A World
Without Heroes
In a world without heroesThere's nothing to beIt's no place for me -Music From the ElderKISS
Chapter 3
“Well, here we are.”
Kara chose not to reply to Rogue’s statement as she studied her surroundings. Actually, half her attention was on the surroundings. The other half was on the woman standing between her and Rogue.
Sherri Penison had instantly dropped into a crouch, her eyes darting back and forth and scanning the skies.
“We’re out in the open here.” She hissed. She indicated a mound of rubble that Kara recognized as the remains of a school with a jerk of her head. In her hands she gripped a weapon that, to the casual observer, resembled an old Austrian Bull pup – A Styr-Aug. Indeed, in this probability, the manufacturer might well have been the same. Yet the similarities ended at appearances. This weapon, Sherri had demonstrated, fired blasts of energy that Kara was sure could probably knock her off her feet, even if they couldn’t hurt her.
With a crouching run known to all combat veterans, Sherri zigzagged towards the rubble. Shrugging, both Kara and Rogue followed her lead. Though it was doubtful there was anyone around that could cause the two of them any problems, it was best to take no chances. And since they did not really want to call attention to themselves, just yet, perhaps it was best to take that old advice: When in Rome, do as the Romans do!
They were the first team to make the crossing.
Team two, consisting of Jenny and Lar, would follow soon. While Kara, Rogue and Sherri were to do a quick recon, Jenny and Lar would be moving the space station Reed had first viewed into the Lagrange 4 position. Then the third and final team, consisting of Reed, Sue, Stephen Strange, and Prof. Xavier, would cross over.
That team, Kara knew, would remain in the station. Their job would be to collect information and to coordinate efforts between teams 1 and 2.
Exactly what the duties of each team were had been the topic of hot debate...
After Access had dropped his little bomb, the discussion had gone on for hours. It probably would have gone on even longer had not Rogue finally put an end to it.
“Enough!” Her hand slapping down on the table brought conversation to an end. Inwardly amused, Kara saw Sue quietly eyeing the table, looking for structural damage.
“Are we going to talk this to death?”
“Precise planning can mean the difference between defeat and victory.” Reed had said, somewhat stiffly.”
“Is that what you call this?” Rogue asked in a sickly sweet voice that fooled no one. Reed colored but she gave him no opportunity to respond. “I think we’ve just about talked it to death. We can’t plan any further until we get over there and get an idea of what we are truly working with. So let’s get on with it.” She turned and pointed a finger at Jenny. “With that Lantern energy of yours, you can move the station and make sure it holds an atmosphere until Reed here can get there and make what repairs are required.” She indicated Kara, herself, and Sherri with a sweep of her arm. “While Jenny is taking care of that, Sherri can show Kara and me around the place.”
“What about me?” Rogue turned to see Lar looking at her. She still wasn’t quite sure what to make of the young man. For young he was. Oh Kara had explained that, in reality, he was older than he looked (Daxamites, like Kryptonians, had longer lifespans than Terrans and, as such, keep their young looks longer. It had been a shock to learn that Kara, though apparently in her mid twenties, was still a teen in Kryptonian terms. Which would mike her close to 50 or 60 in Terran years.
“Do you think you’re up to something like this, Lar?” Kara had asked, sensing Rogue’s indecision. “You’ve only been out of the Zone for two days now.”
“I feel fine.” He said with a smile. “Actually, I think getting in a little physical exercise would do me good.”
“Physically he’s a hundred percent.” Reed had said when Kara turned to him. “There’s no trace of the lead poisoning in his system and the antidote I used ensured that any further exposure would be harmless.”
Kara closed her eyes and thought for a few moments. Finally she shook her head.
“Lar, I’m sorry.” She said, trying to soften the blow, “but I don’t think it would be a good idea. You just don’t have the experience.” She held up a hand to forestall his objections “Think it through. You had a short stint with Kal to exercise your powers, but all in all, you just haven’t trained enough to become proficient.”
Rogue looked a trifle uncomfortable, but the fact was that, though Lar had had his powers longer, she had actually had more practical experience and training in their use.
“What if I take him with me?” Jenny had surprised everyone by volunteering. “He could give me a hand when needed and it would give him a chance to practice.”
Kara had to smile as she saw the sudden hope flair in Lar’s eyes. He did want to help, but he had recognized Kara’s concerns as realistic ones.
“Okay.” Rogue had taken the decision from her. “We’ll do it that way.”
The discussion had gone on as each team’s tasks were detailed. They had then determined what equipment and supplies would be necessary.
