embrace, her entire body shaking. Squeezing her eye shut, she took in Kori's feel, her scent and her aura before pretending everything else didn't matter for a few minutes.

Slowly, Kori adjusted her position and laid Kara's head on her lap, gently caressing her hair and starting to make tinny braids.

Eventually, the two of them had to fly up, Wonder Woman held Kon by their side while Kal opened his eyes wide and released a controlled blast of heat vision, incinerating everything on the demarcated area. Turning it into ash to prevent Lobo's regeneration.

"Is it done?" Kal asked and Wonder Woman shook her head.

"No, we could not find his missing arm." She said as she grabbed Lobo's head from her shoulder.

"Well, I'm not seeing it either. I'll inform Batman but, at this point, I think we'll just have to deal with it when he shows up again." Kal sighed and turned his gaze to Kara and Kon's way once again. He looked back at Wonder Woman. "Accompany us to the Fortress? I know they're mostly fine, but I want to do another scan on them."

Diana gave Kal a kind smile and let him take Kon from her hands, holding Lobo by his hair she nodded. "Of course, I can make some time for this."

Together, all five of them flew as fast as they could towards the Fortress. Inside a planet's atmosphere there was very little difference in their speed and soon they dropped in front of the crystal structure.

Kon seemed annoyed he had to be carried around, but Kal laid a hand on his back and smiled. "I used to have to walk everywhere too. Only got my flight when I was, what, twenty?"

Kon stared at Kal for a second then nodded with a small smile on his face. "Thanks."

"Don't worry too much about it. Heck, Batman doesn't have any powers and he gets around just fine. I'm sure you're gonna adapt before long." Kal opened the fortress and they all walked inside even as he continued talking, almost as if he wanted them to distract them from what had happened. "I remember I even beat the Flash in a race once… don't think I can do that again, I'm a lot slower now that I don't run so much."

"Clark, you do know the Flash let you win that race, right?" Wonder Woman asked with amusement causing Kal to turn on her with a surprised look.

"What? Slander! I won that race fair and square!" He said in indignation.

"It was for charity Clark, he let you win once." Wonder Woman said with an amused smile on her face.

"Lies!" He mock-shouted, then saw the Fortress AI manifest in front of them. "Alright, prepare the healing pods for Connor and Kara please."

"As you wish Master Kal-El," the image of Jor-El said and turned towards Kara. "Miss Kara, I took the liberty of getting one of your spare prosthetics ready for you."

Kara traded glances with Kori and finally released her hand, a slight blush on her face. "Alright, were you able to recover my leg?"

"Yes, the Kryptium casing is perfectly fine, but the sunstone inside it had to be completely replaced." Jor-El's image said and Kara nodded, using her flight to stay on her feet.

"How long is it gonna take?"

"Again, I took the liberty of scrapping the damaged sunstone and placing one of the spare sunstone crystals inside, it will only take a few hours in the solar chamber before it is finished growing."

Kara nodded; she had programmed a few spare crystals with the configurations of her leg in case it was ever damaged. In a solar chamber, the crystals should be able to absorb sunlight much faster and develop at an accelerated pace.

Kal accompanied Kon inside one of the rooms while Jor-El guided Wonder Woman towards the emergency cells inside the fortress so she could finally drop Lobo off. A second manifestation of Jor-El guided Kara towards another of the healing rooms.

Stopping right at the entrance, Kara gulped and turned towards Kori. "Keep me company?"

"I will not leave your side, Friend Kara." Kori said as she followed her.

Looking at the healing pod awaiting her, Kara took a few deep breaths and squeezed Kori's hand. Finally, she gathered her courage and took her damaged clothes off, stepping into the pod and laying back against the comfortable seating.

"In-In the fight against Lobo, I…" Kara almost choked at her own words, after a second she swallowed and completed her sentence. "Lobo said there was an important organ inside me and I also showed a new power while fighting him, something not common to a Kryptonian. Can you take a deeper look at it?"

"Certainly, Miss Kara Zor-El." The AI nodded and briefly looked aside as if it was reading something. "I have to say, it is entirely possible this is simply a different manifestation of your Kryptonian heritage. There are thousands of possible powers a Kryptonian can manifest under yellow sunlight radiation and would therefore not register as abnormal to my programming previously, but I will certainly look into the matter."

"Thank you." With that said, Kara gave Kori one last look and let the pod's door close.

She thought she'd be able to stay awake for the entire time but, once the pod started healing her, she was quickly hit with the sheer exhaustion she had been holding back and fell asleep.

.

.

Kara woke up with a startle. Her hands immediately started banging against the lid of the pod with frantic hurry as her mind flashed back to her time under the Psions.

With a strong kick she sent the lid flying and jumped out of the pod, falling down to the floor and hyperventilating.

"I am awake!" Kori shouted as she slipped from her chair and fell to the floor, "I am here, Friend Kara, you are safe."

Seeing her friend with dark bags under her eyes, Kara finally calmed down. She let herself sit down and lean against the pod before sighing. At least she only damaged the lid. The Fortress could fix that fairly easily.

Banging her head against the pod, she noticed her shaking hands and grabbed at them, forcing her limbs to stop trembling. Only a second later did she feel Kori's own hands grabbing at hers and squeezing.

"How long was I out?" She finally asked.

"Nearly twenty hours. Truthfully, you were completely healed in seven. However The Superman and I decided to let you sleep a little longer."

Taking another deep breath, Kara noticed she had both her leg and eye back, looking down at her leg she wiggled her toes to test their motion and nodded in satisfaction.

"And you, were you awake the entire time?" Kara asked, seeing the bags under Kori's eyes.

"I did not wish for you to awake and be alone." Kori said, glancing at the pod's lid piercing the ceiling and causing Kara to snort. "The pod of healing does resemble a Psion device."

"Thanks… What would I do without you?" Together, they got up from the ground and Kara found an empty bedroom for Kori to rest.

Despite her increased resistance, Kori had been awake for nearly two days now and her dislike of the situation didn't help. Tamaraneans were incredibly vulnerable to negative emotions, it made them weaker.

"Are you certain you do not need me any more, Friend Kara?" Kori asked even as her eyes struggled to stay awake.

"Don't worry, I'm feeling much better already. Just rest Kori."

After Kori finally started resting, Kara waited a few minutes just thinking about things before asking the room. "Did you find anything in the examination?"

"Certainly." Jor-El materialized at her side, his face impassive as always. "It seems like your body has fully integrated the alien organ inserted into it, it's no longer inert."

"What exactly is it doing then?" Kara asked.

Jor-El briefly glanced at Kori before starting to talk. "The organ seems strangely similar but not exactly equal to Tamaranean biology, it is constantly releasing a minimal level of psionic energy and, while this is only a hypothesis at the moment, said energy seems to fluctuate with your mood."

"So it gets stronger the angrier I get?" Kara asked, feeling both tired and curious.

"Incorrect, it still needs further observation, but seems to react to any strong emotion." The AI said with an amused smile. "Even then, the fluctuations are very small and it would need an extremely large emotional response to manifest."

"Well shit." Kara couldn't help but say, leaning back on her chair she snickered, her laughter grew louder and louder until she had to put a hand over her mouth to stop herself from waking Kori up. "What the hell were those stupid lizards trying to do?"

"Apologies Miss Kara, but the Fortress does not have that information at the moment."

"Of course it doesn't. It would be too easy if it did." Kara wanted to curse, if only she specialized in biology.

Ah, who was she kidding, if she had the necessary knowledge to solve this particular problem she was probably gonna have to deal with a rogue AI or some problem with her soul instead.

"Uncle, please, scrap that power-armor I ordered built," Kara said after a few moments of thinking. "I'm gonna have to start from scratch."

"Miss Kara, I hope you're not thinking of using the blue star radiation suit?" Jor-El looked at her with enough disapproval on his face to almost make Kara wince. "You know it may increase your powers, but it will also vastly accelerate the deterioration of your damaged cells."

"I'm not going to be using it constantly, or really, before I'm fully healed." Kara defended, and already started considering the modifications she'd make. "But I NEED to have the option. I can't allow myself to be that vulnerable again."

Jor-El sighed and shook his head. "May I suggest you speak with Master Kal-El first?"

"Good idea, I'm gonna ask him to incorporate some of the weapons we discarded. Maybe unlock that file with the really dangerous tech."

"That… was not what I had in mind Miss Kara and you know it." Jor-El tried to intimidate her with his stare for a few seconds, but she kept in mind he was not the head of her house and he gave up when she wasn't responding. "Very well, I'll start the modifications."

Kara spent the next few hours modifying her plans for a power-armor, including a variety of things such as energy weapons strong enough to stun even a Kryptonian and various prototypes based on the teleporting grenade Kara kept in her eye.

She also started working on turning her drones into teleporting grenades; it would make them slightly bigger and less stealthy, but the ability to destroy a cubic meter and a half of space around themselves more than made up for it.

As she continued tapping into the screen of her device Kara saw a hand grabbing at her arm and stopping it, causing her to notice she had been shaking again. Staring at her trembling limb she willed herself to stop, squeezing the device for a second or two before finally looking up and meeting Kal's eyes.

"Come on. Let's talk where we don't risk waking up your friend." He nodded towards the exit.

"Fine." Kara barked, already feeling insecure.

She was supposed to be the older one, the one looking over him. Not the one who needed help every Rao be damned time.

Kara followed Kal towards the same table they once had breakfast on, two glass bowls of ice cream waited for them.

"I'm not a kid. You can't placate me with ice cream." Kara grunted, but sat down and started eating it anyway.

It may not placate her, but it was still ice cream.

Kal just gave her a look and smiled. "I'm not trying to placate you, just to make you feel better, is it working?"

Kara scooped another spoonful of vanilla ice cream and sighed. "Yes, kinda. I'm still gonna be filling my armor with enough weapons to blow up the moon." She grumbled before taking a third bite. "Lobo may have been the fastest to track me down, but I really doubt he's gonna be the last."

"I know." Kal said, dropping his amused smile for a more serious look. "And we're gonna deal with them when they show up. Until then, I won't stop you from improving your armor."

"You won't?"

"Well, I'll stop you from putting a nuke inside it, but I won't stop you from using the Fortress resources to improve it as long as you don't use it recklessly." Picking his own bowl Kal started eating his own ice cream earning a glare from Kara. She had wanted to eat both of them.

"Alright, so what are we gonna talk about?"

"You know, I thought you weren't gonna be getting into those kinds of fights. In hindsight that was kinda foolish of me, but I thought you were just gonna act as tech support and your training with Diana would be enough. I was wrong."

"Hah, that makes two of us!" Kara snorted in bitter amusement and oddly poked her spoon at the ice cream.

"Yes, well… I already spoke with Connor. Seeing as the both of you can't stay away from trouble I'm offering to personally teach you how to fight." Leaning over the table Kal continued. "It's going to be after his school hours, but I'm gonna be teaching him Kryptonian martial arts every day from now on and I want you to be there too."

"Would it even help all that much?" Kara asked with uncertainty. It's not that she didn't want to learn, but she doubted she could get good enough in a short amount of time. "I mean, I don't have ten years to train with you."

"You'd be surprised. Torquasm Vo and Torquasm Rao were made to be mastered in ten to twenty years by Kryptonian warriors, but that was on Krypton." Lifting a hand Kal poked at his temple and smiled. "Yellow sunlight improves more than just our strength, you know. Not only do we think faster and better, even our muscle memory is created faster."

"So… I can be some kind of master in months or something?"

"Not… exactly? In truth I'd say I'm only above average if we're only talking about skill." Kal leaned back, his hand flashing forward and snatching his ice cream from the table just as Kara was about to steal some of it. "What both disciplines have taught me is how to use my powers to their fullest."

"What do you mean?"

"You know just how good our senses are. Most of the time I have to block most of the things I see and hear, letting them become almost like white noise in the background in order to stay sane." He told her as he finished his cup and laid it to the side. "With Torquasm Rao I can process all that information and act on it almost on instinct. It allows me to use the full extent of my powers in a fight."

"Torquasm Vo, on the other hand, is a completely mental discipline. John tells me it taps into my latent psychic power, and it does allow me to fight off mental influences and even some specific magical effects."

Of course, during Kara's upbringing as well as in her last life had heard about these Kryptonian martial arts, but she had never been able to fully understand them. "So, one just allows you to fight better but doesn't improve your skills per see, while the other is a mental defense?"

"Well, let me ask you this, Kara: how do you fly?"

"I just… will it?" Kara answered, flight was almost second nature for her now, and it wasn't really any strange power or propulsion system. She wanted to fly, she believed she could fly, so she flew.

"Exactly, it's mental. Now this isn't really the goal of Torquasm Vo, but greater control of my latent psychic power does give me certain advantages." With a smile on his face Kal gently touched the cup with just the tip of his finger causing it to slowly float up as if flying by itself. "It used to be that I had to hold something in my arms to make it fly, now I can just touch something and extend my protection field. I think that, if I fully master the art, I could make something fly without even touching it by extending my field at range."

Kara already knew about the protection field, it was how she could catch a plane and prevent it from crumbling around her, or allow her to carry a normal person in her arms while flying extremely fast. If she could use that actively instead of just on instinct… "Well damn."

"Hah, even under yellow sunlight it still won't improve you immediately, but I bet that, in six months to a year, you can become a competent fighter. You won't be defeating Diana or Bruce in a contest of skill, but we do have our tricks to make up for it."

"I see."

Kal seemed happy to just talk with her, explaining a few tricks he could do with his powers that Kara hadn't thought about and telling her about beautiful spots she could fly to if she wanted to relax.

Finally, Kal sighed in frustration. "Hah, this is much harder when it's personal."

"What is it?" Kara asked.

"Kara, I really wanted to wait until YOU decided to talk about it, but you know I had access to the Fortress medical scans right?" Kal tried to extend a hand to hold Kara's, but she pulled away from him, feeling exposed. "I know at least some of what happened to you."

Kara's first instinct was to tell Kal to go fuck himself, but she managed to stop herself and think about things. "So what, it's over Kal what do you want me to do about it?"

"Talk with someone, it doesn't need to be me Kara, but you don't need to go through this alone."

"Do You need to talk with someone every time something happens?" She grumbled while shifting her eyes away.

"Yes, not always mind you, but even I have to ask for help sometimes." Kal said with a tired, haunted voice as he remembered things. "Nowadays I just talk with Ma and Pa, but it was hard to accept some things when I was starting out."

Kara just stayed quiet, it's not like she hadn't needed help from a psychologist in her previous life. She knew how much it could help, but she had wanted to be stronger.

Finally, as she saw the concern on her cousin's face, Kara nodded. "Fine, I guess I can talk with someone."

She'd have to search for a good psychologist VERY carefully. Far too many of them turned out to be supervillains in DC.

"You know, Black Canary is a licensed therapist and she has personal experience our kind of problem." Kal said as if he could read her mind. "And I can indicate several others if you need it."

"Right, I'll think about it." Kara said with a tired voice and poked at the remains of her ice cream, it had melted while they talked.

After further discussions, planning and ice cream placation, Kori woke up after only two hours of sleep and the both of them returned to their apartment. Billy had been there to feed Dexter but he had no wish to stay any more time than necessary with what he called the DEMON CAT, all caps.

The two women eventually got settled in but Kara wasn't able to fully relax, her mind was filled with far too many thoughts. What had the Psions put inside her? Did they already know where she was or had Lobo been working by himself? Could Torquasm Vo help her control this new power? Had she actually used the Red Light of Rage and had that attracted Atrocitus' attention? Was he even a thing here?

A loud and indignant meow, caused her to turn to Dexter. The cat lifted his tail in the air and started guiding her to the bathroom sink before meowing again.

"Dexter, you have your water fountain, it's right there!" Kara huffed and pointed at the small fountain connected to the socket. Kori just snickered from her place on the couch.

"MEOWWWWW!"

"Fine, here." She slightly opened the faucet letting just a trickle of water run down the sink. Dexter just continued to look at her. "Right, of course you want me to lift you too. Alright, but you have to pay the toll."

Grabbing the cat, Kara squeezed it tightly against her chest, earning herself a few more meows and scratches of indignation. Toll paid, she dropped him next to the sink and watched as he drank the water for a minute or two.

Sitting on the carpet of the floor, Kara pulled her mobile computer out and continued working on improvements to her armor. She wasn't going to leave the house without at least some heavy protection.

At her bedroom, her device started printing a mixture of new bomb-drones and full-stealth cameras to refill her wasted devices. Eventually Kara noticed her hands had started shaking again, but then Dexter jumped on her lap and started kneading her clothes while purring and her shaking stopped.

"Silly cat." She complained, but started petting him anyway. Her hand going through his fur calmed her down by a lot. "Billy is completely wrong, you're a good kitty."

Still tired and laying on the sofa, Kori smiled as she watched them and finally went to sleep.

Chapter Text

"I'm sorry Miss Danvers, what exactly is going on here?" The large man asked, his huge beer belly touching the table as he used his elbows to lean forward. "I mean, I'm glad things are working again, but why now?"

Kara thought about what to say, she could lie and come up with an excuse but, did she even need to?

"Were you close to the Danvers, Mister Blackwell?" She asked, buying herself a few more seconds to think.

"No Miss Danvers, I never really met your parents. I'm just a grunt trying to keep everything working after that asshole ran away with the company's money." The man told her and scratched at his beard. "From what the boys tell me, they were never that involved with things anyway."

"I see. Well, suffice to say that, for personal reasons, I too did not know them very well either." That the personal reason was the fact that she was an alien from another planet with no actual relation to the Danvers didn't need to be pointed out. "It took me some time to get access to my inheritance once I found out they were dead."

"I see…" he sighed, then shook his head. "Or well, I don't, but I guess that's not any of my business anyway. All I wanted to know is, do I still have a job? And what about everyone else?"

"Yes, you still have a job. Mr. Donovan will be taking over the CEO position for the time being however," Kara pointed to Dubbilex disguised form at her side; a middle aged black man wearing glasses. "And, since we're going to be expanding, you're actually getting a salary bump despite the demotion."

Derrick Blackwell had turned out to be a surprisingly simple man. Far from being the best man for the job, Blackwell had, nonetheless, been the only one capable of doing it until now.

Thankfully, Dubbilex had agreed to act as CEO for a few months until Kara could get someone better.

She was already compiling a document with all she could prove about Lex's crimes to try and entice her first choice away from the unscrupulous business tyrant's side.

"Right, can't say I'll miss all this damn paperwork, and I'm really glad the guys still have a job but…" Blackwell cut himself off, as if afraid of actually asking something.

"Go on Mr. Blackwell, I won't be firing you for asking questions as long as you're polite about it." Kara waved for him to speak.

"Well, it's just… a few of the boys and I stopped by the factory earlier today and… well, it's awfully in order ma'am, and there were some strange people working there, people nobody had ever seen before." The overweight man pushed himself away from the table and his eyes avoided Kara's. "Not that there's anything wrong with that, mind you, but a man hears things."

"Now, I don't mean to insult you ma'am, but you just showed up out of nowhere, fixed the old factory in a week, and now you're not only hiring the boys back, but a lot of other people too, all this because of some miracle contract with WayneTech of all things…" Blackwell's leg started tapping against the floor from anxiety and he kept glancing at the door. "I had to think to myself: The city is awfully quiet and away from anything exciting. Ain't nobody gonna be asking too many questions if strange shit starts happening around here. I don't want the boys getting caught with some kinda metahuman or mad scientist deal."

"Don't worry, Mister Blackwell. I'm only going to be doing exactly what I said, which is to produce affordable technology." Kara sighed. In hindsight, getting the G-Trolls to help put the factory in order was kind of a dead giveaway. Even when Dubbilex kept them under his illusions the entire time, they were still too fast and too strong to be normal humans. "Is anyone else going to cause trouble because of the ridiculous notion that I'm some kind of supervillain?"

"No ma'am. Most of the boys are too happy to see the company back on its feet again to even think about it." Blackwell said, and now that Kara was looking for it she could see the clear signs of fear on his face.

At least now she knew why he was being so polite to her. Machiavelli may have been a prick, but if it really was better to be feared and that kept Blackwell in line, Kara wasn't about to go out of her way to correct any misunderstandings Blackwell might have.

They finished talking about the new hiring policies and having Blackwell act as a guide so Dubbilex could get to know the company better, with that out of the way the now former CEO of her company left the room feeling both apprehensive and optimistic.

With Bruce having accepted her proposal, Kara had spent two weeks designing new solar panels that they could produce. Kal had not been happy she was putting off her talk with the League's unofficial counselor, Black Canary, but he hadn't pushed the issue yet.

Still, Kara had managed to get her panels' efficiency up from around 13% to a whopping 26% just with the technology her company had access to, and decreased the cost of producing them by 35%. However, even this improvement was pitiful considering what she could do with her own tech, but it was the absolute limit with the current materials in use.

They weren't exactly the quantum leap forward she'd hoped for but she'd make her panels even better in a year or two.

"Miss Danvers." Dubbilex shook her shoulders, causing Kara's eyes to snap open with a startle and her fingers to dig a hole into the table she had been holding. "When was the last time you slept?"

"Sleep is for the weak." Kara joked. Seeing the unamused look on Dubbilex's human face she pushed herself to her feet and explained. "Kryptonians don't really need to sleep, Dubbilex."

"Miss Danvers, I was in charge of your little cousin and read CADMUS' files on Kryptonians. While you can achieve a state where sleep is unnecessary, it requires years of exposure to yellow sun radiation."

"I slept plenty yesterday." Kara defended herself, but didn't tell the Genomorph it had only been for two hours before waking up in a cold sweat. "I'll sleep a little tonight when I get home."

"...Very well, I'll start working on getting the company fully operational right away."

"Remember to put some G-Gnomes to watch over the employees, at least for now. Like Blackwell said, I don't think anyone is gonna be asking questions at the moment, but we did 'mysteriously' get a WayneTech contract and the factory site is full of Genomorphs. It's better to be safe than sorry."

"Of course. Miss Danvers, before you leave, can I ask you about a personal matter?" Dubbilex said, his illusion appearing to be hesitant.

"Sure, go ahead." Kara mumbled as she scratched at the bags under her eyes.

"Many of us Genomorphs wish to meet the metahumans used as a base to produce our kind, but the CADMUS database only has the location of a few of them. Could you ask the League about it?"

"Of course, I'm sure that even if the League doesn't have that information, Batman should."

"Thank you."

With a yawn, Kara allowed Dubbilex to take her seat and start working on the company systems.

Walking into one of the storage rooms, she typed a password on her cell phone causing both the floor and ceiling to open and revealing the Zeta-Tube she had installed in the building a few days ago.

In truth, she really wanted to fly back home, but the Lobo locked on the Fortress of Solitude was already completely healed. It meant there was far too big a chance that a copy of the bounty hunter had already regenerated from his missing arm and was hunting for her.

Lobo really was incredibly annoying, she didn't even dare go back to her moon base alone since he could travel through space with his motorcycle. As a result, she had to get Kori to go with her and relocate some of the projects there into the Fortress.

Thankfully, Kal had agreed to separate a corner of the Fortress for her use and she trusted him to give her privacy while she was there.

When she got back and saw the state of her apartment, she groaned. There were feathers spread everywhere and even some drops of blood. With a sigh, Kara made for the linen closet when Dexter came running from her bedroom, his little paws barely making a sound on the floor.

He threw his body against her and waved between her legs once or twice before dropping a pigeon head at her feet and glancing up with an incredibly smug look on his face. "Meow."

"Ah! Who's my cute little murder machine!" Kara couldn't resist and crouched down to scratch at his ears until the cat laid on the floor and presented her his belly. Kara knew it was a trap, but being a Kryptonian had some advantages so she scratched at it anyway. "You're a good kitty, eliminating all those flying rats. I just hope you know you're gonna need a bath now."

Dexter had been in the middle of clawing at her hand with all four legs when he heard the dreaded word. With a hiss, he kicked away from Kara's fingers and fled under the sofa.

"You know that's not gonna help you!" She called out as she got the cleaning supplies and started using her speed to clean the apartment once again.

She was in the middle of washing the yowling cat when something on the TV caught her attention, a supervillain with wind powers had attacked Happy Harbor and caused a lot of property damage.

"Right, almost forgot about that." She said and finished getting rid of the blood on Dexter's fur. Pulling her phone out she first called Kal's number.

"Hey Kara, is something wrong?" Kal asked in a worried voice when he picked up the phone..

"Nope, just calling to warn you I'm gonna be improving the defenses on Mount Justice." She said in a calm voice.

"What?"

"Just saw it on the TV. Kori and Kon subdued a villain over at Happy Harbor less than a week after they moved into the mountain." She told him with a tired voice. "I just wanted to warn you I'm turning that mountain into an impregnable fortress. And I'm NOT avoiding deadly force."

"Ah… look, can we talk about it later? I'm working right now."

"Sure. I'm not gonna change my stance, but you can talk."

Hanging up the phone, Kara immediately started dialing a second number even as her mind was filling with the defenses she'd put on the mountain… Was poisonous gas too much?

"I thought we'd only talk next week, Miss Zor-El?" Said the older, male voice over the phone.

"Hello Bobo, have you found out anything about Dr. Morrow yet?" Kara asked in a curious voice. "Cuz I just saw one of his robots attack Happy Harbor not even two hours ago."

"Hmmm… that certainly explains some things." The chimp said from his side of the phone, then seemed to stop to think about something. "Yes, I do believe I can narrow down the scientist's location by the time of our first team meeting."

"Good, while The Light is a far more dangerous long-term enemy, T. O. Morrow is our most immediate priority." Kara said before ending the call, already thinking about how much of a powerhouse Firebrand would be.

Worst case scenario, she was pretty sure she could reverse engineer at least some of Morrow's hardware if she could get her hands on another one of his androids.

While Kara had no confidence in replicating Red Vulcano's AI, she could probably make less intelligent robots with a version of his hardware.

Also, a geokinetic modification to her armor and drones could improve their capabilities by a lot.

'When was Red Vulcano born anyway?' Kara wondered, she was pretty sure she could slightly modify his core programing to make him less of a homicidal robot supremacist, but doing that after he was activated felt too much like mind control… or even mind r**e for her liking.

She wouldn't feel all that bad about destroying him if he didn't give her a choice, but mind control was a step she wasn't willing to take.

With Dexter angrily staring at her from under her bed, Kara sat down on the carpet and started messing with her latest experiment. Two small platforms, just big enough for one of her smaller pillows to fit on and connected by a myriad of cables.

Kara used her X-ray vision to stare at the components inside it, then pulled out the fried circuit board, fixed it, adjusted its configuration and used her heat vision to weld it back in place for another try.

Her front door bell rang causing Dexter to dart out of his hiding place and go check out who had arrived.

Looking through her apartment's walls Kara saw it was just Billy making sure she was alright. The boy had been coming over so often the doorman just let him through now. Grabbing for her phone she buzzed the door open and shouted. "Come in Billy!"

Kara hated that her friends and family felt the need to keep an eye on her every day since Lobo attacked, but she understood their reasoning. She and Kori hadn't exactly been perfectly stealthy when coming or going from the building. And most people didn't know she had enough firepower to face an army hidden in the residence.

"Hello, Miss Kara. Thanks for ha… Argh!" Billy started to say from the entrance when a terrifying hiss and loud yowling interrupted him. Dexter had already started defending his home. He was such a good and loyal kitty. "Get it off, get it off! Shazam!"

A few seconds later Kara saw her cat walk back into the room, his tail held high. In a much better mood, he jumped on top of a chair and started licking his claws clean.

"That cat is a menace." Billy grumbled as he peaked through the door and glared at Dexter.

"Don't be silly, Dex is just protecting his home." Kara dismissed the boy's concerns and smiled at him. She liked Billy, he was a good kid. "Come in, make yourself comfortable. You're gonna be here until my training with Kal, right?"

"Yeah… sorry about the ruckus, Miss Kara." He scratched at his neck and sat down on the bed to watch her work. "So, what're you doing?"

"Trying to make a commercially viable teleporter, but it's not going very well."

"Don't we already have the Zeta-Tubes?"

"Do you know how much those things cost?" Kara snorted and put one of her small pillows on top of a platform. "Zeta-Tubes are incredibly expensive to make and maintain. They are made from very exotic materials and require constant upkeep. Not only do we not have enough materials to build them for civilian use, it would cost more than anyone could pay to use them."

"So, you're just making something new?" Billy asked, now becoming interested.

"Well, I'm trying. Krypton had its own teleporters, but Earth doesn't have the technology or the materials to make them work."

Kara glanced at Dexter with a guilty look, but she pressed the activation button anyway and winced. With a crack of displaced air, space crumbled in a circular hole around the pillow and it was sucked in as if by an irresistible force, then the hole healed and the pillow appeared resting on the second platform. "YES!"

"It worked?"

"Don't know, but there wasn't an explosion and the stuffing is still inside the pillow, so that's progress." Taking the pillow off the platform Kara looked it over and didn't see anything wrong with it. She nodded, time for another test.

The most annoying thing about the teleporter was the constraints Kara had to work under. She could make a teleporter fairly easily, but it would either need to be made completely with Kryptonian tech or with Earth-tech that made each activation cost more than a quarter billion in resources. She wanted something accessible.

Something like, one or two thousand dollars per activation would already be ground breaking. She'd offer to substitute the current Zeta-Tube network too, but the technology was also much harder to block or intercept and had a galaxy wide range.

She thought she had managed to get everything working affordably, but every time she activated one of the platforms to send something, it ended up creating a mess.

The concept was simple: you take two fixed platforms, you gather enough power and pierce through the space between those two points, the person steps through the portal and viola.

The problem is that she couldn't create a bridge through space-time gently, not yet. The connection would traverse the object through space like a bullet and the exit was far more violent than the entrance.

Not only would whatever was sent come out in a violent and noisy bang of displaced air, the space around the exit would also expand causing the teleported object to explode as it stayed in its expanded form even as the space around it snapped back to normal..

Her answer was to change the direction of the space tunnel, instead of sending something, she'd pull it. Which seemed to have worked. At least the pillow had not contracted or imploded.

"Huh, this is new." Billy commented. "Usually, when I see mad science, I'm trying to stop it from happening, not just watching with interest."

"I prefer the term, 'super science'. Thank you very much." She threw the pillow at his face in mock anger before looking around for a new test subject.

One of her drones would probably work, right? They were inexpensive to make anyway.

"I don't know, it seems like mad science to me." Billy mocked as he looked around the messy room. "A super scientist would probably have a tidy room."

Kara snorted, "Aren't we feeling cheeky today?"

Making sure the first teleport hadn't messed up anything inside the bases, Kara pressed the button again. A second later, her drone teleported from one platform to the other without apparent damage. Eagerly, she ordered it to fly only to release a frustrated breath when it didn't move.

Using her vision, she confirmed it's insides were fried. Taking the entire thing off the socket and making sure it couldn't turn on again, Kara put the entire device away and sighed. "Not today I guess."

"What went wrong?"

"Don't know, gonna need better equipment than I have here to find out." She confessed and scratched at her tired eyes, she really had to get some sleep. "So, what's this I hear about dangerous villains at the Sidekicks' place?"

"Ah, it was great!" Billy almost jumped on the bed, his eyes shining with excitement.

"A villain attack was 'great'?"

"Well, no, but it wasn't a human enemy, and it wasn't really trying to hurt anybody, so Red Tornado and I agreed to let the Team take care of it and They. Were. Awesome!" Billy seemed to regain his energy, motioning with his hands like mad. "Miss Koriand'r took charge of the situation instantly, and Robin disappeared so fast when I wasn't paying attention. Do you think he'd teach me how to make my laugh come out from everywhere like he does?"

"Lame! Tell me more about Kori and Kon, did they get hurt?"

"No, Connor worked really well with her. The enemy was this cool robot that could use wind like Red Tornado and..." Billy sat up on the bed and started reenacting the scene while Kara imagined what it must have been like to be there. "But the robot was too strong and made a huge tornado! If Robin hadn't been waiting to sneak attack it I don't think Aqualad would have made it with his electricity. Then the Robot self-destructed."

"So, there was nothing left?" Kara asked, from what Billy said the fight had gone much better than in canon. It was a pity they hadn't managed to save anything then.

"Well, Kid Flash did manage to steal its head as a souvenir before it exploded."

"Oh, really?" Kara's eyes focused on the boy with a much bigger interest. So they had managed to save something. Could she track Morrow using the head? Did some of its wind control abilities remain?

"See! That's totally a Mad Scientist look right there!" Billy jumped up on the bed a second time and pointed right at Kara's face making her lose the definitely NOT evil smile she had.

"Get down from my bed Billy!" She scolded, causing him to float a few centimeters above her bed before setting down on the floor. "And, are you gonna stay transformed the entire time now?"

Billy only gave a quick glance towards Dexter, peacefully sleeping on top of the chair and gulped. "Yep."

Eventually, Billy escorted her towards the Zeta-Tube and Kara teleported to the Fortress. She had actually taken a quick nap and arrived a few minutes late for her daily session with Kal.

Both Kal and Kon waited for her with the same disapproving look on their faces, almost making Kara laugh out loud when she saw it.

"Sorry. Captain Marvel was telling me about your fight today and I lost track of time." She lied almost on instinct, then grimaced when she noticed she was trying to avoid talking about her problems again.

Walking to their side Kara sat down on her knees, her back perfectly straight and her arms resting on top of her legs. At their side, one of the Fortress' screens was reproducing the sound from an out of tune TV.

"Now, today we're gonna start on Torquasm Vo. As I already told you, this art has a lot to do with meditation so that's what we're gonna be starting with." Kal said, looking at the both of them seated at his flanks. "Now, I want you to close your eyes and focus on the sound of the white noise, don't try to ignore everything else but just… let it drift away while you focus."

Trading one last glance with Kon, Kara saw that Kal had already closed his own eyes and was slowing his own breathing. She followed his example, closing her eyes and trying to concentrate on the TV.

She breathed in, drawing the cold Arctic air into her lungs and breathed out, letting out some of her worries every time. Her mind became clearer and clearer.

She was safe, she was with family and under the strong defenses of the Kryptonian Fortress, right now she didn't need to worry about improving her armor or hunting down the Light. She didn't need to ask herself what happened with all the pieces of Lobo hit by her teleport grenade and if they'd all regenerate into a new one, she only needed to relax and focus.

Before even ten minutes had passed Kara's head fell forward, her body tilting to the side until she was touching Kal's shoulders as she fell asleep.

Chapter Text

"Kori, no." Kara said, but there was no strength in her denial.

"Awww, but Friend Kara, you said I could!" The Tamaranean ignored her words and continued approaching.

"No, bad Kori, and wait… where do you think you're touching!"

"But how are we going to proceed if you are still wearing clothes?"

"Kori, down! Down! I can do it by myself, you know." Kara took a step away and managed to avoid Kori's hands. "Besides, I just wanted your opinion on the three costumes I already had. Not for you to bring new ones."

"But, mayhap you will like it? It is certainly better than your uninspired black armor, yes?" Kori protested as her feet slowly lowered back to the floor, a pout on her face. "Friend Troia even helped me choose some that are inspired by your cousin's. It is perfect to maximize exposure to sunlight!"

Kara glanced at the blue outfit with a red skirt, one with far too little cloth, far too much leather and suspiciously placed zippers. "And where exactly did she say that comes from?"

"Friend Troia said it was from a movie, 'SupermanXxX: Return To The Dungeon.' She even bought the movie so we may watch it together!"

"Nope!" Kara shuddered from horror and seriously considered incinerating the thing with a blast of heat vision. "For the record, please, don't show me anything that associates my cousin's name with three 'X's, ever."

"Please, you do not wish to watch the movie with me?" Kori flinched with a hurt look on her face.

"Ugh, I'm gonna kill that bitch." Kara grumbled and sighed, she really didn't want to explain the birds and the bees to her friend. Especially because she wasn't sure Kori would share her dislike of depicting Kal in any sexual way. "Fine, I guess I can try some of the other costumes."

"Wonderful! Start with this one."

Kara glanced from the costume on Kori's hands to the huge smile on her face and sighed. From his place atop the sofa, Kara swore she saw Dexter taking mental notes about how to manipulate her.

The first costume Kori had brought was a simple copy of her own, with the typical Amazon look and leaving plenty of skin exposed. At least the chest armor seemed resistant enough to block a few blows and protect her organs.

Still, Kara felt like she was cosplaying while wearing it.

Using her super speed, Kara darted back inside her bedroom and changed into whatever the second outfit was without even paying attention. Once changed, she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror and froze. She recognized the costume.

With her face flushed, Kara stepped out into the living room wearing Power Girl's costume. The white swimsuit left both of her legs fully exposed and clung so tightly to her body Kara could see all of her muscles through the fabric. The boob window left her modest breasts exposed and Kara felt the need to cover it up with an arm when she caught Kori staring at her for too long. "What?"

"It. Is. Perfect!" Kori shouted, her eyes shining with green light. "Friend Kara, you have to wear this. It is perfect for you!"

On instinct Kara put a hand against Kori's face and had to strain to prevent the Tamaranean from hugging her, "It doesn't even have pockets, where would I put my drones?"

"It has a utility belt. Just like The Batman! Please, will you wear it?"

"Never!" Kara shouted and dodged aside to let Kori pass her by before dashing for the bedroom.

Unfortunately, Dexter took the chance to attack her cape and forced her to slow down in order to not send him flying. Kori pounced "Well done feline friend!"

The both of them struggled for a few minutes before Kara submitted, swearing she'd keep the costume in her wardrobe, even if she wouldn't ever use it… in public.

After finally being freed from the twin terrors Kara put the Power Girl costume away and brought out her three personal choices.

One was a lesser version of her Power Armor. Dark blue, it had the El house symbol on its chest, only increased her bulk by a little bit and had a lot of armor covering her vitals. Various compartments all over the suit held dozens of devices for her use. It could also store a lot of solar radiation if she was ever in an emergency.

Truth be told, she'd really prefer to use her full power-armor, but her public persona had to not look like a threatening walking tank and this was the next best thing.

The fourth costume was just a version of her cousin's; a blue bodysuit with a red cape and boots. It also had a few belts all over in order to hold her devices.

The fifth one was completely different. It didn't have a cape but a dark blue coat with gold detailing, the El house symbol covered her chest. It also had red boots that ended just below her knees and matching gloves.

To the side she had her mask. Made with a thin layer of Kryptonium; it was painted white, with only a few details in gold and without any human features or even a mouth.

Inside the mask was a breathing device with half an hour of air in case she lost her powers while in a vacuum or was exposed to a harmful gas and light blocking lenses on the eyes to prevent anything from blinding her.

"Friend Kara, please, did you have to cover your entire body in every costume?" Kori complained with a disappointed voice.

She didn't. Kara had actually been thinking of using a far more revealing outfit, it would help to accentuate the differences between her public persona and the one she'd be using on the secret team.

In fact, she was pretty sure Kori could have convinced her to actually wear the Power Girl costume. She couldn't deny she looked hot wearing it, but that was before Lobo's attack.

Kara hated it, but she just didn't feel comfortable taking the risk anymore. Perhaps her mind would change in a few months, after she was fully healed.

"No, but… I feel better with a full outfit. Plus I need the space to keep my devices."

"I postulate you would not consider using a skirt with the second one, yes?" Kara just gave her a look. "Very well, this last one is better."

Kara considered it. She really would prefer to wear the mini-power armor outfit, but the coat had enough space for her devices and it was far too easy to connect the first one to the full power-armor she'd use with her own team. The coat also looked cool.

"Thanks Kori, I'll just make some last minute adjustments and we can go." Kara lifted Dexter from atop one of the costumes and started gathering everything in one arm to put away. With one last scratch behind the cat's ear she remembered something. "Ugh, nevermind. I forgot I had to pick some things at the Fortress before going to the Mountain."

"I continue to regard the white outfit as superior." Kori grumbled, but then smiled at Kara and squeezed her hand. "I can not wait to introduce you to the team! You will love them."

"I'm glad you like them." Kara squeezed back and went to her bedroom to start adjusting her new costume's gloves. Introducing small quantities of Nth metal on the fabric in order to disrupt magic. "Any tips?"

"Do not call Robin a sidekick!" Kori yelled from the living room. "I tried following your guidance when we first met but, despite the honor of apprenticeship under The Batman, he does not seem to enjoy the title."

"You sure?" Kara asked when she finished snickering. "Perhaps I should try too?"

"Yes, do not call him that. I do not understand why, but he seems to consider it demeaning."

"Fine, I guess I can just call him by name then."

Kara finished adjusting the costume and wore it for the first time, the coat fit her like a glove and the material didn't restrict her movement at all. Stepping out of her bedroom, she found Kori already wearing her own heroic outfit. The pair flew together to the Zeta-Tube, but Kori went directly to Mount Justice while Kara teleported to the Fortress first.

Kara had installed a Kryptonian stealth device on the apartment which masked their presence until they were a certain distance away. Unfortunately the device was too big to carry or she'd make it a part of her costume, but at least it made coming and going from the apartment much harder to track.

Over an hour later, Kara heard the robotic voice of the Zeta-Tube network announce her arrival at the Mountain. The huge kart filled with equipment she was pushing in front of her was far from everything she had prepared, but it was enough for her to start working.

"Supergirl, you came!" Captain Marvel shouted and flew towards her, only stopping when they had nearly collided.

Kara smiled under her mask and nodded towards the boy before looking at the entire room. The sidekicks were sparring with each other under Red Tornado's gaze

"Supergirl, Captain Marvel has told me a lot about you." Red Tornado stated evenly as he started walking towards her.

Kon had been sparring with Miss Martian. The girl was using her shape-shifting abilities to actually overwhelm him despite his superior strength. Kara smiled and waved at him causing his face to open into a huge smile.

Taking a pause, Miss Martian turned around to see what had caused the boy to smile. Her eyes went wide as she stared at Kara. She smiled but retreated closer to Kon.

"Titans, reunite with me please." Red Tornado called out with his mechanical voice, causing everyone to finally stop sparring.

"So, they already chose a name?" Kara asked in curiosity, from what she remembered of the show they had been simply 'The Team' or 'Outsiders'

"Indeed, the group felt that, if they were to work together, they preferred to have their own identity." Red Tornado commented idly. "They voted on the name 'Titans' soon after."

Kid Flash was the first to arrive, his speed nearly a match for Kara's; he stopped beside Marvel and leaned over him with an elbow. "You called? Whoa, hello there beautiful!"

Marvel frowned down at the boy but, when Kara didn't react, he didn't say anything.

"Sooo, who're you supposed to be, a new recruit?" he asked and showed off his speed by darting away from Marvel and towards Red Tornado. "You got here just as we were about to spar, so maybe I can show you some moves?"

"Hmmm, somehow you're less annoying than I thought you'd be." Kara told him with a smile. She had always thought Wally would be unbearable, but the combination of his young age and clear inexperience made it more amusing than anything else. "But no, I'm not joining the Titans; I guess you can consider me tech support."

"Huh, is that all gear for us? Sweet!" The boy tried to run towards her kart to take a peek, but Kara decided she had enough and slapped his hand away even while he was moving. "Ouch!"

"Try to keep your hands to yourself, will you."

"You must be Kara, Koriand'r spoke well of you." Aqualad put a hand forward to compliment her. "I'm Aqualad, current leader of the Titans."

"Pleased to meet you, but please, call me Supergirl while in costume." Kara shook his hand with a smile. "I kinda want to keep things separated while in costume."

"Friend Supergirl!" Kori shouted and glomped her, causing Kara to take a step back to keep her footing.

Soon, all members of the Titans were gathered. They seemed more in tune than in the cartoons, with Aqualad having been voted as their leader and Starfire as vice leader.

In truth, Kori had more experience and better training than Kaldur, but her lack of familiarity with Earth and the rest of the team meant they preferred the Atlantean over her. Still, from what Kara had heard, the boy had a good head on his shoulders and actually listened to her opinion often.

"Titans, after hearing about Mr. Twister's attack three days ago, Supergirl has offered to help update the Mountain's defenses." Red Tornado told them with the same impassive voice. "She has also offered to act as tech support for the team, I am certain her help will prove invaluable."

"She's some kind of tech genius then?" Robin asked while lifting an eyebrow.

"She's my cousin." Kon replied and actually approached her for a hug.

"One thing doesn't exclude the other, you know. I may be a Kryptonian, but I'm a much better inventor than a fighter. The El's were a prominent house of the Science guild, not the Military caste after all." Kara was so proud of him, not that long ago he wouldn't have even known how to ask for a hug; he'd also get angry at not knowing. She hugged him back. "I don't see Zatara's daughter here, is he still holding her back?"

"Yeah, Master Zatara really doesn't want to let her come." This time it was Marvel that answered while scratching at his neck. "But Miss Zatana is gonna break him soon."

Kara snorted at that, and then took stock of the Titans. Aqualad and Starfire stood together, leader and vice-leader of the Titans. Kid Flash was still rubbing his stung hand with Robin by his side.

The Boy Wonder seemed annoyed, but Kara didn't think it was about losing the leadership position. No, from the way he was glaring at her, he'd probably figured out who she was.

Kori probably talked about her a lot and Kaldur had used her real name when shaking her hand, so she wasn't exactly surprised. Plus, Kara wasn't making an effort to mask her voice. Robin probably recognized her from Batman's fundraiser and was feeling irritated.

How amusing.

After releasing her from their hug, Kon had stepped back to Miss Martian who was still acting shy, hiding behind his body and only giving Kara quick glances.

"Connor." the Martian whispered in his ear as quietly as she could. "Yo-Your cousin, is she a robot?"

Kon gave his friend a strange look and shook his head. With a startle, Kara finally realized the problem and laughed out loud.

"Ah, sorry about that. I have a telepathic blocker in the mask. " She quickly tapped her mask twice and deactivated the blocker. "It's still in testing and I doubt it's enough against a Martian, but it should keep any stray psychic from noticing me if they aren't already looking for it. Better now?"

"Yes, thank you!" Miss Martian finally relaxed and smiled at her. "I could feel something when I focused on you, but it was very unnerving and I didn't want to push."

"Don't worry Megalicious; I'm always here to protect you." Kid Flash appeared at her side and tried to hold her hand, but only made her more uncomfortable.

Aqualad released a sigh when he saw it, Kara swore he was praying really hard he wouldn't have to deal with the situation while Robin actually facepalmed at his friend's actions.

"Kid Flash! That is enough." Kori intervened with a hard tone on her voice, her hands at her waist and a disapproving look on her face.

"Right, sorry." He sheepishly said and stepped back.

Kara smiled. She would have disciplined the boy herself but, unfortunately, she didn't really know him very well. She'd probably have to talk to the Flash about that. It was amusing when he was doing it to her, but Miss Martian was clearly bothered.

"Right… anyway, I spoke with the League and they let me make some improvements to the costumes you guys use." Kara said with a smile. Grabbing the cover of her cart she pulled it away dramatically to reveal the equipment inside. "So, what do you guys think?"

Kara stepped away from the kart and let the team of teenagers charge in. With the approval of the League, she had worked hard to replicate their costumes and increment them with her tech. The adults had still refused to allow weapons on the costumes, but Kara had prioritized safety anyway.

Kid Flash was the first to pull out a copy of his costume. While it looked almost exactly like his original costume, all of her gear was made from Kryptonian fabric stronger than spider silk and had shock absorbers on the torso.

The most distinct feature however, was a bulge at the back that resembled a small backpack. Kid flash immediately noticed it and started poking the thing. "So, what exactly is this?"

"Well, the costumes were all made at the Fortress. They're strong enough to block gunshots and knife wounds and have plates on the torso capable of absorbing most mundane kinetic impacts. Even high caliber rounds should only leave bruises." Kara told them while giving Kon his own costume and messing his hair at the same time. "The costume can also monitor your life signs and the bulge at the back is an emergency teleporter. It's a copy of something I use myself and I just couldn't make it smaller."

"Cool!" Kid Flash said.

Robin didn't seem convinced, looking at his own costume with distaste. "So, this is gonna let us teleport around then?"

"Not exactly, it's a one-time thing, really." Kara explained while lifting Miss Martian's device. She hadn't been able to replicate Martian clothes so, the best she could do was to create the device and hope Miss Martian's costume could assimilate or grow over it. "You can activate it manually or it will trigger when it detects you're unconscious or mortally wounded. The device will only bring you back to the mountain once before I have to replace it. So, do make sure to tell me if that happens."

"Yeah… I'll have to talk to Batman before using this." Robin said.

"Go ahead. Try to convince the Bat to wear one himself will you?" Kara said while handing the teleporting device to M'gann. "Here, see if your costume can hold this in place at your back."

"Ah, thank you." The Martian said with a blush and tried to place the device at her back, when that didn't work she grew a third hand from her back to help out.

"I have to ask, can this device bring more than one person?" Aqualad questioned while looking at his costume. "While I appreciate the chance to escape a dangerous situation, I don't think the Titans could use it if it meant abandoning someone."

"Unfortunately, making it able to teleport a second person or work repeatedly would more than triple its size." Kara explained while picking up the rest of her devices. "Still, I created a dozen spare devices the Titans can carry on the bio-ship in case they're needed."

"I see, thank you. That should greatly increase our ability to act." He nodded her way.

Kara looked towards the kart. There were still four large metal boxes inside. Picking up the one with the spare teleporting devices she laid it to the side and laid the other three in front of the Titans before opening them.

The first box had hundreds of her little civilian drones. With access to military tech the little flying cameras had become obsolete to her, but they were still very useful for the team and Kara had a large supply of them.

The second box had a new holographic device Kara had produced, it wasn't anything special, but it was about the same size as her drones and, once it was laid on the ground, it could selectively make anything in a ten meter radius around itself invisible, or project an image that wasn't there.

The final box had a far more complicated device, and one that used materials so rare even Kara had a very limited supply. Even with Kryptonian tech it was incredibly hard and expensive to create a stable portal big enough for a person to pass through, but Kara didn't need a huge portal.

Instead, the device would stealthily create a very small connection between two points in space. Even a finger wouldn't pass through, but it was perfect to send communication signals.

It meant that, even if someone had the tech to block communications in an area, unless they also blocked this particular form of teleportation, the Titans wouldn't lose contact with the base.

The Titans quickly distributed the equipment between themselves, with only a couple going to Captain Marvel after he had made a face at them. Kid Flash kept pressing the sign on his chest and changing his costume between the usual yellow, black and several versions of camouflage for any environment he found himself in.

Even Robin couldn't resist playing with the drones, using his own devices to control them, even when he wouldn't put on his new costume.

"Zero two, Batman." Announced the robotic female voice from the Zeta-tube, causing Robin to jump up and hide the drones behind his back.

Batman only gave a quick glance towards the boy and nodded. "You can put on the costume."

When the entire team was gathered in front of him, Batman activated a holographic display showing a picture of an island.

"This is Isla Santa Prisca, it is a sovereign island nation on the Caribbean Sea that the League doesn't have access to. It's also the primary producer of Venom." The Bat said without preamble.

"You're sending us against Bane?" Robin asked with surprise and not a small amount of eagerness in his voice.

"No, as far as we were able to find out, the island was taken over by the Cult of the Kobra last month." A picture of both Kobra and Bane appeared on display, with a red 'X' over Bane's face. "Bane attempted to take the place back and was reported dead a few days ago."

"Is he? Dead, I mean." Robin asked again while leaning closer.

"Unknown. His body wasn't found, but his forces were devastated and the Island is completely under Kobra's control." Batman pressed a button and another four pictures appeared.

Kara recognized one of them as Blockbuster, but the other three were unknown, only showing the same signs of Blockbuster use as the original.

"It appears that Kobra got control of the Blockbuster formula and is mixing it with Venom to create new super soldiers. Besides Blockbuster himself, the League has faced three other users of the substance in the last month alone. After considering Supergirl's new supplies, the League has decided to make this the Titans first mission."

"What is our mission?" Aqualad finally asked.

"The League cannot be seen interfering with a foreign nation, but with Bane gone we have an opening. Your goals are threefold: arresting Kobra, stopping the production of Kobra-Venom and finding out how he got access to the Blockbuster formula."

With another click, Batman made a picture of another man appear. He was a thin man wearing a suit and tie.

"This is Camilo Pena. Bane used to have effective control over the island but, when he organized his revolt, he caused unrest on the island and there was a purge of many of his supporters. Mister Pena used to be a small politician but, with the purge, he has grown far more important. If the Titans can disable Kobra before Kobra reestablishes control over the island, Mister Pena has a real chance of getting to power."

"An honest politician? In Santa Prisca?" Robin snorted and Batman nodded at him.

"Camilo Pena isn't exactly honest, but he's making a very risky play for power, one that would require him to open the island to the League if he wants to remain alive." Batman turned off the projector and turned to the team. "While the other goals are very important, taking out Kobra is your highest priority. We're not under any illusions that it would immediately solve the problems on the island, but allowing the League to operate freely on its territory would be a huge step forward, the first in many decades."

The Titans traded glances, eager smiles on their faces despite the situation. Looking Batman in the eye Aqualad asked. "When do we leave?"

Twenty minutes later the Titans stood in front of the Bio-ship, the portal machine safely held in the ship.

Kara adjusted Kon's costume, instead of a jeans and T-shirt it was a black version of Superman's costume, without the cape and with an armored chest plate. The costume had sunlight absorption and storage capabilities that would constantly feed him the radiation, or allow him to quickly regain his strength if he was ever depowered.

"Here, remember to keep some drones with you." Kara stuffed a few more drones into a pocket at his side and settled his hair in place. "And don't just start punching things. You have a good mind, use it."

Kon nodded with an embarrassed face, Miss Martian taking a few peeks at them from inside the ship with an amused smile.

"Don't worry, Captain Marvel and I will be monitoring the mission." Red Tornado told her, causing Kara to smile. He was surprisingly empathic for a machine. "Do you wish to accompany us?"

Kara thought about it, but eventually shook her head. "No, I still have to improve the Mountain's defenses. It's probably gonna take me the entire day. Keep an eye on them for me, will you?"

"Certainly." Red Tornado said.

"I will." Marvel commented and squeezed her shoulder for comfort. "Well, until someone comes to replace me."

Kara watched as the Bio-Ship left the mountain, then excused herself and went towards the Titan's souvenir room which already held a certain robotic head. Acting quickly she attached several cables to the head and put her computer to work trying to find anything about Dr. Morrow's location.

Finally, Kara started bringing the rest of her equipment from the Fortress. Despite how wide the Zeta-Tube was, Kara still had to use it five times before she had everything she needed.

"Well… Let's get to it."

The League had demanded that the Mountain's defenses have layers, where the outer layers would only trick or dissuade invaders away and the subsequent layers increasing in power slowly.

It reminded Kara of playing Dungeon Keeper, only with non-lethal traps and defenses.

She worked for hours, installing hundreds of devices all over the Mountain. Making sure no one would crawl through the air ducts or drill through the walls. She was only allowed to go all out at the last layer and, when she was done, Kara was sure that even Darkseid himself would think twice before attacking the place. She even used the last amounts of Nth metal she had to block magical teleportation or use.

Kara thanked Rao for her super speed and strength. Without it, the renovation would probably have taken her an entire month. Still, she only completed it in less than a day because many of the defenses were programmed into Sunstone crystals. Kara would still have to make sure to bombard them with sunlight for a few days to make sure they finished growing, but it was much easier to carry and install than the complete equipment.

The best thing was that many of the defenses were independent from each other, and from Mount Justice's own security protocols. Even if someone managed to disable one of them, it wouldn't affect the others.

Approaching the Souvenir room again, Kara checked her device and cursed when she saw it hadn't been able to find anything in Mr. Twister's head. Grabbing the deformed robot head, she carefully put it back in place within the case and put away her equipment.

Going into the kitchen Kara brewed some extra strong coffee and drank two cups before filling a third and finding Red Tornado still monitoring the Titans. Captain Marvel's shift was over and it was Hal Jordan that sat with him.

"Coffee?" She offered and handed Hal a cup when he eagerly nodded. "How are they doing?"

"Very well, the Titans have successfully contacted Mr. Pena without drawing attention from his enemies." The robot answered while only briefly glancing her way. "They're preparing to infiltrate the Venom factory now. Do you want to watch?"

Kara hesitated. She really wanted to keep watch over things, but she trusted Kori and Kon to be fine. Red Tornado was also watching things closely.

"No, I can be the chair guy another time. Take care of them."

Red Tornado stared at her for another second before answering. "...it is what I'm here for." Then he turned back to the screen.

Kara took the Zeta-Tube towards the Fortress one last time. Storing her equipment, she made her way towards her private area with sure steps.

She briefly stopped in front of Firebrand's room and watched the android for a few moments then asked. "Kal still hasn't found out about this?"

"Master Kal-El continues to respect your boundaries, Mistress Kara." The Fortress AI answered as he materialized by her side. "Although… I truly don't understand the need to hide it."

"Need is too strong a word. I want to keep this quiet until I'm ready, but I don't 'need' to." Firebrand would probably reveal herself to her old teammates, and thus the League, as soon as she woke up anyways. Kara just preferred to keep things close to her chest. "Is the power-armor ready?"

"It is fully operational."

The power-armor was a masterpiece. It still had a human silhouette, but there was no way to tell the gender of the person inside and it was filled with as much equipment as Kara could manage.

Fully enclosed, the armor actively filtering any radiation while absorbing sunlight to feed directly to her. Although it was sleek, the armor still made her as big as Blockbuster when she wore it.

Putting it on, Kara tested her range of motion and dexterity and was very satisfied with the result.

Engaging her stealth tech, the military one that didn't leave any signs of its use, Kara flew towards her second important meeting.

She arrived at the nondescript building and sneaked inside without anyone noticing. Sitting on top of a box, Kara waited until everyone had arrived and was very satisfied when none of them seemed to notice her presence.

"Apologies for the delay." She said while disengaging her stealth and watching Green Arrow jump to his feet.

"Holy sh…eep" The blonde trailed off as he glanced at the boy by his side, then he glanced from his bow to the giant gun at her back and sighed. "Damn, now I feel underdressed."

The Shade just tipped his hat to her and Bobo nodded while both Speedy and Red Arrow crossed their arms at the same time, then noticed it and became awkward about the entire thing.

Kara glanced at Speedy's robotic arm and shook her head. "You sure you don't want a new arm? It isn't all that hard to make."

The boy looked at his gray hand and squeezed his fingers into a fist. "Not until they're arrested, I don't want to forget it."

Kara briefly glanced at her own prosthetic leg, she couldn't wait to replace it and move past what the Psions had done but… well, she wouldn't blame him. "Very well, let's start then."

Chapter Text

Kara looked at all the members of her little team and smiled.

She briefly noted her armor made it so she towered over everyone present and she had to look down to do it, but it also made her feel safe. In truth, she wasn't complaining.
The Green Arrow group still wore their basic costumes, with Red Arrow and Speedy wearing almost the same outfit and, by the way they were avoiding even looking at each other, not feeling very comfortable about it.

The Shade wore a black trench coat over antiquated formal clothes, with a large top hat on his head. He carried around a dark cane, with a raven head for a handle, and had smoked glass spectacles in his face. His back was perfectly straight and he seemed to be enjoying the heroes' unease at his very presence.

Bobo was wearing his old Sherlock Holmes costume, complete with his plaid coat and detective cap. He sat on top of an empty crate and smoked from a pipe, but still made sure he wasn't puffing up smoke towards Speedy.

"Very well, let's start then." She said, the armor's speaker masking her voice and making it impossible to know her gender. Detaching a large backpack from her armor, she threw it towards the archers. "If you guys are gonna tag along, we can't have anyone recognizing you, it's best if our enemies remain ignorant of the League's involvement. Also, we're probably gonna be infringing on the League's UN charter. Someday."

Kara had prepared all three costumes. They were all a variation of dark tactical gear with metal plates for protection and sleek black helmets. Green Arrow and Red Arrow costumes had small compound bows and a simple sword, while Speedy's had a rifle and two laser pistols.

Green Arrow pulled out his costume and lowered his head in shame. "Great, we're playing disposable minions now."

"You're not disposable minions, you're super soldiers." Kara said in an annoyed voice. "Green Arrow, I designed the outfits myself, they probably provide more protection than anything you ever wore, and have better mobility."

"Nope, that's not how it works." Green Arrow shook his head sadly. "One guy wearing this armor is a badass super soldier. Three guys wearing the same armor are just faceless minions. That's just how it works. I can already feel my accuracy dropping just by looking at them."

Kara decided to ignore the man from now on. Turning to Bobo, she asked. "Have you truly located Prof. Morrow?" The chimp had informed her he had a major breakthrough in his case, but gave no details on the phone.

"Possibly, what I do have is the location of his newest workshop." The chimpanzee said while puffing out another cloud of smoke. "Usually, finding a new super scientist is just a question of following the money, or the materials. They use money to gather equipment, materials, minions and all that. Tomas Oscar Morrow was an old hand at this, and a good enough polymath to overcome some of those needs but, even he couldn't produce some of his higher end devices completely by himself."

"He revealed himself then?"

"Maybe, if you don't interrupt me, you'll find out." Bobo grumbled, causing Green Arrow to snort in amusement. Kara just shook her head and motioned for him to continue. "As I said, Prof. Morrow can produce most of his tech alone, but some of his equipment requires rare materials, equipment like the devices he uses to give his robots their elemental control."

"Now, when our boys in the capes defeated him for the last time, back when they were still the JSA, they cracked down on his operations like mad. Raided half a dozen of his bases and apprehended all of his gear." Bobo continued his lesson, but got up from his position and stretched his back. "I managed to get my hands on the list of apprehended materials, particularly the more exotic ones and, only a few weeks ago, there was a break in at one of STAR labs subsidiaries, one that stored quite a bit of an element that matched those on the list."

Finished stretching, Bobo pushed the crate he had been sitting on to the front of the group and opened a blueprint on top of it.

"After that, it was a simple case of solving the theft, easy." Lifting his cap, he scratched at his fur. "Everything points to this building. It's been empty for the last two decades but, somehow, it's maintained in stellar condition. I also found some complaints of strange noises and tremors made by its neighbors back then, I'd bet anything there's some kind of underground facility there too. There's always one of those."

Both Kara and Green Arrow studied the blueprint with attention. It was a large, four storey building with many smaller rooms.

"Say, how exactly is this Prof. Morrow? I mean, the League never had to deal with him, and Red Tornado is an okay guy."

"My old companion was an arrogant man." The Shade opened his mouth for the first time. "Arrogant, narcissistic, perfectionist and obsessed, he took particular pride in his programming skills. His androids tended to be a little too human, but he refused to lower their intelligence or make them any less sophisticated, no matter how many times they grew a conscience and betrayed him. I doubt he has changed too much."

"Shade, can you take us there?" Kara asked.

"But of course, do you prefer to land inside the building or close by?" He asked as he pushed away from the wall.

Kara looked around, everyone seemed ready to move. "The later, I'd like to have a chance to gather more information before attacking."

"Wait." Green Arrow shouted. "What do I call myself? Also, what do you call yourself?"

"You can call me Forge while in this armor." Kara said, she really hadn't thought a lot about her superhero name in this costume. Hopefully, nobody would ever need to use it. "As for you, I think you're right, you're minion C from now on."

"Hey!"

"I guess that makes me 'B' then?" Red Arrow asked. "I can live with that."

"I was gonna use Arsenal, but I guess I can save that for when I'm acting openly." Speedy nodded.

"Do prepare yourselves." The Shade said with a smile. "This will only take a moment."

In a second, every shadow in the room converged on them, stretching unnaturally, their tips curving as if becoming thin arms that grasped towards their bodies. Kara had to stop herself from moving as the darkness enveloped her, a weight settled over her shoulders and she completely lost her vision.

It felt suffocating, as if the weight of the world was pressing down on her, the darkness stretched endlessly and, for a second, she lost any sense of direction, then the shadows were gone and they were all left standing on top of a building.

Red Arrow stumbled, almost falling to his knees, Bobo shook himself and even Kara would have swayed in place had she not locked her armor before the trip. The Shade stood in front of them looking amused. His own shadow still far larger than it should be.

"Was that entirely necessary?" Bobo asked when he finally recovered.

"It seems not everyone can face the weight of the shadowlands with the same ubiquitous aplomb as me. My apologies." The Shade lifted his cane and laid it against his shoulder. With his free hand he pointed towards a building two blocks from where they had appeared. "I'll attempt to tone down its presence next time. That's our target."

"Thanks." Kara told him when she fully recovered. With a motion of her arm, a compartment at her back opened up and released thousands of little devices. Two millimeters in size, they spread in the air and soon disappeared from view.

Every single one of the devices could transmit sound and sight towards her receptor, but they could also connect to each other, creating different equipment on the field.

Kara laid down a holographic projector and all six of them watched, in real time, as her devices mapped the entire building, managed to infiltrate the underground facility and continued to map everything inside it.

The little things mapped four underground floors before something on the fifth finally managed to block their signal.

Finding a connecting port, Kara ordered a dozen of her drones to reconfigure themselves. They fused together into a hacking tool and attempted to enter Prof. Morrow's systems.

Eventually, Kara shook her head. "Such bullshit."

"What, having trouble?" Green Arrow, now minion C, asked.

"Earth tech should NOT be able to do shit like this." She complained. In front of them stood the nearly complete map of Morrow's hideout, as well as recorded images of Morrow and his associates. "Something on the fifth floor is completely blocking my signal. The entire floor is also fully isolated from the rest of Morrow's systems. I just can't fully subvert his programming. I can disable it, and even take over some of his equipment, but not only is he gonna know we're coming as soon as I do it, the fifth floor's defenses will also stay active."

"Can't the Shade just teleport us down?" Arsenal asked.

"Certainly, it would be simple. However, without an image of the fifth floor, I fear the trip would be much longer, and far less pleasant to you."

"Yeah, I think I speak for all of us, I'll pass." Green Arrow said and shuddered.

"Minions." Kara called Green Arrow and his protégées. "Your arrows and bullets are all filled with small EMP's, they should be able to disable any of Prof. Morrow's creations in an area around themselves, but he could have shielded them, so try to pierce their armor anyway." She pointed at his subordinates one by one. "This is Brom Stikk, Prof. Morrow's human assistant, he's not really a fighter, but he could be wearing a second Mr. Twister suit. This is Red…"

Kara laid out all she knew about Morrow's resources and abilities, including the possibility of a new geokinetic android. It didn't take her more than half an hour. Then they attacked.

With a command, Kara disabled all surveillance on the first four floors and The Shade teleported them all down, dropping the entire team in front of the fifth floor entrance. This time he made an effort to keep the terrifying effects of the shadowlands back.

As a Kryptonian, and someone wearing literal tons of armor, Kara breached the new floor first. The laboratory was surprisingly spacious, with clean wide corridors and white floors. There were no exposed cables or robots in sight.

Kara tried commanding her drones forward, but they dropped to the floor as soon as it happened. Her armor immediately informed her there was some kind of signal blocker being used in the hallway and the devices were too small and vulnerable to overcome it.

Stepping back, she ordered a few of her devices to latch on to her back and physically connect to her while reconfiguring themselves into a transmitter. It wouldn't be enough to cover the entire base, but could still allow her to use the drones at least a dozen meters around herself.

When she stepped back into the room there were two enormous turrets sprouting from the walls. They immediately pelted her with bullets. She let them bounce off her armor and lifted her own weapons. Shooting both turrets with lasers and causing them to explode.

"Who is this?" Came Prof. Morrow's annoyed voice from speakers all around the base. "Ah, no matter, I was expecting dear Ivo to send someone after me as soon as he stole my Red Inferno. My morrowbots will make short work of you."

"Morrowbots? Really?" Kara couldn't help but ask, getting a pat on the back from Green Arrow.

"Ah, villains and their ridiculous minion names. Don't worry, you get used to it."

Detective Chimp peeked down to the fifth floor and looked at the turrets, "Alright. I have to confess that chimps have a weakness, we're deadly averse to getting shot up, and I am a detective, not a fighter. I guess I'll stay up here and, you know, investigate or whatever…"

"Fine, the disabled systems won't be coming back on anytime soon. Try to see if you can find a connection to other villains." Kara said. "I'm pretty sure Prof. Morrow kept a watch on his fellow scientists."

The sound of metallic footsteps came from over a corner, making Kara lift her gun back again. The androids that came over were still humanoid, but they were faceless and completely white, they lifted their guns in unison and Kara was about to destroy them when an arrow flew and pierced the one in the middle before releasing a pulse of EMP.

With a discharge of electricity, the robots crumbled to the floor, the EMP having fired their circuitry. "Hmmm, they pack quite a punch don't they?"

"Yep." Kara nodded. The end of the hallway opened into three different directions.

Kara tried to activate her X-Ray vision to find the best path, but Prof. Morrow had managed to stop that, the walls were filled with at least a small layer of lead.

"Spread out?" Red Arrow asked.

"Spread out." Kara and Green Arrow said at the same time.

Choosing the left patch, Kara started walking. Waves of robots came towards her, some held traditional guns, others had laser weapons and a few had the weapons embedded into their limbs. Kara barely paid them any attention.

A hail of bullets pinged off her armor as she walked towards the center of the base. Kara had started to feel kind of silly holding her gun in front of her, so she put it back into place.

Instead, she had ordered her modular drones to form into a turret on her armor and start shooting lasers at the robots automatically from its place at her shoulder.

Grabbing one of the androids, she lifted it up to her face and couldn't help but admire the craftsmanship that had gone into it. The thing was clearly mass produced, but Morrow still showed considerable skill and attention to detail on the things.

Suddenly, thick metal doors cut off her advance, falling to the floor with such weight the entire base trembled. A quick glance behind her back confirmed what Kara already knew. A second door had fallen and locked her in the hallway.

A green gas started filling the small space even as the ceiling started to lower in order to crush her. All that was missing was the floor opening up into spikes. Sealed safely inside her armor, Kara couldn't care less.

Lifting an arm, she stopped the ceiling from falling. Pushing the ceiling back, she walked right towards the door, her turret already reconfiguring itself, it quickly shot a stream of plasma like a blowtorch and, in less than a minute, melted a hole through the meter thick door.

Picking up her pace, Kara massacred the robots as soon as they appeared. She knew her companions must have been doing the same thing because, soon, Morrow spoke again.

"You're destroying all my robots, you pest! Granted, they're not masterworks and it pained me to make them in such a hurry but, please, have some respect for my genius!"

Finally, Kara broke through one last door and into a wide open room. A white copy of Mr. Twister stood at the other end of the room. "So, you've arrived. I confess I'll…"

Instead of waiting for the villain to monologue, Kara just commanded her shoulder gun to shoot him. The laser hit its armor harmlessly. In one fluid motion, she grabbed for her larger weapon and lifted it up towards the robot. The thing seemed to recognize the threat of the gun and dodged aside while directing a wave of wind towards her.

She tanked the blast and continued to shoot, but the robot was enveloped in a cyclone and controlling the wind to move its body around at unexpected angles. Finally, she managed to clip his arm and send it flying aside, but it only dented the armor. "What the hell?"

"Well, I doubt a brute like you can appreciate this, but what do you think of the new body I was building for my dear Red Tornado?" Morrow said, his voice coming from the robot. "While Red Tornado's wind and programming are far superior, his casing is a little obsolete by today's standards, I thought he deserved an upgrade."

Kara felt her feet sliding a few centimeters through the ground towards the robot as it drained all the air from the room, she didn't know it could do that, and it could be dangerous if one of the archers had been here, but she wasn't affected.

Another four shots hit the robot on the head, deforming its armor even further, but not causing much damage. Morrow protested. "How rude!"

"Fine, I guess we're doing it the hard way." Kara had wanted to keep as much of her capabilities as she could a secret, she didn't know if Morrow was under the Light's employ, or if there was anyone monitoring him, but this was starting to be annoying.

Advancing on the robot, Kara tried to dodge another cyclone of wind, but the attack spread and caught her in its effect anyway, driving her back a few centimeters. Her feet dug into the floor causing it to crack as she tried to rush him, but the wind had started to pick up speed the longer it went on.

Finally, she jumped aside and shot him in the arm to stop him from following her movements. The hurricane of wind slipped past her to smash on the opposite wall, drilling a hole through it and several adjacent rooms before stopping.

She quickly advanced on Mr. Twister and, when he targeted her again, didn't let his winds gather power. Instead, she grabbed her large gun with both hands and swung it down on the cyclone with devastating strength. The blow dispersed the cyclone and forced Mr. Twister to start over again. Fortunately, he didn't have the time.

Dropping the weapon, Kara grabbed at the turret on her shoulder and reconfigured it into the plasma blowtorch; it detached from her armor while she rushed the final distance towards the robot. The thing tried to shoot her with more wind blades, but it wasn't strong enough to push her back, and its cyclones couldn't build up speed in such little time.

It tried to retreat, but she grabbed it and, while the metal managed to resist the amount of strength she was willing to reveal, it couldn't get free. Kara pinned it to the ground and applied her blowtorch to its chest, after less than a minute, she had managed to expose its insides.

Her drones flooded inside the android, attaching to its cables and circuits until Kara could disable it. She did carry around stronger weapons, ones capable of overcoming even this android's armor but, again, she didn't want to reveal it if she didn't have to.

And she could make use of anything she didn't damage too badly. She was looking forward to having an army of robot minions.

"Well, that was unexpected." Morrow's voice came from some speakers in the room. "Still, it's a good thing I took precautions. I'll see you pests next time, if you survive, ta-ta!"

"Self destruction sequence starting in, 10…9…8…7…"

Rao be damned, he was gonna collapse the entire secret base. "No! My spare materials and androids!"

For the first time, Kara ran, driving her shoulder through the door and blowing right through it, she completely ignored the few surviving robots.

Bursting through the command center, she found Brom Stikk with his arms in the air, The Shade held T. O. Morrow's android replica's head in one hand, while his other was pointed at the human assistant, a drop of ink black darkness at his fingertip.

Ignoring the scene, Kara rushed towards the computers and started tipping. With direct access to the central computer, her hacking programs started working at an astonishing pace.

"4…3...2…" Her programs broke through the computer security and gave her access to the device. Kara tapped as fast as she could. "Self destruction sequence interrupted!"

"Was it really that dangerous?" The Shade dropped the head of Morrow's replica on top of a table and asked in a conversational tone.

"Not really, most of the explosives were on the upper floors, I had already disabled them." She said while releasing a deep breath. "But, as much as I dislike the guy, Prof. Morrow was a genius. I didn't want to lose any of his work stored in the main server."

A second door opened and Green Arrow walked in, he was limping, his bow was broken and his armor was dripping water everywhere but, behind him, Red Arrow and Arsenal dragged Red Torpedo's disabled body, a dozen EMP arrows stuck in a single hole on his armor.

"Don't get the computers wet." Kara scolded.

"I'm fine too, thanks for asking." Green Arrow said. His eyes then saw Prof. Morrow's severed head. "Well, when I heard the self-destruct sequence initiating, I just knew Morrow had lost his mind."

Behind him, there was a loud smack sound as both his sidekicks facepalmed in shame.

A minute later, Kara found the signal blocker and disabled it, their communications started working again and Kara checked on Bobo to see he was perfectly fine. Sitting on top of a disabled android, he was reading a document while puffing on his pipe.

"Well, what now?" Arsenal asked.

"Now I check if we got our objectives." Kara said and grabbed Morrow's head, beside his decapitation, the robot wasn't all that damaged, she connected his head to the central computer and used his own systems to bypass his protections. The information she recovered was… annoying. "Alright, there's some good news and some bad news. Which do you want first?"

"I'd like to know the location of my former partner." The Shade asked, holding his cane with both hands. "I'd thought to trade a few words with him, and he wasn't one to use fetches."

"He's not he-here." It was Brom that answered The Shade, his voice trembling from fear.

"He's alive then, else you wouldn't fear for him." The Shade lowered his glasses slightly and stared at the man. "Don't fear. I'm not one to kill without provocation and, despite the situation; I merely wish to speak with him."

Brom Stikk seemed incapable of making a decision, so Kara decided to push. "I didn't find his location on record, but I know he's sick. You're not gonna be escaping here Brom, who's gonna take care of him?"

Finally, the thin man realized his predicament, head lowered, he answered.

"He's bedridden, I watch over him while he's on life support." He gulped and told them the address. Morrow was being taken care of in a small home in this same city.

"Alright, that's taken care of, what's the good news." Red Arrow asked, losing patience with the cowardly man.

