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.
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."
Got a warning, yay.
Anyway, I really struggled with this chapter, but decided to post it as is. Really hope you guys enjoy it.
Gonna be taking a long look at the first chapters after this. They really are filled with mistakes and giant sentences that I have to get rid of. I won't be changing the content of the chapters, but I'll be trying to improve the way I wrote it.
Thanks to that, next chapter should come only by the middle of next week, but that's not certain. I hate doing rewrites, so I may just stop and work on new content much sooner than I plan.
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"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."