Finally it had come down to a decision as to where to Team 1 would make the cross over. Though they could enter the transport in the FF HQ, they could determine exactly where they would be deposited. Sherri had helped answer that question. Their first thought had been to make the transfer to somewhere near Denver Colorado. Sherri had nixed that.
“Denver is gone and portions of Colorado are hot zones.” Seeing the question in every ones eyes she merely shrugged. “NORAD was located in Colorado.” She said in explanation. Being from Kansas City, it was the city she knew best. So Kansas City, Missouri became their target.
“Before we go any further,” Jean Grey-Summers had cut in, “Let me see if I got this straight.” She looked over at Jenny. “An artifact from another Probability that supplied the energy to the individual that bequeathed it to Jenny is causing all this?”
“Probability?” Sherri asked, confused by the new term.
“We’ve been using the term ‘Reality’.” Reed explained. “The correct term is Probability. In actuality, there is only one reality. But there are countless Probabilities. It has been theorized that there are endless alternate time lines that split off from the original. For each and every major event or action that has more than one possible out come, there is a probability for every outcome.”
“I got it.” Sherri nodded. “I’ve heard the theory before. Though it was called alternate history. For instance, when Napoleon was at Waterloo. The time lines would split. Instead of winning, the alternate would follow the path the world would have taken had he lost.”
“Correct.” Reed mused. “And just for your information, in this probability, Napoleon did lose at Waterloo.”
Sherri sat back, her eyes registering her surprise, as Reed turned his attention back to Access.
“In answer to your question, Mrs. Summers, no, the Battery shard is not responsible for all the problems with the Nexus. The original problems can be traced directly to events from that Probability, however.” Access answered. “The actions of the Anti-Monitor, the merging of several sub-probabilities into one, and the events that occurred there after are the direct cause. Toss in events in this probability that strained the fabric of space and time, and, on top of that, throw in Amalgam as well, and the problem only escalated. The Battery Shard is simply the final straw that is breaking the camel’s back.”
“Just where do you fit into all of this, Access?” Kara jumped in.
“Actually, I don’t.” Access admitted. “My sphere of influence does not extend to Sherri’s Probability. It only covers this Probability, the Superman Probability, and the Amalgam Probability.”
“Amalgam?” Sue sat forward, frowning. “There is no Amalgam, Access.”
“I think Access is about to inform us that there is, dear.” Reed said, staring hard at Access. “A split in the time line?”
“Right. In this Probability, which I’ll call Probability 1 and in Superman’s probability, which we’ll call Probability 2, history follows along the line created when the Brothers decided to maintain separate existences. Yet in the Amalgam Probability, history follows the line created when they decided to remain merged.”
“Enough with the history lesson.” Rogue growled. “Let’s get on with it, already. Amalgam has nothing to do with this.”
“Only in that it too is affected by this.” Access corrected. “It too is adjacent to this nexus.” Access turned back to Kara. “As I was saying, I don’t have much to do with this. I merely act as a Gateway, you could say, between the probabilities in my sphere of influence. However, given the nature of my sphere of influence, I am in a unique position to collect information.” He shrugged. “I am as much a creature of Probability as any of you. While I am sure there are analogs of myself in other Probabilities, I am confined to acting as a gate way between the three I just named.”
“Which is a good way of telling us that you can’t transport anyone to and from Sherri’s Probability.” Kara shook her head. She turned to Reed. “Looks like we have to use the projector.”
“Agreed.” Reed nodded. “Yet we still have to decide what it is we can and should do.” This last was said with a glare in Rogue’s direction. Rogue merely looked back, totally unconcerned.
“Whoa!” Sherri leaned forward once again, her eyes on Reed. “Before you guys go charging in, don’t you think you should consider what that will do to the people there?”
“She has a point.” Lar Gand put in, startling everyone. “We’ve heard what Sherri has told us of the Otherverse Probability.” He used the term that Sue had originally given the newly discovered Probability “If we go in with a high profile, we’ll cause problems. We might be able to find the Shard; Jennifer might be able to neutralize it. But we would surely attract attention. The meta-humans (he had picked up the term easily) would see us as a threat as would the norms.”
“That’s right.” Sherri nodded. “And while you might be able to bull your way through easily enough, though I would not guarantee it,” This said while glancing at Kara and Rogue, “You will still be leaving as soon as you’ve finished your job. What happens then?” She stood, her hands on the table. “I’ll tell you what happens. Those Metas will take out their anger and humiliation on the norms, that’s what will happen. And you people will not be there to stop them.” She turned to Access. “Unless, of course, neutralizing this Shard of yours will neutralize the metas as well.”
“I don’t think so.” Access shook his head. “At most, neutralizing the shard will stop any further weakening in the Probability barriers. It won’t reverse what damage has already been done.”