"Good news, we got everything we came here for, and more." Kara told them, a smile on her face as she imagined the amount of things she could learn from Prof. Morrow's notes in the intact main server. She had even gotten Firebrand's activation code. "We got Prof. Morrow's information, hundreds of spare androids and even Red Torpedo. Or should I say, Doctor Jim Lockhart. I doubt he'll want anything to do with heroics when he wakes up, but we still saved him."

"And the bad news?" Asked Green Arrow, his voice betraying how tired he already was.

"Prof. Morrow's android managed to make a copy of his memories and Red Torpedo's into his newest creation. Red Volcano was still incomplete but, with Morrow's memories and knowledge uploaded, he'll probably be able to finish the job himself." Kara leaned back and wanted to massage her eyes in frustration. "The Android also thought we were hired by professor Ivo to steal his research. He's going after Prof. Morrow's old rival in order to get revenge and a new base of operations."

"That doesn't seem like bad news to me." Arsenal dismissed the news. "I'd say, let them fight."

"The problem is: what happens when one of them wins? Red Volcano has all of Prof. Morrow's knowledge and skill in his memory. Unless one of them gets completely destroyed, the winner will get access to the loser's tech. I really don't want to see what happens after that."

Prepared as she was, there was almost nothing Prof. Morrow or his creations could do against her but, together with Ivo, they could achieve so much more.

Kara could already see it in her mind. With her luck, Red Volcano would win and she'd have to face the damn genocidal robot in Amazo's body. Even if Prof. Ivo won, he'd have access to Morrow's knowledge and be able to give Amazo an actual human level intellect, or even improve his tech, allowing the android to use all his abilities at once like in JL and JLU. That'd be just great wouldn't it?

Chapter Text

Koriand’r felt her entire body lighting up with pain as the Psions bombarded her with synthetic sunlight. Tamaraneans could absorb, and even survive exclusively on sunlight, but everything had a limit, and Koriand’r could feel her own approaching.

She felt the light entering her body break through a limit and continue, more and more sunlight entered her cells. She felt like she would explode, the energy she had always carried with her pulsating inside her body and reaching a crescendo.

“X’hall’s Breath!” She heard her sister scream in pain despite the metal wall separating them.

NO! Her mind rebelled. They would kill Komand’r! Her sister had been born sick, she could not absorb sunlight, and the very act caused her physical pain.

Her wrists strained uselessly against the manacles even as a stream of fire seemed to enter her very veins, Koriand’r screamed even harder.

Even with the pain she was feeling, Koriand’r heard the explosion in the other room, it was followed by a short struggle. Soon, she saw her sister break down the door and look inside her room.

Swallowing her scream, Koriand’r smiled on the inside, Komand’r was free. They could escape!

For a few seconds, her sister stared at her, her face impassive. Gritting her teeth, Komand’r turned her face aside and stepped away.

“Sister!” Koriand’r managed to scream through the pain.

Komand’r paused, without looking back, she lifted a hand and two bolts of purple energy flew from her finger, one hit the solar generator and stopped her torture, the other pierced through the machines around her and hit her right hand manacle, breaking through the reinforced metal and sending another jolt of pain through Koriand’r’s body.

Lowering her hand, Komand’r stepped away from the door.

“Thank you.” Koriand’r whispered as she heard Komand’r’s steps running away. For a moment, she had believed her sister would leave her locked there to be tortured, the fact that she did not brought no small amount of joy to her heart.

Gathering her strength, Koriand’r pulled her arm away from the broken manacle, sending shards of metal flying through the room. Grabbing her remaining manacle, she pulled against it with both arms at the same time.

Koriand’r felt something rising inside herself. She channeled that feeling into her actions and, with a shout, her hands burst into green light as she ripped the manacle in half.

Directing her newfound power towards her legs, she felt the energy leaving her body. Green bolts of energy flew from her hands and exploded against the locks on her legs, it was not enough to destroy them, but the attack had damaged them enough that she could pull herself free.

A Psion security drone appeared on the door. “Prisoner 01245557841, do not resist, lethal force has been authorized!” The electronic voice commanded. Hands still glowing, Koriand’r looked at the robot and released twin bolts of light from her eyes, driving the robot back against the wall with surprising power.

The Drone tried to recover but, after a single step, it tilted sideways and fell down. Two more took its place, their weapons raised and already shooting lasers at her.

Koriand’r’s training kicked in, she floated aside and grabbed a heavy apparatus hanging from the ceiling, with a powerful twist, she ripped the appliance off its support and threw it towards the drone on the right then followed it up with a pounce.

Her makeshift projectile hit the drone and crushed it against the wall. Her own punch was a perfect example of Okara’s martial arts, her hand piercing all the way through the robot’s head. Grabbing its disabled body, she used it as a shield against a hail of lasers from her right side.

Koriand’r grabbed the robot’s gun and pointed it forward, pressing the trigger repeatedly, only for it to refuse to fire. It must have some security feature to prevent any prisoner from stealing it.

Looking at her own hand, Koriand’r thought about her energy bolt, she still felt the ultraviolet light just under her skin and, while she had never been able to use it as such before, gathering a bolt of light into her hand felt instinctual, almost as easy as flight.

The lasers kept hitting her drone and melting their way through its armor. With a warrior scream, Koriand’r held the drone with a single arm and charged her assailants, using her other arm to return fire.

Her starbolts were not strong enough to destroy a drone with a single shot unless she could hit their heads, but she was trained in the use of projectiles, and she still managed to destroy three of the robots before slamming her makeshift shield into a fourth.

Now in melee range, the drones stood no chance against her. She weaved between them like a cat and disabled their weapons with a single hit each. She also discovered that her new powers could increase her strength, allowing her punches to break through their armors no matter where she struck.

Twelve drones lay destroyed at her feet in less than a minute, woefully, that was far from enough. From the other side of the hallway, Koriand’r saw at least another thirty drones, led by an armored Psion.

She wanted nothing more than to slay the lizard where he stood, but she had no cover. The robots were also far enough, and in enough numbers, that she was unlikely to survive another charge.

Turning around, she flew away as fast as she could manage. Koriand’r hoped she could find an escape ship or, barring that, a less protected Psion she could capture.

Instead, she found an open area filled with robots and Psions, all of them armed and ready for her.

Stopping in place, Koriand’r felt her body sinking to the ground, she was not going to escape; there were too many and they were too well armed.

Closing her eyes, she remembered her sister had also escaped, Komand’r had always been physically weaker, but she had also been an even better fighter than her.

Yes, her sister would survive. Despite their differences, Koriand’r knew Komand’r cared about Tamaran. She would be a good queen.

“X’hall give me strength.” She prayed. Her duty was clear. If she could not escape, she could at least keep as many of their defenses busy. She could distract them and, hopefully, buy her sister enough time.

The prospect did not scare her. Instead, Koriand’r felt her flight stabilizing, her heart filling with hope instead of fear. With a scream of fury, she charged her enemies.

Green energy gathered at her fingertips and on her eyes as she waved between laser shots and returned fire. Any enemy that got into melee range was quickly dispatched, with prejudice, and those far away were bombarded with starbolts.

Koriand’r felt the lasers start to hit her, despite her newfound strength, there were too many, and she was tiring. She fought, she screamed, she destroyed, every time she thought of giving up, Koriand’r remembered her sister, her family.

Koriand’r was acting more on instinct than conscious thought, her body hurt everywhere and her arms felt heavy. Then she noticed another woman suddenly joining the fight.

For a second, her flight faltered as she thought her sister had failed to escape, but she quickly noticed the woman had blonde hair. She was also devastating the enemies. This stranger had little skill, but was acting with overwhelming power and savagery.

Koriand’r quickly recognized the woman’s prowess, how laser shots could not even cause her to flinch, how a single punch could shatter a robot as if it was made from glass. Changing her approach, Koriand’r started fighting smarter, eliminating hidden enemies and those who thought to reorganize their defenses.

She had hope. They could win!

The fight was brutal, and the woman, no, the girl, devolved into a mess. Her attacks became more brutal, her screams showing pain despite nothing in the room seeming capable of hurting her.

Koriand’r knew she was not a fighter, despite all her power the girl did not have the training. She had not been a warrior before this, but, after the battle, that would change. No one went through such an onslaught and remained a civilian.

When the fight was finally over and the girl was left blind to her surroundings, attacking a dead Psion in a fit of rage, Koriand’r approached her.

She was careful, she had seen what the girl could do, but she could not leave her alone, she could not abandon her here without help and in the state she was in. A simple touch on the shoulder was enough for the girl to turn her rage upon her.

Koriand’r stepped back, her arms raised in surrender, but her muscles were tense and ready for a fight. Despite all her power, Koriand’r knew she could subdue the girl if it was needed. She hoped it was not.

She was right, the girl’s eye stopped shining with red light, and her arms dropped to her sides as she took deep, long breaths. Slowly, and with very deliberate movements, Koriand’r warped her arms around the girl and pulled her closer, letting her cry against her shoulder while holding her tightly for comfort. Just as she had hoped Komand’r would hold her.

“Do not cry, rejoice, our fight has destroyed most of the forces they were willing to send.” Koriand’r told the girl with a reassuring smile, the girl ignored her, as if still lost in her rage. Grabbing her shoulders, Koriand’r turned the girl’s face towards her. “Do not grieve, we are safe now. You are safe now.” She said, and felt the urge to hug the girl which had so recently been turned into a warrior against her own will.

The girl’s eye finally focused on her, and Koriand’r could see she was sane and calming down. The girl spoke, but Koriand’r could not understand a single word. Had the Psions captured someone from outside the sector?

Koriand’r was glad she could help with that, while the girl still would not be able to communicate with others, Tamaraneans would not have that problem. Koriand’r nodded in understanding and cupped the girl's face in her hands, her ability could be activated just by touch, but she was not that experienced, and a kiss would be far more effective, and far less likely to lead to mistakes.

Koriand’r kissed the girl. She was briefly surprised, but far from displeased, when the girl kissed her back.

.

.
.
.
.

“AHHHH!” M’gann gasped, causing Koriand’r to snap out of her memories and turn towards the blushing girl.

“What troubles you, Friend M’gann?” Koriand’r asked, feeling safe to use the superhero’s name while in their mind connection, but making a mental remark to start utilizing their codenames while on a mission.

While the other Titans were still feeling uneasy at letting the Martian into their minds, Koriand’r had perceived how the girl was starved for a mental connection and freely let M’gann into her mind, even allowing her to make a deeper connection.

“Nothing!” M’gann shouted, her blush growing even more pronounced despite her ability to shape-shift.

Koriand’r did not understand, she knew the girl had been able to see her memory, at least the last moments of it, but, what could have caused such a pronounced reaction? Humans, and Martians too it seemed, were most peculiar.

“Everyone, are we ready?” Aqualad checked one last time.

“Ah, let’s go already!” Kid Flash could barely contain himself.

With an effort of will, Miss Martian opened the ship’s hatch and the attack team jumped down. As the team’s leader, Aqualad would be acting as the field commander for this operation.

He, Robin and Kid Flash, had the correct training in order to lead a stealth operation, while Miss Martian’s shape-shifting gave her a natural advantage, which ameliorated her lack of training.

Although Koriand’r had the correct training, stealth was not her specialty and Superboy was still far from being capable of infiltrating anywhere, they would stay on the ship and act as support, or reinforcements, as the situation demanded.

It was best if they were completely unwearied if they were needed.

All four of them released Kara’s drones into the air as soon as they approached the Venom factory. The devices shimmered and disappeared from view, quickly spreading through the location and conferring an immediate display of the entire location.

Koriand’r and Superboy watched closely as the robots located every objective they had: Kobra himself was overlooking the operation, and there were at least four Kobra-Venom enhanced on the factory alone. Still, there were places deep within the factory they dared not infiltrate remotely.

“Crap, I hate when the villains are smart.” Robin cursed as he looked at the computer on his wrist. “They don’t keep any important information on the local servers.”

“Alright, remember, capturing Kobra is the primary mission.” Aqualad informed them through their communication devices.

That had been one of the first lessons The Atom and The Green Lantern had given them. As some of the only heroes who had been representatives of a military not focused on individual prowess, they had been an indispensable constituent of the Titan’s initial training.

“Yeah, yeah, we all remember the debriefing.” Robin huffed. He was far too accustomed to working with The Batman. Having to communicate his actions was both inefficient and unfamiliar to him.

“Control, we will start the mission in one minute.” Koriand’r informed The Red Tornado. Being the one responsible for monitoring the mission, Koriand’r held her breath and looked at the enemies locations one final time.

She gave them the signal. “Proceed!”

All four attacked at the same time, each one responsible for a few guards. Their enemies’ surprise was total, and the attack left no chance for any escape, or even the raising of the alarms. A second later, Supergirl’s holographic devices were thrown on the ground and immediately started replicating the guard’s movements for the last minute, making sure none could notice their attack, at least not with a simple glance.

Koriand’r gripped the edge of her seat tightly and leaned forward, her heart pounding against her chest. She did not know having to act as overwatch could be so exhilarating!

“All targets neutralized, proceed.” Superboy said on his comms. He too had to relax his grip on the dented chair.

Poor bioship, Koriand’r hoped she could not feel pain from such a small location. Then she gasped, had she just been pinching it? She really disliked when Komand’r pinched her. “Apologies.” She whispered while gently patting her seat.

Using the drone images, Koriand’r and Superboy guided the four Titans through the facility, utilizing the holographic projectors to delay their discovery for as long as possible.

“I’ve located a shipment of Kobra-Venom, it seems ready for delivery.” Robin called out over his comms.

Turning her head towards his screen, Koriand’r frowned. A large quantity of Kobra-Venom was neatly packed and ready for transportation, too large to be distributed locally.

Typing fast, Koriand’r opened a screen with the information Robin had been able to hack from the local servers. There really was no immediately important information, but there were records of an increase in security and change in guard locations every week at the same time.

Koriand’r quickly sent the information to the four of them and got up, crossing her fingers, she stretched her tense arms above her head, then behind herself and bent down. With how much tighter the security was going to get, Koriand’r knew she and Superboy would have to intervene.

“What’re you doing?” Superboy asked with an uncertain voice.

“I always observe proper stretching techniques.” She answered and grabbed her leg, pulling her feet up to her back, pressing her chest forward. “Come, Friend Superboy, join me.”

“What do you think it means?” Kid Flash asked while punching out a minion and setting another holographic dummy.

“A sale.” Robin answered, his voice becoming more animated by the second. “Come on, not only can we capture Kobra, we can get one of his buyers too. I’m really feeling the aster here!”

“Friend Robin, I do not see any flowers from the surveillance drones.” Koriand’r commented as she finished her stretches.

“What?” Everyone asked in confused voices.

“Please, were you speaking of the cellular structure then? But, there must be so many, to be able to feel them…”

“No, I mean, aster as in, the opposite of disaster…” Robin explained in a frustrated voice.

“I… did not know the vernacular could be used in such a way.” Koriand’r mumbled while blushing. She would have to search for the idiom later. Friend Robin was most confusing.

The mission continued, Miss Martian acting as lookout to keep anyone from noticing while Kid flash installed explosive devices on the factory’s machines and Robin searched Kobra’s documentations and personal computers, trying to find proof of other villain’s involvement.

They had discussed simply disabling the produced drug supply, but, even without Kobra or Bane, the factory could still be used to restart Venom production, it was best to destroy it all.

Also, Robin did enjoy blowing up things.

Finally, a drone caught sight of an approaching helicopter, also, Kobra himself appeared. Flanked by two Kobra-Venom users, the cult leader left the building and walked calmly towards the Helipad.

“Main Target located.” Superboy informed everyone. All four heroes quickly dropped what they were doing and converged on Kobra’s location.

Robin just disappeared from view, his new stealth suit allowing his impressive skills to reach a new level. Aqualad threw a holographic display and hid inside it, a second later, Kid flash slid into place beside him.

“Alright, how’re we going to do this?” He asked.

“Starfire, Superboy, how long until you arrive?” Aqualad asked.

“The bioship is already floating above the factory.” Superboy replied, cracking his neck, he and Koriand’r stood in the middle of the ship and prepared to open the hatch.

“Have we identified the buyer?”

“We have not. The drones do not have a good view of the helicopter.” Koriand’r informed them. She commanded one of the drones to approach, but the wind was disturbing its flight. “I could try and approach, but the drone’s stealth can not overcome the harsh wind.”

“Hello Megan! I’ll try to take a look myself.” Using her powers to camouflage her body, Miss Martian started approaching the helicopter from the air.

“Miss Martian!” Aqualad grumbled under his breath, but it was too late.

Kobra lifted an eyebrow and glanced up for a second. He took another three steps and then wiped his arm up, throwing a dagger exactly where Miss Martian was floating. Miss Martian was able to react in time, but the dagger still pierced her shoulder and she dropped her camouflage.

“Eliminate her!” Kobra shouted in anger, but he didn’t move himself. Lifting his arm, Kobra spoke at a device on his wrist. “Nothing must disturb us, activate the jammers.”

A batarang flew through the air towards Kobra, but one of his bodyguards blocked it with an arm. With a beep, the batarang exploded and covered them with a cloud of smoke, obscuring their visions.

“Attack!” Aqualad ordered, and that was the last thing he managed to say before their comms stopped working.

“Miss Martian, mentally connect us!” Koriand’r shouted in her mind and ordered the bioship to open her doors.

“I-I… just a moment!” Miss Martian shouted back, she pulled the dagger out of her shoulder and hid behind the factory while using her shape-shifting to heal the wound.

Grabbing the edge of the door, Superboy looked around and located one of the large Kobra-Venom guards rushing towards Aqualad’s location. Pushing against the ship, he caused it to swing around in the air while he pounced on the giant man, smashing his entire body on the floor and causing the earth to shake under their combined prowess.

Koriand’r dropped out of the ship and floated in the air for a second to access things. The situation on the ground was chaotic, but she decided to focus on the helicopter which was turning aside to reveal a giant artillery piece.

Koriand’r shot a starbolt at the weapon, but the metal proved far more resistant than she had believed. A wave of bullets hit the ground causing it to explode in a shower of gravel.

Kid Flash had been waving between cultists, utilizing his celerity to steal their weapons and disable the lesser minions, but he stumbled on the impaired floor and fell down.

Another three shots of her starbolts disabled the aircraft’s munitions and Koriand’r turned her face to the ground again.

Suddenly, a javelin flew towards her right from the helicopter she had already dismissed. Koriand’r reacted fast and floated aside. With lightning-fast reflexes, she grabbed the projectile midair and twirled it in her hand before throwing it back with all her strength.

It had barely left her hand before it exploded, only a few centimeters away from her body. The shockwave sent her hurtling right into the factory building, bursting through the roof and into the steel beams.

“A little help here!” Kid Flash's desperate voice shouted in Koriand’r’s head.

“Kinda busy!” Robin yelled and Kori could feel his concentration. “This is totally not whelming!”

“Miss Martian, support Superboy before he’s overcome. Starfire, help Kid flash!” Aqualad's voice overcame the chatter in their minds. “I’ll help with Kobra.”

Koriand’r was already moving. She burst through the factory’s wall and took in the scene again. Robin was desperately fighting Kobra, but it was clear the cult leader was stronger and more skilled.

Superboy was facing four Kobra-Venom cultists. He was stronger and faster than then, but the cultists were more skilled, and the half-Kryptonian was getting overwhelmed by their attacks.

Kid Flash was also struggling with two Kobra-Venom cultists, and there were several people trying to shoot him. Usually, he could run circles around them, but his fall seemed to have contused his ankle, and he was far slower.

Koriand’r narrowed her eyes, “Leave, him, alone!” she growled, shooting the closest Kobra-Venom cultist with a green starbolt before slamming into the second one with a knee to the face.

Bullets pinged against her skin with bruising strength, but Koriand’r ignored them to fight the enhanced. Despite their size and appearance, they were competent martial artists.

“Thanks!” Kid Flash shouted.

“What about the buyers! “ Robin shouted in their minds, but Koriand’r could feel Aqualad shaking his head.

“Priorities! Disabling Kobra is our main concern.”

Focusing on the Kobra enhanced, Koriand’r weaved between their blows and hit them. Unfortunately, she had never personally battled a chemically enhanced regular human and didn’t know how resistant they were.

Without the heavy hitters, Kid Flash was able to disable the remaining cultists, allowing Robin and Aqualad to fully focus on Kobra without having to worry about stray bullets.

When Koriand’r finally subdued her enemies, she saw the aircraft starting to fly up with the latest delivery of Kobra-Venom. A blonde man wearing a metal mask was supervising the lift off while using projectiles such as darts and javelins to assist Kobra.

The cult leader himself seemed to be trying to escape, but Kid Flash had joined the fight and, together, they were keeping the man from running away.

Koriand’r rushed towards the masked man, throwing starbolts at him to stop him from helping Kobra. Reaching him, they started fighting. The man was incredibly skilled, and he knew to avoid her blows instead of blocking them.

They danced around each other as Koriand’r disabled his weapons. Shooting a starbolt from her eyes, Koriand’r forced him to duck under the blast and leave himself open for a kick to the chest.

He tried to block her kick with an arm, but her strength blew right through it and hit his armor. At the very last second, the man had jumped up so that his body flew back.

Koriand’r was just about to follow him when she heard the beep coming from her leg. It exploded with incredible power for a device so small, sending her flying back.

She reoriented herself quickly, only a slight burn on her leg. But the aircraft was already flying away, the man hanging from a rope connected to a harness at his waist, one of his arms broken while the other held his wounded chest.

Koriand’r shot a starbolt at him but the helicopter swirled aside at the last moment and someone inside shot a missile at her. A second starbolt blew it up but, by the time Koriand’r could see again, the helicopter was already far away.

She flew after it, she was just about to start hurling bolts again when the vehicle revealed another compartment. In a second, the aircraft shot three dozen smaller missiles towards where the Titans were still fighting. Koriand’r did not even stop to think, letting the helicopter escape in order to intercept the projectiles.

“He’s gonna make a run for it!” Robin shouted in all of their minds, as Kobra looked around and finally bought himself some space.

Throwing a bomb to the floor, Kobra caused a large black cloud to rise around them.

“No he isn’t!” Kid Flash shouted. Already warned by Robin, he quickly ran around their location and used the generated wind to disperse the cloud.

Kobra had made surprising progress in his escape even in that short time. Keeping close to the ground like an ophidian he had almost literally been trying to scurry away, but the cloud dispersed too soon and both Miss Martian and Superboy were already blocking his path.

The two heroes were a little battered, Superboy’s costume had several dents in it, but they had proved superior to the Venom enhanced cultist they had fought.

Koriand’r finished destroying the missiles and floated down to face the cult leader. Kobra took a look at the Titans and gave a resigned sigh. Straightening his back, he lifted his arms with a smirk on his face. “I surrender.”

“No shit.” Kid Flash said.

Robin just threw another batarang at the man’s face. Kobra grabbed the weapon midair and it released a small green cloud, causing the cult leader to collapse face first to the floor. Everyone looked at him.

“What? It’s safer this way.” He shrugged.

“Pity the buyer escaped.” Kid Flash sighed. “And they took so much of the drug too.”

“About that,” Robin smirked. Pressing a button on his wrist he deactivated the holographic displays revealing all the disabled cultists, and also revealing a large quantity of the Kobra-Venom dumped to the side of the factory. “Since they had already prepared the drug for transport so conveniently, I thought it best to move it away for the moment.”

“So, what did they carry away?” Miss Martian touched down on the floor and asked.

“A tracker.” He snickered. “Well, I also had to fill it with some random crap for weight, and a holographic device to keep the disguise.”

“Nice!” Kid Flash lifted his hand in the air and Robin high-fived it.

“Do you think they’ll check on the drugs before arriving at their location?” Superboy asked, making them all trade glances.

“Communications are still blocked.” Aqualad informed them after checking.

“I’ll contact the mountain!” Miss Martian called and hurried towards the Bioship.

“I’ll look for the signal blocker.” Kid Flash ran towards the Factory.

“Hey,” Robin called for Koriand’r’s attention. “You don’t think Supergirl is gonna be mad I let the villains take some of her devices? I know Batman hates when that happens.”

“Do not worry, Friend Robin. Supergirl has installed assorted means of self termination in all of her devices.” Koriand’r nodded with a smile. “It will most likely explode after some time, or if they attempt to study it. She will not care.”

Robin and Aqualad traded unease glances then looked at their own costumes and the teleporting devices at each other's backs. “Now, when you say it will explode, do you mean the…”

“Come, Friend Robin, this is a victory and I was informed that, after victories, it is custom to do the partying!” Koriand’r grabbed Kobra by his coat and hoisted him onto her shoulders. “I am most eager to have some mustard with pizza on the bottom!”

The mustard party was magnificent, and it became even better when The Batman informed them the League had been able to pursue the signal. The villainous enemy Koriand’r had faced was identified as Sportsmaster and had been arrested by Wonder Woman herself.

They had also found a most villainous sanctuary where animals were being experimented on in India, a member of the UN charter, so the Justice League had been able to interfere. The Batman suspected the villain, The Brain, to have been involved but the mastermind had still escaped.

Feeling somewhat enervated, Koriand’r arrived home, and that very prospect already brought a smile to her face. Taking a quick shower, Koriand’r paused in front of Kara’s room.

The blond was already sleeping, her body in a fetal position, her arm curled under the pillow. She had a frown on her face and her entire body shook. Dexter stood on top of her body, his claws kneading at her shoulders.

Stepping inside the bedroom, Koriand’r sat down on the bed and, carefully, laid beside her best friend. Kara did not wake up.

“You are safe now.” She whispered at Kara’s ears and, when her friend’s hand grabbed at her shirt, Koriand’r lay down on the bed beside Kara and held her tightly against her body until the girl stopped shaking.

Koriand’r felt the cat curling into a ball between their bodies and smiled. Closing her eyes, she fell asleep.

Chapter Text

Dubbilex stared at the grave with an impassive face. He was currently wearing the guise of a young woman, unwilling to connect his Donavan disguise with this particular trip.

He really didn't know how he should be feeling right now.

In front of him rested his... mother? Sister? DNA donor? He supposes the third option was probably the most accurate. The others implied an emotional or familial connection that just wasn't there. They had never even met after all.

Ace had been a little over twice his age when she died and, according to the documents he read, her powers had been what caused her death. Dubbilex had since gotten all the genomorphs a new medical check. The results weren't good.

It seemed like his entire race had an expiration date, a little over twenty years with the proper care. He really didn't know what to think about that.

Most humans lived about seventy to eighty years these days, but there were alien races that lived much longer... and much shorter lives.

Shaking his head, Dubbilex kneeled in front of the grave and deposited the flowers he had been holding. It had been... interesting to meet Ace, in a manner of speaking, but it didn't really change his life.

No, it was important to remember her, but his focus should be on his still living brothers and sisters. Discovering just how short their lives would be gave him a new drive. He couldn't keep wasting time anymore.
"Thank you brother." He nodded towards Kon-El, the young man who had volunteered to accompany him, and he appreciated the gesture. "Let us return, I still have much to do."

"Kara's keeping you busy?" Kon-El asked with some interest.

"Indeed, managing both CADMUS and her company is difficult, I do hope she will find a new CEO soon." Dubbilex said as they left the cemetery.

"Starfire is starting to talk about organizing an intervention." Kon-El grimaced. "I don't think Kara's gonna react well to that."

"No, I suppose not." Dubbilex smiled thinking about his employer's continued efforts to escape her therapist. "I'll warn her that her time is running out."

"How's Kraig doing?"

"He still misses you, but he's adjusting well to the outside world." Dubbilex told him. The little G-gnome had been one of the first to volunteer at Kara's new factory. "I dream of the day we can walk freely but, clearly, that is still a work in progress."

"Is there anything I can do?" Kon-El asked, feeling Dubbilex's frustration.

"For the moment? No." Dubbilex shook his head and turned towards his brother. "However, when the time comes, I hope you can stand with us as we reveal ourselves."

"I... of course." Kon-El said with some hesitation.

Dubbilex could see his brother wanted to fit in, that he was willing to give it up for the sake of their race spoke well of his character. Laying a hand on his shoulder, Dubbilex smiled. "Don't worry brother, I have spoken with Kara and Batman, there is still much to be done before we're ready to move. When the time comes, I know you will be ready."

Kon-El nodded. His shoulders relaxed as they got into the car.

Dubbilex kept the image of the woman until he stepped into the Zeta-Tube that delivered him to CADMUS's door. Finally, he dispersed it and simply made himself invisible to anyone looking his way, trusting Kara's tech to keep his image from any cameras.

Once inside, he relaxed his control and felt at home, surrounded by his family. He nodded towards Beth as she stepped out of her power generator and stretched her limbs, electricity leaving her body until she was no longer shining with power.

"Going to the Cafeteria?" He connected to her mind and asked.

"Yes, just finished a shift." Beth flicked all her limbs, getting rid of the last sparks of electricity. "Want to come? Benny and Karen will be joining me there."

"Yes, I haven't eaten anything yet." He decided to take some time before starting to organize CADMUS's latest reports. He was eternally thankful for Kara's help but, since a little over a week now, it had been nearly impossible to get her away from her workshop.

"You work too much, should I have a talk with the boss lady? Kryptonians aren't immune to lightning, I could give her a lesson." Dubbilex snorted, no genomorph would hurt Kara Zor-El, of that he was certain, but Beth liked to joke about it.

"No need, it shouldn't be much longer before we have things in order." He dismissed her concern. It wasn't the time to be slowing down.

Eating a nice meal at the cafeteria, Dubbilex smiled as he saw the genomorphs and human researchers interacting as if it was normal. The human's G-gnome handlers didn't even have to do anything.

At the beginning, the human workers had found it strange to see the genomorphs free, walking around, having breaks and eating amongst them but ultimately, the G-gnomes only had to interfere a few times, and that interference was minimal.

Instead of mind controlling the humans, which many of them, including Dubbilex himself, were loathe to do, they just used their telepathy to inform Dubbilex, and he pretended to be their superior, berating them for releasing company secrets and reminding them of their work contracts.

Kara's tech intercepted any electronic report, and, since they still believed the genomorphs were under their control, the humans adapted quickly. Not to say there weren't some unpleasant individuals, but they were few and far between.

Sitting down at his desk, Dubbilex relaxed his body on the comfortable chair and used his telekinesis to lift the physical reports he had to sign. He read them one after another, and signed them with only a minor effort of will, his pen moving in the air with incredible skill.

Since finding out his own... origin, Dubbilex had been using his powers more and more. Ace had been able to grow from only being able to alter the perception of those who met her eyes, to warping reality in an area around herself.

Dubbilex doubted he could reach that level of power, and he certainly didn't want to share her fate, but he was being careful and already noticed a large growth of his abilities, telekinesis came easier and with more skill. His telepathy was already effortless and now it grew in range and finesse every day.

He felt nearly twice as strong as he was before Kara had freed him, and that was far from his limit. Never again would he be unable to help his people. He refused to stand by once more.

Dubbilex was a natural pacifist, he did not wish for conflict and, more importantly, he would not start conflict. But, he wouldn't stay quiet if his family was attacked or enslaved, not again.

Leaning forward, Dubbilex opened his own laptop, one given to him by Kara so nobody could hack it, typing his password, he waited until the computer finished scanning him, reading his fingerprints, retina, body shape and even his temperature, then started working on his CEO responsibilities, making sure the factory would be able to produce their first prototype on time.

Suddenly, his screen flashes red and the notebook starts releasing an incredibly annoying noise, a single click later and Dubbilex was redirected to the cameras outside CADMUS. For a moment, he couldn't see anything, then Kara's tech changed to heat signals revealing several assailants.

Reacting immediately, Dubbilex stretched his power, connecting to several people inside the facility. "Guardian, this is an emergency, start the evacuation procedures, abandon the upper floors and focus on the remaining genomorphs. Erin, make sure to retrieve everything and destroy any information on our creation or other sensitive projects. All others, start making your way to the genomorph cave."

He didn't wait for their answer and cut the connection, focusing back on the cameras. He recognized a few of their hidden enemies from Kara's documentation, while most of them were too well hidden, Hook and Black Spider weren't as skilled as the others.

The League of Shadows was here.

From the main road, a black car arrived and parked right in front of CADMUS, Lex Luthor himself stepped out of the vehicle, pulling something from inside his suit, he pressed a button and Dubbilex saw CADMUS' own security be completely disabled, every camera stopped working at the same time.

Thankfully, Kara had long since provided an alternative surveillance system in the form of her drones. Some of the genomorphs had also disconnected a few of the security features from the central CADMUS' system, making them work independently. Then a small, cylindrical robot with a brain appeared from the other side of the car, a large gorilla with a red beret following closely behind.

The gorilla was carrying a large metal pole on his shoulder, with a grunt, he drove it into the ground and the entire thing unfolded, revealing some kind of antenna. Dubbilex ordered a few of the drones to come closer for a better look.

The drones registered a pulse as it was released from the device, several warnings started activating on his screen and, before he could react, a bullet hit the closest drone. In quick succession, all the drones on the outside of the building were disabled.

Pressing a button, Dubbilex ordered them to self-destruct. Unfortunately, at least a dozen of the devices had completely stopped responding before he did. Kara still had incorporated defenses against tampering on every device but, with so many spares, they would have far too many tries to break through her defenses.

The drones weren't actually that important, but Kara absolutely hated losing any advantage she had, and Dubbilex could already see the young Kryptonian becoming paranoid of her own tech being used against her allies.

A few seconds later, he found out what went wrong. While Brain's device couldn't destroy Kara's drones, or even disable them. It could disrupt their stealth, making them easy pickings for the trained assassins.

Ordering the remaining devices to hide themselves in the ventilation or any other tight space, Dubbilex reprogrammed them so that any movement less than a meter from them would trigger their self-destruct. This way he'd be able to keep an eye on the Light's progress while minimizing the chances that they could capture more of the devices.

Grabbing a tablet, Dubbilex got up from his chair and almost ran from the room. Hopefully, they could all be out of this place soon, leaving the Light empty handed.

The first five floors were completely evacuated before the Light even entered the building. Some data and experiments were left behind, but really, the upper floors were left for anything they did not mind leaving behind anyway.

All their personnel started gathering beneath the last floor of the facility, where the genomorphs had opened a large cavern they could use to escape.

Around him, Genomorphs lead humans towards the evacuation area, taking the humans away was a risk, but there was no way to know if the Light wouldn't kill them and blame his family as a power play.

Checking his tablet, Dubbilex finally had the names of the entire raid team.

Leading from the front was Lady Shiva. He had disabled the elevator so the assassin and martial artist was running down the stairs with astonishing speed, followed closely behind by Cheshire.

Behind them, and running much slower, were Ubu, Hook and Black Spider. They tried to keep up, but the two females were just too fast.

Lex Luthor seemed to have decided to wait outside, Dubbilex managed to send one of the surviving drones outside to watch him, but the man rested calmly against the car, messing with his own cell phone.

Brain, Ra's al Ghul and Ocean-Master walked calmly around the facility, as if they didn't have a worry in the world. Dubbilex made sure to save the footage of it. At least he could prove they were working together.

Dubbilex tried to send a copy to Kara's computer, but something was interfering with communications to and from the facility. He almost wanted to smirk. So they thought themselves safe.

Reaching the last floor, Dubbilex grabbed one of Kara's portal communicators and activated it. He sent all the information towards her computer, while also sending a copy to his own device at the company. He also sent out a call for help, but the device only connected to a single place, and there was a chance Kara would notice the warning too late.

They hadn't thought they'd be found out so soon, but there had been too many things to do. Kara had given him the first device she produced, but they had forgotten to get more.

At least he had gotten the footage out. It was not definite proof, but Dubbilex was happy to take any chance of causing Luthor problems.

Guardian arrived at his side. The clone had been keeping watch on his own device, and his face didn't seem as satisfied as the situation demanded.

"Is there a problem?"

"There's too many, it's taking too long to get everyone safely to the other side, and they're advancing too fast." He frowned as he watched Lady Shiva punch through a door and throw daggers at the few defenses his family had managed to restart. "We'll have to delay them."

"There are still some working defenses on the lower floors. Are you sure they won't be enough?" Dubbilex asked.

Karen stepped at their side and grunted causing the both of them to turn towards her. She used a large claw to point at her own device. Dubbilex's eyes widened.

It seems like, while they had been paying attention to the vanguard, Brain was working on opening the elevator doors. "The elevators are still disabled, even if he reactivates them; we made sure they were too damaged to move."

"Brain is too good a scientist, and Ocean Master is a mage. They will find a way." Guardian said while Karen just shook her head.

"Very well, Guardian, focus on giving me cover, I'll delay them for as long as I can." Dubbilex said.

Karen grunted. Her voice was much harsher than before. Dubbilex knew the G-Trolls had impressive size and strength, but they had no training and, as the Titans had proved, that made all the difference.

Most G-Trolls were gentle beings, even more gentle than other Genomorphs, only Karen had been willing to train and defend her family.

"Are you sure, sister?" He asked. The G-Troll didn't even stop to think about it, she nodded and grunted her confidence. "Very well, try to stay out of sight. A surprise attack can give us a large advantage."

The elevator shaft only went down to the 48th floor. Dubbilex chose a large room on the 50th floor for their confrontation. There were large support pillars and a giant open space. The room used to house thousands of cages that perpetually drained his family of their electricity. Nobody would come to check on them for weeks.

Once the Genomorphs were free, most G-Sprites decided to destroy the cages and never again step into this place. Dubbilex had left it empty since then, it was a low enough floor to be blocked from most employees, and he didn't need the space.

Dubbilex closed his eyes and breathed deeply, concentrating fully on the moment. There was a chance that Kara or someone else would get here in time, but, if he was truthful, he welcomed the chance of fighting them, the chance to defend his people himself instead of cowering and putting all his hopes in others.

He also sent an order to Kara's devices, since he no longer needed to watch the upper floors, it was best that they be destroyed before The Light had the time to search for them.

Lady Shiva and Cheshire were the first to arrive, followed closely behind by Hook, Ubu and Black Spider. Instead of attacking, Dubbilex used his telepathic illusions to trick them. While he wanted to fight them, his family was more important, delaying them was the true goal.

The assassins wandered the floor in circular patterns, running as fast as they could, only to end up at exactly the same place.

Lady Shiva was the first to notice, stopping in place and closing her eyes, the assassin tried to use her other senses to find out his location. Dubbilex didn't let her. The very moment she stopped moving he attacked, putting pressure on her mind without revealing his location.

Lady Shiva frowned, but her mind was too strong and Dubbilex couldn't overcome her defenses while also keeping his location hidden. Unfortunately, Cheshire too noticed them, throwing several needles towards Guardian.

The man managed to block the attack, but that was enough to break Dubbilex's illusions and reveal the both of them. Guardian attacked. Trading blows with Cheshire and actually driving her back for a few seconds.

Dubbilex kept his focus on Lady Shiva, bombarding her mind with his power since he no longer had to affect the others or hide his position, causing her to stumble back.

Hook shot his weapon at him. The large metal hook connected to a chain flew straight towards his face and finally forced him to stop his attack, with a telekinetic blow Dubbilex smashed the hook to the floor with so much force it broke the chain and caused the ground to explode in shards of concrete and ceramic.

From one of the pillars, Black Spider shoots webs at his body. Dubbilex motioned with his hand and a piece of the damaged floor rose in the air, the sticky red substance struck the physical barrier and stopped.

The boulder was too heavy for him to throw with any speed, but it was already damaged and he had been working on finesse. A simple application of his power broke it apart, creating hundreds of smaller projectiles. Another wave of his hand sharpened their tips before he sent them flying as fast as possible towards all five enemies.

The attack forced Ubu to stop his charge and dodge aside, Lady Shiva recovered fast enough to jump back, Black Spider was pierced in the leg by a projectile and fell down, and Hook turned his back, tanking the attack with his armor but leaving himself open.

Another wave of his hand, Dubbilex telekinetically grabbed the discarded hook and used it to pierce through its owner's ankle then dragged him through the air and threw him against Cheshire.

The ninja jumped away and regrouped with Lady Shiva while Ubu and Black Spider hid behind a pillar.

Guardian had held his own, but there were several needles sticking from his shield and helmet. They nodded to each other.

Lady Shiva and Cheshire attacked, throwing a wave of knives and needles which Dubbilex blocked with ease. The needles stopped dead in the air, while the daggers were parried aside. Wiping his hand to the side, Dubbilex actually hit Black Spider with one of the needles causing the Assassin to stumble and letting Guardian smash his shield on the man's face, knocking him out.

Ubu engaged with Guardian, while Dubbilex desperately tried to keep both female assassins away, using the discarded daggers and rubble as projectiles, then a flash of light caught his attention and he had to step back, letting a magical projectile pass him by and explode against a pillar.

"Well, well, well, it seems like you're having trouble here, how peculiar." Brain said in an electronic voice. The large gorilla walking by his side just grunted.

"Lady Shiva, why haven't you eliminated him?" Asked Ra's al Ghul, his hands hidden behind his back.

"He's a powerful telepath and telekinetic, I would overcome him, but he managed to delay me until now." The lady assassin said in a calm and even voice, as if their fight had never happened.

Guardian actually subdued Ubu and stepped back, his face was filled with sweat and he was desperately trying to catch his breath. Seeing his situation, Dubbilex nodded and opened their mental connection.

"Thank you for the support Guardian, retreat before it's too late."

"What about you?"

"I can delay them for a few moments more," Dubbilex looked at his eyes with confidence then focused back on their enemies. "Karen, it seems like we can't avoid it."

Looking at the three new enemies that had arrived, Dubbilex was happy to see they weren't in a hurry to finish this. All three of them just observed the situation, and didn't show any signs of wanting to act themselves.

With a wave of his hand, Dubbilex sent Ubu flying back towards Shiva and Cheshire, forcing them to dodge while getting pelted with anything he could get his telekinetic grasp on.

They had learned not to use projectiles, and Dubbilex was exhausting himself to keep them away. He couldn't keep it up for long, but even they couldn't advance under his attack and he managed to block them for nearly a full minute.

"Enough, I'll deal with him." Ocean-Master shouted and pointed at him with his spear, releasing another blast of magic.

Dubbilex was already moving, stepping aside without a lot of movement while sending a stone towards the villain.

Ocean-Master destroyed the stone with a wave of his spears and charged, moving with incredible speed towards him. Dubbilex started walking backwards and, when Ocean-Master was nearly upon him, Karen attacked.

From the start of the fight Karen had been waiting behind one of the pillars, feeling anxious, now she used all her nervous energy on a single, devastating punch.

Dubbilex swore he could see the villain's eyes widening as the punch approached. Lifting his spear, he had enough time to form a magical shield, but the blow was so strong the shield exploded into shards of light and Ocean-Master's body was sent flying.

The G-Trolls were big. Dubbilex would go so far as to say they were giants. Taller, larger and heavier than elephants, their every movement had enough strength to match most supers. And in case that wasn't enough, Karen wasn't a normal G-Troll.

Once it was clear Dubbilex couldn't deal with them by himself, Karen had consumed a G-Troll sized dose of the last Blockbuster serum they had. Her muscles were twice as big, her tusks sharper than ever and her very skin could barely contain her power.

Blockbuster could make a normal human match a G-Troll, used by a G-Troll. Dubbilex believed she could match Superman, at least in strength alone.

Stepping out from behind the pillar, Karen's feet shook the ground. With some concentration, Dubbilex used his telekinesis to raise his body until he was standing on her shoulder.

Karen roared, her voice driving them all back with the sheer power.

"Fascinating." Brain said, still with his confident voice.

At his side, Ocean-Master picked himself up, he spit some blood on the ground and cracked his neck. Suddenly, he shot a new blast from his spear and Karen wasn't fast enough to dodge.

The magical attack hit her in the arm and blasted all the way through, Dubbilex could see the exposed bone from the wound and Karen roared again, this time from pain.

Telekinetically keeping himself above her. Dubbilex had to focus his entire power on blocking Ocean-Master, keeping the tip of his spear pointed away from Karen's body with any means he could as the G-Troll fought the others by herself.

Her power meant that all but Ocean-Master couldn't survive a single hit, unfortunately they all knew how to fight a super strong opponent, and they were all too fast for her. Even with Ra's and Brain staying back, her wounds started accumulating.

Lady Shiva herself was cutting through Karen's body like a madwoman, weaving between Karen's attacks without even stepping back. Several times, the assassin managed to climb Karen's body and attack Dubbilex himself.

His chest was hurting from a deep cut, and his left arm had stopped working when it was pierced by Shiva's sword. Dubbilex also felt himself weakening, finding a needle piercing the back of his knee.

Karen was a mess. She must have been cut almost a thousand times, and there was blood all around her on the floor. She was breathing hard, one of her tusks missing from when Dubbilex almost couldn't completely redirect one of Ocean-Master's attacks.

Finally, he knew they couldn't hold on any more. In a desperate move, he stopped disrupting Ocean-master and blasted everyone around them with a wave of telekinesis, Lady Shiva, Cheshire and the Gorilla flew back, but one of Ocean-Master's magical blasts hit him in the side, blowing a hole through his body and destroying at least some of his organs.

Dubbilex feet slipped from Karen's shoulders, his telekinesis no longer able to keep him in place. Karen caught him in a large hand just before he hit the floor, unable to even speak, he ordered in her mind. "RUN!"

She ran, the enemies were about to follow them, but Guardian must have been watching the fight, because he activated the last defense, using the explosive charges to collapse the ceiling just as they stepped into the stairs towards the lower floors.

Karen didn't stop, her blood flying all over the place as she carried him down, down into the secret cave. Dubbilex was barely conscious, but he used the very last of his powers to telekinetically pinch his wounds close. He was sure it was doing even more damage, but the effort kept him from bleeding out.

Karen finally reached the last cave and collapsed to her knees, Guardian managed to catch his body as it dropped from the G-Troll's hand "Dubbilex!"

"Le-let's... coff... go." Behind him, the ceiling collapsed, Ocean-Master dropped from the hole and fell, making a superhero landing.

Lady Shiva soon dropped lightly by his side, the same calm expression on her face. Ocean-Master lifted his trident and the entire world flashed as Guardian smashed the button for Kara's Kryptonian teleportation device.

It was built to let Genomorphs go from CADMUS to Kara's factory. Fully made with Kryptonian technology and materials, not only was it powerful enough to take them all away, but it would also act as a transportation vehicle, not a platform, teleporting with them and leaving nothing behind for The Light to study.

It had taken several trips, and even longer for the people to move, but they had bought enough time for all CADMUS personnel to teleport away.

It was with a sense of relief that Dubbilex passed out.

Chapter Text

“Muwahahaha! It’s finally finished!” Kara said and pushed herself away from the controls. “Want to be there when he wakes up again?”

At her side, Danette Reilly gave her an odd look, but Kara didn’t mind. Sometimes, she just felt like laughing after working, nobody would sue her for it.

The android nodded her head. She was wearing civilian clothes rather than her superhero outfit, had also cut her hair short and had a haunted look on her face, something that Kara hadn’t been able to remedy in only a few days.

With the Morrow android’s knowledge, Kara had managed to reactivate both Red Torpedo and Firebrand. The first had wanted nothing to do with superheroes, while the second was… complicated.

Danette had woken up startled, thinking she was still back in 1945 and having just taken a shot meant for Flash. Finding out she was currently more than sixty years in the future had been hard; finding out she was an android, even harder.

The young woman was confused, distraught and highly emotional, refusing to meet anyone and keeping close to Red Torpedo since Kara had reactivated him.

The old man was another story. Dr. Lockhart had an entire human life of experiences to draw upon in order to calm himself, a lifetime as a doctor, where he had faced death and grief quite a few times. He also had nearly a month of time to think about his new situation, even if that time was under Prof. Morrow’s control.

He had acted as a touchstone for Danette, but really, he wanted nothing more than to go back to his normal life, to the point that he had begged Kara to reapply his synthetic skin as soon as possible. He also wanted to look old instead of returning to his prime.

Although… he did ask Kara to modify the part of his programming that gave him arthritis. Apparently, he was willing to miss out on that part of being old.

The two of them quickly entered the operating room to find Dr. Lockhart just as he was putting on his coat. “How do you feel?”

“Old, grumpy, strange. Humph, thanks.” The old man grumbled and nodded towards her. “I don’t think I’ll ever be the same again but… it’s good to be able to at least pretend to be human again.”

“I could give you the back pain back if you want, or the deteriorating vision, for realism?” Kara offered with a smirk.

“No thanks.” The old man combed his gray hairs and then looked at Danette. “Thanks for keeping me company, didn’t think I’d have a family at my age.”

“Seventy isn’t that old, Brother.” Dannete said with a shrug.

“I’ll go prepare the teleporter. You two can talk, but try not to take too long, I don’t want to be here for much longer.” Kara said as she started to walk away.

“Humph, supervillains and moon bases, I’m too old for this shit.”

Making an effort not to listen, Kara walked towards the teleport room on her moon base and started getting it ready. Since she had last been here, the moon base had grown from a single room into a moderately sized installation.

With Lobo still after her, Kara hadn’t dared to come here alone. The man was known as one of the best bounty hunters in the galaxy, and one capable of tracking his prey anywhere, but, with Dr. Lockhart begging her, she had decided to take the chance anyway.

All of her advances on the synthetic skin and touch receptors had stayed on the ship after all, as well as her supply of the materials needed. In truth, it’s not like the Fortress couldn’t replicate those components, but it would take time and resources best used elsewhere.

Kara decided that the short trip wouldn’t be too risky and, even if Lobo could track her there, she had her armor now, as well as Red Torpedo and Firebrand for backup.

Still, the base’s location was supposed to be kept secret so Kara had installed a device that blocked any incoming or outgoing signals from the location, but the lack of communications was leaving her feeling anxious.

She still had her miniature portal creator integrated into the armor so it wasn’t as if she couldn’t call for help if it was truly needed. In a way, she was safer here than at her own apartment, it just didn’t feel that way.

Kara caught herself tapping her feet against the floor and had to forcefully stop herself, then she started again. Crossing her arms, Kara glanced towards the interior of her base and couldn’t help but activate her X-Ray vision, catching sight of Danette and Dr. Lockhart approaching before releasing a breath.

It had only taken three hours to install the new touch receptors and coat the old man in his synthetic skin, but Kara regretted every second of it. She should have just dealt with his complaints and waited for the Fortress to create the necessary facilities.

The three of them stepped into the teleportation device and Kara pressed the button. In a flash of light, they appeared back into the Fortress, Kara’s armor reconnected with her communication network and she stumbled.

With several warnings blaring into her head, Kara jumped away and released her drones on instinct. The majority of the drones formed a defensive barrier around her, while others became weapons aiming at everything around them, ready for the ambush.

There wasn’t one.

Her heart beating in her throat, Kara took the time to look around and found the Fortress empty, then she glanced at the warnings on her armor and cursed.

“What happened?” Danette yelled, a ball of blue flames above one hand while the other held a barely contained field of plasma in the shape of a sword.

“Sorry, it’s not here.” Kara waved her away and dropped back to the ground.

It took her two seconds to read everything. It seemed like The Light had discovered her takeover of CADMUS and decided to raid the place. With the wave of a finger, Kara connected to Erin, the G-Elf in charge of communications.

The second Erin answered, Kara started yelling. “What’s the situation?!”

“Miss Kara, it’s-it was…” The G-Elf swallowed and Kara could hear the yelling in the background.

“One of you, help him!” Guardian was shouting.

“We-We don’t know how! Genomorphs that showed defects were either repurposed or put into a healing tank, without the equipment we can’t…”

Kara didn’t wait to hear more, turning towards Dr. Lockhart, she asked. “Do you know how to operate someone? Ever worked on an alien or mutant?”

“Yes and yes. I had to operate on a meta-human before retiring, but he was still mostly human.” The old man grumbled and squinted at her.

“Good enough. Erin, use the platform to bring whoever needs help to the Fortress. Even if I can’t cure them, I can put them in stasis here.” Grabbing Dr. Lockhart by the arm, Kara dragged him through the Fortress and towards the main room, Danette following closely behind her.

As they walked, Kara thought about what to do, she needed more information. Digging into the data sent her way, she found the video Dubbilex sent and watched it as fast as she could manage.

Ra’s al Ghul, Brain, Ocean-Master and Lex Luthor were at CADMUS. They were all together at CADMUS, without Klarion. Fuck, why did Dubbilex stop her from putting a bomb in the facility for self destruction? It would have been so easy.

Right, the collateral damage.

Haphazardly collapsing 52 floors in the middle of Washington D.C. could kill a lot of people, and Kara just hadn’t had the time to make the necessary calculations, or preparations to make it safe.

Still, she could get them all!

With a flash of light, the large teleportation platform appeared in the middle of the Fortress front entrance, the only place big enough for it at the moment.

On top of the platform, a giant G-Troll collapsed to her knees, large wounds bleeding all over her body. For a moment, Kara didn’t recognize the G-Troll, then she saw her face and realized it was Karen, the gentle genomorph who liked to read fiction.

Beside her, Guardian was kneeling together with a black woman, both of their hands were soaked with blood as they tried to keep Dubbilex from dying.

“Alright, let me see!” Dr. Lockhart yelled and jumped up onto the platform, taking Guardian’s place.

“What happened?” Kara asked the clone as she approached. “There wasn’t supposed to be any fighting!”

“Brain was able to disable most of our defenses remotely. We had to delay them to get everyone out and Ocean-Master managed one last hit on Dubbilex.” Guardian said and squeezed his hands in anger. Taking his helmet off of his head, he threw it down on the floor with all his strength causing it to bounce through the room.

“Was Klarion there?” Kara asked, grabbing the man’s shoulders and shaking him. “Was he there or just the four of them?”

“Four? No, the League of Assassins was there too, but I only saw Ra’s, Brain and Ocean-Master from the leaders.”

“Good. Take care of him.” Kara turned towards the Zeta-Tube. With her armor, she was pretty sure she could take care of all of them, even Ocean-Master wouldn’t be a challenge outside of the water.

With a command, she contacted the Fortress AI and ordered it to start calculating the correct amount of force needed to destroy CADMUS. She didn’t have a bomb, but she could throw a rod of metal down into the facility, utterly destroying it.

Hell, even if it caused collateral damage, The Light certainly had evacuated anything nearby to prevent getting found out. It took the Fortress a full minute to make the proper calculations, Kara knew she didn’t have the control to follow them, but her armor did. And it was strong enough.

Ra’s, Brain and Ocean-Master weren’t really a threat towards her or her cousin, but Lex Luthor was, and taking out four of its members would be a huge blow. She couldn’t resist.

Just as she was about to activate the Zeta-Tube, Kara froze in place. “Fuck! Fuck, fuck, FUCK!”

As fast as she could, she called Red Arrow’s phone. Thinking a little about it, she also called Green Arrow’s phone, both his hero and personal ones.

While the call was going through, Kara composed a message towards Kal. She wrote as fast as her computers could handle, informing her cousin of the raid on CADMUS and the fact the villains were still there, then she made a copy for Kori and Batman, but she didn’t send it.

Once she informed anyone with a stiff enough moral spine of what was going on she knew her nascent decapitation strike was off the table.

“Supergirl?” Green Arrow answered his heroic phone first.

“Where is Red Arrow?”

Green Arrow sensed the haste in her voice and didn’t ask anything. “He told me he had an operation, I offered to help, but he said he could do it alone.”

“Where?” Kara almost yelled at the phone. She could already hear the man running through his Arrow Cave.

“He didn’t tell me. Wait, I’m activating a tracker.” Kara heard the man acting as fast as he could, fumbling through his equipment in a hurry. “What’s going on?”

“The Light just raided CADMUS, Green Arrow, they know someone’s found Roy.” Kara said while gritting her teeth, her feet tapping against the floor at super speed until she had to stop herself to prevent damaging the Zeta-Tube.

“Shit, fuck, he’s on Infinity Island!” The man shouted.

“Send me his location.” Kara had to wait a few whole seconds before she had Red Arrow’s location on her display.

Gripping her weapon, Kara silently cursed herself, her eyes waving between CADMUS and Red Arrow’s location as she struggled with herself.

Red Arrow could protect himself, he was an experienced hero who had been fighting for far longer than her, and he had some of her equipment. Kara had given him one of her emergency teleporters and several of her civilian drones. He wouldn’t die, or even get hurt.

To be able to eliminate so many of the Light in one single action would be a devastating blow, one they wouldn’t be able to recover from. Kara could send Red Arrow’s information to the League and the Titans. Even if they weren’t ready immediately, it would only take a few extra minutes.

“Rao damn it all!” Kara screamed and activated the Zeta-Tube.

The closest Zeta-Tube to Infinity Island was in Miami, from there, Kara flew directly south as fast as she could. While moving, she sent the CADMUS information to everyone.

She could be overthinking things but, if the Light suspected CADMUS enough to organize a raid, they probably had someone ready to capture or eliminate Red Arrow as soon as they confirmed he was a liability.

As she approached the island, Kara made sure to activate her own tracker and start broadcasting her location to the Justice League, making sure the anti-jammer was activated the entire time, even if it wasted a lot of resources.

At her top speed it would only take a few minutes to reach the location, Kara spent that time briefing herself on the lay of the land. Turns out that Infinity Island was actually a sovereign island on the Caribbean Sea, the place was a suspected home of Ra’s al Ghul, but nobody could prove it, and the island refused entry to the Justice League. Not that she cared.

A new warning almost caused her to falter. It seems like Red Arrow’s emergency teleport had activated, Kara almost released a breath of relief, but then she noticed his tracker was still on Infinity Island.

Taking a second, she connected to the Mountain’s security system and used its cameras to look at the video. There, trembling against one of the mountain’s walls, was a young woman of around twenty, wearing a lab coat covered in blood that didn’t look to be hers. “Rao damn it!”

Suddenly, she stopped herself over a military complex, it was filled with armed guards and its walls were protected with some layer of lead, just like Prof. Morrow’s headquarters. Her HUD immediately caused her to curse, the building was actually owned by the government.

A closer look at the guards revealed that the vast majority of them were just soldiers, with only one being recognized as part of the League of Assassins. They may not even know for whom they were working, just following orders.

Just killing them would make her job so much easier. Kara could just drop as fast as she could, bursting through the building without care for the damage she caused. The men were working for Ra’s al Ghul anyway, they probably deserved it.

Damn it, she didn’t want to resort to murder just because it was easier, not when they possibly didn’t deserve it. Glancing at the still active tracker, she saw it going deeper and deeper into the building.

“Shit, that’s not good.” Kara didn’t know whose blood had been on the scientist’s coat but, if it was from Red Arrow, he probably wouldn’t last too long without medical attention. Kara simply didn’t have the time to be careful. “Shock and awe it is.”

Releasing thousands of drones from her armor, Kara ordered them to spread around the compound below; they'd cover her retreat later if it was necessary, but she didn’t have time to wait for them to spread through the base.

With one last look at Red Arrow’s location, Kara saw he was actually already underground. Taking a deep breath, she let herself drop. A second later, she accelerated. Kara hit a spot of jungle two hundred meters away from the fortress with so much strength she created a crater, sending pieces of trees flying high in the sky, but not hitting anybody.

She continued to move down for a few meters, the earth only offering minimal resistance, when she reached the same height as Red Arrow’s tracker, Kara turned back towards the fortress and pressed forward.

She broke through the fortress’s underground walls only a hundred meters away from Red Arrow. Kara still couldn’t see through the lead covered walls but, with the signal there, she knew the general direction.

Kara didn’t dare go too fast lest she kill anyone in the way. Instead, she just hastily walked towards the signal, bursting through the concrete and metal walls as if they weren’t even there. Her armor gave her enough protection that she just ignored anyone in her way.

From her right, she saw one of the guards lifting a weapon and shooting at her. Moving fast, Kara caught a bullet and looked at it. It wasn’t special in any way, no magic or exotic material, just a normal projectile.

Dropping the piece of metal to the floor, Kara continued to ignore any attacks coming her way. Usually, she wouldn’t dare take a bullet for fear of it being made from kryptonite or enhanced with magic, but no kryptonite could go through her protection, and she wasn’t so paranoid as to fear a kryptonite bullet enhanced with just the right spell to pierce her armor.

Suddenly, the lights around the bunker cut off, Kara broke through a new wall and found herself in an empty large room. Using her improved vision, she saw a single man standing in the other end of the room, cutting off her progress towards Red Arrow.

The man wore a large purple robe and a cowl with golden details, Kara lifted her gun and shot him in the face.

“Well, that was unexpected, I believe that answers the question of you being a hero.” A mocking laugh came from all around the room. The image of the man didn’t disappear and, instead, multiplied into three as purple fire ignited all around the place, encircling Kara’s location.

“I hate magic.” She grumbled, only making the enemy laugh harder. Kara analyzed her enemy and thought about DC’s villains, mainly the ones who worked with the Light. “Felix Faust, I presume?”

“The same! You know, you’re currently keeping me away from something very important right now.” The Sorcerer said as all three copies of him started spreading around the room. Kara activated all surveillance systems in her armor, but even they seemed unable to locate the man. “Usually, that would be truly terrible for you, but I am in a hurry, so I’ll finish this quickly.”

A magical circle appeared in front of each copy and shot her with a bolt of lightning, Kara just used her speed to step aside and let the attack pass harmlessly by. At her shoulders, several of her drones connected to her armor, forming three small weapons and shooting each clone simultaneously.

Kara didn’t believe the enemy was one of them, but it didn’t hurt to check. “A third rate magician like you can’t stop me.”

In answer, hundreds of purple magic circles formed all around the room, shooting a barrage of magical lightning towards her. Using her speed, Kara dodged the attacks as deftly as she could.

The magical attacks weren’t as fast as true lightning, but they were still incredibly fast, and incredibly powerful, causing explosions everywhere they hit. Kara waved between them with superhuman speed, using the Nth metal in her hands to dispel the worst of it with her punches, but the barrage showed no signs of stopping.

Some of the lightning bolts hit her armor and were dispersed, but Kara had to lift an eyebrow at just how effective they were. Her armor was made to withstand Superman’s levels of strength, it should have shrugged off anything Faust could throw at her.

Unfortunately, magic was bullshit. That or the magician was actually far more powerful than she expected and, while the armor took the blows, its AI quickly warned her that the attacks would eventually overwhelm her protections.

Then the situation changed when the purple circles started moving and layering themselves, instead of hundreds she was now faced with 66 circles, but they were triple layered and hit about ten times harder while moving twice as fast.

Kara dodged as a bolt exploded against the ground and pierced all the way through the concrete, showing her the lower floor. On reflex, she retreated, dodging a second bolt and punching a third, dispelling its magic with the Nth metal in her gloves.

Rao, how she wished she had enough of the material to make an entire armor. She doubted there was so much of the metal on the entire planet, but it was a nice goal.

Clearly, this wasn’t working. So, new plan. Protecting her head and chest with her arms, Kara ordered some of her drones to form into shields in front of her. They quickly gathered into little hexagons and started projecting energy shields around her, each one was only enough to block two or three bolts, but they still gave her enough time to concentrate on something else instead of just dodging.

Turning off the sound filter on her armor, Kara focused her attention. Five seconds later, she turned towards a corner of the room and shot it, repeatedly. Felix Faust’s illusion was powerful, but he’d forgotten to block the sound of his own heart beating.

The illusion around her was gone, as well as half of the magical circles which had turned into a shield around Felix, protecting him from her weapon. Without wasting any more time, Kara flew towards him, tanking five blows from the magical bolts before punching his face in.

Kara didn’t hold back, it wasn’t the time for that. Her Nth metal gauntlets broke through the shield and hit him directly, sending the man flying back until he smashed his back against the wall, broke through and only then stopped.

Her armor AI warned her of critical damage done to her right leg, the armor having lost mobility there, but Kara didn’t actually need the armor’s help to move so she just disabled the notification and started using her own strength to move the limb. Seeing Faust intact body, she frowned.

“What?” Kara looked down at her hands, with the Nth metal dispelling his protection, she had expected the sorcerer’s head to explode, instead he was merely left bleeding, but clearly alive. “How the hell are you alive?”

“Foolish, my new master has given me power beyond imagining!” Faust crackled, laughing like mad as purple flames gathered around him. “Interesting you should mention Hell. Perhaps it's time you face it!”

With a wave of his hands, Faust threw the fire to the ground, causing large cracks to spread through the floor from which lava spewed out; from the cracks, two clawed hands burst out, a second later, a single demon pulled itself free and looked around.

The creature seemed to have yellow skin with fur-like covering, it was incredibly muscular and had two small dark horns on top of its head, wearing red armor with a green cape. The creature’s red eyes looked at Kara and frowned.

“Come, you will not keep me from my goal!” Screamed Faust before descending into mad laughter, purple flames gathered around his body and started healing his wounds.

Kara squinted at the new enemy, the demon cracked his neck and smiled, revealing a row of sharp fangs. She really didn’t like that smile.

Yeah, speaking of goals, Kara didn’t dare move lest she restart the fight, but she made one of her drones look at the hole one of Faust’s bolts had made into the floor and saw it wasn’t some kind of hell dimension, just the lower floor.

Kara made her decision, her goal here wasn’t to deal with Faust, it had never been and it had been a mistake to even waste her time on him. Plus, that demon looked far too much like Etrigan for her liking.

Before anything else could be said, Kara broke through the floor, then flew towards Red Arrow’s tracker, with enemies behind her, she no longer had the luxury of caring about collateral damage. It also didn’t hurt that all the minions weren’t around, not anymore.

She broke through the walls in a straight line, hearing the demon following after her. The creature was slower than her and couldn’t fly, but he didn’t have to break through walls.

Finally, Kara burst through a cave revealing eight assassins dressed in dark clothes led by an extremely beautiful woman of olive skin. One of them was carrying Red Arrow’s limp form on his shoulders.

As soon as Kara appeared, the woman lifted a hand, revealing a remote control device. Kara hesitated, then she was punched in the head, hard. Her armored body flew and hit the wall, causing the entire cave to shake.

The demon was just about to pounce on her when Felix appeared on the wall, floating on top of a pentagram. “Stop, I wish to enjoy this.”

“Why?” The demon asked, his voice so deep it rumbled through the cave.

“Our goal is already met, I had no idea it was right here, but this makes things much easier.” Felix said and had a wide smile on his face.

Kara frowned, she really didn’t like the way Felix was talking, and she had no intention of believing he wouldn’t get involved, but she’d take any time he gave her to think.

“Very well.” The demon nodded. “My task was to obey you, if you fail, it will be your soul forfeit to the Lord.”

Kara looked back at the woman. The assassin still held the remote control in her hand, but she was now frowning towards Felix, causing Kara to think there was a classic case of villain backstabbing going on.

Still, she didn’t want to get involved. “Give me Red Arrow and I’ll leave.” She told the woman. “You can deal with whatever this is then.”

The woman, who Kara thought to be Talia al Ghul, seemed conflicted for a few seconds before taking a breath and turning towards her. “You avoided any casualties, making sure even our agents weren’t hurt, if you approach, you’ll never see him again.”

Kara looked at the woman’s impartial face, then back at Felix’s delight. “What are you gonna do, kill your only leverage?” Kara looked with all of her senses and, seeing as they were all completely normal humans, snorted. “If you kill him, I’ll make sure to eliminate everyone here, even if the demon tries to interfere, just the aftermath of our fight will be enough to kill you if I don’t try to stop it. I’ll bet that the life of Ra’s al Ghul’s daughter is far more valuable than a single sidekick.”

She would do it too. The demon punched harder than her, but not by that much. Kara was pretty sure she could take him if it came down to it. And Faust, even as magically strong as he seemed, just wasn’t in her league without a prepared battlefield.

Then Felix burst out laughing again, causing Kara to rethink the situation. Why hadn’t Talia put a blade to Red Arrow’s throat or threatened to stab him in the heart? What was that remote control for?

Looking around the room, she finally caught sight of the Pit. It was a square depression on the cave floor, with a fancy coffin suspended above it. The Pit was blocked with metal doors and Kara saw hundreds of explosive charges positioned all around it.

Felix Faust cackled like mad, almost bending over with laughter. “It’s truly amusing, you really think the boy is still alive!”

Chapter Text

“It’s truly amusing, you really think the boy is still alive!” Felix Faust mocked, his body hidden behind the large frame of his demon. “You see, I killed him myself as soon as I got the order.”

The words hit Kara like a raging flame dragon, causing her to freeze in place as she tried to process the information. In truth, Kara hadn’t been very close to Red Arrow, but he was working with her. She had spoken with him, given him equipment, even lead him in the Prof. Morrow raid. In a way, he had been her responsibility.

Kara knew that continuing to use him as a mole against the Light was a huge risk but, in the end, it hadn’t been his failure that caused his death. Damn it all.

Kara noticed a red haze starting to fill her vision and had to stop herself from moving. She wanted nothing more than to tear into the damn Sorcerer, but she knew that, if she gave in, she’d probably slaughter the whole base, and that wasn’t who she wanted to become.

Taking a breath, she forced herself to think. Accelerating her thoughts until the world around her seemed to be moving slowly.

Once again, Kara was thankful for her armor, her enemies couldn’t see the conflict on her face as she desperately tried to think about the situation. She was angry, no, she was beyond angry. Kara wanted nothing more than to rip Faust’s head off his shoulder and stomp on it, but she knew that acting harshly would only cause problems.

Should she kill them all? She definitely wanted to, but then what? Rao damn it all, Kara didn’t have the training for this kind of thing, her accelerated thoughts helped, but even then, it couldn’t solve everything.

“Faust, what’s the meaning of this?” Talia frowned, her hand still holding the remote control. “Deal with the intruder already.”

Kara glanced at the woman and activated every sensor on her armor, she also used her x-ray vision to look inside the remote. She detected at least another five controls working on the same frequency amongst Talia’s followers, as well as a deadman switch that would trigger the explosives if Talia was killed.

She was probably fast enough to disable them all anyway, but there was nothing stopping someone from triggering them from outside the room, Kara detected at least two cameras on the cave already.

Her armor could probably block the signal, but could she take the risk? Did she ever care? If she wasn’t gonna use the Pit, she couldn’t care less if it was destroyed.

Kara assumed the Pit was a Lazarus Pit, used to resurrect Ra’s every time the old bastard was killed but, could she trust it with Red Arrow? Kara wasn’t an expert on the Lazarus Pit but, from what she remembered, every time it was used on a hero, things didn’t turn out well.

From what she remembers, the Lazarus Pit had been used twice to resurrect two different Robins and, both times, it had caused them to go crazy. Kara had to wonder if Ra’s al Ghul had always been so crazy, or was he such a warped person because of the Pit’s influence?

Using the display on her armor, Kara ordered her drones to reconfigure themselves and waited. She decided that she was willing to let her enemies talk as long as it gave her time to think and plan. It would also give her enemies time to think, but Kara had a huge advantage there. She was convinced that she’d get far more from whatever time was brought, even if it was incredibly hard to hold back her rage.

“In a moment. I believe I have to deal with you first, my dear.” Faust said, tapping a finger against his chin in thought. “After all, the intruder isn’t threatening my goal right now. You are.”

“What’s the meaning of this? Your master should have been clear on your orders, Sorcerer, obey them!” Talia said, her voice hard, Kara saw the woman’s eyes subtly glancing all around the room, trying to find a way out of this situation.

“Ah yes. In truth, I doubt the little abomination will care overly much as long as what I do amuses it, more than that, I have a new master now.” Faust shrugged with indifference. “I confess, I could probably have taken the boy alive, he was quite pathetic but, seeing how desperate for information your group was, I thought it possible you’d try to revive him. If I knew a Lazarus Pit was right here, I wouldn’t have bothered.”

Turning away from Talia, Kara focused all of her attention on the sorcerer. Really, he was the real threat here, and the one responsible for Red Arrow’s death. She wanted him to hurt, she wanted to tear him apart with her bare hands. It was time to figure out how to do that.

Kara knew the Sorcerer should be dead. While she certainly hadn’t hit him with all her power, her punch had been strong enough to explode any human’s head, even a moderately enhanced one, not to mention how his body had broken through a wall and damaged a second one.

Clearly, his powers gave him some kind of protection. Seeing as he still got hurt, it was probably some form of body enhancement and not a shield, plus some regeneration with how he’d been recovering. His magic was also greatly empowered, but he still didn’t have much experience in a direct fight at this level.

Now, if only she could get through his pet demon. Kara had watched some records of Etrigan in action from the Justice League’s files; the Rhyming Demon was fast, strong and capable of magic. This wasn’t Etrigan, but he looked almost exactly like him so, probably family.

From what she knew, Etrigan was a prince of Hell, which meant he was at the upper level of power. Kara didn’t know much about the sealed demon’s family, but anything related to a prince of hell couldn’t be weak.

“Hmmm, a pity. It seems like our intruder has more self control than I first thought. I was certain he would attack me if I mocked the boy.” Faust gave an exaggerated sigh, Kara was paying close attention to him and still barely saw a shadow leaving his body. “I guess we should resume this? I have bought enough time after all.”

Everything happened at once. As soon as Faust finished talking, Kara shot him with her gun as well as five laser pistols formed from her drones. The demon’s arm flashed and he actually hit the projectile out of the air while blocking one of the laser bolts.

Four lasers still hit Faust’s body, but they were blocked by a shield just above his skin. The sorcerer waved his arms, one hand aiming for Talia and her followers, while the other sent a wave of purple fire towards the Lazarus Pit’s doors.

A purple pentagram appeared under Talia, enveloping all of her goons at the same time. Kara had to choose quickly, block the flames and save the Pit, or save Red Arrow’s body. She chose the latter.

She acted fast. Moving just below the speed of sound, Kara saw the demon watching her with amusement, but he didn’t intercept her as she flew towards Talia. Kara still managed to snap off a shot at the purple flame, the projectile dispersed some of the spell, but it still hit the metal doors sealing the pit and started melting them.

Flying through the pentagram, Kara threw five of the assassins away from the spell’s area of effect before reaching Red Arrow, she grabbed his body and noticed purple bars starting to grow from the floor, aiming to lock her in place.

Kara briefly noticed that Talia was able to jump away too, then she flew out of the area of effect with Red Arrow’s body on her arms. Behind her, the purple bars formed a dome with three assassins still inside.

One of the assassins tried to jump through the bars, they offered no resistance to his body and he passed right through, then he fell to pieces, the bars having cut through his body like a hot knife through butter. Inside the dome, both remaining assassins also burst into flames, burning from the feet up and turning into ashes.

“Demon, kill any who tries to interfere!” Faust yelled as he flew towards the Lazarus pit.

“As you wish.” The demon smiled and turned towards Kara.

Talia rolled through the floor and attempted to get up, but her own shadow seemed to come alive, holding her in place. She tried to press the button on her device, but shadows enveloped her hand and pulled it through the floor as if it was intangible, Talia screamed in pain.

The demon took a deep breath, then spewed a wave of hellfire into his own hands. Molding the flames into the form of a large sword, he released a roar of rage and pounced towards Kara, moving almost as fast as she could.

A shield generated by her drones intercepted the first blow, but the sword broke the shield easily, destroying the drones used. The deflection still brought Kara enough time and left the demon exposed. Making sure to keep Red Arrow’s body away from him Kara punched out, a sharp blade protruding from her gauntlet towards the demon’s heart.

The creature was fast enough to twist aside, but Kara’s blow still pierced all the way through its left shoulder; Kara herself managed to dodge his swing completely and, before she could twist the blade, the demon kicked her in the chest, driving her away from his body with another roar.

“Ha! Good one!” The demon laughed, his shoulder healing almost instantly. “I am Vortigar, son of Belial, and I will enjoy spilling your blood and adding your skull to my throne!”

Kara didn’t reply, the fight was only making her angrier and she just didn’t feel like trading barbs with her enemies, she just wanted them to die!

Noticing that her drones had finally finished attaching themselves to her gun and modifying it, she pulled it from her back and pointed it towards Vortigar's chest. The demon was arrogant enough to stand in place while her weapon locked into his position. Kara pulled the trigger.

There was no noise, no projectile, but Vortigar suddenly stumbled as a portal opened inside his chest and sucked out a piece of his heart. From the side of her gun, a capsule was ejected, the demonic flesh compressed inside so as to not create a mess inside her weapon.

The demon roared, the noise was like a tiger’s roar, only a thousand times worse. It caused the entire cave to shake and almost froze Kara in place. With a grunt, he threw his sword like a javelin towards Kara’s chest.

Another drone shield formed automatically in front of her, it broke almost instantly, but deflected the projectile enough that Kara was able to snap out of the stun and dodge just enough. The sword still pierced through her side, but it only hit the metal of her armor.

