WARNING: I updated the first chapter with an improved version, it doesn't change anything in the story, but it should make for a much better read.
"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!"
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