“In other words, there will still be seepage between the various Probabilities touching the Nexus?” Sue asked.
“To be more precise, there will still be the chance of seepage from other, adjacent probabilities into the Otherverse Probability. Strictly speaking, it is a universe unto itself, now. It’s no longer simply a Nexus.”
It was Dr. Strange that had spoken and everyone had turned to him.
“I’ve been waiting for the right moment to bring this up.” He said, looking around, making sure he had everyone’s attention. “This is not a unique event. Rare, but in no manner unique.” He now looked at Access. “It is not unheard of for a Nexus to develop into a Probability of it’s own. When that happens, the usual result is that a new nexus is created to fill the vacuum left.” He shook his head. “For some reason that is not happening here.” He raised an eyebrow as he looked at Jenny. “The neutralization of the Shard will not restore the Otherverse Probability, but it should stop the weakening of the barriers, as Access said, as well as allowing a new Nexus to form.”
He paused to take a breath and then looked straight at Sherri.
“While you might be correct in your assumption of what might occur after we have left the Otherverse Probability, I can not see that we have much choice. The Shard must, for the sake of all the probabilities that are adjacent to the Otherverse, be neutralized.”
...And now here they were, crouching in the ruins of a burnt out, blown up school, waiting for their guide to get her bearings.
For a long moment she simply looked around. Her eyes picking out every detail of the surrounding area while her nose sniffed, trying to detect any out of place odors and her ears strained to pick up any noise that should not be there.
When she started to rise, she felt a steel grip on her shoulder.
“Shh.” She heard Kara whisper. She turned to see both Kara and Rogue looking straight at a wall, their eyes slightly out of focus. “We’ve got company.”
‘Oh my god Kara.” Rogue tensed. “They’ve got a prisoner!”
“Rao no!’ Kara breathed, turning pale. With a single leap, she was up and out of the rubble, flying at low level with as much speed as she could muster in such a short time. Rogue was right on her heels.
“Well shit!” Sherri swore as she watched the two women disappear. With a look of disgust, she started to pick her way through the rubble; following as best she could.
She could not remember what it was like to live in a nice house. At seven years old, all she could remember were the streets. Sometimes running with other kids her age as they tried to survive day to day in the rubble that had once been a central hub of a mighty nation. Most of the time, however, she was alone, crawling into the sub basement level of a parking garage to get out of the wind and rain. Though she could not tell you why, her own experiences told her that this place stayed cooler during the hot days and warmer during the cold times. She only recognized three seasons: Hot, cold, and okay.
Though physically she was a little human girl, her very existence made her more of a feral animal, scavenging through the rubble for food on an almost daily basis. She would pick through the bombed out remains of a store, hoping against hope that she would stumble upon something that was edible. Several times she had not been careful enough about what she ate and had ended up sick to her stomach.
She could not remember her parents, she knew she must have had parents at one time, but she could not recall what they looked like, or sounded like. Whether they had been good parents or bad. Sometimes, as she huddled in her precious scavenged blankets in the garage, she would dream of big people that would hold her and love her, but she couldn’t see their faces.
She was always careful about how she entered and exited her little hide away. She could remember other kids that were not so careful and how THEY had come for them.
THEY were big people, but not like the ones in her dream. These were big people that loved to hurt and she had seen how they liked to play with others of her kind.
A noise in the garage, probably from an upper level put her on guard. She remained still, listening, hoping it was one of the fury creatures that sometimes scurried around. She didn’t know they were called rats, but she did no that they had become cautious around her. She had learned, from an older kid, that rats could be food when nothing else could be found.
The noise repeated, a shuffling sound of footsteps. Fear shot through her as the sound of voices, reached her ears. She hadn’t been careful enough!
There were five of them. Dressed outlandishly.
“Like rejects from a Mad Max movie.” Kara thought to herself as she and Rogue skimmed across the rubble.
They were dragging a little girl out of an underground garage. From her looks, they had already beaten and possibly raped her.
Not wasting time with subtly, Kara touched down in front of the gang, hands on hips.
“Let her go!” She didn’t waste words either. She had thought about just snatching the girl from them and then confronting them, but she didn’t really want to risk any further harm to the child.
“Well now. Lookie here!” One punk, his hair loosely styled into several multi-colored spikes, smiled as he eyed Kara and Rogue. He lifted a hand and Kara’s eye narrowed as she noticed as slight wavering in the air around it. Much like the heat distortion one sees over a road on a hot, summers day. “We got us some big girls that wanna play.”
Rogue, looking over the little girl, lifted her eyes to the spokespunk holding her.