Almost in a daze, Kara released the gun, letting it swing back into place and touched the sword that almost pierced through her chest, her heart beating like mad. She didn’t know if the weapon could have pierced her Kryptonian skin, but she most certainly did not want to find out.

The sword started to heat up, its metal turning back into hellfire, Kara quickly ripped it out and threw it aside, but it still left a melted hole in her armor.

Then the demon pounced. Missing part of his heart seemed to have some effect though as he was a little slower than before, allowing Kara to use her speed to fly back. Making sure that Red Arrow’s body was always protected, she pulled out her gun again and aimed towards him. Vortigar was certainly arrogant but he wasn’t completely stupid, never staying in place enough for her teleportation weapon to get a lock on his position a second time.

Kara was so focused on the demon she didn’t see Faust cast a new spell, a bolt of purple lightning hit her armor and sent her flying back, her display flashing red from the damage.

Turning towards the Sorcerer, she saw a flow of green energy being sucked from the Pit and towards his body, his eyes flashed with unholy light as veins of green pulsed through his body.

Her armor’s display warned Kara that his latest attack was five times stronger than before; her systems had also finally gathered enough information to analyze its effects.

It seems that Faust’s spells weren’t just strong, they had an exotic effect capable of warping the materials it hit, corrupting its attributes with every subsequent hit, every blow that Kara blocked made her armor weaker.

Thankfully, the attacks weren’t able to encompass her entire armor, only affecting a small area around the hit, and only for a certain amount of time. But, with his powers constantly growing, that area was increasing, and she didn’t dare take more than one blow right now.

Rao fucking damn it, couldn’t she get a fucking break!

Her vision started to become red again, with a growl, Kara aimed her gun towards Faust, but Vortigar jumped at her again, forcing her to dodge and lose the lock. Hitting the ceiling, the demon took a deep breath and released a wave of hellfire towards her.

Kara’s armor could take it, but she was still carrying Red Arrow, forcing her to fly back. Floating atop the Lazarus Pit, Faust gathered another bolt, layering five pentagrams to increase its powers.

Kara also noticed a wave of mud rising from inside the Pit. Doubtlessly, it was yet another enemy she’d have to face. With a scream of frustration, Kara sent three blades of red light towards Vortigar, they cut through his hellfire and forced the demon to dodge, one of them cutting right through his wrist and sending his hand flying away.

She took the chance to aim back towards Faust, the bolt he had been preparing flew towards her. Without a choice, Kara released Red Arrow and blocked the bolt with her Nth metal gauntlet, then pressed the trigger.

With a ‘click’, a capsule was ejected from her weapon, the teleport had pierced right through all of Faust’s shields and pulled a piece of his brain out. Kara released a roar of satisfaction as she saw the sorcerer’s eyes growing dull.

Releasing her weapon, Kara flew down and grabbed Red Arrow’s body right before it hit the ground. Faust’s body hit the mud creature and bounced off, falling inside the Lazarus Pit. A wave of green light exploded from the pit, sending the monster flying away.

“Oh fuck no! NO!” Kara roared, the cursed sorcerer was not about to get a fucking second form!

Glancing down at Red Arrow’s body, Kara gritted her teeth, the red haze around her eyes growing thicker, the Lazarus Pit released another wave of green light and Kara gave the order.

While Faust had been speaking, a few of her drones had flown towards the explosive charges, using their stealth tech to remain undetected as they attached themselves to the explosives. Kara’s goal had been to use the drones to block any transmission towards them, eliminating any danger of the charges going off. Now, she did the opposite.

Using her X-ray vision to look through the stone, Kara saw as the Sorcerer’s body started to move inside the pit, then it, and everything around it, exploded.

Pieces of stone flew away from the pit, Kara batted one of them aside with an arm and briefly saw another flying towards where Talia was. Glancing towards the woman, she saw that the shadows holding her in place had been dispersed with Faust’s death.

Unfortunately, Talia’s hand was still inside the floor keeping her in place. With a shout, Talia used her sword to chop her own arm off, then rolled aside as the rock smashed into the place.

The explosion caused the waters from the Lazarus Pit to spread through the entire cave, while also sending pieces of Faust’s body flying, Kara saw the Sorcerer’s remains falling to the floor with a ‘Thud’.

Faust was left with only one arm, missing most of his body from the chest down, and covered in burns, he still had a wave of unholy green light covering his body, his magic desperately trying to heal his wounds, but it wasn’t enough, his wounds were just too much.

With another roar, Vortigar tackled her, causing Kara to drop Red Arrow’s body once again and smashing her armor against the wall. With only one hand, the demon grabbed her by the throat and spewed a wave of hellfire directly on her helmet.

Growling in anger, red spikes of light exploded from Kara’s body, they were unfocused and only left shallow cuts on Vortigar’s skin, but the demon seemed to still be weakened from the missing heart, his actions slower than before.

With satisfaction, Kara managed to grab Vortigar’s head and aim his mouth away from her helmet before he did too much damage, using her superior strength, she twisted around, reversing their positions before smashing the demon’s head on the wall.

Grabbing his head with both hands, she used her super-speed to smash him against the wall over and over again. one of his horns broke from the blows, then she pulled his head back and smashed it one last time, driving his head inside the wall up to his neck.

Taking two steps back, Kara pulled out her gun and aimed at his chest, a second later, she pressed the trigger. Then did it again, and again. Three capsules were ejected from her gun, each one holding a piece of his heart or lung.

Finally, Vortigar’s body stopped struggling, falling bonelessly to his knees, his head still stuck inside the wall. A weak bolt of purple energy hit the wall to their side and Kara turned back towards Faust.

The Sorcerer had one hand aimed towards her, but his body had stopped regenerating even while he still didn’t have an arm or anything below his stomach. Somehow, he was still alive, his unholy powers keeping him from fully moving on, but clearly, he could no longer put up a fight.

Breathing hard, Kara felt the red haze retreating from her vision as she stumbled away from Vortigar’s body. She almost fell to her knees from the effort it took to take a look around the destroyed room, Kara saw that Red Arrow’s body was still intact, while Talia was running towards an exit while wrapping a piece of cloth around her missing limb.

Unfortunately, the mud monster that had left the Lazarus Pit was following her, the mud flowing and forming into the deformed body of a blonde man from the waist up. Kara kept an eye on them, but decided to deal with Faust first.

Walking towards the Sorcerer, she saw his eyes widen with every step. She stopped in front of his body, the Sorcerer was struggling to breath, his hand and head shaking with effort. Several times he tried to form new spells, only for them to fizzle before they were halfway done.

Kara stared at his form for a second, then kicked his arm away and stepped on his face with her armored foot, pressing it into the cave floor. “You know, I thought this would give me more pleasure.” She commented as she increased the weight. She felt Faust’s nose break before she stopped. “In a way, I’m glad it doesn’t. I took far too much joy in killing the Psions, and it made me afraid of what I’d become, but this doesn’t bring me pleasure, I’m not really enjoying your pain right now.”

Without taking her foot away from Faust’s head, Kara thought about what to do, she glanced at Red Arrow’s fallen form, then towards Talia facing off against a blonde man, her sword cutting through his arm, only for it to reform from mud.

“I know that most of the people I care about would tell me not to kill you, you’re no longer a threat to me, I should arrest you.” She said again, but she wasn’t really talking to Faust. “And, if I felt any kind of pleasure right now, I probably would listen to them.”

Then she increased her strength and crushed his skull, bone and brain leaking around her armored feet. Stepping away from the body, Kara lifted her weapon and changed its configuration once again, releasing a wave of fire that scorched the rocks and turned Faust’s body into ashes.

In truth, if she had felt any kind of sadistic pleasure at Faust’s situation Kara probably would have stopped herself, she didn’t want to become a monster. But no, the only satisfaction she felt was from winning the fight and surviving.

She’d killed Faust because he was a monster. The kind of monster that wouldn’t stop, that would kill children and torture souls while laughing about it, the kind of monster that wouldn’t repent.

Kara didn’t know if she wasn’t just making things up, perhaps she was just justifying her actions and she had killed the Sorcerer for revenge, but she didn’t think so. Some villains just needed to die.

“You left me there!” The mud monster screamed, still acting uncoordinated while fighting Talia.

“You used me. It was what you deserved!” Talia answered with disgust. Even without an arm, the woman was dominating the fight, but the monster wasn’t affected by her blade, and managed to keep itself in front of the exit.

Glancing at her HUD to check for any other threats, Kara started to walk towards Red Arrow. She had recognized the mud monster as Clayface. With a single order, she made some of the drones attached to Talia’s body since the start of the fight transfer over to Clayface, then activated them.

Lifting Red Arrow into her arms, she watched as both Shadows were shocked. The electricity ran through their bodies for several seconds until they both fell to the ground, unconscious.

Above her, the same thing happened to every human agent on the fortress as hundreds of drones shocked them too, disabling the entire building.

With one last command, Kara used some of her drones to physically connect with the servers on the fortress and start downloading everything she could. Looking around the room, she noticed Vortigar’s body had turned into flames with Faust’s death.

“Now, how long do I have before they get reinforcements?” Kara wondered to herself while looking around.

Ten minutes later, Kara was hovering a few kilometers above the Fortress; at her side, Red Arrow's body floated atop one of her energy shields, Talia’s unconscious form beside him, as well as a jar holding Clayface.

Below, the unconscious guards laid into a huge pile a kilometer away from the fortress, Kara had alway wanted to have a mountain of defeated enemies at her feet. Doing so while keeping them all alive had been a little complicated, but she had managed it. They were protected under several of Kara’s shields.

Lifting her arm, Kara also lifted a huge metal box she had found inside the fortress. It had been a giant safe, but Kara had already emptied its contents, together with everything else of value on the fortress, on top of a different shield. She wasn’t looking to keep the already cracked safe as a souvenir. No, she simply needed something sturdy with a lot of mass.

A command later, her armor followed the precisely calculated movements and threw the safe down, hard. The metal caused a sonic boom as it flew down, then hit the fortress like a hammer from god, sending large pieces of gravel flying up. The entire island shook from the blow and a cloud of dust rose, almost reaching her own height.

Kara watched the rain of debris for a few moments, then, when there was no longer any danger, she retrieved all her drones and flew away.

Utterly destroying the League of Shadows’ main fortress and base of operations may have been a little much but, after today, it had been very cathartic.

Now, Kara just had to find out what the hell she was gonna do next.

Chapter Text

Kara rested Talia’s unconscious body into the suspension chamber and activated it, sealing the woman inside while making sure she was unable to wake up.

Turning to the side, Kara saw Red Arrow’s body resting inside a second suspension chamber, with Clayface’s mutated body frozen inside a third one. Stepping away from the pods, Kara halfheartedly threw her tablet at the wall.

The Kryptonian tech bounced off the wall and hit the ground twice before slipping under a crystal desk. Kara sighed and dropped heavily into a chair, her eyes never leaving Red Arrow’s pod.

The boy was really dead. Kara had known it as soon as Faust opened his mouth. No, she had known it much earlier, when she had burst into the cave and been unable to hear his heartbeat. She had just refused to face it before Faust threw it in her face.

After the battle, Kara had to consider what to do with her newly acquired prisoners, and the mountain of documents and artifacts she had stolen from the League of Shadow’s base. She didn’t want to bring them to her home, nor could she risk her new company. That left her with the moon base or the Fortress. Kara had decided to use the Fortress.

It would probably mean explaining things to her cousin, but the Fortress was just better equipped to hold someone, and Kara refused to fuck up again.

Sitting on the chair, Kara felt the world starting to close in on her. What was she gonna tell Kal? What was she gonna tell Green Arrow?

Grabbing at her helmet, Kara tried to take it off, but Vortigar’s last attack had melted part of it and damaged the lock. Growing desperate, Kara threw away her gauntlets and grabbed the helmet with both hands.

Her fingers found purchase on the deformed helmet and Kara pulled, her muscles strained for a few seconds until, with a loud ‘crack’, the helmet broke in half.

Breathing hard, Kara hurried out of the armor as fast as she could; only calming down when the metal protections were fully taken off. Sitting back down, Kara rested her head against her arms and tried to regain control.

For a moment, Kara took time to center herself, trying to use her lessons with Kal to recover. Slowly, her breathing returned to normal.

Inevitably, Kara glanced at where her tablet had ended up. Rao, she had to check on Dubbilex, tell Green Arrow, organize the Genomorphs at her factory…

Suddenly, a holographic projection snapped in place in front of her, showing her an image of Dubbilex resting inside one of the Fortress’s healing pods. It wouldn’t really do much for a non-Kryptonian, but it was fully equipped to deal with a long recovery period. It was comfortable, capable of monitoring his vitals, stimulating his muscles and easy to move. Karen sat by his side, her giant body already mostly healed thanks to her healing factor.

A second screen quickly opened up, showing her Guardian, Danette and Dr. Lockhart sitting at a table and eating.

“Mistress Zor-El, I thought you’d want to check on your guests.” Jor-El’s AI materialized in front of her, his hands crossed behind his back. “I’d like to remind you that you aren’t alone.”

“Thanks.” Kara glanced at the AI and sighed. “Can you ask Kal to bring Green Arrow here? Red Arrow’s body is here and I think he deserves being told in person.”

“I am informing Master Kal-El now, do you need anything else?” The AI glanced at the pods, then towards Kara’s pile of loot thrown at a corner. “I could start cataloging the materials acquired from the League of Shadows?”

“Right, there’s that too.” Kara narrowed her eyes at the pile. “Yeah, you can start. You can use the reprogrammed Morrowbots if you need to physically move anything. I think I finished… seven of them? Yeah, seven.”

The pile contained thousands of documents, artifacts, art pieces and tech devices. Basically, everything Kara could grab from the League of Shadows’ base. Everything was held inside of a containment field that blocked any signals from getting out.

Hopefully, the AI would be able to find some useful things amongst the plunder, and find any tracking device so she could actually use the devices without fear.

Turning back towards the desk, Kara pulled out her phone and called Erin once again.

She spent the next half hour getting the Genomorphs situation in order. Their housing below the Factory was almost ready and Kara had bought a lot of the land around the small town so most of the priors had been taken care of.

G-Gnomes would still have to work overtime keeping curious eyes away, but Kara was convinced that part of the ordeal was gonna be alright at least.

Turning back towards the room, Kara saw seven white robots carefully taking the pile apart, separating and categorizing the contents under the watchful eye of the Fortress AI.

Looking on for a moment, Kara’s eyes were drawn to a metal cylinder about a meter high. Pushing herself up, Kara grabbed the device and started analyzing it. The cylinder wasn’t made from lead, so she could actually see through it. Inside, millions of microscopic drones rested in neat little rows.

Connecting one of the Fortress cables to the cylinder, Kara made sure that the drones wouldn’t just activate, then opened the device and pulled out a single drone.

Damn, it was quite an interesting little device. Kara could actually do better with Kryptonian tech, or… well, she could do smaller. Still, its design was impressive, and Kara made a mental note to hire the scientist who made it as soon as she could. That or neutralize them, if it was needed.

She was guessing that had been the woman Red Arrow rescued, Kara didn’t remember her name, but the micro robot should actually be ‘The Fog’, created to infiltrate and steal information while destroying any and all materials in its path.

“Mistress Zor-El, Master Kal-El has arrived.” The AI informed her, all seven of the robots turning their heads towards the door.

Swallowing hard, Kara gave one last glance towards Red Arrow’s body, then closed the cylinder and pushed herself up.

Sure, both Red Arrow and Green Arrow had understood the risks of trying to be a mole, and Red Arrow hadn’t even been working for her when it happened, but it was still a devastating blow. One that Kara didn’t know how to explain.

Green Arrow burst through the door fully geared in his superhero costume. “Where is he?!”

Behind him, Kal stepped into the room and quickly took everything in. His eyes flashed towards the three pods and he frowned before turning his gaze toward Kara’s face. Kal’s frown immediately turned into a blank expression. “Green Arrow.” Kal spoke softly.

The Archer whirled on him, looking at Kal’s face with some semblance of hope.

Kal put a hand on Green Arrow’s shoulder, with a sigh; he closed his eyes and gave a very small shake of his head.

Green Arrow’s bow clattered to the ground, his face became a mask of anguish as he grabbed on to Kal’s arm and almost collapsed. “But… I…” Using Kal’s arm as support, Green Arrow turned towards Kara, looking confused and in pain. “Where… where is he?”

Kara glanced at one of the pods, causing Green Arrow to run towards it, collapsing to his knees at its side.

Kal didn’t say anything, he just walked towards her and cupped her face in his hands, lifting her chin up. He stared at her face for a few seconds to make sure everything was alright with her. Once he was certain everything was physically fine, he gave her a relieved hug.

“I-I just…” Kara attempted to explain things, but she couldn’t gather her thoughts.

“Shhhh, foolish little cousin.” Kal chided, his voice filled with affection, but also frustration. “How many times do I have to say that I'm here for you? You don’t have to do things alone. In fact, please don’t.”

Kara snorted at just how heartfelt that last part was. Pushing her face away from his chest, Kara sighed, avoiding his eyes. “I’m sorry. I didn’t want to worry you.”

It was Kal’s turn to snort in amusement, squeezing her tighter, he rested chin on top of her head. “Sorry to tell you, cuz, but you don’t seem to be very good at that.”

“What. Happened?” Green Arrow’s voice trembled with anger; one of his hands was still on top of Red Arrow’s pod, while his other one was tightened into a fist. “Tell me everything.”

Kara did. She told them everything to do with Red Arrow’s death and her raid on Infinity Island. She explained about CADMUS, showed them the video of The Light attacking, as well as the recordings from her own armor.

Both Kal and Green Arrow watched everything without saying a word, but Kara had a pretty good idea of their reactions. Keeping a poker face was far from enough to keep things from a Kryptonian’s senses.

After watching the end of Kara’s fight with the demon, Green Arrow kept staring at the holographic display for almost a full minute. Finally, he asked. “How did they discover CADMUS?”

“I don’t know.” Kara scratched at her face. “Luthor was gonna discover it sometime, but everything was perfect on our end. It should have taken at least another month for him to even grow suspicious.”

“You’re not the only one working against them. Also, Lex is incredibly paranoid, who knows what silent security protocols might have been set off.” Kal pushed himself up and started pacing around the room. “Batman was gonna bring this up at the next League’s meeting. There seems to be at least three distinct villain groups working behind the scenes.”

“What?” Kara looked at him dumbfounded. There wasn’t supposed to be any other secret society in YJ, not at its level. Instead, the first fight she had was with the Monster Society of Evil, then The Light, and now there was a third one too. Rao damn it!

Banging her head against the desk, Kara cursed herself. This was DC, of course there was gonna be more than one evil cabal around. With her luck, there would be at least a dozen. “Does he know who they are?”

“Not yet, he was only able to find out some of their actions.” Kal opened a holographic window using the Fortress AI; it showed them a map of the world with at five colors indicating several incidents. “Batman thinks that they’re actually getting in each other’s way. Captain Cold was arrested together with three other cold powered villains about a month ago. It was obviously a part of some kind of scheme, yet only a few days ago, he was found immolated inside his room.”

“Someone killed him, and they did it before he could execute whatever plan they had in mind.” Kara whispered while looking at the map.

Right there, over Belle Reve, were three blue spots marked with cold themed villain names, and Captain Cold’s name, as a scarlet red spot. Taking in the entire map, Kara saw only a few other red spots on it but, if Kara traced a line between the five spots on the US, she easily formed an enormous pentagram over the entire country.

That… really didn’t look good.

“I don’t fucking care about that!” Green Arrow raged, smashing his hand on top of the desk with as much strength as he could manage. “I want to know about The Light and how I can hurt them. No, I need to know!”

“Green Arrow…” Kal looked at him for a few seconds.

Green Arrow just stared into Kal’s eyes, unflinching. Eventually, he turned back towards Kara. “And don’t you try bullshitting me, you know more than you’re letting on.”

“Know? Yes. But can I prove it? Not so much.” Looking from Green Arrow’s eyes towards Red Arrow’s coffin, Kara released a tired sigh and waved both hands through her hair. Finally, she glanced at the Fog on display. “Say, what exactly happened at CADMUS?”

“Green Lantern, Batman and I arrived in time to catch them in the act, but Brain had a teleporting machine with him.” Kal shook his head sadly. “We managed to arrest some of their minions, but the leaders escaped.”

“And Luthor?”

“We arrested him but, despite all his intellect, Lex is, physically, an average human. It’s pretty easy for him to claim he was forced.” Kal leaned against the desk and looked up, his voice filled with frustration. “We managed to justify detaining him for his own protection but, at this point, it’s just a minor inconvenience.”

“So, he’s still being held?” Kara smiled as a plan started to form, it wasn’t the best plan, and it wouldn’t be decisive action against The Light, but she really needed a win, no matter how small, and Green Arrow needed an acceptable target before he snapped. “Well, I think I know how we can hurt them…”

Kal didn’t approve, but he didn’t stop them either and, four hours later, all three of them floated far above a building in Metropolis, under one of Kara’s optical camouflage.

Kara had to make some changes to the Fog, put some restrictions so it couldn’t damage organics, optimizing its AI and programming it so the micro-robots would go directly for computer servers, only destroying things like concrete and metal when it was absolutely needed in order to carve a patch towards any electronics.

Green Arrow was using his tactical gear, holding a black compound bow, a quiver filled with Kara’s own arrows at his waist and the Fog’s cylinder safely attached to his back. The Archer hadn’t said much since finding out about Red Arrow, gritting his teeth and fiddling with his arrows.

With a nod, Green Arrow jumped down, falling towards LexCorp main building at an astonishing speed, his body still invisible to most forms of observation.

Ten meters above the building, he activated his thrusters, slowing his fall just enough that his gear could absorb the impact of his knees hitting the top of the building. Acting fast, Green Arrow released the Fog, watching as a cloud of microscopic devices dug a small hole through the floor and infiltrated the building.

Floating invisibly above the building, Kara started typing. Less than a minute later, the Fog had breached LexCorp’s security giving her access to all of their files and defenses.

About a minute and a half later, the Fog finally dug into some important servers, ones protected by more than just mundane tech. Some of the robots were fried with some kind of electromagnetic pulse, but the vast majority was able to disable the defenses.

“Green Arrow, hostiles are aware of your situation, three minutes until they get to the rooftop.” Kara whispered while watching a few security guards trying to fight the Fog, to no effect.

Mercy Graves burst through the rooftop’s door and immediately rolled aside, dodging an arrow that hit the guard behind her before expanding into a dense block of foam that barred the door. Turning towards Green Arrow, the woman lifted her arm which was already turning into some kind of cannon.

Green Arrow didn’t let her; a second arrow hit her atop the elbow, piercing through the thinner armor there before discharging an EMP that caused her arm to go limp.

Mercy reacted quickly, immediately ripping the arrow off and pulling out a pistol, she attempted to shoot at Green Arrow.

The hero was having none of that. With yet a third arrow, he hit the barrel of the gun and caused it to fly away from her fingers. Dropping the bow, Green Arrow rushed her while pulling out his sword.

Mercy’s arm was truly top of the line, it was able to reboot completely in less than fifteen seconds. She tried to shoot him again, and watched with gritted teeth as the energy blast went wide.

With a single step to the side at the right moment, Green Arrow let the energy shot fly harmlessly towards the horizon. He didn’t give Mercy time for a second shot, shortening the gap between them with a single leap and delivering a devastating overhead strike.

Mercy tried to block it, lifting her metal prosthetic in front of her body, but the sword cleaved right through the metal with barely any resistance, cutting through Mercy’s meticulous business suit and opening a giant gash from her shoulder to hip.

The minion fell to her back, out of breath, her blood soaking her clothes at an alarming rate.

Standing beside her, Green Arrow pointed the tip of his sword towards her heart. Slowly, the weapon tipped down and started to dig into her flesh.

Kara sensed Kal tensing beside her, his muscles straining to contain his power, but he remained in place, arms crossed in front of his chest.

“I thought you’d interfere?”

Kal turned towards her, uncrossing his arms he shook them and attempted to relax, but eventually gave up and just sighed. “I trust him.”

“Are you mad at me?” Kara turned away from the surveillance and met Kal’s eyes. “For killing Faust, I mean.”

“No. I’m mad, but not at you, not really.” Scratching at his neck, Kal looked back towards the LexCorp building. “Are you willing to accompany me next week? I think I need to show you something.”

“Yes.” She nodded almost immediately. It wasn’t like following him would be a chore for her. And Kara needed a break from dealing with things.

Green Arrow glanced at his sword, his arm was steady as always, but he didn’t seem able to continue. With a snort of disgust, he pulled the sword away and snapped it to the side, getting rid of the blood on it.

“Who-Who are you?” Mercy gurgled, blood flowing through her mouth.

“You can call me Minion Three.” Green Arrow opened a compartment on his costume and pulled out a needle. Kicking Mercy’s remaining hand aside; he applied it to her neck, and then sprayed her wound with some foam.

The needle was a healing agent made, weirdly enough, by CADMUS. It only accelerated natural healing a little bit, but it should be enough to keep her alive, while the biodegradable foam sealed her wound and stopped the bleeding.

A minute later, three military-grade hover drones floated up from the side of the building. They were large things, equipped with a pair of machine guns and three missiles each.

Before they could even aim correctly, an arrow pierced right through the vulnerable gaps on their armor. Each arrow actually held one of Kara’s micro drones and, once inside their armor, with direct access to their hardware, the devices were able to hack them fairly easily.

Soon, the military-grade hover drones were stationed in front of the rooftop’s door, further blocking any reinforcements from arriving.

“Retrieving the Fog.” Green Arrow warned them over the comms while a cloud of the machines spilled out from inside the building. “What’s next?”

As soon as the Fog entered the cylinder, Kara started accessing their information, using keywords to find anything suspicious. Soon, she smiled. “I have the next location.”

The defenses at Luthor’s private bunker were a little more impressive, but they still couldn’t block the Fog, or Green Arrow.

Still, by the third target, Kara was left with only half of the Fog they’d started with thanks to Luthor’s defenses slowly chipping away at the amounts she had available.

Kal followed her, keeping watch on the entire operation without saying anything.

Kara gave the ok and watched as Minion 3 physically infiltrated Luthor’s fourth building. With only 48% of the Fog left, she wanted him to disable more of their defenses.

The hero didn’t protest.

Kara was just about to start planning an assault on Luthor’s personal house when Kal held her shoulder and shook his head.

Lifting an eyebrow, Kara looked at him. “I thought you’d stop me earlier. So, going after his private property is too much for you?”

“Not exactly.” Kal floated closer to her and used some of her drones to form a shield before sitting down on one of them. “I just don’t think going after another target will get you any new information, and we have given them enough time to prepare against us.”

Kara checked the clock. With their speed and access to the Zeta-Tube network, all four attacks had only taken a little over an hour, just enough time for people to realize she was attacking them, and possibly predict her next move.

“Yeah, I think I got what I needed anyway.” Kara sat down beside Kal, her legs swinging freely under the shield. “I-I didn’t think you’d be alright with this kind of action.”

“Kara, you seem to be mistaken about something. I stand for many things: truth, justice, hope, life, liberty, the ability to dream and pursue happiness…” He looked down as Green Arrow finished eliminating the base’s automatic defenses and releasing the Fog. “What I don’t stand for are laws for their own sake. Not that they aren’t important, because they definitely are, but vigilantism was against the law when I first dressed like a strongman and started saving people.”

Kara stopped moving her legs, her eyes focusing fully on Green Arrow.

The hero was utterly exhausted, copious amounts of sweat dripping from his face, he could barely pull the string of his compound bow anymore, but he still managed to retrieve the Fog before anyone could intercept him.

“You think I did the right thing?” Kara turned towards Kal, but she already knew the answer.

“I think your heart was in the right place.” Kal sighed, pushing himself up, he offered her a hand. “I really wish you hadn’t felt the need to kill Faust, but I understood why you did it. I don’t agree with it, but I understand.”

“Thanks, that means a lot.” Kara took his hand, allowing him to pull her to her feet.

Despite everything, Kara smiled. Talking with Kal had lifted a weight off her chest, and the information gathered with the Fog was invaluable. She couldn’t wait to leak all of Luthor’s misdeeds. Let’s see the slippery bastard get out of it this time.

Chapter Text

Kara sat on the carpet in front of the sofa, her legs crossed under her as she focused on her meditation. Slowly releasing her breath, she opened her eyes and concentrated on the golf ball-sized marble resting a few meters in front of her.

Face still relaxed, she tried to move the marble, with her mind. Concentrating her mind into a single task with incredible focus, she willed it to move. Frowning, she focused even harder on the marble, actually leaning forward a little. It. Would. Move.

Then the marble suddenly did go flying across the floor, batted aside by a tiny paw. The offending feline followed closely behind it, his tail twitching from side to side with excitement.

“Dexter!” Kara growled and almost got up. Feeling her hair still firmly held in Kori’s hand, she sighed and settled back down, resting her head on Kori’s legs.

“Please, what were you trying to accomplish?” Kori questioned, her hands never leaving Kara’s hair as she braided a small strand of her hair on the side.

“Well, I have been able to use the Red Light of Rage twice now and, according to the Fortress’ analysis of the Psion’s little organ donation, I can also use the other parts of the light spectrum.” Kara relaxed against Kori’s body, giving up on her meditation and smiling as she looked at Dexter running around the room. “I was trying to use the Green Light of Will. Theoretically, it is the safest, although not the easiest.”

“Good choice, Friend Kara. You are a very willful individual.” Kori nodded and released her newly created braid, a satisfied smile on her face.

“Hey!”

“Speaking of willfulness, please, why have you not spoken with The Black Canary yet?” Kori frowned down at her, pulling hard on her hair and poking her in the forehead with a finger.

“Ouch, ouch, I will, I will.” Kara tried to bat the finger aside, but Kori wasn’t letting her. “I’m going out with Kal-El today. I’ll speak with her tomorrow, I promise!”

“Humph, I will be watching you.” Kori finally stopped poking Kara and started braiding a small strand of hair on the other side of her head. “Friend Kara, I only desire for you to be more ‘traught’. Speaking with The Black Canary will promote exactly such an outcome.”

“‘Traught’?” Kara looked at Kori’s proud face and thought about what she was saying before releasing a wail. “Nooooo, the pipsqueak is already polluting your mind with nonsense! Kori, listen to me because this is very important: ‘Traught’ is not a word, neither is ‘Aster’, ‘Whelmed’ or whatever other nonsense bird boy comes up with.”

“It is… not?” Kori's face was completely flushed with embarrassment.

Suddenly, Dexter jumped on top of Kara’s tights, the marble held firmly in his mouth. The cat looked her in the eye and dropped the marble into her hand, his tail twisting from one side to the other.

Kara didn’t know cats liked to play fetch.

Grabbing the marble, Kara put it on the floor and watched as Dexter’s butt started to wiggle. She flicked the marble, weakly, and it went flying across the room again, bouncing off the walls with a cat following closely behind.

Enjoying Kori’s hands in her hair, Kara let the silence stretch between them for a few seconds. Eventually, Kara started to grow uncomfortable and, just as she was about to open her mouth, Kori asked.

“Friend Kara, did your plans go amiss yesterday?” The Tamaranean finally asked in a worried tone. “You arrived fraught with anxiety.”

“I… Yes…. Yes, things went wrong, but also… not? I don’t know!” Pushing her back against the sofa, Kara lifted her arms up, her fingers curling into a sign of frustration. “From a tactical point of view, yesterday was a major success. It was just far too expensive.”

“I understand.” Kori gave her a bitter smile and tied the second braid with a small string. “In Tamaran, we tried to focus on the victories, and to honor the sacrifice of those lost by celebrating their lives, not grieving their losses. Please, can I help you in any way?”

Looking at Kori’s understanding face; Kara had to embarrassingly remind herself where her friend came from. Tamaran had just been through a very long and exhausting war and was now under Citadel control. Kori was most definitely no stranger to losses.

“Don’t worry, you’re already helping.” Kara released a long breath and got up, stretching her arms and legs. “Plus, I already have enough people working on fixing things right now, don’t worry about it.”

The doorbell rang and Kara looked through the door to see Kal had finally arrived. She couldn’t help but snicker as she used the interface on her eye to unlock the door. “Come in, I’m just getting ready.”

Pushing the door open, a petite brunette woman walked inside the house, her long hair was tied into a bun and she had a delicate pair of glasses on her eyes. The disapproving look on her face was perfect to complete the librarian look.

“Really Kara, was this really necessary?” The older woman asked with an exasperated voice. “Captain Marvel said you used to just come through the windows before.”

“Yes, the keyword being: ‘before’. Flying through the window is okay when it’s an emergency, but using disguises is much safer, no matter how many protections I have on the apartment.” Kara said with a completely serious face, then she ruined it by snickering again.

Kal released a long, suffering breath and finally closed the door before deactivating the holographic projector. The librarian seemed to glitch for a second before she was replaced by Superman in his full costume.

“Alright but, did it have to be a sexy librarian? Didn’t you have a different setting?” Kal asked while nodding in acknowledgement at Kori with a smile.

It absolutely didn’t have to be the sexy librarian setting, no. Her own device had about seven hundred different settings on it and half of them were male. But Kara had only put a couple of female forms on her spare ones, and the sexy librarian was the most congruent and family friendly one Kal could be using.

“Considering that device was supposed to be used by me, of course it was gonna be female.” Kara lied shamelessly. Giving him a tight hug, she turned around and found both Kori and Dexter staring at her side by side. “I’m gonna go change clothes. Are you leaving with us Kori?”

“I am not, Master Diana will be occupied with political duties until midday, but the Titans will be meeting later in the evening.” Kori picked up the cat and lifted it on her lap, waving at Kara with one of its paws. “This morning, I will remain alone with Dexter!”

“Alright, have fun.” Walking towards her bedroom, Kara spoke without turning back. “You know little cousin, maybe if you had accepted some of my devices, I’d have a disguise projector for you and you wouldn’t need to use my spare.”

“Hey, I already agreed to wear the radiation shield.” Kal sighed from the living room.

“Humph, you’re lucky I decided to use the projector, not the Kryptonite.” Kara looked around the room and briefly considered putting on her armor, but she’d be with her cousin, he could keep her safe. Plus, she didn’t want to connect him to Forge in any way.

“Wait, what was that about Kryptonite?” Kal nearly yelled from the living room.

Ten seconds later, Kara started walking back to the living room while adjusting the collar of her public costume, her mask tied to her belt. Kal still seemed worried about the Kryptonite, causing Kara to smirk in amusement.

“Right, I had this entire thing prepared with pink Kryptonite, but I haven’t fully tested it yet, and then I got too busy with… things.” Putting her mask on, Kara activated her own holographic projector. Her body flickered and, in the blink of an eye, she was back to looking like she wasn’t wearing the costume. “Plus, you really stepped up with Kon and Match, so I decided to keep that little treat for later.”

“Kara, what exactly does this pink Kryptonite do? I only know about red, green and gold Kryptonite, and none of them are good news.”

Seeing the very worried look on Kal’s face, Kara gave him her most innocent smile. “Well, if you’re ready to start wearing the radiation shield, you won’t have to find out, now will you? Anyways, see you later Kori.”

“Farewell, Friend Kara.”

“Good seeing you Koriand’r.” Kal waved at her. Finally, he reactivated the projector, turning into the librarian once again and they left the building on foot.

“Is it really that uncomfortable?” Kara snickered as she walked beside her cousin.

He looked at her from the corner of his eye and shook his head in amusement. “I don’t actually mind, but I confess it’s really not my thing. Did you have to make it so hard to download new settings on this thing?”

“Of course. Can’t have anybody install malware on my devices, can I?”

“Right, I’ll pretend I believe that.” Kal snorted and opened the door of the building, letting Kara walk out into the street first. “Still, I’m glad to see you’re happier today.”

“It’s hard to stay sad with Kori around.” Kara thought about Kori waving her goodbye with Dexter's little paws and smiled.

“Oh really, why don’t you tell me more?”

Kara squinted her eyes at his teasing tone. The projection couldn’t perfectly duplicate his expressions but, if she squinted just right, she could use her Kryptonian vision to see his smug smile. “Right, maybe after you tell me about Lois. What exactly is complicated about that relationship?”

They continued making small conversation until arriving on an empty alleyway seven blocks away from Kara’s house. Checking that nothing was there to observe them, they both finally deactivated their disguises and quickly darted up into the air, moving just below the speed of sound.

Soon, they floated above the cover of the clouds, too high for anything to see them from the ground. Turning towards the hero, Kara asked. “Alright, where now?”

“I’m actually on call for the Justice League right now.” Kal scratched the back of his neck before pulling out a communication device. “I wanted you to come along because I really think you need to see something.”

“To Metropolis then?”

“No, we’re flying to Europe.” Orienting himself, Kal started flying towards the continent at a steady pace. Soon, they broke out of the city limits and Kal started picking up speed. “If you want to talk, use the comms. We’ll be flying faster than sound to arrive on time.”

With one large burst of speed, they broke through the sound barrier, accelerating to the maximum speed they could safely go without cooking everything around them while inside the atmosphere. Kara enjoyed the wind hitting her face for a minute or two as they started flying over the ocean before Kal spoke again.

“By the way, I know you didn’t want to get directly involved in this. Sorry to spring this on you out of nowhere.” He briefly glanced at her flying by his side and continued. “You can just stay out of sight if you don’t want people finding out about you.”

“Don’t worry, I made this costume so I could appear in public and help out. It’s about time I debuted anyway. It should only make The Light more worried and confused.” Lowering her altitude a little, Kara stretched her hands down towards the water and glanced back. Her hand was still quite a few meters above the waters but, behind her, the water rose almost two meters in the sky from the displaced air. “Say, do you mind that I kept calling you Kal? I know you were raised with your human name, but it’s just… I first met you as Kal and, since you don’t really use the name, it doesn’t affect your secret identity.”

“I confess it’s taken some getting used to, but I don’t really mind, at least not when I’m out in costume.” Glancing at the waves she was making, Kal couldn’t help but laugh. “I really do love flying, it’s very… relaxing.”

Eventually, they approached the European continent and they had to fly up in order to not disturb anyone. “What are we doing anyway?”

“Relief effort. There was a drought in East Africa and, while we did what we could to stop it, there’s still some shortage of food in the region.” Kal said and started going down towards a large harbor. “The League organized some food deliveries but, with military operations in the area, League presence is sometimes necessary. Also, I always take some deliveries there myself.”

Dropping down on the ground, Kal walked towards a fat woman wearing safety equipment. “Hello, everything ready?”

“Superman, yes we have the containers ready for delivery.” The woman handed Kal something to sign, then lifted an eyebrow as Kara decided to drop down by his side and stop hiding. “Even you? I swear every hero nowadays has a damn sidekick.”

Kal glanced at her and smiled. “My cousin actually, I’m just showing her the ropes.”

“Call me Supergirl. I tried to come up with another name, but everything good was just too… villainous. So I just decided to adopt my cousin’s unimaginative naming convention.”

“Hey, my father named me that.” Kal protested and handed the document back to the woman. “Actually, he named me Superboy first and then I grew into the new name. So you’re really following after me.”

“Alright, I just got the ok from the boss.” The woman said, cupping a hand over her ear where there was a phone. “You’re free to go.”

“Want help?”

“Actually, yeah, it’ll make things much faster. Just wait for me to lift it out of the water and then you can help me fly it there.”

Saying that, Kal flew into the water, causing a splash to fly up into the air. A few seconds later, a giant ship started rising out of the water, thousands of red containers piled on top of it.

Kara waited until Kal had gotten it a hundred meters up in the air, then she nodded towards the woman and flew under the boat, bracing it on top of her shoulders and helping lift it up.

It weighted… a lot, a whole fucking lot. Kara felt her muscles straining as she tried to help out and she could just imagine her face going red. “Supergirl, you’re taking on too much weight, let me take the lead and just help out a little.”

With a sigh of relief, she felt the weight decrease, then she followed Kal’s lead as they started flying south. At first, things were kind of awkward but, soon, they started coordinating better and the boat started picking up speed.

Together, it took them almost two hours to carry the damn thing towards its destination. Kara’s limbs were starting to ache, and she felt her breath starting to come short, her only consolation was that even Kal seemed a little tired from the effort of carrying such weight for so long. Sweat started to accumulate on his face and he started to take slow, even breaths.

Below, Kara saw thousands of people starting to make a racket, shouting and laughing as they noticed their approach, most of them were children. Kal’s target was the ocean, but the crowd ran after them, trying their best to keep under the shadow of the boat.

“Alright, you can release it now.” Kal nodded her way, allowing Kara to release the giant ship and drift back in the air. The entire weight of the thing settled on Kal’s shoulders and he slowly started lowering it into the water.

From high up in the air, Kara watched as the authorities did their best to contain the crowd while preparing to unload the ‘very’ overloaded ship. All of them were laughing and cheering.

Kal broke out of the water with another giant splash, clearly making a spectacle of it as he stepped down amongst the people, letting them hug and climb on his body. Most children didn’t even come up to his chest and he caressed their unruly hairs with a smile on his face before motioning for her to approach.

Kal spoke in a language she didn’t understand, lifting one of the kids up onto his shoulders and pointing at her, causing the crowd to turn her way. Awkwardly she waved at them and watched as Kal mock whispered something to the kids, causing them all to laugh.

She narrowed her eyes at him. Now she’d have to start learning other languages. Couldn’t have her cousin whispering about her to her face!

“Kara, help me unload the ship?” Kal shouted when the kids finally started dispersing.

“Sure, where do you want the containers?”

“Just follow the harbormaster’s directions.”

Kara nodded and flew at the boat, a crane was already pulling out containers, but it was taking a long time to pick each one up. Grabbing one of the red rectangles, she lifted it and quickly found a man signaling at her.

“You know, I don’t usually help with the unloading but, with your help, I made it in almost half the time.” Kal released a container two meters beside her own and cracked his neck. “If we finish this fast I can even carry the ship back today.”

“Why deliver it yourself? I doubt this was enough for everyone to eat.” Kara looked at the thousands still watching them. “Not if the whole country needs help.”

“It’s not. But even with the Justice League helping alleviate it, the drought still happened, and there was almost a famine because of political reasons. Batman and Wonder Woman had to work extremely hard to get through their delays.” He explained while flying back to pick another container. “Our presence here stops anyone from getting ideas, and the UN support means that, if we have to fight off a local government, people around the world are relieved, not scared.”

They unloaded a few thousand containers in about ten minutes before Kara’s sensitive ears heard the announcement through Kal’s Justice League comms.

“There’s a large flood happening in Brazil, can anyone respond?” Said Batman’s voice.

“Green Lantern here, I’m currently on Mars, but I can be back to Earth in five minutes.”

Lifting his fingers to his ear, Kal answered. “Superman here, finished early with the delivery, I can be there in a few minutes.”

Waving at the people, Kal flew up until he reached a safe distance from the ground, then accelerated up, Kara followed after him until they reached a much higher altitude than before.

Without a lot of resistance from the air, they could accelerate even faster, to the point that, only four minutes later, Kara caught sight of the green trail as John Stewart entered the atmosphere in a straight line towards their destination. Another few minutes and they started going down.

The flood was… powerful. Waves of water were running through the streets at an extreme speed and carrying cars and debris through the city. Kal didn’t even wait to coordinate things, immediately plunging through the waters and coming up with a half drowned man before releasing him on top of a building and moving on.

To the side, Kara saw Green Lantern lifting a couple of kids onto a green platform. “There’s a mining dam a few kilometers out of the city.” He told both of them using his communicators. “Can you check if it’s compromised?”

“Let me take a look.” Kal turned towards the direction and concentrated for a few seconds, then exploded into action, flying straight towards it in a hurry.

Looking around herself, Kara was momentarily lost as to what to do. On instinct, she opened her pouch and released a couple hundred of her civilian drones, then she saw part of a small building collapsing.

Flying fast, she smashed through the concrete and saved a man wearing only a pair of small shorts, pulling him out and into the rain before grabbing a blanket and throwing it on top of him.

Her drones started sending information directly into the interface on her eye. Monitoring a large part of the city and highlighting the areas where human life was at risk.

There were too many.

Looking to the side, she saw Green Lantern using his ring to slow down the waters and stop most of the debris from continuing down the streets even while he rescued another couple from inside a drifting car.

Plunging into the waters herself, Kara lifted a small dog on her arms and floated up, her prosthetic eye flying at astonishing speeds as she used it to deliver her orders.

A second later, she had to return to the waters and lift an entire car on top of a building and out of the street, an entire family inside it. A little girl almost jumped out of the window, screaming desperately for her little dog.

Still sending orders to her devices, Kara unconsciously drifted down until the girl could grab the dog, squeezing it tightly against her chest while it licked her face. Kara was just about to fly away when the little girl grabbed her coat.

Kara glanced at her drones and didn’t see anyone in immediate danger, so she looked at the little blonde girl. The kid had dried tears on her face, but there was also a huge smile there and it brought a warm feeling into Kara’s chest.

Only three minutes later, the evacuation platform teleported at her side. It was using several of her projector to remain invisible in order to prevent anyone from identifying it, but it also carried thousands of her devices.

The platform released her equipment, allowing them to fly up in the air before teleporting back without anyone noticing. All around her, thousands of her drones had rearranged themselves into shield generators.

Finally, she really started working. Forgetting about her own body, Kara accelerated her thoughts as much as she could and started using her information to direct her drones.

Shield drones plunged into the waters or under cars before activating their shielding and lifting out of the treacherous waters. Others glued themselves to eroded buildings and blocked the water from doing any more damage, stabilizing the buildings and preventing their collapses.

Kara sent a dozen drones into a bridge and had them protect its support pillars so it wouldn’t collapse, then used the remaining time to rescue people and animals caught in the flash flood.

Seeing her effectiveness, Green Lantern nodded at her and flew up, entering the dark rain cloud above and starting to use his ring to actually disperse the kilometer long cloud, gathering the water inside it into a giant green water can.

Kara did a double take, then shrugged and continued working, if it helped him maintain the construct, who was she to judge its form.

It would probably cause some ecological backlash, but better than if the precipitation continued feeding the waters.

Kara’s drones started blaring a warning and she turned her attention left, where a large part of the landscape just started… sliding down, taking people and poorly constructed buildings with it.

Kal finished fixing the dam and flashed back to the city, flying as fast as a bullet and cutting a hardened path into the hill with his heat vision. The trench helped guide the mudslide away from the center of the city, while Kal rescued the people trapped underneath the mud.

Kara saw him working and immediately directed some of her drones to help, quickly lifting the people above the mudslide on her devices while also creating a shield wall to block its advance. In less than a minute, they had rescued almost two hundred people but the mud was starting to overflow Kara’s devices.

Taking a deep breath, Superman blew a wave of ice over the mud, then did it again, freezing the entire thing in place so that Kara could retrieve her shields without fear of collapse. The insta-iceberg would eventually have to be dealt with, but was no longer an emergency.

Together, all three of them worked relentlessly for what felt like a century. With Superman and Green Lantern helping, the population was soon mostly safe from the flood, but they still worked hard to prevent more property damage.

Hit with a killer headache, Kara rested her forehead against Kal’s chest, the both of them floating above the city and watching as the waters fully drained. According to her drones, there had only been two fatalities: an old couple caught on the streets before even Green Lantern had arrived.

Despite the destruction, Kara’s drones already informed her they had saved the city, the citizens in it and spared them more than two hundred and fifty million dollars in damages.

At their side, Green Lantern finished releasing the water he had gathered into the river, downstream, making sure to do it slowly so it wouldn’t overflow.

To wrap things up on her end, Kara ordered her shields to start lowering back, releasing cars, animals and people back on the city. The streets were still covered in mud and debris, the buildings still heavily damaged, but the people didn’t seem to care, hugging each other or their pets and cheering as the heroes looked up from above.

“So, was this what I was supposed to learn? That places like this have been skimping on their civil engineering; playing the odds that they’d get bailed out when, not if, things went sideways with their infrastructure? Or how to help out in a flood?”

“Well, that second one’s always important, but no… Kara, look at them.” Kal nodded down at the people, some already starting to clean things. “Look at how many we saved today.”

“Ninety-three, at least by my software’s estimation, the others would have survived.” Kara massaged her temples and deactivated most drones, ordering them to gather into a single mass so she could carry them away.

“Kara, you’ve been focusing too hard on the villains. I wanted you to see this, to understand this.” Kal motioned at the people, then looked into her eyes, his face filled with pride. “Villains don’t really matter, well, they matter in that they too are humans, but hitting them isn’t important, defeating them isn’t really the goal. The goal is to protect people.”

Kara looked down at the happy people below, she remembered the smiles and laughs from the kids in Africa. Finally, she looked at her cousin and thought about Kori.

“Kara, I don’t win a fight when I hit the villain hard enough. I win it when I keep him from hurting anyone.” Caressing her hair, she floated away from her, his cape waving in the wind.

“You’re saying yesterday was a huge loss then? I didn’t save Red Arrow.”

“No, I’m saying Red Arrow won, he saved Dr. Roquette. And he probably helped save a lot of other people with his actions.” Looking up, Kal released an exhausted sigh. “Yes, the price he paid was too steep, but he won, even if he didn’t defeat or kill his enemies. Please, don’t start focusing solely on revenge or on defeating and killing your enemies and lose focus of what you really care about.”

Kara kept quiet as they flew back, thinking about her actions. In truth, the reason she had started planning against The Light was because she wanted to protect Kal, she wanted to finally fulfill the goal her parents had left her and protect him from them.

Unfortunately, Kal was kind of right. She had been focusing far too much on eliminating The Light and forgetting that their defeat had never been the goal, not really.

Damn, even if she did defeat them all, even if she managed to kill Klarion, kill Vandal and Luthor, then what? It was not like Kal would stop having to face enemies. And she had already seen that there was far more in this world than just The Light.

Yes, neutralizing The Light was still important, and some of them still needed to die, particularly Klarion, but they shouldn’t be her sole priority, or even her first one.

“Thanks Kal, I think I’m gonna be taking a break for a few days, try to put my thoughts in order and rest…”

“And finally talk with someone?” Kal interrupted, squinting at her.

“Yeah, yeah, Kori’s already bothering me about that. I’ll speak with Black Canary tomorrow.” She waved his concern away with a snort. “Still, I just thought you’d be stopping robberies, fighting supervillains and talking people off ledges, not… all this, I think I needed this.”

“Oh, I still do a lot of that, don’t worry about it. You know, I even met Jimmy trying to do that.” They dropped back under the clouds, floating just a little above the city of metropolis.

“Jimmy was trying to kill himself?” Kara lifted an eyebrow.

“Well, no. But I was a very new hero, and I had just arrived in the big city. What was I supposed to think when I saw a boy standing on top of a building?” He turned away from her with some embarrassment. “Turns out he was new too, and only wanted to see the sunset. He was my first friend here.”

Suddenly, Kal frowned and looked down, his eyes shining red as he released a wave of heat towards a corner of the city. “Speaking of robberies.”

Looking down, Kara saw a young man crying out; the gun in his hand heating up enough that it actually hurt him. A second later, the couple he had been threatening managed to subdue him and call the police.

“So, when are you gonna tell the Titans about Red Arrow? Also, what’re you gonna do with the prisoners?” Kara finally asked. “Talia al Ghul and that mud monster I froze on the fortress?”

“Haaaa, we decided to talk with them in private. Batman, Flash and Aquaman are gonna be telling their apprentices in person before talking with the team as a whole.” Kal shook his head with sadness. “And, well, Talia actually doesn’t have any active warrants after her, and we don’t even know that monster’s name, much less if it has committed crimes.”

“You’re letting them go free?”

“Batman wants to talk with Talia, and he may be able to do something, but…” Kal shrugged, clearly annoyed too.

“Well, I just got a lot of scientists from CADMUS, and they will probably need a new job. I can pitch a chance at fixing himself to the mud guy.” Kara wondered aloud, Clayface really hadn’t done anything as a supervillain, and she didn’t know if he had any story as a member of the League of Assassins. “Do you mind if I keep Talia for another day or two? I want to check something before handing her to Batman. And cover my tracks too, if I can.”

“Can’t say I’m very comfortable with that but, if it’s only for a few days...”

“Thanks for not forcing the issue, Kal. I just want to check some things first.” Kara stared down at the busy city, then back up into the sky, enjoying the orange color of the sunset.

“Alright, that’s about it for today. Want to have dinner with me?” Kal asked, somewhat unable to hide his eagerness at having dinner with his new cousin.

“Sure, let me just warn Kori, but I think she was gonna stay with the Titans anyway.”

Chapter Text

Kara sat on the sofa and stared at Dinah Lance, better known as the Black Canary. She knew it was kind of rude to be using the woman’s true name instead of her heroic one but, well, Dinah didn’t wear a damn mask so she couldn’t blame anyone for doing an internet search.

Dinah stared back at Kara, her legs crossed in front of her and an empty notebook lying untouched on top of her lap.

Kara stared at Dinah, letting the time on her consultation freely tick by, even if she knew she should be talking.

Dinah stared at her, willing to let Kara gather her thoughts, and courage, to finally start talking.

Ugh, so awkward. Kara sighed and scratched at her itching prosthetic eye, touching its surface and moving it slightly, using the prosthetic to scratch at the back of her eye.

Dinah grimaced, shivered, then couldn’t help but turn away and avoid looking at the uncomfortable image. “Ha!”

Dinah sighed. Uncrossing her legs, she leaned forwards and smiled at Kara. “Alright, you made me uncomfortable too. Are you ready to begin now?”

She wasn’t, not really, even if Kara knew she should. It’s not like she hadn’t gone to a psychologist in her previous life. It had even worked back then, somewhat.

“Yeah, I guess. Where should I start?” Kara lay down on the sofa, her head resting against its arm.

“How about you start with the reason you decided to see me.” Dinah reclined back on her chair, but her eyes never left Kara’s.

“Well, Kori and Kal were about to organize an intervention, I really didn’t want that, so I decided to face the music.”

“Is that it? Or are you just using their insistence as a way of forcing yourself?” Dinah lifted an eyebrow at her and waited for an answer. When Kara kept quiet, Dinah continued. “It’s been my experience that the mere threat of an intervention isn’t enough to get someone into therapy, not if they don’t think they need it.”

“Fine, I know I should be talking with someone, I just… really didn’t want to.” Turning back towards Dinah, Kara let her see the frustration in her eyes. “With both of them pressuring me, I really don’t have an excuse to avoid you anymore. I hate that I even need this… You know, Krypton didn’t even have psychologists.”

In her previous life, Kara hadn’t been so averse to seeking help but, in this one… Well, Kryptonians weren’t really very emotional beings. Or had many psychological problems.

Being genetically engineered and bred to do something, and to enjoy doing it, made psychologists mostly unnecessary. The overwhelming majority of Kryptonians actually found their jobs, and lives, very fulfilling.

“Really, what else was different on Krypton?” Dinah asked and wrote something in her notebook.

Kara stared at the woman’s face for a second or two, having to make an effort not to read her notes, but decided to start talking. “Well, first, it was beautiful; the crystal buildings were unlike anything you have here on Earth. Earth is filled with those boxy skyscrapers that all look the same. It's boring, plus the pollution. Rao, I hate that here. I go outside my apartment or the Fortress and I can actually taste the smoke, and see it too, if I squint a little. I think that’s the first thing I’m gonna have to fix.”

Almost an hour later, Kara realized that her consultation was almost over and all she had done was talk about her home planet. “Ugh, you know I’m not actually paying you for this right, you don’t need to waste time to keep me coming back.”

“Did you really think this was a waste of time?” Dinah smiled at her, releasing the notebook at the side table and leaning forward, her elbows resting on her knees. “Kara, I’m not a miracle worker. I can’t solve all your issues in a single consult, much less when I barely know you.”

“I guess, but we didn’t even talk about why I’m here.” Kara sighed, getting into a sitting position on the sofa.

“And would you actually talk about it? Today?” Dinah shook her head. “Seeing as you spent the first five minutes just staring at me and trying to convince yourself to talk, I don’t think so. Still, we did advance today, a lot. You opened up to me, at least a little, and when was the last time you talked about your home planet without feeling pain?”

Kara thought about it. Yes, she had mentioned Krypton, but it had always been too painful to really talk about it.

Not that it hadn’t hurt today, but she had talked about the good things, she had remembered the good times instead of focusing on its destruction. It had left her feeling a nostalgic ache in her chest, instead of the overwhelming pain it usually caused as she thought about the end.

“So… same time next week?” She asked, quickly changing the subject.

“Yes, I’ll be at the mountain attending to the Titans.” Dinah got up and led her out of the room.

Kara walked out of the room and into the mountain, then had to lean back as Kid Flash rushed through the hallway, a chocolate cookie hanging from his mouth and a plate in his hands.

Hand snapping forward, Kara didn’t quite manage to steal the plate, but she did snatch two cookies for herself.

“Hey!” Kid Flash slid to a stop at the end of the hallway, looking from his plate to Kara’s hand with a dumbfounded look.

Kara ate one of the cookies whole and waved at him with a second. “Hey Kid Flash, Kori and Kon already at the mountain?” She asked, her mouth filled with the delicious treat.

Kara was feeling surprisingly… good. Not perfect, far from it, but she felt like she had made some progress, even if it was incredibly small. Now, if only she could keep it up.

“Ah, no, Connor is still in class and Kori was busy with Wonder Woman. They should be arriving soon.” The boy said, his eyes following after Kara’s second cookie with a conflicted look.

“So, how’re you finding the new gear?” She asked and made way for Dinah to walk through the door.

“It’s great actually!” He nodded eagerly. “Can’t believe how much easier the surveillance drones make things.”

Kara caught him looking a little too eagerly at her second cookie, so she bit into it. “Good, if you’ve any ideas about things to improve, make sure tell me, maybe I can come up with some more devices.”

“Great!” He looked down at his wrist and grimaced. “Sorry, gotta go, I actually arrived earlier for Captain Atom’s class for once!” Saying that, he turned the hallway and dashed away.

“You know, he thinks you hate him.” Dinah said as she started walking towards the Zeta-Tube.

“Who? Kid Flash?” Kara gave the woman a quizzical look and, when she saw her nod, let out a long breath. “I don’t hate him, I… dislike that he’s fifteen. Teenagers were annoying on Krypton, much less here.”

“Yes, he can be annoying, but he’s a good kid.” Dinah gave her a little smile and they continued walking through the Mountain at a slow pace.

“How’s Green Arrow, by the way?”

“He’s not taking it very well, as some of the criminals in the city found out yesterday. They went straight to the hospital instead of the jail.” Dinah’s shoulders sagged in a clear sign of exhaustion. “Arsenal isn’t helping much; he’s honestly conflicted about Red Arrow’s death. Obviously, he’s not happy about it, but since barely knew Red Arrow, that does simplify things for him.”

Kara winced; she could imagine how that was going. “Green Arrow’s not gonna attempt using a Lazarus Pit?”

“Green Arrow is taking it hard, but he knows better than to try something like that.” Dinah shook her head as they arrived in front of the Zeta-Tube. The heroine motioned for Kara to go first. “Helps that you destroyed the only one we knew about, takes the temptation away.”

Kara nodded solemnly, then waved goodbye and activated the Zeta-Tube, stepping out of the device and back into the Fortress. Four white androids turned towards her and bowed their heads, working under the Fortress AI’s control.

“Is Dubbilex doing well?”

“Yes, Mistress Kara. Guest Dubbilex is already awake and is projected to fully recover in another two weeks.” One of the androids said in Jor-El’s voice.

“Rao damn it!” The odd itch at her prosthetic eye started again, it was a constant thing that just didn’t want to go away. Massaging her temple, Kara squeezed her eye shut until it faded but, even then, it didn’t disappear completely.

“Did you wish for the treatment to take longer?” The AI asked with some confusion. “The effectiveness of the treatment can easily be adjusted.”

“No, no, it’s just…” Kara opened her eye again, and smiled when the itch faded. “Damn, it would be just like me to get an infection now.”

“Do you wish for me to prepare a health check?” The AI materialized a holographic image of Jor-El beside her, his face looking down at her with some concern.

“No, there’s no hurry. I’ll check it later today, after I’m done with everything else.”

With the Fortress help, putting on her armor was fairly easy; the equipment was also fully repaired, with only a slightly different shade indicating places where the metal had to be replaced.

Fully armored, Kara walked into the med bay where Talia and Clayface were being kept. Walking to the middle of the room, Kara ordered the Fortress to grow her a chair, then sat down a few meters away from the pods.

Pulling out her portable computer, she activated her holographic projector and the room around her changed, the floor and walls became steel gray and the crystals around turned into mechanical devices modeled after the look of her own armor.

Kara had actually taken inspiration from Prof. Morrow’s own laboratory for her illusion. With a button, she opened Talia’s pod, deactivating its stasis and allowing the woman to fully wake up.

Only a minute later, Kara noticed Talia’s breathing changing. Still, the villainess didn’t move. “You may drop the act Talia al Ghul, I know you’re awake.”

The woman lifted her head from the pod and looked around herself, fully awake and glancing all around the room. Seeing the small door to her right and the window to her left, Talia’s eyes finally focused back to Kara’s armored form.

“Nice place you have here.” The woman spoke with a seductive tone in her voice, with deliberate slowness; she lifted her legs out of the pod and stepped down on the floor before stretching her arms up.

“You seem surprisingly comfortable for a prisoner.” Kara commented with some amusement.

"I'm feeling surprisingly comfortable for a prisoner." Talia agreed. Testing her limbs, she grimaced as she saw the still missing hand, but recovered quickly. "I expected far more chains and bruises, maybe a little torture and interrogation. Instead, I'm actually feeling better than before."

With the Fortress tech, Kara could have easily cloned the hand and reattached it, but she didn't know if she wanted to waste that kind of effort on a villain. No, Talia could live with only one hand for a while.

“I find torture to be highly distasteful, and wasteful.” Getting up from her chair, Kara made sure the woman noticed how much taller her armor made her. “I have far better ways of obtaining information.”

Despite being utterly outclassed, Talia looked perfectly comfortable with the only sign of Kara’s intimidation working being her slightly accelerated heartbeat.

Talia took that in, tracing a hand through her hair to buy herself some time to think. Eventually, she caught sight of Clayface on the pod at her side. “I see you’ve also kept my… former subordinate.”

“Indeed, he’s a very interesting case; I have some associates that are gonna love studying him.” Kara told her and walked closer, her hands behind her back and her posture straight in a good imitation of how she had seen Darkseid act in the animations. “As for you, well, your connections are far more interesting than your body.”

“I see.” Talia studied Kara’s armor, trying to read her intentions, but being covered entirely in metal and having a voice filter did wonders for hiding it. “Well, despite the damage you caused, I’m sure my father would be willing to agree to a working relationship.”

“I’m afraid you’re mistaken. Your father doesn’t have any capabilities that interest me.” Kara answered in an amused tone.

“If you think you’ve seen the limit of our influence or ability, you truly underestimate the League of Shadows.” Talia answered, maintaining her composure.

With a command, Kara changed the voice filter on her armor, next time she spoke; it was with Ra’s al Ghul’s own voice, taken from a recording on the Justice League’s database.

Kara said a single word with Ra’s voice, smiling when she saw Talia’s eyes widen for a second, before her entire body relaxed and she kept staring forwards, unable to even move.

“You knew every agent of your League of Shadows is programmed with a hypnotic failsafe. Did you think yourself the exception?” Kara stepped away from Talia’s immobile form. “My employee was capable of finding out your particular keyword while going through your mind so, no; I don’t think I’m underestimating your pathetic little League.”

“You see, I only woke you up because I wished to meet you, Ra’s al Ghul’s daughter, and Batman’s former lover.” Kara lifted Talia into a princess carry and laid her back in the pod. “Unfortunately, it seems like you’re disappointingly mundane, what a waste of time.”

Closing the lid over the pod, Kara stared at Talia as the woman started to recover her movements. “At least I was able to reach an agreement with Batman because of you…” With the click of a button, Kara reactivated the stasis pod, causing the woman to fall unconscious again.

Stepping away from the pod, Kara deactivated the holographic display, causing the room to return to normal and revealing Dubbilex waiting at the door.

The Genomorph was sitting on a crystal wheelchair, easily moved with a touchpad or the use of his powers, his chest was still wrapped in bandages, but he was otherwise looking very good.

“Greetings, Miss Zor-El.” Dubbilex’s chair drifted inside the room, moved with minimal effort from his telekinesis. “I hope I’m not interrupting anything.”

“No, I was already done. No sense in letting Talia out for longer than necessary, it would only give her more chances to figure me out.” Kara sat back down on her chair and considered her next step. She’d be handing Talia off to Batman tomorrow.

“Was that entirely wise? Revealing so many of your capabilities to them?”

“I’m hoping that discovering she too was under hypnotic suggestion will cause her to start rethinking some of her life choices.” Kara told him, taking off her helmet and laying it on top of the desk. “Besides, I didn’t reveal anything they didn’t already know we had. They already know I exist, they already know I’m working against them and they already know I have a team with me which includes the Genomorphs.”

“Still, it was not necessary to reveal that capability. Most of the G-gnomes never revealed the capability to invade a mind so deeply.” Dubbilex pushed his chair towards Talia and Clayface. “More than that, the hypnotic suggestions I found on the surface layer of their mind was already intrusive enough. You know I’m not willing to go deeper without consent.”

“Well, it explains a lot of our knowledge and, if they think they know how we acquired it, they aren’t going to go looking for other reasons.” Pushing herself away from the desk, Kara scratched at her prosthetic eye once again. “Besides, it’s exactly because you’re not willing to go that far that I revealed it. Let them waste their time coming up with countermeasures to a villainous telepath; we were never going to go that far anyway. Also, do you know how terrifying it is to think there’s a telepath working against you and willing to cross some lines?”

“The Light is already freaking out about people working against them. Thinking that there’s someone like Psimon out there working against them will only cause them to make more mistakes. Let them become paranoid.” Smiling a bright smile, Kara walked out of the room and towards a more comfortable location. “Rao, if they don’t think the G-Gnomes are capable of it, they may even think it was Psimon himself who betrayed them! Felix Faust did it, why couldn’t that creepy fucker do it too?”

“Will you be handing off the second prisoner as well?” Dubbilex asked, following behind her.

“No, he’s going to prison.” Kara told him. “Since you found his actual name, the Fortress was able to find three murder charges filed against him in England. I was still thinking about having some of CADMUS scientists try to reverse his condition but, frankly, they have more important things to do than helping him, maybe if he’s found innocent.”

“Miss Zor-El, you do know you’re supposed to be taking a break?” Dubbilex gave her an unamused stare. “You’re certainly forcing me to take one, keeping me here on the Fortress.”

“I will, I just had to deal with Talia and Matthew today.” Kara waved his concern away. “Besides, now that I’m done with that, I think I’m gonna spend the afternoon choosing what part of Luthor’s data I’m gonna release to the public. It should be incredibly relaxing… and amusing. Is he even out of police custody yet?”

“Yes Mistress Kara, Lex Luthor was released yesterday evening while you were accompanying Master Kal.” The AI said while bringing her lunch using one of the androids. “And speaking of Luthors, Miss Lena Luthor finally answered your call; she has agreed to meet you in two weeks.”

“Huh, those Luthor leaks just became even more interesting.” Kara said, a glint in her eyes that caused Dubbilex to give her a wary look. “I thought it was gonna be a long shot but, with those leaks, what do you want to bet I can poach Lena away from LexCorp?”

Kara did spend the evening going through the Luthor data and, by the end of the day, she was only halfway done with it. The vast majority of the data had been easily decoded and separated into neat little folders, but the information on the second raid had been so encrypted even the Fortress was having trouble decoding it.

Kara was hoping for information about The Light or maybe even some recording of their meetings, but she knew Luthor probably kept something like that in independent storage devices and away from any servers.

There was still a chance the Fog had consumed some of those devices and the information was amongst the encrypted data, but that would really depend on how lucky she was.

Still, just the amount of white collar crimes she had already obtained evidence for was impressive, and would give Luthor decades of legal troubles. Plus, there were all the political scandals, those may be even better.

Pushing herself away from the desk, Kara looked at the time and decided to call it a day. The Fortress would start leaking some of the juiciest scandals tomorrow, and Kara planned to enjoy it from her apartment’s sofa, preferably with Dexter on her lap and Kori keeping her company.

Still, the irritating itch on her eye made her remember to have a health check before going home. If she was getting an infection or needed to replace her prosthetic, it was better to know it sooner than later.

Stepping out of the healing pod, Kara put her clothes back on and asked. “Alright, what’s the problem with my eye now?”

“I apologize, Mistress Kara. It seems that some of the Fortress’s information was faulty.” Jor-El’s hologram materialized at her side, his head bowed.

Kara’s breath caught and she stared at the hologram for a few seconds. “What is it?”

“Krypton never experimented extensively with the use of Nth metal, much less under the effects of a yellow sun.” The AI explained, lifting his head and returning to his usual position. “Am I to understand that you have carried at least some of the material with you for nearly a month now?”

“Yes…”

“Well, it seems like my previous diagnosis was wrong. While your leg shows no signs of change, your damaged cells are recovering much faster than predicted, and your missing eye has started to regenerate.”

Chapter Text

Lois Lane was a shark of a reporter. Her words could cut deeper than most swords and her sharp wit was intimidating, so it was with an enormous smile that Kara watched her pester Luthor about his company’s shiny new set of lawsuits.

The camera zoomed out of Lois’s face and Kara could see Kal’s own amused smile at her side. Her cousin was enjoying Luthor’s squirming, a lot.

“I want to reiterate that LuthorCorp is doing its best to cooperate with the government in order to investigate all allegations.” The bald man answered smoothly. He wasn’t showing many outward signs of the pressure to the point where, if Kara wasn’t a Kryptonian, she wouldn’t be able to see the bags under his eyes. “LuthorCorp has always had a policy of full transparency in our actions and I assure you, I will personally be working overtime to solve these issues. Next question?”

Using the internet, Kara had released a lot of the information she gathered with the Fog, the result was LuthorCorp losing 9% of its value in only a few days, while getting swamped with civil lawsuits, as well as a few criminal ones.

Luthor himself was being investigated for three dozen crimes ranging from bribery to tax evasion to intellectual property theft, but there wasn’t much chance that he’d be getting arrested anytime soon. Still, it was funny to watch the man squirm to solve everything. Despite all his power, his base of influence was crumbling around him and the man absolutely hated it.

Good, Luthor wouldn’t have much time to come up with plans to kill her cousin if he was busy dealing with a company losing money faster than the Flash could run. Time for the political assaults!

With a tap of a key, Kara scheduled the release of some more information in four hours, right when she suspected he would be going to sleep. It was nothing illegal, but documented proof that LuthorCorp outsourced the production of its latest circuit boards to the 'completely legal' internment camp in China would hit him hard and probably cost him the Ferris Aircraft contract to WayneTech.

Turning away from the TV, Kara continued tapping at her portable computer, putting the finishing touches on her adaptation of the Fog. The tiny robots had limited use as they were, but she was still recreating them with Kryptonian modular crystals.

They wouldn’t be able to form her sturdiest devices, but it would speed up the formation of delicate tech and improve her hacking ability… if she didn’t care that it made her actions obvious.

“Friend Kara, you are supposed to be relaxing!” Kori scolded as she floated towards her position on the couch.

“This is relaxing; I’m genetically engineered to enjoy tinkering with technology, Kori.” Kara answered as she ordered the new Fog based drones into production.

“Regardless, it is your constant surveillance of Luthor’s actions that worries me.” Kori sighed and slowly settled on the couch beside her.

“But hearing the suffering of my enemies in the background as I work is the most relaxing part! Muahahaha!”

“No, Bad Kara.” Kori flicked Kara’s forehead, snapping her out of her laughter.

“Ouch.” Kara deadpanned, rubbing her forehead to get rid of the sensation. “What was that for?”

“Maniacal laughter is one of the most glaring signs of villainy.” Kori nodded sagely as she explained this self-evident fact. “Master Diana has lost many friends when they started showing symptoms that were not addressed.”

“Oof, fine. I have to take a shower anyway.” Throwing Kori the remote, Kara lowered the lid of her notebook and floated up. “Don’t forget we’re going out later, you’d better be ready in an hour.”

“That timeframe will be more than sufficient.” Kori waved her concerns away.

Heading to her room to grab a towel Kara nearly stepped on the pigeon’s decapitated head. Somehow, Dexter had managed to leave her a present without dirtying the floor with blood, too much.

Seeing his curled form on top of one of her discarded shirts, Kara scratched him between the ears, earning herself a purr in thanks. “Good Kitty.”

A simple command caused the cleaning robot to roll out from under her bed and start sweeping the floor. It was a blocky thing, but filled with cleaning tools and a very good AI, using mechanical tendrils to clean the most difficult spots.

“Huh, now that’d be a good use for the Fog. Could I program it to consume only the stains and dirt? Would be much faster than the robot.” Kara wondered to herself as she stepped under the shower and relaxed.

Feeling much better after she was done, Kara stared at the foggy mirror. Taking a small breath, she blew a wave of frigid air over the surface, freezing the water on it and waving a hand through to get rid of the resulting ice, leaving the mirror completely clean.

Looking at her reflection, she leaned closer and started poking at her missing eye. Once it had started regenerating, Kara had to take out all the prosthetic equipment to stop the itching and give it more room. It left her with only one eye again, but only for a short amount of time.

Using her improved vision, she could actually see the regeneration, it was slow and would take a week or two, but she could barely contain her happiness.

Despite all her technology, her robotic eye never really reached the level of her actual flesh one. The discrepancy had been a constant reminder of what the Psions had done to her, one far, far more intrusive than just her leg. With it gone, she was feeling much better.

Stepping out of the bathroom she eventually managed to slip into a black jumpsuit that hugged her body almost as much as spandex, with a cleavage that went almost to her bellybutton.

It wasn’t something Kara had even thought she’d be wearing, but Selina was having a 70s party in her club and Kori wouldn’t let her miss it, or go without a costume, and Kara found that it wasn’t that bad.

Plus, she had invited Danette to come with them. The woman had been staying with her brother for nearly a week now, and Kara felt she had given her enough time to take in her situation.

Yes, Danette had discovered she was an android, and found herself more than sixty years in the future, Kara could sympathize, but at the very least it was still the same planet.

So Kara had decided to invite her out. Danette had ‘died’ in 1945, so a 70s party wasn’t exactly her time, but it was certainly closer than 2010 , so Kara thought it was a good compromise between it and the present year.

Stepping out of her room, Kara saw Kori was already ready. Wearing green bell bottom pants and white shirt, the Tamaranean had managed to style her hair in an afro, somehow, a pair of round sunglasses over her eyes and a huge, eager smile on her lips.

“You are looking marvelous, Friend Kara!” Grabbing her by the hand, Kori nearly dragged Kara towards the door. “I can not wait to meet Miss Reilly. Please, do you think she will like me?”

“Calm down, here.” Kara handed a small bracelet to Kori. “I should have made it much earlier, but you didn’t ask and, honestly, didn’t seem to need it.”

Kori put on the device and touched the stone in the middle, causing her skin to ripple and slightly change tone, turning from light orange to olive, her eyes continued to be green, but they no longer glowed. The change didn’t actually make her look much different, but now she could easily pass as human.

“Friend Kara, I did not ask because I do not actually mind not having a secret identity.” Kori answered, finally dropping her flight and letting her platform shoes touch the carpet. Kara made a guilty face, so Kori hurried to continue. “Do not worry, I know it makes you feel better, and I have nothing against it either. It is merely something I do not commonly think about.”

Kara stared at Kori’s concerned face, giving the Tamaranean’s hand a squeeze, she smiled. “Thanks for doing it then.”

Activating her own disguise, Kara only masked her missing eye with a hologram. Walking around with an eyepatch was cool and all, but it did draw a lot of unwanted attention, and Kara was being more careful about that nowadays.

Later that night, Kara, Kori and Danette stepped out of the taxi and in front of the Tin Roof Club.

“Thanks for inviting me.” Danette said, adjusting her own blue tinted round glasses. “I have been meaning to leave my brother's house for a while now, but I… didn’t really know where to go. Everything’s so strange now.”

Kara snorted in amusement and led them towards the club while Kori nodded. “Indeed. Getting accustomed to Earth’s culture is very taxing. Humans wear so many layers of clothes, it is most disconcerting.”

Danette gave Kori an odd look, then remembered who she was talking with. “Right, you would relate.” Turning to stare at the line in front of the club, filled with people wearing the skimpiest versions of 70s costumes they could find, Danette shook her head. “I think I have the opposite problem.”

Approaching the Club, Kara saw the security at the door staring at her group for some time. Just as she was about to wait in line, the man motioned for them to approach. “Miss Kara, please enter through here.”

Kara lifted an eyebrow. “I guess Selina put me on the list then?”

“Yes, the owner wants to make sure you never have to wait in line.” The mountain of a man said and disconnected a red chain, allowing them to enter the club without going through the line. “Enjoy the night; the first drink is on the house.”

Kara thanked him and entered the club. The Tin Roof Club was fully decorated in 70s disco style, with flowers everywhere and an actual LED dance floor, Bee Gees blasting through the room just loud enough that, if she made an effort, it completely blocked the sounds from outside in the city.

At her side, Danette seemed a little intimidated by the scene. But she made the mistake of letting Kori notice it. Trading a glance with Kara and getting a nod in return, Kori dragged the android onto the dance floor, drawing a lot of attention.

Kara wanted to immediately start relaxing, letting the music take her worries away, but she just couldn’t do something like that, not yet.

Stepping to the side, she released a small cloud of drones from her pockets. The little devices scanned the room and quickly camouflaged themselves before floating up and spreading around the club.

Soon, Kara saw the footage of the entire place being shown at the bottom of her own glasses, small enough that a normal human wouldn’t be able to read it, it would be able to scan anyone for weapons, and warn her if there was any trouble about to happen. Only then did she let herself enjoy the place.

Focusing entirely on the music, she let the noise from outside fade and joined her friends on the dance floor.

Kara enjoyed the dancing, and the free drinks, they couldn’t affect her, and she wasn’t really interested in any of the buyers. But, it was nice to see them try; she even danced with one or two who seemed like nice guys.

Seeing one of the asshole ones try to sneak something into another woman’s drink almost ruined her night but, after Kara had crushed every bone in his hand and handed him over to one of the security guards, Kori had pulled her back to the dance floor, and the three of them had enjoyed dancing together.

Danette herself had relaxed and turned out to be a fun girl to party with. Her programming didn’t allow her to get drunk, but it could simulate a buzz and she had relaxed as the night went.

Still, after a few hours, both Kara and Danette had almost reached their quotas for social interaction and stepped away, finding a booth to sit while Kori continued to dance. Somehow, her afro had collapsed and her hair had settled back into a straight mane, only curling slightly at the end.

Kara briefly wondered if Kori could actually control her hair and made a note to ask her later, before settling on the booth with a smiling Danette.

“Thanks, I really needed that.” The android said as she flicked the little umbrella out of the way and took another sip of her drink.

“I’m glad you’re enjoying yourself.” Kara drained her own whiskey and asked for another. “Have you made up your mind yet?”

“No… I-I think I’ll accept your offer, but I still need some time.” Danette played with the little umbrella for a second, swirling the ice cubes inside and further mixing the drink. “Brother seems happy to be a doctor and I… Was I a hero because it was what I wanted, or just because it was what Father programmed me to be?”

Letting the slower music fill her hearing, Kara focused her eye entirely on Danette and thought about the question. “Well, you did take a bullet for Flash, that’s pretty heroic if you ask me, and probably not a part of your programming. Prof. Morrow wouldn’t recognize self sacrifice if it hit him in the face, much less be able to program it.”

Danette’s hand unconsciously massaged at her chest, messing up her clothes as she touched the place where Dragon King had shot her.

“It’s hard to believe it’s been more than sixty years.” The young woman looked around and had to stop herself from shaking her head. “You know, I used to be the bold one, wearing pants and provocative shirts everywhere.”

“Really, bolder than Wonder Woman?” Kara lifted an eyebrow, causing Danette to blush.

“No, Diana always had me beat there, with her completely exposed legs and arms.” The former heroine lay back against the seat and snickered. “You know, she once told me she only dressed like that to fluster the men who complained. Seeing as she wears far more clothes now than back then, I believe her.”

“You know, you don’t have to be a hero constantly. Pretty much all of the senior members of the Justice League have college degrees, some even have several.” Thanking the waiter for the new drink, Kara briefly checked if it wasn’t spiked before taking another sip. “I can pay for your classes if you want to study anything. It’s the least I can do since I got so much from studying your father’s laboratory and tech.”

“I think I’ll take you up on that.” The blond finally finished her drink and stared at the cup for a little bit. “It’s so strange, knowing that drinking that did nothing for me, I don’t really need to eat or drink after all.”

“Well, in a few months, I technically won’t need them either, but I really don’t think I’ll be stopping.” Kara revealed. With her cells recovering, she’d soon be able to sustain herself with only sunlight.

“It is nice, even more so after your upgrades.” Danette turned away from her cup and looked at Kori, now dancing between an older couple. “Say, can you come with me? I have been meaning to go see Flash, but I think I’ll just talk myself out of it if I go alone.”

“I’d be happy to. Want me to call him tomorrow?” Danette released a long, deep sigh and nodded.

Suddenly, Selina came barreling through the crowd and threw herself on the seat beside Kara, her movements a little sluggish. “And here’s just wh-who I was looking fhor! I have to talk with yo-you lather.”

“Selina. You’re completely drunk.” Kara said, pushing the woman slightly away from her, she didn’t want to get thrown up on.

“And whose fault is that!” The older woman pointed a finger at Kara’s face, or well, tried to; she missed it by a few centimeters to the left.

“Definitely not mine, I haven’t spoken with you since our deal was done.” Kara answered, taking the newest drink away from Catwoman’s hand and lowering her unsteady finger.

Kara traded a glance with Danette, but the android just gave her an amused smile and pushed herself up. “I think I’ll dance some more, let you have some privacy with your friend.”

‘Traitor’ Kara mouthed at the android, but just helped Selina get into a more comfortable position.

“It’s that bitch! She’s back in the city and probably living with him!” Selina cursed a little, then laid her forehead against the table and sighed, tapping a finger against the table. Kara saw she was wearing her Catwoman’s gloves as she scratched at the wood. “I thought she was gone after he rejected her that last time! Ugh, I just bet they’re both laying together in that damn Batcave of his!”

“… I stand corrected.”

“What?” Selina turned her head aside and squinted her eyes at Kara.

“Nothing.” The Kryptonian avoided her gaze, then had to push her own drink away from Selina’s grasp. ”I think you’ve had enough for the night, don’t you?”

“No, it’s my club! If I can’t scratch Talia’s eyes out, I can at least drink myself to sleep in my own club.” Selina cursed some more, trying and failing to snatch the drink from Kara’s hand. Finally, she gave up and dropped her arm heavily on the table. “And we were doing so well, even had a date a few days ago.”

“Was it really a date, or was he just trying to stop one of your jobs?”

“Same thing!”

Kara shook her head and helped Selina get more comfortable, pulling off her gloves and hiding them out of view. Kara had been using her tech to disrupt the sound of their conversation, but she hadn’t done anything about the image so it was better to not take any chances.

Nearly an hour later, both Kori and Danette arrived at the booth. Danette sat down on the table waking Selina up and causing Kara to lift her eyes from her phone where she had been writing some more code.

Standing in front of her, Kori gave her a frown, but Kara shrugged. “What? There’s only so much interaction I can take ‘fore it starts getting annoying.”

Kara frowned. Was that a little slur she had detected in her own words? Looking at her cup, she tried to remember how many she had drunk and couldn’t. She had lost count at twelve. Still, she was far from drunk, she didn’t think she could even get drunk with normal alcohol, but it seems like it was finally having an effect on her.

“I am glad you enjoyed yourself, Friend Kara.” Kori smiled brightly.

The night was about to end, and the music had been slowing down for about an hour now, leaving only a few pairs dancing slowly on top of the LED floor. Pulling her by the arm, Kori dragged Kara away from the booth and to her feet.

Almost on instinct, Kara’s arms wrapped around Kori’s waist. Holding the Tamaranean princess close against her chest while Kori’s arms enveloped her neck, the both of them started dancing slowly, enjoying the slow songs.

Eventually, the song ended and there was a slight pause in the dancing. Kara adjusted her position, interlocking their fingers as new music started.

It was a slow song by Elvis. Kara didn’t know the name, but it resonated with the both of them, singing about a friend that would always be there, that would dry their tears and support them when the times were rough.

Kara led Kori through the steps, forgetting about everyone around them, enjoying the music filling her ears. Somehow, during the dance, Kori’s disguise had deactivated, revealing her shining green eyes and Kara lost herself in them.

From the corner of her eye, Kara saw a glint of violet enveloping Kori’s hologram bracelet, then she remembered that the girl didn’t actually mind if she didn’t have a secret identity, and the club’s lights were low anyway, so she dismissed any concerns.

Leaning down, Kara felt the soft tickle of Kori’s breath on her nose. They stepped over by a pink lamp on the dance floor, illuminating their bodies against each other. Kara felt warmth blossom inside her chest as their lips met.

Soft and silky, the kiss was completely unlike the first they had shared, both in purpose and in feeling. After what felt like an eternity, Kori’s lips parted slightly and their kiss deepened. Kara lost herself in the sensation as, in the moment, sparks of violet light mixed with the pink from the lamp.

Completely unwilling, Kara leaned back. She struggled to get her powers under control, the violet light influencing her mind. Kori wasn’t helping by squeezing her hand with a blush on her face. A few seconds later, the light finally vanished.

Looking around herself, Kara noticed the dancers around her giving them a wide berth and were avoiding looking at them, but nobody else seemed to have noticed. With Kori still held in her arms, Kara couldn’t really say she even cared.

Chapter Text

"I'm sorry, what did you just say?" Kara asked as she nursed a cup of scalding hot coffee and attempted to not think about what happened yesterday.

The night had ended with all of them sleeping at Selina's place. For whatever reason, the drunken woman had dragged them all home with her before collapsing on the bed.

Kara had made sure to hack every camera in the club and erase any footage of the night before they left, and now, the next morning, or well, almost evening really, Kara and Selina sat awkwardly at the kitchen table.

"I need your help." Selina said, drinking her own cup of coffee and looking far too good for the night she had. "I'd usually go to the Bat with something like this but, with that whore in town, I guess you'll do."

"You're talking about that Talia woman?" Kara asked, pretending that she didn't know anything about it. When Selina nodded, she continued. "You do know she's staying in Bruce Wayne's manor, right? Not with Batman."

"Bullshit, she's just using our resident man-whore as a shield so nobody can attack her at home. She's after the Bat. She's always after the Bat." Selina took a calming sip of her drink and sighed. "Nevermind the bitch, I need your help saving a friend."

"Explain." Kara sighed, her eye following after Kori as the girl walked into the kitchen, poured herself another cup of coffee, and left to talk with Danette on the sofa.

"Damn, you've got it bad." Selina smirked, but continued explaining. "Alright, you remember that organization I told you about after I did the job?"

"...Yes." Kara said, her face flushed with embarrassment.

"Well, things are chaotic in the underworld right now. A few months ago, Ivy had 'agreed' to do a job for someone but, in the chaos, she thought she could get away from it." Selina tapped her nails on the table and glanced at Kara to see her reaction.

"I take it she was mistaken?" Kara lifted an eyebrow.

"Yes, but also no." Taking another sip, Selina laid back against her chair. "With them no longer holding a monopoly on things, Ivy would normally be strong enough to get away with it, but they used her boyfriend as bait and captured her in secret. I want your help rescuing her."

Kara finished her coffee and thought about the situation, 'they' were probably The Light... so they were losing enough control of the other villains that they were getting denied, Kara just bet Vandal loved that.

She tried to think about what The Light wanted with Ivy, then she remembered that Injustice League nonsense... But that was supposed to be months from now.

Well... they probably needed time to plan things, and also to experiment with using Blockbuster and Venom on Poison Ivy's plants.

"So, how did you find out about this? Did 'they' spread it around to intimidate other people?"

"A hero ended up rescuing her boyfriend. The guy got hurt doing it and couldn't save her as well, but the freed boyfriend came to me for help since he knew we were friends." Selina smiled at Kara with an amused smile.

"Not the League or Batman?" She asked, exercising a lot of restraint not to eavesdrop on Kori when she and Danette started laughing in the other room.

"Well, Kite-Man didn't think he could contact them without getting arrested too."

"Wait, Kite-Man? Poison Ivy was dating Kite-Man?" Kara almost shouted, her mouth hanging open. "Rao, I thought she was a lesbian."

"She's actually bi." Selina snickered at Kara's reaction. "Also, Kite-Man got a lot of clout when he helped Batman defeat the Joker. And you didn't even hear the best part, who do you think managed to rescue them?"

Kara thought about it, it was probably some weaker hero or something, but she had no idea who. "I don't know, perhaps some third rater?"

"You can say that again." Selina snickered, then shook her head. "It was actually the Red Bee."

"Don't... really know him." Kara commented. "I'm guessing he can control bees? That's not a bad street level power if used right."

"Well, he can control 'a' bee, just the one." Selina snorted. "Calls it Michael and everything. Tried to arrest me once."

"Sooooo, let me see if I got this right." Kara took a moment to gather her thoughts. "Kite-Man, Poison Ivy's boyfriend, got captured by someone. Poison Ivy herself was captured when she tried to get him back, then a dude who controls 'a' bee rescued him, but Poison Ivy couldn't escape herself? Somehow, my respect for this organization is disappearing by the second, and for Poison Ivy."

"Well, in her defense, once they had her, nobody really cared about Kite-Man. They probably didn't waste anyone competent guarding him, and Red Bee is a good martial artist, he also has something to climb buildings." Selina stared at Kara's eye and waited a second, when Kara didn't say anything, she probed. "So, are you willing to help?"

Kara considered it, she had promised Selina a favor and rescuing someone, even a villain, was a far more acceptable use of her favor than helping steal something or, Rao forbid, actually fight off a Hero.

Kara didn't exactly care that Catwoman stole things as long as it didn't hurt anyone, but explaining her reason to her cousin would be a pain. Also, she really didn't want another confrontation with The Light, at least not for another week or so. She'd been enjoying her vacation, damn it.

With a sigh, Kara massaged her temples, eventually glancing back to Selina. "Alright, do you know where Ivy is right now?"

"Not really, I went after her when I heard about it, but they had changed locations as soon as Kite-Man escaped." Selina explained while grabbing the table and stretching her back like a cat. "I confess I like hunting as much as the next cat, but it is very annoying when my enemies show signs of competency."

"Fine, I'll ask around and see if I can find her. I'll decide next steps after that." Kara glanced back at the living room and considered how angry Kori would be if she got into trouble only a few days after deciding to take a break. "Still, if I think it's too much, I'll probably be calling my cousin."

"Fair enough." Selina sighed and pushed herself to her feet. "Getting arrested by the Big Blue would be annoying for her, but escaping from Arkham is much easier than from other villains. Probably safer too."

"What makes you think I wouldn't arrest her?" Kara narrowed her eye at Selina. It's true that she didn't care all that much about stealing things, and she even supported some of Ivy's environmental goals, but there were things she couldn't ignore. "Ivy kills people Selina, innocent people."

"Ivy is... complicated, even I tend to stay away from her when she's having one of her episodes." Selina nodded. "But Kite-Man was doing her wonders, and she even got herself a good psychologist, some cute blonde that's helping her out a lot. Besides, the news gives her a much worse reputation than she really deserves, she doesn't even like hurting people."

Kara lifted an eyebrow. "Really? That's your excuse, she's misunderstood?"

"You do realize she could be MUCH worse, right? Ivy tends to use vines and normal trees to cause property damage... and some poisons. When she's at her worst, she'll mind control or even poison people, but some of the plants she talks about..." Selina shuddered. "There's this 'suicide plant' from Australia, or that evil tree you can't even burn that's just... ugh."

Kara had to give her that, she had hardly ever heard of Poison Ivy using the more... tasteless plants out there. Besides, if that whole Injustice League incident was because of The Light forcing her hand, she may be able to turn the Villainess against them.

"Fine, I'll help look for her and, if I think we can pull it off, I'll call you for the rescue." Kara answered, looking at the clock on the wall and pushing herself to her feet. "If you don't have anything else to talk about, it's about time I go home. Have to take a bath and see how my cat's doing."

Dexter was a fairly independent kitty, and Kara's cleaning robot had been programmed to feed him and change his water, but Kara didn't like leaving him alone for more than was necessary.

"Thanks." Selina smiled at her. "Bring the cat next time you turn up. I take care of a lot of strays, but I'm out of the house too much to have one myself."

Kara left Selina's house, followed closely by Kori and Danette. Even in the morning, Gotham City looked gray and had a large cloud blocking most of the sunlight from shining through. Kara enjoyed the club, and she could see some of the beauty in the city, but she couldn't imagine living here.

The android waited with them until a taxi arrived, then gave each of them a hug. "Thanks for inviting me, I really needed this." Looking at Kara's eye, Danette gave her an uncertain look. "Everything just feels so... overwhelming right now. Can you really get Flash's address? I'd love to talk with someone familiar before deciding things."

"Sure, I could invite Wonder Woman too, or your younger brother?"

"No, I admired Diana but we were never really friends." Danette confessed. "And I'd like to have my life in order before meeting Red Tornado."

Kara could certainly relate, even if meeting Kal before she was ready probably turned out better for her in the long run. Still, she'd give the android a few more days before pushing her.

Alone, both girls returned to the apartment, getting a loud greeting by Dexter as the cat complained about sleeping alone and weaved between their legs with vigorous indignation.

Lifting the cat up, Kori touched their noses while Kara kicked off her shoes and went to check on her Sunstone printer. It had finished producing a prototype adaptation of the Fog in the shape of a ten centimeters cube of crystal.

Taking it off the printer, she brought it closer to her good eye and saw the minuscule robots neatly packed in the shape of the cube. They were supposed to incorporate the best traits of the Fog and her own drones, but Kara still needed to test it.

"I will be occupying the bathroom first." Kori called from the other room. "I still have to train with Master Diana today."

"Alright." Kara absentmindedly answered while ordering the cube to activate.

The millions of little robots turned on, giving the cube a slight glow, then they dispersed into the shape of a small cloud. Using her tablet, Kara started testing the programmed instructions.

Like her previous drones, the new fog robots had small limbs that could connect to each other, allowing them to take different shapes and form different devices, but they retained their ability to disassemble inorganic material and steal information from electronics. Unfortunately, that functionality would still result in the unsubtle destruction of the original targeted data.

Ordering the robots to organize themselves into a large plate, Kara started stress testing it.

Turns out, the tiny robots could form a very strong defense, but they were far less resistant than a solid block of the same material, much less her battle armor. Still, their versatility had Kara seriously considering incorporating them into her public costume.

"Friend Kara, I am leaving now!" Kori yelled, finally causing Kara to lift her head from the experimentation. "However, do not think I have not noticed that you are avoiding me. That will not stand, we will talk later."

Glancing at the hour, Kara realized she had wasted more than forty minutes just testing the new invention and not thinking about anything. In a hurry, she dropped her experiments and rushed to the door.

Poking her head out of the room, she saw Kori wearing workout clothes. The Tamaranean was back to using the disguise device to change her skin color, but wore black leggings and a sports bra that barely contained her breasts and left most of her body exposed.

"Wha-what do you mean I'm avoiding you?" Kara swallowed hard, her eye running over Kori's body and taking it all in.

Kara had thought she had gotten used to how beautiful Kori was, but yesterday's kiss seemed to have changed something and she was looking at her... friend with newfound interest.

"Yes, you are." Kori had a self-satisfied smile on her face at Kara's roaming gaze, then her face became serious and she narrowed her green eyes. "Still, I must fulfill my obligations to Master Diana, but we will speak tonight. Do not try to escape me."

Waving her goodbye, Kori stepped out of the apartment, leaving Kara feeling very intimidated by her proclamations, and a little hot under the collar.

Kara's eye followed the Tamaranean down the building until Kara managed to snap out of it and cut off her X-Ray vision.

Rao, was she really going to be doing this? There was a reason Kara had avoided even thinking about Kori before, and it wasn't because she wasn't attracted to the girl.

No, Kara had been avoiding thinking about their relationship because knew she wasn't in a very healthy place after her ordeals. Her life was a mess, she still hadn't dealt with her second set of memories and, worse, she was getting involved with superhero stuff. Red Arrow's death was proof of just how dangerous that was.

In the comics, superheroes usually ended up surviving but, even there, nobody could accuse them of living very happy, or very safe, lives, and Kara wasn't in a comic book.

Feeling frustrated, Kara punched the wall using far more strength than she meant to, causing a noise like an explosion. "Oh crap!"

Her fist punched all the way through the wall and must have hit something important. For a second, the entire apartment shook, the lights blinked and the TV actually fell off the wall.

Flashing towards it, Kara caught the device before it could hit the ground and released a breath of relief. Looking around the room, she thanked Rao that there was nobody else to see her blunder.

"Meow!" Dexter complained. Climbing back on the arm of the sofa, the cat glared at her with large and judgmental eyes before shaking himself and starting to lick his disheveled fur back into place, his tail puffed up like a feather duster.

"Shut up, don't judge me!"

Narrowing his pupils, Dexter turned his back to her, lifted his butt in an imperious way and walked away to hide in Kori's room.

Putting the TV back into place, Kara considered the hole in the wall. It seemed she had actually hit some kind of support structure, but it hadn't been with her full strength, so there was no real damage.

Releasing a groan, she grabbed her computer and started tapping away. A few minutes of programming later, her Fog inspired drones floated towards the hole and filled it up before changing colors to perfectly mimic the rest of the apartment. "There, nobody will ever know."

Ugh, she knew she had to find a new home soon, there was no way people didn't know there was something strange about her building by this point, not after everything that had happened.

In truth, she was supposed to have found a new place weeks ago, she just didn't have the time before. Maybe she should take the chance to apartment hunt with Kori this week.

And now she was thinking about Kori again, great.

Taking a cold shower, Kara prepared herself a sandwich and threw herself on the sofa. Twenty minutes later; Dexter appeared again, jumping on top of her chest to steal some of her heat.

With one hand caressing her cat's fur, Kara grabbed her tablet with the other and spent the morning lazing about on her device.

First, Kara sent a message towards Detective Chimp asking him to look into Poison Ivy's location, then she released a few bots on the internet to look for any clue about the villainess, finally, Kara spent the rest of the morning playing around with designing new devices. Turns out there were a surprising number of ways to create a laser pistol even with Earth's technology, some were even non-lethal.

From blinding to just dazing someone, from making them explode from thermal energy to playing with Dexter, laser weapons are very versatile, if you know how to build them.

Maybe she could incorporate them with her new solar panels. With her tech, it would make for a good defensive option, capable of shooting down pesky alien invaders and the inevitable eventual villain doomsday satellite or two. Nobody had to know she had the option unless she was forced to use it.

Dismissing her thoughts for later, Kara lifted Dexter away and put him back down on the sofa before changing clothes, she had promised to check in with Guardian about the CADMUS situation and the man wanted to talk with her in person.

Taking the Zeta-Tube, Kara arrived in an underground chamber below her factory. She couldn't wait to replace the Zeta-Tube with her own teleportation tech but, until then, it was better than just flying around alone.

"Miss Danvers!" An average looking man called out as he deactivated the defensive turrets from another room. He looked like he was just behind a glass window, but Kara knew that, if she tried to attack it, things wouldn't end well for her.

Kara lifted an eyebrow. She didn't know Dubbilex had allowed humans on the underground facilities. "And you are?"

"Jonathan Banks, Miss Danvers. The boss has me guarding the Zeta-Tube." The young man bowed towards her.

"Dubbilex himself gave the order? He's still supposed to be resting." Kara grumbled, and then sighed. The irony of her statement wasn't completely lost on her. "Well, keep up the good work."

Laying a hand against the door, she waited for the several identity checks to finish before the door slid open, revealing a long hallway. Stepping inside, she felt the door snap closed behind her and hurried towards the other side before the enclosed space started bothering her.

A second check and the other door opened as well, finally letting Kara out into the Genomorphs's underground facility.

Finding Dubbilex still in his wheelchair and talking with Guardian had Kara pause. She considered both men, but decided that she couldn't blame him for getting immediately involved with organizing things, not when he was the current leader for their entire race.

"Dubbilex, Guardian, I take it everything is in order?" She greeted them as she walked into the room.

"Good evening Miss Danvers." Dubbilex nodded back.

"Evening Miss. Ah, I'd really prefer you just called me James." Guardian said, scratching at his newly grown beard. "I'm giving up the Guardian persona; it doesn't have very much to do with me."

"Are you retiring from hero work completely?"

"Well, I still plan to act as chief of security here, but I'm not using my costume anymore." The redhead answered and stepped away from the desk, allowing Kara to sit down on the comfortable chair there.

"Speaking of security, what's this about normal humans down here?" She tested the chair a little before fully concentrating on both of them again.

"Don't worry, the G-Gnomes are keeping an eye on everything, but some of the CADMUS personnel decided to stay with us and we are putting them to good use however we can." Dubbilex informed her, then considered things. "Also, I should warn you that a surprising number of humans in this city have grown close to some of us, and they're proving themselves trustworthy, some of us have already revealed ourselves."

Putting a hand over her regenerating eye, Kara sighed. "I guess it was really too much to ask for an entire race to remain hidden."

"Do you prefer we remain isolated? That we keep underground and permanently under illusions?"

"No, no, it's fine, as long as you continue to keep any recordings from getting out and are careful." Kara waved his accusations away. "I'll just have to be less involved with this facility so I can do a Lex Luthor and plausibly deny what happens here."

Truth be told, she would have preferred they did remain isolated and under illusion, at least for a little longer, a year or so. But Kara couldn't begrudge them, and she could work with it.

It would still be incredibly suspicious if someone found out but, with the Wayne contract, she was already looking to open a second factory, and an office in Metropolis. If things went wrong, she could just pretend she was being used. 'Oh no, they had a telepath, I didn't even know what was going on, I'm just a young human girl alone in the world.'

Shaking her head, Kara refocused. "So, how are we dealing with the whole CADMUS thing?"

"Well, you told us you were willing to blow the whole CADMUS debacle open once Luthor found out about it, so we told the scientists everything that was going on and offered them jobs." James answered, sitting down on his own chair at the other side of Kara's desk. "Once I explained that the other option wasn't death, most of them chose to leave, but a few stayed with us."

"I take it those who left have no idea where this is?"

"No." Dubbilex shook his head. "Although I wasn't here, they were under the G-Gnome's illusions the whole time. They don't even know what the facilities truly look like, much less where it is located."

"Good, so why exactly did I need to be here?" Kara asked, she had been perfectly willing to leave things in Guardian's hands and monitor from home for a few days.

"One of the remaining scientists, Doctor Amanda Spencer, had a breakthrough on the treatment of the Genomorphs." Dubbilex started, looking both happy and a little uncertain. "It will require constant treatment, but she has found a way to drastically slow down Genomorph deterioration."

"Do you need more funding? I told you I'd help however I can." Kara leaned forward, happy for her friend.

"We do require some equipment, but I called you here to discuss our shared relative." Dubbilex leaned forward, then grimaced as something pulled at his wounded side. "Kon-El has only a small amount of Genomorph DNA, and his Kryptonian heritage is helping to keep him healthy, but the treatment should still be able to improve his situation."

Well, now Kara was really interested. Leaning forward, she was about to continue questioning them when she realized something and couldn't help making a disgusted face. "Did you say her name was Amanda Spencer? Dr. Desmond's assistant, that Amanda Spencer?"

"...Yes." James said, leaning away from her with a worried face.

"The same genetic scientist that was part of Project Kr, happily played with my cousin's DNA without his consent, or any signs of professional ethics, in order to create Kon-El?" Kara felt her fingers digging into the table, carving into the wood as if it were butter.

"Miss Kara..." Dubbilex started to say, but Kara lifted a hand, interrupting him.

Slowly leaning back on her chair, she took a few deep breaths, noticing the small spots of red starting to gather on her vision and doing her best to calm herself.

Amanda Spencer wasn't a Psion; she probably wasn't an amoral woman that actually enjoyed causing pain and doing invasive experiments on people without applying anesthetics either, just one that didn't think through her actions.

Rao, Kara could understand getting lost into her own experimentation and not actually stopping to think about what exactly she was doing. She didn't know if she could forgive it, but she could understand.

"You... trust this scientist? Even after what she did?" She asked after she had finally calmed down enough.

"Doctor Spencer is not the most attentive, or the most caring, but she has been attempting to make amends since Kon-El escaped and we took over." The Genomorphs explained, being careful not to trigger her again.

Closing her eye, Kara thought about Kon and, more than him, she also thought about Match still resting in a pod at the Fortress. "Fine, but I want to talk with the woman first."

Chapter Text

Kara sat on her large, leather chair in the Genomorph’s underground base, her elbows resting on top of the wooden desk and her fingers crossed in front of her face.

Her feet tapped furiously against the ground in impatience and she desperately wished she had brought Dexter with her, running a hand through his fur while he purred in her lap would have helped calm herself down.

Despite herself, shards of red light had manifested around her when she had lost her temper earlier, some of them had scratched her new desk, some had left scratches at the wall at her back and one had even destroyed a lamp right above her position, leaving it slightly darker than the rest of the room.

Kara actually liked the aesthetic. It kept her face in the shadows, preventing the woman she was about to meet from seeing any signs of disgust… or fear. It would be much harder to notice if she flinched at the geneticist presence.

Closing her eyes, she tried to concentrate on her cousin’s Torquasm Rao teachings, letting go of her anger and clearing her mind. While Torquasm Rao was created for military use, it also happened to be a great meditation technique… Kara just wasn’t very good at it yet.

“Dr. Spencer, please come in.” Dubbilex opened the door with a wave of his hand, motioning for the Geneticist to walk inside the room.

Kara almost shuddered reflexively. To be in the same room with someone like Dr. Spencer gave her goosebumps but she tried to focus on what the woman could do for Kon, and maybe even Match.

She remained silent for a few seconds more, until she had gotten her temper under control, and then opened her eyes to take in Dr. Amanda Spencer for the first time.

The scientist was a young black woman, with a thin figure; she had short and curly hair and wore a white lab coat, complete with thin glasses over her brown eyes.

Staring at the woman, Kara saw the slight shaking of her hands, the woman’s heart accelerating, the drop of cold sweat running down her cheek. Dr. Spencer stood frozen in place like a deer in headlights.

After a couple of seconds Kara noticed Dubbilex glaring at her and that her eye was still shining with barely contained heat. Drawing another breath, she blinked the signs of heat vision away and nodded.

“Nice to meet you, Dr. Spencer. I’m told you have a solution for the Genomorphs’ degeneration problem?” Kara asked, taking her elbows off the desk and leaning back on her chair.

“I… ah, I wouldn’t call it a solution, it’s more like a temporary fix until I can better study the situation.” The woman said, wiping the sweat from her forehead and trying to loosen her turtleneck. “The Genomorphs’ degradation is caused by a lack of a certain element in their cells. The treatment can directly infuse that element inside them, but their body will reject it after some time and revert back, making constant doses necessary. Really, it would be best to solve the issue completely, but stopping further degradation in the meantime before it does anything permanent is necessary to buy time, and maybe I could use, no, it… I’m sorry, I’m rambling.”

“I see, and what do you need to make a permanent cure?” Kara asked, tapping a finger against the arm of her chair.

“I-I will need new facilities and my staff will have to be replaced.” She gulped and answered.

“Would larger revenue help?” Kara asked, doing her best to think about the benefits to Kon and the Genomorphs, this time, it seems like she was succeeding. “The Genomorphs’ cure is a priority for me.”

“Yes, Yes! If I had the means to replace lost materials, it could allow me to be far less careful with testing, as well as hire more workers and better equipment.”

Kara traded a glance with Dubbilex, seeing a satisfied smile as well as some amount of affection for the scientist on the man’s face. “You’ll have it. Now, I’m aware that you worked on Project Kr, what can you tell me about using the treatment you’ll be developing on the Kryptonian clone?”

“Well, we could not fully clone Kryptonian DNA; we used human DNA to fill in the holes and connected everything using Genomorph genetic material.” The woman said, seeming to forget her fear now that she was speaking about something she was passionate about.

Kara had to blink and start thinking about Kori in order to stop herself from blasting her with heat vision, her fingers digging into the leather chair.

“At first, we believed that such a patchwork approach had made the clone vastly weaker than a natural Kryptonian but, re-analyzing the data, I believe that the Kryptonian part of him is working overtime to prevent the Genomorphs’ degeneration.” The woman nodded and smiled at both Kara and Dubbilex, as if she wanted congratulations for solving such a problem. “His cells are constantly using the solar energy absorbed to try and fix his Genomorph deficiencies. These cells don’t have any extra ‘power’ to do much else, that’s why he hadn’t manifested some of the Kryptonian’s more traditional powers like flight or heat visi…on.”

“What’s wrong?” Kara questioned when the doctor seemed to trail off mid explanation.

The doctor swallowed again, looking worried right at Kara’s good eye and she readjusted her collar once again. “Nothing, I believe I just realized something.”

“Oh, do tell.” Kara immediately realized the woman had connected the dots. Feigning interest, she leaned to the right and rested her chin against her closed fist.

“Miss Danvers…” Dubbilex tried to say, but Kara cut him off with a glare.

“No, I really want to hear it.”

“I-I’m sorry! I was just doing my job. I never had the full picture of the project until it was already too late! I never wanted to create him! Err, I mean…” The woman explained, nervously glancing around the room. “Then, well, the clone was already produced, I wanted to make sure he could survive… and the study possibilities were…”

“Let me make something crystal clear, Dr. Spencer.” Kara told her, leaning forward again and making it so the light of the room illuminated her fully. “I’m not actually too mad at you for my newest cousin’s creation. I’m mad about the abuse you did against my older one. That stealing his DNA and replicating it against his will didn’t raise any red flags for you boggles the mind. That you cared about Kon-El’s survival, and are still working to improve his situation, has stayed my hand for the time being and forces me to put some trust in you. But. You will NOT abuse that trust, am I understood?”

The woman flinched but eventually answered, her voice almost a whisper. “Yes.”

“Good, Superman was raised by a loving family, he was taught all of your Earth’s values and he truly, deeply believes in the good inside people. He’s a hero to the core, he’d never hurt you.” Kara explained while opening a drawer and pulling out a thick folder with hundreds of pages and two thumb drives inside. “I am not Superman.”

With a flick of her wrist, Kara threw the folder at the woman’s chest, almost causing her to fall on her ass. “That’s all the information I have on a second clone, one made without human DNA, I want you to tell me what your treatment can do for him.”

Dr. Spencer clutched the folder, holding it closely to her chest as if it would keep Kara from hurting her. Taking a couple seconds to gather herself, the woman considered what Kara had just said. “Wit-without human DNA? His cells would be breaking down much faster than even the Genomorphs.” She said, her mind focusing back on her work as she desperately tried to avoid even looking at Kara. “The treatment would help, but I don’t have any idea about how to stabilize his Kryptonian side. All previous data indicates that his powers will start mutating in less than two years, he’ll start developing failed mutations and become unable to sustain life in only ten years outside of a suspension chamber.”

“Just do your best.” Kara ordered, then thought about Match once again and got a glint on her eye. “Do you think it would help if he doesn’t have his powers anymore?”

“It would need to be tested, but that is a possibility. The cellular mutation is probably triggered by the incomplete Kryptonian ability to absorb radiation, if he doesn’t have his powers…”

“Very well, Dubbilex will help you with anything you need. Stabilizing the Genomorphs is your current priority since Match is currently in suspended animation, but I want your team trying to find me a solution.” Kara waved the scientist away, almost causing the woman to run out of the room. Just as she had grabbed the door handle, Kara called out, causing her to pause and look back. “And, Dr. Spencer, you WILL be apologizing to both my cousins, in person.”

The doctor nodded, then scrambled out of the room and Kara could hear her almost running down the corridor.

“Was that really necessary?” Dubbilex sighed, massaging under his horns.

“What? I thought I was surprisingly kind and accepting.” Kara pushed herself back to her feet and almost slammed the drawer closed. “I hate amoral scientists.”

“Dr. Spencer isn’t amoral; she’s only… absorbed in her work.” The genomorph justified, then took Kara’s place, using his telekinesis to move her chair out of the way and adjusted the drawer, pulling it out and making sure it wasn’t broken before driving it gently into the desk. “And she is undeniably a genius in genetics. She’s our best chance at a permanent solution.”

“Do you think she’ll do something short-sighted then? That I pushed her too far?” Kara fidgeted, feeling a little guilty now that she wasn’t in the same room as the woman.

“No, Dr. Spencer was feeling guilty for what she did before she walked into this room. She believed your intimidation was justified.” Looking up, Dubbilex frowned at the busted lamp above his head, quickly typing a request for a replacement at his computer. “Still, I do wish you had not been so aggressive.”

“There won’t be a next time. I never want to see that woman again.” Kara finally lost Dr. Spencer’s steps amongst the noise of the facility.

“And if she solves your problem with Match? She’ll probably need to oversee any treatment the boy receives.”

“Well, fuck. Now you have me hoping I meet her again.” Kara almost banged her head against the door in frustration. “Are we done here? Do you need me for anything else?”

“No, I can do everything else myself.” The wounded man said, causing Kara to frown at him. “Go back to your vacation.”

“You shouldn’t even be doing anything.” Kara glared at the genomorphs, but Dubbilex didn’t seem as impressed with her intimidation tactics as Dr. Spencer. “You’re wounded, Dubbilex, rest.”

“My body is wounded, my mind is perfectly capable.” The Genomorph glanced at her, and then refocused on his work. “I’ll rest when you finally get me a substitute for CEO.”

Kara narrowed her eyes on the man. “You were just bored without any problems to solve, weren’t you?” She accused.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He continued using his telekinesis to type away at the computer, making sure to avoid even looking at her. “Oh, look at the time. Didn’t you have to speak with Koriand’r today?”

Kara snorted, but did look at the time. Gathering Match’s files, looking at Dr. Spencer’s research before talking to her and consulting the Fortress’s AI for his take on them had taken longer than she thought.

Thinking about an angry Kori glaring at her for trying to dodge their talk made Kara cringe. Shaking her head to dispel the image, she smiled at the man. “Nicely deflected. Goodbye, Dubbilex.”

“Until later, Miss Danvers.”

After Kara teleported back to Fawcett City and was making her way to her apartment, she saw Captain Marvel flying above her, leaving a trail of dispersed clouds as he moved towards a corner of the city.

Using her X-Ray vision, Kara saw that it was just a bank robbery. Seeing that the Captain would arrive before her, and that his enemies were just normal people, Kara shrugged and continued walking.

Who the hell thinks it’s a good idea to rob a bank in Captain Marvel’s city? Rao, that’s another level of stupid.

Closing the door behind her, Kara finally deactivated her holographic display, revealing her missing eye. Gently massaging her temple and scratching an itch from the re-growing eye she threw her security equipment on the table.

The container filled with her drones, clattered on the wooden surface and almost spilled. Before she could do anything else, Dexter weaved between her feet and she grabbed him, squeezing the cat against her cheek for a second until it had enough and tried to claw at her.

“Fine, fine, I’m releasing you.” Dropping him on top of the table, Kara pulled out her phone and started checking her internet search bots.

With half a day to trawl the net, her programs had gathered a lot of generic information on Poison Ivy, but nothing to indicate her current location. The bots had managed to find a useful tidbit though. It seemed like Count Vertigo was currently in the country.

In a hurry, Kara readjusted her bots’ search parameters, making them start looking for any members of the Injustice League: Black Adam, Wotan, Joker and… she couldn’t really remember the others.

Would they be acting faster than normal? Did The Light need them to draw attention before what the plot would dictate in canon? Or were they just gathering to get comfortable with each other and plan?

Kara shook her head. No, she couldn’t just assume that The Light’s plans remained the same; she had already interfered so much that they could have changed their goals, or how they were going to go about fulfilling them.

Well, at least she managed to deliver a huge blow to them before they started adapting. It would be wonderful if The Light didn’t adapt to her moves, but that would also be very unlikely.

Kara would have to re-evaluate her suppositions. After her attack on Infinity Island, her elimination of Felix Faust and the villains starting to deny The Light, any plan that they had was probably well and truly scrapped.

With some concern about her own plans, Kara gathered her things and went to her room to start considering where she’d get access to a supply of equipment for Dr. Spencer’s research. Remembering something she had read in her previous life, Kara threw herself on the bed and considered how to approach this.

Pulling her phone out, she tapped a finger on the screen for a few seconds, then made up her mind and called one of her associates. “Hello, Mister Swift.”

“Good evening, my dear. To what do I owe the pleasure of your call? I do not believe we have any operations planned.” Came the elegant voice from the other side as the Shade answered his phone.

“I may have a new operation in mind, one that may require the entire team, but I still need to gather more information for that.” She commented, thinking about Poison Ivy’s rescue. “But I’m not actually calling about that, it’s a more… personal reason.”

“Personal, you say? I confess I did not expect any connection of such nature between us.” The Shade commented with amusement. “Should we have this conversation in person then?”

“No, I only wished to ask if you were still connected to Caldecott Industries.” There was a long silence on the other side of the line.

“Hmmm, I do, in fact, have some connections there.” The Shade said, being careful with his wording. “I do not, however, have any intentions of involving them in this side of the business.”

“I’m sorry if I wasn’t clear; it’s not really about that.” Putting a hand over her eye, Kara considered her next words carefully. “I need a supplier for medical equipment and materials, as well as help with some genetic projects. I have no intention of involving it with any Superheroic, or villainous, actions, but I needed a company that I can trust.”

“Does your cousin not trust STAR Labs? It IS the leading developer here in the New World.”

“I prefer not to put all my eggs in the same basket, and, while my cousin may trust them, I’m not certain STAR Labs are entirely safe, it is a good company, but I have security concerns.” Kara adjusted her position on the bed and felt Dexter jumping in with her, demanding she give him some water. “Still, they would probably be my second choice.”

“I see. I’ll arrange a meeting for you, in your civilian identity of course.” The Shade said, his voice making it clear that the last part wasn’t a choice.

“Of course.” Kara agreed, she only wanted to get a business deal with them, not draw any attention towards her company or her other activities.

Hearing the door opening, Kara said her goodbyes and turned off her phone. Taking a deep breath, she prepared herself. In a way, her talk with Kori wasn’t dangerous, or even that life changing, but why was she more anxious about this than she had been about attacking Infinity Island?

Using her X-Ray vision, Kara looked at Kori entering their home and sucked in a breath. The Tamaranean looked around herself, not seeing any signs of Kara in the house. “Friend Kara?”

Instead of answering, Kara thought about the kiss, about how she wanted to get into a relationship with the girl, and about how easy Red Arrow had died, how dangerous it was… and how she had lost everything twice over.

Krypton had exploded, taking with it almost everything she had cared about, her family, her friends… her future. Her original Earth was also gone, it hadn’t been destroyed, but she doubted she would even see it again, even with the level of technology in DC.

Drawing her legs to her chest, Kara hugged herself, her breathing coming faster and faster. Really, even if she could open a portal to her original Earth, what then? Her parents had been almost sixty when she died, were they even alive right now? Over thirty years after her rebirth?

No, she had lost two families, and she couldn’t handle losing any more, she just…

A warm hand cut off her trail of thought and Kara looked up, staring right at Kori’s concerned eyes. Kori’s hand gripped her arms and gently pried her fingers from their vice like grip at her legs.

Adjusting her place between Kara’s legs, Kori cupped her face between her hands and forced Kara to fully focus on her eyes for a few seconds.

Kara felt her muscles relaxing; her breathing starting to go back to normal as she stared at the green eyes in front of her, gripping one of Kori’s hands with her own, Kara squeezed tightly and finally managed to form a smile. “Thanks.”

Leaning down, Kori kissed Kara’s lips, her touch very brief and light, offering comfort and support. Still holding her hand, the Tamaranean kicked off her boots and sat down on the bed beside her, putting her back against the headboard. “I apologize; I did not intend for our talk to cause you such distress.”

“It wasn’t that, not really.” Kara sighed, leaning sideways and resting her head against Kori’s shoulder. “I had to meet someone I really didn’t want to earlier today, then everything just hit me all at once… I, it’s just…” Kara couldn’t really explain, she couldn’t explain how much she feared losing everything again, how she feared getting involved with things.

Caring about her cousin was easy. He was Superman after all and very few things could hurt him, and there were even less now that she kept bothering him to wear the damn radiation shield. Kori, however, was vastly more fragile.

“Friend Kara, may I tell you about my planet?” Kori finally spoke, interlocking their fingers and smiling at her.

“Sure.”

“Tamaran is a wonderful planet, full of wonders and beauty; it is also a planet at war.” Kori let her head lean down on top of Kara’s, closing her eyes as she remembered. “My sister was shunned for her disability, and I was raised as the future queen of our people. By the time I started my training, I had lost two uncles to the war and, in the following years, the Citadel increased its assaults, killing many.”

Kara felt Kori’s hand squeezing her’s, but her strength was quickly failing as she let herself think about her planet and started to lose her powers.

“Together with Komand’r, I was sent to Okara for military training, but I was aware it was also to protect us, and then…” Shaking her head, Kori lifted their hands. For a second, she just looked at them, her smile falling away. “On my planet, I learned that there will always be people trying to hurt us or the people we care about, and sometimes, there is nothing we can do to prevent, or even affect, that. But that does not mean we should give up, that we should not care, that we should not love.”

Bringing Kara’s hand closer, Kori kissed her finger, then smiled again, regaining her strength. “Friend Kara, our bonds are what give us strength. Even if it is painful, even if it is hard. The memories are still there, they are still beautiful, they can still make you smile as you remember them and, if you can smile, you win.”

Kara didn’t say anything, just continued taking comfort in Kori's presence. She couldn’t help admiring the Tamaranean princess's strength. Sometimes, seeing how cheerful and happy Kori was, Kara forgot she wasn’t the only one who had suffered.

Eventually, Kara took a deep breath. Releasing Kori’s hand, Kara pushed herself away from the headboard and sat atop Kori’s thighs, staring directly at her friend’s face. “Thanks for talking about it. I guess it’s about time I stopped avoiding things, huh?”

“I do not wish to hasten you, Friend Kara.” Kori smiled in a way that illuminated her whole face. “I understand that most other races are not as open as we Tamaraneans.”

“No, it IS time I stop avoiding things.” Kara closed her eyes for a second, letting go of her fear. Opening them again, she put an arm at Kori’s side and leaned over. For a second, she paused just above Kori’s lips.

The pregnant pause stretched for a full second, but it felt like an entire hour. Kara’s heart was beating like a hummingbird’s, and she could hear Kori’s beating alongside it. Finally, she pushed herself forward and captured Kori’s lips.

Pushing herself forward, Kori’s hands slowly snaked their way around Kara’s waist. The kiss deepened, their mouths opening slightly as Kori answered with eagerness and Kara quickly lost track of time. The only question remaining in her mind was why she hadn’t done this before.

Chapter Text

Kara Zor-El’s first memory was of her father, his image across the glass of the birthing matrix. In truth, she could barely open her eyes at the time, so she couldn’t really see his shape all that well, but she remembered the large, tall figure standing above her pod for a few seconds, a second figure slightly behind him. She remembered him staring at her for a full minute and then walking away, leaving only her mother to keep her company.

Kara didn’t remember him coming to see her again but, in fairness, most of her time inside the birthing matrix was spent either sleeping, developing her body, or being educated by the learning program there. Later, she liked to think he came to check on her often, but she just didn’t remember it, and didn’t dare ask.

Still, her parents were there when she finally stepped out of the birthing matrix. Having reached the desired level of development in both body and mind, she stumbled away from the chamber and took her first steps on the crystalline floor.

Kara nearly fell, but managed to right herself and look at the couple in front of her, her biological parents. Alura In-Zee was a tall, blond woman wearing a white robe with the symbol of the El house in front of it. She had a proud smile on her face and her eyes were filled with affection.

Zor-El was even taller, with perfectly styled brown hair, he wore a mixture of robe and armor, black and with a tall collar, it had square shoulder pads in white and a red cape wrapped around his neck, tied with a golden strap. The El crest rested on his chest in white and he had a black circlet around his forehead.

Both of them stood a little apart from each other, their backs straight, but Zor-El wasn’t smiling. Instead, he watched her with a critical eye, his arms crossed behind his back. On instinct, Kara did her best to copy his posture and saw a glint of approval on his eye.

“Good, from today on you’re the newest member of the El house,” Zor-El proclaimed. “Cloth yourself and follow your mother, Kara Zor-El.”

Her father didn’t wait, walking away with sure steps as she watched his back. Kara was still covered in the embryonic waters of the birthing matrix, but Alura helped her wash it away and dress herself.

“Excuse your father, he has always been a little rough,” Alura said as she finished drying Kara’s hair. “We were both looking forward to your birth.”

“Thank you, Alura In-Zee.” Kara said, testing out her voice for the first time and doing her best to not sound stupid.

“Please, call me mother,” her… mother asked, stepping away from her and smiling at Kara. “Now, come. Your father is a busy man, but he managed to reserve a few hours with us.”

The prepared clothes fit her perfectly, neatly covering her chubby limbs. Kara used her fingers to adjust the clasp for her environmental helmet, but her mother shook her head and prevented her from activating it. “We will not be going out today, there’s no need for a helmet.”

“Yes mother.” Kara answered and tilted her head in confusion when she received her first hug, Alura’s arms enveloping her body completely.

Kara’s first birthday was spent with both of her parents, an extremely rare happening from then on. She walked through their home in Argo City, being shown the facility and having the security features updated with her DNA in mind.

She especially liked the time spent with her father as he showed her the experimentation rooms and the various devices she could play with and study in order to learn.

The next year was spent mostly completing her education. By the time she was five years old, Kara had already learned all that was necessary to survive and take care of herself, at least while inside Argo City, but she still met her mother at least once a day and her father once a week.

On her sixth birthday, Zor-El once again managed to get a release from his work on the Science Council to spend time with her. Kara was studying with her AI teacher when he arrived and she quickly turned it off before hushing into the labs and grabbing a hand sized crystal device, the first one she had produced with no help from anyone.

Running through the crystal hallway, Kara actually dodged her mother’s hand as she rushed towards Zor-El, then she tripped on the floor, sending her sunstone device clattering to the floor until it hit her father’s leg and stopped.

Looking down at her, Zor-El unlocked the safety on his armor and took off his helmet, then leaned down to grab the crystalline device, lifting it up and looking it over.

“Get up. No daughter of mine should be this uncoordinated,” he ordered, waiting until Kara had pushed herself up and rubbed her aching nose. “Now, what exactly is this?”

“Greetings, father, I made it!” Kara said, extending her hand towards the device. Her father glanced at it once more, but handed it over. With an eager voice, she explained. “See, it's sunstone! I programmed it so the crystals wouldn’t stop growing inward once activated, look!”

Pressing a spot on the device, Kara saw it light up and start absorbing sunlight to fuel its growth, and then she threw it away as hard as she could with a grunt. Unfortunately, she was still only 6, so the device didn’t fly as far as she expected.

Seeing the little device falling not even ten meters away from her, Kara’s eyes widened in fear. “Uh-Oh.”

Zor-El’s own eyes widened in realization and, acting fast, he embraced her, turning his back to the device and huddling down around her while ordering their personal drones to form a shield behind him. It was the first time Kara had ever been hugged by her father, so she actually giggled in delight.

Behind them, the device absorbed sunlight for 6 seconds, rapidly growing inward and increasing the pressure inside. Sunstone was incredibly strong but, exposed to sunlight, it just wouldn’t stop expanding, building up pressure until the crystalline shell couldn’t hold the pressure anymore. With a crack, it exploded, sending crystals flying everywhere.

A hail of small crystals pinged against Zor-El’s shield, but it was strong enough to block any damage with no problem. Releasing her, Zor-El dusted himself and looked towards the destroyed device with a conflicted face before turning to his wife and seeing that she too was fine.

Looking at the damage it had caused, Kara couldn’t help the smile growing in her face. “...Cool!”

Turning to her father, Kara saw the disappointed look on his face and deflated. Shaking his head, Zor-El turned around and started walking towards the house. “That was a waste of resources. Come.”

Lowering her head, Kara followed after her father, her face flushed with shame. Zor-El led her further inside her home until they reached a door Kara had never been to before.

Stepping in front of the door, Zor-El waited until it scanned him, and then had Kara stand in place so she too was registered. Walking inside, Kara saw a far better equipped laboratory.

“Daughter, until your uncle decides to have a child, you’re the current heir of House El,” her father explained without turning towards her, his voice calm once again. “That was a very poor showing.”

“I apologize, father,” Kara bowed her head, her face flushed with shame.

“First, you’re going to retake a class on experimentation safety,” He said while opening a holographic display and changing her current schedule. “After that, you’ll be improving that device until it’s no longer such a disappointment. Not only did you not use any flammable glasses, you didn’t calculate the best way for the device to explode, introducing a point of failure in the device can allow you to guide the direction of its explosion, you also didn't make it as damaging as possible, resulting in most sunstone shards being either too small to cause maximum damage, or not sharp enough. A waste of resources.”

With access to the advanced laboratory and a new teaching program, Kara progressed extremely fast. Only a month later, she had her father watch her new device explode.

With sharp spikes all over one of its sides, she had introduced a small failure on the device, causing it to direct the explosion away from her and send entire spikes of crystals towards her targets. Introducing the best possible incendiary gasses into the hollow of the bomb also made it far more powerful.

Zor-El watched the new test from a balcony, his hands behind his back. Seeing the destruction, he didn’t smile, but he also didn’t frown again, or show any other signs of displeasure, he just turned around and walked away, allowing Kara to take it as a win.

After the scare on her birthday, her mother decided to spend more time with her. Despite being from the science guild, it was important for all Kryptonians to keep fit and healthy, so Kara started jogging with her mother.

They ran for an hour every day, with Alura running laps around Kara. Still, Kara loved how much time she had with her mother, enjoying their runs as much as she could.

Eventually, she grew up, her body developing quickly until she could almost keep up with the older woman. The devices she produced also grew more complex, going from simple bombs into all kinds of devices.

When she was nine, Kara got interested in some of the Military guild’s martial arts. While it wasn’t the focus of the El house, there was no Kryptonian law preventing her from entering another guild, much less just learning some martial arts.

So, after her run with her mother, Kara spent another two hours learning Klurkor from one of their training robots. The martial art focused on kicking, striking and defensive blocking using her limbs. Kara enjoyed the competition, and the physical exhaustion from the training was very relaxing.

Really, the first time she defeated the training robot was so satisfying. The robot was even programmed to die dramatically when defeated, causing her to giggle a little as she remembered it.

Kara spent nearly six months training before her father noticed it.

Kara felt the grass under her feet, the wind picking up speed and causing her hair to fly into her face. In that instant, her enemy attacked, a simple straight punch aimed at her head.

Stepping into the blow, she deflected the attack and countered with a punch towards the robot’s chest, causing it to stumble back. Taking advantage of that, she followed up with a kick then tried to swipe its legs from under it.

The robot simply lifted his leg and retreated before delivering a front kick to her chest that almost hit her, but the ground under him shook, causing the robot to lose his footing. Kara almost fell, but she recovered first and took advantage of the situation to grab the overextended limb and deliver an elbow strike to the joint, causing the spar to stop.

Suddenly, the trees around her disappeared along with the rest of the clearing, revealing a white, empty room. Above her, Kara saw her father standing watch from a balcony, his arms crossed behind his back as always, but a deep frown on his face.

Without a word, he shook his head in displeasure and left, causing Kara’s cheer to drop immediately. With an order to her accompanying drone, she deactivated the robot and tried to run after him, but Zor-El had already left the house, going back to his work.

The next day, she asked Alura about it while they ran. “Mother, why did father disapprove of my training? I thought that I was encouraged to keep my body in peak condition? Does he think I want to enter the Military guild?”

“Kara, your father is a very… efficient man. He just fears that you won’t achieve your peak if you lose your focus,” Her mother told her, giving Kara one of her rare smiles. “You’re our pride, both of us only wish for you to reach all of your potential.”

“I understand,” Kara nodded, refocusing on their run and on improving her time.

From that day on, Kara no longer used the training robot. Instead, she redoubled her studies, starting to specialize in sunstone programming and adapting other materials into sunstone devices to make them better.

Some devices needed more than just sunstone to be viable, sometimes, she needed to use small amounts of Kryptium for its increased resistance and toughness, others, she needed materials with better flexibility or even less solar conductivity.

Studying physics and the properties of the materials she used took most of her free time and, very often, her devices required such precise calculations that she needed to spend weeks on them to achieve results.

Still, when she was twelve, her father ordered her to meet him in his study. Kara walked inside and saw him wearing his formal clothes, as well as his house El official crest.

Knowing that he was not acting as her father, but as the second in command of the El house, Kara bowed deeply to show her respect.

“Daughter, you’re now entering puberty, it's time for you to start learning your place in our house,” Zor-El said. With a command from his neural link, he caused a crystalline chair to rise out of the floor and ordered Kara to sit. “As my daughter, you have been chosen to inherit my position in the house, your job will be to help teach your cousin once he’s born, guide him as he grows into his position and support him once he inherits my brother’s position.”

“My cousin?” Kara couldn’t help but ask.

Zor-El simply nodded, activating a display of another man, one slightly older than him. “This is my brother, Jor-El, the current head of our house. From today on, you’ll be following me to work with him, watch, pay attention and learn.”

“Yes father,” Kara bowed again, accepting her new place, but her heart was beating fast on her chest.

She couldn’t wait to help out, to follow her father and learn from him. Until now, she had only been playing with his tools, but never really seeing his true projects. Yes, she had created many devices, but most of them had been focused on destroying things, and everything she had created could be replicated by the Military guild either more effectively or cheaper.

The next day, Kara put on her own armor, completely sealed with a helmet that fully protected her from the harsh atmosphere of Krypton itself. The equipment wouldn’t be necessary in Argo City, but she’d be traveling with her father to Kandor.

Following her father, Kara walked with her arms crossed behind her back, her posture straight as she stepped on the teleportation device, appearing on Kandor a second later.

With large steps, she did her best to not fall behind as his subordinates bowed towards him, showing the respect deserved for the second in command of the El house. Kara’s chest swelled with pride until they arrived at the main laboratory.

Jor-El looked just like her father, only slightly older. Her uncle’s face opened into a smile at their presence and he stepped away from the computers. “Brother, so you have finally decided to present my niece?”

“Patriarch, this is my daughter, Kara Zor-El.”

Following her father’s example, Kara took off her helmet and bowed towards her uncle. “Patriarch. It is an honor to meet you.”

Jor-El looked at his brother with an amused smile on his face, but Zor-El's look didn’t change, leaving the older brother feeling awkward for a second before shaking his head. “Well, it’s nice to have you here Kara. I hope you enjoy the work.”

“I will,” Kara nodded, her face impassive.

From that day on Kara started following after her father, learning everything he did and how best to help him. As Jor-El’s second in command, Zor-El spent a good part of his time trouble shooting some of his brother’s more exotic projects while also helping guide the direction of the Science guild as a whole.

When Kara finally reached thirteen, she started getting some projects of her own. While she didn’t have the necessary knowledge to develop new technologies, she had a talent for finding faults on prototypes.

Standing behind a guard railing, Kara increased the parameters for the newest dimensional projector, simulating a last minute addition of a second target to the device. Unable to calculate the destination in time, the device tried to increase the energy to compensate for it, overloading the delicate sunstone structure.

A suction force caused Kara’s feet to slide towards the guard railings, but the magnetic locks on her armor activated, securing her in place, then the security glass snapped shut just before the device exploded, sending a shockwave that would have probably sent her flying had it not been for the glass.

Carefully watching the place where the device had been, Kara made sure that nothing had come through the dimensional breach. Seeing no warnings on her monitor, she left some annotations on the prototype’s page and turned away, a huge smile on her face.

Kara knew that she shouldn’t be so happy to find yet more faults on some of the Science guild’s projects, but it was always so satisfying when she managed to cause a catastrophic failure.

And really, if the scientists didn’t want their devices exploding, they shouldn’t propose faulty prototypes. With years of study over her, they really should have known better.

“Ah, was that really necessary Kara?” Jor-El said from behind her, almost causing Kara to jump out of her skin.

Turning around, Kara looked at her uncle without knowing what to say for a full five seconds. “Ah, I-I… no, Patriarch,” she finally said, her face flushing with shame. “I-I only wanted to demonstrate how dangerous a faulty project could be.”

“I see. Well, at least there was no damage, this time,” Jor-El commented, a mental command caused the testing chamber to be isolated and her own terminal to be locked as her uncle motioned for her to follow him. “Come Kara, I wish to speak with you.”

Still feeling embarrassed, Kara followed behind her uncle without another word until they teleported back to his own house. Finally, Kara managed to lift her eyes towards her uncle, just as she was about to ask him what this was about, a giant beast ran out from inside the house.

It was large, white and walked on all fours, rushing at them with intimidating speed and making a lot of noise. Kara almost screamed, but she managed to resist the urge using the discipline taught to her by her father.

Instead, she only cursed the fact that she didn’t have her own neural interface while pulling out her personal computer, commanding her private drone to activate a protection shield. With dread, she realized too late that her uncle hadn’t done the same. “Watch out!”

In disbelief, Kara watched the beast release a mighty noise and pounce on her uncle, aiming straight for his unprotected face in a show of canny, predatory guile.

“Hello, Krypto.” Her uncle said while, under Kara’s disbelieving eyes, the beast started to… lick him?

Jor-El didn't tolerate the licking for long, quickly showing displeasure at the creature's actions and causing its ears to drop.

Somehow, the scene caused her to feel a bout of nostalgia. Slowly getting back to her feet, Kara deactivated her shield and, pretending that nothing had happened, asked. “Patriarch, what IS that?”

“This is called a dog,” using a hand, Jor-El pushed the dog away from his chest, the creature fell back on all fours and finally noticed Kara, sniffing at her and slowly circling her. “I decided to recreate one after I saw the way our family interacted.”

“I see,” Kara said, her hand slowly touching the creature’s head with an odd feeling of longing on her chest. “Can I ask, why?”

“Kara, do you know what the house El crest stands for?”

“Hope, Patriarch,” Kara answered immediately, the meaning having been cemented on her mind long ago.

“Yes, hope, an optimistic view or state of mind based on an expectation of a positive outcome,” Jor-El explained, leading her inside his home. “We used to have hope in our fellow Kryptonians. Hope in the future of our planet. Hope that things will be better, brighter. Yet our family has been losing that ability for generations now, we grow distant, we grow… aloof. We have let confidence substitute for hope, never attempting anything greater or new so that we may never fail, and that confidence has grown into arrogance, blind arrogance.”

“And the dog helps… how?” Kara asked while doing her best to avoid getting a tongue bath from the dog, the creature was actually larger than her, and about just as strong.

“Krypto, you, Lara, I’m choosing to hope Kara, to hope in our future,” Standing in a balcony on his house overlooking the city of Kandor, her uncle snapped his fingers, causing the dog to finally leave her alone. With a serious look on his face, he shook his head, his hands squeezed into fists, but he had a confident glint on his eye. “We need hope, now more than ever…”

At his side, Kara watched as her uncle trailed off, his eyes looking over Kandor. She would have liked to say his eyes were filled with hope, but she couldn’t help thinking it looked exactly like the arrogance he so disliked. As if he still had everything under his control.

"No matter. Come, Lara is very eager to finally meet you."

That day, Kara spent quite a few hours meeting her uncle's family, and even learned to play fetch with Krypto, laughing out loud for the first time as the dog chased the ball.

From then on Kara had a new routine, spending time with her uncle at least once a month, and even wasting hours playing and socializing with Krypto.

Unfortunately, her father didn't seem to approve of it, although he never says anything about it.

It was when she was a little over fourteen that her family had its first fight, her classes had been canceled that day, and Zor-El had even kept her from following him to Kandor for a week.

Kara was trying to find a weakness on a new drone model when she heard them.

"Zor-El, stop!" Alura actually shouted, but Kara's father didn't hear her, actually causing an explosion inside their home, and destroying the outer wall. "What are you doing!?"

"What am I doing? What's he doing?! Dru-Zod is our friend; our houses have been allied for generations!" Zor-El screamed, his voice filled with frustration and anger like Kara had never heard before.

"Zor-El!" Alura shouted, trying to calm her husband down, only for Zor-El to release another blast from his weapon, destroying another piece of the courtyard.

"All our preparations, all our research and all our history… thrown away like dirt!" Finally managing to calm down, Zor-El took a few deep breaths and turned off the weapon on his personal drone. Gritting his teeth, Kara's father almost spit out with disgust. "Jor-El threw away our best chance and all he can tell me is to have hope!"

"What are you going to do?" Alura asked, finally approaching her husband and holding on to his arm in an almost gentle manner. "You have to stop him. It's our only chance."

Watching from a hidden camera on the ceiling, Kara held her breath as her father stared at the hand holding his arm, then towards her mother with a mixture of disbelief and disgust.

Yanking his arm away from her, he threw his own communicator into the wall and shouted again, releasing his frustration before calming down.

Combing his hair back in place with a hand, Zor-El righted himself. "I will do nothing. Irrational as he may be, Jor-El is our Patriarch and I. Am. Not. A. Traitor."

"So you'll just… watch?" Her mother asked, her voice filled with disbelief.

"Yes! What do you-" Suddenly, Zor-El's neural transmitter gave him a warning, causing him to look up and directly at Kara's hidden drone.

With a startle, Kara disconnected with it immediately and ordered it to self-destruct. Too late, she gasped as she realized how that gave her presence away.

Most Kryptonians didn't even see the need for a self-destruction in a drone, those who did -mostly members of the Science guild- did so quietly, just frying the drone's circuitry.

Unfortunately, Kara enjoyed causing things to explode in new and interesting ways.

Running to her bedroom, she pretended to be sleeping. Kara didn’t think her father believed it, but he didn’t say anything when he came to check up on her.

The next day, Zor-El was waiting for her in the living room, sitting on a crystalline chair; he wasn’t wearing his usual armor, but just his black robes. Feeling anxious, Kara stopped in front of him and the silence stretched between them for a minute or two.

Finally, her father spoke, his voice not betraying a hint of his own feelings. “Daughter, I believe it’s time to modify your training.”

“Father, did I do anything wrong?” Kara asked, afraid of being punished for peeking at their discussion earlier.

“No, instead, you’re quite advanced in your studies, and your help identifying points of failure has been… surprisingly useful for your level of education,” Zor-El recognized, tapping a finger against the arm of his chair. “However, destroying things is far easier than building them, and far less useful. It’s time you start learning how to do the latter.”

“I understand.”

“I doubt that you do,” Zor-El said, sending an information package to her personal computer. “Tomorrow, you’ll start studying the information inside; I want a working prototype in a year.”

Over the next months, Kara worked tirelessly to understand all the principles behind her father’s data. It was a blueprint for an imperial age Hyper-drive as well as all the necessary information to update it with modern day Kryptonian tech… or at least Kara thought it was.

With the Religious guild mandate not to leave the system, it wasn’t like there was a lot of information about such things, or that any other scientist had interest in developing such an area of study.

It meant that Kara didn't have a point of reference and, even if she made mistakes, it was not like the device would ever be used anyway.

Still, Kara believed it was a test, one that she was determined to pass no matter what. Without any information to be found on the network, Kara had to develop everything herself, and even program the crystals from scratch.

Over the months, Kara didn’t build one prototype, but three, each one a drastic improvement over the other. Working on the devices, she learned far more than she thought possible.

She also discovered how to accelerate a piece of a piece of crystal to ludicrous speeds towards a target, but she had only done it once -even if it had been incredibly cool- and she hadn’t hit anything important in Argo City… she hoped.

When she was finally satisfied with her creation, Kara presented the already built hyper-drive to her father.

Zor-El spent an hour reading all her notes, testing the device and then spent another three hours telling her everything she had done wrong.

From using far too much Kryptium, causing the device to have no flexibility, to messing up its programming, causing a catastrophic failure that could have altered relative time experienced by the device in any number of ways.

Standing there, his arms behind his back, her father scraped most of her project, but he wasn't frowning.

Kara wanted to laugh out loud, he wasn't actually frowning!

When she was fifteen, she managed to present a prototype that her father accepted and he allowed her back into Kandor.

Still, with her device built, Kara couldn't help but want to see it in action, and even her uncle actually encouraged her, finding her passion for the project amusing.

She nearly had a heart attack when a member of the religious guild started asking about it but, after an afternoon explaining that she was the one responsible, and that she had no interest in actually using the device herself. The priest seemed content that it was just a training exercise.

Any Kryptonian actually building a ship capable of inter-system travel would violate Rao's edict, but she was simply using an abandoned field of study for training, and never really had any intention of creating a final product.

Well, Kara guessed that one of her prototypes could be mounted on a tiny, individual vessel, but escalating it to work on even the smallest ships of the Military guild would still take years of troubleshooting, and she had no intention of doing that.

In fact, since she had passed her father's test and managed to create it to his satisfaction, she planned on mounting the prototypes into flying cars and aiming them at asteroids on the Rao system.

Small, unimportant ones, so they wouldn't be missed if she actually hit them.

Still, Kara’s home wasn’t any better, her father spent more and more time at work and even her mother stopped having time to run with her. Kara herself started spending more time with her own projects, and helping her aunt.

For some inane reason Kara couldn’t fathom, Lara Lor-Van had decided to carry her new cousin to term without the use of a birthing matrix, and her uncle had agreed to it.

Her aunt’s situation was such that both she and Jor-El had to take a break from their duties last month, causing Kara’s father to become even more frustrated. Still, when Kara heard that Kal-El was finally born, she couldn’t help becoming excited.

Despite that, it wasn’t until her sixteen birthday that she met him, standing over the small, fragile, helpless body; Kara poked its chubby arms with a finger in confusion. “What… is this?”

“He is your cousin, the new head of house El,” Jor-El answered with pride in his voice.

“But he’s so… helpless. How’s he gonna change clothes or eat?” She whispered. Well, she knew how, in theory, but she just couldn’t understand why they didn’t use the Birthing Matrix, it was so much better and more efficient.

Lifting the baby into her arm, Lara smiled down at him and handed him over into Kara’s arms. Wide eyed, she tried to avoid the small creature, but it was useless.

Stiff as a crystal, Kara stared at her little cousin and was assaulted with a sudden bout of nostalgia, as if she was missing something, but she had no idea what. Poking his cheek with a finger again, she watched him giggle and try to grab her offending digit.

“Isn’t he perfect?” Jor-El asked, looking down at the both of them together.

“I… wouldn’t say that,” Kara answered honestly, thinking about how the baby didn’t even have the strength to support its own head. “More like, fragile.”

“Well, that too,” Her uncle said and caressed his son’s head in a rare show of affection, then took him off her arms. Looking at them, Kara couldn’t help feeling envious of the little thing. “Kara, as his elder, it will be your job to help guide and teach him.”

“I- what? But you…”

“I am a busy man, and I may not always be there for him,” turning towards her, Jor-El stared at her eyes with unexpected seriousness. “I will be counting on you to watch over him and make sure he is ready when the time comes.”

Feeling conflicted; Kara spent the rest of the day in a daze, watching the rest of the El house pay respect to the new heir, even if most of them agreed with her about the use of the birthing matrix.

She did wonder where Krypto had gone but, with how vulnerable Kal-El seemed, her uncle had probably terminated the creature lest it endanger him. Her heart hurt at the notion, and she really wished he had offered the dog to her, even if she knew her father wouldn’t approve of it.

Going back to Argo City, she was preparing to go to sleep, but she still heard Zor-El’ frustrated yelling as he lost his temper again, not wanting to attract his attention, Kara increased her speed towards her home, Zor-El’s anger was such that Kara swore she could feel the entire house shaking at his anger.

The next days were hard, her father seemed to be spending more and more time away from his work at the Science guild, but he wouldn’t leave his own laboratory, to the point that Kara actually saw him even less than before.

On her travels to Kandor, Kara started to notice she was getting strange looks from the scientists there, and she was no longer allowed to work on some of their simple projects, even when she was perfectly qualified to do it.

Worst, Kara started to notice small earthquakes happening in both cities. Earthquakes weren’t unknown in Krypton, but they only happened once every year or two, and only in one city at a time. Now they were almost a monthly occurrence, and Kara couldn’t find any reason for it, be it on the common network or at the Science guild.

Everything together started to create an oppressive atmosphere, as if it was all building up for something, the looks, the shaking, the lack of support from her family… For the first time in her life, Kara had no idea what to do.

Finally, five months later, Kara was called to have lunch with her family. Deep inside, she hoped that it was the start of a change, that her family would get back in order.

Sitting at the table with both her parents, they actually ate in silence. A small quake caused Kara to spill some of her water, but her father didn’t even react to it, continuing to eat as if it was nothing important.

That was probably when Kara realized things wouldn’t be getting better, her father would never have ignored such things. Feeling some dread, Kara finished her lunch and put down the cutlery. “Father, what’s wrong?”

“This is farewell, Kara,” Zor-El said, lowering his own hands and cleaning his face with a napkin. Trading a short look with Alura, Kara’s father squeezed his wife’s hand in a show of affection.

“What do you mean?”

“Twelve years ago, your uncle noticed an anomaly on Krypton’s core, further study indicated that our planet’s core was critically unstable and in danger of imminent failure. Unfortunately, when he brought the information to the High Council, no other scientist was able to independently verify it,” releasing Alura’s hand, Zor-El put both elbows against the table and steepled his fingers as he explained. “Jor-El had long spoken against some of our customs, and he was a known advocate of re-starting diplomatic relationships with other systems. His warning was taken as a power play and greatly suppressed.”

Barely able to understand her father’s words, Kara felt another quake shaking her chair, distracted, she took the time to push her cutlery back into place and just continued to listen.

“As the second in command of the El house, I supported my brother, but others saw the chance to diminish our influence at the Science guild. Once the High Council had made up its mind, they continued to refuse to see reason no matter what kind of proof was presented, confident in their own reasoning no matter what was said,” Taking a second to drink some more water, Kara’s father pushed his chair back and looked out at Argo City. “Despite how dire the situation was, the question became a political and religious discussion, and Dru-Zod’s attempted coup did not help our cause.

“For some reason, my brother still hoped to change the Council’s mind, so he did not support Dru-Zod, letting him get sentenced to the phantom zone, but also eliminating any chance of solving the issue,” Shaking his head, Zor-El actually took off his neural control, laying it on the table and taking a deep breath. “My brother’s insistence on hoping for a better outcome was almost as ridiculous as the Council’s refusal to see the truth but, at that point, attempting to depose him as the head of our house would only destroy us faster.”

“Were…” Kara swallowed hard, looking at her parent’s resigned faces with despair. “Were you able to find a solution?”

“No, not for Krypton.” Zor-El answered with a cold voice. “For you and Kal-El, yes.”

“The hyper-drives,” Kara whispered, realizing what her father seemed to be implying. “But… Why leave it to me?”

“Succeeding was never the goal, your prototypes were surprisingly effective, but both I and Jor-El still had to improve their designs before they were actually usable,” Her father didn’t explain further, allowing Kara to think things through.

“You only wanted the materials… and maybe the blueprints too.” She said, feeling her hands close into fists at the realization.

“Indeed,” Zor-El nodded, a rare glint of approval on his eye. “While the High Council and the Religious guild were keeping a very close watch on any of my or your uncle’s projects, our family still had enough influence to muddle your own actions, especially when they did their best to keep any information from spreading, such that even their own informants didn’t know exactly why our house was under watch. You have not even completed your education, how important could a simple learning exercise be?

“Jor-El managed to send that beast of his as a test pilot for a first ship, the hyper-drive caused a temporal distortion that we had to make adjustments for, but we used the information gathered to finish two ships in time.”

Another small quake interrupted their talks, and Kara let the silence stretch between them, her mind completely unable to process everything she had just heard. Finally, Zor-El put the neural transmitter back into his forehead and announced. “Kal-El’s ship has just departed, it’s time.”

Together, her parents got up and started walking towards the courtyard. Unable to help herself, Kara walked at her mother’s side, holding on to her hand for support. “Why didn’t you tell me? Why lie and manipulate me like that?”

Without stopping, Zor-El glanced towards her briefly before answering. “Would it have changed anything? There was nothing you could do. I simply chose to spare you the worry, and I never lied, building the hyper-drive prototype was an incredibly valuable exercise. That is why it never gathered any suspicion from the guild.”