“Judging from the looks, I don’t think you could get it up for anything over 10.” She remarked.
“You got a smart mouth, slitty.” His eyes narrowed with anger. Then he smiled again. Yanking the girl’s arm, he spun her back behind him to a fur clad punk. “We got some bigger toys to play with Cec,” he said though he never took his eyes off Kara and Rogue. “I don’t think we need the little slitty anymore.”
‘Cec’ only grinned an answer as he caught the girl, one hand on her shoulder and the other on the back of her head. His grin grew wider as, with a simple flick of his wrist, he twisted her head.
With her super hearing, the sounds of the bones breaking crashed in Kara’s ears. For a long moment she simply stood there, shock overwhelming her.
In all her years as Supergirl, she had never, never run across such careless brutality. And never, ever, aimed at children. She wanted to deny what she had just witnessed. She wanted to deny that anyone, anyone at all, could be so callous. Most of all, she wanted the little girl alive again.
Her vision tinged with red as rage swirled up to engulf her. She didn’t think, she didn’t plan, she just acted. She acted with pure undiluted hate and rage.
Though it seemed like an eternity to her, the little girl’s lifeless body had not yet fallen to the ground before she had crossed the distance separating her from ‘Cec’.
Without a second thought, without a care of what she might do, Kara backhanded the punk. She didn’t even flinch as his head flew from his body to land and bounce several blocks away before coming to rest in a shapeless, shattered lump.
The headless body was still standing, not yet aware that it was dead as Kara turned towards another of the punks.
The leader stared, open-mouthed. He had not even seen her move. One second she was standing several feet away. The next, ‘Cec’ was nothing but a headless torso, just now beginning to spurt blood as it toppled to the ground.
Like most punks, he was a coward at heart. He wanted no part of this lady that was already stalking her next target. He turned…and ran straight into a wall that had not been there a few moments earlier. He gasped as he felt hands grasp his arms in grips of iron. It wasn’t a wall; it was Rogue and her face showed her fury.
Rogue shook her self out of shock as anger and rage poured in. She stepped forward, wanting to reach Kara’s side, to help her tear these…animals apart. The Leader had turned to run and she caught by the upper arms. He was no longer human. He was an obstacle. Without a second thought, she flung her arms wide, opening her hands to let the two pieces of the leader fly in opposite directions.
A third punk, bravery than most, or more stupid, as the case may be, snarled as he raised his hands. How dare these slits challenge them? A nimbus of energy surrounded his outstretched hands and blasts of pure plasma shot forth to engulf the blond fury stalking towards him. He kept the stream of energy up for several seconds. Smirking, he lowered his hands, confident that he would see nothing but ashes where the slitty had stood. His heart dropped as his confidence was shattered by reality.
At first glance, the slitty looked completely unscathed. Closer examination, which the young punk had no time to make, would have let him realize that her outer clothes had been burned away. No longer wearing the cammie’s Sherri had suggested, Kara stood revealed in her blue tube top and dark blue hip huggers.
Kara made no comments, no witty remarks, nothing. Her eyes narrowed and two narrow, red beams shot out to strike the plasma shooter in the forehead.
The last image the punk was able to comprehend was a big red and yellow S symbol on the slitty’s tube-top. The total terror that instantly filled him at that sight had no time to register on his face before the heat vision bored through his skull to evaporate his brain.
Rogue closed in on the fourth punk. He stood where he was and let her get close before striking out with one massive fist.
Caught off guard, Rogue felt her self lifted and thrown backwards, her passage bringing even more of the rubble crashing down. Picking herself up, she stood for a moment. The punk grinned, making a ‘come on’ motion with his hands.
That the punks had been metas was painfully obvious. It was also obvious they were way out of their league when dealing with Kara and Rogue. She felt certain even Jenny could have taken these punks without working up a sweat.
She launched her self at the grinning punk and smirked as his grin faded. She easily avoided his next swing, and even slowed down enough to let him take another, She avoided this one as well, grasping the wrist of the arm as it swung past and pulling.
The punk yelped as agony shot through his shoulder. After watching his mates so easily dealt with, he felt certain that this devil woman had ripped his arm clear off. He had only a brief moment to realize that she had only dislocated the shoulder before her fingers tapped into his temple, giving him a temporary release from the pain as unconsciousness took him.
The last punk was whimpering with fear as he took to his heels. He wanted nothing more than to be away from these devil women. He ducked behind a mound of rubble…and came face to face with the barrel of Sherri’s Bull-pup.
“Noooo!” He had time to moan before a burst of energy fried his face.