Stepping out of the house, Kara saw the crystals on the courtyard folding up, revealing a platform with a single person ship as it was lifted into open air. “What now?”

“Now you’ll leave, I have installed a suspended animation chamber and, once you arrive at sector 2814, both it and the hyper-drive will deactivate, allowing you to pilot the ship and giving you enough time to study the system. The ship’s computer should have all the information you need,” Zor-El said. Looking out at the city, he actually had to brace himself as another earthquake hit them, one far more powerful than before.

Kara actually saw one of the crystal towers on Argo cracking under stress, staring at the falling in both fascination and horror.

“Hmm, the core was predicted to remain stable for another three days,” Her father wondered out loud. “Quickly, you were supposed to leave two months ago, but the Council vastly increased the surveillance after Jor-El’s test and I had to make way for a better stealth system on the ship.”

Kara felt her mother embracing her, squeezing her body against her chest as hard as she could. For the first time in her life, she felt tears running down her cheeks and soaking into her mother’s robes. “Kara, I want you to know I love you, you make me proud to be your mother, don’t let your cousin dictate your life.”

Cleaning her face with her sleeves, Kara hugged her father, squeezing her face against his chest with all her strength. Awkwardly Zor-El squeezed back, before lifting her inside the chamber on the ship.

“Kara Zor-El, you and your cousin are now the last hope of our house, and maybe of our entire race, the crest on you have on your chest is now more important than ever in our history,” Zor-El stepped away from the ship, standing beside his wife and holding her hand on his own. Slowly, the glass covered her face, but she could still hear his voice. “But don’t make the same mistake as your uncle. Remember, hope without substance, without the will, the power and the wisdom to see it through is less than nothing. Don’t let an empty hope blind you to reality and guide your cousin well. I know you’ll make me proud.”

Kara Zor-El’s last sight on Krypton was the same as the first one, her parents standing behind a glass wall, their backs straight as they faced the future, or lack thereof, with perfect composure. Closing her eyes, she felt the ship’s engines igniting, taking her away from the planet and gaining speed.

Still, the ship had to gain enough distance from the Rao’s gravity well before activating the hyper-drive without suffering too much disturbance from the large star and that took time.

Kara felt her eyelids growing heavier and heavier as the chamber started putting her into suspended animation, she closed her eyes and trusted her father’s programming to bring her away.

Chapter Text

Danette fidgeted on her seat, her face going through a myriad of expressions as the taxi inexorably drove towards Jay Garrick's home. Her body language grew more anxious the closer they came to their destination.

For a while now, Kara, who sat next to the human-shaped ball of nerves, had wanted to help the woman, she just… didn't know how.

Really, being raised on Krypton hadn’t exactly prepared her to deal with her own emotions, much less those of someone else, and her previous life's memories, distant as they were, didn't really help in this particular situation.

Rao, how she wished Kori was here with them. Feeling really uncomfortable, Kara thought about what the princess would do and hesitantly put a hand on top of the gynoid's, squeezing it to give comfort.

It seems to have worked because Danette squeezed back. Kara released a breath of relief.

"Thanks," the brunette said with an amused smile. "Gosh, you're really bad at this aren't you?"

"I… don't exactly have much experience acting as emotional support, no," Kara actually thought about it and sighed. "It's usually the other way around, really."

"What do you think he's gonna do?" Danette asked, trying to get over her nervousness.

"Probably invite us in and try to figure things out," Kara shrugged. "Don't worry. Coming back from the dead isn't as surprising as it used to be."

Taking a second to check her phone, Kara commemorated with a discrete fist pump at her side when the scouting drone she’d sent ahead registered Garrick inside his house at the moment.

The truth was, even without getting involved with superhero work, with The Light, or anything to do with her company, Kara had kept herself so busy with work that she had forgotten about her promise to Danette until an hour before their meeting.

As a result, she hadn't actually asked anyone about Garrick's address, finding it on the internet via her search bots crawling the dark web instead, which meant she wasn't sure he'd even be home.

Still, retired or not, he was still a Flash, it wasn't like he couldn't get home in a few minutes from anywhere in the city, or the state for that matter, and Kara had already seen that his wife was home.

Finally, the taxi stopped in front of a modest-as-they-come house with an honest to goodness white picket fence. Kara paid the cabbie before stepping out into the suburban street with Danette.

The woman stared at the house for a second and then seemed to shake herself, regaining her confidence.

Together, they walked up to the house and Kara let Danette press the doorbell, giving her hand one last squeeze before the door opened, revealing an older man. He still had mostly brown hair and was remarkably well built. “Hello, can I help you two?”

“Hello Jay, long time no see,” Danette said, smiling at the man.

“I’m sorry, I…” Garrick started to say, then leaned forward and looked at Danette closer. Kara saw his muscles tensing, his arms getting ready to punch out and his legs getting ready to run inside as he recognized her, but didn’t act. “Miss Reilly, I… well, long time no see,” using super-speed, he quickly glanced inside the house before stepping further out of the door. “You’ll understand if I don’t invite you in immediately.”

“I- yes, I guess it is suspicious to just… show up like this,” Danette tucked a strand of hair behind her ear with one hand while the other squeezed tightly into a fist, small flames forming around it for a second before she dispersed it. “I’m told this kind of thing isn’t odd nowadays, but I can hardly believe it.”

“Joan! I’ll be out in the yard for a few minutes, can you prepare some tea?” Jay yelled inside the house before stepping out, closing the door behind him and turning back to them. “Yes, in our generation, death tended to stick, but nowadays, kids keep coming back for some reason. I mean, I’m glad for it, but it’s still very odd.”

“Sorry for coming without calling ahead, I didn’t think Danette wanted to reveal herself yet,” Kara said, with her increased hearing, she couldn’t help hearing Joan calling the Flash from inside the house and flinched. Guess she should have expected that after just showing up out of the blue. “Ah, can you… not call the Flash yet?”

Jay narrowed his eyes at her, his body still tense. “And how do you know that, Miss?”

“Nevermind, it’s kind of too late now. Anyway, my cousin should have talked about me, but I guess you wouldn’t recognize me. Kara Zor-El, nice to meet you,” Kara extended a hand, which Jay didn’t take, but he did relax a little.

“Hmm, sorry for being rude, but I prefer not to be literally in someone’s grasp until I know for sure what’s happening,” Shaking his head, the older man motioned for a bench on the porch. “I mean, God, am I glad to meet you Firebrand, but it IS a little hard to believe out of the blue.”

“I understand,” Danette gave a bitter smile and sat down. “You’re looking good Jay.”

The man snorted, lifting an eyebrow as he leaned against a support beam. “Me? I’m an old man now, you on the other hand... What’s going on Reilly? Time travel? Alternate version?”

“Good grief, it’s so odd that those are common enough now that they’re the first thing you think about,” Danette shook her head, but had to concede that the truth was just as odd. “I guess you can say it’s a case of robot infiltrator.”

“Ah, those. Always a classic,” Jay nodded in understanding. “So, do you have all her memories or…”

“Jay, I have always been a robot,” Danette sighed at his misunderstanding. “I guess you could technically call me Red Inferno, Red Tornado is my younger brother.”

Suddenly, Kara saw the red blur running up the street towards them, the current Flash was far faster than her, but the speed he was moving wasn’t completely beyond her.

Moving fast, Kara got up from her sitting position and stood in front of Danette, just in case The Flash decided to act in haste. She couldn’t help but smile when she saw both generations widen their eyes at her speed and immediately become wary, even if they were still faster than her.

Sliding to a stop in front of the house, The Flash looked towards the three of them and lifted an eyebrow. “Everything alright here old man?”

“It seems so, thanks for the backup,” Jay said and motioned for the red costumed man to approach them. “Come on, let me introduce you. This is Danette Reilly, she took a bullet for me back in ‘45.”

Flash’s eyes took the both of them in as he approached. “Well, nice to meet you. I have to say, you’re looking incredibly good for a 70 year old, are you aging in reverse?”

“Flash, do I have to remind you, you have a wife?” Jay joked, causing the Flash to lift his hands in denial.

“What? No, it’s a genuine question! Come on, I knew a guy who did that for a while!” He complained, causing Danette to actually laugh and relax a little.

Shaking his head, Jay refocused. “So, how exactly did this happen?”

“I was investigating Professor Morrow for reasons I won’t go into for now, but ultimately I got suspicious about her,” Kara lied, but the story was close enough to the truth it wouldn’t really matter all that much. “Her grave wasn’t exactly a secret, so I just flew over it and, when I saw the body hadn’t deteriorated at all I had a pretty good guess as to what was going on. Basically, I retrieved and reactivated her. It’s been weeks now, but I didn’t want to mention her to anybody until she could decide things herself.”

Jay and Flash traded a glance and Kara saw The Flash give the older man a small nod. “Well, sorry for being so careful before. I’m really glad to see you again Danny,” Extending a hand, Jay pulled Danette into a hug causing the woman to blush and, slowly, squeeze him back. “Come on inside, Joan had always wanted to meet you.”

Running to the porch, The Flash stopped at Kara’s side and smiled. “So, you’re Big Blue’s cousin huh? Nice to meet you… Say, any embarrassing stories about the big guy?”

Kara thought about it, she did have some baby photos the Fortress had been able to recover from her ship’s computers, and there were the naughty librarian hologram photos she had managed to get from his disguise device. She smiled, “I may have some.”

Entering the house, Kara saw an older woman hugging Danette tightly. “Thank you, thank you for saving my Jay.”

Not knowing what to do, Danette gave Kara a pleading look and the Kryptonian decided to interfere before the woman’s programming crashed from embarrassment. One would think that, having been a hero, Danette would have gotten used to people thanking her.

“Ah, didn’t you say there was coffee?” She asked, looking around the modest home.

“Ah, yes, sorry about that,” Joan finally released the younger woman and smiled. “I wasn’t really sure there wouldn’t be a fight in the yard, so I didn’t prepare the table, but I did make some coffee and tea if you want?”

Walking ahead of them, Flash quickly squeezed the woman’s shoulder and smiled. “Don’t worry about that, I got it.”

Kara almost offered to help too but, really, being a second or two faster wouldn't make that much of a difference.

A blue of red later and Flash was in the kitchen and, before everyone had even made it into the living room, the table was set and Flash was on the phone. "Sorry, just making sure nobody raised the alarm on the League," releasing his phone on the table, here sat down and smiled.

Pouring herself some coffee, Kara grabbed a tea biscuit while Jay helped his wife sit down. Usually, she wouldn't be eating but, since her eye had started healing, Kara had gotten a better appetite.

"So, what's this about you being Tornado's sister?" Jay finally asked and they started talking.

The rest of the morning was spent comfortably. With Jay there, Danette quickly started getting out of her shell, showing that she was actually a very headstrong woman, and a little short tempered.

Kara enjoyed hearing about the All Stars Squadron and the JSA as Jay told the gynoid about her former teammates, speaking about their adventurers and their current situation.

Flash didn't stay with them for long but Kara noticed a bug left under the table just in case after he had said goodbye to continue patrolling his city. She could have disabled the device, but they weren't really talking about anything dangerous, at least not for her.

The only secrets discussed were those of the JSA and, since it was the Flash hearing them, Kara didn't see the problem.

Eventually, the coffee grew cold, but Kara just blasted it with a controlled ray of heat vision and continued drinking.

As Danette and Jay retreated to the sofa and started going over old pictures of the JSA, Joan got up to take the plates off the table.

"Here, let me," Kara pushed herself up and gathered everything before taking it to the kitchen. "I'm not as effective as a Flash since I can't ignore air resistance, but I can wash a few plates."

Since the Flashes and her speed worked fundamentally different, Kara had to move much slower to avoid sending things flying around her, but she still managed to finish things in less than a minute.

"Thank you Miss Zor-El, and thank you for being here," the older woman said and it was Kara's turn to be embarrassed. "You don't know how much this means to us."

"It's nothing. In truth, I kinda felt responsible for Danette," driving her hands on a napkin, Kara looked towards the two old friends. "Hopefully, she'll start getting back to normal. Finding out she was a robot wasn't something she was ready for, not to mention being dead for half a century."

"You know, I always trusted him, but I was a little jealous of their time together in the JSA," Joan sighed and finished adjusting the cover on the table. "Made me feel terrible when she died saving him, especially since the first thing I could think about was 'thank God she did it.'"

They shared a short moment of quiet until Kara finally asked. "How did you do it? How did you keep loving him even when he risked his life every day like that for decades?"

"It wasn't easy I'll tell you," Joan looked at Jay in the other room with a fond smile. "Really, I'm a selfish woman. There wasn't a single time he was risking his life that I didn't wish he was home with me, but I love him and that’s who he is. How could I not do it?"

Kara looked at the smiling older woman and thought about Kal, Kon… Kori. "That easy huh? You just couldn't not do it?"

"Oh, God no," the old woman gave her an amused smirk while shaking her head. "Staying with Jay was probably the hardest thing I ever experienced in my life, and we fought, we fought like cats and dogs sometimes but, in the end, I always thought it was worth it."

From the other room, Danette and Jay burst into laughter as they looked at a picture of Wildcat tied up and hanging from the top of a building by the Lasso of Truth. Wonder Woman watching him with her arms on her waist.

"Anyways, is there anything we can do to thank you?"

"No, I...” suddenly, Kara paused and thought about the offer, getting a wicked smirk on her face.

Kori loved to talk about the Titans whenever they were together, from how they were training to how much they were improving every day, but there was one problem she still hasn't been able to solve, and it pissed Kara right off when he did it to her… girlfriend.

So, it seems like it was time to play dirty, to use the nuclear option, Kara was going to tattle. "Say, have you heard what Kid Flash has been calling M'gann and Koriand'r?"

After another hour of chatting, both Danette and Kara left the Garrick house satisfied. Danette was acting far happier than before and had even dropped the hesitation in her steps.

"So, you used to have a crush on him, huh."

Danette stumbled, her face flushing as she glared at Kara. "Jay was a friend, a dear friend and nothing more."

"Riiight," Kara smirked at her companion with a knowing look. "Don't worry. I can see he used to be very handsome, there's nothing to be ashamed of."

"Fuck you," Danette pouted, cursing for the first time since they had met, but also having the first genuine smile of happiness.

"I'm glad you're finally getting your life in order."

"Yeah, Jay promised to get the old group together later this month," she confessed. "I think I'm gonna be meeting Red Tornado after that. It should give me enough time to think about your invitation."

"Don't worry about it. I would love to have you on the team, but I don't want to pressure you Danette."

"Call me Danny," the gynoid gave Kara a hug as another taxi approached to drive her away. "I'm glad you came with me, Kara."

"I see," Kara eyed her and decided to try. "So… would you be opposed to letting me install a second Morrow elemental core as thanks?"

"What?"

"Well, I wasn’t gonna ask with you feeling down, but you seem to be better, and I think I figured out how to make a copy of Mister Twister’s wind generator. It not as strong as Red Tornado’s but, with some training, you could definitely improve your flames if you can feed them oxygen."

“Kara…”

“What? Even if you don’t want to be a hero, it can only make you safer,” Kara lifted both eyebrows at her friend. “Come on, more firepower is always the right choice! Get it? You’d even be able to fly.”

“… That was terrible, it was terrible and you should be ashamed, but fine, I guess I’m not doing anything tomorrow,” Danny sighed, but that didn’t fool Kara, she had gotten her with the flight offer.

“Great,” checking the clock on her phone, Kara waved Danny goodbye and left for her own compromise.

Using the nearest Zeta-Tube, Kara appeared inside Mount Justice. Her own security took a second to make sure she was allowed here before deactivating, finally showing her the real room and causing the turrets to retreat back into the walls.

With a hiss, the lock she had installed on the Zeta-Tube opened and let her into the cavernous ‘foyer’ of the base. A second of concentration and Kara heard the Titans training in the main room.

“Muahahahahahahaahah! I laugh at your pain! Ending your existence is most amusing!” Kori yelled as she blasted at Robin with a starbolt from her eyes while squeezing the life out of Kon with a sleeper hold. Suddenly, she caught sight of Kara entering the room and briefly paused. “Oh, hello Supergirl!”

Robin took advantage of her distraction to throw a batrang at her eye, but Kori was fast enough to catch it. The device still exploded in her face, sending her flying back and allowing Kon to escape the grapple she had on him.

Before Kori could recover, Kon fell to the ground, rolled and grabbed a cardboard bomb, throwing it towards Robin. That done, the both of them ran away in separate directions, moving further into the mountain and disappearing around the corners.

Shaking her head, Kori floated away from the floor where she had fallen, cheerfully waved at Kara and then took in the room. Only Captain Marvel was still here, eagerly eating from a snack pack as he enjoyed the show.

Quickly checking her drones, Kori nodded when they were still able to track him. Taking a deep breath, she hummed twice and then ignited her hands and eyes, causing them to shine with green light as she flew down the hallway after the pipsqueak yelling with a villainous voice. “ROOOOOOOOOOOBIIIIIIIIIN! You can not escape me! I will chase you until the ends of the GALAXY!”

“What the? I thought they were supposed to be training?” Kara lifted an eyebrow at the Captain.

“Well, yeah, but Flash kept complaining that things were too serious, and Superman, Martian Manhunter, Green Arrow and I kind of agree with him. There was no reason they couldn’t have a little fun, at least sometimes,” Marvel shrugged and offered her the snack pack, Kara gracefully accepted. “So they get one fun exercise in the middle of the day before lunch and after their morning trainer leaves.”

“I see… I take it Kori is playing the villain today?”

“Yep, she’s kind of the strongest anyway, and she gets all the tech equipment you provided to use against the team,” pulling his arm back, Marvel checked to see Kara had stolen almost all his snacks and pouted. “She gets really into it sometimes, and she’s a good villain. Now that I think about it, she probably copies the laugh from you.”

Avoiding Kara’s withering glare, Marvel turned back to the wall and caused it to turn into a monitor. Together they watched Kori follow after Robin. She caught up to him and lifted him by his clothes before trying to get her cardboard bomb back. Unfortunately, it didn’t come off his hand.

Kara focused on the image and frowned. Wait, did Robin have breasts? They were really small, but she was sure there was a little bulge on his chest.

Immediately after, Kori threw Robin away as hard as she could and shot a starbolt after him, but the Boy Wonder actually floated in the air and dodged the shot.

Standing in the air, the two of them faced off, Robin quickly growing several arms and getting them all into fighting positions. For a few seconds, nothing happened, then several shields materialized all around him and locked him in place before starting to squeeze.

Ignoring the captured hero as Miss Martian lost control and returned to her actual form squeezed between the drones, Kori rushed back, but Captain Marvel pressed a button. “Robin has had enough uninterrupted time, the bomb has been disarmed. Good job Titans.”

Stepping out from a side-room on the same hallway he had run through, Robin threw the cardboard bomb up and down in his hand and strutted into the room, quickly followed by Kid Flash.

“Yeah, that’s what I’m talking about!” Kid Flash shouted and the both of them high-fived.

Soon after, the rest of the Titans started converging on the room. Aqualad seemed a little worse for wear, but they all were tired and sweating.

“Good job, you guys overcame a stronger, more skilled and better prepared opponent,” Marvel complimented. “Aqualad’s sacrifice was so cool and, according to the exercise, both he and Kid Flash even survived their encounter so, it’s actually great!”

“I… huff… I did not realize how much you held back… huff… in our spars,” Aqualad complimented, collapsing to the floor. “But, did you have to keep the death trap active the whole time?”

“It was indeed necessary for my villainous plot, Friend Kaldur,” Kori nodded with a disarming smile on her face. “It should have pressured the Titans and diverted their attention from the main objective. I did not think the Titans would delay your rescue as they did. Alas, my machinations were defeated, most impressive stratagem, Friend Robin, when did you change places?”

“Hey, we trusted Kaldur to hang on!” Robin protested. “Anyway, I traded places with Megan as soon as I ran out of the room, while you were still recovering from the explosion.”

“Congratulations, Friend M’gann! Your transformation is getting much better; I did not realize the ruse until the very end!” Kori complimented, getting out from her armor and shaking her hair free from the ponytail.

“Ah, thanks Kori, doing boys is still hard, but Uncle is training me to overcome that.”

“Man, I did not realize how hot girl villains could be.” Kid Flash just had to say, causing Kara to narrow her eyes dangerously. “The majority of the rogues are men, but boy is she…”

“Hello Titans, Kid Flash,” Kara interrupted, causing them all to turn towards her. “Say, are you, perhaps, wearing the suit I made?”

“Ah, hi Supergirl,” Kid Flash gulped and scratched the back of his head. “Yeah, thanks a lot by the way, the material is great, and it’s very comfortable to run with, plus, it doesn’t even get dirty. I really love it… why?”

“Oh, nothing, don’t worry about it,” Kara answered with her most innocent smile.

From his side, Robin discretely hit his friend with an elbow and whispered. “Self-destruction, man, self-destruction sequences everywhere.”

Kara’s smile only got wider when she heard it, making sure to keep staring at the boy for an uncomfortable amount of time.

“Stop teasing him already,” Kon finally interrupted, walking closer and attempting to hug her, Kara put a hand on his chest.

“What do you think you’re doing?” she lifted an eyebrow.

“What, you’re the one always insisting on hugs,” Kon glanced aside; a little embarrassed to talk about it.

“Not without a shower I don’t,” Kara shook her head. “Come on, you were probably fighting Kori for the last 10 minutes, you’re soaked.”

Kon pulled on his Superman shirt, seeing it absolutely soaked with his sweat, even if he wasn’t feeling all that tired. With a devious smile, he looked back at Kara. “Well, now I really want a hug, no, actually, I insist.”

“Get away from me!” Kara dodged back and used a hand to push Kon away from her, but he only took a single step before turning back and opening his arms. “Ugh, if this was how it was gonna turn out. I’d prefer it if you kept being angry.”

“Come on cousin, where’s my hug?”

Kara dodged another lunge and quickly hid behind an amused Captain Marvel, she could have easily floated away, but she was actually really happy Kon was being playful, and flying would be unfair.

She was just getting ready to dodge another lunge when Kori grabbed her from behind almost causing her to stumble. Kara actually smiled as she felt Kori’s soaked shirt, the Tamaranean’s breast pressed tightly against her back in a most tantalizing manner.

Kon’s own sweaty chest on the other hand… not so much. Kori’s glomp had delayed her movement enough for Kon to grab her and squeeze tightly. “Eww, ewwww! Bath! Bath right now!”

Laughing, all the Titans went to wash themselves, Kara included since she now had to change her shirt. Together with Captain Marvel, they ate lunch at the mountain and waited until John Stewart showed up for their evening training.

Seeing Kara talking with the rest of the Titans, the man nodded her way and Kara approached him. “Supergirl, good to meet you. Good job upgrading the Mountain’s security.”

“Thanks, I’m not finished yet, but it will do for now,” Kara shook his offered hand, getting a strange feeling as her arm came into contact with the green light surrounding him. “Anyways, I take it the League approved of the treatment?”

“Yes, Superboy’s parents signed the release, and the League has looked over the data,” GL frowned for a second, but didn’t seem to recognize the feeling and dismissed it from his mind. “Thankfully, he’s quite advanced in his lessons, so he’ll not miss much.”

“What’re you teaching them today?”

“Recently it’s been how to locate and disarm bombs. Today we’re going over mines, including those of alien origin,” The man answered while glancing at his ring. Looking up, he gave Kara an amused smile. “Usually, Batman would be the one teaching them, but he’s been busy this last week, and the ring allows me to replicate several working devices without the risk of them going off.”

“Hmmm, I know Robin wouldn’t really need this class, but Kon is advanced in it?” Kara asked, returning his smile.

“He’s really talented with any mechanical device.”

“I see,” feeling some pride in her chest, Kara waved Kon over.

“What?” The boy asked, approaching them and giving a respectful nod to the GL.

“Hey, remember the treatment we talked about yesterday? The League gave the green-light,” Kara explained, smiling at him.

“Is that really necessary?”

“Necessary? Probably not,” She answered truthfully. “Your Kryptonian DNA allows you to wait without much risk until we’ve developed a better treatment, or even a permanent solution, but it could unlock more of your powers.”

Kon glanced back at the rest of the Titans, at Kara and then at his own hand. Slowly, he closed it into a fist. “Alright, when do we leave?”

Chapter Text

“So... I hear you’re good with mechanical devices?” Kara tried to restart the conversation after they appeared under the Genomorph’s base.

“I… yes? I love to mess with things on the mountain and, while there’s not much to do, Mister Kent lets me tinker with things at the farm,” Kon replied, doing his best to hide his embarrassment from her.

“So you like staying at the farm? Good,” Kara said, giving him a small nod. “I mean, they seem to have done a good job with Kal but, if you didn’t like it, you could always come live with me?”

Kon seemed to take some time to consider her words, looking into her eyes, he finally answered. “You mean that? Before, I thought you had just offered because I didn’t have anywhere else to go.”

“Nonsense, you’re family,” Kara shook her head, giving the boy’s shoulders a small hug. “Besides, I’m gonna be shopping for a new house with Kori tomorrow or the day after anyways, there will be plenty of room for you.”

“Thanks, but I-I like living with the Kents,” Kon finally said after a few seconds, a happy look on his face. “They’re great and, sometimes, when I need a break, I can just go out into the fields and enjoy the quiet. I don’t think I could live in a city.”

“You get used to it,” Kara shrugged. The noise was really annoying at first, but she had learned to ignore it and, worst case, she could always block all sound in her room. “So, how’s Krypto? Does he still like to steal shoes? Uncle always complained about his slobber even when he couldn’t damage anything and everything… I can’t imagine it got any easier now?”

“Ah, I don’t think he really does that anymore, but he tends to leave the farm sometimes so I don’t actually know… I think Superman managed to train it out of him,” Kon said as the last door opened and they finally entered the facility proper.

A G-Elf gave them a wave as he passed them on the corridor, and Kara saw a G-Dwarf talking with a human man in a lab coat through the window of another room. Taking a second to look around and through the walls, she actually found several places where humans and Genomorphs were working side by side without much problem.

Damn, Dubbilex was doing a good job. Deactivating her X-Ray vision, Kara’s thoughts returned to Krypto and she considered. “Well, either that or being exposed to yellow sunlight actually made him smarter, probably should check on that later.”

“He does seem to understand me when we take walks or play around,” Kon explained. Suddenly noticing the white walls and lab-like environment, he finally asked. “So, how’s this supposed to go?”

“Dr. Spencer managed to stabilize the Genomorph’s genes, at least for a while. The same treatment should allow your Kryptonian cells to stop overworking themselves trying to fix you and let them develop new powers,” Kara continued by explaining what she understood of it, telling him about what equipment would be used and how long it would take.

Eventually, they reached the right lab and Kara saw the slightly tense Doctor waiting for them as well as a lot of helpers in the room with her, both human and Genomorphs. In the center of the room lay the healing pod where Kon was about to be treated, but the area was filled with many monitoring devices, and some downright scary equipment, filled with needles and surgical equipment in case anything went wrong.

Suddenly, Kara noticed that everyone was staring at her and, with a frustrated sigh; she noticed she had actually squeezed the handle until it bent and snapped off the door.

Glancing at the piece of metal, Kara managed to keep herself from blushing. Kon was giving her an odd look so, pretending that there was nothing wrong, she just stared right at the Doctor and, slowly, used her hands to straighten the thing.

For a moment, the uncomfortable cracking of metal filled the room while everyone awkwardly looked on. With it more or less acceptably restored, Kara laid the handle against the door and blasted it with heat vision, welding it back into place.

“There, nothing happened,” she nodded to herself and ignored everyone’s reactions.

“And you said I had anger problems,” Kon whispered.

“Shut up, brat,” Kara whispered back and then waved her hand to present the woman. “This is Doctor Amanda Spencer, she’s the one who came up with the treatment, and she used to be Desmond’s assistant.”

Kon got real quiet after that so Kara glared back at the woman. For her part, Doctor Spencer gulped. Nervously ironing her clothes with a hand and with her heart beating like mad she stepped forward to approach them.

“Kon-El, I-I most sincerely apologize,” Doctor Spencer said, her head bowed slightly, but her eyes no longer avoiding Kon’s. “I did not think about the full implications of my actions when working under Desmond. I can’t begin to express how much I regret that, or how much I wish I could take things back. All I can do now is my best to try and make up for it.”

Kara was sure the woman had taken the speech from the internet, and that she had practiced it in the mirror to be able to say it with a straight face but, well, at least she made the effort.

Using all her senses, Kara could see, hear and even feel the woman’s sincerity, and spontaneity was far too overrated in her opinion. Not that she was gonna be forgiving Doctor Spencer anytime soon, or forgetting her actions… no, Kara found that she couldn’t do that, not yet.

What she could do was make an effort of her own and pretend the woman wasn’t there. It wasn’t ideal when the Doctor was the one responsible for Kon and, in the future, Match’s treatment, but it was an improvement.

Kara saw Kon tensing at the woman’s words, but her little cousin took it all in without reaction. Focusing on him, she saw that he was actually breathing very slowly, his mind focused entirely on Torquasm Rao to suppress his anger.

Shaking his head, Kon turned away from the woman. Instead, he looked at Dubbilex sitting close to the treatment chamber and closed his eyes, probably exchanging a few telepathic words with the older Genomorph.

Finally, he released a long, slow breath, letting his fury out until he was able to speak normally again. “It’s a start,” Doctor Spencer flinched when he looked at her, but Kon just shook his head. “Don’t worry, I don’t want to hurt you, but I’m not gonna say I forgive you. Not yet.”

Kara smiled with pride, it seemed like Kon was doing much, much better than she had expected. Putting a hand at his back, she ignored the woman and helped him into the pod. Her cousin gave a dubious glance at the glass and metal tube but, seeing Kara there, he allowed himself to be sedated and submerged into the pod’s liquid.

Before the procedure started, Kara was brought into a separate room with an overview. Dubbilex, sensing her conflicting emotions, just kept quiet at her side for a few minutes but, eventually, he connected with her mind. “If you didn’t trust Dr. Spencer, you could have delayed the treatment, Miss Kara.”

“You said the rest of the Genomorphs have already gone through this without problems, and I trust YOU,” she sent back without opening her mouth. “That doesn’t mean I’m willing to leave him to go through this alone. I already have too few people I really care about for that.”

Kara watched the procedure like a hawk, her muscles tense and ready to intervene at the slightest sign of something going wrong. She didn’t pace, but her straight posture, with her hands behind her back kept the doctors on edge the entire time… which actually made her feel a little better about the whole thing.

The entire procedure took nearly four hours and Doctor Spencer had to make adjustments the entire time to compensate for Kon’s Kryptonian and human differences.

Finally, it was done and the doctor nearly collapsed in her chair as the machines stopped working. Kara herself felt her muscles relaxing, leaving her feeling kind of sore from the tension she had been holding.

Slightly turning her head towards the woman for the first time since Kon entered the chamber, Kara asked. “Have you made any progress with Match’s situation?”

“I… ah, I looked at his files, but I didn’t really have the time to study it in detail yet,” Dr. Spencer answered uneasily, immediately avoiding Kara’s eyes. “It really seems like his cells have a problem absorbing radiation so, if you can block that aspect of it… He’d still be stronger than the average human, but his body should stabilize, giving him an average lifespan, even with only the current treatments.”

“Will working on his case delay the Genomorph’s cure?”

“It’s… well, it’s hard to say right now,” she swallowed again, adjusting her glasses in nervousness. “If you can get the support from Caldecott Industries as it has indicated, the increased equipment and personnel should allow me to work on Match’s situation without prejudice to my other projects, but I can’t say for sure.”

“I understand,” Kara said and turned back to Kon, seeing his body starting to stir after the treatment.

Rushing into the room, Kara was there when he woke up, helping him step out of the pod and immediately calming him down before he freaked out about being back in a closed pod. “Is it over?”

“Yes, are you feeling alright?” Kara asked while stepping away from him and letting the boy shake himself awake, splashing the remains of the treatment solution on the ground.

“I feel… lighter,” he said, stepping on the ground and testing his limbs, Kara almost expected the boy to immediately start flying, but no, he just stretched his limbs and smiled at her. “It’s nice, like I took off a weight I didn’t know I was carrying.”

“Good, now go take another bath and, Rao forgive me but, if you try to hug me again with that goo, I swear I’m gonna freeze it and you. And I’ll pass the vid of you shaking everything off like a dog to the rest of the Titans,” Kara patted his back, pushing him towards the adjacent room.

After he’d washed up and changed into a new set of clothes, the pair walked back towards the teleportation room, Kon still moving his limbs with newfound wonder. Finally, when they reached it, Kara paused and asked with some hesitation. “Say, what do you think about helping me out with something?”

“Sure, what do you need?” Kon quickly answered and asked back.

“You know I’ve got a contract with WayneTech, right?” Kara waited until Kon nodded in agreement. “Well, do you think that, if I send you some study material and blueprints, you could help me fine tune what I designed?”

“… You sure about that?” Kon asked after a second. “I’m… not exactly an expert, Kara.”

“Well, I might have been making small-talk before, but I really did hear that you have a talent for this,” Kara was quick to explain. “I’m not asking you to solve the problems or anything but, oftentimes, it helps to have a different set of eyes to look at things, and really, if you can point out even a single problem it would save a lot of time when building a prototype.”

“I guess I can look at it?” Kon shrugged and, hesitantly, accepted her request.

“Thanks, I’ll send you the latest project tonight. Don’t worry if you don’t find anything, I mean, I designed and went over things myself so I don’t expect any mistakes, but, sometimes, you can miss some pretty obvious things when going over your own work.”

Saying goodbye, Kara watched Kon teleporting directly to Smallville, then took her own teleport back to Fawcett City. The sun was still out so Kara decided to just… take a walk around the city.

Fawcett City was actually great. Smaller than Metropolis, but still a large city, extremely clean and very friendly; it could almost be called idyllic. Captain Marvel had been a hero here for more than a year now and Kara couldn’t help but compliment him, the city felt… safe.

People walked the streets without fear and, everywhere she looked, Kara could see and hear them cheerfully talking, interacting and helping each other out. It had been more than a month since she had come to this Earth and, now that she thought about it, Kara realized that the city had become home.

It wasn’t anything like Krypton, but it did remind her of her previous life and Kara took a moment to just… enjoy it without thinking about superheroes, supervillains or plots.

Reaching a public park, she got herself an ice cream cone and found a spot between the trees where the sun still hit her skin. Sitting with her legs crossed, relaxing and watching the kids playing around her she enjoyed her frosty treat.

It was nice, unlike anything she had experienced on Krypton, but still nice. It brought to mind her older memories of living a normal, everyday life as a human. She allowed herself to drift within her mind a little bit until she felt herself being watched. Kara opened her eyes to see a little girl looking at her from a few steps away. Taking another lick of her cone, she greeted the rugrat. “Hi.”

“Hi,” The little girl said back, lifting a tiny hand and waving at her. “Are you a homewrecker?”

Kara choked on her ice cream, almost dropping her cone and getting some melting cream on her chin. Quickly cleaning it with a hand, she chuckled. “What?”

“Mommy said you’re a little homewrecker. But I don’t understand, you’re not little, you’re, like, really tall, as tall as Papa.” The girl nodded with a serious face, hugging a little Wonder Woman doll to her chest. “Hey, I like your braid,”

“Thank you, my friend braids it for me. You’re Anna, right?” Kara snickered, finally recognizing the girl as the one she had, oddly enough, shared an ice cream queue before fighting Mr. Mind.

“Uhum, I like doing Wonder Woman’s hair, but I can’t do braids.” Anna commented, showing Kara her doll, complete with brushable hair and armor ornaments.

“Really? Want me to show you how?”

“No, silly. I know how to do that, but Wonder Woman doesn’t have braids so I can’t.” Anna gave her a look as if she was stupid.

“Honey, there you are,” suddenly, her father came running, lifting her up in his lap and releasing a relieved breath when he saw she wasn’t hurt. “Honey, how many times do I have to say to not leave my side?”

“But Papa, look, I found the pretty ice cream lady!” Anna pointed her way and Kara gave the disgruntled man a little amused wave. “See, I told you she was just like Wonder Woman.”

Her father gave Kara an exasperated look. “Sorry about her, did she bother you?”

“Nope, she’s a cute kid,” Kara said, enjoying their little mundane interactions, it really made her feel human again. No, more than that. It made her feel connected.

“Really? I dare you to say that after you’ve had to search the entire park for the third time, she’s a menace,” all the while, Anna had been pulling on her father’s shirt and furiously pointing at Kara. With an apologetic face, the young father turned towards his daughter and sighed. “Yes, honey, she does have muscles like Wonder Woman, you were right.”

The young girl gave him a satisfied smile, and the man finally released her back into the ground, quickly grabbing her by the wrist so she couldn’t run away again. “Well, thanks for keeping her occupied, the name’s Jonathan Fortune.”

“Kara Danvers and don’t worry about it,” Kara quickly said and took a huge bite out of her melting ice cream. “Nice meeting you.”

“Well, honey, say goodbye to the nice lady, we’ve gotta get home soon,” Jonathan told his daughter and waved at Kara, having little Anna wave too.

Kara waved back and watched the pair leave for a few seconds with a large smile on her face. Rao, Kal-El was right, she really did need to relax a little. It was nice to get out, meet new people, to think about why she was doing things instead of just how she was gonna do it.

In the distance, Kara still heard the little girl turn to her father and couldn’t help snickering at the poor man. “Papa, I wanna be a homewrecker when I grow up!”

“Somehow, I don’t doubt that,” Jonathan said with a tired voice. “Honey, just do Papa a favor and don’t mention it to your mother. Papa doesn’t want to be your first victim.”

Finishing her ice cream, Kara watched the sunset in the park before finally making her way back home. Suddenly, she realized she had just had a good day.

Rao, how long had it been since she last had one of those? She really couldn’t remember. After getting back to Earth, she had moments where she was having fun, and had even been able to smile and laugh, but this was the first time she had spent an entire day in a good mood. Even meeting Doctor Spencer had been more of an annoyance than something truly bothersome with Kon by her side.

Pausing in the middle of the street, Kara looked up for nearly a full minute, just waiting for the sky to open up and spew out a cataclysmic meteor, alien invasion, a demonic army or evil Justice League… But nothing happened. Well, two cars had to swirl aside to avoid her, loudly honking in complaint, but Kara was still close to the park so they weren’t going very fast.

Arriving home, she found Dexter sleeping on top of her cleaning drone; the cat lifted his head and gave her a loud meow as a greeting. Slowly getting up, he stretched his back, digging his claws into the robot’s padded back and giving a huge yawn.

Grabbing him by the middle, Kara lifted him in front of her face and touched his cold nose with her own. The cat tolerated this degradation for a second before starting to squirm in her arms so she released him on top of the table and decided to settle in for the evening.

Getting her computer out, she quickly sent a copy of one of her projects to Kon and then spent some time checking once again how to integrate the wind manipulation device into Danny’s chest.

As night arrived, she decided to take another bath before going to bed. Kara had only rinsed herself at Mount Justice and she didn’t want to lie down without really washing herself.

Entering the bath, she pulled out her phone and gave it a command, causing her outfit to dissolve into a cloud of micro robots. A second later, it moved away from her and reformed on top of the sink in the shape of a cube, leaving her in only her underwear.

Turning on the water, Kara quickly undid her small braids and stepped under the shower, letting the hot water run down her face for a solid minute. Out in the apartment, she heard the main door opening and quickly glanced at it with X-Ray vision, seeing that it was just Kori finally getting home.

Dismissing it from her mind, Kara closed her eye and continued to enjoy the water, letting it run down her body before getting the soap. Suddenly, she heard the bathroom door opening, her hand tightening on instinct and squeezing soap into a mess that squished out between her fingers.

Opening the shower door a little, Kara poked her head through. “Rao, Kori, wait your turn will… you…” Kara trailed off, words escaping her as she stared at the Tamaranean princess.

Dropping her panties into the ground, Kori stepped out of them, revealing her fully nude body. A seductive smile on her face as her bare feet brought her closer to Kara. “No, I have waited enough.”

Chapter Text

“No, I have waited enough,” Kori said, letting her bra slip from her shoulders and fall to the ground in front of her discarded panties.

Kara’s eyes were immediately drawn to Kori’s absolutely perfect breasts; they were full, with small, pink areolas that contrasted well with her orange skin and delicate nipples that pointed to the ceiling.

Swallowing hard, Kara felt her stomach doing a flip as her gaze inevitably went down the perfectly sculpted abs and into the thin strip of fiery red hair that covered her privates but, before she could do anything, Kori pushed the shower door and stepped inside.

Immediately, Kara felt her own nipples hardening and heat starting to gather between her legs. She was ashamed to say the sensation wasn't completely alien to her, but she had never really satisfied herself before, not as a woman, which only made her more nervous.

Back on Krypton, she had never felt the need and, while Kori had forced her to take several cold showers once they started living together, Kara had always been too ashamed of being heard… and too uncomfortable with being a girl to do it.

Almost on instinct, she moved her hands to block the view, feeling quite silly when Kori gave her an amused smile, “Truly, I do not understand the Earthlings need to constantly cover themselves, why must I hide? Especially from my girlfriend."

"I… ah… Girlfriend?" Kara stupidly asked, her mind too preoccupied watching as small droplets of water bounced off her head and started accumulating on Kori's skin.

"Indeed. Please, why do you seem confused, Kara?" Kori asked, stepping closer and putting an arm over her shoulder. "Am I not your friend?"

"Kori… that's," Kara started to say, only to stop as Kori stepped even closer, pushing herself fully under the extra large shower head and slowly tracing a finger over the arm hiding Kara's breasts.

Feeling a shiver of excitement running down her back, Kara let Kori guide her arm away from her chest and into her own waist. Unable to help herself, she held on, feeling the heat coming from Kori's skin as the shower left her completely wet.

With another step, the Tamaranean pushed her back against the cold wall, causing Kara to suck in a breath while Kori put a second arm around her neck. "Am I not a girl?"

For a second, Kara just stared at Kori's entrancing green eyes, filled with heat and… amusement. Finally, Kara regained her wits and decided to stop being indecisive. Putting another arm around Kori's waist, she pulled her girlfriend closer.

Kara felt her hardened nipples pressing against Kori's hot skin, sending a jolt of arousal through her body that hit her core, drawing out an involuntary gasp from her lips. "You really are irresistible when you want something," She actually complained, only causing Kori's smile to widen. "Fine, now stop teasing and kiss me already,"

Koriand'r did, the kiss was unlike any they had shared before. It was not the loving, slow kiss they had shared on the bed, much less the fast, utilitarian one of when they first met. No, this one was challenging, hungry, filled with heat.

Kara's fingers dug into Kori's muscles as if to mark the Princess as hers, squeezing her waist and pulling her even closer, causing their breasts to press against each other. The kiss immediately deepened, becoming more desperate as Kori leaned further into Kara’s body, her soaking red hair falling around them like a curtain.

Finally breaking the kiss, Kori leaned back, letting the water fill the space between them, running between their bodies in a most tantalizing manner.

Closing her eyes, Kara tried to regain her focus by not looking at Kori, but the Tamaranean just leaned into her again, tracing soft kisses down her chin and into her neck and drawing an undignified moan from her mouth.

Gasping for breath, Kara banged her head against the white porcelain tile at her back, feeling her toes curling as Kori sucked on her neck hard enough to leave a hickey. “Rao… I… I hope I don’t regret this later.”

Pulling her hands away from Kara’s neck, Kori pushed her hair out of her face and asked with a confident, wicked smile on her face. “Do you wish to stop?”

Looking at her lover, Kara smiled back. “No.”

Body moving in a blur, Kara swung Kori around, smashing her back against the wall and cracking it, causing shards to fall to the floor around them.

Freezing in place, Kara first stared at Kori with wide eyes, but the Tamaranean was far too tough to care about that amount of strength and just snickered at the damage, causing Kara herself to burst into laughter herself.

After a second to calm down, Kara leaned her forehead against Kori’s, still smiling at the blunder. “Sorry,” Kara thought about ending it there, but her hands were still resting on Kori’s ass, and their breasts were still touching.

Almost at the same time, they leaned forward and kissed again, Kara biting her lips while caressing her back. Putting her hands back around Kara’s neck, Kori cupped her face in her hands and moaned in pleasure, her body writhing and flexing under Kara’s caress.

Pushing her tight between Kori’s legs, Kara felt her lover’s limbs reacting almost on instinct, parting slightly to accept her between them and pressed against her opening. At the same time, one of Kara’s hands migrated to Kori’s breast, gently cupping it from underneath and using a finger to draw slow circles around her bosom, causing goosebumps to rise on her skin.

Kara grew more confident by the second, far more comfortable in the dominant role, where she could drive things and had some previous experience to guide her.

Before long, Kara started slowly trailing kisses down Kori’s skin, nibbling her neck before going further and sucking on her collarbone.

With another moan, Kori bit her own lips, her breath getting faster in anticipation, her hands gripping Kara’s hair and applying pressure, trying to guide her movements further down, Kara didn’t obey. “Kara… Mnnnn… Please, I need you.”

Filled with satisfaction, Kara lowered her head towards Kori’s breast but, instead of kissing it, she just released a slow breath against the sensitive nipple, causing Kori to shiver and her fingers to grip her hair even harder in protest. “Kara!”

“Who told you to tease me so much before?” Kara said with satisfaction. Finally, she flicked the nipple with her tongue, drawing a whimper from Kori before engulfing the little tip in her mouth and sucking on it.

Feeling the Princess’s back bending in pleasure and her fingers digging into Kara’s hair, curling like claws around her scalp, Kara felt a wave of heat filling her body, drawing out the little moans and whimpers of pleasure from Kori made her feel incredible, as if nothing else in the world mattered.

Squeezing her other breast with a hand, Kara lightly pinched Kori’s nipple, rolling it between her thumb and forefinger while kissing her other nipple and feeling the wetness gathering atop her thigh.

“X’hal’s breath,” Kori gasped out, squirming under Kara’s ministrations.

Giving Kori a smug smile, Kara traced her hands over the girl’s side. Finally releasing the nipple, she slowly knelt in front of the Tamaranean, her knees completely ignoring the damaged masonry as if it wasn’t there.

Kori sucked in a breath and looked down at Kara, her eyes actually casting a green light over her body as they shone with sunlight. Releasing one hand from Kara’s hair, she cupped her own breast.

A single touch from Kara’s finger caused the orange skinned beauty to slowly lift her leg, letting Kara guide it over her shoulders and revealing her sex.

Gently, Kara kissed her lover’s inner thigh, feeling the muscles tensing under her grip, a second kiss drew her face closer to the center and, after a pregnant pause, the Kryptonian finally kissed her pussy, drawing another loud moan from Kori’s mouth.

Standing on the tip of her toes, Kori’s back arched against the wall and her toes curled in pleasure behind Kara’s shoulders as she started licking her, going over her lips before sucking lightly on her clit and playing with it.

Despite being on her knees, Kara couldn’t help but feel powerful as she made her lover pant, moan and squirm, slowly increasing the intensity of her movements until Kori reached her peak.

Grabbing Kara’s hair in her hand, Kori’s muscles locked in place as she finally exploded while screaming out her name. “Kara! KARA!”

Feeling incredibly satisfied, Kara continued sucking, drawing out the orgasm as much as she could until she felt Kori’s muscles relaxing, her leg slipping from her shoulder to rest back into the ground. Slowly, she pushed herself back to her feet, letting the water run down her chest and back.

Looking at the still recovering Tamaranean, Kara finally noticed the violet aura covering her own body, but didn’t immediately work to dismiss it, instead, she kissed Kori again, doing her best to show her that love.

Kori kissed her back, caressing Kara’s body with her hands before cupping her breasts and squeezing them, sending a shiver down Kara’s back and causing her nipples to harden again. “What are you doing?”

“I am reciprocating,” Kori smiled back, squeezing Kara’s nipple and causing her to let out a little uncharacteristic squeak. “It is only fair, yes?”

“I… ah, it’s not really necessary Kori,” Kara answered, feeling suddenly shy and uncertain. While she had some experience from her previous life, absolutely none of it was with her current body.

Trying to step back, Kara felt her heart accelerating, but the Princess followed right after her, silencing any complaints with another kiss that stole the air out of Kara’s lungs and sent another shiver down her back.

Feeling Kori’s hand on her chest, Kara clutched it, but didn’t stop it from tracing a line down her belly, sending a wave of heat down her core as it went through her belly button and, gently, between her legs, causing another jolt of pleasure to go through her entire body.

“Oh, Rao,” Kara gulped. Feeling Kori’s fingers caressing her pussy for the first time, slowly going up and down her slit and increasing her arousal, she felt her pussy getting wetter regardless of the shower, the sensation so completely alien she didn’t know how to explain. “Rao, it’s so completely different.”

Eventually, Kara’s hold on Kori’s arm changed, going from nervousness to eagerness as she desperately wanted more, so much so that she actually started pressing Kori’s hand into her.

Then she felt Kori pushing a single finger inside her and gasped, the sensation of being penetrated unlike anything she had ever felt before.

“Fuck, that’s… more, I need more,” Kara cried out, forgetting her previous shyness and hesitation as her body was overcome with sensations, her mind clouded by it.

Kori obliged, starting to push her finger in and out of her pussy while pressing down on her clit with her palm. Overcome with lust, Kara kissed the Tamaranean princess, their tongues meeting as she gasped and moaned under the stimulation.

When the second finger entered her and the Tamaranean increased the speed of her fingering, Kara actually screamed, the feeling of being full overcoming her restraints as she desperately hugged Kori and dug her nails on her back.

Then it happened, the pleasure growing into a crescendo until she started moaning faster and faster, gasping out desperate breaths before finally feeling her muscles seizing from pleasure.

It was too much, Kori’s fingers curling inside her and sending wave after wave of pleasure through her body, Kara didn’t think it was ever gonna stop, she didn’t want it to stop. “Fuck, fuck, fuck!”

Suddenly, Kara lost strength in her legs, her entire body feeling like jelly as she collapsed on top of Kori with a stupid, loving smile, her feet slipping on the wet floor and almost sending the both of them sprawling.

On instinct, she sent out an arm to steady herself, smashing the shower glass and shattering it into a million pieces, the shards pinged harmless against their skin as Kara finally steadied herself and buried her face on Kori’s shoulders, shaking in embarrassment.

“Haaaa… I can’t believe… haaa…. I can’t believe you made me forget I could fly,” She whispered, causing Kori to break out in snickers again.

Looking at the destruction of the bathroom, she couldn’t help but be amused. How the hell did her cousin do it with Lois Lane when she was only human?

“Kara, should we… start mending the room of bathing?” Kori asked, looking at the half destroyed place.

Kara considered it and then shrugged, she was exhausted, she was happy and she was… messy, the shower still worked, and they had extra soap. “Fuck it, I’ll have a robot fix it later, come here, let me wash you.”

Chapter Text

Aquaman stopped in front of the defense line, hundreds of soldiers and at least a dozen mages doing their best to hold back the enemy's approach.

The Trench was always something that had to be watched, the animalistic inhabitants sometimes swam up towards the surface and had to be stopped or fought back.

He didn't like it, but it was necessary. The Trench, the collective name for all creatures of that inky black domain, weren't capable of reasoning and they were incredibly aggressive, attacking animals, Atlanteans and especially surface dwellers as soon as they saw them.

Still, it wasn't a hard thing to keep them back… usually. The Trench normally came out alone or in small groups and were easily repelled. Not this time.

A huge group swam out of the Trench, acting almost like a panicked shoal and the mages, protected by the soldiers, started casting spells, blasting the enemy with a wave of water that dispersed the shoal.

Usually, the Trench would retreat after that, instead, the lone members attacked everyone involved with an unmatched frenzy.

Clenching his teeth, Aquaman smashed into the fighters, punching one so hard it was sent flying into a couple of others before grabbing another and smashing its head, causing it to pass out.

He didn't try to kill them, but he wasn't completely avoiding it either, not if it would risk his own men.

Quickly, the Trench was defeated, but none swam back into the depths. Suddenly, Aquaman heard an impact coming from the deep, a second shoal swimming up and immediately turning to flee, spreading to all directions.

"Pressure them!" He commanded, but didn't follow himself. He was here to check what was wrong, to solve the issue, not to contain it.

He almost swam into the opening himself, but his instincts kept him back, his eyes focused on the opening for a tense minute.

Out of nowhere, an arm grabbed the edge of the opening and then a… creature pulled itself out. At first, Orin thought it was some kind of monstrous and inflated Trench, but he soon saw it was only using Trench body parts as clothes.

"Awright! The Main Man has arrived!" The man shouted, his voice traveling underwater with a shockwave. "Bastich, those fishers were fun, but killing ‘em did get old."

Lobo looked around and finally saw the single man watching him, wearing a ridiculous pansy ass orange shirt. He immediately dismissed the fruitcake and started swimming to the surface.

“Lobo!” Aquaman shouted, finally recognizing his white skin and magnificent hair. “You’re under arrest. Surrender now and I won’t have to fight you!”

Lobo didn’t even spare him a glance, he briefly considered killing the fragging idiot, but he had his fair share of routine slaughter with them fishers and, while he’d never be satisfied, he could prioritize.

Suddenly, Lobo got punched in the face, the impact sending him back through the water until he could stabilize himself.

“Sheesh, what wuz that? A love tap?” Lobo shook his head and lifted an eyebrow at Aquaman with disdain. “Beat it, ya chump, I’m already late to th’ party as it is!”

The damn nerve of those fish people, just cuz he wuz leaving th’ lot of them alive.

Suddenly, he caught sight of the pansy creep swimming towards him, faster than even Blondie had managed t’ do in air.

Heh, suck’s to be ye, bastich. This dude wasn’t a hot blond with a nice temper so The Main Man wasn’t about to hold back. Dodging the first punch by leaning his head to the side, The Main Man hit the creep with his massive fist, arresting all his momentum.

For a single second, Aquaman’s eyes widened at the force of it and then he flew straight down, batted aside with so much strength he created a crater on the ocean floor before being buried six feet under the ground.

“Wuss,” Lobo shook his head sadly, before turning and starting to swim back up. “I swear, some folks just ain’t got enough common sense.”

Behind him, the ocean floor exploded, the water being displaced faster than the speed of sound as Aquaman slammed into him, punching him three times in the kidney.

Lobo tried to elbow him, but the King ducked the blow and delivered an uppercut that sent one of his teeth flying, knee’d him in the stomach and then delivered a hammer blow to the back of his head.

Smashing into the floor and almost causing a quake, the Main Man flipped himself and spread his arms.

“Awright, tuna-fer-brains, that was slightly better,” Putting a hand on his nose, he blew a wad of blood out, watching it drifting away in the water. “Ain’t Ya a member of that fragging Juiced League or sumthing? Well, pucker up, ya pansy fish smelling bastich, The Main Man’s coming for ya!”

Jumping from the ground, The Main Man sent himself straight at Aquaman, but the King was far too agile a swimmer, weaving away with an almost lazy movement before punching out at Lobo’s head.

Lobo caught it, pulling the Atlantean closer and head-butting him. Aquaman struggled to free himself, punching out, but Lobo caught that too and put both arms into a joint lock, straining the King’s bones and causing his back to bend from pain.

Suddenly, a giant shark rammed Lobo from the side, freeing Aquaman as some of his men returned and tried to engage the Czarnian.

“No! Don’t!” Aquaman shouted, having felt his enemy’s strength.

It didn’t help. Swinging the giant shark around, Lobo sent it flying down before backhanding an attacking soldier and breaking every bone in his body.

One of the mages tried to send a spell his way, but Lobo actually punched out the ice javelin before punching a hole through another soldier’s belly, grabbing his weapon and throwing it towards the mage, sending her away with the momentum.

Ocean creatures swarmed the bounty hunter, acting under Aquaman’s control and doing their best to hurt, or at least inconvenience the man. None of it was helping.

The Main Man caught a fourth Atlantean by the throat and was about to crush it when Aquaman finally got within striking distance. He had grabbed a sword from one of his fallen guards and sliced off Lobo’s arm before trying to skewer his heart.

Reacting blindingly fast, Lobo twisted away, leaving the sword buried in his chest and kneeing Aquaman in the side, grabbing his arm as he started to fly away and using his body as a shield to block a few shots from the remaining soldiers.

Aquaman screamed in pain, the hit from the weapons damaging his armor, but he recovered fast, putting a shoulder against Lobo’s chest and swimming towards the wall, attempting to smash the Czarnian as hard as he could.

Unfortunately, even with one arm, Lobo was a better grappler than the King and managed to swing him around. Aquaman wasn’t able to stop his momentum in time, hitting the underwater mountain face first and losing his concentration, and his hold on Lobo.

Grabbing the fragging Fishdude by the back of the head, the Main Man smashed his face against the rock repeatedly until he felt the bastich starting to lose strength. Releasing his head, Lobo let him start to float down a bit before grabbing him by the left arm and keeping the hero between him and the rest of the soldiers.

“Y’know, I’m starting t’ think yer underestimating me. Was it cuz I waz playing with Blondie earlier?” The Main Man shook the King by his arm, causing the rest of the soldiers to pause. “What’s wrong? Cat got yer tongue? Ya did know I gave her, like, a dozen free shots?”

Looking down at his already regenerating arm, Lobo frowned when he noticed it was taking far too much time. How fragging annoying.

Lifting the hero up by his arm, Lobo opened his mouth wide and actually bit off Aquaman’s left hand, spitting it out to the side and causing the Hero to scream out in pain. “There, new we’re even. Can’t say yer’ got a fair fight though, need a couple dozen more people fer that.”

The pain snapped Aquaman out of his daze, his handless arm slipped out from Lobo’s grip and he twisted, kicking out with both feet and propelling himself away from the man, clutching his arm to his chest.

“Off!” Lobo grunted, slamming into the wall, only to be bombarded with shots and spells as every Atlantean there unloaded on him once he was no longer holding their King.

Wrapping some cloth around his stump, Aquaman shouted. “Give me a weapon!”

“My King?”

“He’s not dead! Call the rest of the League!” Aquaman quickly ordered, grabbing a trident from one of his soldiers. “… You, go warn Mera, I’ll hold him back.”

Suddenly, a huge boulder flew from where Lobo had been, scattering the Atlanteans and almost killing two of them. A second boulder came flying right after the first one, but Aquaman smashed into it, breaking it apart with a swing of his weapon.

From the destroyed rubble, Lobo came swimming at him, the sword still sticking out of his chest as the Czarnian didn’t pay it any attention. Aquaman attacked, using everything he had to try and kill the monster.

Lobo only laughed, barely dodging the tip of the trident as it left a wide scratch at his face. Aquaman was a trained warrior with years of battle experience under his belt. He was incredibly skilled with a weapon and, under water, could give Superman a challenging fight.

Lobo wasn’t Superman. He was worse. Superman would only try to disable him but, with Lobo, every blow was aimed to take Aquaman’s life and he fought with vastly more skill than his actions suggested. Aquaman truly believed the man had been playing around before, because now… now Aquaman had to struggle just to last a second more.

His trident bit into the man, cut gashes in his chest and, once, even his neck, but Lobo just ignored it all, taking the hits as if they didn’t matter and ignoring the resulting blood loss without losing strength.

Aquaman was exhausted, he was in pain from a missing hand and, worse, he could see Lobo’s missing arm was nearly regenerated. He really doubted he’d get a second free shot at cutting off a limb in this fight so that advantage was effectively gone.

The surrounding animals and soldiers were doing less than nothing to the Czarnian; Lobo just ignored them or sent a few devastating attacks their way once they got too annoying.

Suddenly, his trident pierced one of Lobo’s lungs but, before he could pull back, the monster put a hand on the shaft and pushed it further inside his body. Aquaman hesitated for less than a second before releasing the weapon, but that was enough.

“Got ya,” The Main Man said, grabbing Aquaman’s shoulder and pulling him closer. “Ya know, I don’t usually do a fella for free, but I’m thinking I’ma make an exception… ah, who’m I kidding? I do a lot of fellas fer free when they annoy me!”

Finally having regenerated his arm, Lobo pulled out the sword on his chest and slowly pointed it to Aquaman’s chest, starting to press it against his armor. Before he could kill him, however, Lobo had to release the orange-boy and duck as a monstrous fish almost bit off his head, the creature also almost killed Aquaman, but it was a risk the Atlantean was willing to take to avoid losing his heart.

Lobo really didn’t want to have to re-grow a body all over again.

Moving through the water, Lobo cut a shark in half and then was smacked by the tail of a giant, monstrous blue whale, getting smashed nearly half a kilometer back. Kicking against the waves, Lobo swam back, weaving between several fishes and punching the whale away while ignoring the Atlanteans shooting at him.

Just as he was about to reach the exhausted hero, he saw Aquaman swimming away, helped by a pair of Dolphins. Widening his eyes, the Main Man paused and took a moment to look around.

There were several Dolphins around him, of all sizes and shapes, all of them staring at him with judging gazes and preparing to attack him, even when they had no chance.

“Im-Fragging-possible!” Lobo released the sword and used both hands to scratch at his eyes, but the image didn’t change. “Why didn’t ya say ya loved them fishies too? The Main Man can’t fragg a fellow man of culture!”

Pausing in his retreat, Aquaman actually did a double take, seeing Lobo actually lifting his hands up. “What?”

“Yeah, I was, like, gonna turn ya into meat, but now I kinda feel bad about the arm, bastich. I’m gonna have ta’ be civil now,” scratching at his beard in embarrassment, Lobo shook his head and re-started swimming for the surface. “Y’know what, cheezhead, I’m outta here!”

Wounded, still bleeding and knowing that his soldiers couldn’t do much against the bounty hunter, Aquaman actually lifted a hand and ordered them to stop. He could only hope the rest of the Justice League arrived soon; otherwise, he’d be forced to watch the Czarnian leave.

Looking at his helpers, the King actually couldn’t believe what had happened… did-did he just get saved because of… Dolphins?

.
.
.
.
.

The Main Man lowered his scope and thought about the situation, he didn’t usually let targets escape after he found them, but, well, he did have a more pressing problem right now, like making sure no bastich clone was still running around, those fragging lizards could wait.

It had been easy enough to find the girlie, what with those hero simps flying in and out of the place from time to time, but he wanted to do things personally. Blondie was fun like that.

In truth, he could brew some kinda virus or sumthing to kill Blondie, and her little bro-cuz-whatever too but, after eliminating his own species, he had always found such things unsatisfying. Really, he kinda regretted killing his race with that virus, it had been far too easy. Kinda took th’ fun outta the whole thing. He should have fragged them all personally, made a game of it.

Besides, the Main Man was many things, but he ain’t a cockblocker. Let Blondie have her fun, heck, maybe he could get a threesome out of it?

Bastich, the last time he had been with more than one girl was when he dated Triplicate Girl when he was sent to the future, it would be a tragic fraggin’ waste to turn Blondie into meat right now.

Jumping out of the building, Lobo fell heavily on the street. His ‘acquired’ boots managing to survive the fall, adjusting his ‘new’ jacket, he found the correct bar and kicked his way inside.

“Awright, ya dweebs! The Main Man is here!” he pushed some chump out of the way and dropped heavily on the bar stool, grabbing the guy behind the counter, he said. “Yo, Barkeep, get me a bottle!”

Breaking the cap on the presented bottle with a thumb, Lobo poured the drink directly into his mouth and wiped it with his arm, releasing a deep sigh. People quickly started giving him a wide berth, but Lobo couldn’t help lifting an eyebrow at the amount of weapons they were sporting.

“Heh, seems like this city ain’t as boring as I first thought, ain’t life just wonderful sometimes?” Finishing the bottle in his second drink, he let it drop to the ground. “Awright, what ya got for me?”

“Please, sir, over here,” A man said, causing a wall filled with bottles to swing open and reveal a hidden room. “We have a fine selection for your pleasure, compliments from Intergang. If you wish for anything specific, we could arrange that too.”

“Spare me th’ bull! Obviously, yer got some secret agenda or sumthing. Well, ‘s no skin off th’ Main Man’s snout! Just get me the guns!”

Entering the room, Lobo was led further down a set of stairs to reveal a reinforced hidey hole, filled with weapons. Most were the usual Earth crap, some packed a little extra punch, but Lobo had to smile when he hit the jackpot. There were a few pieces of Apokolips gear here.

“Well, ain’t that sumthing?” Lobo caressed a giant gun pulsing with red light, “Y’know, I’m starting to like my chances. I just bet this gonna feel real weird! Ain’t many guys get ta’ kill themselves an’ still stay alive ta boast about it! ‘s gonna be a blast!”
.
.
.
.
.

Naked as the day he was born, Lobo finally entered the little town in the middle of nowhere. Looking up at a lamp post, he saw several corpses of men and women impaled on top of them, their bodies twisted around the pole as if they were boneless.

“Huh, what a nice welcome for the Main Man,” Lobo commented, looking at the bodies until he found a fat fella with a mostly intact pair of pants.

Jumping up, he grabbed the meat and pulled it out of the pole before stealing it’s pants for himself, the pair didn’t fit him perfectly, but walking around naked got old after a while.

In a great mood, the Main Man entered the little town whistling, enjoying the sights of carnage and destruction all around him. It really warmed his cold heart to see such evil.

Or maybe that was just the bonfire.

“Hmmm, I didn’t think I missed anyone?” Said a cold voice as an entirely white man dropped from the sky in front of him, his back straight and wearing a white overcoat with a small cape.

Lobo gave a 4/10 to the entrance, but the reception was almost an 8. “Ah, nothin’ like the smell of burning meat fer giving the Main Man a good mood,” Lobo said, putting his arms at his waist and taking a big whiff of the giant pile of corpses burning in the center of the city. “And ya didn’t miss anything; I just arrived from outta town.”

“Very well,” the albino nodded, crossing his arms in front of his chest and putting a hand on his chin in thought as he looked at Lobo. “Say, what do you think about my art? Such memorable deaths, isn’t it beautiful?”

“Hey, I like yer attitude m’man! The Main Man is all about th’ killing,” Lobo turned to enjoy the destruction. “Though I never really cared about the presentation part, just turn the chumps into meat and be done with it.”

“No, no, that would be so boring,” The man shook his head. Extending his hand, he used telekinesis to obliterate the small houses around the burning pile before using the broken wood to feed the fire. “Death must be memorable, it must be Epic! With care given to style if it is to mean anything! To just… die without reason and in such a boring way, something people would forget in a day or two, that would be such a waste. Death is art, my friend!”

“So, ya don’t just frag the losers then?” Lobo wondered, watching as the bodies burned away, leaving only the bones. “Y’know, I’m not gonna say killing is boring, but it has been growing a little stale lately. Ain’t many guys capable of putting up a nice fight, Y’know? Maybe I’ll try yer way once or twice.”

“And to think I was just considering how your death could be a masterpiece, but now you’ve got me curious, and it is rare to find someone that appreciates my work,” the white man said, turning back and using his power to pull a skull out of the pile before it burned completely. “I’m called Blanque and I’ll be looking forward to hearing about your work.”

“Name’s Lobo,” the Czarnian nodded, watching as more and more skulls floated out of the pile, clean of flesh. “Say, ya know where I can find the vilest city on this planet?”

“That would probably be Gotham City, it’s that way,” Blanque pointed, causing Lobo to turn that way. “May I ask why?”

“First rule of hunting, make your prey come to you,” Lobo explained, looking around to see if he couldn’t find some booze and a better change of clothes. “That’s probably where I’ll be going, eventually, so I gotta get there first. Ya mind if I look around a little before leaving?”

“No, go ahead, look around and appreciate my art a little before going.”

Whistling still, Lobo left the bonfire and started looking inside the damaged houses for some better fitting clothes, it was always nice to meet such a nice fella.
.
.
.
.
.
In a jungle in Africa, a large Czarnian wearing some leaves tied into clothes fell to the jungle floor, causing a small tremor all around him. Patting his leaves into place, he looked around. “Feetal’s Giz! Not a piece of cloth or a bottle of booze in sight! Where the frag am I?”

From behind him, he immediately heard the sound of an alarm and smiled. Where there was an alarm, there were also bastiches he could steal from, or at least get some direction.

Instead of jumping again, Lobo started walking towards the noise. From the jungle floor, a large gun was lifted, starting to rotate and shooting him with bullets, they bounced off his muscles, but they actually hurt! “Mine!”

Rushing the gun, he endured the shots and kicked at its base, causing the metal support to break and allowing him to grab the weapon. From both sides, four other turrets lifted and immediately started shooting.

With a maniacal laugh, Lobo turned his new gun at them, pelting them with a wave of metal. “AHHHHHH! The sound of gunfire, how I missed ya! KILLRENDDESTROYFRAG!”

In his defense, Lobo hadn’t killed anything interesting in a long time, first having to wait until he regenerated and then being lost in the jungle. He really needed some stress relief.

Finding another intact gun, he ripped it out of its support and stole the remaining munitions, carrying each machine-gun in one hand. From further where the siren was, Lobo heard a troop of gorillas screaming as they made their way towards him.

Pointing with both weapons, he started laughing. “FRAG! FRAG! FRAG! FRAAAAAAAG!” He unloaded, the bullets cutting through the tree’s, and the incoming gorillas like a hot knife through butter, painting the jungle red with their splashed blood.

The creatures were incredibly powerful, tanking several shots, and a few even reached him, their muscles bulging and filled with wounds, gashes of red muscle breaking out from under their fur. Dropping the empty guns, Lobo got ready to receive them. “YEAH, come at me, my fragging fur coats!”

The Apes hit with surprising strength, but The Main Man was on another level. Bastich, the fur coats were fun to hit, and could take a beating… in the sense that they survived more than one punch.

For a second, Lobo thought about skinning the creatures, but he decided that it probably wasn’t worth it. There was a building right in front of him. The bastiches would have booze and a way out of here, pants would be nice too.

Seeing a gorilla wearing a cap in front of the building and holding a large gun, Lobo frowned. Did that mean he just killed sentient gorillas? He hated fragging… Well, no, he didn’t hate fragging random people, he just really liked to be paid for it first.

Stepping away from the tree line, Lobo saw four poles lifting from the ground in a wide area around him and then he felt the attack, electricity running through his body.

“AAAAAAAAAAAARGHHHHHHH!” Lobo screamed, his fingers curling into claws as he held his head and fell to his knees.

With an air of superiority, the gorilla stepped closer, a box on his chest releasing a robotic voice. “Mallah, bring me my new test subject. He has cost me a lot of troops already,” the gorilla grunted, pulling out a grenade from his belt.

Lobo curled down, his forehead almost hitting the ground. “ARGHHHHHH! AHHHHHH! AHHHHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH! Just kidding!” Suddenly, he looked up, the electricity still running on his body, but only causing him pain. Jumping ahead, Lobo used a hand to grab the grenade, and the other to squeeze the ape’s neck. “Fer shame, can’t believe ya fell fer it! Real disappointing, now, ya got exactly one minute to lead me inside and provide me with what I want… or I’ll squeeze yer fragile little neck.”

“Perhaps I could be of help?” Said an elegant male voice from his side, causing Lobo to force the Ape to his knees and glance at the newcomer.

The bastich was a tall human with blonde hair; he wore a white costume like those Justice Simps, and had a large green cape at his back. “I’m here to offer you a deal, Lobo, a very… profitable deal.”

“I already got a contract in place, but ya can call me later… just gotta deal with a clone problem first,” Lobo said, dismissing the spandex junkie from his mind.

“You ‘Will’ need my help with that, all it would take is your soul,” Neron said, his smile widening a little. “Together, we could spread chaos. My influence would bring such darkness to the world, you could run rampant to your heart’s content, all for such a small price.”

“Cool, only got a problem, the Main Man don’t need no help with that kinda shit. Say, Clyde, ya look like a Clyde, I’ma call ya Clyde,” Lobo said, accidentally squeezing the ape’s neck too hard and breaking it. With a shrug, he dropped the beast. “Well, Clyde, fact is, the Main Man never got to play with a soul so, how bout it? Fair exchange an’ all that guff, my soul for yours?”

“I… do not have a soul,” Neron said, a little taken aback by the Czarnian.

“Then frigging fragg off, you blonde-haired evil bastich, I ain't got time for ya! I got people to murder, clones ta hunt an’ all that,” turning his back to the demon, Lobo turned back towards the building, then he heard the roar of a motorcycle. “Aw, bastich.”

“I did say you’d need my help, such a pity.” Neron shook his head and disappeared.

Suddenly, Lobo’s head exploded, quickly followed by the rest of his body. After that, a missile hit what remained and blew it up, spreading the pieces all over the clearing.

Parking his motorcycle in the air, Lobo dropped to the ground, his heavy boots sinking into the jungle floor, a large cigar in his mouth. Looking around, The Main Man lifted his arms and pulled out a flamethrower. “Huh, could’a sweared I heard someone else here? Frag it. Let’s get this over with quickly. Gotta go back to Gotham soon.”

Using his cigar, Lobo ignited the weapon and started burning everything in sight, reducing the entire jungle to ashes.

A few meters away from there, in a prison cell under the building, Neron stood with his arms crossed, a magical window floating in the air in front of an emaciated gorilla in chains and showing the result of the fight.

“There is still time you know,” Neron said with an even voice. “Your mate is already dead, but your son wasn’t on the alien’s path. Brain is already preparing to flee the facility, do you think he’ll leave anyone alive when he does?”

“What… huff… is your price?” Grodd asked, his bulging muscles struggling against the chains to no result. He was starving, he was dehydrated and he was in pain.

Perhaps he would have died with his mate had he not tried to organize a coup, seeing Brain’s retreat from his other base and The Light’s distraction as a chance to fight off his enslaver. He had failed, and he had paid for it.

“Why, my price remains the same. Your soul in exchange for the power necessary to escape,” Neron said, collapsing the magical window. “Is it too much to pay?”

“Another… huff… chain at my feet,” The gorilla said, feeling the Kobra-Venom running through his veins. Sometimes, Grodd wished Brain hadn’t ever increased his intelligence, that he had remained a simple beast, but those times were rare, no, what he really wanted was revenge.

“Perhaps, but it would be a loose one and, really, would it be too high a price for the chance of freeing your son? If you are fast enough, that is,” Neron shrugged, his cape waving at his back as he extended a hand towards the ape.

“I… accept.”
.
.
.
.
.
Floating in space, millions of miles away from Earth, Lobo moved. His body was completely naked and his arms crossed in front of his chest in boredom. He had tried to rip out one of his limbs and throw it away to change his direction, but he couldn’t get much speed that way.

At least he wasn’t creating new clones. He could choose from which part of his body to regenerate when he concentrated on it, it was when he was in the middle of a fight that problems could happen.

So he floated there, slowly moving in Mars’s direction. Even from where he was, it was still likely to take him a few months to get there. Months without booze, without death, without even a tiny little fight… Lobo was in hell.

At this point, he sincerely hoped one of his clones would pass by and blow his own head off, it would be better than this bastich boredom!

“Excuse me, sir Lobo; have you heard the word of our lord and savior, the Triple Fish-God?” A gentle voice said in his mind, Lobo was just about to try and kill the damn bastich trying to preach to him when he saw it.

“Awwww, ain’t ya just the purest thing? Come ‘ere li’l buddie, what’s yer name?” Lobo said, gently lifting his hand towards the most beautiful thing he had ever seen, those wet, black eyes, that cute nose. It was the greatest space dolphin he had ever seen.

“I am the envoy of the Triple Fish-God,” The dolphin said in his mind, floating closer to Lobo and letting the bounty hunter touch his sleek body. “Our lord and savior has a mission for you, Lobo. Do you accept?”

“I do.”

That said, Lobo put a hand on Fishy’s fin, he was gonna call him Fishy, and they swam away through the stars to start Lobo’s new life as a member of the greatest cult in the galaxy.

Chapter Text

Kara traded a glance with Kori, the happy-go-lucky Tamaranean snacking on a baked cookie. Noticing Kara's gaze, Kori just shrugged and stuffed a second cookie inside her mouth, starting to look like a hamster in her rush to consume as many of the things before they left the place… Cute.

"Do you have the blueprint for the house?" Kara shook her head and asked, smiling when the woman spread a large piece of paper over the kitchen island. "Thanks."

Quickly analyzing the blueprint, Kara made a note of the house's wiring, sewer connection and raw materials. She'd be changing just about everything if she bought the place, but she could save some work with the right house.

The house was nearly perfect, far enough away from the city that the noise was only mildly annoying, if she didn't focus on it, but still close enough to travel by car in less than an hour if it was needed.

Most of the house's materials could be reused without much trouble, there weren't any close neighbors to bother them, and it was large enough to house the both of them very comfortably. The ground was good, without any other subterranean structures and having an easily bypassed sewer system.

There was a wall of trees blocking vision from the street, but the best part was that there weren't many on the property itself, allowing Kara to easily get enough sunlight for any of her projects.

Janice, the real estate agent, had shown them two other houses that could also work, but one had an aquifer under the terrain and the other was just below several plane routes. The planes would be flying far up in the air but, with her hearing, it would be really frustrating.

"Alright, we'll take it," Kara said, rolling the blueprint closed and keeping it for herself.

"You will?" The agent asked almost incredulously, clearly surprised at Kara's decision.

"Yes, I'll have one of my lawyers finish the deal, but we'll be taking this house," Kara used X-Ray vision to look at her new home in its entirety and couldn't stop the smile from reaching her face.

Quickly, she signed a contract with the woman, probably making her day at the very large sale.

It was perfect, with plenty of space for Dexter to play and she'd only have to install a single seismic stabilizer before starting to dig down for her new base. One could never have too many underground bases.

After a week, this place would actually be as safe as Mount Justice itself and, in a month, it wouldn't even be a contest. In truth, Mount Justice was kind of… below her level of satisfaction.

Unfortunately, Batman hadn't let her install Kryptonian solar absorbers -or any kind of solar panel, really- on top of the mountain, and there was only so much power her crystals could get while underground, making their growth very slow without a better source of energy.

In his defense, it would be a little too obvious if the mountain suddenly sprouted several crystalline structures instead of vegetation, but Kara was already working on solving that particular problem.

"I am glad you have identified a satisfying site for our dwelling, Kara," Kori said, offering the single remaining cookie. "Here, I have reserved one for you."

"…Thanks," Kara said, eyeing the single, small cookie offered.

"I would have reserved more, but it is almost time for the Eating of Lunch and you have yet to regain your zest completely, and you do not seem to have a preference for cookies," Kori answered, finishing the last of her own snacks.

"I'm surprised you didn't want to help choose our home?" Kara said. She may hate shopping, especially for such a time consuming thing, but she had wanted more input from her partner. "You sure it's fine to leave everything to me?"

"I have no complaints, or particular requirements for the location," Kori shook her head. Sensing the beginning of a frown, she smiled and gave Kara a quick kiss. "I just surmised we could change everything else with ease. Demolishing the house would not be a problem, and you do possess several robots, yes?"

She… wasn't wrong. Kara was already planning to rebuild the house with more secure materials. And more places to hide weapons and equipment. It wouldn't be hard to also change its appearance. In fact, that would be the easiest part.

Ugh, why had she been trying to find a great house again? The most important thing had always been finding the right location anyway.

No, she had to find something passable first. Building something from zero would raise far more eyebrows than modifying something already built and she didn't want to draw any attention. But, once she found a house of about the right size and shape, she could justify several changes with a week of construction.

With a command on her cell phone, Kara started getting things ready and smiled at Kori. "Thanks for reminding me, I kinda narrowed my view there."

"It is no problem, I am sure that, once your eye finishes re-growing, it will not happen again." Kori nodded to herself, following Kara out of the house and taking in the location once again with a satisfied look on her eye.

"That's…" Kara started to say, lifting a finger to correct Kori but then she thought better of it and just shook her head. "Nevermind."

"I will. Please, do you think I may invite the rest of the Titans once the renovations are over?" Kori grabbed Kara's arm and stared at her with big, feline-like eyes.

Kara managed to not immediately fall under the spell those eyes cast, for a few seconds at least. Turning to watch the property, she calculated it's size carefully, none of her underground floors would be ready in only a week, so she'd need to cover it completely from view with one of her holographic disguises.

Yeah, it was doable. She already had a device almost powerful enough ready at the Fortress, it would only take a few hours of modification. "Sure, we can have them over as long as they use my teleporting platform to come so nobody can see it."

"Joy! Exaltation! I will inform them immediately!" Kori couldn't stop herself and threw herself at Kara's arms, causing the smaller Kryptonian to blush as the real estate agent gave them an amused look from a fair distance away.

"Ahem, I will enter in contact with your lawyers then, Miss Danvers?" The woman approached after seeing the two had more or less finished their chat, a small smile on her face. Just as Kara started to protest, the woman lifted a hand. "Don't worry, I have seen enough young couples getting their first house. Your interaction is downright tame in comparison."

"Right, thanks Mrs Miller." Kara said, dismissing the woman. "I take it I can start making renovations right away once the paperwork is done?"

"Indeed, thank you for your efforts, Friend Janice. They are most appreciated!" Kara almost didn't react fast enough, but she managed to stop Kori, saving the older woman from a back breaking hug.

"It was no problem, and yes, I will file my end today and, barring anything unexpected, I'll have the keys ready after the inspections are done in a couple of days." The woman smiled at them before waving goodbye.

Kara watched her entering the car and drive away, moving slowly back towards the center of the city, one of her drones hidden on the vehicle and another, smaller robot clinging to the woman's clothes.

Kara was mostly sure Janice Miller was a normal human just doing her job, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

"So! Ready to have lunch after eating all those cookies? I have to pick up Danny in an hour, so we'll have to eat out."

"Oh yes, the cookies were only enough to fill my first stomach," Kori nodded, hurrying towards their own rented car. "My other eight are completely starving!"

Getting into the driver's seat, Kara drove them into a fast food restaurant and got herself a burger, and five for Kori, with extra, extra, extra mustard. It was incredibly nice to be able to eat an entire burger without feeling stuffed. Really, every day that passed she was getting better.

"So, how goes the Titans' training?" She asked, biting into her meal with gusto.

"We have been learning about the disposal of explosive devices with The Green Lantern and espionage from The Captain Atom," Kori finished her second meal and licked her fingers clean. "It is most interesting, my education never covered such subjects. In Tamaran, we just destroyed bombs with starbolts and, as a Princess, I was not expected to learn about espionage."

"And the boys don't complain about it?"

"They do not. Although Friends Robin and Kid Flash do seem bored by the classes," Kori answered. "Unfortunately, we were supposed to have classes about investigation with The Batman today, but he has been preoccupied with problems in Gotham."

"So, you've got this afternoon free then?" Kara lifted an eyebrow, hiding her annoyance. "What're you guys going to be doing?"

"Friend Aqualad has been recalled to Atlantis, but I plan on leading the Titans in another battle simulation."

"Hmmmm, you mind if I bring an expert then? If he's free I mean."

"That would be greatly appreciated, yes," Kori nodded while devouring another meal. then she glanced at Kara with a considering look. "Although, it really would be preferable if this expert did not have any problems with the law."

"Don't worry about it," Kara snorted, it seems like Kori knew her too well. "He was actually recommended by Batman himself, so there shouldn't be a problem."

Satisfied, Kori nodded and then pulled out a mustard pack from the bag, biting into it and draining the entire thing. "Hmm, it is unfortunate we did not have more time, I have found the most wonderful restaurant for the eating of pizza and other greasy foodstuffs."

"Really, since when?" Kara couldn't help asking.

Kori actually went out far more often than Kara did, going shopping with Amber, the first Earthling woman they had ever met, or Troya at least twice a week, but it was still unusual to think that she knew Fawcett City better than her.

Heck, when had Kara started thinking about humans as 'Earthlings'? She used to be human once, and there really weren't that many differences between Kryptonians and Humans, all things considered. Not where it truly mattered.

Was she starting to lose sight of things again? Yesterday had been nice, but she had already started distancing herself from people again… thinking about it, had she ever traded more than a few sentences with any normal human after coming to the planet?

Suddenly, Kara felt Kori's hand squeezing her arm, interrupting her train of thought. "Kara, you were lost in your own mind again."

"Huh?"

"Indeed, you are exceedingly cute as you are plotting things, but it did not seem to be the case this time," Kori said, causing Kara to flush again. "As I explained, I have found the 'Superbabes' when strolling through the city with Friend Amber earlier this month. It has a large assortment of mustard packets and delectable pizzas."

"You… want to go somewhere called 'Superbabes'?" Kara asked aghast, refocusing on the conversation with no small amount of disbelief.

"Yes! Servers pay homage to Superheroes by dressing as them -although Friend Alice does dress as a villain- and most dishes are named after them too," Kori nodded her head eagerly.

Lifting an eyebrow at what she was hearing, Kara couldn't help but to do a quick search on the internet. She was left feeling strangely conflicted, her feelings struggling between jealousy, amusement and curiosity.

"Kori, you ate at a strip club? With Amber? Isn't she underage?" Kara had so many questions. Worse, she didn't even know if she wanted them answered.

Was… was there a male version of this too? One with Kal in it? No! Don't think about it!

"Joy, excitement, eagerness, I have always thought Earth's prejudices against showing one's body to be primitive, but to think there were entire clubs dedicated to freeing themselves from such constraints!" Kori started floating above the seat, only held in place by the belt around her chest. "Friend Amber and I have only eaten there during the daytime, it did not have such a feature then."

"... Yeah, that's not exactly the reason why they strip like that. Or the reason they dress as Supers, for that matter."

An explanation later and Kara actually felt bad about Kori's shattered expectations. That people actually charged money in exchange for affection was so alien it hadn't even occurred to her and it was also, apparently, incredibly offensive.

Parking close to the Zeta-Tube, Kara looked at Kori's pout and tried to cheer her up. "Hey, maybe it's not just about the money. Some courtesans consider it art, or maybe they just like bringing joy to others and the job is just convenient?"

"Do you really think so?"

Unable to lie, Kara sighed. "Not really, it's probably just about the money, but who knows? Stranger things have happened."

"Thank you, I appreciate the attempt." Kori said, her voice making it clear that it hadn't helped all that much.

"You sure you don't want me to drop you off at the apartment? There's still a few hours before the rest of the Titans get out of school, so there should still be some left-over ice cream there, right?"

"I do not. Partaking of frozen milky treats is meant to happen as celebration, not to placate my disappointment," Kori shook her head, stepping out of the car with Kara. "I prefer to spend my righteous anger on more productive activities."

"You actually brought ice cream to celebrate…" Kara couldn't find her words.

"Indeed, it was a very long but successful hunt!"

Kara just stared at her girlfriend. She was not prey, Rao damn it! Narrowing her eye, Kara mumbled. "You do know I can build a tickle machine, right? It's extremely easy."

With a kiss, Kori placated her, cutting off her evil plans of ticklish retribution before saying goodbye and disappearing with the Zeta-Tube.

A second later, Kara herself teleported, appearing near Central City where Danny had spent the night in a hotel room. Quickly, Kara found the gynoid waiting for her in a nearby coffee and lifted an eyebrow at her creamy cappuccino and large assortment of desserts.

"What? You gave me fully working taste buds, I'm just resting to see if there was anything wrong," Danny said, avoiding her eye with some embarrassment. "I never knew deserts could be so good."

"Good to see you're making good use of it at least," Kara snorted, while Danny asked someone to put the remaining snacks in a bag. "You sure you're up for it? I mean, I know I was the one to ask, but you don't NEED to do this if you're uncomfortable."

"Nope, you promised me flying, I was always jealous of our flyers in the JSA," She said, paying for her meal. "I already bragged about it with Jay too."

Trading a quick hug, Kara found a hidden corner and used her phone to call a smaller version of her teleporting platform to their location, the bigger one being too attention grabbing and still used by the Genomorphs.

A second later, they stepped out of it inside her side of the Fortress. Danny quickly looked around in curiosity, seeing several men working and moving things all over the room. One of them, wearing a red and white striped shirt and a large, brown beard, offered to take her bags.

"Ma'am, welcome. Are you here to oversee the operation?" He asked in a gruff voice.

"No, I'm going to be installing one of the wind cores, you guys just continue getting ready."

"Right away Ma'am," he gave them a quick nod, put the bags on top of a crystalline table and moved on further inside the Fortress.

"Wasn't this supposed to be the Fortress of, you know, Solitude?" Danny asked with a curious tone as they walked towards Kara's own laboratory.

"Well, don't know if Kal can still call it that, what with me here, but those guys are just my Karabots. I'll have them posing as construction workers at my new house," Kara explained, arranging the location for their quick operation, it shouldn't take more than an hour or two. "I just ordered them to be fitted with synthetic skin and a basic AI this morning."

Danny gave her a disappointed look, almost facepalming. "Really, Karabots? That's what you went with?"

"Hey, they're just the retrofitted Morrowbots, and I really don't have the best naming sense," Kara shrugged while the room started changing, a crystalline bed growing in the middle as well as several pieces of equipment rising from the floor where they were being kept. "I could either waste a day or two trying to come up with a better name, or go with Karabots. I choose to not waste my time."

"Very practical of you to not waste a full day on naming one thing," Danny snorted, finally focusing on the small, round core held inside a transparent crystal casing. "Is that a 'KaraKore' then?"

"No, I just call it a wind core. Again, I could come up with a fitting acronym, but why waste time. It's a core, it makes wind," Kara answered with a distracted voice as she carefully took the piece of equipment out of the casing. "I managed to replicate Mr. Twister's device fairly easily, but this one was actually built with some of my own supply of Nth metal. I had it separated for testing, but decided this was a better use. It should make flying even easier, and actually give you some magical protection."

"Is that fine? Even back then, we knew that kinda metal was very rare," Danny asked while laying down on the bed.

"It's probably fine, and the piece was small enough it shouldn't really cause any problems," Kara said, causing the bed to rise until she could drag some cables to Danny's back. At their approach, her skin seemed to part by itself and a connection port formed. "Just… Well, I heard that, in its pure form, the metal is actually sentient, so, if you start hearing voices or feeling changes in your programming, warn me."

"Wait, what's that abou- Ack!" The woman yelped as the cables connected, sending a small electric charge through her body and causing goosebumps to raise on her synthetic skin.

"Sorry about that, I'm lowering your sensitivity right now," Kara said, using the computers to change some of Danny's settings. "You shouldn't really be able to feel pain, but the operation would be really uncomfortable without this."

"No, I want to hear about this sentient thing first! What the fuck are you putting inside me?" Danny grumbled in annoyance, but didn't get up from the bed.

"Don't worry about it, I use the metal myself," Kara smiled at her. "Even if it does form a connection, the metal tends to form a symbiotic relationship to the user, but it's such small amounts here that that shouldn't happen. I wasn't even gonna mention it, but I thought your reaction would be funny."

"Right, very funny," Danny grumbled, allowing Kara to lower the bed and pull her shirt up to her chest, revealing most of her belly.

With a command from her computer, Kara caused a plate to lift from Danny's armor, revealing her insides. Kara could actually do it with her own hands, but the equipment was delicate enough that she preferred to manipulate it with some tools to be more precise.

It wouldn't actually cause any problems otherwise, but Kara did like looking at the neat wiring and perfectly positioned components. It was strange, Kara didn't mind if her bedroom was a mess, but her devices? She absolutely hated it.

"Damn, this's odd to watch," Danny eventually commented as Kara continued to carefully install the core, connecting it to Danny's own fire core in several ways while maintaining their independent functionalities. "It's one thing to know I'm an android, another to actually see it."

"Wants me to turn you off for a little bit? You don't have to watch it you know," Kara offered again, her tongue actually poking out of her mouth as she carefully formed the connections on the cores.

"No, I didn't say it was bad. Just strange," Resting her head back against the bed, Danny stopped trying to see the operation and looked at the robots walking through the Fortress. Two dozen were already covered with synthetic skin and wearing clothes, but there were several more of them standing in neat little rows. "Fuck, how many of those things did you manage to loot from father? Are you actually building more of the things? What do you even need them for, building an army?"

"... No?"

"Kara, why did you just hesitate to answer?" Danny asked, her eyes slowly leaving the rows of robots to stare at her friend. "And why did your answer sound like a question?"

"No reason, don't worry about it," Kara quickly answered, perhaps a little too quickly. "Busy now, have to concentrate."

"Kara…" Danny sighed, closing her eyes for a second. "Fuck it, I owe you my life Kara, if you need help, just ask for it."

"Don't worry, I don't need help, just time," Kara commented absentmindedly, she had used it as an excuse to change the question, but working on such advanced tech really did require concentration. "I'm perfectly capable of taking over the world by myself, but thanks for the offer."

"WHAT!"

Chapter Text

“WHAT!?” Danni yelled. Only Kara pushing her chest plate back down against the bed kept the android from getting up.

“Huh? Oh, I don’t mean this world, don’t worry about it,” Kara dismissed her concerns, finally finishing her adjustments to the connection between the cores and starting to put the finishing touches on the… operation? Giving a quick thought about the possibility, she shook her head. “Well, I probably could take over this world too but, really, taking over the Earth would be such pain. Too much paperwork, too many pesky villains. Heck, this rock isn’t even united under a single world governing body yet. Can you imagine how finicky just having to localize all my laws would be?”

Living 16 years in Krypton had changed her view of Earth by quite a bit. Previously, Kara could more or less understand how Earth’s worst practices could happen. Now… now they just looked plain stupid, even baffling.

“Kara, the fact that you’d think anything you just said would cause me ‘not to worry’ would be amusing if it wasn’t so concerning,” Danni sighed, banging the back of her head against the bed and causing Kara to snicker in amusement.

There was a pause in the conversation as Kara reconnected a few wires, causing Danni’s back to bend and she momentarily burst into flames, but they weren’t dangerously hot and the gynoid quickly regained control of her power.

“There, that should do it. Can you try using your wind now?” Kara stepped away from the bed and asked.

For a second, Danni frowned as she tried to get a handle on her new power; she imagined it was like trying to lift only a single eyebrow for the first time, not exactly hard, but something she didn’t have experience with.

Above one of her hands, a current of wind started forming, twisting around the limb and forming a very slow twister. Immediately, she knew she could empower it to create winds strong enough to uproot trees.

While it was probably only a tenth as powerful as her flames she could already see a lot of uses for this new ability. Closing her fist, she canceled the wind and looked at Kara. “It’s a lot weaker than my fire, did you install it correctly?”

“Pretty sure I did, the core is just a lot weaker than Red Tornado’s, or yours for that matter,” Kara replied, starting to close up Danni’s belly. “I suspect Professor Morrow just didn’t have access to the same materials as before when he was building it. Plus, your programming just isn’t made to work with wind, but it’s good enough to adapt with time. In a week or two the core should double in strength as you adapt to it.”

Glancing at her phone, Kara saw that Detective Chimp had replied to her, he was too busy today to give lessons, working on a magical murder. She briefly asked if he needed help and, when he said no, sent a message to Kori informing her that the expert wasn’t available.

“You know, now that I think of it when people talk about alien invasions, it’s usually someone invading us, not the other way around,” Danni commented as she pulled down her shirt and got up from the bed, the cable at her back automatically disconnecting. “So, out of morbid curiosity, which poor schmucks were you thinking of conquering?”

“Well, I should probably have said ‘liberate’,” Kara explained, helping the gynoid up and doing one last diagnosis of her systems. “And, well, the Justice League is probably gonna be helping out, but Tamaran isn’t being controlled by a single villain, there’s actually an interplanetary army there. Worse, even if the League does free the planet, the entire system is filled with criminals of all kinds, not to mention the not small possibility of re-occupation; they’d still need an army of their own to defend themselves.”

“Tamaran?” Danni asked, already attempting to create a twister below her legs so she could fly… it wasn’t going very well.

“Kori’s home planet. It’s been conquered by the strongest power in the Vega System,” Kara explained. Avoiding Danni’s eyes, Kara couldn’t help but feel some guilt as she admitted. “You know, I always wanted to take over a planet... It kinda makes me feel bad, how much I expect I’m gonna enjoy the mess, I mean.”

“Yeah… sorry, I don’t really know what to say to that,” Danni snorted, losing control of the small twister and grabbing Kara’s extended arm to steady herself. Stopping her new powers, she fully dropped to the floor and thought about it. “No, fuck that, I can actually kind of relate. I always loved fighting with the JSA, using my powers to face supervillains always brought me such satisfaction. Still, the fact that I was having fun didn’t make what we did any less necessary, or any less good.”

“Right, thanks,” Kara said, checking the Fortress’s supplies to see if the Karabot production could continue without pause. “Ready to go back?”

“Not… really?” Danni said with a bitter smile. “I mean, brother is being nice and all, but fuck, I think I’m gonna go back to heroic work out of sheer boredom!”

“Wanna spar with some of the bots? We actually never tested how strong you are after the improvements I made and the robots do need combat data.”

“You don’t mind? They don’t look that strong,” Danni asked while glancing at the line of bots, but Kara could already see her eagerness despite her lack of biology.

“Oh no, I always loved destructive testing. Come on,” Kara motioned towards the more resistant part of the Fortress, a sharp glint on her eye.
.
.

Later, floating in the middle of her soon-to-be-old apartment in a sitting position, Kara scratched Dexter’s fur and stared at the information displayed in the hologram in front of her. On one side, all the equipment she had used as Forge up to this point, on the other, everything she had used as Supergirl.

She had briefly used her teleporting platform in both identities, but only the Light had really gotten a clear view of it, and said view had been very brief. She’d reserve that particular piece of tech for Forge going forward then.

The energy shields were another thing, but those were common enough between superheroes. She’d only have to change the colors and some of the properties of their manifestation from one identity to the other and there probably wouldn’t be much problem.

Slowly, she continued to make a list of things to and to not use in each identity. Her Forge persona got to use the more advanced pieces of tech, while Supergirl would only use them as support, relying on her Kryptonian powers most of the time.

The drones were problematic. The Light had gotten access to some of them in CADMUS, but Kara was already using her own version of the Fog -changed and remade with Kryptonian tech to such a degree that they were unrecognizable- for her Supergirl persona.

Really, nano-robots weren’t exactly a very novel idea, and her newest version was versatile enough to be the perfect support ability while lacking the specialized design needed for her more powerful devices.

Still, she had used her drones to generate shields in Brazil, and there were probably a lot of recordings of that. Ugh, she’d also given some of the drones to the Titans now that she thought about it.

Rao damn it, that was just the kind of connection a mastermind villain could follow.

She hated that The Light had access to some of her tech, even if only a small, mostly insignificant part… Wait, since the Titans were already using the drones, why not spread them more?

Send a box of drones to the Justice League, and a few to other select independent heroes. The drones weren’t completely free to make because of the small amounts of particular metals they used, but she could send three or four cubic feet to every hero around and, since The Light already had a few, it wouldn’t be that damaging if some ended up in villain hands.

Talia already thought that Forge had some connection to Batman, maybe they’d think she had supplied the drones as a way to buy non-interference, or even that someone in the League had created the drones and Forge was the one to acquire them instead.

Returning her attention to the display, Kara made a lot of modifications, stripping the drones of anything too dangerous, making their stealth a little worse and changing their flight ability. The levitation would still be incredibly useful, but not that far above existing Earth tech. After that, she sent an order to start solar-forging a couple boxes of the things.

She’d ask the League and Detective Chimp to help distribute them to the more trustworthy heroes later. That way, the Titans could continue using the drones without being truly connected to her Forge identity and the CADMUS incident.

She didn’t think she could keep the ruse up indefinitely, not from everybody, but who knows? And villains, despite forming secret societies, weren’t really known for freely sharing information. Even if she wasn’t able to fool Luthor for long, it didn’t mean that everyone had his resources, his intellect or his sado-masochistic obsession with all things Kryptonian.

A meow from her lap caused her to glance down, seeing Dexter lazily lifting a paw; his claws extended to gently hook on her finger and try to pull it closer. It seems like she has stopped patting him while tapping on her holographic computer and the cat demanded his pet Kryptonian's attention. Lowering her hand, Kara promptly obeyed her benevolent feline overlord.

Briefly, she considered if she should build her own neural control like her father’s to allow for hands free interfacing. Unfortunately, such devices, while incredibly useful, were also incredibly dangerous. They required very fine calibration and, as a direct route to her nervous system, represented a huge security risk.

Such risk wasn’t as glaring here on Earth, but there were still a lot of tech geniuses around. Heck, even someone mediocre just had to land a glancing cyber attack and her brain would be fried. Kara just didn’t have sufficient knowledge to program a proper defense.

Plus, Kara wasn’t sure she had enough skill to properly adjust the thing’s programming for her own use.

Perhaps she could build a lesser version instead, it wouldn’t really be able to follow her thoughts perfectly and having a delay that would make it useless in a fight, but it would be good enough for relaxed work. But even that would still present a moderate risk.

Using only one hand, Kara continued working until she felt satisfied with the results. It was still only five in the afternoon when she’d wrapped up, so she considered what to do next.

Kori was still out with Wonder Woman and Dexter had lost interest in her lap a few minutes ago, sitting on the window and watching the birds flying around with narrowed eyes, his tail swinging from side to side.

Dropping to the floor, Kara walked towards the window and stared out. She had her emergency teleport in her prosthetic, she had access to even better tech, and, with it currently standing atop her teleportation platform, her power armor was only a single command away.

It was time she went out again.

With a command, her outfit burst into a cloud of robots and reformed into her Supergirl uniform, a white mask forming in front of her face, a computer display on the inner part of it giving her access to her computers with only a glance.

Glancing aside, Kara looked at her reflection in the mirror. A strong woman stared back at her, obvious muscles showing on her arms and legs and a confident stance, the symbol of hope on her chest.

Lobo was still out there, The Light, The Monster Society, Psions and who the heck knows what else, but she couldn’t continue holing up in fear. Leaving the house only when there was someone else with her or on short trips to the Zeta-Tube only went so far.

Taking a deep breath, Kara stepped out into the balcony, letting the fresh, outside air hit her. She probably should have left on foot, but they were leaving this location in a few days anyway, and she did have holographic projectors hiding her from the nearby buildings.

Putting one foot on top of the balustrade, Kara caught herself shaking, closing her hands into fists; she gritted her teeth and pushed away, flying up into the air until she rose above the clouds. Time to be heroic… well, her kind of heroic.

For a second, she expected to get hit by one of her cousin’s enemies, her muscles tense and her eye constantly glancing at the command to teleport away or activate the apartment defenses.

Nothing happened.

Flying high above the city, she looked down, taking in the small buildings and the even smaller people walking between them. The sun was still up in the sky and she felt it hitting her face, sending a pleasant feeling over her entire body.

Slowly, her muscles relaxed and she smiled. So what if she got attacked? Anybody who did that would regret the day they were born! She was ready now.

For a few seconds, Kara closed her eyes and concentrated on the city below her, trying to hear if there was anything wrong, but, as she had hoped, Fawcett City, when not in the middle of a supervillain attack, seemed surprisingly peaceful.

Satisfied that there wasn’t anything too dangerous, Kara started flying, slowly making her way away from the city while paying attention to see if there was anything she could help with.

Connecting to the internet, she looked to see if there was any supervillain in action and, when that didn’t give her any leads, started looking for disasters or larger crimes.

Well, despite this being DC, big crimes that would require her attention just weren’t that common, not ones that were reported on real time at least. Kara found the Flash patrolling Central City, and a few other heroes solving or having solved some crimes around the world.

Icon was fighting a lesser villain in Washington DC, Blue Devil had just subdued some kind of mutant in Taipei and both Captain Marvel and Zatara were taking care of a forest fire in Australia. Having saved anyone at risk, Giovanni was actually holding the fire back while the Captain attempted to cast a weather spell over the fire.

Well, Kara had wanted to get closer to normal people, she supposed she should choose a city and just… start doing a patrol or something.

She could have just stayed in Fawcett City, but she had the silly feeling that the city was already ‘taken’. And really, with someone like Captain Marvel already around, her presence there would be superfluous. No, another city would benefit far more.

Kara had done her research and while it was true that supervillain crime increased once a hero started patrolling a city, the data didn’t lie. A superhero’s presence tended to be very advantageous for a place.

Violent crime went down, police brutality and corruption dropped as good officers got support and felt more confident to fight against it. Drug trade diminished and even things like car chases or burglary tended to go down for months after a hero appeared. Even with the occasional super fight, the raw data was that less people got hurt and the city lost less money with a hero in it.

Of course, normal crime would eventually adapt, learn the hero’s limits. Which kind of crime they preferred to, or even could, stop, their working hours, how to distract them and so on. Still, it almost always ended up better than before, for many reasons.

Her chosen city was actually a fairly large one, and she wouldn’t really be putting up roots there, just patrolling sometimes. Flying high enough that she wouldn’t bother anybody, Kara caused a sonic boom as she flew towards her new destination.

Phoenix, Arizona, was one of the biggest cities in the US, and also one with a very high crime rate, losing only to places like Gotham and Bludhaven. All that and it somehow didn’t have any heroes currently working in it. The city got a lot of sunlight, a lot of crime and even had a convenient desert nearby where Kara could take the more destructive fights. It was an almost perfect stomping ground for her.

Arriving above the city, Kara actually stopped to look around a little, taking in the giant city grid. Hacking the police channels, she started monitoring the crimes in the city.

Wait, did she hear that right? Someone was actually robbing a bank not a minute after she’d gotten there? Positioning herself above the building, she used X-ray vision to see four men; two held large, automatic weapons and acted like guards while the other two were gathering the money.

One of the men was forcing a cashier to empty all the cash in the bank into large bags, while another was actually going from person to person, having them hand over cell phones and jewelry as fast as they could.

Kara actually snorted in amusement, robbing a bank only paid off if you could get to the vault, otherwise, you’d only get away with a couple thousand at most. At least nobody had gotten hurt yet. Really, it couldn’t possibly be worth it even when there wasn’t any superhero in the city.

Taking a deep breath, Kara let herself fall, the air hitting her mask and causing her hair to trail behind her. With a loud ‘boom’, she accelerated and, a second later, was inside the building with them, having grabbed the revolving door so it wouldn’t break as she entered.

In slow motion, Kara watched both criminal guards turn their weapons towards her; a quick glance around showed her there were at least thirty civilians trembling on the floor.

Kara immediately noticed a father with a large bruise on his cheek from the butt of a rifle, his hand desperately holding the mouth of his crying child closed as he did his best to protect him with his body and keep the child quiet. The boy’s eyes were wide with fright and his entire body was trembling.

Rushing forward right as one of the men started to press the trigger, Kara grabbed the barrel of the gun and pulled, ripping it out of his grip without much care. The action actually amputated the tip of his trigger finger, sending it flying and dislocated both of his wrists.

With a sigh, Kara briefly watched the finger flying off. Ugh, she probably shouldn’t have done that. Humans were so fragile.

Snatching the finger out of the air with one hand, Kara turned to the second man holding an assault rifle and threw her newly acquired rifle with the other, being more careful this time. The weapon hit him in the chest with just enough strength to cause him to drop his own gun and fall on his back, completely out of breath. A quick blast of heat vision melted the barrel of the gun, rendering it useless.

He was wearing a bulletproof vest; the projectile didn’t even break any bones.

Grabbing one of the first criminal’s arms, she used her X-Ray vision to look at his wrists and moved the bones back into place, causing the man to fall to his knees and shout in pain.

Still grabbing his arm, she opened his hand and put the amputated finger in the middle of his palm before curling his fingers around it. “Here, keep it safe, will you? They may be able to reconnect it later.”

The man gave her a terrified glance, desperately scrambling away from her, but Kara saw that he wasn’t going anywhere so she dismissed him.

“Who the fuck are you!” Screamed the third guy, he had pulled one of the civilians to her feet and pressed a gun to her head. “Nevermind, drop to the ground! Now! To the ground or I’ll kill her!”

Kara glanced at the last criminal, still holding a bag halfway filled with money, the man hadn’t taken out a gun himself and kept glancing between her and the exit with a desperate look on his face.

Turning back to the more immediate threat she considered him. “No.”

“What?” The man asked, as if he couldn’t understand why she wouldn’t obey. Well, not every criminal had faced a superhero, maybe he was one of those. “I said, get on the ground, you fucking cunt! Who the fuck do you think you are, the Flash?! I’m warning you, I’m gonna blow this bitch’s brains out!”

Kara made sure to keep her eyes on his trigger finger, but she did take a quick glance at a nearby mirror. Yep, still wearing her Supergirl costume. “So, you see someone wearing a big blue costume, a huge S on her chest… and your first guess is The Flash? How?” She asked, genuinely curious.

“Oh shit,” the guy without a weapon said as the realization hit him, and Kara could actually see the muscles on his ass cheeks contracting in fear. “Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit!”

“Alright, drop your weapon before you do something you’ll regret. You haven’t killed anybody yet,” Kara argued, she could have just taken the guy out, but she wanted to see if he’d incriminate himself more. “You’re already going to jail; don’t make it harder on yourself.”

The sentence for bank robbery was already harsh but, if he was the kind of person to shoot a hostage, Kara wanted him gone for as long as possible. Then she noticed the look of absolute fear on the woman’s face.

Ah, crap. Again, she was focusing more on the criminal than on their victims. With another sigh, she rushed forward and gripped the handgun, crushing the weapon in her gloved hand before throwing it towards the last criminal sneaking his way towards the exit. He froze in place as the crumbled ball hit the floor right in front of him.

Her other hand gripped the man’s face, blocking his mouth as she manhandled him away from the hostage. “Ah, sorry about that ma’am, I shouldn’t have even let him take you as hostage. Don’t worry; you were never in any danger.”

“What?” The woman asked, collapsing into Kara’s arms as the relief hit her. “Oh thank you, thank you!”

Slowly getting up from the ground, the woman’s husband embraced her and Kara let her go, dragging the criminal by his face and away from the couple. The idiot was still doing his best to punch her, even taking out a knife and trying to stab her, but she just ignored him.

“So, are you gonna run?” She asked the last man standing, she had already seen he only had a single handgun on his vest, but he didn’t seem interested in pulling it out.

Still standing in place, the man looked down at the destroyed handgun, then to his former companions and swallowed, hard. “Nope, not me, never!” He hurried to say, furiously shaking his head from side to side.

“Good. Then do me a favor and put that handgun on the counter, will you? Then help zip tie your friends,” Kara commanded, throwing him a bag of zip ties she kept in one of her costume’s pockets.

He obeyed, very efficiently at that, quickly tying up his three companions and even using his mouth to pull a zip tie tightly around his own wrists.

Well, look at that, an almost sensible criminal. Kara had always found it silly how people kept shooting at her cousin in the comics. Come on, if a freaking Kryptonian tells you to surrender, unless you’re Lex Luthor or Black Adam, you damn well better surrender.

She supposed it could be that people, even criminals, just always trusted Superman to be kind and never take things too far but there’s always a chance that it was an alternative version, an evil clone or a mind control situation. Did you really want to risk it? With a Kryptonian?

Well, it could also be that criminals just surrendering when he showed up wasn’t very interesting in a comic book and, in reality; the situation was far more common than she expected.

“Who are you?” A fat security guard finally asked as he got up from where he had been hiding behind a desk, his partner quickly talking on a radio.

“You can call me Supergirl, not very original, I know, but it’s kind of a family tradition at this point,” Kara joked, extending a hand and helping an old woman to her feet.

“Are you really… you know?” He continued, glancing to the El house crest on her chest and quickly back up to her face. “I mean, I never heard of Superman hurting a criminal.”

“Yep, he’s my cousin. Probably gonna be working with him sometimes. Let’s just say I’m not as experienced in restraining myself or as kind as he is,” Kara just shrugged her shoulders at the man. Patting the old woman down, Kara paid attention to see if her body really was doing well, but outside of a slightly accelerated heartbeat from the action, she was surprisingly fit for her age. “Are you sure you’re feeling fine ma’am?”

“Yes, yes, thank you sweetie,” the old grandma adjusted her dress and grasped for her purse, but it wasn’t there. “Oh my, have you seen my purse, it’s yellow and…”

Suddenly, her computer caught a police chase happening at the other side of town. A man seemed to be doing drugs and, once pulled over, decided to try and make a run for it. The police didn’t know if he was armed or not.

“Here it is ma’am,” Kara flashed towards the fallen purse and handed it over. Glancing around, she looked at the kid crying on his father’s chest, but already saw the panic was starting to fade. Good.

Nodding to herself, she noted that the security people were keeping an eye on the guns. A quick check on everyone’s heartbeats and their positioning later, she was sure that nobody was gonna hurt the subdued criminals anytime soon. Raising her voice, she said. “Sorry people, duty calls!”

Bursting out of the bank, she found the footage from a news helicopter and followed it to quickly arrive at the location. A quick search on the internet later and Kara saw that the vehicle was actually stolen.

Such a pity. She was looking forward to dropping on top of the car and scaring the hell out of the guy. There were two police cars following after the guy and other officers were doing their best to stop traffic so he wouldn’t hit anybody.

Flying down, Kara just grabbed the car by the rear bumper and quickly lifted it into the air, her bioelectrical field keeping it intact. Looking inside the car, she saw the man actually reaching for a gun so she threw the vehicle up and adjusted her grip.

“Ouch!” The man yelled as he hit his head on the ceiling, but he still reached towards the weapon that had fallen on the passenger seat’s floor.

Smirking, Kara started shaking the car, hard. The man hadn’t put on a seatbelt so, soon, grunts and swearwords increased in frequency as the man hit his body just about everywhere for half a minute.

“Oh god, I’m gonna throw up!”

Well, we couldn’t have that. Turning the car on the side, Kara opened the driver’s door and shook the man out of the car. He fell half a meter to the floor, hitting his side and promptly turning around to release the drugs on his stomach all over the pavement.

Right behind her, both police cars came to a stop, their tires screaming as they parked around her and four officers jumped out, pointing handguns towards her and the man on the floor while hiding behind the car doors.

“Drop your weapon!” One of the officers yelled, so Kara slowly floated away from the druggie and, carefully, laid the car down. “On the floor, get on the fucking floor!”

At her side, she saw two of the officers jumping on top of the still throwing up car thief and pulling his arm back to put cuffs on him, screaming orders all the while.

Floating in the air above the car, Kara lifted both hands up in a non threatening gesture. “Please, don’t shoot. The bullets are just gonna bounce off and I’m gonna have to catch them before they hit somebody. I don’t want to bother.”

“Get on the…!” One of the officers started to yell, but the second one interrupted him and shook his head. “What!?”

“John, remember our meta-human classes,” The man whispered, holstering his weapon. “Stop pointing your gun at the flying brick, man. We use hollow points for Christ’s sake, it’s not gonna do anything.”

The first man just looked at his gun for a few seconds and then, slowly, lowered the weapon, holding it pointing to the floor with his finger off the trigger.

Kara lowered her arms and floated closer, stopping just a couple of centimeters above the road to watch them arrest the man and search the vehicle. It wasn’t even damaged by her rough handling, her field keeping it mostly intact.

“Sorry about that, I take it you’re a new hero?” The officer came closer, still keeping a wary gaze on her.

“What gave that away?”

“Well, a villain wouldn’t have lifted their arms, and the Superman inspiration is pretty obvious,” the man said, giving a brief glance at her suit as a third police car arrived. “What’re you called?”

“Supergirl,” Kara answered, crossing her arms behind her back as she floated. “The branding kinda goes too well with the costume and the power set.”

“Hmmm, hey, John, didn’t we have a Superwoman here a couple years ago?” He called out to the man checking the car.

“Yeah, but she didn’t have any powers,” The officer called back, still frowning as he spoke on the radio. “Tried to do a Batman, but she got shot in a month or so, another precinct arrested her for vigilantism after that.”

“So, anything to do with you?” The officer asked and Kara noticed that the others were kind of giving them space. Was that part of the meta-human classes he’d mentioned? She’d have to look into that.

“Well, since Superman is actually my cousin, that’s really unlikely,” Kara answered, her head turning towards the side as she heard a car crash in the distance.

A quick glance on her computer and Kara quickly found a camera watching the accident revealing that, while it had greatly damaged the two vehicles, both drivers were already getting out of the cars on their feet and there were no other people involved.

“Huh, what’s with the mask then?” The man asked, lifting an eyebrow at her.

“Seriously? I say I’m Big Blue’s cousin and your first question is about the mask?” Kara breathed in frustration. “Do you have any idea how much trouble my cousin goes to in order to keep his secret identity? I mean, it’s not really anything big, but he does a lot of small, annoying tricks, a mask is just easier.”

“Really? I always thought he was just a shape-shifter or something,” The policemen shrugged, watching as one of his partners forced the criminal inside a car. “Kinda like the Martian dude, you know? Anyways, you got super-strength, speed, heat vision and all that like the big dude?”

“Is there a reason for all those questions?” Kara asked suspiciously, despite his calm attitude, she could see the tension on his body and how hard his heart was beating.

“Gathering information… and, well, trying to form a good relationship,” the guy shamelessly admitted. “Pretty standard with a new meta-human, or alien I guess. At least when we don’t stand a chance of arresting them for vigilantism. Are you staying in the city or just passing through?”

“Probably staying, why?”

“Well, I’d really suggest you call the Chief sometime in the near future,” the guys said, pulling out a small piece of paper from his pocket and writing a number on it before handing it over. “I mean, in a lot of places the department absolutely hates their resident heroes, but it’s always best to have a good relationship.”

“Right, I’ll probably do that soon,” Kara commented, feeling quite odd at the interaction. Really, she had never thought about forming a relationship with the local law enforcement. Did Kal have some kind of deal in Metropolis before forming the League?

Folding the paper, Kara put it on one of her coat’s inner pockets. Seeing that things were done here, she nodded to the officer and floated up, quickly catching sight of a drug dealer in a corner over a dozen blocks away.

A slight smile curled Kara’s lips upward. Time to scare the crap out of him. She’d just have to be careful not to go too far.

Chapter Text

Kara dropped in front of the robber, blocking his view of the couple trembling behind her, the boyfriend doing his best to keep the girl behind him.

It was only her second patrol in the city and the last one for the week. Kara wasn’t willing to completely drop her tinkering to focus entirely on being a hero, so she had decided to do it twice a week, randomizing the days so people wouldn’t adapt to her movements.

Keeping an eye on the weapon, she did a quick facial recognition search on the attacker and found two charges of robbery with a deadly weapon and videos of several crimes, from assault to attempted rape, his family had put him in a recovery clinic once, but he had run away right after getting ‘sober’.

Right, no need to be gentle with this one.

The scent of drugs hit her nose soon after Kara dropped down and she noticed some spilled beer over the would-be mugger’s shirt. She also saw his hands were shaking and his eyes were red

Kara always hated having to deal with drug addicts and drunks. In a way, it was their addiction that drove them to crime rather than malice, so she felt bad being too rough with them but, on the other hand, they hurt innocent people.

Still, there was only so much violence she’d allow the addiction to excuse and this seemed a pretty clear case where she didn’t need to pull her punches. “Alright, put the gun down before I do it for you Richard. The police asked me not to ruin evidence like that anymore.”

Instead of answering her or even surrendering like any sane person, the idiot shot her.

Huh, that was a first after she had revealed herself in the city. Most others had decided to give up as soon as she appeared.

Guess that security video of her moving in a blur and amputating a guy’s finger had been an effective intimidation tactic.

With a sigh, Kara snatched the bullet out of the air even though it wasn’t even gonna hit her, flying a whole meter over her left shoulder. She wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt, maybe his finger had twitched and he had shot her by accident, but the gun continued shooting, unloading the entire magazine at her.

Snatching every shoot as they came —Only one was actually on target— Kara watched the last one coming for her and flicked it back, using enough control to aim for the man’s foot. The camera in her costume already saving the video to send to the police.

“Stop shooting yourself Richard,” she said blithely, walking calmly towards him, her boots hitting the pavement in large steps. “Rao, I know you’re high, but this is pathetic.”

“AHHHHH! Fuck! You fuchin’ shot me!” He yelled, not even able to speak right.

“Really? You shoot at a freaking Kryptonian and complain when the bullet bounces back?” Shaking her head, Kara stepped on top of the fallen gun. Making sure not to crush it, she kicked it away from the man and pulled out a zip tie.

Securing the man’s arms behind his back, she briefly considered his cursing form before ripping out a piece of his shirt and using it to gag his dirty mouth. Using her X-ray vision, she checked his foot where the bullet had hit him and nodded in satisfaction.

Kara had done her best to not flick the bullet fast enough to pierce his body, but her control still wasn’t perfect and the impact could have broken a bone. Thankfully it hadn’t, only leaving a huge bruise.

“Sorry for the scare. Are the two of you alright?” Kara said, finally turning towards the couple. The young girlfriend seemed to actually be doing better, while the man’s limbs were trembling as his adrenaline crashed.

“Thank you! You’re Superwoman, right?” the girlfriend asked in an eager voice. Kara swore she could see the woman’s eyes shining as she almost pushed her boyfriend out of the way in a rush. “Oh my god, I need your autograph, Sidney is never gonna believe this!”

A little taken aback, Kara traded a disbelieving glance with the man, seeing his baffled face as his girlfriend seemed to completely ignore the fact she was almost shot at. “Ah, I actually prefer Supergirl. Superwoman would make me feel like I had to be mature when dealing with criminals.”

“Great! You don’t know how glad I am that you showed up!” The woman continued on, pulling a pen and a small book from her purse, eagerly handing it over. “Are you gonna be joining the Justice League? You have to; there are so few women there!”

“Not anytime soon?” Kara answered, but it was more like a question as she was feeling incredibly awkward at the woman’s excitement, she hadn’t even done anything big enough to earn recognition yet. “Who am I signing to…?”

“Amanda!” She almost yelled and Kara started signing the book. “God, Sidney couldn’t shut up about getting Black Canary’s signature, but I actually got a Kryptonian!”

Snatching the book out of her hands, the woman clutched it to her chest with one hand while pulling her phone out and furiously tipping into it.

“I- Ah, thanks,” The boyfriend finally said, looking at his girl with a newfound understanding. “Should I… do something?”

“Can you call the cops? I could drop him in the station, but they’d have to come here anyway and you’re gonna have to give your testimony.”

“Right, right, I’ll do that,” suddenly, he winced as the girl’s camera flashed and she took a selfie in front of Kara.

Seeing that things were under control, Kara patted the guy’s back in sympathy and soared into the air, eager to get away. Stopping behind a cloud, she glared to the side. “Don’t you dare laugh.”

“I wasn’t going to,” Kal answered, a smile on his face as he floated closer.

“Does that happen often?” She asked, glancing down at the woman to make sure she wasn’t going to do anything to the arrested man.

“You’d be surprised. Although it did take a little longer for me,” he said, giving her a quick hug. “I once had an older man hug me and refuse to let go for nearly five minutes.”

Kara tried to imagine a little old dude clinging to Kal’s leg for five minutes and couldn’t stop her snort of amusement.

“Hey, Mr. Adams was a great guy once he calmed down,” He said, floating away from her.

Looking down at the girl taking a selfie with the bound criminal, Kara had the distinct impression her ‘fan’ wasn’t as nice as Mr. Adams. Hearing the vehicle roll up, both their heads turned to the side and the Kryptonians watched the police car approach.

Kara had used a program to call the police as soon as she had seen the crime, but it still took some time for them to arrive and it was always better to have the victim call too just to make sure.

Finally, after the officers arrived and detained the man, the Els floated away to sit on top of a building. “So, why are you checking up on me?”

“What? I can’t come to visit my cousin?” Kal said. Pulling on his cape, he revealed a small pocket and pulled out two pretzels, offering her one. “Pretzel?”

"I… did not know you had a pocket in your cape," Kara said, staring at her cousin as if he had grown a second head. "Since when did you have a pretzel pocket in your cape?"

"It’s just an ordinary, non-pretzel pocket and I always had it," Kal answered, quickly finishing his pretzel and wiping his mouth. "Ma put it in the first one so I'd have a place to store my documents and I always kept it."

Huh, you learn something new every day. Kara had never considered how he carried things in his costume.

"Why are you here Kal?" She finally asked after the silence started to stretch between them. "I mean, I'm not complaining, but I didn't expect you to just show up all of a sudden. Weren’t we gonna meet tomorrow anyway?"

"Lobo," he said, his face becoming serious for once as he lost his smile. "His regenerated clones are finally turning up. We managed to capture two of them, but they were assassinated soon after by a third riding a motorcycle. I didn’t think you’d want to wait to hear this."

Kara felt a shiver go down her spine, her fingers digging into the building and leaving deep furrows. Rao fucking damn it, that annoying asshole again.

Would he be hunting her right now or would he prioritize himself? There really was no way of knowing.

"Did they say anything? The ones you captured, I mean."

"It seems like they're gonna be fighting each other for a while, but they could be lying," Kal said, his own hand closing into fists. "I'm glad to see you getting out, but now may not be the best time…"

Looking down at the city, Kara saw the cars and the people interacting with each other. She hasn't been incredibly active in the city, today being only her second patrol, but she had enjoyed it.

"No, I'm not stopping for him," she finally said, a hand going towards her nearly healed eye as she thought about who had put the bounty on her. "If he shows up, I'll deal with it, but I'll continue patrolling."

“Good… the League is doing its best to hunt him down, but I just wanted you to be ready,” Kal said reassuringly, looking over the city. “If you need help, just call, alright?”

“Don’t worry, if he shows up here he’s gonna regret ever being born,” she said, squeezing her hands into fists and letting the ground dust from the building fall down between her fingers.

“So, why here?” He asked, changing the subject before Kara could get even angrier.

“Well, no one particular reason, it just has a lot of things I was looking for,” She answered with a shrug. “I mean, there’s crime everywhere, but there are no heroes here and the desert gives me a good place to fight in case someone powerful shows up. Also, it’s a great place for one of my solar farms, probably gonna open a branch here sometime in the future by the way. Say, did you have a deal with the police in Metropolis before forming the League?”

“Not explicitly, no,” he shook his head and leaned back, his legs swinging over the side of the building as he remembered. “I mostly just stopped crimes as they were happening, so the police got a lot of witnesses.”

“Huh, but you did bust some crime rings and such, right? How did you manage to get them arrested?”

“Investigative journalism,” Kal smiled and winked at her. “I got some of my first scoops by exposing things from my actions as Superman. After that, it became common for reporters to follow up on my actions if they wanted to be in the papers, which helped out a lot in police work.”

“You sneaky bastard, that’s got to be cheating.”

“Well, it worked didn’t it? I had to find a way of making the arrests stick,” he laughed and looked up at the clouds. “Speaking of, Lois is dying to get an interview with you.”

“Hmmm, hard pass, thank you very much,” Kara glared at him, the last thing she wanted to do right now was talk about herself. She barely managed to talk with Black Canary, much less a reporter.

“Hey, I didn’t say you should do it. I was just warning you she’ll probably come looking soon. She can be persistent when she gets something in her mind.”

“Right, thanks for the warning,” pushing herself away from the building, Kara floated away. “Are you staying for much longer?”

“Ah, no, I just wanted to check on you and tell you about Lobo in person,” He shook his head, pushing himself back into a sitting position. “See you tomorrow for Torquasm training?”

“Yeah, I have a meeting before that, so I may be a few minutes late, but I’ll be there,” Kara nodded, already starting to focus back on the city to look for another asshole trying to hurt people.

“Great, good to see you cuz,” he quickly put a hand over her head, messing up her hair and, before she could complain, flew away, breaking through the clouds before accelerating back towards Metropolis.

Watching him for a second, Kara decided she had no interest in becoming a reporter herself. Well, she could probably write an AI to do the writing for her, but really, it was probably best if she did call the Chief of police for that talk.

Ugh, she had been hoping she wouldn’t have to do that, he’d probably ask her to stop scaring the hell out of criminals and that was half the fun of the whole thing.

Checking the time with her mask, she decided to do it on her next patrol; it was already too late to bother people today. Kara stayed in the city for another two hours, making sure to film every arrest she made so there wouldn’t be too many problems.

Finally, she was done for the day and flew back to Fawcett City. At her speed the flight only took 20 minutes or so. Entering the house, she took off her clothes, putting the metallic cube on top of her desk and climbed into the bed.

A grunt of annoyance from Kori caused her to freeze in place, but the Tamaranean didn’t wake up, so Kara gently squeezed under the covers.

Like a mouse-trap, Kori’s arms and legs snapped closed around Kara’s body, pulling the blonde closer to her naked body, and nudging her nose into the back of Kara’s neck.

For a second, Kara debated changing positions, but then she felt Kori actually starting to purr, sending a tingling feeling down her back and making her feel completely safe.

Suddenly, Dexter jumped on top of them, climbing her shoulders before lying down and starting to knead with his claws while biting into the blanket and purring as well.

Kara gave up, she was defeated. Closing her eyes, she leaned back against Kori and went to sleep.
.
.
.
.

Lena Luthor looked good. Damn good even, despite the clear exhaustion Kara could see.
She could have easily been a model in another life, looking older than Kara by about five to ten years but only in the sense that she looked more mature and responsible. Her hair was tied into a bun and she wore a pair of thin designer glasses; mere accentuations to the stern look she naturally gave that screamed battle tested competence.

Upon entering, she took a second to scan the restaurant in search of Kara, who would be surprised if the Luthor wasn’t simultaneously casing all the other customers as well. Taking a bite from some cookies she had ordered, Kara watched as a waiter quickly approached and led the businesswoman towards her table.

The meeting was supposed to be an informal thing. A quick pit stop in the middle of Lena’s busy day for a promising young businesswoman to pitch her a new idea, or at least that was what Kara hoped it would look like from the outside.

She didn’t really need a lot of time to talk with Lena, Kara doubted she’d manage to steal the woman away from her brother’s company in a single afternoon anyway. The dark side had its claws sunk deep into this one. But, she could lay the first seeds of temptation and that was good enough for now.

Of course Kara had done her homework beforehand. Lena, like her brother, was both a great businesswoman and a great inventor but, as the younger sibling, she was always forced to be one step behind.

She had managed to stay clear of her brother’s more… questionable business deals and even fought against some of his decisions, but she didn’t have much support in LexCorp thanks in no small part due to Lex’s manipulation of the chess pieces involved.

Currently, she was working as the CEO of LexCorp Robotics, but the vast majority of what she created was under the broader LexCorp name, not her own. In effect, despite her talent, very few people even knew she existed, always overshadowed by her egomaniacal brother.

Kara watched as the woman approached and couldn't help admiring her. Lena didn't quite have the same athletic build as Kori, but she obviously took care of herself and exuded an air of authority the Tamaranean just lacked, even if the latter did, technically, have far more power than Lena, probably in all aspects.

"Miss Kara Danvers, you went to a lot of trouble to arrange this meeting," Lena opened when she arrived at the table, taking a second to stare at Kara with an appraising look. "I'm surprised you even managed it. Despite your most recent accomplishments, your company isn't big enough to normally get a meeting with me in less than a month."

"I have my ways, Miss Luthor," Kara replied with a polite smile as the waiter pulled a chair for the business woman. "To be honest, I'm more surprised you accepted the offer on the first try."

"The fact that you managed to get such a huge deal closed with WayneTech drew a lot of attention," Lena answered as she settled herself. "In truth, I wasn't going to accept this meeting, but the designs for your solar panels are absolutely brilliant, and I do require at least one intelligent conversation in my day to day."

"Thank you, you should see the finished product,” Kara lifted an eyebrow at that last sentence. Giving the woman some time to order her own drink, she continued. “Still, I wasn't sure you'd be able to make it, what with all of LexCorp's latest troubles."

"I… actually, that was part of why I accepted," Lena said with a tired and frustrated voice. "I needed a break from dealing with all that…"

"Well, I'm glad I could help out," Kara said with obvious faux chipper. She honestly felt a bit guilty though, a lot like those scam businesses that created a problem just to swoop in and offer a solution later. The woman was clearly exhausted if she was letting comments like that escape in an introductory business meeting. “Should I get right to business then?”

“It would be for the best, yes,” Lena said. Thanking a waiter when he handed her a cup of coffee, she sipped the dark roasted brew and relaxed a little. “I have read everything there is to know about you, Miss Danvers. Which is another way of saying there is incredibly little to find, but one thing I could gather was that you’re very direct in your business dealings. So, please, present your proposal. I’m eager to see what you could bring to LexCorp.”

Kara narrowed her eyes at the quick turn in atmosphere. Was what she’d said earlier not something Lena had accidentally let out after all? She was a Luthor; she could very easily be trying to seem more familiar and open to manipulate a younger, talented business owner.

Really, it wasn’t like she had revealed any great secret, everyone knew the state LexCorp was in right now.

“Actually, I’m not really interested in LexCorp, I’m interested in you,” Kara said, smirking a little at the woman’s subtly raised eyebrow. “I’m offering you a job, Miss Luthor, a job as the CEO of my company.”

“You’re… actually trying to poach from LexCorp… You are aware we’re one of the biggest companies in the world?” Lena said with an all-too-perfect tone of disbelief. Taking another sip of coffee, she let her amusement show as she decided to indulge Kara. “Ignoring the disparity in capitalization, intellectual property and human resources and the fact that the company you’re trying to poach me from literally has my brother’s name on it. Why would I work for you? The only things you have to your credit are a few circuit boards, a couple of old buildings and new solar panels that, if you’ll forgive the pun, haven’t truly seen the light of day yet.”

“Well, you wouldn’t have to desperately lie to protect said brother’s oh-so-good name, for one,” Kara took her own sip and leaned forward on the table. “Tell me Miss Luthor, just what has LexCorp done in the last 5 years? What has it really achieved?”

“We have achieved more than you can ever imagine… I have to say, you haven’t started well,” Lena sighed, but didn’t start revealing company secrets to Kara. Still, she looked down to her coffee and took another sip. “Still. This place really is good, I just love the coffee here. It would be a shame to just walk out without finishing my cup so you have until I finish it to convince me.”

“Hmmm, yes, I guess you did achieve a lot in your own way. As CADMUS was one of your investments one can look at what they made; an entire new race of genetically designed sentient beings,” Kara praised, causing Lena to flinch at the unspoken accusation. “And yet where are the products? Where are the cloned organs? The cures for diseases? It doesn’t take much imagination to know how much value is being left on the table, but your brother had scientists capable of creating a new race and he used them to fight Superman… How many of LexCorp’s other projects has he turned to that same goal? How many of its inventions ever end up in civilian hands anymore?”

“That… is not a completely inaccurate view,” Lena nodded, taking another sip and pausing to think. “Still, let’s for the sake of argument say I agree, why wouldn’t I attempt to change things from within my own company? Why would I agree to work for such a comparatively small business?”

“Do you really think you can make changes? With Lex there? How much do you really think he’d ever let anyone but himself dictate the company’s direction?” Kara asked rhetorically, sensing from Lena’s demeanor exactly how much. “And that’s before we get into LexCorp’s dual class shareholder structure. The board would never be able to oust him without you and to openly defy him would have consequences. Besides, Danvers Enterprises is far better positioned than you may think. Did you know we managed to hire a sizable number of the scientists from CADMUS? I spoke with Caldecott Industries earlier this week and managed to secure a deal to produce a new lab, one that will actually use the knowledge acquired at CADMUS for more than just playing Supervillain.”

“I have absolutely no intention of stopping at producing solar panels, Miss Luthor. That was simply the first step. What I’m offering you is a chance to get out from under your brother’s thumb,” pulling out a small flash drive, Kara pushed it across the table towards the older woman. “You said I have no idea what LexCorp has achieved lately. You’re right, but that was because nobody has any idea. It barely does anything exciting or innovative these days.”

The flash drive contained some of the more promising projects Kara had decided to drop, for one reason or another. Things that she wouldn’t actually mind being stolen, but that were good enough to show Lena a peek at what Danvers Enterprises, or well, Kara herself, was working on.

Lena finished her coffee, a fingertip tapping the memory stick in thought. “I take it this is to further tempt me?”

“Of course,” Kara said shamelessly, finishing her own drink and ordering another. “Can you imagine it, Miss Luthor, actually making a difference? How long can you stay under Lex before some of his dirt starts falling onto you?”

“I’ll think about it,” Lena finally said, grabbing the flash drive and putting it in the inner pocket of her blazer. “This… was not what I had expected, not by a long shot.”

“Take as long as you want,” Kara replied, pretty happy with the meeting. She could see how angry Lena was at Lex.

Kara wasn’t actually sure she had managed to tempt Lena enough but, even if she hadn’t, she was pretty sure the woman was planning on making some kind of play against her brother in the near future. And really, anything that caused trouble for Lex was a win in her book.

Who knows, LexCorp had lost over 39% of its stock value since Kara had started releasing their dirt to the world, Lena may actually have a chance of ousting her brother if things went low enough and she could get enough outside investment.

“I’ll be in contact,” paying for her own drink, Lena walked right out of the building, but Kara could see her eyes glancing down at the flash drive in her pocket as she walked back towards her office.

With a tap of her finger, Kara dropped the interference field around her table. Watching Lena through the building’s walls, Kara smiled when she caught her pausing to look back towards the coffee shop.

Picking up another cookie, she bit another piece off and absentmindedly whispered. “Come Lena, I know there’s good in you; Lex hasn’t driven it from you fully.”

Looking at the clock, Kara left the building in a hurry; she was already late for training with her cousins.

Chapter Text

TUDUM! Tum-tudum!

In the middle of Metropolis, right on top of LexCorp building, sparks of electricity started appearing, the released power leaving electrical burns on the concrete. One of the discharges hit an antenna causing a short circuit as the theme music from a certain time-traveling machine started playing seemingly from nowhere.

Suddenly, a small displacement of air caused a sonic boom, revealing a metal figure kneeling in the middle of the building, a round area of burned concrete around it. Above its armored head, a ball-shaped drone pulsated, releasing loud music.

TUDUM! Tum-tudum!

Slowly, the figure got up, looking around itself and taking everything in, it was the middle of the day and the sun hit the gleaming metal of its armor, finally revealing the full figure, slowly, it floated off the building to hang in the air, its head turning towards the incredibly visible globe on top of the Daily Planet.

Quickly, the power armor hacked the nearest Wi-Fi, accessing the internet and doing a quick search for information about the date and all the active heroes in the planet.

“FUCK YEAH!” Said the distorted female voice as the figure lifted an arm and pumped it in cheer. “I fucking succeeded!”

Flying aimlessly above the city’s grid, the figure started to think about what to do now, she didn’t really have a lot of time, probably only a day or two before she was found out, her mission failing.

From her right, she heard the commotion of a bank robbery. Here, in Metropolis? Under her helmet, a green light shone like a star and she flew towards the commotion.

A chance to fight a criminal! She had never done that before, nobody dared.

The armored avenger hit the floor in front of the bank, cracking the ground in a wide area around herself, her knees hitting the asphalt in a classical superhero landing.

Grabbing at her back, she pulled out a small metallic stick. Immediately, it expanded into a quarterstaff and its shaft started to gather light, the bottom side turning into a giant chainsaw while the top morphed into a gun barrel. Bursting into the bank itself, she lifted her weapon and caused the teeth to start cutting, making a shrill sound!

“Surrender, vile malefactor! Resistance is futile!” Above her armored head, a small drone pulsated with sound.

TUDUM! Tum-tudum!

Around the bank, the civilians were doing their best to stay out of the way as a large white zombie held the vault door over his head. For a second, everyone froze, taking in the impressive newcomer.

4’4 feet of pure, pink-colored metal armor, with a pair of cute cat ears on top of the mirrored helmet. She had a pink chainsaw larger than she was tall held in her hand and a round drone that looked surprisingly soft for a metal ball floating above her head.

“Grundy don’t surrender!” the zombie said, looking down at the figure. Shrugging his giant square shoulders, he decided to ignore the girl and move on.

“Then perish, criminal scum!” The girl screamed, opening fire with her weapon.

The first shot flew wide over Grundy’s head and the following five hit the vault door as the zombie used it as a shield, the projectiles splashed harmlessly against the metal, each one exploding into a different color but, otherwise, not doing any damage.

“Muahahahahah!” Came the distorted laugh as the figure continued shooting, but all the projectiles hit the door and the walls around it, leaving the bank painted in a myriad of colors. Three hundred bullets were released in ten seconds and then the weapon clicked empty. “Awww, crud.”

Lowering the door, Grundy looked at the painting and walls around it with a curious glance, his current intelligence wasn’t great, but even he could see it wasn’t doing any damage.

Still, seeing the armored figure distracted recharging her weapon, he pulled his arm back and threw the vault door at her.

Above her head, the pink, balloon-like drone uncurled itself, revealing it was made from nightmare metallic tentacles holding blades, torture devices, and exotic weapons, one of them pointed at the metal door and released a ray of red energy, vaporizing it midair before closing back up before the girl finished reloading.

Turning his head sideways, Grundy grunted at the disintegrating door. Briefly looking at the vault and back at the diminutive figure, he finally decided to deal with her first, starting to walk towards her.

“Right, let’s continue! MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!” She yelled once she finished reloading, but she had grown too excited and, despite the distance diminishing, the shots started flying everywhere. “Die, die, die!”

Finally, one of the balls was gonna hit Grundy in the face, but the zombie blocked with an arm before shoulder-checking the armored figure, sending her flying out of the bank to hit a car, getting buried in the destroyed fuselage.

Feeling something strange, Grundy looked at his giant hand and saw the yellow substance seemed to be eating away at his skin, very quickly consuming his arm and spreading up his biceps.

Before it could spread to his entire body, the zombie grabbed his own shoulder and grunted, ripping it off and throwing it to the ground where it was fully consumed in only another two seconds, disappearing without leaving anything behind, not even ashes.

“Grundy don’t like annoying midget,” the giant grunted, narrowing his eyes at the still hovering drone. “Grundy crush annoying midget into paste!”

Almost absentmindedly, the giant waved his remaining hand at the drone, trying to slap it out of the air, but the device grew translucent and his hand passed right through it.

“Attention, do not attempt to harm this device, useless meatbag,” the drone beeped with a squeaky, but disinterested voice. “Initiating, discouraging measures.”

A single metal tentacle uncurled from the round ball, revealing a small, pen-like device on the shining tip. Pointing it at the zombie, the drone released a quick zap of electricity.

“AAAAARGH!” Grundy yelled, stumbling to the side and having to steady himself with a hand on the ground as the electricity briefly ran through his body.

“Ha! Feeble villain, you can’t stop me!” The armored girl finally recovered, using her arms to push both sides of the car away and freeing herself. “Eat bullets!”

Grabbing her weapon, she pulled the trigger again, spraying the remaining of the ammunition in a wide arc and, this time, hitting several civilians as well as the walls of the building.

Still unsteady, Grundy wasn’t able to dodge, getting hit in the face and chest, the multi-colored paint quickly spread through his body and, before he could ever say anything else, his entire body was consumed.

The three civilians who were hit with the paint briefly stared at the dissolving zombie, then back to themselves.

“AHHHHHH, get it off, get it off!” Desperately, they screamed and did their best to get rid of the paint, taking off clothes and batting at it with their hands, but only spreading it further.

“Hey! Don’t be a baby!” The armored figure scolded the light coming from her helmed narrowing to imitate squinting eyes. “If it was gonna do anything you’d already be gone! Frankly, as if I wouldn’t program a safety on my nanomachines! Humph!”

Floating closer, the drone played a short ‘Victory Fanfare’, a single, small firework exploding above her head and causing the figure to prune a little.

“And what do we have here?” said a male voice from high up, causing the fearless hero to look up.

“ACK!” she valiantly yelled in defiance, she was NOT going back, not yet. “Think fast!”

Moving at super-speed, she pressed a spot on the side of her armor, causing it to open up with a hiss and release a small glass ball with an ant sized Grundy uselessly punching the wall inside.

Pulling her arm back, she threw it up as hard as she could, causing it to soar away and causing an explosion like a gunshot.

Superman’s eyes followed the ball, widening slightly as he saw what was inside. For a moment, he considered what to do, but the figure hadn’t really done anything too troubling and had, in fact, stopped a bank robbery.

He also couldn’t risk the glass shattering and releasing Grundy somewhere in the city. “I’ll be right back, don’t go anywhere.”

The figure watched him flying away for a second, and then burst into movement, grabbing at the drone and starting to send commands. “Heh, sucker! You will never catch me!”
With a blast of light, both figures disappeared from the street, teleporting away before the Man of Steel could catch her, a brief moment later, she appeared on a farm in Kansas… it probably wasn’t the best location to come when fleeing, but she had acted more on instinct than reason.

Before she could get her bearings, a white blur hit her, driving her through the field, creating a large ditch until she was at her back, a growling Krypto on top of her, his eyes shining red.

Slowly so as to not alarm him, she unlocked her helmet and pulled it off, revealing long, blond locks that fell all around her, a giant smile and shining green eyes on her tanned face. “Hi boy, long time no see.”

Slowly, the dog lowered his nose towards her and sniffed once, twice, its face becoming very confused as it couldn’t understand what he was smelling.

“Well, I guess you’ve never seen me before, not yet at least,” The girl was young, only twelve or so. Slowly, she sat up, letting Krypto continue to smell her until he decided she was safe and started licking. “Argh, no, no, mercy! You’re not that excitable in the future!”

Laughing, she tried her best to push the large dog away, but he was too strong.

Really, she knew she shouldn’t be here, but it was her mother’s fault, why the heck did she have to make running away from home so hard?

At least she had scrambled the temporal clock on the time machine, so mom shouldn’t be able to narrow her temporal coordinates perfectly, missing by a day or two… unless she was already here?

Narrowing her eyes, she looked around for a full minute before relaxing, Mom was so controlling.

Above her, floating in the air, the drone recorded his charge’s antics. A single red light followed her movements and kept her safe even as it broadcasted her temporal location... It's mistress would be pleased.

Chapter Text

"Here, hold this," Kara commanded, throwing Captain Marvel a spare command chip in case the ones she was using failed. He was far enough away that the device’s energy field shouldn’t affect it but one could never be too careful in DC, the universe half built on scientific mishaps.

Carefully settling things in place, she stepped back and activated her teleportation platform. With a flash of light, the stuffed toy teleported from one location to the other, appearing intact on the other side.

Kara was still trying to create a cheap teleport device for commercial use with just Earth materials. It was proving far more challenging than expected.

"Did it succeed?" Marvel asked, observing the teddy bear for any damage.

"Don't know, it's the insides that are getting messed up at the moment," she answered, deactivating the devices and grabbing the bear.

Unzipping its back, she checked and saw the cheap electronics she had stuffed it with were half melted and sparkling. She could only imagine what it would do to a human.

"Maybe you could slow the teleport down?" Marvel offered, eyeing Dexter suspiciously, but the cat had learned to just ignore him when he was in his older, invulnerable form. “From what I can understand, you’re actually moving the object through a different dimension when it teleports. It's probably the re-entry into normal space that's causing the damage."

"Hmmm… you're probably right, but then I'd have to find a way of keeping someone from dying while their cells reform one by one," Kara scratched at her chin, checking the platform's batteries to see if they weren't fried in this attempt.

Wearing her heroic costume, Kori came out from the bathroom and threw herself onto the sofa in a lounging position. "Greetings, Friend Billy."

"Hi, Miss Koriand'r," Marvel waved back at her, squinting at the device and trying to think of a way.

Looking at him, Kara considered the young boy. "Say, how does that work anyways? The whole 'Wisdom of Solomon' thing. How come you don't retain the understanding when you transform back?"

"What? Ah, well," Marvel leaned his head back, trying to think about the best way of explaining things. "Right, do you know how your brain can't comprehend large numbers?"

Kara tried to imagine a large number, picturing a hundred people in her mind, she managed it, fairly easy at that, so she increased it and changed the target, and picturing thousands of little dots instead… it wasn't that much harder.

Then she tried to remember how it was when she had been human, but she just couldn't.

"No, can't say that I do," Kara shrugged.

"I do not, Friend Billy," Kori said from the sofa, trying to be useful. "It is fairly easy."

"Right, aliens, forgot that," Marvel sighed, coming up with a new example. "Well, when I transform, I just understand the meaning of things, it's kind of a tacit knowledge, I know what's going on, even if I can't exactly explain it in words. Like, when someone thinks about a car, they don’t think about the mechanics of it, how it works, the materials, they just know what a car is.

"When I'm not transformed, I lose that tacit knowledge, and all this just becomes words without meaning again," he replied, shrugging as if it didn’t matter. “Well, the ‘Wisdom of Solomon’ gives me more than that, but only if I actively use it.”

“Like what?” Kara asked, now genuinely curious, she didn’t know all that much about Captain Marvel’s powers.

“Well, I can see a little into the future, speak all languages,” he started listing on his fingers, revealing just how bullshit his powers were, and that was only a single letter of his name. “I can get Solomon’s advice about things if I focus and I can hypnotize people.”

Huh, and Kara thought Kryptonians were versatile.

Focusing back on her project and a few adjustments later, Kara was ready for another test, the last one before they’d have to go. The platform had survived the first test, so she didn’t need to use the spare chip.

This time, the flash of light was much longer. Focusing her vision, Kara saw the new stuffed bear teleporting from one side to the other, its body gradually disappearing to reappear at the other side.

Two seconds later, the process had finished. Kara grabbed the toy, but it crumbled in her hand, the cloth no longer connected. Rummaging through the remains, she pulled out the electronics.

They were separated into tiny little pieces, but they weren’t melted or damaged in any other way… Hmmm, maybe she could put in a space lock while the teleport was happening? No, that would make things too expensive again.

“Well, it’s about time we go,” with a tap of her fingers, Kara’s outfit changed into casual wear and the hologram hid her eyepatch. She couldn’t wait to get rid of the thing.

Kori activated her own device, hiding her exotic skin and outfit to appear like a normal, if extremely hot, young human woman.

Getting up, Marvel settled the spare chip on top of the table and whispered. “Shazam.”

A small bolt of lightning hit his chest, coming completely out of nowhere and not damaging anything, after which, left Billy Batson standing in Marvel’s place.

Kara frowned, she’d have to find a way of blocking that. Not that she had anything against Billy, but he called upon the power of Zeus to transform and Kara didn’t like the idea that a god could reach her inside her home, not at all.

But, maybe, it was just because Billy was already a conduit?

With a snarl, Dexter attacked, pouncing on the kid, his claws extended as he aimed for Billy’s face with irrepressible rage. Billy released a girlish scream, clearly having forgotten the reason he was always transformed while in the apartment.

Snatching the cat out of the air mid-pounce, Kara cradled him between her arms and scratched at his head. Dexter hissed a little longer, but calmed down as Kara held him, enjoying sharing her heat.

Glaring at the cat, Billy put a table between himself and the feline menace, giving it a wide berth before hurrying towards the door. “Miss Kara, you really should start socializing your attack cat.”

“Yeah, I’ll probably start introducing him to the Titans… or take him to Kal’s farm. Anyways, good kitty, that’s right, protect home!” Kara said in a childish voice, then realized what she was doing and corrected herself. “Stay safe Dex, and try not to destroy the house too much.”

The cat wiggled in her grasp until she released him on the sofa where he promptly turned his back to her, his tail held high as he gave a meow towards Kori, clearly complaining about the way Kara had prevented him from attacking. For her part, Kori only gave a warm smile to her friends' antics.

Leaving the building with Billy in tow, Kori waved goodbye to the doorman. Kara just gave the man a nod before focusing back on her companions. “By the way, kid, about your girlfriends.”

“They’re not my girlfriends!” Billy answered automatically, only blushing a little bit.

Kara snorted, messing up his hair. “Yeah, right. So, are they out of Star Labs already?”

“No, the doctors have cleared them to leave if they’re under watch, but they don’t really have a guardian,” he answered, his face frowning as he thought about both girls… or was it only one? Kara wasn’t certain they could still reconnect after so long. “It’s hard; people don’t like meta-humans.”

“Friend Billy, have you tried asking the League for help?”

“Batman is setting up something; a group home for meta-humans using the League’s funding, but that’s gonna take time.”

Kara wanted to help and, if it came to it, she could take the girl in, but she wasn’t really in a good situation right this moment, what with changing houses, and everything she had on her plate.

“Well, if you need help, just ask,” she offered anyway before asking what she really wanted to know. “Do you know if she can still absorb your powers?”

“We haven’t really tested that… why?” Billy asked, squinting his eyes at her and feeling protective.

“Oh, don’t worry about it, just an idle thought,” she dismissed his question.

It truly had been an idle thought, a way of getting something she wanted without too much trouble, but it would probably be too dangerous for the girl. No, it would definitely be too dangerous for the girl.

Leaving Billy at school, Kara kissed Kori goodbye and let her take the Zeta-Tube towards the mountain. Kara herself took the long way around, having to fetch Detective Chimp before meeting the Titans there.

The chimpanzee was dressed in his full detective gear, but he lacked the usual smell of booze or the lit cigarette, clearly at least trying to be presentable to the team.

“Ready to give some lessons to the incorrigible youths of today?” Kara asked as she dropped beside him and the both of them started walking towards the nearest Zeta-Tube.