Sherri kicked at the corpse, just to make sure it was dead before she shouldered the weapon and rounded the mound of rubble to reach Kara and Rogue. She stood still with a mixture of awe and shock at the carnage that greeted her eyes.
Kara was bent over, spewing vomit as Rogue held her, holding her hair back.
Sherrie frowned as she realized the significance. Despite all her power, Kara had never killed before.
The heaving over, Kara jerked away from Rogue to fall to her knees beside the body of the blond haired child. She scooped the body into her arms, rocking back and forth, crooning softly.
Leaving Sherri to stand guard, Rogue shot into the sky, returning moments later with Jenny and Lar.
Instructing Sherri to stand close to Kara, Jenny had formed a bubble around them and lifted them up. Soon, they were streaking up through the upper atmosphere and into free space. Despite the circumstances, Sherri watched the world recede behind them with awe as they neared the space station.
“How is she? Rogue demanded as Dr. Strange, Reed Richards, and Prof. Xavier filed out of the room where they had placed Kara.
“To be perfectly honest, I don’t know.” Reed admitted. “It’s like she’s not even there.”
When she had been brought aboard the station, it had taken the efforts of Jenny, Lar, and Rogue to take the body away from her. Since then, she had fallen into a state of catatonia. Rogue had explained exactly what had happened. She had closed her eyes while retelling the horrible details so did not see Sue grow pale and the pain that began to show in the eyes of the others.
“She’s there.” Prof. Xavier broke in. While Reed and Stephen Strange had examined Kara, Xavier had tapped into her mind. “For one thing, she is having trouble accepting what she has done.”
“What do you mean?” Sherri demanded. “She did what needed to be done.”
“Perhaps.” Xavier nodded, but his attitude gave no clue as to whether or not he agreed with Sherri’s assessment. “However, in all her life, Kara had been taught that life was sacred. All life. She never saw her self as judge, jury, and executioner. To do so would, in her eyes, make her no better than the filth she was determined to fight. It was her duty, as she saw it, to act only as a law enforcement official. She would stop the crime, capture the criminal, and then leave it up to the proper authorities.” He shook his head. “And now she has killed. Not by accident, but with intent.” He raised a hand to forestall any further protest from Sherri. “I said that was one thing. There is, I believe, a second, deeper, reason that caused her to act as she did in the first place. The rage of a mother protecting her child.”
“What?” Reed, looked over at Xavier.
“I think we are all forgetting that this young woman is not the same Kara Zor-El that died at the hands of the Anti-monitor.” Xavier continued. “It is, rather, the clone of that young woman merged with the spirit of that woman.”
“I think we are all well aware of that, Prof.” Reed said, somewhat stiffly. It was his and Dr. Strange’s efforts that had accomplished that merger in the first place.
“Perhaps.” Xavier conceded. “Yet what effect might not the memories of the clone have on the original? Surely you realize that the clone would have had memories that the original did not have.”
“But there was nothing.” Reed was confused. He turned to Stephen. “Residual images, I believe, is all you said remained of the clone’s memory.”
“Not quite but close.” Stephen nodded. “I said there was no activity, simply residual images.” He turned to Xavier. “However, that is what I was able to learn with my arts. I am sure that Prof. Xavier is more versed than I on matters of this sort. I take it you discovered something?”
“Yes.” Xavier sighed. “Yes I did.” He glanced up at Reed. “Tell me, in you’re examinations, did you by any chance notice whether or not that body had ever given birth?”
“No.” Reed was taken aback. “I guess I should have, it just never occurred to me.”
“I think you will find that it has.” Xavier told him. “As to why Strange could not pick them up, some memories were imprinted in the brain. They were not active, just there to be accessed. When the spirit of the original was merged with the clone, it’s own memory overlaid that of the clone. But it did not erase it.” He sighed and went on.
“To put it bluntly, the clone had given birth to a young girl. Like her mother, she was blonde.” He said. “The last memory that is recorded is an image of her daughter at about the age of seven. About the same age as the little girl she saw killed. And though there are differences between the images in her memory and that girl, the resemblances are remarkable. Enough to trigger the maternal rage.”
“Oh Rao!” Rogue breathed, tears streaking her face. She pushed past everyone to enter the room where Kara sat on the bed, arms around her knees.
“Is there anything you can do, Prof.?” Jenny asked, her face wet with tears as well.
“I think it is up to Kara.” He glanced at the closed door. “And perhaps you and Rogue. And just a little time.”
“Time is not something we have a lot of.” Reed stated, his anger at having to say it obvious.
“I know.” Xavier looked at Jenny and Lar. “I know.”
End of A World Without Heroes - Chapter Three.