“No, I really should have gone to Japan on that demon-hunting job,” the chimp sighed, reaching for his pocket before hesitating and dropping his arm. “With Sangaku there, I probably wouldn’t be needed, but it beats playing babysitter.”

“Well, you get to mess with the boy wonder.”

“Hmmm, that is a perk,” he admitted, scratching at his face. “Maybe I can teach him a few tricks the Bat lack’s”

“Any luck with Ivy?” Kara had to ask.

“Some. Are you free tomorrow?” Bobo asked, adjusting his cap. “I arranged a meeting and it would be better to have company for it.”

“Someone dangerous?” Kara asked with caution. Bobo messed with the more magical side of superhero life so she’d have to be ready for it.

“The meeting is on neutral ground, but villains are never the most stable individuals and I’d like to have protection when leaving,” the chimp confessed, showing her his large fangs as he smiled. “Contrary to some, I don’t have any of the flashy powers to escape or to fight my way out.”

Putting a hand on her pocket, Kara took out a small box, throwing it to the hero. “Well, I’m glad you asked.”

Poking the box, Bobo carefully opened the lid and looked inside. A few seconds of thought later and he closed it, putting it in a pocket. “Hmmm, you’re spreading them around instead of curtailing their use. Good choice, should muddle The Light’s searches a little. I take it you gave a box to the big boys up there too?”

“Of course,” Kara nodded, smiling at the chimp. “Handed an entire crate to my cousin yesterday.”

“Hmmm… bring more of these boxes with you tomorrow,” Bobo said, tapping the box in his pocket absentmindedly. “We’ll probably meet some folks that deserve one of those where we’re going.”

“Some heroes that deserve the support or villains you think I’d like to monitor?” Kara asked, trying to figure out where they were going.

“Both, but mostly the heroes,” Bobo answered, glancing up at her before clarifying his statement. “I’d appreciate it if you didn’t secretly spread them while INSIDE the place, but I won’t stop you if they accept it themselves.”

A moment later, the both of them used the Zeta-Tube to appear inside the mountain. Bobo lifted an eyebrow as the security features took a few seconds to recognize him and gave Kara an annoyed look, but she just shrugged.

Time for the Chimp to meet the Titans.

Stepping out, they walked to the main room. Red Tornado was there, watching something on the computer while Aqualad and Kon sparred on the floor. A quick look around with X-Ray vision and Kara saw the rest of the Titans scattered around the mountain.

Really, she should have made every wall impervious to her vision but, again, she currently lacked the necessary energy to fuel the shielding and she’d have to demolish everything if she wanted to cover it all with lead. So she had settled for masking only the exterior’s surface.

“Detective,” Red Tornado greeted in his usual monotone, turning away from the screen and causing both teens to stop their spar. “It is good to see you’re well. I confess I had some apprehension when Miss Zor-El said she’d provide an alternative teacher.”

“Long time no see Red, getting some much needed human interaction I see,” Bobo replied amicably, looking around the place with a critical eye.

“Greetings, I am Aqualad, leader of the Titans,” the Atlantean approached, extending his hand to the chimp with no hesitation. “I’m glad you could make it, Sir.”

“You’re a polite one aren’t you?” Bobo squeezed the offered hand, giving the boy a fang filled smile. “Bobo T. Chimpanzee, and drop the ‘Sir’, kid, you don’t need that with me.”

Looking to the side, Kara caught Kon’s frowning face as he approached his new teacher, slowly, very slowly. Walking closer, she wrapped an arm around his neck, pulling him into a friendly hug. “What’s wrong?”

“Did it have to be a monkey?” he whispered, fidgeting in place. “I hate monkeys.”

“First, chimps are apes, Kon,” Kara sighed, ruffling his hair while he struggled to get free from her hold. “Second, don’t be an asshole. I don’t think the Kents are raising you like that.”

“Yeah… sorry,” he finally escaped, combing a hand through his hair to put it back in place. “But… monkeys, ugh.”

“But nothing. Anyways, how are your powers? Any change yet?”

“Yeah, nothing big, but I’m jumping much higher than before, I don’t do as much damage when I land and using super speed doesn’t tire me as much as before,” he gave her a proud smile, opening and closing his hand as if feeling the power in his muscles. “I think it’s still growing too.”

“Great, if you begin to fly, call me. I don’t want to miss taking pictures of you smashing into everything around like a drunk as you try to control yourself,” Kon gave her a sharp glare, causing Kara to burst into laughter. “Just kidding, but flying is harder than you’d expect or, well, landing is. Call me.”

“Fine and I’ll try to be civil.”

Watching the boy approaching Bobo, Kara could clearly see how uncomfortable he was, not to mention the chimp himself. The detective gave her an exasperated look, but she just shrugged.

From the hallway, Kid Flash arrived running, slid to a stop and released a girlish ‘yip’ when he saw Kara, his face immediately flushing in embarrassment. Robin walked in shortly after, pushing him out of the way.

“Aww man, she’s here,” Kid Flash whispered, causing Robin to roll his eyes.

“Come on Wally, you’ve gotta get ‘traught’,” the smaller boy patted his back. “Besides, it was making Megan uncomfortable man, she helped you.”

“Yeah, and I’m kinda thankful, but did she have to do ‘THAT’, it’s playing dirty man.”

“You do know she can hear everything, right?” Robin snickered, causing Kid Flash to turn towards her and release another ‘yip’. "Besides, you apologized right? Heck, even I apologized; I kinda let the joke go a little too far.”

“What do you mean?” Kid Flash asked, narrowing his eyes at Robin.

“Man, you got any idea how stupid you sounded? I had to record it for later you know, I mean, ‘Megalicious’, seriously?” Robin quoted, snickering at his friend while patting at his belt. Then his face became a little more serious as he sighed. “Should have just called you out on it, but it was too funny, didn’t really think about how she felt.”

Ugh, stupid teenagers. Kara sighed, shaking her head and turning to watch as Megan and Kori made their way through the Mountain towards the main room, laughing with each other.

At least things had turned out positively there. Kori seemed to have taken M’gann under her wing, despite technically being younger than the girl, and they were getting along very well.

Finally, Bobo seemed to have enough of Kon’s grunts as they spoke, approaching the boy and standing in front of him.

“I’m sorry; do I make you feel awkward? Put you out of your comfort zone? Get over it, boy,” the ape scolded, patting Kon’s side and turning towards the newcomers. “You think I’m happy here? Playing babysitter? I’m a talking, intelligent Chimpanzee, kid. I don’t have a comfort zone. I’m here to teach you so stop being a baby.”

Leaving Kon behind, Bobo greeted the rest of the Titans, waiting until everyone was in the room before beginning his instruction. Kara hung back with Red Tornado, trading a few polite words with the android.

Not for the first time, Kara considered if the machine-man would let her open him up. His core was probably far better built than Mr. Twister and he was a newer model than either Dani or Red Torpedo, she could definitely learn something.

Still, how does one go about asking someone if you could ‘vivisect’ them? Would it help if she offered to make the same improvements she did on Dani?

Red Tornado hadn’t been built to imitate humans, so he probably didn’t have the same programming she did, making the adaptation much harder, but Kara could probably do it.

“Alright folks, now that you’re all here, I guess I can start,” looking at the Titans, Bobo reached for his cigars again, but sighed when he didn’t find them. “Maybe I can even teach BirdBoy some things the furry couldn’t.”

“Ah, sir, wouldn’t it be better to do this at the crime lab?” Robin took the chance to ask.

“Hmmm, a crime lab at home base. That’s convenient,” Bobo scratched at his face and shook his head. “But no, I’m a more… hands on kind of guy. We’re going out, come on.”

Walking back towards the Zeta-Tube, the ape was quickly followed by the rest of the Titans, Robin walking closer, amused to hear someone badmouthing the Bat for some reason.

“You… don’t have a crime lab?”

“I have a magnifying glass and a hat,” he snorted in amusement, barely looking back. “Kid, again, talking chimpanzee here. Half my clients don’t pay me and it’s not like I can sue them for it, the courts don’t protect animal rights that way. Labs cost money.”

Watching the entire team leave, Kara waved them goodbye and turned back towards the android, considering the best way to open his armor.

“Will you be staying at the Mountain, Miss Zor-El?” Red Tornado finally asked and… was that a hint of apprehension she heard in his voice?

“Ah, yeah, I have to make some adjustments to the safety features,” she looked around, considering all the sunstone seeds she had in the building that weren’t getting enough energy to grow.

“Very well, with the Titans out of the Mountain, I too have a personal appointment. I take it you will not require my company?”

“No, go ahead. I’m probably gonna be working until they’re back anyways.”

Despite saying that, the android stood in place for a few seconds, his metallic face impassive. Finally, he seemed to gather himself and spoke again.

“I… thank you Miss Zor-El,” he spoke slowly, his words without inflection, but Kara could hear the emotion anyways. “I was not aware I still had family, I had long considered my father to be dead, much less a brother and sister.”

“So, you spoke with Dani,” Kara commented, her friend still hadn’t given her an answer about becoming part of the team, but it seems like she was getting her life back in order. “It was nothing. You know, if you want, I can help build you a new body, something closer to Dani’s?”

“… I will think on it. If you will excuse me,” nodding his head, Red Tornado too walked towards the Zeta-Tube.

Kara observed him going, following him through the walls until he disappeared after being hit with a Zeta-Beam. Finally, she was alone in the Mountain.

Thinking about what Billy had said, Kara quickly made a short trip back home, grabbing Dexter and bringing him into the Mountain with her. Without too many people here, he could explore and smell the Titans without getting too stressed or crowded.

She let the cat explore for a little bit, putting one of her drones on watch to follow him around. Of course, all of the defenses were already calibrated for his presence.

Nodding, she went back to her current goal. She could have done this with people here, but she had the odd feeling that they wouldn’t approve. Still, she needed a way of getting energy damn it, a lot of energy!

Walking down into the Mount’s grotto, Kara let the security features check her identity before opening a secret path further down.

Her cousin and Green Lantern had carved out the mountain’s insides to create Mount Justice. They had put the entire structure in place by themselves and hidden it from the world. With her tech, Kara had done much the same to expand it further down, creating more rooms inside the Mountain.

Reaching her destination, she saw the crystalline walls, not unlike the Fortress itself, and the central shaft. The ten meter wide hole was made by a device that, instead of retrieving materials, had compressed it beyond current Earth’s capabilities and used it to reinforce the walls.

It had taken days to dig all the way down, consuming the vast majority of the energy she could produce at the moment and leaving the Mountain temporarily under-protected. Thankfully, the device was fairly easy to make, something common back on Krypton and she had just… left it working while she focused on other projects.

Stepping into the shaft, she let herself drop a little more than a kilometer down where she arrived at a second, much wider chamber. Using the sensors and her own Kryptonian senses, she did one last check of the turbines and water reserve, making sure the structure would be able to withstand the persistent pressure.

Satisfied, she flew back up. A small seat and a computer lifted from the floor and Kara sat down, starting to monitor the progress. It was ready, the power plant had finished being built and all that remained was activating it.

Rhode Island was not the ideal location for such construction, it was firmly in the middle of the North American Plate and, while it had several small faults, there were no major ones, much less any convenient volcanoes.

Still, all of that was barely an inconvenience when one had access to Kryptonian tech. Finally, Kara made the last checks necessary, momentarily redirecting away most of the energy being used on Mount Justice for her safety measures and pressed the button.

With a hiss, the locks opened and the pressure pushed a limited amount of magma up from the shaft, letting it pool into a giant magma chamber below the water reserve. The amount perfectly controlled by a system of sunstone locks to prevent overflow and control the pressure.The toxic gasses generated were slowly gathered for use in some traps up top.

Quickly, the heat started boiling the water, turning it into steam and activating the turbines. She had energy! Enough energy to dramatically accelerate her projects and, in only a few days to a week, fully activate all of Mount Justice’s defenses!

Eventually, a meow under her feet revealed that Dexter had had enough of exploration and was already asking for her attention. Adjusting her posture, Kara let the cat jump on her lap and caressed his fur, causing him to start purring.

Really, who knew that creating an artificial volcano under Mount Justice would be one of the safest options of generating energy?
Also, she could probably build a way of flooding the mountain itself with lava in case it was ever taken over, destroying the computers and incinerating, or at least inconveniencing, any attackers.

Kara had considered a lot of options, from simply installing a nuclear reactor to breaching into the Bleed to steal energy from alternate universes, but everything had its drawbacks and her level of tech made several options equally viable. Of those, the artificial volcano was on the high end of expensive and took a little longer to build, but it was actually safer in the long term.

Also, the Bleed thing was reaching a little. It was both the most expensive and the most dangerous option to make.

She had a few misgivings about the whole thing, but using a small amount of magma to generate geothermal energy was so completely different from harvesting the core directly that the comparison to her homeworld and its fate hadn’t even occurred to her until the construction was almost complete.

Kara wasn’t exactly sure why her version of Krypton had exploded, she hadn’t had access to her uncle’s search, but, in the comics, it was often because of harvesting the planet’s core for energy.

Still, she wasn’t exploiting the core, just a minuscule amount of the magma from the mantle. Those were completely different things.

Leaning back on her chair, Kara scratched Dexter behind his ears and smiled as she watched the turbines gaining speed and started to produce energy.

The first things that came online were the shielding that prevented anyone from sensing the increased activity. After that, the artificial sunlight lamps started working, feeding energy directly to her sunstone seeds. The remaining features would come online as the energy was produced and the defenses finished growing.

Now, how would she explain this to the others again?

Chapter Text

Kara sat on the floor, doing her daily meditation in the morning since she wouldn’t be able to meet Kal later. She hadn’t had any great results with manipulating her bioelectrical field yet, but she found herself feeling far more centered. Kal’s exercises really were useful.

Kori’s presence in her life and her talks with Black Canary had also helped a lot and, coupled with actually going out of the house for patrols, Kara felt like she was finally… alright? Even if she had avoided talking with the Titans about the volcano yesterday, leaving the place before they had returned. She’d do it later.

Alright, she was still VERY far from getting over things, but at least she was making progress instead of ignoring her problems or running away.

Letting out a breath, she finished her meditation and adjusted her position. Looking at the clock, she saw that it was already one in the evening, so Kara stretched her arms above her head and felt her stomach rumbling.

Getting up, she absentmindedly scratched Dexter’s sleeping head on top of the table and opened the fridge. Nudging some mustard monstrosity aside with a finger, Kara found some untainted left-over meat and grabbed the plate. Her appetite really was getting better every day.

With a blast of her vision, she heated the food and sat at the head of the table to start snacking. In two hours, she’d have to meet with Bobo, going to see this ‘informant’ of his. Kara already had a casket of her little drones ready for him and her armor was waiting in her room, having been teleported there earlier in the morning.

She had considered going as Supergirl, but she was about to plot against The Light and the Injustice League, they had strategic powerhouses like Wotan, Atomic Skull and Black Adam, as well as the Joker for planning things, she didn’t want to take any chances.

Noticing movement from the corner of her eye, Kara saw the cat sneakily drop to the seat beside her own. Hidden from view by the table, he lifted a single paw, extending his claws and trying to hook a piece of her meat from her place.

Kara snorted and cut some of it into tiny pieces, offering them to the feline. Satisfied, she dropped the plate on the sink for one of her house drones to clean and picked up a small orb from her bedroom.

She could have pulled her computer to tinker a little, but all of her projects would need far more time than she had available right now and she’d end up just wasting the hours with some silly device she’d never use.

Instead, she laid the orb on the floor and stepped away. Sitting back down in a meditating position and focusing all her mind into the small target, she gathered her willpower, commanding the ball to move.

She had yet to access the Green Light of Will, but she was determined to master her ability to conjure it anyway.

Truth be told, Kara would have much rather just… gotten rid of the damn organ those fuckers had put inside her. The increased power was NOT worth having something of theirs inside her. Unfortunately, things weren’t that simple.

The Fortress had called it an organ and while it was correct, it was far more akin to her skin than just a heart or lung. The way it had integrated itself into her body meant taking it out would require extensive surgery and the AI just wasn’t made for such things.

No, having the Fortress AI operating on her was already bad enough, but she could, maybe, manage it. Having to ask someone else to slice her open and tool around inside her? Absolutely not!

Still, Kara had considered just ignoring the ability, but it wouldn’t do to lose control of her emotions in the middle of a battle like she’d already done. It had helped her defeat Lobo and even fight against Felix Faust, but it was far more likely to be a liability if she completely lost her mind.

Her ability to think much faster than most other beings was one of her greatest advantages, losing herself to rage was not worth the increase in power. It was only by pure luck that she’d gone berserk while there were only enemies, or at least no allies or civilians, on the battlefield and, even worse, that said enemies hadn’t been able to take advantage of it.

So, she was left with learning to control the Emotional Light Spectrum, even if, as a Kryptonian, her sheer raw power made it almost irrelevant unless she reached a really high level of mastery. Like, Hal Jordan and Sinestro level.

Really, her time would be far better spent improving her creations and working on new inventions. Frowning, she focused on the little marble even harder, letting all distractions go as she WILLED it to move, it would move, she demanded it!

It didn’t. The ball just remained in place, not even a hint of green around it.

Wait, wasn’t she being stupid? Yes, most of the time, all she saw the GLs create were fists, blasts of light, force fields and the occasional gun but, theoretically, they could create anything. Kara knew that, from both of her lives, even if she had never been a great fan of their comics, she had just been ignoring it because of where such powers came from.

Heck, hadn’t GL recently been using his ring to effectively create bombs? She wanted that, she really wanted that. She wouldn’t have the ring’s AI to help her create things, but she didn’t need to, she was a member of the El house, Rao damn it!

She didn’t need to be strong; she didn’t need to have a greater willpower, rage or any of the other emotions. Her constructs could be fragile enough to be destroyed with a tap of her finger and, as long as she could form them with enough control, she could make anything, recreate any device from Krypton without the need for materials or tools.

She wanted that, she really wanted that!

Suddenly, Kara looked down, seeing the little marble sitting in her hand, a hint of orange light surrounding it. Staring at the marble with a frown, Kara sighed.

“Great, of course I’d get the villainous lights first. What’s next, fear?” It was an uncomfortable possibility. “Let’s just hope nobody could sense that.”

Seeing as Atrocitus hadn’t found her after her use of the Red Light, Kara was fairly certain he couldn’t sense her from that far away and without a ring. Hopefully, the damn bastard that controlled the Orange Light couldn’t as well. She didn’t know a lot about Larfrezz, only his name and that he was not-so-coincidentally the single lantern from his corps. Rao, even his name may be wrong, she didn't have the same memory in her last life.

Fuck, Kara needed to get some guidance here, but she REALLY didn’t want to risk talking with one of the active GLs. She’d bet just about anything the Guardians would learn about it and she didn’t know how they’d react. Maybe Danni could introduce her to Alan Scott later? If he was even alive, that is.

Putting the marble back in place, she started over, making sure to focus on her willpower, not her desire for it to move. Kara realized she was probably most suited to Red and Orange, but she didn’t want to risk training those without learning more or getting a spotter capable of stopping her from running wild if she lost control.

Almost two fruitless hours later, she put the marble away and stepped into her armor. The dark metal closed around her body as the systems came online. The armor flickered briefly and then disappeared from view, to the point that even a Kryptonian would have to focus in order to see it. A brief test later and Kara was ready.

Grabbing the crate of drones, she activated her small teleportation platform, reappearing kilometers away over Happy Harbor. Since they were going out today, Bobo had decided to stay in the city after teaching the Titans.

The platform disappeared back to the Fortress as soon as Kara stepped away, leaving her alone in the city. A brief sensor search and she found Bobo’s location, flying towards him.

“Detective,” Kara greeted, her voice modified by the armor to be completely unrecognizable.

Bobo adjusted his cap, looking up at where her voice was coming from, but unable to see the giant armor. “Forge, come on, the owners really didn’t appreciate my stay here.”

“They dislike supers?”

“They disliked the smoker loitering,” Bobo corrected, pulling a fresh cigarette from his pocket as he stomped his previous one out on the ground. “Come on, we’re walking there.”

“You managed to arrange a meeting here?” she asked in surprise, but the chimp just shook his head.

“Not exactly here, but you can find it in a lot of cities. The place is flexible like that.”

A chimpanzee dressed like an old detective walking around the city and talking to himself gathered a few looks, but not as many as Kara would have thought. The existence of Superheroes really did make things very different.

Detective Chimp may be a talking animal, but he wasn’t any of the famous heroes or villains. Yes, people stared, but they quickly dismissed him from their minds. Kara felt as if it was like they saw a very minor celebrity, interesting but, ultimately, unimportant for their daily life.

Turning a corner, Kara saw a small door, a sign with a beer mug on top of it. The door seemed to be squeezed between two buildings and Kara couldn’t see how there could be a pub there unless it was on the second floor, there was some kind of separated dimension or it was using magic.

Glancing down at Bobo, she sighed. It was magic, wasn’t it? She hated magic.

“Do deactivate the invisibility once we’re inside, some of the patrons may not react well to presenses they can’t see with their eyes,” Bobo said and opened the door.

There was a small bell sound announcing their entrance. Kara immediately dropped the cloaking effect, revealing her full armor for everyone to see. Fortunately, it seems like she fits right in… in a manner of speaking.

The bar was wide, with an extremely high ceiling and an old appearance. Everything looked like it was an antique, but it was very well preserved and slightly illuminated slightly by modern lights, giving it a cozy atmosphere. There were at least 20 tables, more than half of them filled with drinking patrons. Despite the time of day, the place was nearly full. Though, with magic involved, Kara couldn’t be sure these patrons had used an entrance that was in Happy Harbor’s time zone.

The patrons themselves were incredibly varied. Kara saw at least two different tentacle beings, a long haired warrior wearing several skulls talking with a blonde kid wearing royal purple, a purple hat covering his shoulder length hair, Blue Devil himself was sitting in a corner booth, drinking beer and laughing with a super wearing a green cape and a full body suit made with scraps of cloth of several different colors.

At another corner, an obese man sat with what was clearly a demon of some kind, a suited man that wouldn’t be out of place in a law firm and an old man wearing a red costume, a large cape at his back and a horned skull helmet covering most of his head. The old man was clearly annoyed at being here, but the others were laughing and eating with enthusiasm.

Bobo walked directly to the bar and Kara followed, being mostly ignored by the other patrons. Some gave her a few glances thanks to her clearly technological armor, but there were at least three armored individuals here, even if they were closer to medieval full plate than power armor.

Sitting down on a stool, Bobo lifted a finger and a man wearing a red cape and a skin tight black suit that covered his entire body, leaving only his face exposed, poured him a glass of whiskey.

Turning towards her, the man smiled. “Welcome. I’m Nightmaster, the proprietor. It is always nice to have a new customer, even if you don’t seem the usual sort to find yourself in my establishment.”

“I suppose you don’t get too many technological armors here,” Kara nodded, taking another look around the room. “Forge, nice to meet you.”

“Here’s to making new friends!” Bobo saluted and finished his shot of whiskey before motioning for Kara to put the Drones on top of the counter. “Nightmaster, I gave a bunch of sidekicks a lesson yesterday and the League handed me some of those, you mind handling it?”

“And what might ‘these’ be?” Nightmaster pulled out a drone and eyed it critically, twisting it between his fingers.

“Recording devices, they have those shields too and can act like a phone,” Bobo explained, pulling out one of his own drones from his pocket. “It won’t hold up to a heavy hitter, but they can be very useful for street level conflict.”

“Huh, that would have been nice to have before my retirement,” Nightmaster muttered, picking up one of the drones and rolling it between his fingers. “Nice to see the League remembers the little guys every now and then. I will make it available to some of my customers, but I will not push it.”

Bobo nodded, after all, that was about all he had been asking for.

Looking up at the drinks they had available, Kara noticed that all of them had superhero names. “No villain drinks?”

“I do not support villainy. The former owner ran a neutral establishment and I still honor that, but I will not name any of my drinks after villains.”

“Fair enough,” Kara wanted to try some of the more recognizable names, but she didn’t want to take off her helmet. Turning back to the chimp, she asked. “Has the one we’ll be meeting arrived yet?”

Bobo patted her armored waist and shook his head. “Not yet. Listen, I’m gonna talk with some of the boys, I’ll be back in a second, enjoy the view.”

Seeing as she wasn’t going to order anything and one of his patrons was calling from the opposite side of the counter, Nightmaster gave her a nod, poured her a cup anyway and prepared to leave. “Here, the first drink is on the house. I’d not have you leave without tasting my hospitality.”

Kara considered the small glass for a moment, should she drink it? Was this some kind of magical hospitality thing going on or would it just be rude to leave it?

“Ugh, magic,” Activating her holographic projector, she hid her face and unlocked the helmet, lifting it only enough to be able to sip the alcohol. Still, she shielded her face with one of her armored hands, counting on the Nth metal in the gauntlets to block the view of any magician peeking.

Putting the cup back down, Kara froze, only her bulky armor prevented her from jumping away as a stranger appeared at the seat right beside her in the blink of an eye.

“Apologies, I did not mean to frighten you,” the man said, tilting his hat down in greeting. He wore a black suit and cape, with gray hair showing below his hat and entirely white eyes that seemed to contain some inner power. “You have come very far wanderer. Farther than you even expect, I’d guess. Would you care to exchange some words with me?”

Kara stared at the man for nearly a full minute, she didn’t recognize him. Were it not for the eyes, he’d probably fit perfectly in with one of Bruce’s parties, but she wasn’t about to underestimate him. “And who are you?”

“Men call me The Phantom Stranger and, like you, I’m a wanderer,” he said with a small smile on his face. “We are more alike than you imagine, both strangers in a foreign land between the furrow and the stars. Like me, your presence has caused ripples, as if a rock was cast onto a still pound, some have been for the better, others… not. I am here to warn you, the board has changed, much faster and drastically than you ever expected.”

“… and I take it this warning is out of the goodness of your heart?” Kara asked. She had heard the name mentioned in her previous life, but she had never read any comic with the character, she had no idea of his motivations or powers. “If you know so much, why come to me instead of doing something yourself?”

Looking at her, he gave a bitter smile. “I steer, but I cannot lead. That has always been my fate,” he answered calmly, not moving from his position, but Kara could sense tired resignation in his voice.

She took that in, trying her best to remember what she knew about the being. He was powerful, but she didn’t know in what way. She recalled him being heroically inclined, although she wasn’t sure how much and worked with Constantine from time to time… that last tidbit did not help her relax.

She had read something about him being Judas, but he didn’t wear the coins on his neck, using a medallion instead. Ugh, she really did hate dealing with Magic, it was so hard to predict. Give her a mechanical enemy any day of the week, at least those only did what they were built to.

The man turned to stare at her helmet, his eyes seeming to look beyond her shielding, beyond even her body to stare directly into her soul. Finally, he spoke.

“Before you, the play had been written, the story told, even if it had not been finished. You bring change, movement, chaos and, as you well know, chaos is not on your side,” fuck, did that mean that Klarion was stronger because of her? Would Fate be against working with her because of this? “Heed my warning. The coils of your enemies are everywhere. They’re cold, malignant and may look alike, but do not make the mistake of thinking they have a single source nor do they act towards the same goal.”

“Forge, he’s here,” Bobo said, drawing Kara’s attention away from the Phantom Stranger for a second, when she looked back, he was already gone.

“Detective, what do you know about The Phantom Stranger?”

“Tall chap, wears a hat and a trench coat, likes to talk too much?” Bobo asked, frowning at her. When Kara nodded, his frown became worse. “Yeah, he’s not good news. Never gets directly involved with anything nor fights any battles but, every time he appears, things tend to go Old Testament. People turning into pillars of salt and rains of fire, that kind of thing.”

“Great, that’s just great,” Kara mumbled under the helmet, looking through the pub to see their target. The obese man and his group had left and, at his table, there was a single, older gentleman wearing a top hat and a mutton chop beard. “Is that him?”

“Yeah, Wizard, former minion for The Light,” Bobo nodded, starting to walk towards the isolated table. “That debacle with Wotan blocking the sun always smelt bad to me, but I didn’t have time to investigate it. When you came to me with information about The Light, I started looking into other magical powerhouses that could be working for them.

“Faust, Wotan, Blackbriar Thorn, Wizard, White Magician, The Light got to them all. Heck, they even spoke with Morgaine, but the old witch kicked them right out her castle. Well, you already killed Faust, White Magician escaped the same day, probably took the same deal. But, I did manage to get a meeting with Wizard,” Bobo snorted, finally arriving at the table and pulling out a chair. “Mr. Zard here is a terrible human being, but I doubt he’s working for them because he wants to.”

“Humph, I am a gentleman and a professional. I didn’t learn magic just to be forced to obey that childish abomination,” Wizard snorted, taking off his top hat, he bowed towards Kara. “William I. Zard. Can I presume the pleasure of meeting the one who attacked Infinity Island and dealt with Faust?”

As soon as she approached, Kara’s armor registered a flicker of energy and her devices had trouble recording any audio from the nearby tables, she still had several drones around her to keep watch and make sure, but it seems like the place was somehow warded for privacy.

“Forge, and yes. His increased powers did make the fight slightly harder, but not by too much,” she answered, causing her eyes to shine red under her helmet. It was purely esthetic, but the intimidation worked, Kara could sense his heart speeding up a little. “So, you want out? Why should I help you?”

“That’s the beauty of it, you don’t need to,” Wizard answered, putting his top hat back on and combing his beard with a hand. “Now that Klarion no longer has such a monopoly on the magical underworld, I’ve more than enough to be left alone. As long as he remains busy, that is. Pushing you in their direction will do that, even if you don’t wish to help me.”

Kara nodded, she could understand the villain. It was almost poetic, The Light kept throwing problems at the Justice League to keep them busy and achieve their objectives. Now, its own minions were doing the same thing to them. Oh how she loved the irony.

“Good, but just so we’re clear, if you’re trying to trap me, I am NOT the Justice League. I will kill you, do you understand?”

“Perfectly,” Wizard nodded casually, having recovered from his initial reaction and not seeming too preoccupied with the threat. Kara didn’t know if that meant he wasn’t intending to lie or if he was just too used to such deals. At least all the sensors on her armor seemed to think he was being honest.

“Very well, what do you know about The Light?”

“Not much, the leaders kept things compartmentalized, I only know about Klarion himself and Savage. Guessing about Klarion’s goal is fairly easy, but Savage is old, old and cunning,” grabbing his staff, Wizard caused a small magical circle to form in the air and pulled out a map. “This is a map of the latest location I have been to, Marduk’s Temple in the center of Bialya. Klarion seemed really interested in the location.”

It was Bobo who grabbed the map, reading over it carefully, but his ears never left the conversation as Wizard talked about what he had done for The Light, they spoke for a long time, but the actual information wasn’t a lot, they seemed to have just used him as a consultant or to coordinate some of his attacks.
Still, getting more insights about how The Light operated was valuable enough and, even if Kara couldn’t use the information herself, she had recorded everything for later review by Bobo, Batman or anyone else that wanted.

“What do you know about the Injustice League?” Kara finally asked. She was sure the villain hadn’t told her the whole truth about his activities, but he had told her enough.

“A scapegoat, anyone could see that,” he shook his head and leaned back against the seat. “Klarion was gonna force me to participate, but Wotan needed rescue after his attack and he owed the creature a favor.”

“So, they know it’s meaningless?” She asked. She was under the impression that The Light had tricked most of the Injustice League’s members.

“That group would never be enough to face the entire League, even those maniacs can see that,” Bobo interjected, cutting off Wizard before he could speak. “Besides, if villains of Wizard and Wotan’s caliber felt compelled to obey, The Light had enough power to take on the League any time they wanted, at least before they started losing cohesion, doing it was just never their goal.”

“Well, I’m not so sure. The Joker spoke with Klarion, so he probably just thinks it’s all a huge prank and I suspect Vertigo is pompous enough to actually believe they can get away with it,” Wizard told them, his face serious as he shook his head. “But the others knew.”

“Any idea where Poison Ivy is being held?”

“I know a few locations. There were a lot of possible safe houses that were considered for the meetings,” he told her, seeming to think about the situation. “I could find out more, but Savage is feeling paranoid right now, so I won’t. Not unless you can offer me something better than what you’re already doing just by existing.”

Only a few minutes later, Wizard had written the locations and addresses on a piece of paper Kara had provided. She recognized a lot of cities, including her own Phoenix, but had no idea where to start.

Bobo took the paper from her and only gave it a quick glance before handing it over again.

“Well, it seems like our meeting is concluded gentlemen. I do sincerely wish you good luck in your endeavors. After all, I benefit from them,” tipping his hat again, he got up.

Kara thought about stopping the man when he got up, but a shake of the head from the chimp made her remain in place as Wizard adjusted his old style clothes and grabbed his cane.

As he was walking beside her, he paused, barely having to glance down to look at her helmet. “Hmm, almost forgot, be aware that Klarion was enlisting support this last week. He was planning to do something and, with everything that was happening, I believe the others probably forced him not to act alone… as much as the little abomination can be forced, that is.”

Kara waited until the villain was completely out of the pub before asking. “Why stop me?”

“Nightmaster is a friend, it would be rude to bring you in, only for you to cause a scene on your first night,” the chimp answered, lighting another cigarette. “Besides, I know where she is.”

Kara glanced at the paper and grunted, her face still looking at the ape as he tapped a nail on a single name.

“I guess she could be in Phoenix or Hub City too, but she’s probably here. Midway City is urbane enough to keep her powers in check, doesn’t have any hero anywhere near it and the place has enough comfort for someone like Vertigo while also having enough violence to amuse the Joker… I also have some reports from there I was already looking into.”

Suddenly, Kara’s hearing caught the faint sound of screaming, turning around; she stared at a huge TV above the pub. Nightmaster was increasing the volume and several of the patrons were now focused on it.

Before, the TV had been playing some soccer game, but now it showed a scene out of a horror film. The subtitles read, Salem, Massachusetts, Justice Society of America Reunites?

The cameraman was in a helicopter a few kilometers away from the city, but Kara could see burning buildings, some of which were actually moving as if alive, a lot of smoke and a fracture on the sky that seemed to pour out large tentacles that held balls of light, fur stuck out from several places and there were crude hands forming that grasped towards a few small figures fighting against it.

“Yog-Sotha,” Kara heard one of the patrons whisper, but she ignored him to focus entirely on the image.

Rao, what in the frozen hells was going on? Was this what the Wizard was warning about? A little late wasn’t it? Wait, she recognized that plasma sword…

Bursting in motion, Kara ran out of the bar as fast as she could. She almost broke the small door in Happy Harbor and then called her personal teleportation platform while ignoring the odd looks she was getting. She had a friend to save.

Chapter Text

Danette closed her eyes, enjoying the taste of the Dessert in her mouth. It was a red berry cheesecake this time and, quite possibly, the best thing she had ever tasted. She actually released a moan as she pulled the spoon out of her mouth, hearing Diana coughing at her side.

“Too much?” She asked, flushing slightly.

“Just a little,” her friend answered, motioning with her thumb and forefinger.

“I just… never understood what I was missing,” she said, sighing as she stared at her friends. “You know, I remember loving seafood, it was part of my programming, but I discovered that I actually hate the taste. It’s very… disconcerting.”

“I can imagine, Still, I’m glad you’re here Danette, your ‘death’ hit all of us hard.”

After their meeting, Jay had joked that she had childish tastes, but Danette supposed he wasn’t far from the truth. While she had been built in ’42, she had only been active for about three years. She was a child.

She had memories, experiences, a life, but it was all fake and, far more often than expected, wrong. She didn’t love going for walks in the evening, she didn’t like shopping, despite remembering going into hours long experiences when she was younger and she most definitely didn’t like eating healthy, taking great pleasure in sweets and fried food.

She did dislike putting on makeup, but it wasn’t because she thought such vanity stupid, it was because she didn’t need it, her synthetic skin was always at its best and most makeup didn’t sit well with it. At least she did prefer wearing pants to skirts.

Really, there were hundreds of little things like that, Danette suspected she would spend years just… finding things she thought she knew that were actually wrong. Sometimes, she wanted to hurt her father, the utter bastard.

Still, it was nice to be between friends again, the three years she had spent with the Justice Society weren’t entirely a lie. Taking another spoonful of the cake, she managed to keep from moaning and looked at her brother talking with Alan.

Red Tornado had seemed to take her existence well, for a normal human that is. Now that she was aware of what she was and had been given some access to her own coding, she could actually read him much better.

“I take it your first meeting didn’t go well?”

“He doesn’t know how to react,” Danette sighed, leaning back on her chair. “He’s out of balance and hating every second of it. It doesn’t help that we don’t know how to act around each other, I’m technically the older sister, but he’s been active for much longer.”

“I am confident Red Tornado will be well but, how are ‘you’?” the princess asked, focusing fully on. “I understand how difficult it is to find yourself in a completely different world.”

“I suppose you would,” Danette sighed, giving the princess a small smile. “I’m… adapting, Kara is helping out a lot and the internet doesn’t hurt. It’s so much easier to learn about things now than during the war.”

“I’m glad,” Diana smiled back, stretching in her seat and adjusting her posture. “I must confess I have been missing this. With Batman’s reforms, the Green Lanterns busy and some of the recent revelations, The Justice League has not felt the same.”

“Is everything fine?”

“We are facing a trial, but the League was born of trust, I believe we will emerge stronger for it.”

“Ladies? Are you ready for lunch?” Jay yelled from inside the house causing the both of them to refocus.

Looking over, they saw Alan helping carry a plate of food while Red Tornado put the plates and cutlery, Wildcat was chatting animatedly with Doctor Mid-Nite, but many of their former friends were missing.

Seeing Joan walking beside her husband, the two superheroines got up, glancing guiltily at the Dessert they had stolen from the fridge. Or, well, that Danette had stolen.

“That better not be my cheesecake!”

“Sorry!” Danette yelled back, hurrying to put it back into the fridge, she hadn’t resisted a quick snack before lunch, and it wasn’t like it would make a difference to her, there were some advantages to being an android after all.

“You know, ever since Jay told me you’re back, I have been looking forward to this little get-together,” Alan told her, drawing Danette into a quick hug. “It’s hard getting some of the guys out nowadays.”

“Come on Alan, you guys act like old farts,” Ted complained, despite his age, he was still looking good as he sat at the table beside Jay. Not having lost too much muscle mass since his time active as Wildcat. “Invite me for something fun and maybe I’ll come.”

“My friend, I’m sorry to say but most of us are old farts,” Charles, former Doctor Mid-Nite laughed and bowed in thanks as Jay helped him get a serving, as a blind man, he had trouble with it when he wasn’t using his power. “At this point, I’m more than happy just playing chess at a park.”

Staring at the gathering, Danette couldn’t help feeling something squeezing her chest. They WERE old, she could see her old friends on their faces, but she had missed so much.

Sitting down, she forced a smile on her face and, eventually, started laughing for real, forgetting her problems for a few hours.

“So, what excuse did Rex give this time?” Ted finally asked after they had finished putting everything into place and washing the plates. “The bastard has been dodging me every time I call. I thought he’d show up for our feisty tomboy there, if not to meet her, then because she’d burn him for missing it.”

“Fuck you Ted,” Danette threw a napkin at the old fighter, drawing a laugh from him. “That happened one time, one,” Danette too had been missing Hourman, she hadn’t really been friends with him, but she did want to meet after so long.

“He had a consultation, it was important so he couldn’t reschedule,” Jay sighed, handing everyone a cup of coffee and sitting beside his wife. “I also couldn’t get a hold of Kent and, well…”

Everyone just shrugged, they were old and superhero life hadn’t given them the longest life expectancy. Worse, like professional fighters, their lifestyle eventually caught up, giving them a lot of health problems.

“I too have been unable to contact Kent Nelson,” Red Tornado spoke, his voice having a hint of worry. “He has been missing for several weeks now.”

That information stopped all conversation. Danette had already heard that Kent had been spending more and more time at his tower after his wife’s death, but she had hoped to see him here.

“Have you talked with Zatara?” Charles said, his voice tired as he adjusted his sunglasses back in place and gripped his cane. “He was the old man’s apprentice for a time wasn’t he?”

“Giovanni Zatara has been occupied with a new apprentice, but he too hasn’t been able to contact him.”

Another quiet moment passed between them. At their age, not being in contact with anyone didn’t look good.

“Do you still have the key to the tower?” Alan finally asked with a somber voice. “I can check on him when I leave.”

“I can go with you,” Jay said, putting a hand over his friend’s shoulder. “It’s been a long time since I last stretched my legs.”

“I’m afraid I have to go,” Charles sighed, leaning forward in his chair and pushing himself to his feet with a groan. “My granddaughter is arriving to pick me up soon and I’m not nearly as fit as Ted. It has been nice seeing you all once again, but I’m tired.”

Getting up, Danette gave Doctor Mid-Nite a long hug, letting him touch her face to see her once more. “It was a pleasure to see you again little girl, try not to leave us so soon this time, will you?”

“Don’t worry, I don’t intend to.”

Watching the former superhero leave, Danette noted her brother stopping at her side and the rest of her friends giving him some space. Still, she kept quiet, letting him gather his thoughts.

In a way, Red Tornado was worse than her older brother, he hadn’t been built with the intent of passing as human, he didn’t have memories of an entire false life to burden him, but he also didn’t have the knowledge of how to interact, how to feel and relate to people.

To be truthful, Danette kind of envied him, at least he knew that everything he experienced was his own and not influenced by his false memories.

“I apologize, it seems like I have not handled the information well,” the android told her, his voice without any inflection as he finally turned her way. “I truly do not know how to react to your existence.”

“That makes two of us little brother, that makes two of us,” Danette whispered, letting some of her true feelings out, she still felt lost in the modern world, isolated even when she was surrounded by people. “Have you spoken with Jim? He seems to be handling this whole thing much better than the both of us.”

“I have not, I was not certain brother would want to interact with me.”

“He’s… surly, he’ll probably act annoyed if you show up, but he’ll actually be happy,” Danette said with a small smile on her face. “Our older brother likes to complain about everything, even when it’s something he enjoys.”

“I see, I will have to meet him,” he nodded. “And Father?”

“He’s not awake, Brother takes care of his life support system, but he hasn’t reacted even when I spent an hour yelling at him,” she confessed, feeling a little ashamed. “We can visit him together if you want.”

“I… would like that, yes. Despite everything, he is my father.”

They would have spoken more but, like Doctor Mid-Night, Wildcat had to leave to deal with personal things. It was already three in the afternoon and Danette had to remind herself that not everyone was as free as she was at the moment.

Staring at Alan and Jay sharing one last beer, she had to ask. “You think Kent will mind if I go with you guys? I was looking forward to meeting him.”

“Why don’t we all go?” Diana interjected. “I have taken the day off from any of my duties; it would be nice to see Kent.”

And that’s how the five of them found themselves in Salem, Massachusetts and in a seemingly empty plot of land. Stepping forward, it seems like Kent hadn’t noticed their presence yet. Danette couldn’t help herself, using her new sensors to try and look for the tower.

She was actually surprised when they caught something. It wasn’t able to fully locate the tower, but her sensors did warn her of an exotic energy source all around the empty location. Was Kara trying to incorporate magic in her tech?

Stepping forward, Red Tornado pulled out a large key, inserting it into empty air. The key disappeared and, soon after, they all heard a ‘click’, turning the key, a large medieval tower simply appeared midair.

Made from bricks and as wide as a modern skyscraper, it had a square shape and at least thirty floors. The top looked like a typical castle watchtower, with crenellations where a man could look down on the city. With only a small noise, the wooden door opened inward, allowing them entry into the Tower of Fate.

The first floor was a wide room with no indication of a door or stair. In the middle of the floor, the tower spirit appeared, taking the form of Kent Nelson. Danette recognized him, even if he looked several decades older than she remembered.

“Red Tornado, Princess Diana, Jay Garrick and Alan Scott, you have with you a member that the tower does not recognize, please, identify yourself.”

“I’m Danette Reilly, Firebrand.”

“Firebrand was slain during 1945,” the spirit said, turning to fully focus on her. A quick blast of magic hit her body and scanned it before the spirit nodded. “Very well, the Tower will update your status. Why have you come?”

“We have not been able to speak with Kent Nelson for days now,” Diana stepped forward. “Is he in the tower?”

“Kent Nelson left the tower over a month ago,” the spirit said and waved a hand, causing a set of stairs to materialize from the wall behind him. “Would you like to wait for his return in a more comfortable location?”

They all traded glances. They had expected the old man to have simply locked himself away for an experiment or, in the very worst case, passed away alone but, if he had left the tower, that spoke of a far more sinister possibility.

“Have the two of you noticed anything?” Diana asked Jay and Kent.

It was likely that any problem Kent had faced was something exclusive to his magical dealings but, as they had worked in the same team for such a long time and, like Kent, were now retired, it wasn’t impossible that an old enemy had resurfaced.

“No, none of the old guard seems to be active,” Jay answered.

“You think it’s something to do with the old JSA?” Alan asked, a green light already gathering around the ring on his finger.

“Fuck, father was preparing an attack before Supergirl dealt with it,” Danette looked at them all and shrugged. “What’s to say someone else isn’t becoming active right now? Heck, my youngest brother is still missing too. Although the timing doesn’t really fit for him.”

“I will contact Zatara,” Red Tornado said, turning back towards the exit door. “I will also warn the others about Kent Nelson’s disappearance.”

Watching the android leave for a second, Jay asked. “What about the Helmet of Fate, did he take it with him?”

“The Helmet of Fate remains here, according to orders, the tower would have started looking for a new host in another eleven months,” Kent’s image promptly orders. “As trusted allies, the three of you have permission to retrieve it. I apologize for Miss Reilly, but she will have to remain out of the important areas of the tower.”

“I get it,” Danette nodded.

In truth, Danette sometimes worried if she wasn’t about to betray everyone. Red Tornado may have overcome his programming, but she had never even been tested, having sacrificed herself before being activated. She didn’t know what she would do.

Kara had said she was safe, but the Kryptonian hadn’t dared delve too deeply into her software and, admittedly, wasn’t the best at programming, who was to say Father hadn’t hidden a few other safety measures they were unaware of?

Climbing the stairs, they reached Kent’s personal quarters. A picture of Inza, Kent’s wife, hangs on the wall above the fireplace and the entire room seemed really cozy.

“I’m gonna look for clues,” Jay said, darting around the room using his speed to look through anything that indicated Kent’s location.

“I must check on the Helmet,” Diana said, looking at Danette and Alan. “If this is an attack, it is possible that Fate itself is the target. Attacking Kent while he did not have access to the helmet would be an ideal situation.”

“You know, when I said I was glad we were all together, I didn’t mean I wanted to get out of retirement,” Alan sighed, approaching a desk at a corner and starting to look at the drawers. “I enjoy my time out of the limelight too much for this.”

“I didn’t think you were the kind to retire,” Danette commented, releasing some of Kara’s drones to look around the room for clues.

“It’s nice, not being needed that is,” the graying man smirked. “I still wear the ring and, if I have to face the darkness again, I will, but the new generation seems to have things in order.”

Suddenly, the tower spirit appeared again, standing in the middle of the room with a slight smile. “Thank you for waiting; it seems like master Kent Nelson has returned to the tower.”

Danette and Alan looked at each other. Yeah, this wasn’t suspicious at all. “Can you show us an image of him?”

“Certainly, it was unexpected, but he seems to have brought guests,” with another wave of his hand, the tower spirit caused a screen to appear midair, showing Kent Nelson walking up the stairs.

The old man looked bad, he had several bruises all over his body, half his face was covered in red tumors and there seemed to be something bulging under his clothes, as if they could no longer contain his form, his chest pulsating as he was pushed forward.

Still, Kent didn’t look afraid, instead his eyes still had an intelligent light in them and he looked everywhere in search of a way to escape. For a second, he seemed to catch sight of one of Kara’s disguised drones that had somehow found its way to the stairs and he smirked before starting to walk again.

At his back, there were four people. The leader seemed to be a young boy wearing all black, one Danette had seen in some of Kara’s information. Klarion, a Lord of Chaos.

At his side was a man dressed like a stage magician, his shirt was unbuttoned, showing his entire hairy chest and a gold necklace. He also carried a small wand which he used to control a mechanical collar around Kent’s neck.

The other two were large demons that looked alike; they had red skin and four shining eyes. Larger than the magician, one of the demons was obese and walked with a bored look in his face, carrying a large bag of snacks he was constantly eating from.

The second demon was more intimidating. Even larger than the obese one, it was made entirely of muscles upon muscles, thousands of veins bulging from his entire form as he stomped his way through the tower, barely staying behind Kent.

“Flash! Come here.” Alan yelled while staring at the image on the screen with his hands balled into fists. “I think we have one of yours!”

A second later, Jay stood at their side, staring intently. “Not mine, he appeared after I retired. That’s Abra Kadabra alright,” closing his eyes for a second as he stared at his suffering friend, Jay took a deep breath and let his anger out. “Don’t be tricked, while he dresses like a magician, he isn’t really one, using tech instead. I think he’d probably want to get his hands on the helmet, but this isn’t his style. I don’t recognize the others.”

“The child is the leader,” Danette said, getting back into the mindset of a hero. They had been through years of war, they could do it again for a day. “Klarion is a Lord of Chaos; he’s at the same level as Fate.”

“That… complicates things,” Alan sighed. Seeing as Diana came back carrying the helmet, he asked. “You recognize the other two?”

“Demons, they remind me of beasts from hell, not tartarus or any of the other realms, but I don’t recognize them,” Diana answered, cracking her neck.

Grabbing one of Kent’s red shirts, Jay put it on, but he didn’t have his helmet, instead, he found a bandana and tied it around his mouth, leaving his eyes and hair free.

With a burst of green, Alan changed; a green set of armor appeared around him, leaving him slightly bulkier, with a large cape at his back falling to his knees, the image of a lantern in front of his chest and a Zweihander at his waist.

Both Diana and Danette were already ready, only a command was needed for a mask to form from some of Kara’s nano-machines, covering her face as she felt her cores starting to become active, sparks of fire appearing around her.

“So, how are we doing this?” Alan asked. “I really need to punch those bastards.”

“Keeping the helmet away from them is paramount,” Diana said, looking at the artifact on her hand. “Did they disable Red Tornado to come in?”

“I doubt it, Lord of Chaos he may be, but Red Tornado is a powerhouse,” Alan commented. “Tower, could you help separate them?”

“Not without orders from Kent Nelson himself,” the tower spirit answered, shaking his head sadly.

“Alright,” Jay spoke. “Diana, Alan, Danette do you think you can keep them busy? I want to try and rescue Kent, but I don’t want to bet that none of them can react to my speed.”

“I have never faced a Lord of Chaos or Order, but I have fought with gods before, I believe I can deal with him,” Diana answered.

“I’ll keep the demons busy,” Alan offered. “I’m not sure fire would be all that useful against creatures from hell.”

“You’d be surprised,” Danette snorted. “But I can deal with Abra Kadabra.”

Using the drones watching the group, they started planning their assault. The tower was much bigger on the inside and the villains were walking through a space filled with hundreds of white marble staircases floating in space. The place looked chaotic but, with the Tower Spirit’s information, it wasn’t hard to see the patch they were going.

Klarion's group climbed the latest set of stairs and found themselves facing a fully armored Alan Scott floating in the air. His sword on his right hand.

"Oh, look, it's one of the Justice Geriatrics!" Klarion mocked, pointing with one thin finger.

"I'm really gonna enjoy this," Alan mumbled, his face very serious.

The fight was fast, faster than anyone expected. Driven by his willpower, Alan felt the starheart empowering his body, improving his strength, speed and reaction to their limits. He felt forty years younger as he pulled his arm back, his sword turning into a spear as he hurled it faster than most heroes could react.

He wasn't facing an average group. Lifting his hand, Klarion created a yellow barrier in front of them while both demons opened their eyes, releasing blasts of energy towards his projectile.

Empowered by his iron will, the spear cut through the magic like a hot knife through butter, scattering the eye blasts without even slowing and shattering Klarion's barrier into a million shards.

The spear flew right above Kent's left shoulder and moved straight towards the biggest demon's heart but, with a roar, the monster punched downwards, diverting the weapon so it cut through his leg and exploded against the floor.

The resulting cloud of debris was enough to momentarily block everyone's view.

"Hey, that's cheating. Green Lanterns shouldn't also have magic! Ack!" Klarion pouted, and then was too busy to talk.

Diana had taken the chance to attack. Usually, she would have gone for the kill, but she needed to take Klarion away from Kent and she knew something like Klarion didn't truly need a body, it would be meaningless to just destroy his head or heart.

Instead, she flew towards them, grabbing the boy's neck and pushing her shoulder against his chest before driving the both of them through the damaged floor, crushing his back bones and falling onto a different stairwell.

Klarion only laughed, his face morphing from the impish boy into a demonic visage, his skin looking color as It became full of edges and cracks from where red energy was leaking.

"Get off me!" The eldritch abomination yelled, kicking out and sending a large blast of magic her way, sending Diana flying back. Looking down at his chest, Klarion noticed Diana’s trick and pouted. "Well played."

Diana had managed to wrap her lasso around Klarion’s chest, holding it tightly in her hand as she flew away, having reacted fast enough to block his spell with her bracelets.

Soon, the lasso snapped taunt, stopping Diana in her tracks and causing Klarion to stumble, sending his magic wide. Grabbing the tool with both hands, she swung him around, smashing through three different stairs before he somehow broke free and went flying.

Diana pulled the lasso back and was about to follow when an elephant sized tiger jumped at her back, scratching through her clothes and drawing blood as they went tumbling through the air. Together, they smashed through the staircases, but at least she had taken out the most dangerous enemy. Now, it was time for Danette to act.

Danette had been waiting under the stairs Klarion had been climbing, using some of her new tech to remain invisible to normal senses. When Alan attacked, she had gathered her flames, forming a ball of fire between her hands.

In less than a second, the fire grew hot, the flames glowing orange in front of her, more than a thousand degrees Celsius just sitting there between her fingers.

And then she activated her second core, drawing oxygen into the flame. For a moment, the flame expanded, but then she refocused and concentrated on it, the color going from orange to blue in an instant.

Amongst the destruction of Alan's attack, she saw Diana grabbing Klarion and one of the demons reaching for Kent while her target lifted his want and created a shield around himself.

She released the inferno she had been holding, a pillar of blue fire wider than she was tall and over 4 thousand degrees hit the stairs, the entire construction didn't offer any resistance, erupting into a shower of ceramic and melted stone.

The attack smashed against Abra's shield and sent him tumbling back while both demons went flying. For a second, Danette worried about Kent, but Flash was already there.

Jay wasn't as fast as the current Flash, but he was close. He exploded into action the second Diana has taken the Lord of Chaos out.

Running towards the group, he saw Abra activating a shield, the barrier reaching for Kent and he knew he wouldn't make it. Still, he stepped harder, increasing his speed as much as he could.

Right as the shield was about to envelop Kent, the entire floor exploded, sending Abra back. Giving a brief glance down to Danette, he ran between the debris and the pillar of fire as if everything was in slow motion, grabbing Kent just as his feet were starting to leave the ground.

The heat started to affect him, a bead of sweat started to gather on his face, but he turned back, carrying his old friend on his shoulder.

One of the demons, the fat one, was still close enough to attack, opening his mouth into a giant maw and attempting to bite down on him, but Jay twisted aside, driving an elbow on his face so hard he snapped the head back and saw the shockwave forming.

Then he was out, the temperature decreasing. Always the eager one, Alan flew towards the fight, yelling towards the falling demons. "Come back here, I only want to hurt you!"

Feeling a hand squeezing his arm, he laid his friend on the ground and looked at him. Kent looked terrible and there seemed to be something getting even more active under his clothes, but his eyes were determined as he tapped the collar on his neck.

Grabbing the device, Jay couldn’t unlock it, so he started vibrating his hand as fast as he could, the limb turning into a blur as he pushed a finger through the collar and destroyed the lock. Ripping the thing off, he threw it aside.

"The helmet," Kent gasped, not losing a second. "I need the helmet before it's too late."

One last blast from one of the demons almost hit them but, now that he was free, Kent managed to parry it aside with a magical shield, grunting in pain as a tumor seemed to burst from his chest, soaking his shirt.

Looking at his struggling friend, Jay gritted his teeth and nodded, running back to grab the helmet; they hadn't dared bring it here for the confrontation.

Seeing her friend safely rescued, Danette released a breath of relief and refocused on Abra Kadabra. The villain had fallen into a lower stairwell, but he was already getting up and adjusting his clothes, the barrier having managed to block most of her fire and heat.

The little drones were everywhere, doing their best to block attacks and help in the fight, but the levels of power displayed were just too much, any attack broke through their shields with barely any problem and they couldn’t move as fast as most of the fighters.

Jumping down, Danette used a combination of fire and wind to direct herself; it wasn't flight, more like falling with style. Two of the drones formed a platform in the air she used to take a second jump and then she arrived, her feet impacting the ground with strength, cracking it around her as she righted herself.

"Well now, you aren't supposed to be here," Abra said, studying her figure. "Then again, I did hear that Dr. Morrow was defeated earlier, how odd."

"You really shouldn't have come after Kent," Danette said, starting to walk towards him. "Try not to die too soon."

Abra didn't take her seriously, simply raising his wand towards her. "Don't worry my dear, I guarantee you I won't. Sleep."

Danette stumbled, feeling something hitting her systems and causing them to momentarily lose power. An EMP.

Regaining her footing, she smirked at him. One of the first things Kara had changed in her hardware was to shield her against such things and put in a lot of redundancy.

Even the biggest EMP detonated inside her armor would only disable her for a couple of seconds, much less a weak one coming from outside.

"Ah, that also wasn't supposed to be possible," Abra said, uncertain for the first time and then Danette activated her plasma sword, the blue blade distorting the air around itself from the heat. "Well, shit."

Abra waved his wand, shooting several laser bolts towards her, but she countered with a huge wave of fire that blanketed the area. It was red and less than 1000 degrees, but it managed to block his vision and freak him out.

With another wave of his wand, he started floating, trying to flee from her. Danette wasn't having it. Gathering even more fire, she gestured with her free hand; shaping it above his shield and smashing him down like a hammer.

For three whole seconds, Abra resisted and even gained some ground, but Danette's torrent of fire wasn't stopping and, with time, she started increasing the heat by feeding it with air.

Finally, the villain was smashed into the ground, his flight unable to overcome her fire but his shield doing a good job of stopping the flames and dispersing the heat.

Stomping the ground, Danette smashed into Abra's shield, her plasma sword hitting it and causing it to lighten up. She slashed twice more, sending Abra stumbling back.

Adjusting her grip, she aimed the tip of her sword at his chest and pressed the blade against the shield. The plasma lightened the device, revealing a bubble of energy around him.

Her sword was specifically made to be her hottest flame, it was several thousand degrees hotter than anything she could manage even with two cores and, without the energy shield to stabilize it, would be capable of incinerating everything around her just by its sheer presence.

Slowly, it burned into Abra's shield, the entire thing growing brighter as it failed to disperse all the heat and Abra's own skin started to burn.

Suddenly, a wave of eldritch magic hit her in the chest, piercing her armor and sending her flying. The blow so strong Danette was sure it would have blown a hole through her had it not hit the wind core in her chest and lost most of its strength.

Still, sparks flew from the hole it had made and she felt her sword and wind powers being disabled as the nano-machines inside her started repairing her circuitry. Thankfully, the safety feature that forced her shut down when supposed lethal damage happened was long disabled.

Stumbling to her feet, she frowned. The attack had only been a glancing blow from Klarion as he attempted to kill Diana. Turning back to Abra, she saw the villain collapsed to the floor, probably from the pain of his second degree burns.

"Ahahahahaha, you're surprisingly resilient for a baby Titan aren't you?" Klarion laughed, shooting blasts of red energy at Diana. "Still, are you sure you should be fighting me? Don't you have something more important to do like saving your friend?"

Glancing at Kent, Danette saw most of his right arm had turned into one huge tumor, red flesh growing and pulsating as if it was a living creature.

Running towards him, she used all her strength to jump into the stairwell he was in, again, using the drones as platforms and sending jets of fire through her feet to help propel herself up.

She hit the floor running, sliding to a stop close to her old friend. Kent's eyes widened when he saw her. "Firebrand?" He gasped weakly. "Honestly, couldn't they send my Inza?"

"Sorry Kent, you're not dead yet," she said, trying to come up with a solution, would it help if she burned the tumors?

Kent looked at the hole in her chest still releasing sparks and breathed out. "Ah, a robot doppelganger, most convincing I have to say."

"I hate to say it, but Prof. Morrow was a genius," she laughed nervously. "What can I do?"

"Nothing, I'm afraid. The spell is almost complete," Kent coughed, his voice weak. "I wanted to have the helmet to provide some support one last time and maybe delay the spell, but I don't know if Jay is gonna be fast enough."

"No, no! Maybe I can burn it off, buy you some time?"

"Yes, if Jay doesn't arrive in a minute, burn it," Kent gave her a smile. "It won't stop the spell, but it will leave it incomplete, the gate won't form perfectly."

Danette was about to complain when Jay arrived, the helmet of Fate in his hands. Sliding down beside them, he knelt over Kent and put the helmet on his still working arm.

"Help me put it on."

Together, Jay and Danette did, releasing an explosion of golden light that drove them back and caused Klarion to roar with rage.
.
.
.

Kent Nelson opened his eyes inside the helmet; the entire space was an empty plane with only Nabu, in the shape of a golden helmet, floating in front of him. "Kent Nelson, you have brought disaster to this world," Nabu's voice boomed.

Kent just shook his head, a bitter smile in his face as he lowered his eyes. "I apologize, Fate; I should not have left you."

Nabu was taken aback, growing quiet as he stared at his former host. Finally, it was Kent that broke the silence. "Will you help me one last time?"

"It was your fate to wear the helmet, your actions that allowed Klarion to continue to act as he is," Nabu growled, but Kent gave him a smile as he sensed the answer.

"What is happening to me?"

The Lord of Order stayed quiet for a moment longer but, finally, he gave up. "Long ago, both chaos and order once worked together to repel certain beings, things that did not belong to our reality. Creatures so inherently damaging even the Lords of Chaos agreed to their banishment. Yog-Sotha is one of those things."

"Is that what I'm becoming?"

"No, such a creature could not be contained in a mortal body, even one such as yours," Nabu denied. "One of its spawns was long locked under the ice on the pole to forever sleep; it contained a key, a key that Klarion used to turn you into a gate."

"Can it be stopped?" Kent asked, even as old as he was, there were some things he did not know. "Will my death help or hinder it?"

"Your sacrifice would hinder it, but the door was already created, the connection made," Nabu revealed. "More than death will be required from you to avert this disaster."

"I already guessed, even if I hoped differently," Kent sighed, turning away from Nabu.

"Kent Nelson, it was your fate to wear the helmet," Nabu spoke again, his words hitting him with the weight of the world. "It is still your fate. You once fled from your responsibility, will you do it again?"

Looking down, Kent put his cane against the ground in front of him and held it with both hands for a few moments, closing his eyes and letting a few tears fall.

"Forgive me, but you'll have to wait a little longer, Inza," he whispered as quietly as he could. Looking up, he nodded towards Nabu. "No, I guess I’m not."

"So be it!"

Faye opened his eyes, the resulting golden light washing over his tower and driving even Klarion back a few meters.

"Aw crud. Nabu, you spoilsport!" The childish abomination yelled, sending a wave of red flying towards their location.

Widening his eyes, Jay grabbed on to Danette and ran back while Fate formed a shield, it was able to block the attack completely, but he was still sent back several meters as the stair disintegrated from Klarion's power.

Breathing hard, Diana dropped beside Danette and Jay. Together the three of them took stock of the situation.

On the ground, Klarion sat on top of his monstrous cat, the beast was still the size of an elephant and only had a few bruises from the fight.

In front of them were the dried husk of Kent's left size, an arm and a leg as well as pieces of his chest momentarily drained of color, but already starting to recover, growing like a fungus. Danette frowned and directed her fire towards the remains, not doing much more than slowing down their growth.

Fate floated on the air, half of his body glowing gold as his magic sustained his life and slowly recovered his missing pieces. "It is over Klarion, Fate already sees your defeat."

"Oh bugger off, what are you gonna do with a half dead host?" Klarion mocked, a huge smirk on his face. "I bet the old geezer doesn't even have a minute left before you finish draining the life out of him."

"It is not Kent that is being drained, Klarion," Fate answered, creating an enormous ank of light at his back.

For a second, Klarion narrowed his eyes at his counterpart, and then he glanced at the quickly recovering tumors. "You're still connected. Clever boy, your father would be so proud!"

A blast of gold hit him in the belly, causing his body to explode from the impact and go flying in two different directions. The cat hissed in anger, its fur lifting as it jumped away from the stairwell and started fleeing while dodging blasts of magic.

Klarion himself was still laughing, his blood turning into black strings that moved like tentacles, grabbing each other and reconnecting the two pieces of him. “Uuuuuh, someone’s feeling very saline!” With a wave of his hand, he blocked two other blasts and formed a pentagram below the regenerating tumor, teleporting it on top of Teeki and away from Danette’s fire as it had started to gather heat.

Connected again, Klarion’s eyes shone red, almost spilling malice, Diana took a step forward, but the Chaos Lord glanced her way and sent a large blast of magic, forcing her to block it.

“Hmm, I think I’m missing something,” Klarion complained, looking down at his chest where there was still a hole. “Nevermind, I never had a heart to begin with.”

Suddenly, a large beam of green energy cut through the tower, almost hitting Klarion as Alan flew back, roaring with rage. The muscled demon was holding on to his body and punching him repeatedly while Alan blocked with a shield.

Behind them, the second demon followed, far slower but still faster than an average car. Since Klarion was clearly the biggest threat, Diana flew towards Alan, smashing into the demon holding him and punching it away.

“Alan, are you alright?” she asked while the older man breathed hard, his eyes looking all around for a target.

“I need something to fight… something to kill,” he mumbled and then grabbed his face, shaking his head to gather himself. “Sorry, both of them have an emotional manipulation power. Also, don’t block their blasts, they have some kind of aging magic. I saw some armor set rusting and collapsing from a single hit.”

The second demon aimed another magical blast from his way, but Jay arrived in time, delivering a punch as fast as he could and sending the fat monster flying back.

On top of the stairs, Danette looked down at the fight and concentrated. For about half a minute now, the nano-machines inside her body had been working overtime to repair her. She still had a hole in her chest, but her wind core was already working again.

From all around her, some of Kara’s drones arrived, entering her wound one after another and allowing the nano-robots to cannibalize their materials to finish the repairs.

Lifting her arms, she created the hottest flame she could, feeding it with oxygen again and turning it blue. The heat was contained by her power, but she increased it more and more, turning it into a fireball the size of her head and it only grew bigger by the second.

“Aww, you guys are useless!” Klarion complained.

“Fuck you, how would I know wrath and willpower would be so compatible?” the larger demon growled, cleaning some blood that had leaked from the corner of his mouth when Diana punched him.

Seeing as there wasn’t anyone in the way, Danette released her power, causing a second pillar of fire to shoot at Klarion. This time, she had kept it as contained as she could, increasing its potency even more.

Klarion blocked it; the fire roared against one of his magical barriers, but it pushed him back and boiled his flesh, leaving only blackened bones with two red lights in the middle of his skull.

Shadows covered his body, taking the place of his skin and leaving the Chaos Lord as a mass of darkness and eldritch energy, his voice becoming hoarse as he ‘tsked’ and glanced around. “Well, I guess it’s time to change the battlefield.”

Releasing a shockwave of power, Klarion pushed the heroes back and teleported close to his cat once again. Lifting his hand, he blocked one last blast from Fate and created a red portal at his back.

Together, Danette, Fate and Alan sent waves of power at the blocking Lord of Chaos as he bought time for the demons to flee, but Klarion was actually taking things seriously and had created several consecutive shields. Danette didn’t have time to build the heat and was the weakest of the fighters.

Both Jay and Diana rushed towards the bastard, but Klarion collapsed the path ahead of Jay and blasted another wave of power at Diana, slowing her down. “Hehehehe, your precious tower may be able to take our battle, but I wonder how the city is gonna handle it! See you later, armadillos!”

Feeling all of her functions finally coming back on, Danette looked at the others for a second, unable to do anything as Klarion’s portal closed behind him.

Looking up, Fate growled. “Klarion has released the portal on top of the city,” closing his eyes in concentration, he finally finished re-growing his body, leaving him with fully white limbs in place of human ones. A moment later, his costume covered it. “Come, we must hurry outside before the damage grows.”

“Good to see you too Fate,” Alan commented, grabbing on to Jay and flying up.

“What will it do?” Danette asked, holding on to Diana as they flew up through a portal Fate had created.

“Without the tower’s suppression, the door will open much faster. Yog-Sotha must not be allowed to gain a footing in this plane,” Fate growled, finally flying out of the tower to stare at the outside.

From the middle of the sky, supported by Klarion’s magic, the released pieces of Kent’s body multiplied faster and faster every second and started to form a large circle from which a green light spilled out.

“Ignore Klarion and the demons, the portal’s formation must be delayed until Fate can repel the being.”

Looking upward, Danette already saw her brother engaging, a large tornado of wind smashing towards Klarion as Red Tornado flew towards the villain, his legs covered by a twister.

Before she could say anything else, Fate, Diana and Alan flew up to engage, leaving her and Jay alone on top of the tower. With a command, she gathered the last of the drones and stepped on top of a shield formed between two of them, ordering the others to start rescuing civilians.

“Fuck, I knew the meeting wasn’t a good idea,” Danette cursed, already starting to gather another fireball. “It’s either a stupid fight or a supervillain attack, nothing good ever comes from a super meeting.”

Chapter Text

Kara appeared a few kilometers away from the city, her platform sparking as some kind of energy field seemed to have blocked and re-directed her teleportation, the very fabric of the world appearing to bend away from the city.

For a second, she just stared at the being slowly pushing its way into her reality, her mind growing foggy at the sight. Grabbing her head, she managed to turn away and regain her bearings.

What in Rao’s name was that? At least she had seen that the fighters were mostly safe for the moment. All of them were still locked in battle, but none seemed truly hurt. Kara was quick to look for her friend and found Dani fighting from atop of one of her shields, releasing blasts of fire or cutting away with her sword when a tentacle got too close.

Taking a breath, she looked again. This time she braced herself and what she saw seemed to lose a lot of its power, the tentacles and spots of light no longer mesmerizing to her. Stupid cognitohazards.

Above the city, surrounded by clouds, was a large, sickly green portal from which several tentacles stretched down. Some of said tentacles seemed to grip the edges of the portal, constantly trying to stretch it wider, but most struck down at the struggling heroes.

Dani, a Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Doctor Fate and Red Tornado were fighting it off, doing their best to destroy the portal while being harassed by Klarion and two demons Kara didn’t recognize.

At the city’s edge, Kara saw Jay Garrick running around. While he could probably reach the fight somehow, he wouldn’t really be as effective without flight, so he was doing his best to save as many people as he could and was prioritizing getting them out of immediate danger. Unfortunately, even with how small Salem was, there were just too many civilians to move.

What… was she supposed to do? Kara had been in several spars, she had been in two life or death fights and she had been working on getting used to acting like a hero, but this was just too much. Screams of terror filled her ears as humans desperately fled the fight or hid from it, crying like children, some WERE children.

She had thought that Mr. Mind’s attack had been bad, his lightning bolts had done a lot of damage and set buildings on fire but, despite how things appeared, because she and Kori had been in the city, there hadn’t actually been all that many casualties.

This was much worse. The only saving grace was that Salem was much smaller than Fawcett City, with less than a 100 thousand people. But the creature that was pushing itself out into reality was so massive the destruction had started to spread to nearby towns.

With another command from her armor, the larger teleportation platform used by the Genomorphs appeared at her side filled with drone boxes. With a single order, five thousand drones took flight, going straight towards the city to help with evacuation.

She had considered calling on the Karabots, but most of their battle programming was still a result of code she had reused from Morrow’s work and she didn’t trust them close to civilians. She’d have to fix that soon.

The drones wouldn’t be able to block even a stray shot from one of the powerhouses battling, but the resulting debris? The aftereffects? Those were just as dangerous to a normal human and they were more than capable of dealing with that.

Looking at the cloud of drones, Kara knew it would not be enough. She had thought she had made too many, going way overboard on their production to create a long term reserve for the League, but it wouldn’t be enough.

Stepping forward, both platforms teleported back and Kara burst into action, having finally shook off her indecision and flying directly towards the city. At the midpoint, while hidden from view by one of the larger buildings, she opened the armor, separating from it and continuing to fly wearing only her Supergirl costume.

The armor immediately fell heavily to the ground, its front closing again as it cracked the street under its weight. The limited AI assumed control and started modifying its main weapon. Usually, it would act as a powerful railgun but, thankfully, she’d had the foresight to develop equipment meant to fight off anything from an alien invasion to freaking Eldritch Kaiju.

Changing into her teleport gun would only take a few seconds, but the more devastating forms took longer, both because they were even more complex and as a safety measure. She didn’t want anyone getting trigger happy with some of the configurations available… even herself.

Without Kara in the driver seat, the armor was only 36% as effective, but she only needed it to guard the cannon while it was being deployed. She was gonna bring out one of her recently acquired trump cards.

Unfortunately, most of her heavy weapons’ capabilities couldn’t really be unleashed inside the atmosphere thanks to certain safety devices she’d put in, others would need far too much time, but she had been waiting to test something new.

Kara had made improvements after her raid at Infinity Island and she was eager to deploy it in a real battle. She had tested the device extensively, but never at this scale.

Without pause, she burst into a house, not so much breaking the walls as just… pushing them out of the way as a human would push water. One hand caught a barking dog by the waist while another grabbed a young teen and cradled him to her chest before bursting out.

Not even a second later, one of Klarion’s blasts of magic hit the house, causing it to explode and rain debris all around the street. The boy was screaming the entire time, but she didn’t actually have time to calm him, just dropping the kid on top of a shield and moving on.

Above her, she saw one of Klarion’s magic spells turn into a claw, it enlarged itself and grabbed an entire hospital, ripping it out of the ground and throwing it up with a maniacal laugh.

It seems like the bastard had given up on harassing the heroes and, instead, started trying to force them into prioritizing civilians. At the same time, both demons disengaged and flew down, releasing red blasts of power towards the small city.

Kara batted a car out of the air, saving two girls it was about to hit before throwing some of the last drones on her costume at them before taking in the monsters, her mind working overtime to analyze the situation.

One of the creatures looked like an enormous blob of fat with red skin, flying everywhere and releasing blasts of red energy that seemed to corrode the materials wherever they hit, turning them to dust.

The second was even bigger, but he was filled with muscles and, instead of flying aimlessly, seemed to stop midair and close all four of its eyes, causing a different weight to settle over the city. Kara growled at the very sight, having the sudden urge to attack him.

Gritting her teeth, she looked from the fight to the falling building, her entire body aching to start hitting things but, with a curse, she flew towards the falling civilians. Her drones wouldn’t be able to stop its drop, so she’d have to do it.

In the second it took her to decide, her cousin actually burst onto the scene, catching the entire hospital on his shoulders and stabilizing it with his bioelectrical shield, keeping the building whole and the people inside mostly safe.

Unfortunately, it seems like she wasn’t the only one to notice his arrival. The fat demon roared and flew towards Kal, four red eyes filled with glee as he attacked. Kara couldn’t have that; the ridiculous blob of fat wasn’t going to touch Kal, the very thought made a fire of anger fill her chest.

The demon had been hurt during the initial fighting, blood was flying from an open wound on his chest, he was missing an eye and there were burns all over his skin that looked raw, but he was still sharp enough to notice her as they flew towards each other.

With a laugh, he simply sent a blast of power from his eye that she dodged. When she approached, he seemed surprised, grunting in annoyance before trying to punch her, clearly underestimating her power and skills.

Kara was angry and, for some reason, being dismissed like that only increased her rage. Lightning fast, she ducked under the blow and grabbed his face, squeezing his fat cheeks and shutting his mouth while continuing to fly past his body, carrying him straight to the middle of the city’s park.

The whiplash was enough that Kara heard something snap on his neck, but the demon still managed to punch her side before trying to blast her with a red beam of energy from his eyes as she dug her fingers into his fat, the Nth metal in her gloves completely blocking the attack.

Her costume’s nano-machines hardened under the body shot and she knew some of them had been destroyed, but her Kryptonian resistance barely noticed the impact. Then they hit the ground.

Kara didn’t want to destroy the city, even as angry as she was, she didn’t want to cause more deaths. That meant that, when she smashed the back of the demon’s head down against the ground, her bioelectrical field spread on instinct, blocking the vast majority of the damage.

She still destroyed most of the park, causing the earth to ripple, trees to be uprooted and creating a large crater, but she didn’t bury the bastard several kilometers under the ground or collapse any of the nearby buildings.

Releasing his twitching body, she looked up, seeing Wonder Woman engaging with the Chaos Lord once again as Fate tried to beat the eldritch abomination’s tentacles back with glowing ankhs of light.

Suddenly, a flash of emerald green light filled Kara’s vision as the Green Lantern Kara vaguely recognized as Alan Scott exploded in power, cutting off most of the tentacles, leaving them burning with green fire and wounding the muscular demon.

“Supes, how about we tag!” Green Lantern yelled as he manifested dozens of WWII artillery pieces and opened fire on the portal, the attack doing terrifying damage to the creature, but still unable to pierce through all its defenses.

Her cousin had put down the building he had been holding on the ground, being very gentle so as to not hurt the people inside. Immediately, Flash ran inside, starting to help several patients that had been wounded in the upheaval.

Glancing around, Kal saw that Klarion had already caused far more damage and, even wounded, the second demon wasn’t making it easy, his cuts already healing as he spread his power over the city.

While the demon wasn’t physically moving, he was clearly using some spell because the civilians on the street had started to scream and rage at each other, fighting for hiding locations or because someone had ran ahead of them, their panic easily turning into mindless anger, with those closest to his location being affected first.

Flash was running as fast as he could, separating fights while Kara’s drones interfered, locking insane civilians inside isolated shields.

Still, Kal didn’t hesitate, trusting the older hero and sending a blast of heat vision while flying up towards the regenerating tentacles, his attacks driving the creature back momentarily. In exchange, the Green Lantern dropped on top of a four story building, lifting his sword in front of his face and closing his eyes.

For a full second, Alan gathered his willpower, taking a deep breath and relaxing inside his armor. Finally, he opened his eyes and inverted the grip on the sword, his voice starting to gain strength as he spoke his Oath. “And I shall shed my light over dark evil. For dark things cannot stand the light, The Light of the Green Lantern!”

In a single motion, he pierced the building, driving the sword down to the hilt and dropping into a kneeling position. Light exploded from the weapon, pouring down the skyscraper and spreading over the city in a wave of fire almost faster than Kara could see. The fire covered the buildings and streets, forming a burning shield that consumed any attack sent its way.

Under her feet, the fat demon screamed as the flames hit his body, enveloping it in burning chains. Kara meanwhile didn’t feel a thing, the flames touching her body and washing over it harmlessly.
With a grunt, one of the demon’s fat hands grabbed her leg and she felt something draining out of her, her stomach growling as she started to become hungry.

With a snort, she stomped on the demon’s face as hard as she could, breaking most of the bones in his face and stopping his spell while also launching herself up towards the second creature, a snarl in her face.

With Alan protecting the city, Kara let the drones fully focus on evacuating civilians, separating those that succumbed to the demonic influence with shields while Jay helped the ones that needed the most immediate attention.

Squeezing her hands into fists, Kara knew she had to stop the anger demon’s influence before it became too much or spread too wide… and she really needed to punch him. The bastard was laughing, fully enjoying the effect he had on the city.

She didn’t come at him from below, the risk was too great that he’d attack her and force her to block or risk letting it hit an innocent. Instead, she flew up, punching a tentacle out of the way with a roar before diving towards the monster.

The demon still noticed her attack, but Kara just waved between two beams of magic and answered with a blast of heat vision that scored a line on his already burnt chest and drove him back.

“Bitch, that nearly hurt!” the demon taunted, his face turning into a smirk. “Well, now, you’re an angry one, aren’t you?”

Instead of answering, Kara punched him in the face, twice, one of his teeth went flying but, at the third hit, he grabbed her fist into one giant hand and pulled her out of position, preparing to deliver a hook.

Lifting her arm, Kara blocked it. With a growl, she wrapped her arm around his bulging forearm and pulled him closer, head-butting his nose. He released her and started to fly back from the impact, but she grabbed his head, pushed her thumbs into his lower eyes and did it again, her mask cracking as his nose crumbled under the impact and blood flew everywhere.

“Shut the fuck up and DIE!” Kara screamed, following after him. Catching up, she grabbed him by the throat with one hand and continued punching.

In her anger, Kara had left her guard down, trusting her costume and Kryptonian biology to resist anything he did. She would pay for that mistake.

The punch hit her in the liver with far more strength than she thought he was capable of, several times harder than his previous attack. It absolutely obliterated the nano-robots that formed her costume, the pain was instant and so strong Kara lost focus of everything, the stinging sensation on her lower torso all that she could think about.

Slapping her hand away from his neck, the demon pulled his arm back and punched her jaw before she could recover; the hit finished breaking her mask, leaving her mouth uncovered and only the upper part intact while sending her flying back.

“Ha, I love it! Such anger, give me more!” he yelled, snapping his nose back in place with a hand. “I am Wrath and I have to say, yours is absolutely a marvel to witness!”

With a laugh, he released another blast of eldritch energy from his remaining eyes, this one three times bigger than before. With her concentration muddled by the pain and anger, Kara just couldn’t get out of the way, having to lift both hands to block.

The magic hit her gloves, the nth metal dispersing most of the energy, but it couldn’t stop everything as beams slipped through her fingers, hitting her in the face and body, causing her to grunt in pain and discomfort as her face started itching.

Finally, she managed to stabilize her flight and blinked in confusion, her costume had grown in size and turned entirely black, the sunstone nano-machines having lost most of the power condensed inside as the spell increased the rate of entropy on her costume.

Thankfully, the Nth metal had blocked the majority of the power or Kara was afraid the small devices would have broken completely, dissolving into dust as they aged decades in less than a second.

More than that, Kara felt herself growing weak, exhausted, she even briefly lost control of her flight and started dropping, her hair coming undone as it seemed longer.

Finally, as the rays of sunlight hit her body and re-energized her as well as her costume, she managed to stabilize her flight before she hit the ground, her clothes slowly regaining their color.

There also seemed to be something strange about her vision, but Kara was too angry to notice or think about most of the changes, a red aura of light starting to gather around her. With a roar, she flew back towards her enemy, aiming to tear him apart.

Wrath just laughed, flying towards her even as his body grew even larger, the demon gaining strength from her uncontrolled anger, feeding off on it. Deep inside, Kara knew it was a mistake, but she was beyond being rational.

If Wrath was feeding off on her, she’d just have to hit the bastard until he stopped… and perhaps a lot longer.

They clashed midair, the shockwave of their fists hitting each other sounding like an explosion as they bounced back, Kara pushed far away by the sheer strength of her enemy, but Wrath only retreated a few dozen meters. Noticing that only increased her rage.

Flying back, her attacks grew sloppy, without any technique as she aimed to do as much damage as she could to the Rao cursed demon, shards of red light hitting his skin and breaking off against his muscles, the diffused light not strong enough to pierce his defenses.

Wrath was playing with her, dodging every hit and striking at her body repeatedly just hard enough to cause pain but not disable, he was clearly having fun with their battle.

Kara knew she had to get her mind in order, but the knowledge only made her angrier, wilder.

Finally, Wrath kneed her in the solar plexus, smashing her body against a small brick building and leaving her gasping for breath as she hung by its side, halfway buried in the wall.

Slowly, he approached her. “Hmmm, I think I’m gonna be keeping you, perhaps give you to Lust once I’m done?”

“No, you won’t.”

Wrath froze, a large hand grabbing him by the top of the head like a vice and locking him in place. Lifting his hands, he grabbed the arm and attempted to struggle free, but he may as well have not tried as the owner didn’t budge a single muscle, his red cape covering most of his body and flapping against the wind.

Pulling him back by the head, Kal punched the demon in the stomach, folding him in half and causing him to throw up in the air. Releasing Wrath’s head, Kal punched him again, his fist digging deep into the demon’s muscles before sending him flying up with a sonic boom.

Wrath hit one of the eldritch being’s tentacles so hard the limb exploded in gore and then his back bounced against a second one, finally stopping his momentum and allowing him to fall down, all four of his regenerated eyes nearly popping out of his head from the pain.

With an incoherent scream, Kara exploded from her place in the building, flying straight at the demon with Red Light covering her entire body. Just as she was about to reach his falling body, she felt something grabbing her by the leg.

Twisting around, she lashed out, blind with utter rage, but her enemy was too strong, wrapping an arm around her body and pressing it against his chest, locking her arms against her chest and holding her in place.

“Coff… Coff… That’s it! Coff… hit her!” Wrath managed to scream, his power hitting Kal straight on and causing his eyes to shine red.

“No,” Kal said, his voice calm despite all the anger in the air.

“Wh-what?” Wrath gasped, unable to understand what was happening.

“Kara, shhh, remember our lessons,” Kal whispered in her ear, his calming heartbeat filling her ears. Kara could feel his anger radiating from him, but it wasn’t affecting his words or body.

With a scream that broke the windows around her, she finally snapped out of her murderous rage, but she was still left shaking from anger, her fingernails digging into his costume and she did everything she could to hold herself back. “Ho-how can you do it?”

“Do you think I don’t feel anger?” Kal's arm relaxed, releasing the grip he had on her body. “I’m not a stranger to rage, none of us are, but it will never control me. It’s not why I fight, it’s not why I want to fight. There is so much that’s more important. Focus on what’s important to you, on why you’re angry, not the anger itself.”

“I don’t know if I can…” Kara managed to say, but Kal just smiled at her, hugging her closer to his chest.

“I trust you. You’re much stronger than you think you are.”

Breathing hard, she finally released the death grip she had on his arm and floated in place, the rage still filled her mind, the diffuse red haze surrounding her body, but she did her best to control herself, to rise above it. It wasn’t easy.

“Ah fuck off,” Wrath yelled, having finally recovered enough to pounce on them once again, but he seemed smaller, slower, less filled with power. He was unable to feed upon Kal’s fully controlled anger. “You weak hypocrite!”

Kal just leaned back, letting the punch pass in front of his face before backhanding the demon so hard he sent him flying out of the city, hitting the water and creating a huge trench before bouncing against the surface hundreds of times.

Without even glancing at the result, Kal gave her a bittter smile. “Sorry, I have to go,” then he burst into action, getting back into the fight by punching through a tentacle.

Even without Wrath around, Kara still felt the same rage, the same desire to rip and tear everything around. Taking slow breaths; she closed her eyes and tried her best to control herself.

Accept it, don’t fight against it, don’t resist. The anger was real, it was part of her but, just like Kal had said, there were so many things that were more meaningful to her.

Her family… her friends… her goals… In the end, weren’t they far more important than her desire to hurt others? Kara did her best to keep images of Kori in her mind, of Kal and Kon, but it wasn’t easy, the rage still running so strong, like fire in her veins.

She gathered her thoughts, her feelings, focusing the rage instead of just wallowing in it. Slowly, the sounds from the city started registering again, the cries for help, the desperate fighting in the sky.

Finally, when Kara opened her eyes again, they were no longer clouded. She still felt her rage simmering just below the surface, she still REALLY wanted to follow the demon and demolish him, but she wasn’t alone and, in truth, Wrath wasn’t that important in this fight.

Her rage was still running hot but, no matter how strong it was, she had realized it was unsubstantial in the face of what she truly cherished, something for her to use, not be used by.

Closing both hands into fists, she refocused and looked around. She had a job to do.

Chapter Text

Taking stock of the situation, Kara saw that even without the demons, the overview wasn’t getting much better. There were just too many people to evacuate and, although most of those that had been closest to the portal were now safely away, the fight was affecting too large an area.

Worse, Klarion, who was laughing like a maniac as he fought off Wonder Woman, still had time to harass the other heroes. Kara’s drones were constantly scanning for his cat so she could end the fight, but the creature seemed to have vanished.

From the corner of her eyes, she saw the current Flash, Barry, arriving in a blur of red, but even he wasn’t fast enough to save everyone. They had to finish this, fast. How much longer until her weapon was ready?

Rao, despite everything that was happening it hadn’t even been five minutes!

Looking up, Kara decided that the best she could do was help delay the eldritch interloper. Attacking the being was a constructive way of releasing some of her anger and with its tentacles quickly increasing in number Kara was afraid that even her weapon wouldn’t be enough to fully push it back if things continued for much longer.

Flying up, she surveyed the airspace in search of her android friend, the actual reason she had gotten directly involved in this. She eventually saw Dani, who was still fighting, and noticed the hole in her side made when she was hit with something.

Her friend seemed to have already been repaired, but the very fact she had been hurt so much… Kara growled in anger, but she didn’t lose her mind again. Instead, she grit her teeth and forced herself to focus on Dani’s safety above her own rage.

Dani was in a very precarious position; she still didn’t have enough control to fly with her wind core and, as a result, was forced to act more like artillery from atop a shield where her lack of mobility was making her an easy target.

The android was doing her best to send blasts of fire towards the eldritch abomination, burning entire tentacles with blue flame only for new ones to take their place, several of which started gathering towards her.

Seeing the attack coming, Kara knew she didn’t have time to hesitate. With a glance, she released a twin-eyed blast at an approaching tentacle, cutting it off to fall on top of another skyscraper and lay at its side, probably blocking the view from quite a few windows.

Her eyes widened in surprise and one of her hands flew up to her face, sneaking under her cracked mask to touch the newly healed eye… since when? Remembering the effect of Wrath’s magic on her clothes, she could only hope that accelerating her regeneration hadn’t caused any unforeseen side-effects.

Shaking her head, she put it out of her mind and again refocused on the fight, there would be time for wondering later.

One of the tentacles whipped down, cracking the air and forcing Dani to jump down as it obliterated her foot hold. The android used her fire and wind to fling herself away from another strike, but her mobility was really limited and she couldn’t keep herself in the air.

Just as a feeler started to wrap itself around her, Kara arrived, destroying the limb and flying away with the woman in her arms just as three other tentacles passed through where she had been.

“Dani, I thought you were just meeting with friends,” Kara quipped irately, her voice still a growl even as she did her best to calm herself.

“Well, you know how those meetings go,” Dani shrugged, smiling at her. “If it wasn’t for all the death and destruction, I’d even say we were having fun.”

Dodging another reaching tentacle and blasting it with heat vision, Kara snorted before fully focusing on the fight, there was just so much going on that it was hard to keep track.

On the ground, civilians had stopped fighting each other, but seemed to be just… staring up at the sky, entranced like she had been when first seeing the eldritch creature. Stupid cognitohazards.

A fair number of them weren’t entranced but were still restrained by her drones, both tired and still angry from being under Wrath’s influence.

Checking her drones, Kara cursed when they still couldn’t report the location of Klarion’s cat. It seems like she wasn’t going to be able to get rid of him the easy way. Looking at Dani’s wound, she asked. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah, at this point it’s mostly cosmetic already,” the android dismissed her concerns, throwing a blast of fire at another target and causing it to explode. “Damn, I don’t think we’re winning.”

Suddenly, with a deafening explosion, another piece of the atmosphere seemed to crack, a large pillar of flesh the size of a skyscraper breaking through the walls of reality and descending upon the city. The world seemed to be trying to close the new rift back up, but the appendage was blocking any efforts.

Suddenly, a presence descended in the area, causing Kara to feel a pressure on her shoulders as an aura of awe radiating from the enormous limb, a sense of oppression that demanded she submit. Focusing, Kara managed to shake it off.

“That… doesn’t look good,” she cursed, watching as thousands of eyes opened across every inch of the pillar.

Her mind was suddenly assaulted again and she stumbled, but she actually leaned into her rage and training with Kal to fight off the psychic assault, shaking her head and refocusing faster than ever. This stupid thing constantly trying to mess with her head was really starting to tick her off.

Down below, the civilians who’d been entranced started mutating, their bodies changing into monsters or exploding into random displays of power as the eldritch eyes looked at them.

“Burn it! Burn it now!” Kara yelled, snapping Dani out of her own daze. “Close those damn eyes!”

Lifting both hands, Dani released a stream of orange fire towards the limb. At first, it seemed small but, in less than a second, the fire had enveloped a quarter of the skyscraper's sized flesh limb.

Noticing her effort, Red Tornado also recovered and flew closer, using his wind manipulation to feed the flames further. The fire caused the eyes to pop like pustules, releasing a shower of burning blood down on the city, but Dani’s fire only increased in power, the temperature growing until it overcame the limb’s regeneration and started consuming it.

“None of that now! Stop ruining my fun!” Klarion growled, finally turning away from Wonder Woman and Fate to focus on the both of them, his burning eyes exploding in power as he released a blast of magic large enough to fully envelop them.

Kara wasn’t fast enough to dodge it, but she managed to release Dani on top of a new shield and use her Nth metal gloves to block the attack again, the ray of power parting as she braced herself against it.

The attack seemed to go on forever, a never ending stream of magic that burned her costume, destroyed chunks of her nano-robots, burned her skin where it became exposed and slowly drove her back despite Kara putting everything she had towards the fight to overcome it. With a scream, she used her heat vision, hoping the counterattack would help.

Suddenly, all sound vanished, the entire world seeming to freeze as the weapon she had left behind at the start of the fight finally activated. Klarion’s spell fizzled out and even Jay, Barry and Kal, the fastest beings in the fight, seemed to be moving in slow motion.

In the blink of an eye, a pillar of bright white light covered her vision, burning a patch through all the tentacles and hitting the green portal from which they came. The entire sky around the impact point seemed to fracture as the very fabric of reality buckled under the force of the assault.

Then the shockwave hit, the energy drawn from Hell itself hitting the atmosphere and sending all fighters flying in random directions regardless of their strength. The houses closest to the impact point were obliterated but, thankfully, they had long since been empty of people.

Kara felt herself break the sound barrier as she tumbled through the air, her eyes bleeding from the bright flash of light. A terrifying screech of pain seemed to fill the world and shake its very foundations.

Finally managing to stabilize herself, she looked up to see hellfire burning the openings of the breach, the flame consuming the tentacles and seeming to burn even the edges of the portal.

Hah! She knew those pieces of Vortigar’s heart would prove useful! She may have defeated Etrigan’s sibling fairly easily, but he WAS incredibly powerful.

On Krypton, magic had been extremely rare, far more so than on Earth, but it hadn’t been completely unheard of. And as any respectable technological civilization might do, Kryptonians had several devices capable of interacting with the exotic source of energy.

Kara herself hadn’t had the chance to mess with anything magical while in Krypton —the general field of study having fallen out of favor centuries before her time— and she still hadn’t found a way of channeling Vortigar’s power for anything more useful but, if there was one thing she was good at, it was causing explosive failures.

For a few seconds, everyone just seemed to stare at the result of her weapon. Several burning tentacles falling down on top of buildings, having been severed by the explosion, even Klarion couldn’t help but clap excitedly at the devastation.

Looking around, Kara saw Dani pushing herself out of a hole in the ground, the impact having only slightly dented her armor despite the height she had fallen from.

“Cool!” the Lord of Chaos yelled and then started looking for the source of the attack. “There you are! Mine now!”

In a burst of magic, he flew towards the weapon and Kara’s armor, his hands extended as greed filled his eyes. Unfortunately for him, he had let his guard down and Wonder Woman attacked.

Intercepting the abomination, Wonder Woman used her lasso to envelop Klarion’s neck, stopping him in the air before kicking his body away and decapitating him.

Grabbing the head, she started wrapping it with her lasso, trying to see if the artifact could contain his magic if she fully enveloped him. Unfortunately, she had chosen the wrong target, Klarion’s head just smiled and whispered. “Boom.”

The decapitated head exploded in a blast of chaotic magic, sending Wonder Woman flying back and burning her arms and chest with magical fire, causing her to cry out in pain.

Seeing as Wonder Woman was already intercepting the Lord of Chaos, Kara checked on Dani and Kal one last time. Once she saw they were both alive and well, she refocused on the eldritch god above.

The hellfire had destroyed most of the green portal and eliminated the tentacles, allowing Fate to approach and start to close the main breach, but the flesh pillar was still mostly intact and, without Dani’s fire, the eyes had started to regenerate.

Gathering herself, Kara sent the strongest blast of heat vision she could at the base of what she now realized was a single finger. The attack burned through the flesh, but not nearly as fast or deep as she would have wished.

Before the damage could heal, she smashed into the very tip as fast as she could, actually breaking the finger and sending a shower of blood down upon the city. Digging into the flesh, she screamed and strained her body, ripping the entire thing off, the skyscraper sized phalange weighing heavily on her back.

There was another deafening roar of pain as the owner of the amputated appendage retreated, the dimensional tear healing as soon as it was no longer being forced to remain open.

Around the main portal, Fate had finally finished getting rid of the tumorous growths that formed the connection and was about to fully close it, but Wrath had managed to recover from Kal’s blow and was flying back into the city, releasing blasts of magic at the Lord of Order’s back.

Focusing fully on the demon, Kara channeled all her power, all her feelings of rage and anger, releasing the strongest blast of heat vision she had ever managed, a visible crimson beam of power that smashed into the demon with so much power it cut off his attack and stunned him for a second.

Adjusting her grip on the digit, Kara swung it around in a circle, gaining speed before releasing it towards Wrath. The phalange smashed into the demon and created a shockwave as they both went flying right back towards the sea.

Wrath flew for a few kilometers, but he finally managed to recover. Without a Kryptonian’s bioelectrical field, he couldn’t fully stop the finger, but he managed to push the limb aside and free himself, narrowing all four regenerated eyes at her.

Kara hadn’t been idle, using the distraction to get within range and slammed into him once again. This time, she was able to feel his power trying to feed on her rage but, somehow, she resisted, her anger focused and under control so that his power couldn’t find any purchase into her mind.

Unable to draw on her strength, the demon wasn’t a match for her. More than that, Kara realized this was not what she should be doing. She didn’t need to waste time on him.

Oh, she still wanted to restart their fight, to destroy him and wipe the smile from his face, but Kal was right, in the face of what was happening, Wrath was unimportant. Not insignificant, not really, but so far below her priorities it barely registered.

Snorting, she punched him in the throat, her Nth metal gloves bypassing some of his magical protections and leaving him gasping for air.

Wrath tried to flail at her with one arm while grabbing his throat with the other, he got her once, the punch hitting her face, but Kara recovered quickly and managed to grab his arm, breaking it at the elbow.

The demon roared, striking out with a blast of magic aimed at Kara, but twisted aside and hit his temple with an elbow, causing him to stumble in the air. He was left disoriented, weak, unlikely to recover fast.

She wanted to continue, but honestly, she had more important things to do. Instead, she kicked him away, content to emulate her cousin and just send him flying away while she took care of more urgent matters.

“SHAZAM!” a huge bolt of lightning struck Wrath as he was flying away, causing him to scream out. Captain Marvel had arrived.

The hero had a serious look on his face and struck at the demon, carrying the both of them into the sea. Kara considered if she should follow but, at this point, Billy was actually stronger than her and she trusted him not to succumb to Wrath’s influence, it wasn’t in his nature.

Down on the streets, the amputated tentacles seemed to reanimate, turning into unspeakable horrors that grew hundreds of mouths screaming in pain and horror. But the portal was almost completely neutralized.

Down on the streets, Dani rained fireballs down on the newly created abominations, incinerating a few of them while Kal fought others. Thankfully, after so long, Jay, Barry and the drones had managed to evacuate all of the civilians close to the fight.

“Heh, I guess it was fun while it lasted… and to think I had such hopes for the brothers,” Klarion sighed, having re-grown his head. Snapping his fingers, he created a portal behind him and saluted a wounded Wonder Woman, taking the time to laugh in her face. “See ya, losers!”

Still feeling the effects of her rage, Kara flew towards the bastard, but she knew she wouldn’t make it, she was too far away.

Just as he was about to step back, a green sword slashed the portal in half, causing the Lord of Chaos to frown and float back as Alan Scott floated in front of him. The man looked tired, but his face seemed actually younger than before the fight started.

“Whoa,” Klarion floated away from the Green Lantern, both arms raised as if in surrender, but he still had a smirk on his face.

“No, you have done enough damage,” Alan growled, his armor almost pulsating like a beating heart. “No escape for you. No coming back later. No trial. No mercy.”

“Awww, what are you gonna do, hit me with your sword?” Klarion mocked, but there was a hint of something strange in his voice. “Piss off old man!”

From his raised palms, two blasts of magic flew towards Alan as Klarion attempted to flee again, but Wonder Woman snared his feet with her lasso and smashed him against the top of the building they were on.

“I’m the Green Lantern! Whatever I envision happens!” Alan shouted, waving his sword and cutting through both blasts. Flashing forward, he pierced the Lord of Chaos heart, pinning him to the floor and leaning forward. “And right now, you insufferable twat, all I’m seeing is your death!”

Emerald green flames burst from Klarion’s wounds causing the old monster to scream in pain for the first time in the fight. His hands grabbed the sword in a desperate attempt to push it out of his chest, but Alan just gripped the handle harder and pushed the weapon down to the hilt, generating another wave of fire that covered the entire top of the building.

Struggling like mad, Klarion’s body started morphing, changing from a child into a shapeless mass of darkness and crimson light that was slowly being consumed by green flames.

Suddenly, a mammoth sized cat appeared from nowhere, his form breaking a spell of invisibility as it slashed at Alan’s unprotected back. Wonder Woman reacted so fast she almost teleported in front of her friend, using her bracelets to block the claw strike, but it still drew a line of blood from Alan’s shoulder blade.

Using all his magically enhanced strength, the cat pressed Wonder Woman down and opened his mouth wide, forcing Alan to lean away lest the beast bite his head off.

Now arriving, Kara smashed feet first into the cat, her eyes blasting his head with heat vision. The feline twisted around with unnatural grace, leaving several deep gashes in her real leg before pouncing on Wonder Woman again, but Kara grabbed him by the tail, briefly halting his movements.

Unfortunately, when Alan had leaned back, Klarion got just enough space to move. Grabbing the sword by the blade again, he pushed it sideways through his body, roaring in a demonic voice as it cut its way out of his chest.

Alan slashed after him and cut off one of his arms, but Klarion still got some distance, opening his mouth impossibly wide and releasing a wave of chaos magic that obliterated the entire top of the building.

Grabbing the cat by the neck, Kara managed to use his body to block the blast. Twisting around, Teekl hissed at her, all four limbs slashing towards her chest and neck. With lightning fast reflexes, Kara leaned back and blasted him away with heat vision before he could hurt her.

“You accursed bastards!” Klarion roared, his voice filled with utter hate. “I will tear out your hearts! I will hunt down your families and skin them alive! I will…”

“You talk too much,” Alan said, a green flaming spear flying towards the Lord of Chaos heart.

Teekl roared, jumping on top of his owner and pushing him out of the way but getting a cut all the way through his body.

“NOOOOOOOOOO!” With another roar of pain and rage, Klarion exploded into power, sending thousands of crimson beams towards them.

Without a convenient shield nearby, Kara had to fly closer to Alan, allowing the Green Lantern to protect her with a shield large enough to cover all three of them.

Flying back, Klarion cradled the bleeding and quickly shrinking cat to his chest with only one hand and, this time, didn’t waste time jumping through a portal, disappearing before any of them could do anything else.

Alan dismissed his shield and the three of them stared at the pieces the Lord of Chaos had left behind.

“FUCK!” Kara yelled, utterly frustrated at the fact he had escaped, even if she had no way of permanently dealing with the creature at the moment.

And to think that, if she had been just a few seconds faster or managed to delay his escape a little longer, her armor would have managed to get the perfect shot on the cat, banishing the Lord of Chaos from the mortal plane.

With barely contained rage, Kara screamed, striking out at the building below her and destroying its roof while sending shards of Red Light in random directions. Finally, she was left panting, exhausted.

“You get used to it, kid,” Alan patted her back, his hair slowly turning back into its gray color as he gave her an understanding look. “Villains are slippery like that.”

Throwing her head back, Wonder Woman adjusted her disheveled hair and wiped the blood away from her face to reveal some of Teekl’s scratches still hadn’t healed. Stepping besides her old companion, she asked. “Can you deal with the remnants?”

“Not in a single attack, protecting the city took a lot out of me,” the Green Lantern sighed, his light dimming as the exhaustion became obvious for all to see.

Looking down at the city, Kara saw her drones working overtime to contain the eldritch beings, locking them in barriers while harassing those too strong to be restricted and keeping them away from everyone.

From the sky, Captain Marvel fell on top of one of the tentacle monsters, a discharge of electricity turning the creature into a charred mess before he threw it aside and flew towards a second one, an unconscious Wrath held in his other hand.

Looking at her Armor who was already packing away his weapon, Alan lifted an eyebrow and Wonder Woman cracked her neck. “I appreciate the help, fella, you gonna stay for the aftermath?”

“No,” the forge armor replied, emulating her voice while wearing it. “Our interests aligned today, but I have no interest in being a hero, only hunting down the abomination.”

“Fair enough,” Alan shrugged. “Just don’t cause trouble and we won’t have a problem.”

The armor didn’t answer, but that seemed to satisfy both Wonder Woman and the Green Lantern enough to dismiss its presence from their minds.

“Well, my friend, it seems like the easy part is over,” Wonder Woman commented towards Alan. Floating away from the building, she looked around for where she was most needed. “Now for the harder part.”

“Oh joy… if only it wasn’t also the most important,” Alan sighed, watching the woman fly and starting to fly himself. “Good job, kid. Thanks for the help. Come look for me once this is over, we can talk about what just happened.”

As Alan flew towards the remains of the fight, Kara considered what to do next but, as several other heroes started arriving and things weren’t moving as fast, she found that the best way to help was no longer to get directly involved, but coordinate the rescue and containment.

Using her computer, she ordered the armor to collect Klarion’s amputated arm and the blood he had spilled, having it give her a nod as if it was a stranger before teleporting it away for safekeeping.

Sitting down, she pulled out a holographic projector from inside her costume, creating a display in front of her face. Briefly closing her eyes, she took a few breaths to calm herself further and accelerated her thoughts as fast as she could.

Then she opened her eyes again and started working, furiously manipulating the drones to coordinate with the working heroes. Wonder Woman was right, seeing the result of the fight was much harder than participating in it.

Chapter Text

“Good job, kid,” another hero patted her in the back.

Turning towards him, Kara watched the white costumed man giving her cousin a nod of respect before continuing to walk towards his own table. She didn’t recognize him no matter how hard she thought about it so, shaking her head, she took a sip of her water and refocused on the conversation.

“Do you think you can heal them all?” Kal asked between bites of his own lunch.

“Yes, I will be watching for any hidden commands, but most of the victims should be able to recover with time and psychological treatment,” Martian Manhunter answered. “Even the worst cases should be recoverable if I receive permission to block their memories from a relative.”

“You know,” Kara wondered out loud. “If there’s too many for you to take care of, I bet there’s something in the Fortress’s database that’s capable of physically erasing memories, I remember Uncle mentioning something like that once.”

Both Manhunter and Kal looked at her with blank faces for a full second. “Ah… I’d really prefer you didn’t build something like that Cuz.”

“What? It’s not like I’d be making a mind control device, that’s probably much harder and not my specialty, but destroying a few neurons is easy and could help! I’d just have to scrap the device later to avoid it being stolen.”

“It will not be necessary, there are only a few cases where such drastic measures need to be taken. I’ll be able to deal with all of them myself,” the Martian quickly answered, giving Kal another nod and walking away.

“… I just can’t take you anywhere, can I?” Kal asked, a hand in front of his face, but Kara could hear the amusement in his voice. “Did you have to make him uncomfortable like that?”

“I think that’s mostly the psychic blocker, really. M’gann had the same reaction,” Kara shrugged. “Unfortunately, I’m not turning that off. The damn eldritch monster kept getting through it and almost incapacitating me anyway, I don’t want to think about what would have happened if I didn’t have any protection.”

Kara took one last bite of her meal, using a napkin to wipe her mouth. Her mask being broken by Wrath’s punch had been annoying, but having the lower part of her face free to eat or even talk was actually very convenient, she’d have to take that into account when making her next one.

“Fair enough. Are you going to stay here much longer?”

“I… no, I think I’m done here,” Kara answered, taking a second to look at the refugee camp they were currently in, a huge open space created by the heroes and capable of housing a few thousand civilians for some time. “There’s only so much I can personally do and I’m exhausted.”

“Good, I took the day off, but I’ll probably be leaving in the afternoon too, after we finish all the shelters,” Kal said, finishing his own meal. “It’s gonna take a long time to fix this.”

A long time was relative. In her previous life, Kara would have thought the place might never be able to recover from what had happened. On Krypton, it would have already been halfway rebuilt, here…

Well, the city of Salem was not quite a total loss. Kara had done her best to coordinate the efforts after the main battle and she still felt a small headache from overworking her mind for several hours, but, now, the worst was long over.

From being flattened by a falling tentacle, destroyed by rampaging monsters or incinerated by a resulting fire, a little less than a quarter of the city had been damaged. Still, with all the help they had already acquired and heroes… or even some villains with synergetic powers volunteering, it would only take three or four months for Salem to be rebuilt, perhaps even better than before.

With dozens of heroes working the entire night and most of the morning, every abomination save one had been properly disposed of and every affected civilian was undergoing treatment, with several magical heroes examining the spells ravaging their bodies.

Some had been easily reverted to their normal form, while others had been more deeply affected and a surprising amount actually had their meta-gene activated by the event.

Out in the sea, the giant finger was contained. The limb had started to mutate into a truly impressive aberration, but both Aquaman and Mera had showed up, the King had destroyed the creature’s newly grown head, disabling it long enough for his wife to lift it out of the sea with a pillar of magical ice.

Now, Mera, Zatara and Fate were working together to bind the creature, Fate keeping it locked in place with a giant ankh of golden light and the others freezing the water around it, enchanting the ice to keep it asleep.

At the entrance of the camp, Kara saw Aquaman arriving, Aqualad walking close by. Focusing on the man, she narrowed her eyes before releasing a sigh.

“Really, do I have to keep reminding people I can clone limbs now? It’s pretty easy,” she grumbled. “And why a harpoon?”

“His hand is a recent loss and I suspect the harpoon is enchanted,” Kal answered. “Probably temporary too, just a placeholder until Atlantis can craft him something custom.”

“Huh, guess they would have the capacity to make him something better,” Kara said, her annoyance diminishing at the thought. “Well, tell him I offered anyway.”

“I will.”

Together, the both of them flew up, watching the devastated city from the air, with craters and collapsed buildings everywhere. The place looked like a warzone, but it was already being cleared of debris and repairs would start in a week. Most heroes had already left, but a few were still helping out, their costumes standing out amongst uniformed construction workers.

From outside the city, relief efforts were being organized, trucks of supplies and manpower arriving to help clean up what was destroyed, the government and several nonprofit organizations busy at work to help out.

Heck, Kara could even see some LexCorp trucks arriving, she’d have to keep an eye on them, but they were probably here for the good publicity, Rao knew the company needed it at the moment.

A news helicopter flew close by; the cameraman focusing on both Kryptonians and Kara knew her relative anonymity was over, she just hoped she wouldn’t find any smut fanfic about them anytime soon.

Oh, she knew they would be made. She just REALLY didn’t want to know about them.

Looking down at the city, Kara tried to locate Kori working. The Titans had shown up sometime before midnight. They hadn’t openly debuted as a team, but they had been working as much as possible alongside their respective mentors.

Still, most of the team had classes today and left after the worst was over. Kori herself had stayed, accompanying Wonder Woman instead of doing their morning training in Greece.

Finally, Kara managed to find her girlfriend, the Princess was listening to what one of the volunteer engineers was telling her, nodding her head before darting inside a building and destroying its support beams, the entire structure collapsed a second after she flew out of a window, her hands patting at her Amazonian costume to get rid of the dust.

Kori caught her staring and waved animatedly, her face opening into a huge smile. Getting a thumbs up from the man she had been working with, the Tamaranean flew up in a straight line towards Kara. They had traded a quick greeting when Kori arrived, but they hadn’t met face to face.

Unable to help herself, Kara’s face morphed into a smile as the girl smashed into her. Kori wrapped her arms around her neck, pressing their bodies together before capturing her lips and making Kara lose several seconds, possibly a full minute.

“Hello Starfire,” Kara breathed out, remembering they were out in public while resting her hands at the woman’s waist.

“Greetings Supergirl, I am most pleased to see you well,” the orange beauty said and then buried her face in her shoulder and squeezed Kara as tightly as she could, almost making Kara lose control of her flight.

“Hey Starfire, it's alrig… Ouch!” she yelped as Kori actually pinched her. “What the…?”

“Humph! Ire! Vexation! This is the second instance of you battling something beyond your capabilities.” Kori pouted at her. “Please, have you any idea how distraught I was? You must give me your oath that you will not participate in another such battle without me!”

“That’s not fair, I couldn’t have predicted Lobo,” Kara answered, doing her best to resist how cute Kori’s puppy dog eyes were. She failed. “Alright, I swear I’m not getting into such fights without you again if I can help it.”

Kori watched her with eyes narrowed in suspicion but, eventually, nodded in satisfaction. “Very well, I will believe you.”

“Thanks Starfire, sorry for making you worry,” Kara couldn’t help saying, allowing Kori to hang off her neck like a scarf as they both floated, the constant noise from the helicopter telling her everything that had just happened was being recorded.

Behind her, there was a bright flash of light. Turning around, Kara watched as the iceberg currently containing the eldritch finger disappeared into a huge ankh of light, Doctor Fate floating in place for a little longer while Zatara and Mera started leaving.

Catching Kal giving her an amused smile, Kara glared at him. “Shut up.”

“I didn’t say anything!” Kal defended himself. “Still, I can’t say I’m not relieved hearing you’re taking her with you when getting into fights.”

Kara shifted in place unhappily, her hand gripping Kori’s arm around her neck for support. She really hated having him worry about her, Rao damn it.

Almost faster than she could see without accelerating her thoughts, Fate flew towards them, stopping a few meters away to just… glare at her for a moment. Finally, he turned towards her cousin and spoke, dispensing with any niceties. “The beast has been fully contained within the tower, but this battle will have dire repercussions. I must speak with the Justice League.”

“Nice to meet you Fate. Diana has told me a lot about her time with the Justice Society of America.” Kal flew closer, a characteristic smile on his face as he greeted the older hero.

“The child of Gaia was a staunch ally at the time,” Fate acknowledged. “Regardless, we have much to discuss and most of it isn’t good tidings. I will require your presence in the Tower of Fate in ten minutes.”

Kal gave her an apologetic look, but Kara was already leaving anyway and she understood her cousin had hero work to do. After a night to think about the battle, she had recognized both demons involved and realized they really weren’t good news, for anybody.

Kara knew she had deviated from the original plot of the YJ animation pretty hard, but she had thought things were better now. Unfortunately, with Gluttony and Wrath present and helping Klarion, things would probably get much harder.

Both demons were heavy hitters, but they weren’t the real problem, it was their father that was the true danger. Trigon hadn’t gotten involved with the YJ animation, but he was on the same level as the likes of Darkseid, Brainiac and Nekron… and he still had four other sons.

Hopefully, Raven, his only daughter, was still fine and not under her father’s influence.

“I get it. Go take care of things,” Kara waved her cousin away with a smile. “I’ll see you home tonight?”

“Indeed, I would not leave you alone after such a dangerous engagement,” Kori gave her a reassuring smile, doing her best to show support.

“Kara Zor-El, I also require your attendance,” Fate commanded, his voice leaving no room for argument. “You were present for most of the fight yesterday. I will not allow you to leave before entering the Tower.”

“Fate,” Kal almost growled at the Lord of Order’s tone. His protective instincts went into overdrive after what had just happened. “I really don’t like what you’re implying.”

“Your ‘cousin’ does not belong to this place,” Fate explained, turning away from her as fast as he could. “Her very presence grates on my senses, disrupting the balance and bringing chaos to this realm, but it is not our Fate to fight, I only require that she be scanned for any signs of the creature’s hidden influence and will not be hostile.”

“I see,” Kal said, still looking at the Lord of Order with some worry. “Kara?”

Kara considered the demand. She was tired from the fight and spending hours working, but she also felt guilty.

From the show, she had known Kent Nelson would be attacked by Klarion, even if she hadn’t known when, but, with so many things to deal with and how she had been doing her best to avoid the Lord of Chaos, she had actually forgotten about it.

There was also the mention of that damn creature’s control lying dormant inside her, Kara already had an alien organ inside her body, and she had no desire to also have one in her mind.

“It’s fine. I can stay a little longer.”

“You sure, I can ask Zatara later?” Kal asked one last time and, when she nodded, relaxed his body. “Alright. Fate, will you need to look for this in everyone that was involved with the creature yesterday?”

“Yes. I will be spending the next month purging the being’s influence from the affected civilians, but there is only so much damage they can cause,” the Lord of Order answered. “A hero affected, much less a Kryptonian, represents a much greater risk, making it my priority.”

“I understand, I’ll gather everyone involved.”

In the blink of an eye, Kal flew away, leaving Kara alone with Kori and Fate. With a wave of his hand, the Lord of Order created a golden portal behind him and teleported away much in the same way as Klarion had done during the fight.

“Come on, let’s go to the Tower.” Kara said, patting at Kori’s arm still wrapped around her neck.

A couple of minutes later, Kara was sitting among more than a dozen heroes inside the tower. The room was large, at least a hundred meters wide and with a twenty meters high ceiling, giving plenty of room for flyers.

Despite the fact everyone present knew each other; the room was still divided into teams, with members of the Justice League and Justice Society standing in their own groups.

Strangely enough, Kara was sitting surrounded by the old guard, Kori and Dani at each of her sides while Kal was in the center of the JL group, speaking quietly with Aquaman and Wonder Woman.

Finally, Fate teleported inside the room, taking a second to look around before casting a spell to close the doors.

“Kent, I take it you’re about to explain what just happened?” Alan immediately asked. The Green Lantern was back into his civilian clothes, his hair white once again.

Fate considered the man for a second. “I’m afraid Kent Nelson will not be able to explain anything.”

“What do you mean?” Jay asked, leaning forward in his chair.

“Kent Nelson had abandoned his post as Doctor Fate for years now, his dereliction of duty giving free rein for the forces of chaos to act unopposed,” Fate finally sat down, taking a second to look at everyone present. “More than a month ago, his imprudent choices finally caught up with him and, yesterday, I assumed control of his body to attempt to remedy the situation.”

“You’re going to wear him like a sock puppet you mean,” Alan growled. “Kent told me he was afraid you’d do something like this and that’s why he stopped wearing the helmet.”

“I will not deny the situation is not ideal, but not for the reason you believe,” the golden helmet took a second to consider his next words. “Even if I desired to relinquish control, which I admit I do not, I would still be unable to.”

Noticing the green energy starting to gather around Alan and how the atmosphere seemed to be filled with hostility, Kal got up. “Wait, let’s all take a breath alright,” giving everyone a second to calm down, he turned towards Fate. “Can you explain the situation?”

“Very well, Kent Nelson was used as a gate for the creature known as Yog-Sotha. Once he put the helmet on, I was able to draw upon a portion of the creature’s vitality to fuel my powers and seal the gate, but I could not fully block the connection,” Fate leaned back, closing his eyes for a second. “I can’t relinquish control without re-opening the portal, but neither can I continue to draw upon the creature’s power to fuel myself. It means I have a limited time with which to find a new host and an even more limited ability to use my powers.”

“Kent is already dead then?” Zatara asked once he understood what Fate was saying.

“No, I can’t control a corpse, but he only lives for as long as he wears the helmet,” for a second, Fate seemed to focus inward before speaking again. “Do not worry, Kent Nelson has long since accepted his fate, if anything, it is his soul’s continued presence in the mortal plane that bothers him, but he understands the necessity.”

They all took that in for a second, with Dani relaxing her grip on the table and the rest of the heroes leaning back, not happy, but willing to hear what else he had to say.

Alan sighed and took a deep breath while Jay patted his back and Wonder Woman herself nodded once. “Kent has always missed Inza, he would be ready to pass.”

“Did you just invite us here to tell us about your situation?” Aquaman asked, tapping his harpoon prosthesis against his other arm.

“No, although that is a large part of it,” Fate answered. “Yesterday’s battle was a complete victory, with both demons fully contained within the tower, the remains of Yog-Sotha either destroyed or under control and Klarion suffering his biggest defeat yet. His wounds will take decades to heal, if they ever do, but the repercussions of his attack will be dire.”

“Alright, what are we dealing with?” the current Flash asked, his body still relaxed. “An enemy wanting revenge is not exactly new territory for anyone here.”

“Klarion himself will not be a problem. I suspect the creature will be hiding for a long time after the way he was defeated,” Fate said with no small amount of satisfaction in his voice. “However, he broke an ancient covenant by opening the path for the eldritch beast into this reality, inviting punishment even by his own faction and I doubt the creature those demons served will be happy with their imprisonment.”

“So, if he’s being targeted by everyone, why not leave him to deal with it?” Captain Marvel asked.

“The enemy of my enemy is very rarely my friend,” Zatara answered his young apprentice. “It is unlikely any faction targeting Klarion will worry about collateral damage or civilian lives.”

“Indeed, Klarion has had dominion over Earth for millennia now, but he is far from the only Lord of Chaos in existence. He is also not the most powerful or even the most cruel,” Fate concluded. “Worse, I believe I recognize the form of those demons. Yog-Sotha may not be the only dangerous entity Klarion has invited into our reality with this attack. Not to speak of the attack that drove the creature back at the end. An infernal entity capable of that level of power is incredibly worrying.”

Hearing that, Kal turned towards her, causing Kara to wince. Her cousin knew about her armor but, even now, most of the Justice League still weren’t aware of her own team.

For a moment, she continued to stay silent and it seemed like Kal would respect that but, eventually, she released a sigh and spoke up. “That was actually me.”

Suddenly, she found the entire room turning to her. Leaning back into her chair, she started explaining about her armor and weapon.

Of course she wasn’t about to reveal everything she had ever done, but she remembered the way Faust had apparently betrayed the Light and, with someone like Trigon involved, could no longer justify the danger of keeping completely quiet. Particularly because, with how much had been changed, she no longer knew what was going to happen.

Her armor may have been the one responsible for yesterday’s attack, but there was someone out there capable of ordering a demon like Vortigar and convincing Felix Faust to betray Klarion.

In the end, she revealed most of her attack on Infinity Island, but refused to elaborate on anything else. It was not like the Justice League didn’t already know most of what she was revealing… or shared everything they did with other heroes for that matter.

There was a lot more information she could have given, but she… she needed to check on some things and speak with Kal first, alone.

“Alright, remind me not to piss you off,” the Flash said, being the first one to break the silence after she had explained things and getting a few odd looks. “What? She ripped out a demon’s heart and used it like an AA-battery to explode a giant extradimensional tentacle monster. I don’t want to see what she’d do if I gave her a reason to be angry with me.”

“Fair enough,” Captain Marvel nodded. “Still, it’s nice to have a mad scientist on our side for once.”

“That is enough confirmation. Vortigar is known to be Trigon’s grandson,” Fate continued after the interruption. “Fortunately, contrary to his progeny, no mere summoning ritual will be enough to invite the demonic deity into this dimension, but the very fact we have his attention is dangerous.”

"You will have our support, Doctor Fate,” Wonder Woman said.

“I’m afraid I will require more than that. Until I find a new host, I will be forced to conserve most of my remaining power, unless Trigon or a Lord of Chaos takes the field themselves, I will not directly interfere.”

Zatara looked at Captain Marvel and then away, his mind shifting towards his own daughter. Turning back towards Fate, he offered. “How long will it be until you require another host? I have too many responsibilities to wear the helmet permanently, but I can take the role of Doctor Fate during my shifts with the League.”

“A temporary host is not ideal, but the offer is appreciated,” Fate nodded once. “Without needing to exert myself, I will be able to sustain my presence for three years. If I have not been able to locate a host until then, we will come to an agreement.”

Leaning back, Kara interlocked her fingers with Kori’s and listened in as both teams discussed the future. Although Jay and Alan weren’t coming out of retirement, they were still incredible powerhouses and the fight had reignited the desire in them to help.

Finally, after what felt like an entire day, Fate himself started looking over each one of the heroes present during the fight, searching their bodies for the being’s eldritch influence, the creature’s corrupting magic.

When it was her turn, Kara hesitated. She understood the need for it, and even the reason it was being done inside the Tower —much easier to contain a struggling hero and less worrying for the civilians— but that didn’t mean she was comfortable with letting someone that clearly didn’t like her cast a spell on her body.

Kori squeezed her hand, reminding her that she wasn’t alone, even Kal focused on her, paying close attention to her hesitation. She didn’t trust Fate, but she trusted the both of them with keeping her safe.

Taking a breath, Kara stepped towards the Lord of Order and let a wave of golden light wash over her body, his spell taking longer than with any other present. “It seems you were slightly affected, but were able to fight off the creature’s influence,” said a frowning Fate as he finished.

Stepping back, Kara looked at the helmet and couldn’t help asking. “What did you mean when you said I don’t belong here?”

“Your presence in this dimension disrupts the balance of the world. For those with the senses to see it, your entire being looks like a taint that affects everything you come into contact with, spreading to those around,” Fate’s eyes were hard as he regarded her. “Your very presence changed the fate of this world.”

“Why not attack me then?” Kara asked.

The Young Justice show didn’t paint Fate in a good light, but Kara could understand… and even respect the Lord of Order’s choices when she really thought about it. She could also understand if he thought eliminating her would solve whatever problem he sensed.

She didn’t agree, had no desire to actually fight Nabu and would do her absolute best to destroy him if he did push things —she still had another capsule of Vortigar’s heart and she believed she could survive long enough to deploy it against the Tower if needed— but she could understand.

“I considered it, but whatever changes you created are now permanent, containing you would not resolve the situation,” Fate answered truthfully. “As much as I find your presence an eyesore, I will not attack you simply for being chaotic, else I would have fought Green Lantern decades ago.”

That made sense, Kara didn’t know if this dimension was the one depicted in YJ or just close enough so as to not matter, but her very presence had already changed things, even if she left the planet or died right now, nothing would erase what she had already done.

As she was about to step away, Kara stopped and looked around. After this meeting, Fate would be extremely busy for the next month just scanning the remaining civilians and, after that, he had almost half a century of problems to look after, she probably wouldn’t be able to talk with him anytime soon.

She had long since had a question for the Lord of Order, one she was pretty sure she knew the answer to, but she wanted confirmation anyway.

No, if it was only a desire she'd keep quiet, she wouldn't question him with so many people around them. She needed confirmation.

"Can you sense souls? Are you able to tell if someone is or has ever been possessed?" She finally asked.

For a second, Fate regarded her, the golden glow in his eyes shining brighter as he took in her fearful posture for the first time in their meeting. She had been hesitant before, but not afraid. "I do not know why you ask, but be reassured your body is your own, it has always been."

Kara nodded and finally stepped away, watching as Fate inspected her cousin and Alan Scott in short order. The meeting took a little longer, but Kara had already stopped listening.

She had never regarded herself as a different person; her memories of her previous life weren’t some parasite on her mind. They were just another piece of her.

Still, there had always been a small part of her that was afraid, she had read enough stories about a soul taking the place of another, like a parasite possessing them and, with two mystic powerhouses telling her she didn’t belong here…

Thankfully, that particular fear didn’t seem to be true. She was and had always been Kara Zor-El, no matter what life she had before this one. With things settled, Kara left the Tower, giving Kori another kiss before flying back up into the air and waving her goodbye.

Salem used to have a Zeta-Tube, but the location had been destroyed in the battle and Kara had to search for the next closest place. Eventually, she appeared back at the Fortress, pulling off her half destroyed mask and throwing it at the table.

"Mistress Zor-El, may I help you?" The AI appeared at her side, seeming to realize her goal.

"Prepare the medical room, I was hit with some kind of magical blast and it seems to have accelerated my healing, I need to see if there were other side effects."

"Very well, the scanners will be ready when you arrive, Mistress Zor-El" the image of her uncle bowed and disappeared.

After the last time Kara needed a check up, she had changed the healing pod into a comfortable chair where she could simply sit down while getting examined and even continue to work if she so wished. It was far more convenient, comfortable and didn’t remind her of her time with the Psions.

With a command, she took off her clothes, laid the cube of nano-machines to the side and sat down. The scan only took a minute.

"Mistress Zor-El, it seems you have several minor wounds, your muscles are strained and your solar reserves are low. However, there doesn’t seem to have been any dangerous negative side effects, only a slight muscle pain, headache and nausea," the AI started talking. "Analyzing the effects on your body, it appears said magical blast has increased entropy in all your cells, causing them to age. A normal human’s cells would have been destroyed under the strain, but a Kryptonian seems to be resistant enough to survive."

"What about the damaged cells? I avoided some of the treatments available because I didn’t know how they would react.” Kara asked.

“As the blast seems to have homogeneously affected your body, the magic has effectively accelerated your recovery by 38 days, although the effect has strained your damaged cells, it was not beyond their ability to withstand,” the image of her uncle gave her a disapproving look. “Considering the data, it is likely you would have withstood a second blast of similar strength, but any more would have caused permanent damage or even death.”

That was disappointing. Kara had almost been willing to ask Fate for access to Wrath or Gluttony and just have them blast her again. Unfortunately, the attack she received had been blocked by the Nth metal, its power greatly diminished and there was no way one of the brothers would agree to limit himself as such… or that she’d trust them even if they did.

“Do we have anything capable of replicating the effect?” she asked, letting the chair continue to heal her minor wounds. “And how long would it take for the strain on my cells to recover?”

The AI looked away, seeming to think about the answer, which probably meant there was something in the vast Kryptonian database and the AI was simply spending a moment to gather all the information.

“We do possess the blueprint for several equipment of similar capabilities, however it requires exotic materials the Fortress does not have in stock and causes heavy damage to any organic material.”

Well, that was even more disappointing, even if not unexpected. If there was anything capable of accelerating her recovery time in the database, Kara would have found it sooner. Still, more than a month of progress toward her recovery was a very satisfying reward from the fight.

Getting up from the chair, Kara stretched her limbs and took a quick shower before putting her clothes back on. After the nanobots were reconfigured to look like civilian clothes, there was actually a small cube of extra materials she stored away in a cabinet in case she ever needed it.

Looking at a mirror, she stared at her newly healed eye. It was actually gray, giving her heterochromia. Kara didn’t exactly like the reminder of what had happened, but she didn’t mind it too much and she also liked the longer hair, even if it needed a bit of styling.

“Send me the information on the entropy device anyway, I want to see if I can do anything with it,” Kara ordered, tying her hair into a ponytail. “Also, get me the configurations for Kal’s and my escape rockets, mine should be among the data recovered by the Psions.”

“Very well, I will send the data to your personal device. Do you desire anything else, Mistress Zor-El?”

“A painkiller, I think I’m already starting to feel the muscle aches.”

Opening her computer, Kara let it project the information on a holographic display ahead of her and sat on a sunstone chair she grew from the floor, starting to make a list of things she could improve or would have to change after the fight.

Finally, one of her robots brought her the painkiller and she opened the files on the escape ships, taking a long look at their configurations and, in specific, the hyper-drive since it was the one component she had some personal experience with.

Unfortunately, after hours of staring at the holograms, she still wasn’t able to find what she was looking for. There were some differences in the blueprint, but she’d have to look at Kal’s ship in person to be certain.

Finally, she pushed her chair back and released a long breath. Taking the painkiller had also taken care of her headache, but Kara was still exhausted, she'd have to continue looking after asking for Kal's permission to open up his ship.

Teleporting back to her home, she put some food into Dexter's bowl and threw herself on the bed. It was still only six in the afternoon, but she had been awake for much longer than necessary and her Kryptonian body still hadn't absorbed enough sunlight to make sleep a luxury instead of a necessity.

As usual, the cat jumped on top of her body. Using her as a source of heat, he curled into a ball between her legs and, before he stopped purring, Kara was already asleep.

Chapter Text

Kara woke up feeling a soft touch on her back. Her heart nearly exploded in her chest and her muscles momentarily locked in fright as she struggled between turning around to blast whoever was attacking her and pretending to be asleep to gather information.

Then her other senses started registering in her mind, the pleasant scent of the floral soap, the familiar heartbeat, even the way the fingers traced her skin. Releasing a long breath, Kara relaxed back on the bed.

“I apologize, I did not mean to startle you Kara,” Kori whispered, sitting beside her on the bed.

“Ugh,” Kara felt her aching muscles protesting as she pushed herself on her side to glare at her friend. “Kori, I wanted to sleep until the next day.”

“It is the next day, Kara,” Kori said, using her fingers to push a strand of hair away from Kara’s face. “Please, are you feeling alright?”

Kara just groaned, she wasn’t exactly a stranger to pain anymore, but it had been a long time since she had felt, well, tired, at least for more than a few minutes. That entropy blast had really taken a toll on her.

Grabbing the blanket, Kara pulled her legs to her chest and curled into a ball, burying her face into the pillow. “Nope, my body is aching all over and I feel like I’ve just fought ten rounds with Wonder Woman, I’m staying in bed today.”

“I see, in that case I shall inform Master Diana I can not train this day,” with a light push, Kori floated away from the bed.

“Kori, wait!” Kara grasped for her girlfriend, but the Tamaranean was already beyond her reach and, despite being fully awake by the scare, she REALLY didn’t want to get up. “Ugh.”

From the door, Dexter gave her a judgemental look, his narrowed eyes telling her she shouldn’t be so lazy, or maybe he just wanted her to get up and feed him, either one of those.

Looking at her computer on the other side of the room, Kara pointed with a hand, trying to pull it closer. Unfortunately, laziness wasn’t a part of the emotional spectrum.

Giving up, Kara lowered her arm and looked through the walls, staring at the sun for a moment to see it was still early morning. Turning away from the cat, she covered her head with the blanket and attempted to fall back asleep without much success.

“I have returned!” Kori said, jumping on top of the bed.

“Nooooo,” Kara protested, feeling her coverings being pulled away in a heartless manner, turning to glare at the Tamaranean, but stopping when she realized Kori only wore a sport’s bra and a thin pair of panties. “Why?”

“After much research, I have found that performing the manipulation of soft tissues is very beneficial for such pain,” Kori explained while ignoring Kara’s glare. “Do not worry, Friend Troia has taught me how to perform such things.”

“Oh she did, huh? And just when did the two of you get such good relationship?” Kara asked, a hint of jealousy in her voice as she thought about the Amazoness touching HER girlfriend.

“We have been sparing often,” Kori answered without a hint of worry. “Now, remain in this position.”

With a fast movement, Kori straddled her back, letting Kara feel the heat from her body. A moment later, the Tamaranean had taken off Kara’s bra and spilled a thin thread of oil on her back, the cold making her draw a sharp breath.

Soon, Kara felt Kori’s warm hands starting to spread the oil on her back, pressing down on her muscles in a… very pleasant manner. Rao, she should act spoiled more often, being pampered felt great.

Unable to help herself, Kara let out a small moan as Kori’s fingers dug under her shoulder blade, pressing on a particularly bothersome ache and steadily drawing up towards her neck.

Flushing slightly, Kara felt Kori’s tights wrapped around her body, her panties getting soaked with the oil and leaving very little to the imagination. The Tamaranean’s fingers wandered all over her back, pressing down on her muscles before slowly spreading down her sides.

Kara’s breath caught in her throat when Kori caressed the side of her breasts, her touch becoming light as she traced along her mounds. Unfortunately, Kori pulled back, causing Kara to almost growl in frustration as her partner adjusted position to start on her legs.

“I… hmmm… I certainly hope you haven’t been doing this… AH… this kind of massage with Troia,” Kara said when she felt Kori cupping her ass, hands squeezing her flesh and dripping some of the cold oil on her already damp pussy.

“I have not,” Kori said, hands going down her toned legs. “On Tamaran, we do not have the same proclivity towards monogamy as on Earth or Krypton, but it is not something I would do without conferring with you Kara.”

“Mmmm… good to know.”

Finishing up with her feet, Kori started going up again, this time, gently tracing her fingers along the glistening skin as she crawled up.

Gently tickling the back of her knee, Kori sent a shiver up Kara’s pussy, causing it to contract in anticipation before she deepened her touch, tracing a line leading up along Kara’s inner thighs.

Unable to help herself, Kara’s own hand started acting, grabbing onto her own breasts and squeezing, the combined sensation causing her breathing to increase, her thighs grinding against Kori’s hands.

Suddenly, Kori drew back, causing Kara to whimper in protest. Before she could do anything about it, Kori grabbed her side, eagerly flipping her on the bed and revealing Kara’s flushed face.

Putting a hand on each side of Kara’s body, Kori leaned down and kissed her, but Kara was far too excited, flying up and pressing herself against her girlfriend, grinding their mostly naked bodies against each other, their tongues interlocking as the kiss deepened.

With only some effort, Kori pressed Kara back down and smiled. Eyes clouded with lust, Kara traced a finger down her belly, caressing the top of her pussy lips.

Kneeling over her, Kori took the chance to take off her own top, revealing her ample breasts, their tips hard and tantalizing. With her eyes, the Tamaranean followed Kara’s hand, smiling as she saw her playing with herself.

“I am glad to see you comfortable with yourself,” Kori said, lowering her body and kissing Kara’s neck, trailing her mouth up and biting her ear. “I had thought you may have not been secure with our relationship. You were far too tense the last time, yes?”

“Kori I… mmmm… I didn’t exactly have experience,” Kara confessed, feeling the Tamaranean’s hands exploring her breasts, pinching a nipple while she trailed kisses down Kara’s body. “I had never played with myself back on Krypton.”

“I understand. Do not worry, I will make sure to teach you well,” Kori said, squeezing one of her breasts with a hand while sucking on the other.

Kara felt Kori’s lips enveloping her nipple, her teeth rubbing against the skin and sending a wave of pleasure through her chest, the heat causing sweat to accumulate on her skin.

Kori’s other hand traced down, lightly touching Kara’s toned belly, sneaking it’s way under her panties and bypassing her small strip of hair to caress her clit, the swollen button sending a jolt of electricity down her core.

With expertise, Kori traced circles with her finger, drawing eager gasps from Kara as she attempted to grind her hips against the teasing girl. “Kori… ahh…”

With a light and fast movement, Kori used a finger to tap her sensitive clit, the sensation making Kara involuntarily jolt in place, her legs drawing up as her thighs squeezed together.

Finally, when Kara was desperate for release, Kori held it between her thumb and forefinger and pinched while also biting down on her nipple.

The twin spikes of both pain and pleasure were too much, making Kara bite down on her lip, her back arching up while one of her hands grabbing the bed sheets and the other grasping at the headboard, making the reinforced metal groan.

Kara had changed the materials of her bed frame in anticipation of something like this, but she still left a handprint on the metal as she came down from her first orgasm, an extremely satisfied Kori looking down on her.

Tilting her head in slight confusion, Kori frowned at Kara’s exposed chest, causing her to feel self-conscious. “What?”

“Kara, your Kryptonian ways are strange to me, but I heard some human women decide to increase their size through implants,” Kori said, a concerned look on her face. “Please, I do hope you did not think you had to change for me? I did not mind that they were small.”

“What so you…?” Kara asked with growing confusion, then the realization hit her and she groaned, her face flushing with embarrassment as she released the bed frame and covered her eyes with an arm. “Rao damned Wrath!”

“I do not understand?”

“Kori, I didn’t get breast implants,” Kara snickered, pushing herself to a sitting position so she could check herself better. “Wrath hit me with a spell and it caused me to age, this is natural.”

Looking down at her own chest, it was bigger than before, by a considerable amount. Not quite at the size of Power Girl from the comics, but she was between a C and a D right now.

“Come here,” putting a hand behind Kori’s neck, Kara drew her girlfriend closer, kissing her deeply. “I guess it’s your turn now.”

Relieved, Kori sat between Kara’s legs, one of her own thighs still tantalizingly pressed against Kara’s sex. With a mischievous smile, she shook her head. “Nay, today I have decided to indulge you.”

Despite having just had an orgasm, Kara didn’t complain as the Tamaranean slowly pushed herself back.

With a gentle touch, Kori pressed her hands under Kara’s legs and gently guided them up, taking a moment to slowly pull down her panties and throw the soaked fabric aside before moving both legs against her shoulders. Staring at Kara’s lustful eyes, Kori kissed her ankle, then slowly started to go down.

Each kiss left a spot of heat in her skin, in her calf, in her knee, in her inner thigh and drawing closer, Kara’s pussy getting soaked with anticipation as her feet slid over Kori’s shoulders to rest on her back.

Fully exposed, Kara couldn’t help feeling flustered as Kori stared at her pussy lips, her flesh glistening with excitement and the remains of her previous orgasm.

Then she felt Kori’s tongue, the feeling completely different from a finger as Kori licking over the outer lips, slowly exploring her sex, the feeling causing Kara’s toes to curl at her back.

Finally, Kori’s tongue touched her clit, causing Kara to release a small yelp, the pleasure driving her back against the headboard and her hands to grip the bed frame even harder, the metal complaining.

So much for reinforced materials.

Then Kori really started, her tongue sending waves of pleasure as she played with Kara’s sex, eating her out with such skill Kara was almost driven mad with pleasure.

“Kori!” the blonde screamed as a finger parted her lips, quickly followed by another.

Feeling both fingers curling inside her to caress her G-spot, one of Kara’s hands released the bed to grab Kori’s flaming hair, her mind unable to decide between pushing her girlfriend’s head back so she could catch her breath or pressing it down for more.

Kori’s other hand squeezed Kara’s ass, digging into the soft flesh while her mouth kissed her clitoris, fully enveloping the little nub with her lips and starting to suck. Kara went wild, unable to hold back her voice anymore as she screamed in pleasure.

With one last scream, Kara’s muscles trembled, her toes curling almost painfully as she pushed her pelvis up from the bed and into Kori’s mouth, the orgasm hitting her hard as she actually squirted, drenching Kori’s face.

Kori didn’t stop, her fingers only increasing in speed and prolonging the pleasure as she sucked on Kara’s clitoris, flickering it with her tongue as she rocked Kara’s world.

Finally, Kara collapsed bonelessly against the bed, her chest going up and down with harbored breaths, feeling exhausted once again despite just sleeping for so long.

At least she had managed to keep her voice to human levels and didn’t break any glass windows. That would have been really embarrassing.

“That was… yeah,” she gasped, words escaping her as she struggled to stay awake.

“Rest, I will clean up the bedroom,” Kori said, lifting her body up, guiding her to the sofa before putting a clean blanket on top of her.

“Thanks, I love you.”

Curling up on the sofa, Kara made up her mind to return the favor. She was just wondering if a metal dildo could survive their lovemaking or if she’d have to make something herself when she passed out.

Chapter Text

Talking, objectively speaking, it’s such an easy thing to do. Just open her mouth and express her ideas, make a string of sounds that convey meaning. Heck, Kara didn’t even need to open her mouth, she had taken a few moments to learn sign language between some of her experiments.

Subjectively speaking, however? It was harder than fighting that eldritch abomination had been. She was doing her best, but her throat locked up every time, the words dying in her mouth and leaving her looking stupid before just saying ‘nothing’.

It wasn’t that she didn’t know what to say, she had practiced in her mind enough that she had three different scripts she could use. Kara knew exactly what she wanted to say, she just… couldn’t do it.

Lying on the sofa, Dexter purring softly on top of her belly, Kara struggled to keep her mind on track. To not reach for her computer so she could distract her mind by watching Luthor still trying to justify a new leak —she still had some dirt on him she hadn’t released— or lose herself on a new experiment.

Two lifetimes —short as they were— and she still hadn’t learned how to take initiative on private matters. Show her an enemy and she would happily start plotting his downfall. Give her a project and she’d immediately start dealing with it but, when it came to her own personal life…

The worst was that she knew it was easy, just start talking. It was simple, extremely so, but she just… Could. Not. Do. It. And she absolutely hated it.

If it was anyone else facing the same problem, Kara would actually be pretty understanding, but when it was her own weakness.

Again, she caught herself reaching for the computer, instinctively trying to change her train of thought, to flee. It would be so easy, there was so much going on in the world, so many important things she could be dealing with.

The Light was adapting to her existence. Trigon was getting involved with the world. Mr. Mind was probably still alive and plotting something. She’d have to deal with the Injustice League soon…

Kara would really prefer to be dealing with any one of those things and, arguably, they were far more important than her inability to speak up.

Pulling her arm back, she squeezed her hand into a fist and closed her eyes, taking deep breaths as she tried to calm herself down, to swallow the lump on her throat and relax her body.

Feeling a gentle touch on her closed hand, Kara opened her eyes to see Dexter pushing his head against her hand, his purring getting louder as he rubbed his entire body against her.

Unable to help herself, she scratched the top of his head, watching as his eyes closed in pleasure, eventually, he actually lifted a paw towards her other hand and attempted to draw it closer, gently hooking his claws around her finger.

“Oh, you want both hands then, one isn’t enough,” Kara snorted. Letting out a long sigh, she obliged. “As the Overlord commands.”

“Joy!” Kori exclaimed, catching Kara by surprise with her phone as she brought them food. “This will make for the most wonderful saver of screens!”

Kara flushed, but she still kept scratching at the cat’s fur, letting her girlfriend continue to take a few more pictures of their interaction. “Just don’t be showing that to everyone, you’re gonna make them stop fearing me.”

“Do not worry, after they beheld the way you fought the Yog-Sotha, that will not be a concern,” Kori nodded, lifting Kara’s feet and sitting down on the sofa before laying them back down on her lap. At Kara’s inquisitive look, she continued. “There was a substantial amount of videos from Salem’s battle.”

It had only been a single day since the fight with Klarion and Kara was taking it easy, or at least trying to, with Kori having taken a day of leave to stay with her and help her recover from the ordeal.

Still, she should have expected videos of the fight to have spread far and wide, the internet was even more advanced here than in her previous life and there were several video sharing apps that were popular.

“Ugh, I really hope that didn’t spread the damned cognitohazard,” Kara sighed, lying back on the sofa’s arm and continuing to run her hand over Dexter’s fur.

“It did not, The Doctor Fate was sure of that,” Kori answered, adjusting her position so her legs could hang besides Kara’s.

“Good, did I at least look cool in the videos?”

“You looked most gallant,” Kori nodded, handing Kara the plate of snacks before stealing a handful of them. “Indeed, watching you sunder the creature’s phalange and bathe in its blood left me exceedingly aroused.”

Kara choked on one of the snacks, causing Dexter to jump away as she coughed to dislodge the nugget from her airway. “Well… coff… I suppose that’s better than the alternative.”

“Still, I do hope you do not get covered in evil, eldritch ichor again, regardless of how appealing it was to watch your prowess.”

“Don’t worry. I have no intention of doing that anytime soon,” she said, taking a sip of water to clean her mouth.

Grabbing the remote, Kara pressed play, finally letting the movie continue playing. Star Wars was still a thing even in DC and Kori was actually greatly enjoying the original trilogy, especially because the movie technology was much better in this world.

Even Kara loved it. The director had actually managed to preserve the mental aspect of Old Obi-Wan VS Vader while also making it showy, with both exploding into action in a short but epic duel at the end.

Still, Kara wasn’t able to concentrate on the second movie, her anxiety starting to build again as she kept stealing glances at Kori.

Finally, after nearly twenty minutes, she grabbed the remote and paused the movie, staring at the screen as she attempted to gather her wits and open her mouth.

Feeling a warm touch, she watched as Kori just embraced her, wrapping her arms around Kara’s neck in a strong hug. “Kara, we are friends, more than that, we are lovers. No matter what you wish to say, I will always be here for you.”

“I didn’t used to be like this, you know?” Kara breathed out, a derisive tone in her voice. “While Kryptonians can get lonely or uncertain, we don’t really have a need to talk, or even be with others. Such weakness had long since been purged from our nature by evolution or genetic manipulation.”

Pushing herself up into a sitting position, Kara adjusted herself, her back straight against the sofa’s arm as Kori laid between her legs, their hands interlocked. She hated feeling like this, weak. It really wasn’t in her nature.

“On Krypton, we didn’t really get like this. Our society let us achieve pretty much anything we wanted and we were born with a purpose. We didn’t really get depressed, anxious or even uncertain,” she told her girlfriend, the words finally leaving her mouth and causing a weight to leave her chest. “Yes, Father disapproved of my martial training, but that was actually the greatest setback I had… and it’s not like I didn’t enjoy my technical studies, it wasn’t that hard to focus entirely on them. This is… shameful.”

“Do not speak like that, just because you are struggling with something, it does not make you weak. Needing help does not make you unworthy,” Kori said angrily. Releasing Kara’s hands, she cupped her face and forced Kara to look into her eyes. “Kara, you are already doing so much for me, for the Titans. You do not need to do everything alone. We can help each other, no?”

“Sorry, it’s just, I wasn’t supposed to be like this, I was supposed to be composed, to be capable of making the hard decisions,” pushing her head back, Kara closed her eyes to gather her thoughts. “Ever since I regained some memories back with the Psions, I have felt different. I know I’m still myself, but I don’t think my family would ever recognize me now, either of them. Focusing on other problems lets me forget about it and makes me feel… normal.”

“Kara, to me, you are normal,” Kori smiled at her, releasing her face and pushing herself back again. “I did not know you or your family before, but I believe they would still love you no matter what.”

Kara didn’t know if Kori was right, but hearing it did make her feel a little better. Her Father had been a hard man, but he did love her in his own way, she really hoped he’d still do so even if he knew she had a second set of memories.

“Kori, have you ever heard about the multiverse? Alternate dimensions?”

“Yes?” Kori hesitatingly said, not understanding the change of subject. “The Titans have been reading through some of the Justice League’s old reports as part of our training. They have many interactions with parallel dimensions.”

“Right, well, I actually remember a different life, one where everything here was simply an animated series…”

Telling Kori about her previous life and her knowledge of the DC universe was easy. Just as Kara knew it would be once she managed to start. The problem had always been starting, not the conversation itself. Words flowed out of her mouth one after another as she spoke about everything in a clear and concise manner.

Kori didn’t interrupt her, listening intently without saying anything. Explaining things didn’t actually take too long, it wasn’t like Kara had to teach her how to reincarnate, just that it had happened.

Explaining about the DC universe actually took longer, but it wasn’t by that much. The concept that her life could be a story wasn’t that alien to the woman, just strange.

“You already knew about me before we met?” Kori asked when she was finally done.

“Not exactly you, but some versions of you, and it’s not like I watched your entire life and everything you have ever thought, just some moments a writer thought were interesting,” Kara answered, a concerned look on her face. “Does that bother you?”

“It does not,” Kori shook her head. Seeing the relieved look on Kara’s face, Kori leaned down and gave her a quick kiss. “Kara, on Tamaran, I am a princess, the idea that someone knows about my life is merely a matter of course. I do not imagine it is much different for any member of the League.”

Yeah, now that Kara had started speaking, she could see how silly hiding it all had been, particularly in a place like DC where things like that weren’t exactly unheard of. No, if she was being honest, she could already see the silliness before. It just didn’t make things any easier.

Still, now that she had started talking, it was easy to continue, even to discuss things, with Kori asking about the different versions of herself out there, getting both excited and scandalized by what some of her depictions did.

Grabbing one of her devices, Kara even created a holographic display to show what she knew about their own dimension, with lines and pictures showing what the original timeline should have been and what it looked like now.

“Our next action will be to rescue The Poison Ivy, yes?” Kori finally asked nearly three hours later, her eyes narrowed in thought. “Has The Detective Chimp found her exact location yet?”

“Our?” Kara lifted an eyebrow.

“You did swear you would not start a fight without me, no?” Kori frowned at her. “I will not permit you to fight the likes of The Black Adam and Wotan alone.”

“Well, I wouldn’t really call it a fight, fighting is for when I’m caught by surprise or in an emergency,” Kara said and then her face became a smirk. “No, fighting means the enemy has a chance to react. With time to plan things, I want to utterly crush them before they even know they’re being attacked.”

“Regardless, I will not allow you to go alone.”

“Well, I would have my own team for support, but it’s not like I’m opposed to you coming too. One can never have too much firepower after all,” Kara said, already looking at Kori’s body. “And you would look hot in the right power armor.”

“Very well. Although I do not enjoy wearing too many coverings, I am willing to compromise,” Kori said, satisfied she wouldn’t be left behind this time.